The Architectural Services Department's hand-drawn drawings are exposed to reproduce the manual sketches of the Space Museum and Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower

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Written by: Wang Jieen

2021-05-11 00:00

Last update date: 2021-05-11 00:00

Behind each building is as large as the overall structure and as small as the position of a window. The key soul that craftsmen rely on most is one building plan after another.

In the era when computer technology was not popularized, all the drawings were hand-drawn by hand, and the lines were progressively advanced, and each number had to be calculated accurately and flawlessly.

The Hong Kong Cultural Center, Space Museum, Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower, Red Hall, these characteristic landmarks are all hand-painted. In addition to the great effort, in order to fear that the drawings will be deformed, even revisions must be carefully scraped away with a blade. When using ink, you have to be afraid of "pilling balls", so that the repainted ink will dissolve. "Every line and every step must be clear, and the drawing must be accurate, so I have a good eye."

Taking a school as an example, it is roughly estimated that only one hand-drawn drawing can be drawn in about a week. On the contrary, the computer drawing can be easily modified and copied, and one drawing can be completed within 2 days.

As time has changed, this craft has gradually been replaced.

The elevation of the clock tower of Kowloon Station in the 1970s. The "SOUTH ELEVATION" in the lower right corner is handwritten.

(Provided by Architectural Services Department)

If the building is likened to a "model building," the drawings are equivalent to the "instructions", responsible for turning the architect's ideas into blueprints and building them on the site into a one-to-one object.

To turn wild ideas into practical projects, the technical director of the Architectural Services Department is the "behind-the-scenes hero."

"At a glance, you can see a picture by a picture"

"Even if you don't have to look at the signature, you can see a picture beside a picture at a glance." said Chen Guofeng, chief technical officer of the Architectural Services Department. Every colleague had his own style for the previous hand-drawn pictures and fonts. Each line is so unique. Someone drafts and some doesn't.” The hand-drawn drawings of the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower in the 1970s, in addition to the outline of the entire clock tower with lines, the "SOUTH ELEVATION" in the lower right corner that explains the angle is also meticulous, and the font is also meticulous. Use a duck-bill pen to write on a single stroke, "I don’t think it should be swept up... Use a duck-bill pen to write on it, one side wide and the other narrow."

In the hand-drawn drawings, even the brick patterns of the building materials are carefully drawn.

(Photo by Lu Yiming)

The hemispherical space museum and the cultural center such as butterflies have long been landmarks. Originally, the maps of the year were drawn by hand. However, the parabola of the cultural center is constantly changing, and it is no easy task to draw arc-shaped and circular maps.

(Profile picture)

In my memory, both the Space Museum and the Cultural Center should be amazing.

Director of Architectural Services

In the old hand-drawn drawings, the drawings must be put on butter paper, and then dried into blue drawings or film before they can go to the site for construction.

The Hong Kong Cultural Center and Space Museum, which were completed in the 1980s, were all drawn from the era of hand-painted.

The Director of Architectural Services, Ho Wing-yin, described that the cultural center is like a butterfly rising, the parabola is constantly changing, and the height of each part is different, and the drawing is very difficult.

She also laughed and said that curved and round buildings should be drawn slowly with compasses, which takes a long time, so she rarely draws them when she is studying.

However, the current space museum is hand-painted, and the level of complexity is indescribable.

Ink easy to change, difficult to correct drawings deformed

The hand drawings are exquisite, but at the same time extremely demanding.

Drawing on the computer, simply pressing the button can correct the error.

However, in the era of hand-painting, you must be careful even if you use glue, because if you use it for a longer time, the drawing will be deformed; if the ink is not dry, there is a chance that it will melt on the drawing and spread to other lines in the drawing.

Therefore, it is necessary to think carefully before starting to write, "Careful for the first time to paint." Chen Guofeng said that although some of the Tsuen Wan Market, which was opened in 1981, used radioactive rays to draft, "but not every line is The free-handing (free-hand) painting falls off."

As early as 1981, the Tsuen Wan Market was completed and opened. Although part of the draft was drawn with radioactive rays, many lines were drawn freehand.

The picture shows a hand-drawn three-dimensional view of the Tsuen Wan Market.

(Photo by Lu Yiming)

New technology is convenient and quick to speed up the completion of quarantine centers and temporary hospitals

However, in addition to changes in the times, the ArchSD used new computer graphics technology in the 1990s. Hand-drawn drawings have been gradually eliminated. It has even evolved from two-dimensional (2D) computer graphics to three-dimensional (3D) through BIM graphics. Now it is even more able to use VR. And 3D printing technology.

He Yongxian recalled that as soon as they received the instruction to make the Penny's Bay Quarantine Center, their mobile phone immediately received the 3D map of the quarantine center. "If the drawing is the same, we may make a decision every few days." The North Lantau Temporary Hospital has complicated design requirements due to the negative pressure function. If there was no 3D model at the time, the team would be difficult to make immediate decisions. The relevant images can also be transmitted to the Zhuhai plant in real time, which can accurately control the quality of the finished products. In the end, construction of the temporary hospital started non-stop, and it was completed in just 4 months. "To be honest, with today’s drawing technology, a hospital should normally take four years... If it is hand-painted, the previous hospital will take at least one more year. ."

The Architectural Services Department team introduced the changes from hand-drawn architectural drawings to electrical clothing drawings. Although computer-based drawing is faster and more convenient, the texture and humanity of human hand-drawn drawings cannot be replaced by computers.

(Photo by Lu Yiming)

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