For a unique insight into an architect's mind, peek into their sketchbook. Ever since the first architect scribbled the outline of a building on the first napkin, architects' sketchpads have been more than just a blank page to draw; they are places to lay down thoughts and develop projects, keepers of trade secrets, visual notebooks and compilations of inspiration.
A new exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts offers a rare journey into the psyche of established London architect Chris Wilkinson, co-founder of Wilkinson Eyre Architects. 'Thinking through drawing: Chris Wilkinson RA' marks the architect's 30 years of work and architectural drawing, and promises to open a window into his creative process and design approach, through the display of a careful pick of his hand drawings, watercolours and architectural objects.
A passionate believer in the importance of hand drawing, Wilkinson – an OBE and Stirling Prize recipient in 2000 and 2001 (respectively), and a Royal Academy fellow since 2006 – is behind a number of acclaimed works, such as the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth and the Maggie's Centre in Oxford. Many more highly anticipated works are currently in the pipeline for the firm, such as the King's Cross Gasholders canal side apartments, and many of them will be represented through drawings in this show.
Wilkinson's design work and expert architectural draughtsmanship will be celebrated by this exhibition, which opens today. The show is the perfect companion to the book Thoughts on paper: the sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson RA, a recent publication by the Royal Academy of Arts, which collates a selection of the architect's intricate drawings.
'Thinking through drawing: Chris Wilkinson RA' marks the architect's 30 years of work and architectural drawing, and promises to open a window into his creative process and design approach. Pictured: Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth (completed 2013)
An OBE and Stirling Prize recipient in 2000 and 2001 (respectively), and a Royal Academy fellow since 2006, Wilkinson is a passionate believer in the importance of hand drawing. Pictured: Chris Wilkinson's sketchbooks
Maggie's Centre, Oxford (completed 2014)
Crown Hotel, Sydney, Australia (completion due 2019)
King's Cross Gasholders (completion due 2016)
Carphone Warehouse, Merry Hill (concept, 1997)
Stratford Depot, London (completed 1991)
ADDRESS
Tennant Gallery and Richard Sharp Council Room
Royal Academy of Arts
London, W1J 0BD
-
Artists reflect on Kate Bush lyrics for a War Child auctionPeter Doig and Maggi Hambling are among artists interpreting Kate Bush’s 1985 track ‘Running Up That Hill’ for War Child’s online auction
-
Explore Tom Kundig’s unusual houses, from studios on wheels to cabins slotted into bouldersThe American architect’s entire residential portfolio is the subject of a comprehensive new book, ‘Tom Kundig: Complete Houses’
-
Inside yacht maker Azimut’s horizon-expanding HQ, by Michele De Lucchi’s AMDL CircleThe design of Azimut’s headquarters in Piedmont, Italy, is open, adaptable, and befitting ‘a place of creativity’
-
Jamel Shabazz’s photographs are a love letter to Prospect ParkIn a new book, ‘Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025’, Jamel Shabazz discovers a warmer side of human nature
-
A life’s work: Hans Ulrich Obrist on art, meaning and being drivenAs the curator, critic and artistic director of Serpentine Galleries publishes his memoir, ‘Life in Progress’, he tells us what gets him out of bed in the morning
-
Ed Ruscha and Ruthie Rogers team up on zingy new cookbookEd Ruscha and friend Ruthie Rogers, chef and River Café co-founder, have teamed up on a cookbook with a difference
-
Thomas Prior’s photography captures the uncanny fragility of American lifeA new book unites two decades of the photographer’s piercing, uneasy work
-
Cult classic ‘Teenagers in Their Bedrooms’ captures the angst of being a teenAre 1990s teens so different? Three decades after its original release, this photography book by Adrienne Salinger has been published again, by DAP
-
Make the Booker Prize shortlist your new reading listThis year’s Booker Prize shortlist captures the emotional complexity of our times, with stories of fractured families, shifting identities and the search for meaning in unfamiliar places
-
How to be butch: Clark Henley’s sharp, satirical and playful manual is back in printThe 1982 classic, ‘The Butch Manual: The Current Drag and How to Do It’, full of tongue-in-cheek advice, is available once again
-
We are all fetishists, says Anastasiia Fedorova in her new book, which takes a deep dive into kinkIn ‘Second Skin’, writer and curator Fedorova takes a tour through the materials, objects and power dynamics we have fetishised
