Roughly 4,150 years ago, in modern-day Iraq, a Mesopotamian king named Gudea commissioned a sculpture of himself. In it, he is depicted as an architect, with his hands clasped over a tablet showing an architectural plan of a temple built during his time as ruler. On his legs, rows of Sumerian glyphs describe the architecture itself, and the materials he chose, including cedar and “treasure confiscated” from across the Middle East.
Architect With A Plan is the oldest architectural plan ever discovered, and the oldest illustration in Drawing Architecture, a beautiful new tome from Phaidon and architect Helen Thomas that spans 2130 BC to 2018 AD.

Instead, Drawing Architecture invites you to just look at the damn drawings in a way that’s refreshing. Some are etched in wet river clay, others are annotated via iPad and shared through WhatsApp, and there’s virtually no distinction between them. That makes it subtly provocative–especially in a field that has spent decades, and plenty of ink, debating whether drawing is “dead.” Without specifically addressing that debate, Thomas manages to make it seem a bit silly. Check it out at Phaidon’s website.
Bagikan Berita Ini
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