master plan drawing
Craftmanship vs. Technology in design
We are currently living in a time of progressive, intense and almost forced technologization of our formerly manual performance. This undoubtedly allows us a series of advantages in terms of communication, speed, repetition, document archiving, to say the least.
In design, we obviously have the same reality, it is fascinating to discover and use the new tools of three-dimensionalization, integrated models, programming to generate new forms, virtual reality, analysis of urban behavior, real-time visualization of our future visions, among others.
Now then, those of us who were born in the early 70s, we call ourselves the “hinge” generation, or the last flutter of things by hand, we are the ones who do use the rapidograph and cutter models, not negligible skills, but today apparently not very useful professionally, traditional drawing tools are for romantics, vintage or stubborn, and certainly remain outside the contests and services expected by most customers … only appreciated by people of older generations, artists or collectors.
However, I dare to say that the sense of gravity, the behavior of materials, the preview of space, and discipline in construction, have been fundamentally reduced by leaving behind the crafts of drawing and manual modeling, which, in my opinion, should be cultivated both in the training of designers, and in office performance, not only to make room for the old, but as fundamental skills of a creative person, able not only to impress with a hyper-realistic video, but also able to communicate through detail and generate simple and human experiences.
In our office, the workshop is bigger than the screen, and our little machines, tools and pencils are still our treasures, and yes, we are certainly more romantic than most, but that makes us happy and probably more discerning.
Undoubtedly, as humanity we are becoming less sensitive to physical stimuli, often subtle, and we are immersing ourselves in an over-stimulated technological virtual universe from which we do not know what society we are going to be… judging by the last few years, certainly more manipulable, not very critical and analytical, not very independent of thought, suggestible, impatient, sleepless and insatiable. Nothing sustainable is the truth.
Forcing us to a virtual job must have a brake, it is certainly a formidable complement, but it cannot replace our ability to perform a job properly, nor castrate our ability to read, use our hands, and generate content in an artisanal way.
