good question

i'm sure they don't hold a gun to your head to force you use a computer. same for any school.

at a panel discussion with peter cook (archigram not christie brinkley), he noted that, and i quote, "i heard the smartest kids in the class at columbia are drawing by hand this semester."

i think any studio would welcome hand drawings over renderings...
they usually look better and stand out from the heard of glossiness.

When I was there, there was one computer for every two students in first year and in second and third year, everyone got their own computer. So you could definitely draw by hand first year-there was one critic, I don't know if he is still there-Philip Parker-who basically required hand drawing-a lot of it. And some of the other critics didnt care either way. I do honestly think that once you got out of the core sequence it would be harder to do it all by hand and the school is very computer based (I personally think that a lot of that has to do with space constraints) though I think it's less computer crazy now with Wigley in charge. And a lot of critics would love you if you are a really good model builder. it's all about ideas anyway and however best you can express them, so I would definitely consider Columbia-my only caveat though is that this applies if you are applying to the 3 year program-I don't know much about the 1.5 yr program and I think that it is actually more computer heavy.

Thanx old dirty. When did you graduate and I didn't know they had a 1.5 option. I have been working in an arch office for 9 years, I hope that will knock of at least one of those 3 years.

based on a presentation i saw recently by students of the mit design lab, i'd say that they DON'T still draw by hand... but they presented hand drawings anyway.

hahaha ha.

in my school we had a year of life drawing as a required course in first year (also numerical mathematics, and statics). our profs were famous (for canada) painters, taught in foundation studio, and knew very little about architecture...but we all learned to draw...very bauhaus-y.

then the computer came along...and its all gone.

sad, no?

At Penn last fall I was the only person that showed up with hand drawings (digitally manipulated). I:m not talking scanned sketches, but presentation drawings.

this can probably be answered by looking at the student work on the website....someone mentioned philip parker above, who does require his students to use hand drawing, but in a very analytical manner, not so much for presentation. for presentations i think you'll see that hand presentation drawings are a rare thing.
i always find it puzzling that people lament the disappearance of hand drawings, particularly for presentations. the only reason we did it before was because it was practically the only option. now we have a much more rapid means of output and reproduction, but it's not as though the technique of 'drawing' has disappeared. we all still draw, it's just that the media has changed. hand drawing is still taught as an elective course at columbia, by philip parker and michael webb (of archigram fame no less). however they teach it because as simply a different means of exploring the design and analysis process, not simply as just a representational tool. it's sort of the same argument for digital design: the computer should be used as a design tool first and a representational tool second....hand drawing is held in the same regard.

oh, i don't mean to dis the computer.

i do a lot of my work on computer lately. but it is def useful to be able to draw, especially on site, when you gots to figger out a detail with the contractor. bad draftsmanship slows things down way much.

schools lately appear to emphasise too much with the computers i think, at least judging from their websites. is not entirely a good thing...

not important enough to choose a school over, though.

Of course the main advantage of the computer, I think, is that it can generate a number of images very quickly. It seems like now it's a trend to do instead of selecting your design prof that there is a lottery involved, which means I might be put in the wavy blob digital prof's class. I guess if that is my only stress, then I am doing pretty well.
Everyone, your input has helped.

i do not understand.

If everyone drew by hand, then you guys would be saying "oh yeah i'll use a computer to stand out."

If everyone used the computer, then vice versa.

it just seems so binary.

hyperdraw.....the lotteries happen because it is theoretically the most democratic method of placement, and is supposed to eliminate favoritism and discrimination.....but it doesn't really matter what studio you are placed in because every school offers intro to dig design courses and workshops which will bring you up to speed in no time....

jump....no, no!...i completely agree with you about having a well developed drawing skills, especially when it comes to sketching and immediate and clear communication....i was referring more to representation and the concept of drawing in a larger sense....i too received an undergrad education that was heavily based in drawing and model. the computer was just creeping in to the schools back then. likewise, i don't mean to dis hand drawing, i just don't feel that drawing is dead simply because we don't make hand-rendered sectional perspectives on Arches anymore....

