Introduction 'Drawing is the process or technique of representing something - an object, a scene, or an idea by making lines on a surface'.1 For architects, drawing is the medium through which they communicate with the world, the medium to perceive architecture. Drawing is the tool for thinking and developing ideas; it is as valuable, as the incision is for a surgeon. The role of the drawing differs according to professions. For instance, a drawing for a builder provides a solution to a present problem, something that will be dead by the moment the builder gets back home. Nevertheless, the multiple roles and functions of the drawing is not what interests me for this essay. Using hand-drawing in the early stages of design, is what I want to focus on.
Hand-drawing used to be the essential tool to design architecture. This changed when in the 1960s, the first digital software was published to help designers save time and money. Since then, new technologies have been developed for designing and presenting architectural projects and as a result the role of hand-drawing has potentially become lost. Although I do not deny the benefits of the computer, I personally admire the value of hand-drawing, which is my choice for approaching a design. Using my hands helps me to think more carefully while drawing and translate my ideas from my mind to the paper more accurately for a variety of reasons, such as freedom, scale, speed and others that will be explained later on.
Therefore, my essay evaluates several questions, in order to get a clear understanding of the reasons that make hand-drawing essential during the design process as a medium of thinking. I 1
Francis D. K Ching, Steven P. Juroszek, Design Drawing, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1998), p. 1
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