Raketenstation (Missile station)

 

2 pages from my sketchbook: drawing architecture at the "Raketenstation" in Hombroich (Germany). According to the rumours the NATO used to store cruise missiles here during the last years of the cold war. But since then the terrain with all its bulidings was converted into an artist area and museum park, with musuems buildt by renowned architects. Above: the Langen Foundation building by Tandao Ando. Below: the "Musikhaus" by Raimund Abraham. 

Actually, the museum was closed, but I managed to visit the terrain anyway.

I am now retired

 

As of today I am officially retired as an architect. Even though I will still work a few days to finish an important job, the end of my professional life is at hand. 

I had a unforgettable retirement drink last wednesday, and my collegues gave me a few nice surprises. They assembled some 60 artist impressions that I made over the years, and sketches I made on my own building sites. Then changed them into postcards, and had my present and former collegues write a farewell notes on the back. Absolutely stunning. Some lasting memory!!

Desert house

Desert house, a lunchtime doodle.
 

Urban Sequence Maastricht

Here is something that I teach my students to do, but I never did myself. It was long overdue.

As part of my course in sketching for 1st year architecture students I do the following exercise: They have to start in the street and give a very quick impression of what they see, and how the location is felt. Big modern buildings, passing people, views towards the market place.
Then they have to walk to the half open atrium; at the point where they feel they entered that space, they have to sketch what they see again. It's a public, semi closed area, with tall treelike columns, and an intricate glass roof. And shopwindows, bicycles etc
Then they have to proceed to one of the façades: a huge medieval grey stoned solid wall, with square solemn holes with frosted glass as windows. Again: sketch what they see and feel.
The same for the shopwindow next to it.
Finally they have to ketch the stones of the façade. Try to catch the rugged stones.
It's like zooming in from large urban space to urban details.

I tried to do it myself, 13 images, done in less than 30 minutes, including walking, finding the right spot, making pictures. About 2 minutes per image.

The series was made during a lunchbreak in early december. I wanted to come back a few days later to add colour, but...... the shop had a fire, and the atrium was closed for a few months.

An architect's dream

Experimenting with coloured inks. I bought a book with illustrations by Sergio Toppi (italian), he has a fantastic style of drawing. It inspired me to this drawing.
The head is based on a picture by Le Corbusier, for me the symbol of the visionary architect.
The building in the background is just a fantasy design of mine.

What I do for a living

Always busy at work a few weeks before the holidays. All clients always have two deadlines in mind: before the summer holidays and before Christmas. That combined with others going on holiday means long working hours and no sketching for fun.
This is a conceptual design for a double gas fired Power Plant that I finished a few weeks ago, for a location somewhere in Europe. It's fit for more than 8oo Megawatts, and has the latest energy saving technology as far as Power plants go.
Technology and process is done by others, but I worked on the building design since October last year. It's now in the permitting phase, hopefully we get a chance to bring the design a step further.

Olympic games

This is what I went to London for, a visit to the buildings of the Olympic games. But even though a guide was waiting for us at the swimming pool, we were not allowed to enter the fenced off terrain, as we would not be performing professional working activities there.
Makes you wonder how sportsmen will ever be able to use the sportfacilities there. By wearing a hard hat?

This is a sketch (as seen from the fence) of the "Orbit" , a building of 115 meter high. It looks like a steel octopus catching a flying saucer in mid air.

We visited a few other architecturally interesting projects, and lunched on our way back to the center of town in Shoreditch.
I had a real good classic British pie there, with beef cooked in Ale, mashed potatoes, green peas and heavy gravy. As sketched below.

St. Pauls, London

Last night I returned from a visit to London. I made a trip with the Dutch architect association BNA, and in 4 days we visited a lot of architectural highlights in the city. Old and new. Luckily I was able to make a few drawings as well.
This one is the view from the top floor of the Modern Tate (art museum), showing the St. Pauls silhouette across the river.
They have a long table stretching along the façade with this view; I had a nice brie and salad sandwich with a strong coffee when I made this drawing. That's the way to draw something like this.

