Can’t afford CADD? Try the low-tech alternative: PADD. It’s my name for Post-it Aided Design and Drawing. It begins with a trip to the local stationery store, where I can buy Post-it note pads in all sizes and colors with 1/4-in. grids printed on them. At this scale, I use the note pads to represent rooms.
As I conceptualize a plan, I can scoot the rooms around on a grid sheet and then stick them down so that they don’t move when I put tracing vellum over them, or when the guy next to me opens a window. I draw details such as furniture on them, and I use sheets of different colors to represent separate functions, such as public and private spaces. When I’m really feeling brave, I get out a pair of scissors and start cutting the sheets into rooms with curved walls
Paul Chandler, Eugene, OR
