profession, and although engineers and industrial
designers also draw to solve problems their graphic
techniques are quite distinct.
The question addressed in these final chapters is
whether drawing still retains this central position in the
face of considerable development of other investigative
design tools such as CAD. Specifically, how do ideas,
drawings, models and CAD interact at the early stages of
design evolution, and, more fundamentally, can the
architect design without the aid of freehand drawing? All
designers, and here architects are no exception, interpret
and solve problems by graphic mediation. One can design
without drawing but, as the research described here
relates, it is difficult for architects to communicate an
imagined design without the use of drawing. Equally, it is
difficult to undertake the development of a design idea,
particularly at its early stages, without recourse to
freehand drawing (Lawson 1994 p142; Bowers 1999
p13). Although the CAD-based design drawing has an
increasing role in the genesis of an architectural concept,
traditional drawing is still required to resolve problems as
they arrive. Hence, this chapter argues that there is a
dynamic relationship between sketching and other
investigative modes such as models and CAD right
through the design process. In the hands of more
adventurous architects the line in plan becomes the line in
section, and this in turn becomes the line that is traced
through the model. However, as the design idea matures
beyond the diagram and early concept sketches, there is
an increasing reliance upon CAD and more formal model-24.2 a, b and c
These drawings by Santiago Calatrava are little more than a structural diagram for
the Lisbon Orient Station yet they are rich in architectural and spatial potential.
(Santiago Calatrava)228 Understanding architecture through drawing