Foreword
As pervasive as Laugier’s Primitive Hut myth, the “napkin sketch” occupies a powerful place in architecture’s disciplinary and professional narrative. The image, indeed expectation, of the artistic genius sketching out a design, one that is seamlessly realized, with nothing but cocktails, a fountain pen, and a napkin as aids, has simplified the incredible complexities and collaborative systems that have always been required to put a building together. The discipline’s embrace of the napkin sketch paradigm has arguably been a force in resisting the integration of new technologies into the teaching of architectural design and visualization. Architecture still likes to think of itself as a creative endeavor, and the transition from the fountain pen to digital tools came to symbolize an abdication of individual authorship. However, the advancements of the technologies and techniques outlined in Drawing from the Model reveal the promise to rethink...