Nude models and bootpolish: AECOM's life drawing classes for engineers

14 December 2011 | by David Wheeldon

Recognising the value of communicating ideas through sketches, AECOM has begun sending its engineers to life drawing classes.

An ongoing initiative, the classes have started in Melbourne and Perth and are resuming in Sydney in January.

A number of engineers from the Building Engineering Department recently attended six weeks of life drawing classes at the Brett Whitely Studios in Surry Hills, Sydney, to develop their drawing ability.

Life drawing was chosen because "it teaches you to draw what you can see, not what you think you can see".

Concentrating on form, perspective and tone, those who took part in the Sydney classes reportedly developed skills that will allow them to better communicate their ideas on paper and conceptually explore the principles that are fundamental to building design.

With various mediums to work with such as pencil, charcoal, progresso and even boot polish, everyone was able to experiment with a range of drawing methods.

Bella Garson, the tutor, promoted creativity within the group, whilst always coming back to the three important aspects of form, perspective and tone. Various models of different shapes and sizes kept things fresh and interesting.

The idea of the classes was to present a great opportunity to begin to confidently present ideas in a form which clients and architects can easily grasp rather than resorting to technical figures.

AECOM’s NSW + ACT Structure leader Stephen Giblett said: “Drawing is a key part of how we communicate our design and ideas with architects and clients. Many younger engineers are fearful of expressing their ideas because they aren’t confident to draw them in front of an architect – he who holds the pencil holds the meeting”.

Class participant Lizette McNeill, Graduate Facade Engineer, found the most interesting part of the course was getting to view other’s work. She said: “it was fascinating seeing which aspects of the form people would focus on, which detail they would recreate and the mediums they used to express themselves”.

Tags: aecom | education and training

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archi | 15 December, 2011 at 11:27 AM
Silly me. I thought only the public sector wasted money on things like this. Hang on, who are among AECOM's major clients again? All aboard the gravy train...
Theo. Bennett | 18 December, 2011 at 06:42 AM
Well yes. And no. Life drawing is far closer to the real demands of creative art expression than draftsmanship alone, the basis for so much of Australia's appalling cultural architecture, save a scant few exceptions. Australia is now generally conformist, politically correct, with architecture resembling more the projections of Huxleyan 'New World" Fascism and Orwell's '1984' with the politics of extremism reflected from the Canberra system down through the universities and inevitably to engineering and architecture. Not only are our dwellings and public and commercial buildings, our industrial shells, uninspiring, they are virtually Stalinist in their efficiency at the expense of human inspiration. It is a wonderful step forward for architecture students to be given the task of life drawing exercises, the most difficult form of sketching, drawing, and far more complex than landscapes and photo interpretation. As important as the building and construction skills students are required to get as labourers on sites, as it is the constant tasting of the masterworks. The human body with its exponentially different features and expression – all without the symmetry of perfection required in engineering, and yet perfectly engineered despite this - is arguably the most challenging in nature because of many factors, not the least of which are the antrhomorphological emotions of form. I applaud and welcome the life drawing initiative, and send a misanthropic Christmas Scrooge egg to the previous two-line commentator. You sir - I sense it is a male who is sneering like an adolescent seeking the applause of his peers - are a diminutive churl. . - tdbi
archi | 12 January, 2012 at 12:54 PM
No. I don't seek the applause of my peers in this context. That's partly why I use a pseudonym. Of the many errors you made in your idealist monologue, you missed this: These are engineers, not student architects. Regardless, both the engineers and architects I work with manage to sketch their ideas without the need for life drawing classes. Perhaps if there was a bit more criticism, accountability and responsibility taken in the design and procurement of such projects to which you refer then the temptation to default to the easy option of Stalinist / Orwellian / etc.. design solutions may be mitigated.
lastmanga | 13 January, 2012 at 12:39 PM
If one can draw well freehand one can captivate an audience. Essential drawing for engineers comprises isometrics and axonometrics the rest is art.
archi2 | 14 January, 2012 at 04:56 PM
Most architects can't draw either. The efforts taken by AECOM to improve the capacity for communication is applaudable. I've sat in many meetings where engineers have tried frustratedly tried to sketch out what they are talking about. Anything that provides a professional with increased confidence to express ideas is a benefit to all and saves public money through the attainment of better design outcomes. Out of all the professionals in the construction industry I have found Engineers to be by and large the most accountable and responsible abeit conservative. But then again, I've only worked on major infrastructure projects such as rail links with complex urban interfaces, highways, highrise, public buildings and single lot residential dwellings. I find these comments rather trite and immature. Art and enginneering are not mutually exclusive as Calatrava so eloquently demostrates. Get over your bitterness and frustration archi, and enrol in a life drawing class, Most suburban art centres are currently enrolling for term 1 2012.
lastmanga | 16 January, 2012 at 03:05 PM
Royal Art Society at North Sydney has life drawing some nights, and I have heard that the Arthouse pub has life drawing on the ground floor cost $4.