egaku: Enhancing the Sketching Process

Abstract

Architects sketch using a translucent vellum tracing paper with a thick pencil or marker. The translucency of the paper allows architects to employ a layer-drawing technique for the exploration of ideas derived from their basic design. For example, working with a single base layer such as a map of the site, architects can design upwards of hundreds of possible variations. This ultimately leads to a great pile of drawings, which compose the piles of papers typically strewn about an architecture studio. Individually, these “referential” sketches represent small pieces of a much larger design concept [Graves 1977]. Although they are valuable,they are often cumbersome to manage during the ideation process because it interrupts the flow of ideation, and even difficult to understand when a single sketch is taken out of associated sketches.