Zelzate, Belgium

Had to drive to Zelzate in Belgium for another project. It's near the harbours of Antwerp. There is a canal (kanaal van Gent naar Terneuzen) fit for seaships, with some steelfactories at the side. A quick impression with fountain pen ink, diluted with water.
The other Volterra drawings will follow.

Volterra Piazza dei Priori

Two sketches of the Piazza dei Priori. I was there to instruct a group of students in architecture and drawing techniques.

It meant long days of arganising and instructing, and not so much drawing myself.

Just a few times, when I gave them a difficult task to do, did I have time to make a few sketches myself. These are the sketches of the Piazza dei Priori, the central market place, with a few high medieval towers (about 1350 AD).

Pisa, Italy

I just returned from a very intensive week in Toscane, Italy. Willem Verhaeg (a professional photographer) and I teached a group of architecture students into the sacred art of architecture, drawing and making good pictures.

This is a drawing of the Piazza dei Miracoli, in Pisa, with the famous leaning tower.
It was made last Saturday. As you may notice we had terrific weather considering Christmas is less than 8 weeks away. Good for a heavy smelling espresso on a sunlit terrace.

Teaching drawing and sketching

This is my class; 6 architecture students hard at work to sketch the built environment in Maastricht.
Next to my regular job as an architect, I also gave a course of drawing and (hand)sketching for the Academy of Architecture in Maastricht (part of the Academy of Arts). It's a 4 year course to get a Masters degree in Architecture, 2 evenings and a full day a week.
I taught them the principles of linework, hatching, perspective, isometric and axonometric drawing, hand drawing, visual drawing and sketching as method of design. And more.
I finished the final session (of 7) last evening.
Very tiring but also very rewarding to do! Here you see them enthusiastically drawing a grey stone wall at 1 meter distance. It was real nice to find a new surprising challenge every week... haha.

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid made a design for a fire station on the Vitra terrain (Weil am Rhein). A fantastic building.
This is not the exact representation of the ground-floor plan, but an abstract analysis of it, made from recollection. Tried to capture the motion within the building.

Frank Gehry in weil am Rhein

Two views of the Vitra Design museum, by the architect Frank Gehry. Hard to believe that these two drawings ware made on standpoints only about 30 meters apart.

Lörrach from Vitra haus

 

The village Lörrach as seen from the top floor of the Vitra haus.

As architects we cannot pass the area without visiting the Vitra design centre in Weil am Rhein, with an array of fantastic buildings by: Herzog and Meuron, Frank Gehry, Jean Prouvé, Buckminster Fuller, Alvaro Siza, Peter Grimshaw, Zaha Hadid and Tandao Ando. I probably forgot a few.  Now I cannot help but wonder why I never visited the area and the site before. This is the new visitors centre, a really fantastic building with some superb furniture at display.

Basel (Switzerland)

I just returned from Switzerland, on an architecture trip to Basel.
Basel and its surroundings (including Germany and France) has a lot to offer on recent top of the bill architecture. I'll post some architecture sketches later.
But let's start with a sketch of the view across the river towards the Basel Altstadt. Made while sitting on a nice terrace in the evening sun, enjoying a good Weizen beer with some colleagues. I think the church is the "Basler Munster".

Dog house or house dog

A random doodle during a boring meeting led to this sketch.