How Big is Big? MAS student publishes work on bees and scale
October 25, 2022
A British website on architecture and drawing has published student Devon Moar’s drawings of Arctic bees, his written reflections, and a video of his acrobatic drawing process.
The feature, How Big is Big – Does Scale Matter? A Reflection on Scale in Architecture and Drawing, appears on Drawing Matter, an organization that explores the role of drawing in architectural thought and practice.
Moar produced the series of drawings while pursuing a Master of Architectural Studies under the guidance of Professor Stephen Fai at the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism.
In the piece, he reflects on the role of drawing scale in assisting our understanding of bees. He also wonders about the future of scale in architectural drawing done with digital tools.
“In the bumblebee exploration, everything is drawn at the same numerical scale of 30:1, which is roughly what a bee scaled up to be the size of a partridge would be,” he explains. “Scaling up the bee increased the amount of information included, the line weight (or pen size), and the level of detail that could be achieved.”
The drawings of bees and their nest were awarded one of two first places in the 2022 edition of the school’s Marco Frascari Prize in Architecture for Drawing.
Jury member Niall Hobhouse, the founder of Drawing Matter, invited Moar to expand his writings on his first prize entry and publish it along with his drawings.
Moar notes that smallest sketch was done on his lap, the medium drawing produced on a window, desk, or table, and the largest depiction was created on the floor in a large room.
“The designer’s body occupies and lives within the drawing’s own temporal dimensions, making space and time visible,” observes Interim Director Federica Goffi in her introduction to the article.