Xmas for Architects

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sddrawings.com

Please Touch

Please Touch

Bricks & Lighting

from sddrawings.com

Natural elements in a home are such great materials. Whether it's a brick wall, clay mugs, real wood floors and true cedar siding. We all love "truth" in materials, where the items we surround ourselves with not only look and feel real, though truly are.  It has to do with our longing to be closer to the land, closer to the natural environment. 

It doesn't take long to compare the differences in houses:

1: A house wrapped in vinyl and simulated wood siding

2: A home with true wood or brick

Truth in materials give us the feeling that our houses are real. That they will be there to stand up to the elements, keeping us warm and safe. Plus, when we see that brick chimney, we know we can touch it and it feels good, like it isn't going to fall over. 

But this post is really a study about light and what your Architect or Building Designer can help you obtain using it. 

It wasn't long ago that the electric light was created, allowing us to stay up way past sundown. Continuing our lives as if nothing ever changed in the outdoor environment. So we also would design our homes and streestscapes to take advantage of the sun's path across the sky.

One aspect of designing for light was creating homes "one room wide". This allows natural light to infiltrate both sides of a room, taking advantage of the morning sun light and the evening sun light.

Case study in pictures:

The scene is completely the same in both rooms.  Though I blew out the lighting in the second picture (over exaggerated with too much light), it's easy to see which room feels less like a cave, and which one also feels more open and livable.  Creating rooms we love.

On the left hand side of this Kitchen, you can see the brick wall; feel free to touch.  So let us as Designer's help you to understand these types of ideas.

from sddrawings.com

Design for an interior remodel project

New Project Moving along

Interior design remodel

Big pictures from sddrawings.com for a local Jax Beach home

Not there yet

Not quite there yet

Interior design practice

From September's Post, we are still working towards a very interesting mix of 3D rendering from Sketchup & trying out new rendering software.  This time, we take it inside at sddrawings.com

Cabin 2

Cabin 2 Updated

Another Update for our line of Cabin Designs

From yesterday's Post, Working towards a very interesting mix of 3D rendering from Sketchup & trying out new rendering software.

See this Cabin House Plans and Floor Plans here

(This Render didn't go as planned)

  

sddrawings.com

Next Cabin Update

Cabin Designs

Another Update for our line of Cabin Designs

Working towards a very interesting mix of 3D rendering from Sketchup & trying out new rendering software. These still have an almost "plastic" feel to them.

  

sddrawings.com

A draftsman's position in the design world

A draftsman's position in the design world

Where we can find places to land in the professional world

Unlicensed Architects & Architectural draftsmen have a great place in the design world.  Counting myself as one, I can say we are not relegated to simply drawing bathroom details.  If you find yourself in such a position, do not fret as it will not last forever. There are so many opportunities available.  If anything, a lot of us have been in the real world design field for many years.  We understand principles of design.  Regardless of formal school training. We have likes, dislikes and can apply them to a well thought through design.  After years of design & study in the field of Architecture these professionals can help many clients find the resources they need to help them in their project.  Whether it's full blown residential design, or a Draftsman's clients may be to produce drawings for other design pros.

Residential design is one of the first things I think of for these people.  It's also the biggest part of the field that I understand.  We usually charge less than a Registered Architect who has all the trappings of a full blown firm, with employes on payroll, a separate office and insurance to pay for. Note, in most cases; whether you opt for a lesser known name (such as a design by myself) or a big name firm, you're more than likely going to also be paying for additional structural engineering on your house design.  It's the nature of the world in modern design, to pass the liability buck to the next guy.  Plus, most municipalities are moving towards requirements to have plans engineered for the safety of the community.

Other work models for Unlicensed Architects and Architectural Draftsmen may include:

Drafting for other Architects, Civil, Electrical, Aerospace, Nautical Engineering, machine shops, etc…

The idea is is that you are good at using a tool, many other people are afraid to pick up a computer and use it / learn it to draw something.  That’s all it is, being good at drawing to start with.  A guy like myself, who can not drop everything to finish a degree in Architecture has to find a niche in the design world in some form.  Does my lack of formal education make me any less relevant in the world of design?  I would argue not at all.  If anything, I am human as well, and have likes and dislikes.  I have lived enough to experience the human condition of good design and poorly executed design.  Unfortunately I have also experienced this in my designs as well as others. Are my design mistakes due to a lack of formal education?  I will argue that it is not.  After 15+ years working for some of the best and brightest Architects out there, I feel like I have learned more about Architectural design than anyone else leaving a BS in Arch.  Though we all know work in the field far surpasses studying out of books.

