Impact d’un environnement d’esquisses virtuelles et d’un modèle 3D précoce sur l’activité de conception architecturale.

This article examines the usefulness and impact of a new generation of sketch-based environments on the preliminary or conceptual stages of architectural design. It also contemplates new directions in the field of digital sketch interpretation, particularly in architecture. Our qualitative and exploratory study compares three different forms of preliminary architectural design activities: one architecture student in a conventional pencil and paper situation, and two other architecture students using different versions of EsQUIsE software on a Virtual Desktop. Our observations lead to three major conclusions: (1) An automatically generated 3D model is a useful feature for checking the volumes of a planned building. (2) In spite of imposing some limits, the EsQUIsE environment enables the user to make modifications in the nature of architectural representations. (3) Several “superposition design” approaches exist, partly structured by the design environment.