Fountainhead

The Fountainhead: it is said that the writer, Ayn Rand, used Frank Lloyd Wright as model for the main character, Howard Roark. When reading I always had Le Corbusier in my mind; probably because at some point in the book Roark is looking to the sky admiring one of his own designs. And I had seen that picture in another book, "Delirious New York", years ago. Time to recycle.
Het boek "De eeuwige bron", model voor de architect Howard Roark was waarschijnlijk F.L.Wright, ik zag altijd Le Corbusier voor me.
(Photo of LC by A.Steiner, 1935, found in the book Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas)

Howard Roark

I just read the novel "the fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. A classic novel about an architect, Howard Roark, and the uncompromising integrity you need to make art. A great novel, but a tough read, 750 pages of heavy intellectual dialogue. While reading this is how I imagined  Roark's first design (the Heller house) would look like. Which is quite funny, because back in 1926 they never would have heard of deconstructivist architecture.
Gelezen: "de eeuwige bron" van Ayn Rand, een klassieke roman over een architect en integriteit. Goed boek, maar de helft van de pagina's had het ook verteld. Dit is hoe ik me het eerste ontwerp van de romanheld voorstelde. Onzin, het boek speelt van 1920 tot 1940.

Amsterdam Spaarndammerbuurt

Social housing in Amsterdam, dating back from 1917, in the Spaarndammerbuurt. Architect was Michel de Klerk. They decorated an apartment and a postoffice in the original state, as a museum "het schip". Worth a visit. I visited it a week ago during a trip with colleague architects.
Sociale woningbouw uit 1917. Spaarndammerbuurt, Amsterdam. Getekend tijdens een bezoek aan het museum, "Het schip", tijdens een BNA excursie naar Amsterdam.

Taj Mahal

Here's Taj-Mahal in all its beauty, in the early morning sunlight. It brought tears to my eyes. I made the drawing during the talk of the guide, but who trusts what they tell after the scene in the movie "slum dog millionaire"? Anyway, I was lucky to be able to make this sketch, my drawing stuff and Moleskine book were confiscated at the entry gate, I was not allowed to draw! Fortunately Hugo, one of our group, took the stuff and talked himself through at another guard.
De Taj Mahal in al zijn pracht in het morgenlicht: met recht een van de wereldwonderen. Getekend gedurende het praatje van de gids.

Istanbul

Last thursday I went to Istanbul with the BNA-zuid (Dutch association of architects). We visited a lot of buildings, old and new. The first day, Thursday, we visited the old town. Here are sketches of the Grand Bazar and the view over the Golden Horn next to the Galata bridge. Drawn on location with fountainpen filled with Lexington grey waterproof ink.

BNA-zuid op excursie naar Istanbul. We bezochten een groot aantal gebouwen. Dag 1 stond in het teken van de oude binnenstad. Schetsen van de Grote Bazaar, en het uitzicht over de Gouden Hoorn (vanaf de Galata brug). Ter plaatse getekend met mijn nieuwe vulpeninkt.

Tarbes, Cathedral

Had to visit Tarbes and Lannemezan (France) again. Heavy rain. Drew the side entrance of the Cathedral. De zijingang van de kathedraal van Tarbes (zuid frankrijk).

Maastricht

Maastricht, last friday, on the bank of the river, near Ceramique. Lekker weer, afgelopen vrijdag.

Antwerpen MAS

Museum aan de Stroom, in Antwerp. Last friday, at a visit with collegue-architects to Antwerp.

Zabrisky house

Idea for a house in Zabrisky point, Death Valley. Based on the Movie and inspired by Bea Meira. Ontwerpidee voor een huis in Death Valley, Zabrisky point.

Visé in the rain

Last thursday, I wanted to walk during lunch in Visé, but as I parked the car it was raining. So I sat in the car and drew this cute little building just opposite Collège Hadelin. It's probably from 1920, just after WWI.

Visé, tijdens een regenbui, een gevel tegenover collége Hadelin in Visé.

New York day1

Still day 1 in New York, Sunday april 26th. I just had the opportunity to sketch while Gertie was sleeping. The Flatiron buliding on 5th avenue and Broadway, once the first and highers skyscraper of New York. You can tell I still had some jetlag, the drawing is not straight. Below a sketch of watertanks on the roofs of W25th street.

New York, zondagmiddag 26 april. Schetsen van de "flatiron" (stijkijzer) op 5th avenue en Broadway. Watertanks op het dak van W25th street, naast het hotel.

Missiles & art

Visited Hombroich (Germany) with collegue architects from the BNA. Art in the park. The sketches show the Langen foundation, a museum for contemporary art built on a former missile launch site, now converted into an art park.
The Japanese architect Tandao Ando made a superb design. The music building is by the Austrian architect Raimund Abrahams.

The exhibition was about Dubouffet.