The end of drawing - a new dimension?

For the last 600 years, architectural design has been intimately associated with drawing. The Renaissance substituted the master mason as the author of the building and created the profession of the architect, highly skilled in drawing and design.

From the Renaissance onwards, every architect acquired their design skills through drawing. Drafting is still the main method of design. The advent of Computer-Aided Architectural Design in the 1970s did not change the basis of design. This has been described as the "horseless carriage syndrome": a new techonolgy comes along with the potential of making some fundamental changes, but at first it is used exactly as was its predecessor.

Image courtesy Fakespace Systems Inc.

For the last 40 years, architectural studios have been using the computer mainly as a drawing mechanism, either with 2D or 3D software. They still rely on sketching to develop their ideas, and only use CAD after they have a fair idea which way they want to go on a given project.

What most architects fail to realize is that the computer is not a better way of drawing your projects; it is the instrument that could put an end to drawing altogether in architecture. Drawing is not the best instrument to "think architecture". It is a pale reproduction of the images that go inside our head. The best way to test a design solution would be to build it, and build it ideally to real-life proportions in a virtual environment.

Amazingly, the technology to do this already exists. Super-fast computers, huge data storage drives, powerful graphic cards, head-mounted displays, and of course 3D Virtual Building™ software can all be purchased, configured and linked today.

Fundamental change

Architects would not be executing a series of drawings then perfecting the solutions. They would instead find themselves in a 3D environment and, in real time and real size, virtually building the project "model" with the assumed levels of accuracy, rendering as desired and the age-old documentation demands met through automatic updates as the project progresses.

Imagine yourself as an architect, at your office, connected to a powerful computer, wearing a 3D headset and digitally sensitive gloves, working immersed in a virtual world, expertly building - not just drawing - your project from its very conception. Imagine that your client is also connected, maybe via Internet, and provides input as you progress through your fully flexible virtual building site.

This fascinating scenario would surely change the way we do architecture. It would position today's architects far closer to the master masons role they lost centuries ago. Change is a constant in any design-related field - but will architects grasp this futuristic but utterly achievable nettle? Indeed, will customers be ready to appreciate that their relationship with their designer has been enhanced, not simply glamorized?