Category: office cultures
James Stirling, and the Industrialization of Architecture?
26 April 2024
James Stirling, and the Industrialization of Architecture?26 April 2024
James Stirling’s presentation drawing from 1957 to a faculty of engineers might seem strangely familiar to contemporary architects. A section of a box, showing the structure, services, and how people might dwell inside—it almost anticipates the prefabricated modular construction architects are now being asked to design. Only a few years… Read More
OMA: London—Foreplay
19 April 2024
OMA: London—Foreplay19 April 2024
This is the first post, in a series of six, titled OMA CONVERSATIONS. The series is the result of a collaboration between Drawing Matter and architect Richard Hall who, over the past two years, has conducted twenty-three in-depth conversations with key collaborators working with OMA during its formative years. Drawing… Read More
Design Drawings Damage Atlas (2023)
15 April 2024
Design Drawings Damage Atlas (2023)15 April 2024
Snap, crackle, pop. Oh, that horrible sound of unravelling a roll of architectural drawings on old dried-up tracing paper from the nineteenth century. Slowly unfurling the brown brittle sheet, it cracks and shatters, little bits drop off in flakes, littering the table and floor like confetti. The experience feels like… Read More
Helsinki City Theatre: Timo Penttilä on the real purpose of drawings
12 April 2024
Helsinki City Theatre: Timo Penttilä on the real purpose of drawings12 April 2024
On his retirement in 1998 as professor of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Finnish architect Timo Penttilä returned to Finland, where he soon made the decision to close his architectural practice. In this process he ordered his staff to destroy the entire office archive of drawings… Read More
Rem Koolhaas—Peter Pan [TBC]
7 February 2024
Rem Koolhaas—Peter Pan [TBC]7 February 2024
[Intro] [Lead Image] Excerpt
Protected: OMA: Elia Zenghelis—Watersheds
7 February 2024
Protected: OMA: Elia Zenghelis—Watersheds7 February 2024
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Collaborators—Outsiders
7 February 2024
Collaborators—Outsiders7 February 2024
[Intro] [Lead Image] Excerpt — Hans Werlemann and Claudi Cornaz Excerpt— Madelon Vrisendorp and Zoe Zenghelis Excerpt— Vincent de Rijk and Frans Pathesius
Big Competitions—How to Re-orient the Modern Project for the 21st Century
7 February 2024
Big Competitions—How to Re-orient the Modern Project for the 21st Century7 February 2024
[Intro] [Lead mage] Excerpt— Xaveer de Geyter Excerpt— Mike Guyer Excerpt— Luc Reuse Excerpt— Georges Heintz Excerpt— Marion Goerdt
Protected: Rotterdam—Child’s Crusade
7 February 2024
Protected: Rotterdam—Child’s Crusade7 February 2024
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Alberto Ponis, The London Years
14 December 2023
Alberto Ponis, The London Years14 December 2023
I am leafing through a neat hundred-page sketchbook with notes, the text enlivened with pencil, charcoal, and pen sketches with varied annotations, including asterisks and underlining in colour crayon, brought into order with careful lists and occasional full pages on practical matters such as delivering a lecture or taking architectural… Read More
Keep digging and you will find what you are looking for: Alvar Aalto in Germany
27 October 2023
Keep digging and you will find what you are looking for: Alvar Aalto in Germany27 October 2023
In 1957, Alvar Aalto gave a speech in Munich entitled ‘Schöner Wohnen’.[1] He referred to his own design, the Hansaviertel apartment block in Berlin—his first project in Germany—as he described the key concerns in the design of the modern dwelling. (The construction of Aalto’s second German project, the Neue Vahr… Read More
DMJ – Drawing Instruments from Sir John Soane’s Office
25 October 2023
DMJ – Drawing Instruments from Sir John Soane’s Office25 October 2023
This display of drawing instruments, which can be seen in the newly restored Drawing Office at Sir John Soane’s Museum, rather charmingly evokes the atmosphere of the office when in the early nineteenth century it was the busy epicentre of Soane’s architectural practice, filled with his young apprentices and clerks.[1]… Read More