The Routledge Companion to Architectural Drawings and Models

Architectural drawings and models are instruments of imagination, communication, and historical continuity. The role of drawings and models, and their ownership, placement, and authorship in a ubiquitous digital age deserve careful consideration. Expanding on the well-established discussion of the translation from drawings to buildings, this book fills a lacuna in current scholarship, questioning the significance of the lives of drawings and models after construction.

Including emerging, well-known, and world-renowned scholars in the fields of architectural history and theory and curatorial practices, the thirty-five contributions define recent research in four key areas:

• drawing sites/sites of knowledge construction: drawing, office, construction site;






• the afterlife of drawings and models: archiving, collecting, displaying, and exhibiting;






• tools of making: architectural representations and their apparatus over time; and






• the ethical responsibilities of collecting and archiving: authorship, ownership, copyrights, and rights to copy.

The research covers a wide range of geographies and delves into the practices of such architects as Sir John Soane, Superstudio, Eug?ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Frank Lloyd Wright, Wajiro Kon, Germán Samper Gnecco, A+PS, Mies van der Rohe, and Renzo Piano.

"In 1916, when the first architectural drawings from the recent past were brought in to lie beside those of Palladio and Jones at the RIBA, Halsey Ricardo spoke of the 'pathetic eloquence' with which they pictured a society, culture, and patterns of thought of a time just past. It is vital, if such pictures are to be faithfully drawn, to explore the patterns of collection by which architectural drawings and models have been preserved; the differences between the archival discipline and the process of inquiry in examining them; and commonalities or divergences in characteristics of drawings that may derive from hundreds of thousands in a modern office, or the scarce fragments of a Renaissance studio or Enlightenment collector?s cabinet.  Here is a scrupulously curated conversation that?perhaps for the first time?does just that."

Nicholas Olsberg, Former Director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal

"From tools of making to the documentation of built projects, drawings and models have long played a central role in the conceptual development of architectural projects. This momentous collection of essays brilliantly shows the development of the discipline by taking a new look at the traces left by the process of form generation, and offers glimpses of the potential for action in the contemporary world. The scope of subjects and the breadth of erudition makes this thought-provoking collection a must-read for anyone interested in the significance of architecture."

Louise Pelletier, Director, Design Center, University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM)

"The archive has been a potent metaphor for scholars in recent decades, but this cornucopia of first-hand accounts insists on the archives as a physical site, one often deeply engaged in the politics of architecture and of reputations. A combination of oral history from those who have been at the helm of key collections and reflective texts on the very nature of architectural documents provides invitations for future historical work both for students launching a career and the most seasoned scholar alike."

Barry Bergdoll, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History, Columbia University, New York (and former Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York)

"By posing the question of the ?afterlives? of architectural media and illuminating their breadth and significance, this collection makes an invaluable contribution to the perennial discourse on architectural representation, as well as to growing scholarship on the nature of architectural archives."

Dr. Paul Holmquist, Assistant professor of architecture, Louisiana State University. Journal of Architecture Education, Spring 2024.