PRACTICE AND THE COMPUTER

The computer pushes some people away from the practice of architecture.

This thought evolved via a Facebook conversation with two Transparent Drawing followers.  It had never occurred to me that the computer might turn designers off from architecture.

Yet they both relate that their love of designing things was centered around drawing.  It was about the joy of putting pencil to paper.  And once that connection was no longer accepted, they decided that they would rather do other things with their time.  Meaning that they would find something else to do that required pencil marks on a piece of paper.

How great is that?  How great is it when, because you absolutely believe in drawing*, you change directions so that you can continue to put lines on paper?  And, how great is it when you simply say no to the computer?  Who does any of this anymore?  Who takes a stand about drawing anymore?  And who says no, anymore, to the latest greatest digital tool?

What if we all would focus on ways in which we can keep putting pencil lines on a piece of paper well into the architectural process?  What if we shift our definitions and values so that analogue drawings, as part of typical office activity,  are celebrated?

Here we have people who are completely turned off by digital image making.  And it may very well be that our clients, in their subconscious, react the same way.  For all we know, clients would rather be shown drawings, rather than digital imagery.

Transparent Drawing spin off project:  Who has done studies which track visceral client response to drawings and compared that to digital images?  I am imagining that subjects would be shown, for example, a digital rendering and a drawing of their house, and their brain activity would be measured.  If anyone is looking for something to do, this would be a great activity to undertake.

*Use of the word drawing assumes the Transparent Drawing definition, which is solely the application of lines and tones, via a human hand holding an implement that leaves marks, on a piece of paper.