I had a project which was not a carved out volume but the result of natural forces from inside and out. I loved drawing this project because that was the way I was moving inside the house. And I drew it a lot because it felt so good.

When I draw I try to fit the functional requirements into my concept. I think in three dimensions and try to think simultaneously of all the plans. I don’t just draw the ground floor but all the other floors at the same time.

The discipline and the process of drawing and the simple clarity and concentration of the act of drawing balance with the complexities we can often experience as architects. It’s pleasant to draw. Although a computer allows you to show things in 3D you still have to have an idea of the space in your mind. And if you don’t have this sense of space, a computer can’t really help. It only shows the things what you’ve already conjured up. In that sense it’s a helpful tool, but you can’t ask a computer to think of a sculpture of Henry Moore nor of a woman sitting in front of the sea.

I think that at the end of a project you can talk about emotions, regardless of whether something was drawn by pencil or by autocad.

When you draw spaces with emotions it is reflected then in the built project.

People want to live in harmonic places and the fact that you care about people while you draw makes a difference.

When I draw, it’s intuitive, I hardly ever think, because I’m right there inside the building: I think about the type of space I’m in, my perceptions, and about how people would feel walking through such spaces.. The aim is to create quiet and harmonic places with the right level of tension that creates an emotive environment.

I don’t know whether it matters if an architect draws well or not. Maybe it’s possible to see 3 dimensions without drawing, but it’s not something I can do.

When you draw, you somehow feel you’ve created something.

To explain a project through drawings is fundamental to the discipline of our work. When we first present a project to the client, we never show models, renderings, or complete drawings. I prefer to sketch in front of them, for them. If I show a rendering, the project goes too far and if the client can’t follow, or understand the concept, they will not understand the renderings either.

So I don’t show renders. It is better to start the client off with the empty paper from scratch. While I sketch I explain the reasons and concepts of the project to the client. It’s a very clear and immediate way of getting the idea across to the client. If they like it, they’ll be enthusiastic partners as the project progresses. The advantage of sketching rather than renderings is that you don’t get lost in unnecessary details and focus more on the essence of the project.

Our job is a true job. It cannot be a lie. When you do something, it’s there.