Çizgiyi çekmek: Mimari çizime dair
Drawing the line: About architectural drawing
Yazar: BİLGE BAL
Danışman: PROF. DR. ARZU ERDEM
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Lisansüstü Eğitim Enstitüsü / Mimarlık Ana Bilim Dalı / Mimari Tasarım Bilim Dalı
Derece: Doktora, 2023
Konu: Mimarlık = Architecture
Dizin: Mimarlık = Architecture

Özet:
Bu tez, mimari çizime dairdir. Mimari çizimi transdisipliner bir bakışla anlamanın ve nüfuz alanını genişletmenin somutlaşmış hâlidir. 
Mimari çizim, tezin araştırma konusu ve ana tartışma başlığıdır. Çizgi çekmek, hem yaratıcı bir eylemi hem bağlar kurmayı hem de bir sınır durumunu tartışmaya açmayı ifade eder. Tez, mimari çizimi bir araştırma ve deneyim nesnesi olarak; çizmeyi, yaparak düşünme ve fark etme ortamı olarak konumlandırır. Mimari çizime dair nesneleri, meseleleri, ilişkileri ve gerilimleri tartışmaya açar. Kavramı, disiplinin sınırlarına tutunan dar anlamıyla ele almak yerine yapmakla ilişkili başka eylemler, düşünceler, bakışlar, ölçekler ile bir araya getirerek genişlemiş bir zeminde tartışır. Mimari çizime dair pozisyonları çoğaltmak ve görünür kılmak için onu, türler arası bir yaparak düşünme ortamı olarak tartışmayı speküle eder. Mimari çizime dair büyük bir anlatı inşa etmek yerine çoklu öznenin bilimleri, deneysel pedagojiler ve feminist pratikler ile dayanışma içinde okumak, görmek, düşünmek, çizmek, yazmak, yapmak ve ilişkiler kurmak ile 'konumlu' bir hikâye anlatır. Mimari çizimi çok yönlü keşfe çıkar ve spekülatif bir okuma ve haritalama önerisi sunar. 
Bir başlangıç fikri olarak tez, mimari çizimi tartışmak ve sınırlarını soruşturmak için çizmeye dair düşünceler ile çizmek fiilini çapraz okumaya davet eden üç kesit önerir: Çizgi, çizim ve masa. Her bir kesit; çizgi, çizim ve çizimin mekânına dair spekülatif parçaların açık uçlu kümelenmeleridir ve takımyıldızlar kurar. Kesit I, çizgiye ve çizimin yapımına dair durumları tartışır, üzerine spekülasyonlar yapar, canlı çizgiler ile bir takımyıldız kurar. Mimari çizimin hâlihazır sözel, görsel ve tektonik kelime dağarcığını genişletecek bir repertuvar kurmaya girişir. Kesit II, çizime dair durumları tartışır, çizimdeki mekâna dair düşünceleri ortaya koyar, çizim pratiklerinin çoğulluğuna vurgu yapar, mimari çizimin otoportresi üzerine spekülasyon üretir, yeni ve başka görme biçimlerini çağıran kirli çizimler ile bir takımyıldız kurar. Önerdiği repertuvar ile çizimleri okumayı ve canlandırmayı, ilişkileri görünür kılmayı, hikâyeler anlatmayı dener. Kesit III, bir artifakt olarak mimari çizimi yeryüzüne eklemler, mimari çizimin yavaş yapma ve otobiyografik bir deneyim ortamı olarak yaşayan masayı speküle eder. Mimari masalar ve çizim ortamları ile diaromalar olarak bir takımyıldız kurar. Çizimin mekânsallığıyla genişleyen bir dünya kurar.
Tez, araştırma zemini olarak birden fazla alanla dolanıktır: Edebiyat, antropoloji, bilişsel arkeoloji, jeoloji, sanat, felsefe, geometri, astronomi, müzik, biyoloji, peyzaj, meteoroloji, botanik, sinirbilim vd. Mimari çizimde endemik olanı, ödünç alınan ve icat edilen ile bir araya getirmeye çalışır. Araştırmanın temel motivasyonunu, bir bina ya da bir kurucu metin üzerinden yazılı ya da sözlü olanı değil, bir çizimi masaya getirme ve onun üzerinden mimarlıkları konuşmaya, düşünmeye, bir çizimi hem yeniden çizerek hem de yeniden okuyarak etrafında bir dünya kurmaya başlama düşüncesi oluşturur. Araştırmanın sınırını, yavaş çekilerek yapılan çizgiler ve ortamlar oluşturur. Araştırmada çizgi çekmek, bilinçli ve akıllı bir eylemdir. Ancak tez, bu yaşam dolu eylemlilikle insan ve insan olmayan ayrımını pekiştiren ve insanın baskın olduğu bir türcülük tartışması yapmayı amaçlamaz. Fakat ağırlıklı olarak mimari çizime insanın eylemliliğinin katkısını ve etkilerini araştırır, insan olmayanın katkısına da içermek için potansiyel bir ilk zemin yaratır.
