Urban Planning competences
Submitted by cool301 on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 05:05.
Hey guys,
I've been thinking about doing a Urban Studies / Urban Planning undergrad. for a few years now. I've visited some schools and asked loads of questions, but one question still remains unanswered. Which is the following:
How much (hand)drawing is involved in the urban studies/urban planning profession? Since im not quite an artist concerning making drawings sketches i would really like to know whether this will be a major problem for me or not.
I'm more the type to research and making plans on how to do something, more than actually drawing the designs.
I would like to hear your professional opinion on this.
Thanks in advance,
Tim
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planners don't "need" to draw
Tim,
Don't let a lack of drawing abilities deter you from planning. In fact, many planners you meet will joke they were aspiring architects until they realized they couldn't draw.
In any case, visual representation is critical to planning, but that does not meet colored pencils, charcoal and a drafting table. When you visualize, you're likely to use digital techniques. It strongly helps, and is almost critical, to know how to incorporate GIS into your visual representations of plans.
Having solid desktop publishing skills helps too. I'm talking skills beyond MS Office - especially Adobe CS. Knowing how to use photoshop, In Design, and even Flash can truly set your planning concepts apart. No one likes a boring map or a plan that looks like a tome. To communicate effectively, you need to make things visually appealing.
The people who go into "urban design" as opposed to "urban planning" programs tend to focus more on the aesthetic, creative, and hardcore rendering and drawing. It helps to know some of the skills, but don't worry about not being able to draft a landscape. Digital representation, and your research and quantitative skills, will be more important.