RIBA COLLECTIONS

THE ARCHITECTURE
DRAWING BOOK
 © RIBA Publishing, 2023

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DOI: 10.4324/9781003343691
RIBA COLLECTIONS

THE ARCHITECTURE
DRAWING BOOK

CHARLES HIND, FIONA ORSINI AND SUSAN PUGH

RIBA ffll Publishing

Dedicated to the memories of John Harris

(1931-2022) and Jill Lever (1935-2017),

the first two Curators of the RIBA

Drawings Collection, 1960-1986

and 1986-1995, who established its

reputation worldwide, set international

standards for cataloguing and oversaw its

growth into one of the most important

architectural archives in the world.
Contents

About the Authors6

Introduction
8

A brief history of the RIBA Collections10

Pure Drawing by Hugh

,
16
Pearman

1. Concept sketches24
2. Buildings in 58
context

3. Presentation drawings78
4. Technical and working drawings126
5. Study sketches154
6. Fantasy architecture194
7. Born-digital drawing218

Provenance228

Image credits240
Authors
the
About

The RIBA Collections

One of the largest and most diverse architectural archives in
the world, the collection ranges from 15th-century books and
drawings to photographs documenting architecture around the
world today. With a global scope and rich historical detail, it

brings together over four million objects in a broad range of

media through a shared narrative that describes how buildings,
communities and civilisations are designed and constructed.

Charles Hind
Charles Hind is Chief Curator and H.J. Heinz Curator of
Drawings at the RIBA. His areas of speciality are Andrea Palladio
and British architecture of the 17th to early 20th centuries.

Fiona Orsini is a Curator of the Drawings & Archives Collections

at the RIBA. Her areas of interest include Art Deco and
mid-century architecture and design.

Susan Pugh is a Curator of the Drawings & Archives Collections

at the RIBA. She specialises in 19th-century British architecture.

ALTERNATIVE DESIGNS FOR THE ENTRANCE

HALL, BLITHFIELD HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE,
ENGLAND, c.1750

Charles Cope Trubshaw (1715-1772)

Pen and ink and grey wash
Introduction
by Charles Hind

There are many treasures in the RIBA Collections, on which past For members of the general public, the range of methods
publications have tended to concentrate. This book, however, has employed by architects to represent buildings and the design
*
a broader purpose, offering both a celebration of artistic endeavour process is wide and can be confusing. This book, section by
and general introduction to the wide range of drawings–
a section, seeks to make clear the progression from first concept
practical and artistic– that architects have made over the last seven to the detailed drawings required by the builder in construction.

centuries, as represented in the collections of the RIBA. This sets However, architectural drawings are both the graphic means to
it apart from previous titles and catalogues published by the RIBA an end (the end being the building) and an end in themselves.

Collections, as the focus of this book is very much on the drawings Some drawings are purely rational and scientific, such as those
and the purposes for which they were created, rather than on the by Palladio, while others, particularly presentation drawings,
architects themselves and their projects. can be compared with those made by artists. At their simplest,

There are many criteria for assessing whether an item, a project designs are usually presented as plans, elevations and sections.
or a whole archive should be added to the RIBA’s collection of A plan is like a map of a building, showing room divisions, walls

drawings, but one has remained a constant for decades. This and windows. The elevation shows the façade or partial façade
is the decision to collect the whole process of
design, from the of a building, while a section treats a building like a cake, with a
‘back of the envelope’ first idea to the presentation and working slice cut through it to show the inside at right angles to the line
drawings. To a great extent, the sequence of the design process of sight. All three types are shown in Sir Clough Williams-Ellis’s
has been followed in this book, which also reflects the intention sketch design for a Welsh chapel (see p 9 ).
that the collection records how drawings have been made, from The first four sections of the book follow chronologically the
the scored lines subsequently inked over that Andrea Palladio and process of design that results in a structure being built, beginning
his contemporaries used through to the digitally born drawings with a concept sketch. This captures the architect’s first thoughts
of the late 20th and 21st centuries. Mediums range from the on the many possibilities of how a commission might look.

quill pen to the modern felt-tip, from watercolour to the collages Sometimes dozens of sketches are needed before the final form
made possible by commercially manufactured dry rub-down emerges. This is followed by an examination of the relationship
instantlettering and artwork elements. From the 19th century, between the proposed building and its surroundings and then
many drawings were reproduced in multiple copies by various a variety of ways in which the design is presented to the client

processes, some of which left no ‘original’ drawing, and this book for final approval. These can be measured elevations and plans,
also contains examples of such prints. In addition, the choice in perspectives or geometrical and axonometric projections (see
this book reflects the wide range of historical and contemporary pp 78 79 ). Once the design has been agreed, the fourth section
-

styles and geographic locations held in the collection, as well as shows how the architect conveys the design to the builder and

objects buildings designed by architects, and occasions

rather than subcontractors, enabling them to cost the project and build
when an architect’s imagination strayed into the realms of fantasy. it. The contract drawings produced as part of this process are
There are also examples that show how the role of the architect as those agreed between architect, client and builder and provide
creator merges into that of an artist. a standard against which the finished building can be measured
 Sir Clough Williams-Ellis,
Design for the Moriah Chapel,
Llanystumdwy, Gwynedd, 1936.

if there is any dispute between the three. The working drawings Since the Renaissance, drawing from life had been a starting
go into details such as fixtures and fittings that are not usually point in the training of architects. In our end is our beginning!
required at contract stage or they resolve a problem that has arisen. placing of a drawing in a particular
It should be noted that the
Section 5 primarily looks at how architects learn from other section does not mean that it
might not fit equally well into
architects. This may be from looking at existing buildings or another. Thus, William Talman’s design for a Trianon (see p 82 )

parts of buildings in the form of sketches or surveys, both would sit as comfortably in the second section on buildings in
measured and freehand, and conjectural reconstructions of lost context, as it does in the third section on presentation drawings.
or ruinedbuildings. Another means is by writing and illustrating The authors hope that, whether the decision is to start at the
books, and the section includes preparatory drawings for two beginning and follow the narrative or just to browse at random,
extremely influential publications, Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro the drawings that follow will inform, delight and perhaps even
Libri dell’Architettura (1570; see p 156 ) and Colen Campbell’s inspire the reader. The selection covers nearly 600 years of
Vitruvius Britannicus (1715-1725; see p 162 ). draughtsmanship, from the era of the master mason at the end
Ever since the Renaissance, architects have allowed their of the Middle Ages to the present digital age, yet many of the
imaginations to wander freely and to commit to paper schemes conventions familiar to the Renaissance architect are still used by
that in many cases would or could never be built. The sixth their modern counterpart. As with conventions, so with learned
section is wide ranging, from ‘vertical cities’ to visionary town abilities, and although digital technology will continue to develop,
planning, student projects to stage designs. The fantasy element these days it is generally accepted that for most architects, the
of such proposals also allows architects to express themselves future requires both drawing and digital skills.
as artists as much as practical designers of structures, or in the

case of Touis Heilman, to invent an intensely personal and very Note

*
A fuller introduction to drawings and their purposes can be found in the introduction
distinctive form of ‘architectural’ caricature (see p 216 ). to: Lever J and Richardson M, The Art of the Architect: Treasures from the RIBA’s
The final section of the book looks at an area in which the Collections, Trefoil Books, 1984.