So where does that leave an Architectural Draftsman?

 (Yes, You better believe I used that term naysayers)

Place # 1

My primary business model is to provide drafting support to Architects. They need something drawn, and I get it done.  So that's place #1 for an Architectural Draftsman.

Place #2

Residential housing. I have only had a handful of houses that would stand as a full fledge residential project you would typically see in an Architectural Firm.  Most Draftsmen will be relegated to more modest homes.  Working closely with a Builder (usually the home owner in this case) to help them get what they want.  Draftsmen usually charge a much smaller fee due to lower overhead and responsibility.

Place #3

A million different industries.  From Civil to Electrical, mechanical, aeronautics disciplines to naval.  The reach is far and wide for Draftsmen (peoples)

Problems

The problem draftsmen come into is new software.  Companies want to hire someone who is a seasoned veteran in THEIR system.  Even if you've been in the field for years, they still want you to produce for them.  Essentially that's why we are hired, to get stuff done for someone.  So you'll need to stay unto date on the myriad of software options out there.

Self-Employed Problems:

Even when I have a hand full of different Architects as clients work can and does dry up.  There may be a period where you can not get your individual house clients to meet, and your Architects may have nothing to hand off as well.  In that case (this weeks case) I surfed a lot this week.  If Monday starts off the same way, I’ll go put resumes out there to eschew the self-employed thing for awhile.  I’m not sure it’s the best position for someone who doesn’t have an Architectural License.

naysayers: Architects that are so concerned with keeping the term Architect under their thumb, they will not allow an entire side of the profession to use it in their title, for instance, "Architectural Draftsman".  However, they will allow an entire industry to steal the term "Systems Architect", so if you were to use the Official AIA's website to search for jobs, your results get you MORE jobs in the IT field, than you will get returned in Architecture. To be honest; it may be very telling where the work is in the field of Architecture, and it's not in traditional Architecture, it's with little computers, networks and wires.  Though that's a whole other post.

Architectural Printing Services

Printing Services

What to expect and how to work with your print shop

Printed on paper

Cad and blueprint printing services are numerous and easy to find in almost any city.  So quality and responsiveness has to be the next thing to look for.  As someone who utilizes printing services quite often, I run into stumbling blocks with different printer services. Where your typical home or office based printer solutions have pretty much been solved, print shops are a completely different animal.

Print shop availability is as easy to find as doing a quick internet search.  What you're looking for are the independent places.  I'm always surprised when I specifically tell clients to go to a specific print shop and they still go to the much more expensive office supply stores.  Steer away from your big name office supply stores that will charge over $1 - $2 per sheet.

For one, you have people running the presses for you who want to stay in business and get your repeat business.  They will  use your PDF files from your Cad program.  Versus buying your own wide format printer, there is a huge cost savings in outsourcing your printing which makes this service cost effective.  Unfortunately, They will not be versed in your style of drafting to know if something is off, it always takes a few prints with the printer to make sure everything goes well.  That means getting the print shop your drawings and swinging by to make sure the quality is where you want it to be.

Since I moved to JAX Beach, I have tried several printers.  Aimhere.net has been very quick and willing to work with me on keeping my print quality high at a reasonable cost.  Sure, we could do everything on their ink jet printers, which would insure near perfect matching, though there are not a lot of Contractors who want to pay $0.70 per sq ft. on their drawings.  So an economical option is to use their production printer (I like their series 8000 printer after converting my PDF’s to tiffs).  It’s an interesting process. I assumed all PDF’s were universal, though that remains to be seen.  This is due because PDF printing is based on the creating machine’s setup & program that originally exported (printed) the CAD files to PDF.  Then the machine that reads them and how the printer is set up to see fills and hatches.  Converting the PDF’s to a tiff file format seems to save the original fills & hatches.

Screen shot from CAD

Check out the images in this post.  Specifically looking at the shading on the images.  These are a little more detailed for construction drawings.  For large scale client presentations, these look fantastic and give a scale of depth to an otherwise boring 2 dimensional drawing.

sddrawings.com

Cabin lineup Update

Cabin Designs

Update for our line of Cabin Designs

Very proud to share an update on our line of Cabin Designs.  Many of them have all new Isometric Views to check out and one brand new design has been added into the mix.

