I use very simple drawings to record concepts, then my colleagues work them out. When we draw, we always position the view, the perspective and the plants, but especially the spaces in between. Whenever we draw something, it almost immediately goes to the level of details.

Drawing is also important as a communication device in the office with my colleagues. By using software you transcribe the drawings into digital tool. And that translates the pencils into something technical. I used to use a computer but now I just draw. We translate the clients’ ideas into lines and then he builds them into a building. And in the end the house is always a surprise

Nowadays of course people turn to computers as a first resort. Drawing is a traditional tool to transmit ideas. It’s never a final product, but the house is. Drawing conveys your concept and facilitates your ideas. The beauty of it is that it’s a universal language…and one that you can understand without necessarily knowing the words. To a client all drawing is too abstract, but when you take a piece of paper, and you start to express what they mean, it’s then that they find it very convincing.

Once I drew something of our concept in front of a client and then explained it and what we intended to do. Although it was just a concept he was completely convinced. And we were able to draw the whole working process of the project. Drawing was the explanation and the explanation was drawing.

I can’t draw perspectives so well that they capture the imagination or represent the final concept but I can explain the concept through drawings.

I use words only to compensate what I can’t draw. If you do not have the support of drawing your words remain at an abstract level. Nobody can imagine something that you as an architect cannot draw. Words cannot substitute drawing. However good you are with words, they’re no substitute. That’s the power of the line. And I’m convinced of that.