Use of freehand sketching: Documenting heritage buildings, Gamal Abdel Nasser Street (1830–1930), Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract

Freehand sketching – as one of the methods to discover cities – plays main role to understand the image of the heritage city. It is considered as an important tool to analyze and document heritage buildings. The image produced by freehand sketching heightens awareness of these buildings. Previous studies conducted on the methods of architectural heritage documentation revealed that very little researches have been undertaken to use freehand sketching in the process of data survey and documentation. These researches break the deadlock in the textual documents and express the human experience clearly unlike other methods of documentation. Therefore, this article intends to document ten heritage buildings in the study area, Gamal Abdel Nasser street, Alexandria city, Egypt. – One of the most ancient streets in Alexandria that still maintain its old character and identity – using analytical freehand sketches, the sketches and analysis was created by the researcher. The results showed that these buildings seem homogeneous and have a common character despite their different architectural styles which means it respects each other within building regulations. Briefly, the results help to find out how freehand sketching successfully analyzes these buildings that assist the architects and planners to understand the design principles used in ancient times.