Today, as I was trying to coordinate my RCPs with updated floorplans, mechanical plans and area plans, pondered to myself... how was this all done before the computer? When I think about how many time we send out drawings to clients and consultants, and how many times we have to make changes, or try a different layout or something, I wonder how in the world they were able to do such things in the past by hand?
But then I thought, in the past people didn't have email. They didn't have cellphones. Shoot, they may not have had fax machines. Drawings were probably hand delivered or mailed. While in some cases that is still done today, a lot of these little changes I mentioned above are handled through emails and FTP-style uploads. I truly wonder how it worked, because even as I try to think how things could have been simpler - like maybe not trying to design all the mechanical systems before the design is finalized - the conception of architecture is not a linear process. You have to be developing the overall design, while designing the systems within it, otherwise you could entire scheme could be thwarted by a duct that is twice the size of the space you have alloted for it.
Then again, architects were much more well-rounded back then. They didn't just solve a few load problems in their schooling. They designed ductwork. What they'd consider rule-of-thumb, us CADmonkeys would consider Calculus. No wonder they think we're slackers with all our computer wizardry and keyboard hocus pocus.
I guess the question is - how were multiple architects and interns able to collaborate on a single project at the same time? For example, I can update the RCPs as someone else is making changes in the floorplans, and I can simply reload that XREF. Would you have to draw something in the floorplan and then pass the sheet down the table to someone so they could trace in the new wall on the RCP? Maybe they were better communicators back then. If I'm not CC'd on an email, I won't find out about something until weeks later. I pretty much have to ask around every couple days to see if there are any new sketches or design elements or details that I should be aware of.
In some ways the computer seems to expedite things, but in other ways it seems to impede. I think I prefer the computer method, but sometimes when that plotter gets on the fritz I think to myself, "man I could freakin' hand draft this in less time!"
But then I thought, in the past people didn't have email. They didn't have cellphones. Shoot, they may not have had fax machines. Drawings were probably hand delivered or mailed. While in some cases that is still done today, a lot of these little changes I mentioned above are handled through emails and FTP-style uploads. I truly wonder how it worked, because even as I try to think how things could have been simpler - like maybe not trying to design all the mechanical systems before the design is finalized - the conception of architecture is not a linear process. You have to be developing the overall design, while designing the systems within it, otherwise you could entire scheme could be thwarted by a duct that is twice the size of the space you have alloted for it.
Then again, architects were much more well-rounded back then. They didn't just solve a few load problems in their schooling. They designed ductwork. What they'd consider rule-of-thumb, us CADmonkeys would consider Calculus. No wonder they think we're slackers with all our computer wizardry and keyboard hocus pocus.
I guess the question is - how were multiple architects and interns able to collaborate on a single project at the same time? For example, I can update the RCPs as someone else is making changes in the floorplans, and I can simply reload that XREF. Would you have to draw something in the floorplan and then pass the sheet down the table to someone so they could trace in the new wall on the RCP? Maybe they were better communicators back then. If I'm not CC'd on an email, I won't find out about something until weeks later. I pretty much have to ask around every couple days to see if there are any new sketches or design elements or details that I should be aware of.
In some ways the computer seems to expedite things, but in other ways it seems to impede. I think I prefer the computer method, but sometimes when that plotter gets on the fritz I think to myself, "man I could freakin' hand draft this in less time!"
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