During the course of 25 years of working in the field of architecture, changes to the way we practice have changed little, that is in terms of the big chunk of what we do being administration, coordination, talking to people to ensure that the project is moving in the right direction in essence, project management. The other side of it being the design side has changed significantly in terms of the tools that are available to us and those that we are expected to use. in 1987, the tools were 'Rotring' drawing pens, tracing paper, T square and drawing board, along the way there have been different tools that involve sitting in front of a computer and not drawing at all, in the traditional sense. It is still great to be able to draw on paper, although most of the 'Rotrings' have long since dried up, and drawing tends to be felt pen on detail paper these days, it is still a humbling experience to sit with a master and watch as amazing drawings emerge from the tip of their pen.
Over the years there are many tools that have been used in the virtual world of CAD, Minicad (known as Vectorworks these days) which in my experience was completely useless, Archicad which was brilliant, Autocad which was next to useless, and it was a complete surprise to me to find that this is considered the industry standard, Microstation which was better than Archicad, then moving practices and being back on Autocad which seemed at the time to be completely useless, then in 2005 came a free software that is like making card models in a virtual environment...SketchUp!, I have been using SketchUp! for 10 years now, and this is my first impression of using it in 2005.
Is this the tool that designers have been waiting for? I think it could very well be. I have no idea what was the best thing before sliced bread, or what it has to do with architecture, but this could be the best thing since. No longer is it a process of drawing up plans in AutoCAD then having someone take them into 3D Studio or one of the parametric plug-ins that are needed to make AutoCAD anything close to usable. Here it is possible to create computer models, intuitively working directly in perspective as though making the model physically.
Fantastic spaces, places emerge on the screen where previously it would take weeks of drawing, sketching and test models to visualize a space, and those times where a whole day can be spent setting up a perspective only to discover that the view is not telling the story that you want it to. Here finding the right view takes minutes if you know what you are doing, and assembling the elements to make the view meaningful can be done in real time. It is like moving in a different world, one of an interactive drawing that can be arranged and modified at will. It is hugely rewarding and at the same time hugely frustrating, as it is so easy to use it is also very easy to cock it up! Erase one line and half the model disappears.
It is great for explaining ideas to clients that are not technically minded, and even the technically minded ones can not all read plans, but walk them through a series of spaces they get a feel for what is being proposed and can give more useful feedback. It is also something of a double-edged sword in that it is easy to give the impression that everything can be done quickly, and Clients can become less understanding with regard to the time frame required to get things done.
The problem remains that most contractors cannot build from 3D views and animations, they still need flat 2D drawings printed to scale, which invariably means that everything still gets drawn in AutoCAD, with the advantage that design can be more thoroughly worked out before going to CAD.
You can read the full story here:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/DoWeNeedArchitects/AlunDolton/prweb12821028.htm
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