Our Managing Director Edd Medlicott looks back over his 20-year architectural career and how technology has moved from rotring pens and masking tape to 3D models and virtual reality.
A dusty cardboard tube packed with rolls of tracing paper demonstrates the early days of Orme Architecture
Mention the year 2002, and to many – like me - it only seems like yesterday; Harry Potter had just taken almost £60m at the UK box office and Pierce Brosnan had starred in his last James Bond film. But there’s a whole generation of architects only now starting out on their career journey.
It was 20 years ago when I joined Mark Orme as his assistant at his small office in St John’s Car Park in Glastonbury. And while it doesn’t seem that long ago, things were very different.
With Science Week under way (March 11-20) I’ve been looking back at how the world of architecture has changed. And where best to start than the dusty cardboard tube in the corner of the office crammed with rolled up pieces of tracing paper.
This is where it all began with me; these slightly discoloured rolls of A2 paper with curly corners and hand drawings of houses, extensions and conservatories is where I cut my teeth in the world of architecture.
In the corner of the office - just beyond the two dog beds for Mark’s pet dalmation and Jack Russell - was my drawing board; fully kitted out with a set of rotring pens (steel nibbed technical pens for drawing on tracing paper), masking tape for fixing my tracing paper to the board and a razor blade to correct mistakes by scratching the ink off the paper.
A razor blade was used to fix mistakes by scratching ink off the paper
Mark Orme was determined to continue his old skills of pencil and ink drawings even when computer technology was taking over. Here’s one of his early designs from 1994.
This was how my mentor Mark Orme had done things for years, and he had no plans to give up – even continuing when the first Windows ’98 PC arrived in the office – fully equipped with CAD software which was being used more by architects to create increasingly sophisticated – but pretty basic by today’s standards – 2D designs. Interestingly, people who learnt technical hand drawing first often make for better CAD draughtsmen. I think it's because, in CAD, you have to visualise the line weights, whereas on the drawing board you could see what you were doing.
But sadly in 2006 the age of pencil and ink architectural skill stopped when Mark was forced to give up his career after being diagnosed with cancer. A year later he sadly passed away, which was when I was determined to continue the legacy of the man who put his faith in me as a young architect whose interest in building design was sparked at the age of 16 when I’d studied DIY books to convert a barn on my family’s farm into a self-contained flat.
By the mid-2000s - after I’d bought the company from Mark - a new era of digital technology was being rolled out at Orme Architecture. The days of faxing designs to clients, typing a customer letter on the only word processor in the office or rushing to Doug Smith Associates at the top of Glastonbury High Street to get large blueprints copied in time to catch the last post were on their way out.
We may have only had a limited number of email addresses in the business, but using the latest technology was going to revolutionise how we worked. It would make our drawings quicker and more efficient, and improve the service our customers received.
Fast forward 15 years and like any technology, things are moving along at lightning speed. Software has developed so much that artist’s impressions are no longer hand drawn sketches, coloured in with pens and water colours, but rather full-blown Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) with most struggling to spot the difference between those and an actual photograph. 3D printers can now produce a small scale, plastic model of your design, doing away with costly hand-made cardboard models. BIM (Building Information Modelling) software allows you to calculate the exact materials needed to build a design and assists designers and builders with ‘clash detection’ of various elements such as pipework and structure, which was so much more difficult to manage in the 2D drawing world. The latest technological advances can even put you in the picture looking out on the actual landscape around you so you can be sure your favourite view of Glastonbury Tor is exactly what you’ll get once your design is built.
New technology puts you in the picture and lets you see what the views will be like from your new home
It truly is amazing how in 20 years we’ve gone from pencil and ink, to photographic architectural 3D images that lets you see the view from inside your house. And the next major step for the industry will undoubtedly be virtual reality, which will let us design your house and let you walk through it as if it was real to ensure we’ve got everything in the right place. That is going to be an incredible move which will once again revolutionise what we do.
While all this technology is mind-blowing it does have its pitfalls. In a world where we expect things instantly, the world of architecture hasn’t escaped. I’ve lost count of the amount of people who say: “oh, can you just knock me up a quick extension drawing” or “you only click a few buttons to get a design, don’t you?”. Expectation amongst customers is a lot higher, yet, among some, the use of computer software means the appreciation of what we do is much lower.
Technology hasn’t replaced the need for an architect to properly design your home or extension; it’s simply given us better ways to do it and gives you more options to see the finished project before it’s built.
Computer technology makes it tricky to spot the difference between photographs and computer generated imagery (CGI)
And for us at Orme, architecture isn’t just about the drawings – yes, they’re important because they’ll let you see what you’ll get in the end – but it’s the quality design reflected in those drawings that’s much more important.
It’s about considering how you use your home, the views you want to enjoy, how the daylight shines on your space, and the look and feel you want to achieve. And no computer software, technological advance or whizzy piece of kit will beat the human creativity that will bring those elements together into a home, extension or building project you will cherish, admire and be proud of for years to come.
To find out more about how Orme Architecture can work with you on your next project, browse our website, email: info@orme-architecture.com or call: 01458 445100.