Public Drawing

What is Public Drawing? 

Life obviously exceeds architecture; yet at the same time it is the basis and essence of architecture. Understanding its different forms, as ethnography shows, is the precondition of engaging with it. But what does this mean for architecture? How can the myriad situations that both feed into and result from the design of a building be effectively mapped? How does one address architectural drawings, not just as simple notational systems but as instruments with which to document, discuss, and evaluate architecture? How can they work to explore people’s needs, aspirations, and actual habits of use, and moreover to give shape to individual lives in today’s globalised society? 

Public Drawing is an ongoing series of workshops which investigate the potential of architectural drawings not only to precisely map urban spaces, public buildings, and daily life occurring within and around them, but to understand them also as allegories or inventions of self-enclosed worlds, thus giving the drawings an operative dimension. Public drawings are pencil drawings of public spaces drawn by groups of authors/artists—in this case, students of Architecture Studio 3B. The use of graphite facilitates erasure and revision, allowing the drawings to reflect the course of discussions between participants. Through this process, the public drawings become a platform of communication. 

Workshops – 30 July–7 August |  Student Exhibition – 9 August

Workshop Team 
Atelier Bow-Wow – Momoyo Kaijima, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Yoichi Tamai 
Co-ordinators – Lee Stickells, Rothwell Co-ordinator,  Ross Anderson, Studio 3B Co-ordinator