Topic: Local News

[6pairsofshoes]

Presumably he was brought up in architecture before CAD existed.

... but you were right about smoking.

Architecture was better before CAD existed.  And, smokes, I'd hold onto those drawings.  I don't know much about the architect, or about the project (presumably a residence?) but sometimes the drawings go into archival collections for future study.  Too many working drawings get tossed and they often contain valuable information about the process of construction and various adaptations/adjustments that took place.

[smokester]

Architecture was better before CAD existed.  And, smokes, I'd hold onto those drawings.  I don't know much about the architect, or about the project (presumably a residence?) but sometimes the drawings go into archival collections for future study.  Too many working drawings get tossed and they often contain valuable information about the process of construction and various adaptations/adjustments that took place.

They still look quite CADyish, but you lose the precision when done like this:



Precision is overrated, anyhow.

[6pairsofshoes]

Thanks for taking the time to upload that.

It's clear that there's been some major remodeling of the ground floor but the plan is curious in that the kitchen is separated from the dining room by a bath and a staircase.  Normally, they are adjacent for the sake of convenience.  When was this house originally constructed?  The new kitchen looks lots more useful and roomy than what I presume was the tiny niche it occupied previously, or was the insertion of the bathroom on the ground floor part of the remodel?

Anyway, I'm sure this was fun to work on, but finishing the project will be a sad business.  For that, you have my sympathies.

[goldshirt*9]

Remember my first job in engineering and watching a dozen Technical drawers working on various projects (military and commercial) thinking wow.
Slowly they retired and Cad became the normal.
Both have their positives and negatives, even today some of the old tech drawing's are still used with the imperial measurements on.

[6pairsofshoes]

As someone that did Technical Drawing for a year or two in high school I would have to say that there is a bit more pride involved in getting a pencil drawing off of the drawing board compared to getting a printout from some CAD package or other. Similarly I still use a fountain pen.

Precision is definitely overrated when compared to craftsmanship, otherwise Rolex or Patek Philippe would have gone out of business; and I am not quite sure that Michelangelo would be seen as quite so special if he had just pasted a few Stable Diffusion generated pictures on the Sistine ceiling.

Michelangelo was quite the architect and he left behind a substantial body of architectural drawings and models.  But who knows what he'd have done with CAD.  I think there is a haptic aspect to drawing that links the brain with the spatial dimensions of building that are entirely lacking by tapping something out on a keyboard.  One can see a parallel in notetaking on a laptop vs writing things out by hand.  I saw students retain much more material when they took handwritten notes in class rather than tapping something out on a computer or tablet.  When one is drawing a plan, there is a mental process connected to the graphics of hand drawing that relates the spaces in visceral ways not attainable via keyboards.  Walking down a street is a far cry from viewing the same space via google maps.  There's an analogy here but I'm too sleep deprived to pursue it further.

I blame the hideous Tesla truck on CAD.  How else to explain such bad massing and missing aerodynamics?

[8ullfrog]

You're remembering plato putting words in So Crates mouth.

In fact, it will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering, but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.”

Ironically, I was trying to find an article that went through the ages discouraging technology, from Mesopotamia to wikipedia.

And... I couldn't find it. That knowledge was not within!

[6pairsofshoes]

If I remember my Plato, isn't all learning recollection?

As for the writing and relationship to the world -- I routinely write out grocery lists, a completely different operation from taking lecture notes.  Half the time, I forget to take the list, but I remember what I wrote on it, so I can manage to buy what I'd set out to get.  I can't get past the fact that alphabetical symbols and language itself are part of a social contract -- we all agree that some words mean certain things and the phonetic forms we use to approximate speech when we write have to conform to a set standard, although some people like to push the limits of that.

I'm reminded of my favorites:
Bob Wire, Chester Draw, Rod Iron, and their friends...

[6pairsofshoes]

I don't discourage technology but I acknowledge that technological advances aren't all good news. I lived through the introduction of personal computers into the workplace, and saw a measurable degradation in the product produced because of what the technology enabled: We - as software engineers - were supported by technical authors, draftsmen, a typing pool, etc., etc., etc. so we coded, and scribbled notes, they then produced the documentation to a professional standard. The typists produced legible text, from which the authors produced English, the draftsmen produced high quality illustration to supplement the text. All of them were trained in what they did, and they (mostly) did it well. The PC (or Mac in my case) arrived, and the management said to us "you can produce your own typing in WordStar or whatever, do your own pictures in MacDraw or Paint". They then made all the support staff redundant, as they were unnecessary. This led - as any idiot could have foreseen - to a plummet in the quality of documentation, as people with no grasp of grammar (or spelling!) and with no training in illustration requirements or techniques were producing the stuff. It also led to a massive drop in the productivity of the coders, as they now spent most of their time agonising over the generation of a product that they weren't hired for, weren't trained for, and didn't really understand.

Not really technology's fault, blame totally rests with the management, but technology was definitely the enabler.

Similarly CAD enables untrained gibbons to produce unachievable drawings with minimal thought and no expertise: a trained architect could use CAD to assist, but could/ should be able to produce designs without electronic assistance. FLW could doubtless have used AutoCAD, but I'm not sure that it would have improved Falling Water.

It doesn't help that educational standards have plummeted (at least in the U.S.).  Students rarely fail school any longer.  Their teachers are pressured to push them along to the next level despite any evidence of mastery of the work at that level.  So grammar, spelling, penmanship, and elementary mathematics have fallen in quality. 

Ever go into a shop and watch the clerk try to figure out how to give change?  If the computer doesn't tell them how much to return to the customer, most of them are incapable of counting back to the amount proffered by starting at what was owed until they get back to what was given.  Knowing how to write well or to spell are no longer necessary so long as your smartphone can tell you what to do.

And forget having conversations with strangers on the subway or while standing in line at the supermarket.  Everyone has to diddle with their phones.  I guess I should get back to chasing people off my lawn now...

[6pairsofshoes]

Which I think goes a long way to explain your new President. He promises (in a roundabout way, and in colourful prose) to roll back all this touchy-feely nonsense which has allowed feelings to overrule common sense, and appeals to the inchoate rage that a huge number of people feel about how the world is going to hell in a hand cart.

Glad I wasn't drinking coffee when I read this or I would have sprayed the screen with it.  I guess that explains the pick of Linda McMahon, formerly of the WWF Smackdown for Secretary of Education.  I guess if kids don't do their homework, she'll throw them on the mat, twisting body parts until they agree to study.