RIBA Collections is not yet variety of reasons) particularly

(for a

strong: born-digital design. In this

rapidly developing digital
age, it is perhaps surprising how many practices did not use
computers to design buildings until after the millennium, or were
at most merely tip-toeing into the future with varying degrees of

enthusiasm. It did not take long before the disadvantages of

over-reliance on computers became apparent and the abandonment by
many architectural schools of the teaching of traditional drawing
skills became a problem. At least one major, very high-tech
international practice a few years ago introduced ‘voluntary’ life
drawing classes for the younger staff to remedy the deficiency.
A Brief History of
the Riba Collections

The Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British was available English architects for nearly 150 years and
to

Architects (RIBA) is one of the most important in its field in the transformed English architecture, becoming the basis of
world. The Institute, founded in 1834, was the first organisation an architectural style exported worldwide and known as

anywhere to begin collecting architectural drawings systematically Anglo-Palladianism. Jones directly copied Palladio’s style of
*
and since the late 1950s its collection has expanded hugely. draughtsmanship, and buildings with direct quotes from the
Until the 19th century, collecting architectural drawings drawings were being built by the late 17th century. By this time,
was the preserve of private collectors and had been since the almost all of this collection, together with most of the drawings
Renaissance. Two of the earliest known were Italian: Giorgio of Jones himself and his pupil John Webb (1611-1672), was in
Vasari (1511-1575) and Jacopo Strada (1518-1588). Vasari was the hands of the architect William Talman (1650-1719) and later
a painter, architect, writer and historian most famous for his his son John Talman (1677-1726). The Talmans assembled the
Le Vite de’più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori (‘Lives most remarkable collection of their day, intending it to form part

of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects’), first of a Talman museum of architecture, sculpture and the allied
published in 1550 and which today is considered the foundation arts. This did not happen and the collection was dispersed in the

of art-historical writing. Most of Vasari’s collection consisted 1720s but examples from it by Palladio and Jones are represented
of drawings by 15th- and 16th-century Italian artists but the in this book, having been presented to the RIBA in 1894 by the
architectural drawings were almost all more or less contemporary 8th Duke of Devonshire, to whom they had descended from the
and were presumably mostly gifts from the architects or their collection of his ancestor, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington
families. They included works by Antonio da Sangallo (1694-1753). Burlington had acquired another group of Palladio
(1484-1546), Michelangelo (1475-1564), Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) drawings in Italy and his collection of Palladio, Jones and Webb
and Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616). Strada was a painter, drawings was perhaps the most influential archive in the history
architect, inventor, goldsmith and art dealer from Mantua, who of architecture.
bought drawings direct from Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554) and It was not until after about 1800, when Sir John Soane
(1753-1837)
the estate of Giulio Romano (1499-1546), in whose studio he began collecting, that an English collection of architectural
had trained. Both men, it seems, acquired drawings as an act of drawings was once again formed with a didactic purpose. Soane
connoisseurship rather than to seek exemplars. was Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts and

This pattern endured for another two and a half centuries. his collection was formed partly for the benefit of his students.
However, perhaps the very first architect’s archive combining However, in 1833 he secured a private Act of Parliament enabling
jottings,sketches and memoranda as well as presentation him to leave his house and museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields to

drawings to be acquired en bloc was that of Andrea Palladio. the nation ‘for the study of Architecture and the Allied Arts’, a

Traditionally thought to have been acquired by the English purpose that it has served ever since his death. Soane’s benevolent
architect Inigo Jones (1573-1652) in Italy in 1614 but more intentions in 1833 were followed a year later by the founding of
likely bought by his friend, travelling companion and patron the Institute of British Architects (from 1866 officially entitled the
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), this collection Royal Institute of British Architects). The founders were a group
of London-based architects intent establishing a national body
on There was little
precedent for the founding members to follow
of competent professional practitioners who could clearly be in creating a collection of
books, drawings and written records.
recognised, in the words of the prospectus, as being ‘unconnected The art and architectural academies, such as the Accademia di San
with building as a business or trade’. Tuca in Rome or the Royal Academy of Arts in Tondon, often
The foundation of the RIBA in 1834 was a milestone in the retained architectural drawings in their archives but there was

development of architectural museums. The

Royal Charter of no systematic attempt to preserve architectural records. Even Sir

1837 describes the Institute as ‘an institution for the general John Soane’s Museum, though intended to serve as an educational
advancement of Civil Architecture and for promoting and and public resource, underperformed in that purpose until the

facilitating the acquirement of the knowledge of the various arts 1980s because of the limitations on access. It is in any case a

and sciences connected therewith’ and, to that end, it immediately static collectionconsisting of Soane’s
professional archive
own

began acquiring books and drawings. It was not intended to be a supplemented by a few near-contemporary collections, such as
trade union for architects, even while promoting their interests, George Dance (1741-1825) and the Adam brothers. It was not
and it is its function as a collecting body, continued to the present until the foundation of public museums devoted to the fine and
day, that differentiates it from all other architectural institutes in decorative arts in Europe and America from the mid-19th century,
the world. Today, it houses what are, in effect, the British national particularly in London, Paris and New York, that institutional
collections relating to architecture and these are made available collecting of architectural drawings became the norm.
freely to any researcher, not just to architects. At the RIBA in the 1830s, books and drawings were not the
The founding of the Architectural Society slightly earlier, in only items that the Institute wished to acquire for its library.
1831, had involved a similar attempt to create a library and It is evident that the founders wanted to create a museum that
collections for the use and instruction of young architects. would also include prints, manuscripts, models, portraits, casts
The drawings acquired were primarily measured drawings of of antique classical details and specimens of building materials.
contemporary buildings, all bearing a prominent stamp There was no precedent for this, but in the end practical
(see p 172 ), but the Society did not flourish and it merged with considerations, not least space, meant that the casts, building
the RIBA in 1842, bringing its collections with it. materials and other unwieldy items, particularly models, were
The unique strength of the RIBA lies in the fact that the given away or loaned to other institutions between the 1870s
collections belong to the profession, not to a government-run and 1930s. Drawings were to a large extent exempted from the
institution, and the vast majority of its extraordinary collection of dispersal process, although as late as the mid-1950s, a process of
drawings, now more than a million, have been given by architects. weeding the collections of what was then perceived as extraneous
The breadth of the collections, nationally and internationally, matter saw some thousands of drawings leave. Although caution

means that they form part of the collective memory of the continues to be exercised when dealing with large archives, today
architectural profession worldwide. It was a model that others, the RIBA would be unlikely to treat such offers in the way it did
such as the American Institute of Architects, followed but few in the 1950s, when the Institute was given the archive of William
collected on such a scale and none have stayed the course. Burn (1789-1870), a prolific designer principally of country
houses, and the succeeding practices down to 1950. A large part both historic and current material. It was thus also recognised
of the collection was given to the Scottish National Building that need
collecting not be connected with fashion, but was
Record and various county record offices. justifiable in its own right, in order to portray visually the
In the early days, the Institute asked members to donate history of architecture. There was the occasional historical
drawings as examples of good contemporary practice but as purchase, such as the so-called ‘Heirloom Copy’ of Stephen
early as 1835, the first historic drawing was given, a perspective Wren’s Parentalia containing manuscripts and drawings by Sir
by William Talman (see p 82 ). The decision early on to collect Christopher Wren (1632-1723), bought by public subscription
historic drawings to inspire contemporary architects, rather in 1911, and the Tudor and Jacobean drawings in the Smythson
than to provide material to copy, underlay many significant Collection bought in 1927 (see pp 80 81 128 and 157 159 ). But
, ,
-

acquisitions. The first major gift was a collection of 18th-century the interwar years proved something of a doldrums. Increasingly
Italian, French and German mostly Baroque perspectives, largely in the 1920s, the collection was seen as a treasury of ‘Old
by the Bibiena family (see p 30 ) but it included the only drawing Master’ drawings and the library collected
retrospectively, rather
by Etienne-Touis Boullee now in a British collection (see p 198 ). than seeking out contemporary material. The first Acquisitions
The collection was put together in Paris from the 1820s by a Register for drawings was begun only in 1934, the year of the
Scottish aristocrat, Sir John Drummond Stewart (1794-1838), move into the RIBA’s present elegant headquarters in Portland

who gave it to the Institute on his deathbed in 1838 (it is said at Place, Tondon. The profession was less interested in its own
the urging of Sir Charles Barry, a future vice president) apparently drawings and many celebrated architects, such as Sir Edwin
to avoid it falling into the hands of Stewart’s unfaithful and Tutyens (1869-1944), debunked the art of drawing for its own
estranged wife. This donation may in part have prompted a sake. It is somewhat ironic that the gift of Tutyens’ own archive
discussion in the 1839 Report of the Institute’s Council, which in 1951 was the catalyst for the emergence of the Drawings
noted the hoped-for (but unrealised) acquisition of a drawing by Collection as a distinct entity within the library.
the distinguished French architect Charles Percier (1764-1838), The turning point was the offer by Robert Lutyens in 1951 of
who had recently died. It went on to state, ‘This application arose his father’s archive, then containing some 80,000 drawings. Sir
from the conviction of its being extremely important that the Edwin Lutyens was the greatest British architect of the first half
Institute should, if possible, possess some autograph specimen of of the 20th century so it was an offer hard to refuse. The Institute
the talents of every distinguished architect, as they may hereafter rose to the challenge, establishing a panel of advisors and writing

enable those, who may write on the history of the arts or the principles for retention and disposal that have largely governed
biography of architects, to refer to authentic records.’ acquisitions of archives ever since. It is disappointing that so
During the 19th century, many distinguished foreign architects much of the Lutyens archive was weeded then, but it was the

gave material upon being elected Honorary and Corresponding first time that the RIBA had accepted the end-of-career archive
Members. Thereafter, the collection grew in fits and starts. In of a contemporary architect and there were no precedents to be
the 1870s, there was another push to acquire drawings from followed. However, it brought attention to the importance of the
members, who were reminded of the importance of preserving Drawings Collection and led to the appointment a decade later of
 John Harris as its first Curator, who actively campaigned for staff
and resources.

