Drawings have played a very important role in the field of architecture since its very beginning. Every drawing has a different idea to convey and a different mood to portray. An architect’s drawing can tell you everything about the architects personality and his skill. Drawings have changed and been experimented with since the beginning of architecture. It not only helps architects to convey their ideas but only reveals a lot about their personality. The surge of technology created a revolution in how these drawings were created. The revolution was positively accepted by some and negatively by others. With the surge of technology digital drawings are taking over the field of architecture. This paper will be investigating the advantages of digital drawings over hand drawings.
Drawings can be dated back to a long time. The history of architectural drawings dates back to the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian eras. Some examples of the earliest architectural drawings, Statue of Gudea, ruler of Lagash in Mesopotamia (“A Brief History of Architectural Drawings.” BluEntCAD, 28 Aug. 2017, www.bluentcad.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-architectural-drawings/). The architect has not ‘made’ buildings rather, he or she has made the mediating artifacts that make significant buildings possible. The concept of drawing became more widespread in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. Conventionally, drawings were made in ink on paper or a similar material, and any copies required had to be laboriously made by hand. The twentieth century saw a shift to drawing on tracing paper, so that mechanical copies could be run off efficiently. In the most recent times the change from drawings on tracing paper to digital drawings have further reduced the laborious work(Turner, B., and Bronwyn Harris. “What Are CAD Drawings?” WiseGEEK, Conjecture Corporation, 6 Apr. 2018, www.wisegeek.com/what-are-cad-drawings.htm#didyouknowout).
Drawings produced from computer have many advantages over the old hand drawings. Digital drawings are much more versatile, if you make them once you can go back to them anytime and make changes to them without spending too much time. The line weights for the drawings which it’s a very important part of the drawing is very easy to control. It can be changed easily and is also very sharp and precise. Another very important aspect that makes Digital drawings better than hand drawings is that the scale that you set once can be changed whenever you want it, and this freedom does not exist at all for hand drawings. Digital drawings once produced in the computer can be printed as many times as you want without doing any laborious work at the click of a button.
If you look at the same river from the same vantage point everyday it will look identical everyday but the river water is continuously changing and flowing, this theory was proposed by Karl Marx (“DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM:” Introduction to the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant, (www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/sa/dialmat.html). According to this, if you look at something from the same point of view everyday it will look exactly the same over a period of time but it will be containuosly changing. This applies to architecture as well, thing are changing even though they become a little oblivious but they are, the things that are being done are very similar but they way the things are done is changing. In a field like Architecture, things are changing at a very rapid pace and a good architect would be the one who keeps up with this forever changing environment. The new ways to do things are developed by people who have been in this field for long and have discovered problems with the older system that is hand drawings in this case. The new programs are developed by research and development to tackle the challenges faced in the past, that is the challenges faced by hand made drawings.
Handmade drawings have been really helpful since the beginning but they always had problem embedded in them. Hand made drawings are very Labour intensive, They require the architect to make everything with hand which take a very long time. After putting in so much effort the drawings are imprecise, the measurements , line weight, scale or any other thing could be wrong. The drawings are also less portable as it is on a piece of paper it is very difficult to carry it from one place to another as it might rip and all the handwork can go to waste. With the surge of technology most of these problem were solved. The computer can help produce a set of drawings that are very precise. Without putting in a lot of labour as compared to hand drawings an architect can come up with something that is much more precise , portable and faster in just a few clicks.
As Karl Marx believes the only good thing about Industrialization was that it was a natural and essential phase in human evolution thats contributed to the benefit of mankind by developing a more productive work force ( kipling2448. "What was Karl Marx theory about the industrial revolution?" eNotes, 21 Oct. 2014, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-was-karl-marx-theory-about-industrial-471898. Accessed 4 May 2018.). It can be correctly said that digital drawings are that phase of industrial revolution within architecture that made the work force much more efficient and contributed to the benefit of mankind by developing a more productive work force for the architects. It is very important to be continuously developing on ones skills and becoming better at what a person is good at but also should never miss opportunities that can make him or her better. Digital drawings make representation of architects ideas and skill much better than hand drawings and this is down with being more effective and efficient.
Digital Drawings are a complete revolution in the field of architecture. They have innumerable advantages over hand made drawings and have completely been a game changer for the entire field of architecture and the fields related to it. Digital drawings make the work of an architect much more effective and efficient. Drawings done on computer by far take much lesser time when compared to hand drawings. Saving time in the drawings part can actually earn an architect some more time to think about better ideas and powerful concepts. Hence computer generated drawings in addition to giving more precision and efficiency to the architect, they also give time to the architect to grown in their field. The precision provided by digital drawings is not only helpful for the architects but it does wonders for construction workers and builders who build from these drawings and the precision provide by these drawings makes their job much easier. It would be correct to say that digital drawings have been a ground breaking technique for the field of architecture and with the unstoppable surge of technology computer generated drawings can totally take over the hand made drawings in the near future.