Araştırma kapsamında ele alınacak ve bir araya getirilecek çizgiler, çizimler ve masalar, sadece birer örnek değil bilinçli bir kurgudur. Araştırma, mimari işler olarak çizgilerin ve çizimlerin bir diyalogu olduğunu, birbiriyle konuştuğunu öne sürer.
Araştırma, zamansal olarak belli bir döneme odaklanmaz. Çizgiye bakışı, ölçek ve tür açısından çeşitlendirir: masa, harita, kesit, plan, görünüş, siluet, diyagram, storyboard, film, kinetik çizim, çizim-model (drawdel), eskiz, perspektif, örgü, dikiş, resim, defter, tel konstrüksiyon, kısa hikâye, deneme, şiir, mağara gravürü vb. Kendi disiplininin yapma ve okuma biçimlerine başvuran çizimler kadar disiplininden olmayan ve disiplinsiz çizimleri de seçkisine katar. Araştırma, çizgileri okumak ve okuduğu çizim parçalarını ve çizimleri birleştirmek için deneysel bir yol-yordamla çalışır. Çizimlere bakmak için spekülasyon, tansiyon ve pozisyon olmak üzere üçlü bir denklem önerir. Çizimleri bir araya getirmek için takımyıldız  bakışını benimser. Yavaşlık, el, çizgi, yüzey, derinlik, yakın bakış, madde, durum, öznellik ve yapım biçimi bu denklemin önemli bileşenlerdir. Bu yaklaşım, bir çizime bir düzlük değil "X, genişlik/araştırma; Y, yükseklik/katmanlaşma; Z, derinlik/yorumlama" ile mekânsal olarak bakmayı ister. 
Tez sonuç yerine mimarlık çizimlerine dair bu araştırma kapsamında önerilen spekülatif açık-uçlu okuma ve haritalama ile çizgi odaklı bir mimarlık kuramı tartışması yapar. Araştırmanın devamı olarak mimari çizimi anlamaya dair alınabilecek kesitlerin çoğaltılabileceğini öngörür.

Abstract:
This thesis is about architectural drawing. Within a transdisciplinary mindset, it is an embodied inquiry to understand architectural drawing and expand its sphere of influence. Drawing the line promises performing a creative act, associating one with other, and opening up a border situation for discussion.
The thesis examines architectural drawing as an entangled body of research and experience, and situates drawing as a verb of an experimental, earthly and living medium for thinking and noticing by making. It brings to discussion objects, situations, issues, relationships and tensions embedded in architectural drawing. Instead of considering the concept in its narrow sense that clings tightly to the boundaries of the discipline, the research argues it on a broadened field by gathering with other actions, thoughts, perspectives and scales of making. It speculates on discussing architectural drawing as an inter-genre thinking-by-making medium in order to enable both partial perspectives and entanglements, multiply points of views and make them visible. Instead of building a big narrative about architectural drawing, it tells a 'situated' small story in solidarity with the sciences of the multiple subject, experimental pedagogies and feminist practices through reading, seeing, thinking, drawing, writing, making and correlating. It explores architectural drawing in manifold ways and offers a speculative reading and mapping proposal. 
As a beginning to discuss architectural drawing and investigate its boundaries through a cross-reading of to draw as a verb and thoughts about drawing, the thesis introduces three sections: line, drawing, and table. Each one is open-ended clusters of speculative pieces about line, drawing and the space of the drawing and reveals constellations.
Section I is troubled with line(s). Tension I appears with corporeal forms of making. It attempts to create a verbal, visual and tectonic repertoire. Section I brings to discussion situations related to line and line-making, speculates on it, and constructs a constellation with living lines. As Position I, it pulls the architect into a more existential, living standpoint than the genius who creates through ex nihilo. Slowness is proposed as a method to reveal. It cares intensively about lines as it is the main figure of architectural drawing. It unveils the experimental character of the line and disturbs the consistency of the architectural line. This section examines the anatomy of line which characterizes the tension between an orthodox drawing and a gestural one, being of a sketch. To do so, it speculates to draw with haptic and multiple actions which the movements of hand can be traced. In section I, the human hand is positioned as a verb, not a noun, and a line carries the curiosity of being a drawing. This thesis approaches drawing the line as a way of making, telling by hand, just like ceramics, three-dimensional models, weaving and embroidery. It opens the existential and poetic side of utterance to discussion beyond being a way of mediating in the production of things. With the act of drawing, this research asks us questions about certainty, finitude, and speed. Constellation I is a cluster of lines with an aura, and drawn slowly. It is established in accordance with the matter of line and its relation to the surface. These drawings are a kinetic field of actions as being open-ended, giving a sense of movement and formation. They are produced by a repetitive sequence of actions. In Section I, to draw is a highly autobiographical act, open to reflection, asking questions of oneself, things, and field. The line-making actualizes with material and surface: Marking with a pencil, cutting, sewing, folding, scraping from the surface, knitting, drilling etc.
