Sketch vs. Reality: Drawing is Thinking

An apartment project I designed in 2016 is finally taking shape in Buckhead, an in-town neighborhood in Atlanta. From the first sketch I wanted to get the massing right, the breakdown of the forms, and now that it is standing there (at least one of the two buildings is nearing completion) I took a moment to peek back at the first thoughts I put down on paper and compare what was on my mind then to what I see now.

First massing concept: trying out some dichotomies to see what fits…

Under construction.

First thought of the view from Roswell Road, looking north.

Under construction, Roswell Road looking north.

Design often morphs completely from one’s first idea, but in this case the ‘bones’ of that first thought survive pretty well into the finished building: the white brick, the high contrast charcoal of the top two penthouse floors, the syncopation of the facade moving in and out, the oversized windows, the entry porch, the brightness of it.

Sketch of solid and void space.

Under construction.

The key to solving the building’s massing was designing this three-sided, two-bedroom/two-bath unit that created the white brick extensions to the linear form.

There is a tendency these days to almost begin the project digitally, to think and form the first thoughts in the drafting space. It is one method, but there is a delay in the input: you have to use the tools and commands and layout the program offers. I think that those digital tools in your ‘toolbar’ can dictate or even help predict what you are about to do.

There is no input delay in sketching: it is hand to (mind’s) eye coordination; it is direct, it is both knowable (‘this is what I meant’) and unknowable (‘this is unexpected!’), and in its gesture and line and focus it can contain the thought you are trying to reveal.