Harris and his team, particularly Margaret Richardson and Jill

Lever, his eventual successor, transformed the collection, which
began a process of relentless growth, requiring a move out of
Portland Place, first to 21 Portman Square in 1971 and then,
combined with the Manuscripts and Archives, to the Victoria
and Albert Museum in 2004. Today, it occupies three sites: in the

Henry Cole Wing at the V&A, the Piper Centre in Fulham and
a store in Oxfordshire. At the V&A, the collection and its staff
live in harmonious partnership with the museum, allowing joint
architectural and educational programmes, office and study room
facilities and both permanent and temporary exhibition space. The
tradition of regular exhibitions that drew
heavily on the collection
and stimulated further gifts was established by the creation of the
Heinz Gallery in Portman Square, which showed 126 exhibitions
between 1972 and 1999, many of which were on young practices
Mien van der Rohe’s perspective of his proposed Library and
Administration Building of the Illinois Institute of Technology, 1944.
and architects who later became household names.

Under John Harris and his colleagues, the revitalised Drawings

Collection began expanding as the curators adopted a systematic
policy of acquisitions, at first requesting gifts of drawings and
sometimes whole archives from architectural practices whose
origins went back beyond 1914. But even as late as 1964, the
collection had only one drawing by a celebrated living architect,
Mies van der Rohe’s perspective of his proposed Library and
Administration Building of the Illinois Institute of Technology

given by him in 1960 to mark his award of the Royal Gold Medal
(see left).
Many subsequent medallists have followed suit (see pp 54 and
193 ). A policy of approaching a wide range of contemporary
architects was adopted in 1964 and many of the drawings thus
acquired can be seen in this book. This coincided with the great
upsurge of interest in architectural history in the early 1960s and
architectural drawings became the necessary tools of historical
research. As historians became increasingly interested in the
19th century, fresh caches of drawings were found in attics and
basements and historians became advisors to the collection and
often volunteer cataloguers of new acquisitions. The fruits of this
labour can be found in the 19 volumes of the printed catalogue
that appeared from 1969 to 1984, with a cumulative index
volume in 1989. The present catalogue is available online.
For many years, the emphasis in collecting has been to
focus less on the ‘beautiful’ single drawing (what one might
call the connoisseur’s approach) but instead to capture the
whole process of design, from concept sketches to working
drawings. In addition, there has been a focus on how drawings
were made, leading to a collection of drawing instruments and
office equipment from the late 16th century to the present day.
Remarkably, the equipment necessary until the late 20th century
(when digital design was born) remained quite simple and can
be found mostly in a geometry set and watercolour paint box
(see right and opposite).
The collection continues to grow, sometimes by single

drawings, sometimes huge archives. The Institute has benefited

from the Acceptance in Tieu process by which the government
accepts artistic objects with a value set against estate duty.
By this means, the huge archives of Professor Sir Teslie Martin
(1908-2000; see p 109 ) and Sir Denys Tasdun (1914-2001;
see p 72 ) have arrived since 2003. These have been supplemented

more recently by the archive and papers of Professor Sir Colin

St John Wilson (1922-2007; see pp 52 and 209 ) through the

bequest of his widow and partner, MJ Tong (1939-2018). Other Portrait by Sir William Orpen of Sir Guy Dawber, President of the RIBA 1925-1927,
painted in 1930. Dawber is shown at a Georgian architect’s table using dividers,
acquisitions by purchase have been made, often with the generous a drawing instrument in use from antiquity to the present day.

assistance of bodies such as the Heritage Tottery Fund, the

Friends of the National Tibraries, the Arts Fund and what
is currently called the Arts Council/V&A Purchase Grant Fund,
 as well as private individuals and corporate bodies. The result

is the national archive of architectural drawings, but without

any public funding. It serves the

public, academics, students
and the architectural profession, for increasingly architects
work on existing buildings and need access to original

drawings or to drawings of a similar period, for reasons both

practical and inspirational. The collection is certainly busier
than at any time since the RIBA’s founders perceptively saw
its need back in 1834.

Note
*
The history of the RIBA Collections has never been fully written up and the
present account is drawn from a variety of published and unpublished sources,
the unpublished accounts principally by John Harris and Jill Lever, the first
and second Curators of Drawings (1961-1986 and 1986-1996), and Margaret
Richardson, Deputy Curator (1962-1985). The main published sources are
Kitson SD, ‘The RIBA Library’, in Gotch JA (ed), The Growth and Work of the
Royal Institute of British Architects 1834-1934, RIBA, 1934, pp 130-40; Palmes
JC, ‘Introduction’, in Lever J (ed), Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the
Royal Institute of British Architects, Vol A, Gregg International, 1969, pp 9-10;
Richardson M, ‘The RIBA Drawings Collection, 1834-1978’, Architectural
Design, Vol 48, No 5/6, 1978, pp 384-86; Mace A, The Royal Institute of British
Architects: A Guide to its Archive and History, Mansell, 1986, pp 97-102; Pugh
S, ‘From Pugin to Voysey: Collecting and preserving 19th-century drawings and
archives’, Studies in Victorian Architecture and Design, Vol 2, 2010, pp 62-73.

Set of drawing instruments, c. 1760, belonging to Thomas Farnolls Pritchard

(1723-1777), architect of the pioneering Ironbridge, Shropshire.
Pure Architecture
by Hugh Pearman

Architecture does not have to be built to exist. This should be In Soane’s especially, his piecemeal alterations were as
case

obvious. Designs andbuildings are related: there is considerable nothing compared to the grandiose new Parliamentary buildings
overlap as you would hope, but what gets built – if designed and palaces which he envisaged, and designed in considerable
by architects can only ever be approximations of what they
–

detail, and which exist in the drawings of his draughtsman of

imagined. Even ‘working drawings', no matter how seemingly genius, Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843). For Soane, as for
precise, are merely an instruction manual: they occupy a different most architects, the drawing was a medium to communicate

realm from the thing built according to those instructions. The architectural ideas in different ways – in his case to advertise his
physical world with its manufactured products and compromises skills andattract prospective clients right up to the King, but

intrudes rudely. Economics come into play. Corners are cut, also to teach architecture to his students, either at the Royal
materials are substituted, shapes shift, other architects take Academy or in the drawing office in his own house and studio in
over, even the siting and orientation of the building can change. Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Since his death in 1837, the Soane Museum
As time goes by alterations, extensions and repairs move housed there has been one of the world’s
extraordinary
most

the building further and further from its original designed and rewarding museums. In it you will find a charming drawing
form which itself was merely the conclusion of a process
–

showing the three houses he designed there expanded into a row.

of investigation, with other ideas tried and rejected along the On the balcony to welcome you to this imagined domestic idyll
way; Once built, the building assumes a different and evolving are John and Eliza Soane.

