Page 4. On the Creator's Representation of Space - 1
#1
I heard that the class of 2008 seniors took a course called Representation Techniques. It was a major course where they learned how to draft by hand with pen on paper, and fortunately, I didn't have to take such a course.
#2
Shortly after I enrolled, the seniors told me that each year had its share of freaks. These freaks referred to people who produced models of absurdly high quality. For example, one representative freak was a senior who, despite being only a sophomore, had already learned how to use a laser cutter to make models.
#3
In the first semester of my freshman year, I submitted a V-Ray render1) for the design studio, and during the midterm critique, a professor said he initially thought it was a photograph of a physical model and was surprised when he realized mid-review that it was a render. He said he never imagined a freshman would use a renderer.
#4
Around 2014, a growing number of friends began studying Rhino, and I recall taking a class that taught Grasshopper as well. Terms like non-standard architecture and freeform architecture appeared across various media, but since it was virtually impossible to fabricate forms full of curved surfaces as physical models, hardly anyone carried such ideas through to their design projects.
#5
In 2016, the Idea Factory opened in the basement of Building 39. After that, I heard that younger students began 3D-printing all kinds of forms and bringing them into design studios.
#6
I lost track of the trends after that, but I've heard that many students now learn 3D modeling early on, do rendering, and use image-generation AI to brainstorm ideas and create presentation panels—though I haven't seen it firsthand.