Cool Article in the NYT: Why Drawing is Important

Engineering Building at UC designed by Michael Graves. Photo courtesy of the University of Cincinnati.

Really interesting article by architect Michael Graves (who got his undergrad degree at University of Cincinnati) about why drawing is important. It also has a nice slide show of his sketches over the years.

My favorite quote from the article:

"The referential sketch serves as a visual diary, a record of an architect’s discovery. It can be as simple as a shorthand notation of a design concept or can describe details of a larger composition. It might not even be a drawing that relates to a building or any time in history. It’s not likely to represent “reality,” but rather to capture an idea. 

These sketches are thus inherently fragmentary and selective. When I draw something, I remember it. The drawing is a reminder of the idea that caused me to record it in the first place. That visceral connection, that thought process, cannot be replicated by a computer."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/opinion/sunday/architecture-and-the-lost-art-of-drawing.html?partner=rss&emc=rss