The Delicate Balance Of Old & New

Increasingly high-tech methods are being designed to help clients and buyers ‘experience’ new architectural buildings and interiors, from VR headsets to 360Ëš visual tours — but there is still a lot of love for the fluidity and flair of hand-sketching.

- Suzanne Miao

Late last year, Californian firm Matter port bought out Virtual Walkthrough in what was described as the first acquisition of a UK-based proptech — property technology — company. It demonstrated the increasing importance of using technology to refine, improve or reinvent the services relied on in the property industry to buy, rent, sell, build, heat or manage residential and commercial property.

The ‘proptech’ buzzword has been rapidly gaining currency in media, tech and property circles, and has come to encompass the role new technology plays in consumers understanding architecture and design in a new home. From highly detailed t0-scale models through to virtual reality headsets, these immersive experiences allow buyers to ‘be’ in and ‘experience’ a building or a home.

While this cutting-edge technology looks dominate the future, some developers continue to choose more traditional art forms over digital techniques, to bring to life a new project — such as hand-drawn sketches — which require a little more imagination,and in some instances have become works of art themselves.

Speaking in favour of this more ‘old school’ method, Paul Cook, managing director of Dukelease Properties and a UK Chartered Architect with 40 years’ experience, says that from the initial scheme concept, through every step of the design process, “drawing provides a raw, yet vital communication tool. It brings together the individual ideas and vision for all parties — from builder, planner, to interior designer — bringing the project to life at each stage of the development”.