character, just as no two houses in a typical old terraced street are Similarly, the better Bank of England is the one that exists in
the same behind their frontages, even though all may have started Soane and Gandy’s drawings rather than the one that was built,
out identically. only to be butchered in the 1920s expansion by Sir Herbert Baker,
Drawings and computer visualisations, along with physical leaving little of the original but Soane’s perimeter wall. The famous
models, thus get closer to architecture as imagined by the 1830 Gandy cutaway aerial perspective of Soane’s original Bank,
architect, no matter how sketchy they may be or how successful showing it in a state of construction or ruin, has been influential
a completed building may turn out to be. They frequently have on generations of architects (see p 17 ).

a longer life than the buildings they may describe. That is not Architecture can be drawn for its own sake, with no built
difficult, when you consider that, even at the time of writing, outcome ever envisaged, as some of the examples in this book

many modern speculative office blocks are still being wastefully make clear. ‘Paper architecture’ is an end in itself: distinct from

designed for lives of only 25-30 years and are then replaced the virtual worlds of computer gaming and the rapidly-evolving
or fundamentally remodelled, so are effectively temporary virtual or augmented reality-headset ‘metaverse’. Such pretend-worlds
structures. But this applies at all levels. The contributions of Inigo can be argued to produce real places, in the sense that

Jones (1573-1652) to Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in Tondon, or the you go there, inhabit them, interact with others and find them
additions of the Georgian architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837) sufficiently convincing: designing such virtual places is a proven
to the much-altered medieval Palace of Westminster, exist now career option for some who train in architecture and the metaverse

only on paper. In both cases fire destroyed the original buildings. is now attracting some of the big established names in architecture.
 Design is design, after all, and this is merely the development of
an ancient idea going back through film and theatre sets to the
classical world.
Perhaps more controversially, architecture does not even

have to be drawn or described to exist, and to understand this

best we have the fertile mind of the great American
to enter

architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959) who liked to give the

impression that he had a library of buildings in his head, all ready
to go, “Why, I just shake the buildings out of my sleeves,” he

would say. Typical braggadocio from Wright, of course, but one

of the most celebrated stories in architecture lends credence to it.
This was his
design of the 1937 house to which he gave the
name Fallingwater: the one he placed on top of a waterfall in
Bear Run, Pennsylvania, that his clients, the Kaufmanns, liked
Laid bare:JM Gandy’s aerial cutaway perspective of Soane’s Bank of England, 1830
to picnic by and look at. An almost absurdly audacious house

with its rock floor and cantilevered terraces, it revived what was

then his flagging career (see p 18 ). The story attached to it is that

Wright, having received the commission, let months go by without
producing a single drawing. Eventually Edgar J. Kaufmann
phoned Wright to say he was coming over to see the design. He
was in Milwaukee, only 140 miles and a few hours away by car

from Wright’s studio at Taliesin, Wisconsin.

“Come right along, E.J, we’re ready for you,” said Wright,
who then sat down at his drawing table, gathered his apprentices
around him, reached for his coloured pencils and started to draw,
for the first time on this job. Thus the design emerged, and for
me the most interesting thing about this story – to which there

were several witnesses is that Wright did not simply do a rough

–

concept sketch in the time available. He drew plan, section,

elevation, the whole basic set, talking to himself as he went,
describing the design in detail, where everything went, what you
would see and hear then handed his drawings to his apprentices
–

to work up and generate perspective views. They were still being

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater
sketched in 2014 by architect
Douglas Smith. Wright produced
his original design in a morning.
finished when Kaufmann arrived and Wright whisked him
away to start the presentation. “Don’t change a thing,” said the
entranced Kaufmann at the end. And as it was drawn, so the
house was built, at enormous expense and ongoing maintenance
and repair costs as was usual with Wright houses.
This could well be the best recorded example of architecture
proceeding directly from brain to paper to built form. It needed
the act of drawing to draw it out. The idea might have been

crystal clear or inchoate– who knows how Wright’s mind

worked but it was the business of starting to draw with those
–

coloured pencils – and to describe it verbally at the same time,

to talk it into existence –

that made it happen.

This is where the worlds of architecture and writing come
together. Many a writer will tell you– I certainly will that it
–

is the act of writing in itself that makes the thoughts appear,

and sometimes they will surprise you, as if they come from
elsewhere. It is a process that structures your thinking. Irish Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey’s watercolour elevation of their Sow Swee Hock Student Centre at the LSE.
architects and RIBA Royal Gold Medallists Sheila O’Donnell They donated it to the RIBA Collections on their receiving the RIBA Royal Cold Medal for architecture in 2015.

and John Tuomey, both also writers, are cases in point. Tuomey
has talked eloquently about how the act of drawing makes the

design happen, how it somehow emerges from the point of the

pencil. O’Donnell has a related process, in her case working with
watercolour. From there, their designs eventually move on to a
remarkable level of detail: on one of their projects, the Saw Swee
Hock Student Centre for the London School of Economics, the
exactposition of every brick in the complex facade was drawn
(see right).
If the Fallingwater story represents one (extraordinarily
rare) aspect of direct design, and O’Donnell and Tuomey’s
a differently lyrical approach, another aspect of visually
communicating architecture remains consistent across the
centuries: getting someone else to do the drawing. This can
create a certain confusion at, for instance, the Architecture
Helmut Jacoby’s characteristic fine-line
1974 aerial view of the future new city
of Milton Keynes.
Room at the Royal Academy’s Summer Show. Are you meant using physical layering techniques to build up the final image.
to be looking at the work of the architect
or the work of the Everyone had access to the same tools: the same small set of
artist, modelmaker, photographer or visualiser (sometimes also drawing implements would last an architect a lifetime, and some
an architect, sometimes not)
depicting it? There is no subterfuge have found their way into the RIBA Collection (see p 15 ). The
here as to authorship of the design shown – the practice of subsequent digital revolution in architectural drawing for a
architecture is nearly always collaborative but when it comes
–

while created something of a two-tier system, with old-fashioned

to the ‘presentation drawing’ (one of the sections of this book), hand drawing being seen as superior and computer drafting (at
especially when the presentation in question is to the client first confined to the wealthier practices because of the cost of
or for publicity purposes, then it helps to be able to call upon the the kit) as something either flashy and shallow, or better suited
talents of others. to working drawings and specification. This was something

Those others will have their own individual

styles. Where that eventually developed into today’s Building Information
Soane, no mean draughtsman himself, had his
Gandy, Modelling or BIM, where a virtual model can be shared by all
early-to-mid- period Norman Foster had Helmut Jacoby, though not members of the design and construction team.
exclusively (his colleagues Birkin Haward and Jan Kaplicky also But since the dawn of the digital age in the 1980s it has
contributed to the Foster ‘look’). Jacoby (1926-2005), himself always been the case that architects have frequently overlaid
trained as an architect, produced the best presentation drawings the various techniques available, mixing their media, just as
of Foster’s breakout project, the 1975 Willis Faber Dumas HQ they did in the analogue era when photographs, drawing and
in Ipswich, England, having previously been based in the USA collage elements could combine in the same final image. So
and rendering the designs of Marcel Breuer, Paul Rudolph, Eero when we started an annual drawing prize, Eye Line, at the RIBA
Saarinen, I.M. Pei and others. In the UK, however, he is perhaps Journal in 2013, it seemed odd that architectural drawing was
best known for what came to be the defining 1960s image of the still routinely divided into those two camps, the hand-drawn
new city of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire which was then and the computer drafted and manipulated, when so much
being built under the leadership of architect Derek Walker. An of the work we were seeing either blended the two or did not
aerial view from 1974 (see opposite), showing the grid-pattern make its origins apparent. So we made no distinction there but
city below as it would be in 1990, has the viewer hovering just another distinction rapidly became clear: between student and
above and to one side of an entirely gratuitous helicopter which practitioner.
nonetheless both provides foreground to the picture and a sense To some extent this is the difference between fantasy and
of the sophisticated modernity of the place: Walker employed realworld projects, to some extent it is just a factor of time: students
Jacoby for several ground-level visualisations as well (see p 122 ). have a lot of it, while practising architects, acutely aware of

Today’s drone shots from the position Jacoby calculated show the cost of their time, tend not to have that luxury. There is of
that he got it spot-on. course overlap between the two states – students gain experience
Everything then was still painstakingly hand-drawn, in in their training by spending some time in practice before

