I’ve been working with Sketchup for a few months now and find that the product is set to transform our ability to visualize designs. It is available for free from Google. Check out the contemporary design of a south facing house…
Design principles include; maximum views, open and free movement, catching sun in mornings and afternoons, north facing light…The deck in front of the house will be on the edge of the cliff overlooking the water.
The act of design as an amateur can be used by a professional architect to shape the final architectural blueprint. Co-designing alleviate some of the pressures in not being able to explain things in text, or with crude drawings. If you want the original source document e-mail me or post a comment and I will send it off to you.