Why We Draw By Hand, Part the First

I recently received this email from a civil engineer:

“Did you really just send me an email from your iPhone declaring that you were “old fashioned”?”

And yes, that is exactly what I did. The initial impulse is to say that there is an age old debate on the merits and flaws of computer aided drafting (CAD) versus those of drawing by hand. This initial impulse is a bit erroneous, however, as the issue has only been around for the last fifteen years or so, thus hardly “age old”, but perhaps it is more of a very timely debate.

Before this essay launches into an old fogey type rant about “how we did it back in the day”, it is important to note that we find the computers brilliant for so many different applications. Research, investigation, communication, all of these outlets have exploded since the personal computers and the Internet reached its teen years in the form that we are now familiar with it. But, like most teen-agers, the Internet and the personal computer is still struggling with the notions of “just because we CAN do something, doesn’t mean we ought to.” Technology can be brilliant, and it can also be blinding.

The images that most of our contemporaries carry with us to this day of what an architect is or does is characterized by the movies and television. Mike Brady sitting at his desk designing lipstick and powder puff buildings for Zsa Zsa Gabor comes to mind immediately. For a young man that grew up playing with Legos and doodling houses when he ought to have been listening to lectures, the idea that you could get paid to draw houses all day was incredibly attractive. My skills in the Fine Arts of drawing and painting are not negligible, but they were never to the level of my peers, and demanded of me a disproportionate amount of joy for the energy I had to exert in their production. Having drafting equipment to lend an edge of craft to my creativity, giving me the stanzas upon which to write my verse was again something that allowed me to express my creativity throughout the entire architectural process.

Today’s image of an architect is portrayed primarily in television advertisements for cell phones and wireless communications. What better profession to showcase the capabilities of the technology than in the architectural? Apparently you can take conference calls, snap pictures of your kid’s sandcastles for precedent studies and create interactive 3d models of your project while on a white sand beach. This fantasy is also VERY attractive to me, of course, but again...

Just because we CAN do something, doesn’t mean we OUGHT to do it.

Is it really a good thing to be able to bring your whole architectural studio with you wherever you go, especially on vacation? You do not often see the spouse of said jet setting beach architect glaring at him or admonishing him for working too much and not being there with the family, but you can bet it happens!

Myths and fantasies aside, there are very real and concrete reasons why I feel hand drafting will always be superior to the work done on computers. Watch this space for updates and continued discussions on this topic!