Okay, I've really been ignoring this blog. This is, unbelievably, my third post in two days. Today's post is about some drawings that I did last year for the "Life of an Architect" 2015 Playhouse Design Competition. While the doing the drawings by hand was never really in question, how the drawings were made here was affected by an evolving condition in the drawing process that kind of caught me by surprise.
The more I stay with this blog the more I am constantly amazed at the ever accelerating death of hand drawing in architecture. It's not just the computers. I can draw well with a computer, lots of people do. If you're reading this blog, you probably do too. Nor is it about what seems to be an often overwhelming lack of interest. It is more about the unintended consequences that this early death is bringing to the supply chain for people who still draw, out of habit, inertia or sometimes because it just plain ol' works. By supply chain, I mean access to materials and supplies you need on hand to effectively draw well. It's becoming almost impossible to find what used to be just your run-of-the-mill, every day drafting supplies. Essential doesn't even begin to cover it. Even, oddly enough, things like pink electric eraser strips. Absolutely a must-have for anyone who draws in ink on tracing paper or vellum and you can't find them anywhere. Anywhere except Amazon or eBay, where a box of twelve can go for as much as 120 to 150 bucks, I kid you not. For something that, just a few years you could get for, like, four dollars. If had known in advance and seriously stocked up for it, you'd have gotten a better return on investment than most meth or arms dealers. And that's just the eraser strips. It's the loss of good art and architectural supply stores like Pearl, Charrette, Utrecht and on and on. And good luck finding people will to try dry mounting yellow trace drawings to gator board (another must for drawings like these). Maybe the thing to do is read the obituaries and start going to estate sales of dead architects. Not as absurd as it sounds. A working erasing machine is impossible to find new anywhere but eBay or Amazon, and there only if your lucky if you want truly new.
The funny thing here about drawing supplies is that they are ridiculously less expensive than most digital rendering software, even if you buy the best stuff than you can find. I was asked recently to help write a syllabus for an introductory class in architectural drawing by hand. We had a couple of discussions about the course goals and studio methods and the supply chain issue came up as more than a bit of an obstacle. I put together a basic list of materials I felt a student would need to effectively pursue the course syllabus. Many were either no longer available or so expensive as to be laughably impractical. The final cost would have exceeded the cost of the class. End of class. But it seems to have reached critical mass with the utter dearth of eraser strips on the market. I can't overstate the importance of electrical erasers in being to able to render in ink on anything other than Mylar. And Mylar has become so rare that even my spell check doesn't know what that is. I've talked on this blog before about yellow and white tracing paper can be surprisingly durable as a final rendering media. You can even make some major mistakes in ink work and save a drawing from an early death on your sideboard or in your trash can. You need a light touch and the right pens (Micron being the best), but revisions are possible. Which is, of course, huge. And it's not your trying to render in ink on linen. But you should put that on your drawing bucket list.
So what about these drawings right here? Well, I went through the entire design and rendering process here with about 3/16" of an inch left of my very last eraser strip. Which means minimal mistakes on the final drawing, if any at all beyond the pedantic things only I would notice. Usually with drawings like these I do a study / base drawing to ink over before going into the rendering stage. You develop as much as you need to to trace over. Any tracing paper is good for this stage but match your final media so you can study rendering issues (colors / entourage) and techniques (pencil / marker / pastel). These drawings are maybe my favorite part of both the design and rendering process.
The competition rules required a mobile (no foundation) playhouse with a maximum size of 8'w. x 7'd.x 8'h. with child friendly materials. Mobility was the overriding design criteria. Beyond that, it was up to you. Issues of permanence, appropriateness of scale, understanding a child's perceptions of space and shelter and the opportunities for long term use by means of an elemental and widely accommodating architectural vocabulary these drawings were developed at 1/2" inch and 3/4" inch scale. The drawings above show what these early design process drawings look like. The competition rules set a limit of one 24" x 36" board per entry, submitted as a .jpg or pdf file. So I chose a portrait orientation for for my board, broken down into 4 A4 (11" x 17") portrait oriented panels with the final drawings done at 3/4" scale and scanned individually. Because this is a project for young children, material profiles and user safety were an ongoing design concern. Studying the project graphically by hand at such a large scale made the representation of the material profiles an immediate part of the design vocabulary without a separate, "post-schematic" level of study. I mean, this is a playhouse. Speaking of which, these drawings have a design statement image you can click on and read down below , so I don't need to tread water here but I will point out that the goal wasn't just to create an imaginative play environment at a variety of levels but to do something with a high degree of constructibility and ability to be modified and/or moved to a wide variety of site contexts. So communicating that the project is made almost entirely and simply of nominal lumber was one of the major drawing goals here. In fact, one trip to Home Depot should do it in terms of buying what you need to build this project. The range of design expression here can run the gamut from straightforward carpentry to a "large toy" to a piece of fine exterior mill work designed to "stay in place" for a very long time.