Section II is troubled with drawing(s). Tension II appears with contamination. It pushes to search for a drawing within a drawing. This section explores manifold situations of drawing, reveals perspectives about spatiality in drawing, emphasizes the multiplicity of drawing practices, speculates on the self-portrait of architectural drawing, and establishes a constellation with dirty drawings leading to new and/or other ways of seeing. As Position II, it draws the architect from a master designer to a more apprenticeship standpoint. This section questions the proximity of drawing to architecture; situates drawing as a form of architectural exploration, thus expanding the boundaries of architectural drawing. It opens up to enquire about the promises of linearity and similarity with clarity, transparency, completeness, coherence, hierarchy, sequential necessity, visibility, seamless and resolution of architectural drawing. Section II questions the endemic, canonical and sequential actions of architectural drawing by re-drawing. With a close look and a deepening surface, it tries to look closely at a drawing with its layers, interline situations and sub-drawing particles and surfaces. By de/re-constructing a drawing, it intends to reveal the architect's ritual of drawing. What's going on in the front, middle and back? In this context, the discussion of Section II is set up with thick drawings which push the possibilities in architectural drawing and continue the dialogue with the second-level reader. These drawings are more social and undisciplined drawings willing to create a conversation rather than tell clearly. They are experiments to challenge the legible system, content, hierarchy, linearity and visual power of architectural drawing that dictates a series of actions. They should be read like maps since each carries the architectural practice of its creator, that is, it is contributed by multiple, other and authentic ways, unique to its architect. They contain a lot of unusualness and personality for an architectural drawing. Therefore, they are drawings which continue the dialogue with other disciplines, the architect and the reader. Rather than visiting a finished drawing, they challenge themselves to ask questions about the way they made and thought by making through manifold readings. Constellation II is established by speculative drawings consisting of thick, dirty and undisciplined drawings.
Section III is troubled with table(s). Tension III appears with messiness. It pursues to explore the possibilities of worldling. It articulates the architectural drawing with the Earth, speculating on the messy table as a medium of slow making and autobiographical experience of architectural drawing. It makes a speculative reading on the relationship between table and drawing. This research situates the table as a dynamic landscape that accumulates, shows and records architect's actions, flows and occurrences. In Position III, architects reflect on the inclusivity and embodiedness of the architectural drawing and explore the spatiality of the drawing with matter and three-dimensionality. The research makes arguments on the boundary and scale, horizontality and verticality, space and building. The table, as a tectonic construction, encourages other constructive and corporeal actions and materials to the drawing. Section III attempts to read how each drawing assembles its own spatial fiction according to the architects' way of thinking by making. Architects speak of drawing architecture, a kind of infrastructure / background / invisible architecture. Constructing a drawing on the table is a multi-layered action, where various textures, thicknesses, opacities, materials, as well as tools and materials, surfaces and rules are part of the drawing. Manifold mediums are in dialogue with the drawing: models, poetry, books, etc. The table invites others to touch and gather around it; more than two hands and eyes, more than one mind and mouth, and more than human. It is a joyful ground of mess and lives, creating its own mise-en-scène, atmosphere, narrative sequence and appearance. Constellation III establishes dioramas with speculative architectural tables and drawing mediums. It includes dynamic inquiries into the spatiality of drawing.
The thesis intertwined with multiple fields as research grounds: literature, anthropology, cognitive archaeology, geology, art, philosophy, geometry, astronomy, music, biology, landscape, meteorology, botany, neuroscience, etc. In architectural drawing, it tries to entangle the endemic with the borrowed and invented. The vital motivation of this research is to put a potential drawing on the table, and start to talk about architecture through it, to think and to build a world around a drawing by both re-drawing and re-reading it. Slowly drawn lines and their environments hold the boundary of the research. Drawing the line is surveyed as a conscious and intelligent action. However, with this lively activism, the thesis does not address a speciesism that reinforces the distinction between humans and non-humans. But it mainly explores the contribution and effects of human agency to architectural drawing, creating a potential ground to begin a companionship of the non-human.
Lines, drawings and tables that are constellated in the scope of the thesis are not just examples but situated pieces of a conscious fiction. The research suggests that lines and drawings, as architectural works, have a dialogical relationship, a correspondence. The research does not focus on a specific temporal period. It multiplies the view of line in terms of scale and type: table, map, section, plan, elevation, silhouette, diagram, storyboard, film, kinetic drawing, drawdel, sketch, perspective, knitting, sewing, painting, notebook, wire construction, short story, essay, poem, cave engraving, etc. Disciplined, multi disciplined and undisciplined drawings form the open-ended clusters as constellations. The research works in an experimental way of reading and interpreting lines and combining pieces of drawings that it reads. It proposes a triple equation of speculation, tension and position to investigate drawings. It adopts a constellation view to reveal sections. Slowness, hand, line, surface, depth, close look, matter, situation, subjectivity and construction are important components of this equation. This approach calls a drawing not a plain but a spatial one with "X, width / survey; Y, elevation / stratification; Z, depth / interpretation".
In lieu of conclusion, the thesis speculates open-ended readings and mappings to make a line-oriented architectural dialogue. The research raises a future promise of generating more than three sections to understand architectural drawing and make an ever-expanding embodied discussion.