RLA behind-the-scenes:
In this day and age, technological tools like photo-realistic renderings are becoming more commonplace. Increasingly, many architects are pandering to such 3D-modelling and visualization as a default mode to think, design and communicate design intent.
At RLA, we’re a little bit more reflective and cautious. Of course we adopt technology, but we’re aware that seductive tools can dumb design down to a misleading image that does not deliver the holistic experience or a deeper idea. It potentially chokes the design process - which requires open-ended discovery as the design develops.
This explains why we have not let go of analogue design methods - like drawing and models that encourage an intuitive “thinking-by-hand” approach. We find ourselves able to deliver more holistic and harmonious work that way, since technology tends to blunt our vivid senses.
Kevin Mark Low, a Malaysian architect whose work we admire, says, “The nature of the sketch shows that it is possible to constantly surprise and be surprised, and the quality and inherent beauty of a sketch can be gauged through its concurrence with a simple definition … (that) the sketch is a hand drawing that explores an idea.”
We definitely agree with him there.
Image above: Preliminary sketch for the spatial idea for a powder room in an RLA project.