SKETCHES Vs DIGITAL MEDIA

Architects have been exploring the design and fabrication of buildings

through use of digital media. One development common to all these
contemporary architects concerns the question of how digital
technology influences their practice and the buildings they
construct ?

DIGITAL MEDIA

Computers are a vital component of contemporary

architectural practice, and very few firms can successfully
build without their use. Digital representations are
employed in all phases of architectural production, from
early conceptual ideas to construction management.

They are vital to structural analysis, tracking the

building performance and integration of building systems,
and presentation renderings, to name a few.

So, How it started?

For many years the contribution of the computer was
limited to CAD documents, but the digital world has
expanded to infiltrate every aspect of the building process.
One of the last areas to embrace the computer has been
the conceptual stages of the project the initial sketches.
Hand sketches, so representative of the intent and
personality of architects, have long been considered sacred.

Recently, new digital programs have become available to

facilitate this intimate thinking process. Digital sketching
programs such as Sketch-Up have attempted to imitate
conceptual thinking.

The digital medium easily and quickly forms primary

geometric shapes, similar to architects hand-constructed
diagrams. The shapes, devoid of detail, could also be
considered preliminary because they provide basic
conceptual information prior to design development.
 Whether they are truly as effective, only their extensive
use will determine. It is obvious, however, that computer
sketches of even simple shapes can be limiting. In most cases, it
takes substantially more time to render details digitally,
especially perspectives.

A digital program that will stretch the shapes and then allow them to
be viewed from numerous perspectives certainly has advantages.

The use of the computer for sketching may therefore suggest an

inherent conflict between precision and imprecision.
The digital image can be seen but not felt.

Why ?

The direct relationship between the pen/pencil and the paper

may, for some architects, provide an intimate connection to the
object of their creation. The hand gestures of the drawing
instrument add expression to their sketches.

PROS & CONS :

The advantages and disadvantages of both media are numerous

and the success of each of these forms of sketches may be
determined by their time, place, and intention.

Architects also employ sketches in various stages of process,

such as exploring details, making changes during construction,
or during intra-office visual communication.
 Architects such as Greg Lynn utilize advanced
technologies to invent fluid, amorphous forms.These
abstract forms can be more easily viewed in perspective
and analyzed (such as a section cut)with computer
rendering.

Frank Gehry, although using sketches extensively for

early ideas, relies heavily on the computer to develop and
visualize his complex shapes.

Zaha Hadid provokes theoretical constructs with

paintings and digital images as a starting point to locate
form.
This page displays preliminary sketches for the
Church of the Light in Ibaraki,Osaka, Japan. It
was designed in 19871988, and underwent
construction during 19881989.

It consists of a rectangular volume sliced through at a

fifteen-degree angle by a completely free standing wall
that separates the entrance from the chapel.

Light penetrates the pro-found darkness of this box

through a cross which is cut out of the altar wall. The
floor and pews are made of rough scaffolding planks,
which are low cost and also ultimately suited to the
character of the space.
I have always used natural materials for parts of a
building that come into contact with peoples hands or
feet, as I am convinced that materials having sub-
stance, such as wood or concrete, are invaluable for
building, and that it is essentially through our senses
that we become aware of architecture.

Openings have been limited in this space, for light

shows its brilliance only against a backdrop of
darkness. Natures presence is also limited to the
element of light and is rendered exceedingly abstract.
In responding to such an abstraction, the architecture
grows continually purer. The linear pattern formed on
the floor by rays from the sun and a migrating cross of
light expresses with purity mans relationship with
nature.

The sketch has been rendered with black ink on heavy

(Japanese) paper. The black ink is very dense in places
(such as the crosses), while in other areas it skips off of
the heavy paper in haste.

The ink shows strong contrast to the white paper and

is very definitive. Architects, artists, and authors have
feared the blank page because the first stroke sets the
stage for what comes after: the entirely white paper
can be intimidating. The blank sheet expects
something profound, and any marks stand out
strongly in the vast whiteness.
Ando does not erase or scratch out any
images, but he finds a blank space in which
to draw. He sketches confidently, allowing the forms
to overlap as his ideas flow.

The page contains several sketches in plan and

axonometric. One small sketch appears to be a plan for
the organization of the pews in the chapel or the
processional movement, a rectangle with many
horizontals.
The shaded sketches are details showing the thickness
of the walls and how the light would glow through the
cross opening.
The ink used to make the crosses creates a reversal;
the wall was meant to be dark and the cross glowing
with light.

The minimal forms tell the story of a conceptually

strong approach to the light in a small chapel. In
writing about the importance of sketches in design
process, Ando writes: my sketch[es]
usually help me to clear and refine
the initial image and to integrate it
with architectural space and details.

Hadid made abstract topographical studies for many of her

projects, intervening with fluid, flexible and expressive works
that evoke the dynamism of contemporary urban life.

These artistic works propose a new and different world view,

questioning the physical constraints of design, and
showing the creative underpinnings of her career.
 From the beginning of her career Zaha Hadid was
influenced by the artist Kazimir Malevich, who led
her to use paint as a tool for architectonic
exploration.
During the 1980s, before Zaha had realized any of
her works, she was faced with many fruitful years
of theoretical architectural design. In these years
she created a precedent for her entire career, with
these explorations later consolidated in material
form in her works.
Hadid began her paintings
with essays in a macro urban
scale, exploring proposals for
masterplans and forms of
connection within and between
cities.
In her paintings of "The
Peak," Hadid proposed a
landmark as a respite from
the congestion and intensity of
Hong Kong, developed on
an artificial mountain.
 From her student days onward, Zaha Hadid used
painting as a part of her broad and
profound process of architectural
creation, demonstrating that we must never stop
experimenting.
Despite painting throughout her career and
realizing multiple exhibitions of her painted work,
she never accepted the definition of artist, since all
her graphic explorations were part of
her ongoing architectural exploration;
using the flexibility inherent in art to
delve freely into her experimentation as an
architect.

"We dont work from an ingenious sketch. Its not

a flash of genius. We work from a form-finding
process. Its a methodology that teases out a final
form, like an organic creature that evolves within
a set of opportunities and constraints."