Drawings

Drawing is to architects what writing is to authors. For the designer, jotting must be an almost unconscious act, relying on the imperceptible synergy between brain, eye and hand, or mouse. The graphic pervades every stage of architectural creation. It represents the initial impulse - the napkin sketch or digital scribble. It is also the primary means of working up a building design - on or off screen - for production and presentation. It, additionally, allows us to fuel our tectonic imaginations and go beyond the built and the feasible into the sphere of the visionary and fantastic. Drawing provides the very motive force of architecture. Focusing on the creative and inventive significance of drawing for architecture, this book is a paean to the graphic by one of its greatest proponents,Sir Peter Cook. Thematically organised by chapter, Cook joyfully talks us through drawings as motive, strategy, vision, image, composition, expression, technique, surface and fantasy. He provides us with amusing perceptive commentary at every turn, drawing out attention to some of the greatest and most intriguing drawings, ranging from Heath-Robinson, Hugh Ferris and Arthur Beresford Pite to Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Ron Herron, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Bernard Tschumi and Lebbeus Woods.