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| Final Board submitted to Competition Jury at 24" x 36". Composed and noted in Adobe Photo Shop. See below for enlarged images of each panel. |
The more I stay with this blog the more I am constantly amazed at the ever accelerating death of hand drawing in architecture. It's not just the computers. I can draw well with a computer, lots of people do. If you're reading this blog, you probably do too. Nor is it about what seems to be an often overwhelming lack of interest. It is more about the unintended consequences that this early death is bringing to the supply chain for people who still draw, out of habit, inertia or sometimes because it just plain ol' works. By supply chain, I mean access to materials and supplies you need on hand to effectively draw well. It's becoming almost impossible to find what used to be just your run-of-the-mill, every day drafting supplies. Essential doesn't even begin to cover it. Even, oddly enough, things like pink electric eraser strips. Absolutely a must-have for anyone who draws in ink on tracing paper or vellum and you can't find them anywhere. Anywhere except Amazon or eBay, where a box of twelve can go for as much as 120 to 150 bucks, I kid you not. For something that, just a few years you could get for, like, four dollars. If had known in advance and seriously stocked up for it, you'd have gotten a better return on investment than most meth or arms dealers. And that's just the eraser strips. It's the loss of good art and architectural supply stores like Pearl, Charrette, Utrecht and on and on. And good luck finding people will to try dry mounting yellow trace drawings to gator board (another must for drawings like these). Maybe the thing to do is read the obituaries and start going to estate sales of dead architects. Not as absurd as it sounds. A working erasing machine is impossible to find new anywhere but eBay or Amazon, and there only if your lucky if you want truly new.
 |
| Design Study Drawing for Playhouse - Pencil and Ink on white tracing paper. Drawn at 1/2" scale to accurately study material profiles and alternate design features. Also used to study color and rendering techniques later on in the design process. |
The funny thing here about drawing supplies is that they are ridiculously less expensive than most digital rendering software, even if you buy the best stuff than you can find. I was asked recently to help write a syllabus for an introductory class in architectural drawing by hand. We had a couple of discussions about the course goals and studio methods and the supply chain issue came up as more than a bit of an obstacle. I put together a basic list of materials I felt a student would need to effectively pursue the course syllabus. Many were either no longer available or so expensive as to be laughably impractical. The final cost would have exceeded the cost of the class. End of class. But it seems to have reached critical mass with the utter dearth of eraser strips on the market. I can't overstate the importance of electrical erasers in being to able to render in ink on anything other than Mylar. And Mylar has become so rare that even my spell check doesn't know what that is. I've talked on this blog before about yellow and white tracing paper can be surprisingly durable as a final rendering media. You can even make some major mistakes in ink work and save a drawing from an early death on your sideboard or in your trash can. You need a light touch and the right pens (Micron being the best), but revisions are possible. Which is, of course, huge. And it's not your trying to render in ink on linen. But you should put that on your drawing bucket list.
 |
| Design Study Drawing for Playhouse - Pencil and Ink on white tracing paper. Drawn at 1/2" scale to accurately study material profiles and major design features. Also used to study color and rendering techniques later on in the design process. |
The competition rules required a mobile (no foundation) playhouse with a maximum size of 8'w. x 7'd.x 8'h. with child friendly materials. Mobility was the overriding design criteria. Beyond that, it was up to you. Issues of permanence, appropriateness of scale, understanding a child's perceptions of space and shelter and the opportunities for long term use by means of an elemental and widely accommodating architectural vocabulary these drawings were developed at 1/2" inch and 3/4" inch scale. The drawings above show what these early design process drawings look like. The competition rules set a limit of one 24" x 36" board per entry, submitted as a .jpg or pdf file. So I chose a portrait orientation for for my board, broken down into 4 A4 (11" x 17") portrait oriented panels with the final drawings done at 3/4" scale and scanned individually. Because this is a project for young children, material profiles and user safety were an ongoing design concern. Studying the project graphically by hand at such a large scale made the representation of the material profiles an immediate part of the design vocabulary without a separate, "post-schematic" level of study. I mean, this is a playhouse. Speaking of which, these drawings have a design statement image you can click on and read down below , so I don't need to tread water here but I will point out that the goal wasn't just to create an imaginative play environment at a variety of levels but to do something with a high degree of constructibility and ability to be modified and/or moved to a wide variety of site contexts. So communicating that the project is made almost entirely and simply of nominal lumber was one of the major drawing goals here. In fact, one trip to Home Depot should do it in terms of buying what you need to build this project. The range of design expression here can run the gamut from straightforward carpentry to a "large toy" to a piece of fine exterior mill work designed to "stay in place" for a very long time.
