Hand drawing by Charles Stinson
“I really don’t talk well without a pencil in my hand,” architect Ralph Rapson famously said. Among the first generation of American modernists, Rapson arrived in 1954 to head the University of Minnesota School of Architecture. His influence was profound. Not only did he design the some of the first International style U.S. embassies, rocking chairs for Knoll Furniture, and many iconic residences, but his students also went on to start significant firms and even enjoy international careers.
“Ralph was my first superhero who wasn’t Superman or Batman,” says Charles Stinson of Charles R. Stinson Architecture + Design. One of Rapson’s students, Stinson found Rapson’s articulation of design through drawings fascinating. He says, “When I was in school, drawing was it. Everyone drew. There weren’t any computers.” Stinson was an art major before he switched to architecture, so, “drawing was the only way I could get over my shyness during my juries. I told the story of the project through drawings,” he explains.
Today, Stinson is nearly as famous for his hand drawings as Rapson was, with the artistic method playing an integral part in his design process and daily life. Case in point, a drawing board sits in the center of the great room in his home. “I love to draw. I’m addicted to it,” he says. “It brings the project to life. Tracing paper, colored pencils, and ink are such incredible tools.”
Hand drawing by Jeff Murphy
But how many residential architects still hand draw? Is it a dying art? “When looking at housing design as a whole, I believe [hand drawing] is fading,” says Jeff Murphy, president and director of design of Murphy & Co. Design. “But in high-end architecture, [hand drawing] is prevalent around the country and beyond. Many architects are proud of their hand-drawn abilities and share them regularly on social platforms. I think because it’s an art form, it feels very bespoke and personal to our clientele,” as opposed to work produced on a computer.
Drawing residential designs allows Murphy to “come up with ideas and convey them immediately in front of a client, or while working collaboratively within an office. This helps the process move quickly, since clients can react and make decisions on the spot. I think
it’s also an endearing trait of what many people consider an architect or designer to be able to do—sketching beautiful designs of their new home.” Stinson agrees: “Clients love it when, while we’re talking about some aspect of their project, I do the sketches in the real time. Hand drawing gives clients so much confidence in the process. They’re become engaged and can see what I’m thinking.”
Murphy adds that early “loose” sketches help clients relax as “they don’t feel like the design is set in stone; it can be adjusted, unlike early computer drawings, which can feel cold, impersonal, and harder to make changes to in the client’s eyes. They like our ability to sketch right on the spot during a meeting—they might bring up a thought for something they’d like to see different, and we can pull out the trace paper and show a new idea right over the old one,” he continues. “They also like how romantic hand drawings feel. There’s an aesthetic to them that feels like it was penned from an artist.”
Hand drawing, Murphy adds, is “one of the aspects of working with us our clients look forward to the most.” And for Stinson? He likens hand drawing to “a deep meditation,” he says. “The ideas start to grow out of the paper when I’m drawing and become real in the clients’ imagination. From those initial drawings, their dream home is realized and built. As soon as I have the concept in my mind, I’m picturing them in the house already.”