From the Renaissance to the current day, architects have made drawings for study and pleasure, to represent their projects, document their travels and supplement their income. Architects as Artists examined the relationship between architecture and art and the variety of ways that architects across time periods have used art to record their travels, research their designs and communicate their ideas.
Drawing on the collections of the V&A and RIBA, this display of about 50 works included a drawing by Raphael, a design for a medieval cathedral and a pair of striking digital renderings for ‘A House for Essex’, a project between FAT Architecture and the artist Grayson Perry. These images were shown alongside an artist’s house by E.W. Godwin, a lithograph by Cyril Power depicting the staircase of Russell Square tube station, a watercolour sketch by Hugh Casson, a drawing by Italian Futurist Virgilio Marchi and a volume of architecture fantasies by the Russian architect Iakov Chernikhov. Recent works included Tom Noonan’s depiction of the re-forestation of the Thames Estuary.
The exhibition was held in the V&A's Architecture Gallery from November 2014 to March 2015.
Images courtesy of the V&A and RIBA.