Is the sketch superior to the computer-generated image?
’Yes’Alan Dunlop, architect and academic Look at the work of the great architect draughtsmen and you will see that a finely crafted line drawing stands the test of time. They are a measure of the care that the architect feels for the commission. The drawings of Vilhelm Wohlert, no matter how sketchy or tentative, show extraordinary sensitivity in composition, weight of line and detail. Sadly, pencil and paper no longer centre in the creative act. Today’s designers often appear detached from the drawing process and it shows. Paul Rudolph was a brilliant architect and draughtsman who saw architecture as “a personal effort”. His students at Yale were “encouraged” to help fill in elaborate texture and shadow for the master, sometimes working through the night for presentations to clients the next day. In response, they included their names in the drawing of bushes and trees, leaf and grass. Tedious perhaps but the finished drawings stand as works of art in themselves. I encourage my studen
