Period: pre-1700
On Bramante (2022) – Review
22 August 2022
On Bramante (2022) – Review22 August 2022
– Oliver Lütjens and Thomas Padmanabhan
Thomas Padmanabhan: We are very happy to have this book, On Bramante, in front of us. It was written by a friend of ours, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, who is a writer, a teacher and also a practising architect and founding partner of baukuh in Milan. For a while, even before encountering… Read More
Alberto Pérez-Gómez: Architecture as Drawing
28 July 2022
Alberto Pérez-Gómez: Architecture as Drawing28 July 2022
– Mark Dorrian and Alberto Pérez-Gómez
Drawing Matter is delighted to present three texts by Alberto Pérez-Gómez on architecture and its representation, the first writings by him to be carried on the Drawing Matter website. The first, ‘Architecture as Drawing’, is an early essay that initially appeared in the Journal of Architectural Education in 1982, a… Read More
The Anatomy of the Architectural Book: Magical Moves
6 June 2022
The Anatomy of the Architectural Book: Magical Moves6 June 2022
In 1586 Domenico Fontana completed the extraordinary task, commissioned by Pope Sixtus V, of moving the Vatican obelisk. The structure was said to have a ‘mysterious magic of an unknown civilization’, accepted by Christians due to the belief that it had witnessed the martyrdom of Saint Peter. In this text, André… Read More
In the Archive: Laugier, Eisen, Boulogne, Petitot, Percier, Dumont, Hadid
22 March 2022
In the Archive: Laugier, Eisen, Boulogne, Petitot, Percier, Dumont, Hadid22 March 2022
Click on drawings to move and enlarge. On a crisp January morning I made my way to York railway station to visit the Drawing Matter collection. This research trip is more than a year overdue, delayed by the global Covid-19 pandemic, and I am now already in the third year… Read More
Inessential Colors: Architecture on Paper in Early Modern Europe (2021) – Review
17 March 2022
Inessential Colors: Architecture on Paper in Early Modern Europe (2021) – Review17 March 2022
From the frescoes of Pompeii to the Great Hall of Siedlecin, from the Book of Kells to the Book of Hours, architecture has been depicted in full colour. Where colour has been largely absent in the history of architectural representation, however, is in the more technical drawings of architects themselves.… Read More
Painting in Stone (2020) – Review
1 March 2022
Painting in Stone (2020) – Review1 March 2022
‘Matter endures, form is lost.’ —Pierre de Ronsard [1] Fabio Barry’s recent book, Painting in Stone: Architecture and the Poetics of Marble from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, opens with an unlikely frontispiece. Rather than a photograph of a historical case, as suggested by the title, Barry presents a contemporary artwork… Read More
The Edge of Architecture: Cornices in the Drawing Matter collection
21 February 2022
The Edge of Architecture: Cornices in the Drawing Matter collection21 February 2022
– Editors
The following group of drawings are presented here as additional illustrations to Maarten Delbeke’s essay The Cornice: The Edge of Architecture.
The Cornice: The Edge of Architecture
21 February 2022
The Cornice: The Edge of Architecture21 February 2022
The following essay was first published as the introduction to ‘The Cornice’, GTA Papers 6 (2021). It is one of the outcomes of the work done in preparation for the exhibition The Hidden Horizontal: The Cornice in Architecture and Art, which was on show at the Graphische Sammlung of ETH… Read More
The Hidden Horizontal. Cornices in Art and Architecture: Exhibition Review
18 October 2021
The Hidden Horizontal. Cornices in Art and Architecture: Exhibition Review18 October 2021
Architecture is never an easy topic for exhibitions, because the level of knowledge and pre-existing interest of the public is difficult to gauge. A show devoted specifically to a single architectural detail, seen across a historic panorama, is even more challenging. But this is the ambition of ‘The Hidden Horizontal:… Read More
The Language of Architecture: Peter Märkli’s system of proportion
15 June 2021
The Language of Architecture: Peter Märkli’s system of proportion15 June 2021
Peter Märkli’s hand-drawn section of the ancient monument Hagia Sophia (532–7) is part of a working process developed alongside his design work. The output is a collection of investigative drawings that document sacred archetypal buildings, and articulate his resolved thesis that ‘architecture has a language’. The weight of the drawing… Read More
Medieval Masons and tracing-floors
10 May 2021
Medieval Masons and tracing-floors10 May 2021
The tracing-floors of York Minster offer a rare glimpse into the relationship between drawing and the Cathedral, the most iconic monument to medieval Gothic. Tucked away into the loft of a small vestibule connecting the North Transept to the Chapter House, the Mason’s Lodge, as it is known, is one… Read More
The Vitruvian Man: with Fresh Eyes
14 April 2021
The Vitruvian Man: with Fresh Eyes14 April 2021
‘The Vitruvian Man of Leonardo da Vinci as a model of innovative entrepreneurship at the intersection of business, art and technology’ is shown in the first image. This is a ‘modern’ interpretation of the Renaissance drawing as a business model as published in the Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2017. An… Read More