The steps that a design has to undergo before it is realized are in principle comparable to the architect’s services, as described in the professional scale of fees. During the basic evaluation, the design and approval plans and the later technical and economic design phases, the design constantly changes in the way it is depicted and, as a result, also changes the scale. The types of drawing that emerge show the design from all side and at different levels of depth, support it or reveal its flaws.

The freehand sketch reveals its advantages as a mediator between the different scales and planning stages. A drawing that previously only existed at a larger scale can be transferred to a different scale through the draughtsperson’s experience. The visual language changes. At this stage, leave may be taken of the medium of freehand drawing in order to concretize and dimension the design by producing technical drawings. If what had been hoped for does not emerge as a result the sketch can be used again, which advances the design even though it involves going back a step in either scale or thought. This is how a design develops, through advances and setbacks, and the design method does not compete but switches between freehand and technical drawing, model and simulation, and engages with them in a meaningful symbiosis.