Design and Drawing: Hand and Computer Drawing in the Beginning Courses

DESIGN AND DRAWING: HAND AND COMPUTER DRAWING IN THE BEGINNING COURSES

Design and Drawing: Hand and Computer Drawing in the Beginning CoursesMutaz Gedalla, Scott Singeisen

Savannah Collage of Art and Design

Architecture has changed overtime, andthe way architects design architecturethrough the process changes it. Drawingis the way to design things, andarchitects use it to designarchitecture. Therefore, the wayarchitects draw has changedarchitecture. Thus, architecturalschools are changing the way of howstudents learn the principles of designand drawing according to these changes.Currently, drawing by hand or computeris the most debatable topic in thearchitectural field. The awareness ofhand drawing has been revived in thearchitectural field. However, manyarchitectural schools still focus oncomputer drawing and other on handdrawing. Therefore, architecturalschools should include the hand andcomputer drawing as one tool inbeginning classes. By doing so, studentswill gain the right skills that willqualify them to be successfularchitects.

Design and drawing are connected to eachother, and drawing is as fuel for the

imagination, and as training for theeye. Designers, architects, and studentsare required to draw in order to design.Drawing is a language, and architectscommunicate through drawing. A debatebetween two architects by drawing linesto solve a problem could occur withoutany word. The communication could occurwhen the ideas are graphicallytransferred onto a paper or other media.Therefore, students should learn thecommunication skills in order to be ableto talk architecturally. They shouldhave drawing skills. Either computerdrawing skills or hand drawings arenecessary for them to have the universallanguage. If the graphic communicationskills are vital in both hand andcomputer drawings, so why the firstclasses in any architectural schools arehand drawings.

Computer software, sketches, modelbuildings, and any medium to create anddevelop an architectural idea have itsadvantages and limits. Today, architectsare using all the tools are availablefor them. Before, architects haverelayed on hand drawing as thinking andpresentational tool. Then withcomputers, the architects relayed on itto present the idea. Now, they use thecomputer and the hand as tools to thinkand to present. Moving back and forth tosolve a problem is a design, andarchitects with this repetitive processgo back and forth between computer andhand drawing. Increasing sophisticationof tools for modeling, parametricdesign, and construction documentationdefines the way architects design. Some


designers draw at the first by computerto have the overall idea then they startto modify this idea by hand to clarifyand refine it. For example, Greg Lynn, adigital design fabricator, draws by handand computer but usually he starts withthe computer. Then, his hand drawingsometimes tries to mimic computer-drawing techniques because he isdesigning complex shapes.

Fig. 1. Greg Lynn Sketches by Hand

Drawing should be informative, and thearchitect should convey the impressionrather than likeness. Architects do notcare on how they use the way totranslate their thoughts into clearvisual ideas. Drawing means using thepen on a sheet or playing on screen bycreating 2d or 3d lines. Drawing hasthree functions: as part of thinking andprocesses, as a visual idea indicatesfor the client and users of what thebuilding will be like, and as theinstruction to those going to constructthe building. Drawing could be done byhand, computer, or combination between

them. Drawing is the result ofcoordination between hands and eyes,even when using the mouse and looking atthe screen one is using hand and eye.The digital graphic tablet is an exampleof using hand and computer as on tool.Therefore, architectural schools shouldteach drawing by computer and hand asone thing in the first classes.

Architectural practice requiresefficient and clarity in the processesand final products. Clients want to seemore details and high quality work intheir investments. Therefore,architectural firms should react fastand well to the demands of clients. As aresult, practice includes everythingthat could develop and improve theoutcome work. A survey by ArchitMagazine shows how heavily thearchitectural practice depends ontechnology by using 2D and 3D software.However, the number of firms that usehand drawing is high too. They stillrecognize the value of using the handdrawing on paper.

Fig. 2. Archit Magazine Survey


Hand drawing is the core of thearchitecture. Architecture cannot split-up from the hand drawing, regardless howtechnology is impressive. Drawing byhand expresses the thinking process byinteraction of designers’ mind and hand.Sketching by hand helps architectsconceive, develop, and express theirideas without boundaries. MichaelGraves, an architect and emeritusprofessor at Princeton, defines thedrawing to three types that involve inthe process, which he calls the“referential sketch,” the “preparatorystudy” and the “definitive drawing.”The first one, referential sketch, actsas visual notes for architects toremember and could be just hand gesturesfor conceptual idea. It could be just acapture of an idea. The second type,preparatory study, is the sketchingsteps involve the liner progression ofusing the gathering ideas and exploringit to solve the problem. He argues thatthe third type, definitive drawing, isthe most refine and final developed andcould be done by the computer or hand.The architect Juhani Pallasma describessketching by hand for an architect as aphysical tool and tangible fordeveloping ideas. He stated that thedrawing by hand for an architect is notfocused on individual lines, but focusedon occupied space by touching all itssurfaces. This connection is “difficult,if not impossible, to simulate withcomputers,” he said. Computer doesn’trecognize the information that receives;therefore, there is a need to draw andsketch by hand first to generate theidea.

