From Prescription to Description

Using Architectural Drawing as Graphic Ethnography in Cypriot Refugee Estates

Abstract

This paper examines how architectural drawing can function as a critical tool for documenting and interpreting everyday life within the built environment. It aims to reposition drawing from a ‘prescriptive’, projective practice to a ‘descriptive’, ethnographic method that reveals the social and material realities of inhabited spaces. Through field-based drawing exercises conducted in the refugee estates of Nicosia, the study employs graphic ethnography to explore micro-scale appropriations and lived spatial practices, advancing a methodological and pedagogical contribution to architectural education.