Hands

Most Architects -in what I consider an incomprenhensible attitude, have lost their hands. Software replaced them. Computers are forcing our students and young architects to have final, detailed, hyper-realistic images… before having an idea. It is like giving a Ferrari Testarossa to a child, before he or she learns how to walk. It is important to point that no software can make decisions for us… no software can distinguish about the sense of scale, proportion and programatic relations, not to mention the atmosphers we can reach with a single soft line… Also, the perception of a represented space when walking (this is, to see the space and ourselves within a context, while outlining a layout) can be naturally rehearsed by the movements of our hand: using our imagination. In that beautiful -initial- design process, we manage to glimpse things -like when reading- something that is eliminated during a 3D or BIM movie rendering, as the software is providing ready-made finished images with no gap to fill by our memories and creativity. When we draw with our hands we follow a different path: our mind -following unpredictable responses- modifies what it is not there yet, anticipating it. This is the most important aspect of the design process, when developed on blank paper.

I am glad that my work has called the attention of magazines and curators, but I am even more happy that many young students from all over the World refer to my hand drawings. Computers are amazing and extraordinary (I enjoy my Mac every day) but, while working on preliminary designs, they are just a tool to complement our hands, not to replace them. There is no better interface between a blank paper and our mind: Do you remember the simple drawings of Erich Mendelsohn, Le Corbusier or Richard Neutra? they represent vast Universes. When we have our first idea, a hand drawing is irreplaceable, fast, simple (and of course, eco-friendly, if you like).

Once we know a bit more about our subject, we can preview in a matter of seconds how flexible our idea is, we can literally stretch, enlarge, reduce it, play with our fingers and the pencil, we blink and our diagram is enhanced. In a tiny, soft line we can discover hidden, unnexpected spaces. Rene Magrite, like all the Surrealists, knew this very well; we can get inspired as a consequence of our natural imperfections… A hand drawing shows the visible and the invisible… a computer rendering only shows visible things. All that magical stage is killed with the pixelation and virtual extrapolation. Then, when we know we have a possible interesting idea, we can developt it, providing full digital feedback, step by step. Another aspect is that digital drawings look impersonal. Architecture schools are giving up teaching how to draw… and how to think.

Can you imagine forcing a conductor to leave his or her hands… replacing them by some digital interface to conduct a symphony orchestra? Can you imagine painters or scupltors not using their hands?

Pouchulu.