Sketching in architecture: a way of approaching reality

For the fourth consecutive year, the Drawing 1 course in the Architecture program served as the framework for a sketching competition among students. After submitting ten pieces of work throughout the semester, each participant had to select their two best pieces and enter them in the competition. The judges evaluating the quality of the sketches were the Dean of the faculty, Architect Gastón Boero; the Dean’s Academic Assistant and Full Professor of Design and Project, Architect Jorge Di Pólito; and Architect Pablo Raviolo, Full Professor of Drawing.

“The important thing about this experience is that students adopt this approach to reality and develop it throughout their studies and professional careers,” said Di Pólito.

For his part, Raviolo explained that “the central theme of the contest is perspective sketching from direct observation, and the format is remote.”

The professor provided the students with a list of examples to work on. Each student had to choose ten of those locations, draw them, and submit their creations via email. “Once the assignment is completed, the works are submitted in a folder, and two of them are selected—with my guidance if necessary—to enter the competition,” Raviolo noted.

The challenge the students faced was not an easy one. “I understand that the sketch must illustrate the location, the building, or the urban setting taken as a model with sufficient precision so that its character, atmosphere, environment, and identity are recognizable,” said Di Pólito, who noted that “freehand drawing, using no tools other than a pencil, pen, or dry-pen, remains one of the most natural and authentic forms of ideation, representation, and communication for architects.”

Di Pólito assessed the collection of drawings produced by the students as “a rich showcase featuring a variety of techniques, expressions, models, and formats” that revealed “the diversity of personalities within the group. “All the drawings have merits worth highlighting,” and he concluded: “The value of the contest is not limited to awarding prizes for works distinguished by their excellence; rather, given its nature as an academic activity, it is a learning opportunity, so it can be said that all the students, in different ways and each in their own way, have emerged as winners.”

The first prizes in the contest went to María Sofía Brum Echevarría, for her sketch of the Sarandí Pedestrian Street, and Emiliano José Rodríguez Morales, for his work on the Municipal Government of Montevideo.

In addition, the first honorable mention went to Florencia Elianne Miller Bespalko, the second honorable mention to Emiliano José Rodríguez Morales, and the third to María Belén Rodríguez Grille.

Award-winning works

First prize (Sofía Brum Echevarría)

First prize (Emiliano José Rodríguez Morales)

First honorable mention (Florencia Elianne Miller Bespalko)

Second honorable mention (Emiliano José Rodríguez Morales)

Third honorable mention (María Belén Rodríguez Grille)