Today is the era of technology, andawareness of thinking and drawing byhand is revived. A lot of admiredarchitects produce exceptional formsthrough digital thinking still depend onhand drawing thinking. For example, fordecades Zaha hadid has been makingpowerful paintings that resemble freeze-frames of spaces. Even though, all herworks are generated and refined by thecomputer, she still depends on sketchingand painting by her hand to extract hervision on a piece of paper. Frank LWright is the best example of how thehand drawing is a powerful tool.Wright’s architecture is the result ofhis hand drawing through his process.Black and white sketches or water colordrawings represent the human thinkingtoward the space. His sketches anddrawings are now exhibited in MoMaMuseum in New York City. Such greatdrawings and their values are essentialto be viewed to the public.

Fig. 3. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sketches (1943-

59)


The awareness is not only amongprofession; it is also among thearchitectural schools. In the early90s, we have seen architectural schoolsthat try to emphasis on usingtechnology. For example, BernardTschumi, the former dean of ColumbiaUniversity’s Graduate School ofArchitecture and Planning, created a“paperless Studio” that depends only oncomputers to create the architecture.Today, students and professors arebeginning to reconsider the advantagesof drawing and thinking by hand. Thehand drawing is not just for talentedpeople. Yes, some people born with thistalent, but the hand drawing is a skillthat could be learned. Therefore,classes and courses that teach studentshow to draw are crucial. However,focusing on these classes shouldintegrate with the computer technics

Drawing is natural; architects can drawthe usual and the unusual, the simpleand complex. However, we need to usecomputer programs to create this complexgeometry and forms those could notappear without the help of technology.For example, Frank o Gehry uses theultimate technology that provides himthe ease to draw complex buildings. Hesays that without computer technology, Icould not represent my ideas to theworld. Gehry’s office uses CATIA(Computer Aided Three-dimensionalInteractive Application) to develop thecomplex shapes that created by handmodeling. His early projects are not

successful as the recent ones afterusing CATIA. Gehry designed the VitraDesign Museum in Germany in 1989 beforethe discovery of CATIA. He says thathis building is missing the curves thathe loves, so the result was notsatisfied. In the other hand, hisprojects by using CATIA are remarkablein their curves and complex shapes, suchas the Guggenheim Museum in Spain andDisney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Fig. 4. Vitra Design Museum, Germany

Fig. 5. Guggenheim Museum, Spain


Recently, architects and students aregoing with computer and digital drawingas tools of thinking and process. Thisraises the question on how it effects onthe creative process of design. Atarchitectural schools, students do nothave to be good at hand drawing becausethey can learn the computer skills andbe successful architects in the future.Computer drawing skills, as the handdrawing, could be learned. The digitaltechnology has redefined the wayarchitecture is taught. Computer labsare increasing every day in schools.Computer is not only changing the way ofteaching architecture; it is changingthe way that architect work from theearly sketched to the final constructiondocuments. Hand drawing can visualizesections, plans, elevations, andperspectives, and our mind creates avisual idea from that. These drawingsdepend on our mind and memory, and itgives us a fraction of the sense of theremarkable awareness and our movementthrough the space. Computer exceeds thisby working in three dimensions to createa clearer picture, and that will enhanceour thinking toward what we aredesigning. Computer drawing can providethis sense of unusual and enlarge ourperspective to the space. Computer is aremarkable tool for architecture thatorganizes and presents data. Some peoplecall the digital drawing “the smartlink” because it provides for architectsspeed, precision, instantaneous outcomesthat are economic and efficient. Drawingfor builders and manufacturing should beprecise. It is not like sketches. Thatis way using the computer to create

details is much easier than by hand. Theenormous benefit of using the computeris the construction documents. TheBuild information modeling (BIM) changesthe way architects conceive thearchitecture. We could build a virtualbuilding that architects can use it foradvanced and complex analysis. Usingthese and other software programs isalso for developing designs and makingpresentations.

