Writer: Philippa Lewis

Robert Bray: Design for a Playboy Duplex Penthouse, 1970

Robert Bray: Design for a Playboy Duplex Penthouse, 1970

Philippa Lewis

Watch Philippa Lewis’s recent lecture, ‘From Drawing to Text’, on how we tell stories from architecture, for The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design at Delft University of Technology here. Geoff Freeman, sales director of a Northamptonshire shoe company, arrives at JFK Airport for his flight… Read More

Edifice

Edifice

Philippa Lewis

These slides were sent to us by Philippa Lewis in response to Gordon Shrigley’s article on render; photographs to expand on the possibilities of the material, some results purposeful and some incidentally beautiful. Gillian Darley and Philippa Lewis started Edifice in around 1987 – a stock library source for the… Read More

Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter

Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter

Adrian Forty, Niall Hobhouse and Philippa Lewis

This film was recorded in the Drawing Matter archive on the afternoon of Friday 28 November. It records a conversation between Philippa Lewis, Adrian Forty and Niall Hobhouse, about some of the drawings behind Philippa’s new book, Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter (2021). The film was… Read More

Frank Lloyd Wright, House for Edith Carlson, 1939, Part II

Frank Lloyd Wright, House for Edith Carlson, 1939, Part II

Philippa Lewis

Extracted from Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter by Philippa Lewis, published by MIT Press © 2021. Order the book here. The drawings around which Stories from Architecture are written are all part of the Drawing Matter collection. Some of the texts were first published as ‘Behind the Lines’. My dear Miss Carlson, By… Read More

Frank Lloyd Wright, House for Edith Carlson, 1939, Part I

Frank Lloyd Wright, House for Edith Carlson, 1939, Part I

Philippa Lewis

This is part one of the true story of librarian Edith Carlson, who in 1938 commissioned a house from Frank Lloyd Wright. The letters that document the project are now in the Drawing Matter collection. Extracted from Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter by Philippa Lewis, published by MIT Press… Read More

Henri Guerbois: Department Store in King Street, 1921

Henri Guerbois: Department Store in King Street, 1921

Philippa Lewis

Extracted from Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter by Philippa Lewis, published by MIT Press © 2021. Preorder the book here. The drawings around which Stories from Architecture are written are all part of the Drawing Matter collection. Some of the texts were first published as ‘Behind the Lines’. Having peered at the rather… Read More

PC Harry Woodley: Plans of No 131 Cornwall Street, 1902

PC Harry Woodley: Plans of No 131 Cornwall Street, 1902

Philippa Lewis

Extracted from Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter by Philippa Lewis, published by MIT Press © 2021. Preorder the book here. The drawings around which Stories from Architecture are written are all part of the Drawing Matter collection. Some of the texts were first published as ‘Behind the Lines’. It was a short walk… Read More

John Nash: Designs for Langham House, ca. 1812–1816

John Nash: Designs for Langham House, ca. 1812–1816

Philippa Lewis

Extracted from Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter by Philippa Lewis, published by MIT Press © 2021. Preorder the book here. The drawings around which Stories from Architecture are written are all part of the Drawing Matter collection. Some of the texts were first published as ‘Behind the Lines’. Nash… Read More

Elliott Glushak vs. The City of New York

Elliott Glushak vs. The City of New York

Philippa Lewis

Is an architectural rendering the work of an artist? Or is it just a skilled service, like a plumber or plasterer? This was the question that was fought out in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in 1958. At stake was the payment of New York sales… Read More

Behind the Lines 14

Behind the Lines 14

Philippa Lewis

These are just insignificant sketches, but they remind me of the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques in 1937; by night it was a unique experience – mémorable. You see, one theme of the exposition was light and water: an expression of what could be achieved with the power of modern electricity,… Read More

Behind the Lines 13

Behind the Lines 13

Philippa Lewis

I selected a distant meadow in the midst of an empty landscape, barren and forlorn, to make a retreat for myself…. No sooner was the house completed than I knew it was not far enough away from everything I wished to leave behind…Later I sold the house and grounds for… Read More

Behind the Lines 12

Behind the Lines 12

Philippa Lewis

1870Colonel James Clifton-Brown, newly established at Holmbush, his Regency country house in Colgate, West Sussex, has political ambitions – namely, the parliamentary seat for Horsham. He observes that the villagers have only a small cramped chapel in which to fulfil their ambitions to be good Christians. The chapel is not… Read More