Description

This project has two parts: collecting and disseminating sketches made by faculty and professional experts, and teaching drawing to students using students' drawings and experts' drawings.

In summer 2003, we will ask architects in both the academic and professional communities to use the scanning pen for common design tasks such as drawing from a live scene, diagramming a plan organization and creating a 3D massing. The resulting digital sketches will be classified, analyzed and annotated to illuminate strategies and conventions. A summary of the best examples will be posted to the website as teaching examples.

In drawing classes, we will use the Logitech Io software with a computer projector to introduce ways of drawing through the expert examples. We will begin during Summer 2003 to work out the logistics of using the pens in a class by doing short drawing workshops with entering Architecture students as part of Arch611.

In Fall 2003, we will use the Logitech pen for both a required drawing class and a design studio.

For the drawing class, half the class will use the digital pens for a period of 4 weeks. Each week, along with pinning up student drawing results, we will use a digital projector and laptop to project a few digital drawings and discuss how they were made. After 4 weeks, we will survey the students using the pens and compare their work to the control (traditional drawing) group. At that point, other students have the opportunity to use the digital pens.

For the second year design studio, the pens will be used as one method for documenting and analyzing a downtown area for renovation. For the past several years, we have assigned parallel sections to use different tools and approaches for this task. The sections share the results in science-fair style presentations and online reports so that we can generate a rich composite for study and comparison.

When the pens are not in use by specific classes, they will be available for student check-out through existing Architecture and Allied Arts Faculty and Student Services. Students will have the option of also checking out the dock and software or using docking stations available in the Architecture Design Computing Lab. Because the pens are very intuitive to use and download, most students should be able to use them with the manufacturers instructions.

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