![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_2a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=368&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=9e666055704e7bf0e1c569b2a97daae5 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_2a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=736&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=12ccc20fd859da25f9c12b0d153f12c1 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_2a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1345&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=031509bf748a2c3ddf904df1f2f56d25 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_2a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1793&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=d4f1d3ed81501596a874113ac873df8b 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_2a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=2452&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=8fe28fb1d3904ce514798a2233081d8d 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_2a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=2802&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=516fb332a03f5ae138376f6158fa22af 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_2a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=3362&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=361df886660c7f0b693695b4f59eac58 1920w)
Drawing is hazardous. There is no instant clarity. Drawing forces you to think again, and again. Drawings cannot be finished. Pens, pencils and paper are the primary building materials; sketches are the first intimations of the tense physicality and potential of architecture, and the effect that even the smallest detail may have.
Drawings are marks on what the art historian, John Berger, describes as the “eddies of time”. And he adds: “When the intensity of looking reaches a certain degree, one becomes aware of an equally intense energy coming towards one . . . the encounter of these two energies, their dialogue, does not have the form of a question and answer. It is a ferocious and articulate dialogue.”
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_1a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=224&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=90df7e2796e5e0c2158d9137a4ab307b 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_1a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=448&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=ff99fafafdef250ccc73b2c2f49db75b 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_1a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=819&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=136d37da73382cb9b84a52f7cc779c6e 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_1a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1093&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=d4faad50a7d3e13b0980cc012ce96bc2 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_1a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1494&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=3cce59826df8a4cc586266ab5612fbb6 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_1a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1707&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=8a15fbec41f137b95a2db0d534189375 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2FAalto_poster_1a.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=2049&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=b16ed7c48b7b3f2bd58c030441dd4dc1 1920w)
To draw in a fertile way is to imagine and substantiate one kind of form, and then realise that you are creating something different and self-challenging. Unlike a CGI, a properly exploratory drawing made by hand can never exude the aura of a virtually completed architectural product.
Deanna Petherbridge, author of The Primacy of Drawing, writes: “One of the purposes of drawing should be to challenge the philosophical and artistic tedium of the readymade. In a sea of tired, second-hand and endlessly recycled images, the indigestible dross that has passed many times through the body politic only to resurface again and again in the sewers of cyberspace, the drawn image that springs from the visual imagination of the individual is infinitely more potent and subversive.”
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2F%C2%A9-Kengo-Kuma-Associates.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=148&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=2f11306b715cb5b0523122b51c64f4af 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2F%C2%A9-Kengo-Kuma-Associates.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=296&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=d0e89df9c912019626b86f46b6de4fa1 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2F%C2%A9-Kengo-Kuma-Associates.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=541&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=005e8d907c521aed119a2046d7c3f53d 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2F%C2%A9-Kengo-Kuma-Associates.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=722&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=2e3d8feb4fde50bd2dfce8c72fd55b02 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2F%C2%A9-Kengo-Kuma-Associates.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=987&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=c3a85e44d8e69ddc2778ce5b3ef94202 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2F%C2%A9-Kengo-Kuma-Associates.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1128&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=e0a806d08fcd27270eae6153344c8ac1 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2F%C2%A9-Kengo-Kuma-Associates.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1354&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=690499cdcbffd081b8272738efabddbb 1920w)
When Oscar Niemeyer finally put his felt-tip down all those years ago, he asked which of the drawings I liked best. Was this a maestro-supplicant routine? Not at all. He just wanted to find out what the sketches had made me, a stranger, think of. Drawing as democracy.
In The Hollow Men, we read: “Shape without form, shade without colour, / Paralysed force, gesture without motion.” Remind you of anything? I’m sure I heard a mouse-click.
This post forms part of our series on The Architecture Drawing Prize: an open drawing competition curated by Make, WAF and Sir John Soane’s Museum to highlight the importance of drawing in architecture. The winning and shortlisted drawings will be exhibited at Sir John Soane’s Museum 21 February – 14 April 2018.