     

Art in Architecture

Art in Architecture

Why drawing systems matter and what that means to all of us

Like so many of my associates, I have always felt that in Architecture, the labor of craftsmen should stem from a well thought through design. The design process itself should come from a carefully thought through plan and executed as a work of art.  So the entire process of getting something built can be a beautiful form, from start to finish.  Otherwise, what is the purpose of just throwing something out there as technical garbage to be built from.  If Designers & Architects expect something beautiful to come from their drawings, shouldn't beauty be built into their plans and design?  Is it really enough to just have a technical drawing in hopes to have a structure built?

Maybe I'm over romanticizing the idea that blueprints and construction drawings have always been a thing of beauty.  If I look at Jefferson's designs and blueprints, using the University of Virginia's design (as seen above); I could very well imagine this piece framed in my office. That is my intent and purpose during design, the entire process should be a worthwhile endeavor.

So, in order to follow through and produce a set of plans; I don't think it's enough to simply have ideas and not implement them.  They need to be put into action.  For years I've been adding fills to technical drawings to give them the appearance of the material they represent (learned under Architect Mouzon), I've since began to add shadows and color to roofing for my 2D drawings.

Take a look at the following house:

The Top picture is more representative of conventional technical drawings. Flat & Bland.

This bottom picture shows shadows & a fill applied to the following: The Ground, Windows & Roof, each more closely representing the material they are graphically representing, such as glass & shingle roofing.

Shadows come last, it's not an exact science, most "Art" isn't.  It's there to convey an idea and give a feeling.

There are further ways to graphically show material such as glass. Industry standards dictate a series of diagonal lines.  Though what is standard in Construction Drawings becomes too muddled to try and show everything exactly as standards dictate, giving the drawing a feeling of "busyness"  Combat this solid or greyed fills, such as seen in the windows above

For future projects, I am experimenting in another direction, leaving behind the world of 2D elevations and implementing 3D rendering from Sketchup PRO, and will begin using it for Construction Drawings.

Basically, my idea is to not even bother drawing flat 2D CAD elevations or building sections, since those are really there to tell a story. I'll draw it in all in sketch up, export it to DWG or DXF and do a take off for floor plans and Wall Sections.

It's not as robust as Revit, but it seems to be working out well. I'm still developing the ideas to implement them; clients love it, Contractor's seem in different.

I wanted to share all of this, because as a community, I think we can knock heads and build a more beautiful world. I also think Art should be brought back to the entire process of Architecture, which begins when you put pen to paper or hear the chimes of the MAC fire up.

Sddrawings.com

Parking Blots

Parking Blots

Parking Lots

Very cool link about Phoenix Arizona, check out the rendered Orange rooftop of the building top of page.  Now look at the "Parking Blots" in front of the building.

Can you see the difference of the blots on the left & right? The proposed "Parking Blots" on the right are surrounded by "Liner buildings" which encompass the blots & face the street to create a walkable and aesthetically pleasing street scape.

http://www.gizmodo.in/science/How-Do-We-De-Suburbanize-the-Suburbs/articleshow/29176448.cms

Something extraordinary

So today, I am reminded to always be pushing to do something extraordinary, regardless of the naysayers.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit -MLK jr

Cabin #6 Update

Late Night Projects Update

okay okay, I'm setting this one down

A few shots of the cabin with terrain.  Currently only exterior sheathing is shown as a finished product.
Will hope to continue as time allows with Trees, exterior siding, more fenestration & completion of door & windows. Interior space planning will also be completed.

Late night Projects

Late Night Projects

Inspiration can come in many forms, time to set it down and get back on paying work

Interior Stairs & fireplace

At times, an artist will find themselves up at all hours to work on a project.  This new design is one of those I can't set down.  I was inspired by two people to create a specific cabin that will be a blend of two separate buildings.  I'm pretty excited where this is going, here's a sneak preview.

Ultimately, the main goal is to achieve a format for Construction Drawings based on Sketchup.  It will be interesting to see where this little cabin takes me through this process.  It could be a product more robust like Revit is ultimately the way to go, as it incorporates both 2D & 3D in the same program and wildly used in the field.

To see more cabin plans, check us out @ our Cabin Plans

House Construction update

House Construction Update

A little Bungalow is built

Just updated my Houzz projects, one with a great little Bungalow built by http://www.renaissance-builders.com/, check it out:http://www.houzz.com/projects/330211/Bungalow--2