Currently, some architects and studentshave been using the term of parametricdesign or Para Design, which can createthe form by inputting instructions byusers who will be able to orbit andexamine the geometry in a virtualenvironment. However, the computer needsusers and the users need a conceptualidea, which is created properly by thehand to input it in the computer. Thecomputer should have a system thatcombines the digital dynamicvisualization abilities with spontaneityof hand sketching. There are somedevelopers who are attracted by the ideaof combining the two technics to be asone tool that could be used byarchitects or students. For example, theMental Canvas is software was developedby Julie Doresy, a Yale professor ofcomputer science, to combine thetechnology with the hand drawing. “Oursystem is designed to allow designers toorganize concept drawings in 3D, andgradually fuse a series of possiblygeometrically-inconsistent sketches intoa set of 3D strokes,” Doresy said. Thissoftware allows the architects to sketchas 2D lines on a digital pad, and then


combines the drawing in 3D format. TheMental Canvas allows the architects anddesigners to modify, refine, and combinethem in 3D format, so they can explorethem graphically as volumetric spaces.When the students and architects heavilyuse the tools that were created for themby software developers, they arecreating boundaries which can restrictthe creative process. “Software hasbuilt-in parameters that createinvisible boundaries,” said CammyBrothers, an architectural historian andassociate professor at the University ofVirginia. However, by practicing andusing the software, architects andstudents can gain the right skills aftera while. “You can make a computer asopen as a pencil,” said Brothers, “butyou have to push at it.”

The hand drawing and the computerdrawing are in a hidden war. A greatnumber of research talks about theadvantages and disadvantages for eachone. However, little research talk aboutthe hybrid advantages of using computerand hand together during the process andat the final presentation. Scanners,Pens, printers, sketches, mouse, andKeyboards are words can describe thehybrid work of using the hand drawingand computer together. I could call itthe hybrid process. The hybrid processis not a new idea in the architecturalfield. We use it every day, in theschool or work. We sketch on a sketchpaper, then scan it and draw it inAutoCAD. After that, we print it,discuss it, modify it, and rescan it. Itdoes resemble a circle of hybrid process

between computer and hand drawing. Thebenefit of using this type of process isuseful, and few books talk about itstechnique, not about the benefit ofusing it. However, the hybrid processmainly depends on one part more than theother. In other words, when we use thehybrid process, we will use moresketching than computer, or use thecomputer more than sketching. We cannotfind 50% to 50% using the hand drawingand computer.

The idea of the unique hybrid processcame up to my thinking a few years ago.When I was watching the I Robot movie byWill Smith, I saw a scene thatfascinated me. The robot, Sonny,quickly sketched a picture of his dreamabout a bridge on the paper. The mostattractive thing was the robot’s drawinghand appeared to operate more like aprinter than a human hand, with acontrol system causing the pen to dab atthe paper. The result is a hand sketchby a robot. When I made a littleresearch, I found that the idea is notjust science fiction in a movie; it isnew science field in the technology era.I found a small amount of ideas that tryto mimic the hand drawing with computeron a piece of real paper. In China, forexample, they have a robot at the ScndTechnology museum creates quick drawingsfor children. Two guys from the UnitedStates have invented the RFID, which isa device is working on the magneticfield and a camera is recording the handdrawing. Another odd example, Jen HuiLiao has created an art project. “Itstarts by taking a picture of a user,


then the wrists of the user will befastened to a robotic arm of themachine, and a pen is placed in thehands of the user. The machine thenmoves the user's wrists, forcing him orher to create a self-portrait based onthe photograph taken” Regine says, aneditor of the We Make Money not Artwebsite.

In the architecture field, imagine if wehave a robot that we plug in the dataand information into it. The robot willsketch for us based on our thinking.Imagine if we have a printer within itshead a pen instead of a laser, or if wehave a machine that controls our armsmove. The new technology could gobeyond our reality. These ideas aregreat, and I am so interested on how thehybrid process could effect on thearchitectural, or at least on how weproduce the architecture In the future.

Fig. 6. Jen Hui Liao’s art project

To sum up, hand drawing is an essentialtool for students to develop theirprinciples of architecture and isimportant for architects to developtheir thinking toward the process. The

computer is the tool that shapes outlife nowadays, and it changes the way weconceive to space. Both of them areremarkably needed for students andarchitects. Combine them together as onetool is what we are moving toward today.Therefore, architectural schools mustinclude them together in the firstclasses to be as essentials skills forany future architects.

Notes

Brawne, Michael. Architectural Thought: the design process and the expectant eye. Oxford:Architectural Press, 2003.

Cook, Peter. Drawing the Motive Force of Architecture. Great Britain: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2008.

Gruzdys , Sophia, “Drawing: The Creative Link”, Architectural Record, January, 2002.

Ingalls, Zoe, “Teaching Architecture Students‘the Discipline of the Hand’”, Chronicle of Higher Education, November, 1997.

Laseau, Paul. Graphic Thinking for Architectsand Designers. Great Britain: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2001.

“Technology”, architectsjournal, May, 2010.

The Afterlife of Drawing | Commentary | Architectural Record,http://archrecord.construction.com/features/critique/2012/1204commentary.asp (accessed March 1, 2013).

Yi-Luen Do, Ellen & Gross, Mark D, “Thinking with Diagrams in Architectural Design”, Artificial Intelligence Review, 2001.

Self-Portrait Machine - Robotically CompelledArt: Science. http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=2385 (accessed March1, 2013).

Design and Drawing: Hand and Computer Drawing in the Beginning Courses

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