Jacoby’s case in fine-line ink and very occasionally colour tints, finally qualifying but generally the more captivating or at any
–
rate spectacular images tended to emerge from the architecture fashioned typewriter. Nobody else ever tried this method but it
schools. There are fewer constraints on the
imagination there, no worked remarkably well. Seeing hundreds of drawings over a
cost-cutting client or hostile planning committees to negotiate, short period every year does mean that you can acquire pet hates:
although all students fear the ‘crit’ at which their designs are mine was and remains random flocks of birds in the skies.
sometimes ruthlessly interrogated. So what is the purpose of maintaining a drawings collection?
The aim of the Eye Line judges is always to assess the drawing Why do these artefacts matter? Other than the sheer aesthetic joy
skill in communicating the architectural idea – not the feasibility of them, and the light they shed on urban and social history and
or practicality or even desirability of the project. So over the their creators, there are of course practical reasons. If restoring a

years the competition winners and commendations have included historic building, say, you will want all the visual documentation
everything from the wildly conceptual to the determinedly you can get which show how the building originally looked and
everyday. It is always satisfying to find in the mix entries from the what the design intention was. This is not necessarily the same
traditionalist end of the architectural spectrum, where drawing thing, particularly if more than one architect was involved and/or
skills are especially prized; and from the conservation world the design was changed when built, not uncommon. Sydney
where survey drawings can themselves be objects of great beauty. Opera House by the Danish architect Jorn Utzon was notoriously
Some of the winners have found their way into the permanent completed inside by others: his own surviving drawings – and
collection andtwo have been selected by the authors of this book. re-engagement with the project in old age – became the start of a
The student world, in this case the Bartlett School of Architecture process of renewal at the start of the 21st century.
at University College London, is represented by Theo Jones’ To return to the
point about drawings frequently outlasting the
‘Unfolding Julian Assange’s Home of Diplomatic Containment’, buildings they depict: before photography emerged in the 19th
winner of its category in 2019 (see p 217 ) while the world of century, the drawing was– and remains – the only visual record
the practitioner is shown in a charcoal drawing by Tszwai So of a vanished building, and is thus invaluable. Sometimes we find
of Spheron Architects, ‘The Messenger’ (see p 125 ), which in the collection a drawing of one building replaced by another
won its category in 2018, having already won the architecture (see the design for remodelling Peamore House by George Stanley
competition for a memorial that it was designed for. Repton, p 88 ), a valuable indicator of changing tastes.
Fashions ebb and flow in drawing styles as in everything else. Nearly all buildings above a certain size have the ghosts
Dark rainy dystopias were quite the thing in the student world of other designs fluttering around them: of the buildings that
when Eye Line started, to be succeeded by fantasy-fiction images preceded them on the same site in history, of discarded earlier
and designs based on graphic novels or comics: the adoption designs by their architects or later unbuilt replacement proposals,
of traditional or folk drawing styles of Asia and the Far East or designs by other architects for the same place at the same time,

also came to the fore, an aspect of the international nature of typically as the result of holding a competition. A prime example
the competition, the places some student projects are set and of that brings all these aspects together is Coventry Cathedral.
architecture itself. In contrast, one winning entry was a drawing The competition to rebuild the blitzed medieval cathedral–church
made of letters tapped out with enormous care on an old- became the key symbol of post-war reconstruction and
reconciliation in the UK, and the focus of an enormous amount
improvement and, if you are lucky, eventual resolution. This is
of effort by the luminaries and
hopefuls of the architecture what a former RIBA President, Sir Richard MacCormac, called
profession. The winner of the
competition, Anglo-Scottish “the art of the process”. The value of the RIBA Collections
architect Sir Basil Spence, became a national figure. and this book is the way they reveal the mind of the architect
His powerful idea (see p 69 ) was to keep almost all of the shell at work. Pure architecture, as it was made.
of the old cathedral as a preserved ruin that would be embraced
by the entrance portal of the new one: a very British response, Hugh Pearman is an architecture critic and author,
associated with The Sunday Times until 2016,
given our Romantic notion of the ecclesiastical ruin as an aspect
and who also edited the RIBA Journal until 2020.
of the sublime. “I felt the impact of delicate enclosure.
It was still a cathedral. Instead of the beautiful wooden roof it had
the skies vault,” Spence recalled later.
as a

Today Spence’s Coventry Cathedral with its physical reminder

of war, structural audacity and richness of artistic decoration
is rightly regarded as a masterpiece, but at the time of the

competition in 1950 it was widely seen by more avant-garde

members of the architectural community as too conventional;
insufficiently modernist. Well, with the passing of time we can
revisit the competition and assess the other entrants afresh. The
Drawings Collection has several of them, from Trad to Mod,
while if you go to the published accounts of the project you will
find images of his own design sequence, from first sketch through
competition drawings and then various iterations of the design
thereafter in drawings and models. If nothing else, this proves the
dictum that winning a competition is usually the start rather than
the end of the design process because whereas Spence’s overall
concept design remained remarkably true to his first sketch plan,
the interiors in particular changed enormously for the better in the
decade that followed.
You can, it seems, never quite get back wholly intact
to a

and unchanging architectural idea (unless, perhaps, you are a

Frank Lloyd Wright). Architecture for most who undertake it is
a mutable thing, a sequence of changing thoughts and concepts,

of wrong turnings and sudden inspirations, dogged grind, steady

CONCEPT
SKETCHES
For architects, just as much as for
painters and (see p 28 ) has a wonderful spontaneity that, with
sculptors, the act of putting pen pencil to paper is
or itsaccompanying doodled figures, turns it into a
a way of thinking in physical terms. The committing small work of art. Some architects always begin with
of idea to paper can itself stimulate other ideas.
an a plan. Andrea Palladio certainly did and a sheet
Steven Holl’s concept for Maggie’s Centre at St of his sketches in the RIBA Collections has more
Bartholomew’s Hospital, London
(see p 57) is one than 20 alternative designs for the plan of a city
of many drawn in a sketchbook and, apart from palace, probably in Vicenza. Once he had settled
size, bears no relationship to the earlier ideas that on a satisfactory plan, he would then develop the
bubbled up as possibilities. Sir George Gilbert Scott elevations.
used sketchbooks to record the state of churches Joseph Paxton’s famous
drawing for the Great
on preliminary site visits, followed by ideas for their Exhibition Building of 1851 in Hyde Park, London
restoration, and no than 130 of these sketchbooks (now displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum)
survive (with more than 70 held by the RIBA). was of a cross section and elevation of an iron-and-glass
The use of sketchbook implies an intention to
a building. Being conceived as a construction of
preserve a concept, but many architects regard these prefabricated parts, the plan was less important.
sketches ephemeral and throw them away. Sir
as Drawn on blotting paper during a meeting of the
Denys Lasdun produced thousands of sketches but disciplinary board of the Midland Railway Company
by the time his archive passed to the RIBA, fewer that Paxton was chairing, in less than a week he
than 10 survived. On the other hand, Michelangelo had worked it up into a proposal that was adopted
is said to have deliberately destroyed his preliminary in preference to one put forward by the Exhibition
sketches so that no one would know how much Committee. This sketch has achieved iconic status
labour had been involved in developing a design. but one almost as well known to historians of 20th-century
Sometimes these ideas scraps of
are drawn on British Modernism is Erich Mendelsohn’s
paper, such as Sir Robert Smirke’s sketch designs virtuoso yetextremely simple concept for the
for improvements to Windsor Castle (see p 34 ) sweeping spiral staircase in the De La Warr Pavilion
that were surely never intended to be saved (he at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex (see p 42 ).
did not get the
commission). Other ideas have Although concept sketches form part of a linear
been preserved in letters (see pp 36 and 39 ), which progression of ideas towards the final solution, two
have the advantage for the historian of adding a of the drawings here are of particular importance in
commentary to the design that is otherwise almost marking a sudden jump towards resolution, solving
always lacking. earlier problems in two well-known projects. Jørn
Rarely are these early sketches drawn to a scale Utzon’s competition-winning proposal for the Sydney
—

that comes at a later stage. However, Sir Edwin Opera House seemed unbuildable until the engineer
Lutyens, an inveterate doodler, used sheets of graph Ove Arup proposed a change in the geometry of the
paper to develop his ideas for buildings in New roofs (see pp 48 49 ), while Richard Meier resolved
-

Delhi (see p 40 ), which gave a degree of control over the conflicts between his vision and those of the
dimensions. Inigo Jones’ design for a chimneypiece trustees of the Getty Center in Los Angeles (see p 54 ).

