Twenty-Six Design Concepts, Illustrated

lines The line is often thought of as the most basic tool of architectural representation. In essence, every drawing starts with a single line. Every building can be described by a series of lines. Lines can be scribbled out in a diagram, carefully calculated to provide the illusion of perspective, or subtly added to mark a feature or revision. But the line's value comes from the fact that it provides an innate structure to any context in which it is used. If nothing else, a series of lines is but a synthesis of these structures, and architectural design is all about harnessing this concept to supplement the built environment.