The nine lives of drawing

The alleged demise of sketching and freehand drawing among designers in the digital era seems exaggerated. True, complexity and need for efficiency in the design process favour the shift from freehand drawing to computational media, for example, building information modelling, BIM. Yet in the ideation stages, where ideas are formed rather than evaluated according to performance criteria, freehand drawing is alive alongside technological and computational developments. Indeed, like cats, known for their dexterity and agility and ability to survive in unlikely situations, drawing too appears to have nine lives.