With a set of five different building photographs ‘torn from various trade magazines’, the brief was to incorporate certain features from each picture to form a totally new building for the Rolls Royce dealership, Balmoral UK.

At a stage when directors are busy discussing ‘site potentials’ and considering ‘development options’ it is time consuming to open a new CAD file and run up specific or even modular plans and elevations so a sketch is required.

Preparing sketches is cost effective, saves time and promotes speedy understanding at all levels. More designers and developers are visualising nowadays to improve communication across an ever widening group of interested parties keener than ever before to know more about the built environment.

USA market researchers regularly use development sketches, mostly photo-composites, to gauge neighbourhood views and petition support prior to planning applications. In contrast, European contracts are more often awarded following a lot of detailed design work by which time much money and effort has been spent even in the case of development Competitions where ‘risk expenditure’ should be kept low