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”.

David Wheeldon

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