![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FThe-Niter%C3%B3i-Contemporary-Art-Museum-by-Marinelson-Almeida-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=140&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=19d7b0532f2557f42e3db295d58127be 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FThe-Niter%C3%B3i-Contemporary-Art-Museum-by-Marinelson-Almeida-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=280&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=4b3a4a0f1e09ec7ffc1de83d2ea55450 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FThe-Niter%C3%B3i-Contemporary-Art-Museum-by-Marinelson-Almeida-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=512&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=ea0c5b0bcf6b844d464b3541da6599d2 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FThe-Niter%C3%B3i-Contemporary-Art-Museum-by-Marinelson-Almeida-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=683&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=f3780b480d88d5ee16ef569a2f8296f6 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FThe-Niter%C3%B3i-Contemporary-Art-Museum-by-Marinelson-Almeida-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=934&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=0c7471409beda213c0acd950a16996db 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FThe-Niter%C3%B3i-Contemporary-Art-Museum-by-Marinelson-Almeida-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1067&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=fd323c0ee20115de2bf636ea5384dd32 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FThe-Niter%C3%B3i-Contemporary-Art-Museum-by-Marinelson-Almeida-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1280&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=e97ec1d75a3020697b0b719b0568fd53 1920w)
It is clear that Langlands and Bell – who always work as a pair – are inspired by the potential of buildings to capture within them life as its presents itself and particularly as all-encompassing stages for our own stories. This sense of celebrating architecture is encapsulated in the model-like relief sculptures by Langlands and Bell currently on show at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. The exhibition is temporarily closed due to the pandemic, but is available for online viewing. The photos of Langlands and Bell’s works as displayed on screen are true to their arresting and often highly linear precision, making for a satisfying digital exhibition experience.
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2Fggardner-1959-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=140&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=7c9341f2db37796c01085aa93100747d 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2Fggardner-1959-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=280&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=0af6b7cea6b86784ef8ad24ff5afdbff 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2Fggardner-1959-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=512&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=de8a710a1276ce764b8da86243bd0234 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2Fggardner-1959-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=683&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=b63d09cc20ab59d2e4999e0276a96b4c 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2Fggardner-1959-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=934&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=79e0d2a9c35d0daa94db39fd8377248b 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2Fggardner-1959-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1068&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=67ba23605a016555504d150ca784002c 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2Fggardner-1959-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1281&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=5f018f35132956b22e523a6211973e19 1920w)
In the Museum’s Foyle Space, a triptych of immaculate maquettes including one inspired by Palladio’s Villa Rotonda in Vicenza and another of Hans Hollein’s Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt read like a flirtation or love affair with these and other architects’ minds and their joy in carving out spaces for humans and art to inhabit. It’s as though Langlands and Bell’s works symbolise the essence of the ideal world and freeze it, if only momentarily. There is an element of anticipation, hopefulness and an innocence in these works that hints at an architectural utopia.
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In contrast to the permanent realm of buildings, the more fleeting business of communication also moves Landglands and Bell. In their work the “Infinite Loop“, also exhibited at Sir John Soane’s Museum, the artists record the architecture of the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham as well as Osama Bin Laden’s House in Abbottabad, Pakistan and Apple’s Headquarters in Cupertino. The curators explain that this piece is about Langlands and Bell’s interest in how Bin Laden was traced through his communications. The purity and clarity of the “Infinite Loop” as a work of art has an inherent sense of control. It is fascinating to see how Langlands and Bell deploy this artistic device to observe the very systems that help define what we know and how we process this knowledge. (Interestingly, the artists named their exhibition “Degrees of Truth”).
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FInfinite-Loop-2014-photo-by-Peter-White-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=76&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=2dd28043367fa75460ba34523790fb7a 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FInfinite-Loop-2014-photo-by-Peter-White-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=151&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=424779838a2b4a51db8d1c1748a39c1e 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FInfinite-Loop-2014-photo-by-Peter-White-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=277&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=681b455771fa4ae1aa50f6d4863ee72c 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FInfinite-Loop-2014-photo-by-Peter-White-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=369&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=e1ce51c2aa20c759b8ad41d083c9e04a 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FInfinite-Loop-2014-photo-by-Peter-White-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=505&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=2c7fb754865c6d5eb3b2ad817552400e 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FInfinite-Loop-2014-photo-by-Peter-White-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=577&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=24c15de2a64c4f152b9273eefc19e7e8 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FInfinite-Loop-2014-photo-by-Peter-White-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=692&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=0a7e022a6a62ca851ced09324aa29d1b 1920w)
Sir John Soane’s Museum, located in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, was originally the home of John Soane (1753-1837), an architect widely considered to be ahead of his time and a great collector of drawings, paintings, archaelogical curiosities and other artefacts. Langlands and Bell have responded to this domestic context in their exhibition by creating, for example, a piece for Soane’s former breakfast room. Called the “Globe Table” this work of art explores communication and the idea of an interconnected world by depicting international air routes.
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In the first floor galleries of the Museum, a beautiful pair of screen prints “Air Routes of Britain – Night and Day” is curiously sculptural, a bit like a Naum Gabo. Today, the screen prints are poignant with air travel having all but stopped. Yet there is something very comforting in seeing Langlands and Bell’s works against the backdrop of such a visually stimulating idiosyncratic museum that breathes life into our monitors and provokes us to see contemporary works of art afresh.
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FAir-Routes-of-Britain-Night-Day-courtesy-the-artists-and-Cristea-Roberts-Gallery-1-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=297&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=2ada67f627ae7dbd8c98dfed71b124a8 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FAir-Routes-of-Britain-Night-Day-courtesy-the-artists-and-Cristea-Roberts-Gallery-1-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=594&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=029e943d3af6b4d2d3774aa7610c615d 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FAir-Routes-of-Britain-Night-Day-courtesy-the-artists-and-Cristea-Roberts-Gallery-1-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1086&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=d36583bef4543a24a6fd3fc208ba984c 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FAir-Routes-of-Britain-Night-Day-courtesy-the-artists-and-Cristea-Roberts-Gallery-1-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1448&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=d11bcb32d43b6243bc7cade2b8592ab5 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FAir-Routes-of-Britain-Night-Day-courtesy-the-artists-and-Cristea-Roberts-Gallery-1-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1979&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=7c3cd20953043dbee033b16eb7c3e0da 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FAir-Routes-of-Britain-Night-Day-courtesy-the-artists-and-Cristea-Roberts-Gallery-1-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=2262&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=c3d6a6bbb9595f2e3c9f2a863e9ffb03 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2FAir-Routes-of-Britain-Night-Day-courtesy-the-artists-and-Cristea-Roberts-Gallery-1-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=2714&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=f43f103bb802c43c0c8572de85b19622 1920w)
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View Sir John Soane’s Museum’s Langlands & Bell: Degrees of Truth exhibition online now.
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.
Photo credits: Niterói Contemporary Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Marinelson Almeida.