Re: hand drawing

What do you use to steer a mouse, your nose?

Seriously, it's not like we have plugs in the back of our skulls that directly translate our thoughts into images.

This topic always comes up and it always seems to fall back on nostalgia or knee-jerk futurism. The reality is that the creation of things in the world requires engagment with a medium, that is, something that gets in the way of the direct expression of your intention. These *media* have inherent qualities that offer resistance, engagement with that resistance can be productive, and active acceptance of the productive nature of qualitative resistance is sometimes known as *technique*. Even different pieces of software have different qualities that reward different styles and techniques, and these styles and techniques are usually in the hands.

Autocad is all in the hands, just like typing. How silly do you think people sounded when they bitched and moaned about how the typewriter was killing literature? Cad, Rhino, Maya, Sketchup, Illushop, Photostrator, you name it, they've all got different techniques and different hand styles, and if you're savvy, you can spot different people's styles from across the room, if you're not, you say 'it all sounds the same' just like that rock and roll music that the kids listen to these days.

And another thing: what's with people always talking about 'the computer' as if there's one giant machine with tubes and shit buried in a mountain somewhere?

"the computer" is like "the man". a singular word representing an idea.

i would say most people here actually take a balanced view of how they work and what media works best for them.

i do think dwg by hand is an essential skill for architects. not retro, just experienced (a bit ).

That all makes sense. I just dont agree with thinking that the computer software can make design decisions for you, such as the work the Shop architects as well as other trendy designers do where they a making patterns and blobs with no clear theoretical ordering of parts or space. Some of it is not even architectonic. Don't misunderstand me. I love the vocabulary the blobs that Neil Denari does, because he avtually does show some physical and formal structure of the form. I guess I will just have to keep an open mind and have a strong conviction about what I think is architecture, and do just that.
Guys,
Thanks

hilarious and clever, sevensixfive.
you just wrote an inadvertent manifesto.
if only you opened with "Hi..."

sevensixfive,
oh! I always thought there was a giant computer in a mountain, mine is in the hall of the mountain king.

In regard to the question about Columbia and hand drawing, does Mark Tsurumaki and LTL do all their renderings completely by hand, or do they generate thier geometry lines with computer and then go over it with a led and scan it to give it that nice line? I really love the renderings mark does; however, it seems like it would take too much time to figure out all those perspectives by hand without the help of a computer...

there is another thread with the information you desire mjh00c.... but you'll have to find it.

the computer has moths in the tubes

thanks. I found the posts and what i found made sense.

I draw by hand every day....every day...doodles...thoughts...motivations which I couldn't imagine on the computer cause it takes to long...deliightful little thoughts scrambled on to ruled paper of plain paper...but not on napkins...it is a freedom thing. Computers take to long. I know this cause I crank out drawings every day on a computer along with proposals, working drawing, contractor communications, owner communications, goverment communications... yes I draw every day...in the field to explain to contrators just what I'm looking for, to clients who are always impressed with a idea coming to form in a free hand drawing ... as it unfolds. So I say as of this time it is good to gain a good hand....
cause the computer stuff is long term and boring. We have recently been chasing thought for frame work with computers for 3 d drawing....but it always looks better when hand drawn..tracing over a
3 d computer generated drawing.

Stumbled accross this thread in my constand search for discussion on drawing architecture by hand and can only encourage students to seek out schools that provide this.
I'm an architect from educated before computers and now teach architectural drawing (hand) and presentation at a private university Interior Design faculty in Sydney, Australia.
They still teach 3 semesters of this before they let students onto CAD as they believe it makes for better creativity and 2D/3D visulisation.
This is pretty rare as local Universities and colleges are technological junkies.
I believe it it so much that I have started my own school "Draw like an Architect" (www.art-architecture.com.au) that teaches architects how to draw and his is supported by the State Government and Architect Institute!!