I was thinking lately how to present and describe what I do. How my work can be beneficial for creating and understanding the places where we live. My short intro goes something like this:
In my work process and research I focus on how different people interact and perceive the space. Urban design is all about user experience, because urban space should be created with users.
I focus on feeling of a place and express it through sketches, since they give a feeling of a draft, something to be worked on and motivate people to speak up about their ideas.
I can talk a lot sometimes but this time I borrowed quotes from others. It is something like a moodboard of words that resonated with me and help me define what I do, so I might add more in the future.
Illustration by Betty Laurincova
“At the core, urbanists want more people living in cities, so they support more urban housing of all types. They prioritize walking, biking and transit, and support a high quality shared public realm. Parks, nightlife, theaters, transit and taxis can replace backyards, TV rooms and private cars. That way we can live well with less stuff, sprawl and pollution.
I’ll go a little further, and say urbanists prefer bottom up, granular, and seemingly chaotic innovation to top-down planning and mega-projects. Think the “Main Street” of neighborhoods with food trucks and lots of little stores, as opposed to tax-subsidized big box stores with legally required massive parking lots. Bike lanes, crosswalks and plazas instead of public garages and new highways.
Urbanists believe that mixing people and ideas creates wealth in a city. Why else would people choose to live so close to each other? Cities, therefore, should be open to people of every background, ethnicity, race and class to maximize the potential from our human capital.”
definition from the former mayor of Seattle, Michael McGinn https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/01/19/why-i-call-myself-an-urbanist/
Illustration by Betty Laurincova for Tovatt Architects and Planners.
“The beauty of hand drawing is that its accuracy can be used and adjusted accordingly. If you want to point something out or highlight it, line and detail are refined, more precise. On the other hand, inaccuracy also has its appeal for things which are often still unknown or should not yet be mentioned. One can quickly insert a fleeting line into a sketch in order to patch up a lack of information. My clients welcome this effect because it shows everything but confirms nothing. The viewer can observe a spatial and architectural situation and can perceive a certain mood. Incidentally, hand drawings also subliminally suggest that changes and participative opportunities are still possible. These specific strategic components, as well as the psychological and even legal aspects of an illustration are of great interest to me. Of course, creating an atmosphere or even adding a little scenic charm to the picture makes my work even more delightful. The current dominance of photorealistic architectural rendering enables me to find new ways of pursuing hand-drawn, architectural pictures. I do not require technical perfection or realistic diligence in my work, but instead I focus on conceptual statements, atmosphere and even poetry. For me, hand drawing has its very own place in our professional practice, not as a competitor to photorealistic rendering, but rather as a complement to it. My illustrations are often requested for larger urban projects in which the designs of different planners are combined and therefore the overall picture is presented with a homogeneous style. In my drawings, buildings often have façades or other details that still need to be created, designed and, of course, adjusted. Some details just naturally fade out behind trees. Often an illustration is required shortly before a deadline and no one in the design team has any time to make decisions about specific details. At best, there are the contender's reference pictures but other than that, my own experience as an architect and study of architectural literature is put into practice. This is what makes architectural illustration so exciting. Over and over again, a white surface waits to be filled... “
Sabine Heine for the Construction and Design Manual / Drawing for Landscape architects, Prof. Dr. Sabrina Wilk, DOM-publishers, 2016 https://sabineheine.com/illustrated-architecture