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| Playhouse Axonometric and Plan. The 'money' drawing, as it were. |
So what about the erasers? Like I said, all the drawings had to be set up like the images above and then very carefully inked. Small mistakes were possible with my remaining little eraser nub and I drew the final images on white tracing paper (not my first choice) if the the last ditch use of white-out became necessary. It's also the reason the main drawing is composed of four smaller, separate panels. Noting your drawing in Photoshop or Illustrator also minimizes a lot of risks and lets you study different board compositions and fonts as the presentation is finalized. Don't listen to what the person running the large format scanner at Staples or Kinko's tells you. Scan your images at 300 dpi minimum. With more color and pencil washes on a drawing (especially on white tracing paper) 600 dpi makes a difference. You can always reduce the size of the board in Photoshop after you have done your final composition and noting at a higher resolution.
While much of the design drawing emphasis here focused on the playhouse's simple constructibility and safety, the most enjoyable part of drawings like these at the end is in developing a supportive level of entourage. I kind of rolled the dice with here with that, hoping that something a little more relaxed and fanciful would be more appealing than the animatronic, pixel-eyed computer children that seemed to dwell in 99% of the other presentations that I saw. Looks like I was wrong about that but I still like my dragon, teddy bears and house pets. A personal process that hopefully every good draftsperson has, manual or digital. Here, each elevation panel's entourage tells a slightly different story about different features of the playhouse that I want to highlight. For example, the night views use contrasting color to emphasize the internally illuminated "lantern- like" quality the playhouse will hopefully have. Other entourage figures do more than convey scale, they identify design feature that show this is a playhouse for "parallel" play, for children of a wide range of ages. When built outside of the constraints of the competition rules (something to explored later), this playhouse could have a life long beyond its own childhood as a permanent addition to a suburban garden garden or urban roof top.
I'll let the remaining drawings tell their own story. Frankly, I ran out of time on the submittal deadline before the drawings were rendered with pencil washes to a level that I would have been happy with. Wondering also if I should enter again since apparently this time the competition is moving to www.houzz.com. So this year I am going to let the eraser strip gods decide this one. Almost a year later, I still can't find pink or soft green eraser strips for my Koh-I-Nor. If I can find them, sure, I'll bite. If not, forget it. If they're some of the few hand drawings entered, whatever. But they should remain fun to do.
While much of the design drawing emphasis here focused on the playhouse's simple constructibility and safety, the most enjoyable part of drawings like these at the end is in developing a supportive level of entourage. I kind of rolled the dice with here with that, hoping that something a little more relaxed and fanciful would be more appealing than the animatronic, pixel-eyed computer children that seemed to dwell in 99% of the other presentations that I saw. Looks like I was wrong about that but I still like my dragon, teddy bears and house pets. A personal process that hopefully every good draftsperson has, manual or digital. Here, each elevation panel's entourage tells a slightly different story about different features of the playhouse that I want to highlight. For example, the night views use contrasting color to emphasize the internally illuminated "lantern- like" quality the playhouse will hopefully have. Other entourage figures do more than convey scale, they identify design feature that show this is a playhouse for "parallel" play, for children of a wide range of ages. When built outside of the constraints of the competition rules (something to explored later), this playhouse could have a life long beyond its own childhood as a permanent addition to a suburban garden garden or urban roof top.
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| Save me, save me...! |
I'll let the remaining drawings tell their own story. Frankly, I ran out of time on the submittal deadline before the drawings were rendered with pencil washes to a level that I would have been happy with. Wondering also if I should enter again since apparently this time the competition is moving to www.houzz.com. So this year I am going to let the eraser strip gods decide this one. Almost a year later, I still can't find pink or soft green eraser strips for my Koh-I-Nor. If I can find them, sure, I'll bite. If not, forget it. If they're some of the few hand drawings entered, whatever. But they should remain fun to do.
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| Elevations of Playhouse drawn at 1/2" scale. |
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| Playhouse Cross-Section, Alternate Design Studies and Design Statement. Hand drawn at 3/4" scale and noted in Photoshop. |
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| Elevations of Playhouse drawn at 1/2" scale. |
Oh, one more thing. If you like this playhouse and would like to see a materials list that you could give to a builder and what the fully dimensioned drawings look like, that can be arranged. The material list doesn't include an estimate but it can be used to get a very accurate take-off price at a Home Depot, Lowes, from your Grandpa or another similar resource, such as a carpenter or good millworker. Or you could download these and figure out how to proportionally print to scale. Good luck with that.
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