Drawing in the Architectural Classroom: Is It Valuable to Digital Natives?

Abstract

Because of their inherent spatial dependency, human beings have always had the need to represent their environment. In architecture, these representations constitute a fundamental part of the discipline’s professional and pedagogical language. This article is not centered on the perspective of the professor, the critic, the theoretician or the experienced architect, but on how Mexican architecture students understand and experience drawing, contributing to correcting the lack of research into how students see the world of architectonic drawing in their learning process.
This has been achieved through a qualitative investigation that aims to identify the types of drawings used by students in the design process (conceptualization, development and presentation) and the difficulties they have at each stage. The conclusions cover two primary aspects: the students’ understandings of drawing and its real application in the creative process, establishing a comparison between the theoretical side of drawing and a more practical vision from the student perspective.