Representing ideas visually can be a powerful tool in helping urban planners explain complex policies and proposals, and take control of the planning and design process. This must course is designed for undergraduate students to help them develop and improve their graphic communication skills. Through a series of lectures and drawing exercises, the course examines conventions for depicting space, form, and information as used by urban planners and designers.
The class meets once a week. A typical three-credit must course only meets for two and-a-half hours per week; however, this course incorporates drawing sessions, which borrow against students’ expected out-of-class work time to provide in-class, guided instructions. There is a lecture and/or a drawing session every week. Lectures introduce history, theory, principles, and techniques of drafting and graphic presentation. In drawing sessions, students engage drawing exercises directly and receive guidance from the instructor and assistants of the course. While most drawing sessions are held in a classroom setting, some take place directly in the field, outside the Faculty of Architecture building.