DOI: 10.4324/9781003343691-1
 All but one of the
drawings in this section are by
the architect responsible for the (proposed) building.
A unique exception is the painting of MAXXI in Rome
(see p 56 ), which is best described as an after-the-event
concept sketch for a building designed by Dame
Zaha Hadid but not in her hand. This semi-abstract
work is actually by Antonio de Campos, working
under her oversight to such an extent that the artist
considered it both a collaboration and also her work.
Hadid continued to develop ideas for a project even
after the design had been finalised for construction and
this painting reflects such
development.a
This section includes drawings that, while not
some
directed towards the design of a building, do share the
spontaneity and ephemeral nature of so many concept
sketches. These include one of four sheets used by Le
Corbusier in a lecture at the Architectural Association
in preference slides (see p 44 ) and a drawing made
to
on a napkin during an RIBA dinner by Edward Cullinan

(see p 55 ). Another sketch not intended for a building

is a stage design by Antonio Galli Bibiena (see p 30 )
that strays into the world of fantasy, where fictitious
architecture was to be realised in wood, plaster, paint
and canvas. Such a drawing would have been developed
later into more formal designs for the scenery painters
to translate into something that could work on stage.
SKETCH DESIGN FOR The freehand elevation at the top of this hand, and correspond more closely to
THE VILLA POIANA,
drawing is anearly concept for a villa to the plan of the villa as built. Palladio
POIANA MAGGIORE,
be built near Vicenza. On the verso of this refined and simplified this design for the
ITALY, 1546-1547
sheet is a measured drawing that corresponds final version. Building began about 1550
Andrea Palladio to this sketch, which is a unique surviving and finished in 1563. The client was
(1508-1580)
Pen and ink example showing the development of Bonifacio Poiana, in whose household
270 x 380 mm Palladio’s design. He always began with before her marriage Palladio’s wife
the plan and the elevation was developed had worked as a maid, and Poiana
afterwards. The plans below the elevation himself had worked actively to promote
are later and almost certainly in another Palladio’s career since the 1530s.
The drawing was probably made by a than washes. In the days before tracing DESIGN FOR BURGHLEY HOUSE,
mason and is a design for the north front of paper, the easiest way to copy a drawing LINCOLNSHIRE, ENGLAND,
FOR SIR WILLIAM CECIL,
Burghley House, broadly corresponding to was to lay it on top of another sheet and,
PERSPECTIVAL ELEVATION OF
the design as built but differing considerably using a compass point, prick through THE NORTH FRONT, c.1580
in the detail. The drawing combines the drawing to the lower sheet. Then the
orthogonal projection with a degree of lines would be redrawn in pen and ink, Unidentified 16th-century English architect
Pen and ink, pricked for transfer
perspective and although quite sufficient to connecting the holes. This is the original
190 x 330 mm
indicate to the client what was proposed, upper sheet.
it lacks the sophistication that had been Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley,
mastered by architects in Continental Europe began remodelling and enlarging Burghley
and particularly Italy. Nevertheless, it is House in 1553 but the present external
delicately drawn with a quill pen, with the appearance of the house largely dates from
shading indicated by crosshatching, rather the 1570s and 1580s.
DESIGN FOR A CHIMNEYPIECE This is vigorous and spontaneous
a Jones was as a designer, for none of them
AND OVERMANTEL FOR THE
drawing, combining a design for a could have produced such a virtuoso work.
QUEEN’S HOUSE, GREENWICH,
chimneypiece with studies of putti, The design of the chimneypiece itself was
LONDON, ENGLAND, c.1637
intended as supporters of the crown that based on a conflation of two designs by
Inigo Jones (1574-1653) forms the centre of the composition above Jean Barbet (1591—c. 1650), two of a suite
Pen and ink the initials of Queen Henrietta Maria. The of engravings entitled Livre d’Architecture,
193 x 295 mm studies are reminders of Jones’ background d’autels et de cheminées (‘Book of
as a painter and masque designer before he Architecture, Altars and Chimneypieces’,
turned to architecture. He was particularly Paris, 1632). The Queen’s House, begun
influenced by the drawings of the Italian for Anne of Denmark and left unfinished
Mannerist painter Parmigianino (1503-1503), at her death in 1619, was completed for

many of which were owned by Charles I’s French wife, Henrietta Maria, in
his friend and patron Thomas Howard, the 1630s. There were few engraved Italian
Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), with whom sources for chimneypieces in this period,

he had travelled to Italy in 1613-1614. and not surprisingly, the Queen preferred
This freehand drawing emphasises how French fashions.
far ahead of his English contemporaries
DESIGN FOR A TRIUMPHAL ARCH
SYMBOLISING 'THE RETURN OF THE
MONARCHY’, LEADENHALL STREET,
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1661

Attributed to Edward Pearce (c.1635-1695)

Pen and ink, grey washes and pencil
450 x 295 mm

The restoration of King Charles II to the

throne in 1660 was followed by a state
visit to the City of London the following
year. Triumphal arches were erected along
the processional route, built of wood,
plaster and painted canvas, for which four
drawings survive. In this drawing, the basic
architectural structure is indicated somewhat
roughly, while the detail picked out in ink
is reserved for what would have been the
carved and sculptural elements, which gives
a clue as to the draughtsman. The design of

the arches is generally credited to Peter Mills

(1598-1670), Surveyor to the City, and Sir
Balthasar Gerbier (1592-1663), a courtier,
diplomat, painter and architect. However,
the draughtsmanship of this and other
preliminary designs for arches for this state
occasion is now attributed to Edward Pearce,

a carver and sculptor who later became

one of the mason contractors for St Paul’s

Cathedral, as well as a designer of decorative

features such as screens and pulpits.
Pearce was an accomplished architectural
draughtsman and assisted Sir Christopher
Wren (1632-1723) in designing elements
for St Paul’s and the city churches and may
therefore have had some involvement in the
design process for these arches.
DESIGN FOR A STAGE SET FOR AN This virtuoso freehand sketch for a stage elements would have been of wood and
OPERA, PROBABLY BOLOGNA, ITALY, set is by one of the most famous of a large plaster, while the more distant parts would
c.1750
family of architects and stage designers have been painted in trompe l’oeil on a
Antonio Galli Bibiena (1700-1774) working throughout Europe from about backdrop. However, from the drawings,
Pen and ink 1690-1787. The Bibienas specialised in it is usually impossible to tell where the
160 x 215 mm presenting grandiose world of stage palaces
a division would have come. This design
with carefully arranged sets of overpowering may relate to Act I, scene 8 of Pietro
magnificence. Their single most important Metastasio’s opera Semiramide, performed
contribution to theatrical design was the in 1752 at the Teatro Formagliari, Bologna,
creation of the scena per angolo, in which Italy, where the setting is specified as the
the strict, axial symmetry of the Renaissance Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The two
stage was replaced by a flexible, diagonal Italian inscriptions, Giardino vago and
arrangement of stage architecture providing Giardino pensile (‘beautiful garden’ and
more imaginative illusions of distance and ‘hanging garden’), certainly suggest that
giving tiny scenes the appearance of vastness identification. Antonio Bibiena designed
and splendour, much admired in the age theatres as well as sets for the operas staged
of the Baroque. Usually, the foreground within them.
This rough but detailed sketch comes is the incorporation of a domed rotunda, SKETCH DESIGN FOR THE MAIN
from a sketchbook belonging to Matthew often inspired by the Pantheon, which he FAÇADE OF A CHURCH, 1750
Brettingham the Younger. The sketchbook would have seen and studied while in Rome.
Matthew Brettingham the Younger (1725-1803)
chronicles the young architect’s travels and In this sketch design, he not only includes a
Pen and ink, black chalk and sepia wash
studies across Italy in 1750, in particular his central dome over the main hexastyle portico 270 x 210 mm
time in Rome. The volume, which is bound entrance but also offers two alternative domed
in vellum, contains topographical views, towers for the corners. Below the elevation,

academic studies and reconstructions, as one Brettingham faintly sketches a plan of the
might expect from a travel journal; however, front part of the church to give a sense of
it also includes several original architectural the depth of the portico. He gives a further
designs, such as this church façade. sense of scale and context to the drawing by

