00:00From coaching to BIM, 800 years of architectural drawing.
00:04Do you remember the coach?
00:05Yes, I do. I'm a draftsman, and when I started drawing plans,
00:10This small triangular ruler was part of the job.
00:13We turned it between our fingers.
00:15Today, a few clicks are all it takes on a computer.
00:19But one day, I asked myself a very simple question.
00:22Where is the coach from?
00:24And immediately, another question arises.
00:26While this instrument is relatively recent, how did architects manage before?
00:31How were the immense cathedrals of the Middle Ages built?
00:35Did they have plans?
00:36The answer is yes, but not exactly the plans we know today.
00:41One of the most extraordinary testimonies comes to us from the 13th century.
00:45This is the notebook of Villars de Hauncourt.
00:48This manuscript contains architectural and geometric drawings,
00:52of machines and even plans associated with various religious buildings.
00:56Villars de Hauncourt and archive.org, project.m, limbia.edu
01:02Imagine the scene.
01:03No autocat, no journal, and obviously no large format printer.
01:08And yet, these men managed to design and build gigantic structures.
01:14Over the centuries, architectural design has transformed.
01:17During the Renaissance in particular, measurement took on a considerable role in architecture and technical activities.
01:28Drawing gradually becomes a true technical language.
01:32It is necessary to be able to move from the actual building to its reduced representation.
01:36This is a world of scales.
01:38January 2020.
01:40January 1950.
01:42The 1%.
01:43The 1.2 cents.
01:45Then came this famous multi-scale rule that we call Coots.
01:49Its exact origin remains surprisingly difficult to document.
01:53Tradition links him to a Viennese family and to the 18th century,
01:58but this attribution is not established with absolute historical certainty.
02:06For generations of artists, however, this instrument would become indispensable.
02:12And then everything changes.
02:14The overlay gradually disappears.
02:16The drawing board too.
02:18The mouse arrives on the desktop.
02:20Then AutoCAD.
02:213D.
02:22And finally, BIM.
02:24When you've experienced manual drawing, the evolution is spectacular.
02:28We've gone from a triangular ruler held between our fingers to a digital building
02:33containing a considerable amount of information.
02:36But in the end, our profession may not have changed all that much.
02:40Eight centuries ago, just as today, before building a wall, a vault, a framework, or a tower,
02:47Someone must first be able to imagine and represent it.
02:50The tools are changing.
02:52Technologies are changing.
02:53But from parchment to tracing paper, from coaching to AutoCAD, and from AutoCAD to BIM,
02:58It all always starts with a line.
