Ahmad Assi

Academic  /  2023

Jacobs House, Delineation

A redrawing of Frank Lloyd Wright's Jacobs House at 1 to 100, plan, section and elevation, each integrating a studied drafting precedent.

Project type
Drafting and delineation exercise
Location
Madison, Wisconsin
Status
Academic
Area
Approximately 145 sq.m
Role
Group A4G4

Frank Lloyd Wright built the Jacobs House in Madison in 1937: roughly 145 square metres, structural redwood plywood sandwich walls and repurposed brick, and the first of the Usonian houses. The exercise was to draft its plan, section and elevation at 1 to 100, and to do it in the manner of a studied drafting precedent rather than in a house style.

That second part is the actual lesson. Drawing the same building twice in two conventions makes it obvious how much a drawing decides what you notice about a building, which is a useful thing to learn early and easy to forget later.

The building is Wright’s. The drawings are the group’s, produced as A4G4.

Three axonometric views of the Jacobs House with the roof plane picked out in green, alongside an exploded axonometric of the same plan
Sheet pairing an elevation drawn with trees and shadow against the same elevation reduced to flat black massing, with the precedent studies between them
The same building drawn in different conventions. Setting them side by side is the point of the exercise.
Elevations with the glazing filled in yellow so the extent of opening reads before anything else
The same building drawn in different conventions. Setting them side by side is the point of the exercise.
Hatching studies beside an interior axonometric washed in pink, with a plan diagram in flat blue and green
Hatch, poche and colour, each tested as a way of saying which part of the drawing matters.
Plan and elevation with two coloured plan diagrams and a legend keying the zones
Hatch, poche and colour, each tested as a way of saying which part of the drawing matters.
Clean line elevation of the Jacobs House on a titled sheet, drawn without shadow or entourage
The measured drawings themselves, at 1 to 100 on a title block.
Section through the house with the surrounding trees drawn in and the stair cut through the middle
The measured drawings themselves, at 1 to 100 on a title block.