![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FComparative-architecture-JM-Gandy.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=325&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=86704fead64467eaccb87fb4da71487b 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FComparative-architecture-JM-Gandy.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=650&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=b497640931fd3aa4160292aaa7ca6536 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FComparative-architecture-JM-Gandy.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1189&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=ac9d99b6d1145a08545530727f041f2a 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FComparative-architecture-JM-Gandy.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1586&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=d692ce89033156f3bb536f4a0a741a3d 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FComparative-architecture-JM-Gandy.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=2168&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=ded93e1714f00ce357b39d04bbbb2e5b 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FComparative-architecture-JM-Gandy.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=2477&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=b5b9953f7e3aee6e34cf5b8dd05385cd 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FComparative-architecture-JM-Gandy.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=2973&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=d1bc41c3fdb2c5ace77af3afa4cd02eb 1920w)
For Soane, drawing was fundamental to architecture – as it has been for countless architects before and since. Thinking about the nature of that relationship, we might say that it is actually through drawing that architecture – both on the level of the individual building and as a discourse – has been conceived for much of its history. Unlike the instinctual fashioning of a rudimentary shelter that constituted the first buildings, architecture is fundamentally an intellectual pursuit, with a process in which drawing plays a pivotal role. Visualising a design in a drawing requires decisions to be made: how a building should be planned, what its elevations will look like, how will it be constructed and many others besides. Once these design decisions are committed to paper or to the screen, they become communicable – whether to builder, client, public or other architects. And it is through this act of communication that a building becomes architecture, when it is brought into relation to a shared culture of ideas.
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FPresentation-drawing-of-the-Bank-as-a-cutaway-axonometric.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=127&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=cbb51609580e9663c45c7f26adc5a45f 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FPresentation-drawing-of-the-Bank-as-a-cutaway-axonometric.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=254&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=b31b54814743d609cb5704c6a5d22338 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FPresentation-drawing-of-the-Bank-as-a-cutaway-axonometric.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=465&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=1180cc0002dff4468414223f2ec0643f 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FPresentation-drawing-of-the-Bank-as-a-cutaway-axonometric.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=620&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=7d62844e3ff3bf60c35bfc63411178c6 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FPresentation-drawing-of-the-Bank-as-a-cutaway-axonometric.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=848&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=5ab3ea0f40ceb3f1dcf12fad40e2b83a 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FPresentation-drawing-of-the-Bank-as-a-cutaway-axonometric.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=969&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=f6bcea1cdca9aa5ddd7cac0204b97f01 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FPresentation-drawing-of-the-Bank-as-a-cutaway-axonometric.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1163&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=8684b81ae5cfc569752048b89ce80c77 1920w)
This idea takes us back to Sir John Soane’s Museum – a place that above all is about architecture’s place in culture over time. Walking through the museum is to revel in the way that the myriad objects Soane assembled and then carefully arranged throughout its spaces communicate both individually and as a collective, with the meaning located not just in single objects but also in the relationships between them. Immersed in the museum, we are never far from architectural drawings, whether those on display or tucked away in drawers and cabinets. Soane was an avid collector of drawings, amassing a collection of over 30,000, including major holdings from the office of Robert Adam, William Chambers, George Dance the Younger, Wren, Hawksmoor and many others. The presence of architectural drawings throughout the museum, ranging from the highly technical to virtuoso pieces of art, reminds us that while our individual experience of the museum – indeed of any building – is a personal one, architecture itself rests on shared knowledge, expertise and history.
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FImaginary-view-of-the-Rotunda-and-the-Four-Per-Cent-Office-in-ruins.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=130&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=1ea3eff6d24aa70fa42c7714446f74cf 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FImaginary-view-of-the-Rotunda-and-the-Four-Per-Cent-Office-in-ruins.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=261&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=c4315754a15746053610b798fd6060c0 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FImaginary-view-of-the-Rotunda-and-the-Four-Per-Cent-Office-in-ruins.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=476&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=0b0041e6ba7e8565919a1dd67af3d1ba 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FImaginary-view-of-the-Rotunda-and-the-Four-Per-Cent-Office-in-ruins.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=635&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=7919637f8cef92ac0b1d23401364fae9 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FImaginary-view-of-the-Rotunda-and-the-Four-Per-Cent-Office-in-ruins.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=869&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=c20ee63c242888349687961f36c9d168 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FImaginary-view-of-the-Rotunda-and-the-Four-Per-Cent-Office-in-ruins.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=993&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=ce515d762fdfc0ffee34ade928b76960 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FImaginary-view-of-the-Rotunda-and-the-Four-Per-Cent-Office-in-ruins.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1191&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=5725419d9ac5e36ca1c56a8978bb784c 1920w)
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FDesigns-for-a-Triumphal-Bridge.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=139&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=aa6398cdcd772d657e9372dc28c957e4 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FDesigns-for-a-Triumphal-Bridge.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=279&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=fff766da57750d322aac5934d7c48363 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FDesigns-for-a-Triumphal-Bridge.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=510&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=fe4cd1c44b7fe69eb69250183953ad3d 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FDesigns-for-a-Triumphal-Bridge.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=680&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=13748e8f90ea57a692c4de7a7846aad8 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FDesigns-for-a-Triumphal-Bridge.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=930&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=d0483a12ccec545b8b546679e728e6a0 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FDesigns-for-a-Triumphal-Bridge.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1063&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=02a4ca2ec978c99a5dffb8c95f9acd62 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F01%2FDesigns-for-a-Triumphal-Bridge.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1275&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=b089f5f3a4708a39ee41e15dc2425487 1920w)
The centrality of drawing to the practice of architecture and the dissemination of architectural ideas, which Soane understood and held great store by in his own time, has inspired us to help create The Architecture Drawing Prize with Make and WAF. We hope that the Prize will inspire architects today to understand drawing both as a way to reveal and represent their ideas.