Brettingham’s designs show he was including three small figures on the far left-
influenced by Andrea Palladio and English hand side of the design, possibly a mother and
Palladians. A recurring theme in his work her children taking shelter in the colonnade.
PLAN AND ELEVATION FOR This theoretical design reflects a long history The plans and elevations are a mixture of
A SMALL VILLA, c.1770 of architects trying to design buildings records of existing houses and designs for
with geometrical ground plans. Thomas small houses, for which there is no evidence
Thomas Hunt (1737-1816)
Hunt tried one triangular and a number of that any were built. This design is for a
Pen and ink and grey wash, with flaps,
top cut to the outline of the elevation octagonal designs, but all produce somewhat house that could be either octagonal or
Irregular 320 x 243 mm awkwardly shaped rooms. He is an intriguing extended by short wings on each side to
figure for he was not a professional architect enlarge the parlour and add a wash house
but the son of a merchant at Oundle, and study. The plan has flaps to conceal
Northamptonshire, who lived as a country the side extensions if not required, while
gentleman Wadenhoe in the same
at the elevation above it on the sheet has been
county. The sole evidence for his interest in cut out and folded along its base line so

architecture is an album containing some the elevation can be read for both sizes of
60 drawings in the RIBA Collections, made house, with the extensions visible or folded
between about 1765 and the early 1790s. flat
as required.
This is an entirely freehand drawing showing to build houses, while others were leased DESIGN FOR AN ALCOVE FOR
the end elevation and plan of what was all MR STEWARD, BERNERS STREET,
directly to purchasers. As a result, not

the houses were built to identical plans or WESTMINSTER, LONDON,

probably a ground-floor parlour or dining
ENGLAND, c.1770
room. The pen and grey wash used in the finished internally in a standard manner.
drawing was a standard method of presenting Chambers’ partner for some of the houses Sir William Chambers RA (1723-1796)
a project to the client during the second half was the plasterer Thomas Collins (1735—1830), Pen and ink, wash and pencil
of the 18th century, although in this case, who took leases on two houses 30 x 235 mm

the purpose of the drawing is more likely to and worked on others. Chambers would
be guidance for a plasterer. Between 1765 have trusted Collins enough to indicate
and the mid-1770s, Chambers took leases his design in this freehand manner, rather
on several building plots in Berners Street, than a fully measured drawing with all the
subleasing some sites to groups of craftsmen detail specified.
SKETCH DESIGNS FOR In March 1824, King George IV decided to paper was simply pickedup and used as scrap
IMPROVEMENTS TO hold a limited competition for improvements allow him to communicate to
by Smirke, to
WINDSOR CASTLE,
and alterations to Windsor Castle. A someone in his office his ideas for a massive,
ENGLAND, ON THE VERSO
Committee of Taste was appointed to towered gatehouse, possibly alongside the
OF A SCRAP OF A LETTER,
1824 judge the entries and just four architects existing Henry VIII gateway.
were invited to compete, all of whom were Smirke and Wyatt’s schemes have
Sir Robert Smirke RA, Hon FRIBA
officially attached to the Board of Works features in common, suggesting that they
(1780-1867) -John Nash (1752-1835), John Soane were given a brief (Nash’s drawings for the
Pendl
60 x 115 mm (1753-1837), Jeffry Wyatt (1766-1840) and competition have completely disappeared
Robert Smirke. and Soane withdrew). Ultimately Smirke
The RIBA holds more than 30 drawings was unsuccessful in the competition. The

by Smirke for this project, including these King favoured Wyatt’s arguably more
two very small sketch perspectives which coherent design and his work was carried
were produced on the back of a scrap of out in 1824-1830. Smirke, however, was
a letter. The script refers to the accounts equally busy during this period, completing
section, seemingly nothing to do with the the design for his most famous building, the
sketches themselves. This suggests that the British Museum.
This small drawing is one of approximately particular for London gentlemen looking for DESIGN FOR A ‘BALL ROOM’ AND
200 within the RIBA Collections short restorative break from the city. By the ATTACHED ‘DWELLING HOUSE’,
by the a
PROBABLY IN BRUNSWICK PLACE,
Regency architect CA Busby. Many of the early 19th century, speculative building in
HOVE, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, c.1825
drawings, such as this one, are unusual shapes the town was on the rise and Busby’s arrival
as a result of Busby himself having trimmed in 1823 was timely. His move to the town Charles Augustin Busby (1786-1834)
them following water damage, presumably was through a former client’s introduction Pen and ink and watercolour
caused by a house flood. to Thomas Read Kemp (1782-1844), a 105 x 135 mm

Busby is best known for his work in wealthy landowner who was looking to
Kemptown, Brighton; his elegant terraces build a large housing development on his
and crescents are synonymous with the Brighton lands, later known as Kemptown.
seaside town. This cropped drawing shows an While working with Kemp and his local
unnamed, unbuilt combination of house architect, Amon Henry Wilds (1762-1833),
and adjacent ballroom, although it is believed Busby embarked on a separate venture with
that the residence may be 18 Brunswick Place another landowner, Reverend Thomas Scutt
in Hove. (1769-1852), the result of which was the very
During the late 18th century, Brighton successful Brunswick estate, for which this
grew in popularity as a seaside spa town, in concept sketch was drawn.
PRELIMINARY DESIGNS FOR Correspondence between architects can not Pugin began designing furniture long
ARMCHAIRS AND A FIRE SCREEN
only be a treasure trove of information but before he became an architect. In 1827, aged
FOR THE LIBRARY, PROBABLY OF
also occasionally offers hidden pictorial 15, he designed a suite of Gothic furniture
THE HOUSE OF LORDS, PALACE
OF WESTMINSTER, LONDON,
treats. These four rough concept sketches for new apartments at Windsor Castle. He
ENGLAND, c.1844-1852 for a chair design are from an undated had received the commission via his father,
letter AWN Pugin wrote to Charles Barry the architectural draughtsman, artist and
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1795-1860), with whom he was working on writer Augustus Charles Pugin (1762-1832),
(1812-1852) designs for the new Houses of Parliament in who had recently had several of his furniture
Pen and ink and pencil
Westminster. The different roles of the two designs published. Pugin trained within his
*

