Professors: Ricardo L. Castro and David Covo, with collaborators Gonzalo Munoz and Juan Fernández González
Dates: The course will run from 9 am ET, Saturday, August 22, to 5 pm ET, Friday, August 28, inclusive.
ARCH 325, Architectural Sketching:
Seven days of supervised field sketching in selected locations outside Montreal. The course develops traditional skills in architectural sketching in pencil, ink and watercolor. Sketching is explored as a process that frames the student’s encounter with the environment and as a strategy for acquiring knowledge and understanding of the world. 
Full course outline
ARCH 680, Field Sketching:
Seven days of supervised field sketching in selected locations outside Montreal. The course reinforces traditional skills in observation, notebook recording and architectural sketching. Students are encouraged to approach the subject critically and thematically, and to treat sketching as a mechanism for documenting experience and expressing their knowledge of the environment. Full course outline
Objectives:
The course develops and reinforces traditional skills in observation, notebook recording and sketching in a variety of media, and explores the kind of sketching that architects and artists do when they travel. The emphasis is on sketching and painting ‘on location’ as opposed to in a studio, so students draw outside every day, working individually and in small groups, and under the supervision of the course instructors. Rainy days provide convincing demonstrations of the importance of public interiors (like churches), porches, arcades and roof overhangs in an urban context.
The act of sketching is examined as a process of inquiry and searching. The sketch is revealed as evidence of curiosity and the result of our attempts to understand the world by observing and drawing what is seen and experienced.
Requirements:
The course requirements are based on the development of a portfolio of work, at least 20 developed pieces completed in the field. Students are also expected to curate the annual exhibition of work produced in the 7-day field exercise, and may be asked to participate in the production of a document that serves as both a catalogue of the exhibition and an anthology of their reflections on the process and the sites visited.
Schedule:
The course will run from 9 am ET, Saturday, August 22, to 5 pm ET, Friday, August 28, inclusive.
We will meet as a group eight (8) times, in four (4) 2-hour morning workshops (in-person or online for students in Montreal and online for all others) and four (4) evening group discussions (online for all). Please note that participation in person, even for residents of Montreal, is OPTIONAL. The first three workshops will be themed; the fourth will be open and is intended to address topics of interest and concern identified by students and instructors. All workshops will be webcast and recorded. The first workshop will be held at 9 am on Saturday morning, August 22, on the main campus in front of the School of Architecture:
Workshop 1: Saturday, August 22 – School of Architecture, McGill campus
Workshop 2: Sunday, August 23 – Mount Royal
Workshop 3: Monday, August 24 – Lachine Canal / Bassin Louise, foot of Peel Street
Workshop 4: Tuesday, August 25 – Vieux Montréal
Following the morning workshops, and on free days, students will work independently. The course instructors will be available for both in-person and online consultations at specified times during the day. Please note that students will be required to ‘upload’ their work on a daily basis according to instructions that will be circulated.
The evening meetings are designed as opportunities for an open discussion and review of the work produced to date, with the participation of selected guest critics. These sessions will take place online, via Zoom, between 5 pm and 7 pm ET, and will also be recorded:
Meeting 1: Saturday, August 22
Meeting 2: Sunday, August 23
Meeting 3: Tuesday, August 25
Meeting 4: Thursday, August 27
Required equipment: Full details here.
Evaluation: Final evaluation will be based on the portfolio of work produced.
REGISTRATION NOTE:
Students currently registered in the B.Sc.(Arch.) program are required to attend ARCH 325 Sketching School. Students currently entering U2 or U3 in Fall 2020 will register for ARCH 325 with the remaining Fall 2020 courses. Early registration is open.
Newly-admitted students / returning students to the M.Arch. (Prof.) program will register for ARCH 680 Field Sketching with the remaining courses required in the Fall 2020 term.
The regular Add/Drop deadlines for Fall 2020 will be in effect (now until September 15, 2020; with full refund).
