“Occassionally the model intimidates the client. Then faith must be stronger than understanding, and only a vague intuition allows the work to begin favorably. But it is difficult for the client to understand the vision of the artist. Envisioning the finished work is not always easy for the architect, and it is almost always impossible for the client. Unlike the painting to be bought, or clothing, food, and the many other choices available to people – choices made on the basis of finished materials – the decision about the new house lies in the future, is based on credit, on the model (drawings), on agreements. The finished product is a surprise. Only faith can reward the client. After that critical moment is overcome, sometimes what emerges is the satisfaction of finding smooth solutions and natural resolutions to every uncertainty. The room responds to the client’s way of life.”
Renzo Mongiardino, Roomscapes
We were recently completing a large estate project for some wonderful clients in the Mid-Atlantic area, and after nearly four years of work I came across this quote from Mongiardino. It lead me to think about the beginning of the project and the role that drawing and imagination play in the work with our clients.
I made many sketches at the outset of the project exploring ideas for the estate and for the main house, some of which encapsulated ideas that remain visible in the built work. Before our first formal meeting however, I made a series of presentation sketches in plan, elevation, and perspecitve to illustrate the proposed design. One of these drawings became – more than any other – the touchstone for the project (illustrated above). As we proceeded to design and build the project all of us referred to this drawing at different times and for varied purposes (in conversations and decisions over the selection of building materials, design features, character, etc.).
As the project was nearing completion the owner told me that the thing he had found most satisfying about working with ARIEL was our ability to capture in sketches not only what the final result would look like, but also what it would feel like. He referred in particular to this drawing as the one that best exemplified this ability. “It looks and feels exactly like the house,” he said.
There are actually many points of difference between this presentation sketch and the final building: the roof is a different color; there is no half-timbering on the gatehouse drawing – as there is in the final building; and many details are different or were refined. However, the thing I believe the client intended to say, which was central to the success of our working collaboration, is that the sketch looks like what he and his wife ‘imagined’ the house was going to look like, and so in retrospect that fantasy house, and the house we built are in some fundamental agreement. This is why the sketch embodied not just the look of the house for them, but also the feeling it would have.
We were very lucky to have such wonderful clients with whom to work on such a large and long project, and the fact that they had that faculty of imagination was among the greatest gifts. Yet if there is a fundamental message I drew from the experience, it is this: when we sketch as designers, we dream, and we convey those dreams to paper.
The work of architecture that is in our head is transferred directly to the paper in an almost unconscious way. This is not to suggest that it is unstudied or that years of training and experience do not go into its making, but the hand-eye communication that translates to what the Beaux-Arts would have called the ‘parti’ is direct and at its best captures the fundamental features and character of a design. In the best cases this is shared by everyone involved and acts as a guide to the project as it comes to fruition.
One of the reasons we draw everyday at ARIEL – and that we draw and sketch by hand specifically – is to practice and refine this ability. However adept we may become in the digital realm, this basic skill will continue to underlie the most successful designs and will always create the most productive working relationships with our clients. This is the fundamental principle that we continue to rely upon as we continue to build our design practice – capturing the essence of our designs for our clients with hand-drawn sketches.
~ Richard W. Cameron, 18 September 2008
