The lecture presents an outline of research questions on the role of drawing in architecture. More specific attention is paid to the structure and knowledge embedded in schematic representations of the architectural plan. Past and ongoing research examples are given, and we also look at the question: why progress in this area is still relatively small?

Henri Achten studied architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, from 1986-1992. He graduated on the design of a museum of history in Venlo, the Netherlands. He was the first graduate student in the Netherlands to use Virtual Reality in the presentation of his project. From 1992-1997 he did his PhD on knowledge encoding in drawings, under guidance by Thijs Bax and Robert Oxman. From 1998-2000 he was post-doc researcher at the newly formed Design Systems Group, from where continued as assistant professor until 2010. Since 2005 he was assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Czech Technical University in Prague. In 2007 he obtained habilitation for associate professor, and in 2018 was appointed professor. Leading design studios since 2005, he was appointed head of design studio in 2015. Since 1995 he is member of eCAADe, which he served as vice-president from 2001-2005, and president from 2005-2009.