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Bodies and Space in Architectural Drawing

Line, Movement and Scale

Bodies and Space in Architectural Drawing cover

Description

Envisioning architectural drawing as a full-scale, bodily, and spatial practice, Marian Macken and Carl Douglas explore how architects imagine, perceive, and shape space through drawing, positioning the body not just as a subject but as an active medium for design.

Bodies and Space in Architectural Drawing
challenges conventional scale relationships and advocates for full-scale, performative drawing methods that expand the boundaries of architectural practice. Drawing is defined as a verb: a matter of time and duration. Drawings are inhabited, present, and embodied-redefining how space is measured, represented, and understood. Through case studies and examples, the authors examine diverse approaches to architectural drawing, including motion-capture and immersive technologies, analogue and digital methods of scanning, and gestural drawing. They highlight how drawing can be inhabited by both the drawer and the viewer, offering a dynamic, immersive experience.

Crucially, this book reinstates drawing as a spatial, temporal, and bodily act. It reframes the role of scaled artefacts-models, maps, and drawings-as intermediaries that mobilise architectural thinking. Rather than treating the body as a static reference point, it explores how moving, thinking bodies generate and reside within drawings. This is essential reading for students, practitioners, and researchers in architecture and spatial design seeking to rethink drawing as a performative and conceptual tool

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Additional accessibility information

  • PDF/UA-2, 1.4
  • accessibility@bloomsbury.com

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The publication contains no hazards

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Has alternative text descriptions for images

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  • Page list to go to pages from the print source version
  • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
  • All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgements


Introduction. Architectural Bodies
Chapter 1. Drawing in Space: Expansions of Architectural Drawing
Chapter 2. Drawing Out: Scale and the Displaced Body
Chapter 3. Drawing in Time: Tracking Lines in Motion
Chapter 4. Inhabiting Drawing: Fields of Encounter
Chapter 5. Drawing Room: Embodiment in Studio
Conclusion. Thinking Through Drawing


Notes
References
Index

Product details

Published 11 Jun 2026
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Pages 232
ISBN 9781350385597
Imprint Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Illustrations 105 colour illus
Series Drawing In
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Marian Macken

Marian Macken is Associate Professor in Te Pare Sc…

Author

Carl Douglas

Carl Douglas is Senior Lecturer in the School of A…

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Environment: Staging