250 x 200 mm
architects within the project have long been father’s studio and learnt much of his superb
debated but this letter clearly demonstrates draughtsmanship skills from his tuition.
Note
*
Ackermann R, Ackermann’s Repository of Arts,
Pugin’s responsibility for furniture, along
with his fondness for his partner, as he begins
1809; Ackermann R, Fashionable Furniture, 1823;
Pugin AC Gothic Furniture, nd but probably 1827. the letter, ‘My dear Mr Barry’.
Very different from the building we know The ultimately designed
structure was SKETCHES OF EARLY IDEAS FOR
THE HALL OF ARTS AND SCIENCE
today, these are some of the first ideas for by two engineers closely associated with
what later became known as the Royal Cole and South Kensington, Captain (LATER THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL),
LONDON, ENGLAND, c.1865
Albert Hall, London. These undated sketches Francis Fowke (1823-1865) and Major-
were produced by Henry Cole, one of the General HYD Scott (1822-1883). Sir Henry Cole (1808-1882)
leading figures in the development of South Although the hall opened only in March Pencil
believed that he created the 112 x 180 mm and 115 x 188 mm
Kensington. It’s 1871, it appears to have been planned as
drawings in around 1865, while discussing a round building, or amphitheatre, almost
the project with AH Layard (1817-1894), from the very beginning. The sketches
later Chief Commissioner of Works. show a central elliptical hall surrounded
As early as 1853, Prince Albert and Cole by a series of courtyards within a large
investigated the possibility of building a rectangular block. In the autumn of 1863,
concert hall in South Kensington. It was Cole and Fowke had gone to the South of
an idea they continued to discuss for many France on aresearch trip and visited the
years. After the death of the prince in Roman amphitheatres at Nimes and Arles
1861, Cole became the driving force behind and their influence can be seen here in
the project. these early ideas.
DESIGN FOR A BISHOP’S THRONE Following the sudden death of Samuel much bolder treatment to project his proposed
IN MEMORY OF THE LATE BISHOP Wilberforce (1805-1873), who had been new addition. Both the design and the drawing
WILBERFORCE, CHRIST CHURCH
Bishop of Oxford for 24 years, it was decided technique proved effective and the memorial was
CATHEDRAL, OXFORD, ENGLAND,
c.1874
that a new episcopal throne would be erected built with just a few alterations. It was created
in his honour in Christ Church Cathedral. in 1877 by the architectural sculptors Farmer
SirGeorge Gilbert Scott RA, PRIBA Sir George Gilbert Scott was the obvious & Brindley, with whom Scott had worked on
(1811-1878) choice to design the monument. At the time, numerous occasions, including his most famous
Pen and ink
Scott was President of the RIBA and had monument, the Albert Memorial in Kensington,
595 x 500 mm
built up an enormous portfolio of church London. Scott himself died just one year after
designs and restorations, including a recent the completion of the Christ Church throne. In
extensive restoration of Christ Church itself. recognition of his immense architectural career,
In this atmospheric sketch, Scott skilfully including nearly 30 years as Surveyor of the
puts forward his concept for the throne. Fabric at Westminster Abbey, London, Scott was
In the background he has lightly sketched given the honour of being buried within the nave
the existing cathedral fabric but adopts a of the Abbey.
Although Lutyens was using his London was smaller and a different shape, while LETTER TO HERBERT BAKER,
office writing paper, the letter was written in the flanking buildings were omitted ILLUSTRATED WITH A PLAN AND
SKETCH OF LUTYENS’ FIRST IDEAS
Simla (now Shimla), India, on 14 June 1912. and the Secretariat commission went to
FOR THE VICEROY’S HOUSE AND
It was addressed to his old friend Herbert Baker. However, the plan of the Viceroy’s
SECRETARIATS, NEW DELHI,
Baker (1862-1946), who the following year House sketched here, with a centre INDIA, 1912
was appointed co-architect with Lutyens for block containing a domed Durbar Hall
the design of a new capital of India at New and four wings, became the basis of the Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens PA, FRIBA (1869-1944)
Pen and ink
Delhi. The letter includes these sketches final design and the strong horizontal
258 x 203 mm
for Government House (later renamed emphasis of the sketch elevation was
Viceroy’s House), with an immense forecourt also retained. On such a huge project,
flanked by a cathedral and the Viceroy’s it is remarkable that so much shown
Secretariat and approached past a pair of on this first sketch was carried through,

further Secretariats, all of which Lutyens even including the towers on what were

hoped to design. In the event, the forecourt eventually Baker’s Secretariats.

 PRELIMINARY STUDIES FOR THE This is one of more than 60 surviving sketch this building as an 18th-century English
VICEROY’S HOUSE, NEW DELHI,
drawings on graph paper by Lutyens for Palladian country house on a huge scale,
INDIA, c.1913 Government House, later Viceroy’s House, combining a Pantheon-like shallow dome
New Delhi. On the a sketch for
verso is with the expansive portico of Palladio’s
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens RA, an elevation of one of the wings. Lutyens unbuilt Villa Mocenigo. Under pressure from
FRIBA (1869-1944)
Pen and ink and crayon on squared paper appears to have used squared paper (one-inch the British government, his final design more
432 x 545 mm squares divided into eighths) only on this appropriately reflected the increasingly joint
great project and between 1912, when he nature of the British-Indian government and

received the commission, and 1914. None of the house as built is a synthesis of Indian and
the drawings are dated. From the beginning, Western traditions. This drawing was made
there was fierce debate over style. Lutyens at a stage when the process of combining the
rejected the highly ornamented Indian traditions into a single coherent design was
tradition and the hybrid Indo-Saracenic almost complete. The value of Tutyens’ early
style popular among British architects in late experience of drawing old buildings with a
Victorian India. He considered European sharpened piece of soap onto a piece of glass
classicism to be ‘better, wiser, saner and held up in front of him is demonstrated in
more gentlemanlike'* than imitation Indian the control of the perspective in the lower
Note
*
Cited in Irving RG, Indian Summer: Lutyens, styles and certainly adaptable to the harsh drawing, while the judicious use of crayons
Baker and Imperial Delhi, Yale, 1981, p 170. climate of India. His first proposals conceived adds depth and sparkle to the design.
New Ways has long been recognised as the first designs made by Charles Rennie Mackintosh PRELIMINARY DESIGN FOR NEW WAYS,
Modern house to be built in England, referred (1868-1928) for the house he had designed for NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND, c.1925
to as the inspiration for many houses executed Bassett-Lowke at 78 Derngate, Northampton,
Peter Behrens (1868-1940)
in this Modernist style during the 1930s and several years before (see p 139 ).
Pen and ink and charcoal
beyond. In this perspective of the garden elevation,
380 x 590mm
Unusually, its design was shared by three Behrens usesbold strokes of charcoal pastel to
people. Peter Behrens, then Professor of convey strong shadows along the side of the
Architecture at the Vienna Academy of Fine building and underneath the ‘hood-moulds’
Arts and with an architectural practice in that sit above the windows. These mouldings
Berlin, designed the elevations, lounge, hall were eventually omitted from the final

and dining room. The client, WJ Bassett-Lowke execution, providing a less cluttered facade,
(1877-1953), who owned the model and the central ground- and first-floor French
railway factory in Northampton, prepared the windows and balconies were made wider.
house plans, developed the heating system but The house was awarded Grade II* listed
decided to adopt the layout for the study from status in 1952.
PRELIMINARY SKETCH DESIGN Erich Mendelsohn’s preliminary sketch Chermayeff (1900-1996). Although only
FOR A STAIRCASE IN THE for the De La Warr Pavilion wonderfully in practice together until 1936, both were
DE LA WARR PAVILION,
expresses the essence of the spiral staircase regarded as leading figures in the Modern
BEXHILL-ON-SEA, SUSSEX, in just a few strong and simple, fluid lines. Movement in Britain.
ENGLAND, 1934
Linking the entrance hall to the first floor The De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill
and enclosed by a huge, curved window, was the result of an RIBA architectural
Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953)
Pencil when built, the staircase actually rose in the competition, initiated by the Mayor
125 x 170 mm opposite direction, beginning on the left. of Bexhill, Herbrand Sackville, the
German architect Mendelsohn was known 9th Earl De La Warr (1900-1976),
for his Expressionist architecture and was after whom the building was named.
a pioneer of the Streamline Moderne style. The new seafront pavilion contained
In 1933, with the rise of Nazi Germany, a 1,500-seat entertainment hall,
Jewish-born Mendelsohn fled to England and a restaurant for 200 people, a reading
formed an architectural practice with Serge room and a lounge.
At the outbreak of the Second World War roof. The sketch shows a large row of SKETCH DESIGN FOR A HOUSE,
in1939, Modernist architect and designer dining-room windows overlooking a terrace, STONERIDGE, BOROUGH GREEN,
Christopher Nicholson joined the Fleet Air which was to have been covered in a giant KENT, ENGLAND, 1946
Arm as a Meteorological Officer. After the flower box.
he returned to architectural practice, Commissioned by Eliza Banks, Christopher Christopher David George Nicholson
war,
(1904-1948)
undertaking small projects, including this Nicholson’s younger half-sister, the house was
Pencil, red ink wash and wax crayon
design for a new house. This simple, playful to be built on land that she and her husband
125 x 240 mm
sketch was created by first drawing in wax owned in Kent. Described by Banks as ‘the
crayon and then covering the paper with dream house that never came true’, the house
a layer of coloured wash which does not was never realised. This was most likely due

adhere to the non-absorbent wax surface. to the difficulty in getting permission to

This design is similar to Nicholson’s build private houses in Britain in the years
previous house project, made before the war after the Second World War, as building social,
for a weekend bungalow with a monopitch affordable housing was the priority.