ArchiVision: 10th Anniversary of the Museum for Architectural Drawing

Architecture on paper holds an independent position within the graphic arts, regardless of whether it is in the service of realized or unrealized buildings. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Museum for Architectural Drawing, an exhibition focuses on the collection’s activities and presents architectural drawings from four centuries. Around 120 works look at the artistic possibilities of architectural representation. The exhibits will be considered in five cross-period themes: the sketch is examined, with the help of which architects fix their first thoughts on paper, including works by Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank O. Gehry. Drawings by Herman Saftleven, Antonio Sant’Elia and Lebbeus Woods are dedicated to the theme of towers and skyscrapers as a form of expression of visionary architectural design. In the chapter on urban and residential worlds, perspective and its graphic pretence of reality come to the fore in works by François-Joseph Bélanger, Zvi Hecker and Peter Cook. The fourth chapter shows architectural utopias whose realization was never planned. Ennemond Alexandre Petitot, Yakov Chernikhov and Alexander Brodsky dealt with this. The last section of the exhibition highlights great ideas in drawing, which one would like to summarize with the term “world theatre”. Designs by Leo von Klenze to pure fantasies by Haus-Rucker-Co are exhibited. Baroque festival architecture and stage sets also belong in this genre. The exhibition ends with the question of the limits of the representability of architecture with works by Alexander Rodchenko and Kirill Chelushkin.