{"id":68785,"date":"2021-03-10T08:45:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T13:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/architizer.com\/blog\/?p=68785"},"modified":"2021-04-23T09:12:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T13:12:10","slug":"architectural-sketching-alan-maskin-olson-kundig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.arc.ht\/blog\/inspiration\/stories\/architectural-sketching-alan-maskin-olson-kundig\/","title":{"rendered":"Olson Kundig’s Alan Maskin on the Immense Power of Architectural Sketching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Architects: Showcase your next project through\u00a0<\/i>Architizer<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and sign up for our\u00a0<\/i>inspirational newsletter<\/i><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Few designers have explored the intersection of art and architecture like Olson Kundig<\/a> principal Alan Maskin. Known for his clever and extraordinary portfolio, Alan has worked on a diverse range of projects, including the new Bob Dylan Center<\/a>, The ANOHA Expansion of the Jewish Museum Berlin<\/a>, Fairy Tales 2016<\/a>, as well as the renovation of Seattle’s Space Needle<\/a>. His projects are marked by a collective optimism that unfolds through narrative; part wizardry and chock-full of imagination, Alan’s work centers on fantastic stories told through sketching, art and architecture.<\/p>\n

In the following interview with Architizer, Maskin explores his inspirations and background, as well as how drawing can be a way of building.<\/p>\n

\"Alan

The Fifth Facade Project, Seattle, WA, USA by Alan Maskin and Jerome Tyron, Photography by Chris Burnside<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Eric Baldwin: You have a background in the arts that began in education. Can you tell us about the move to Seattle to study architecture?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan Maskin: Starting in college, I worked with teaching programs focused on disenfranchised youth programs and early childhood development projects \u2013 while maintaining a small studio devoted to painting and drawing. Around that time, I saw a gallery installation of drawings by the French Visionary architect Jean-Jacques Lequeu, who practiced in Paris after the French Revolution. I vividly recall a series of rendered section drawings that stopped me in my tracks, plus many evocative and imaginative drawings of the conceptual spaces Lequeu envisioned in his own mind.<\/p>\n

Those drawings may have been my first introduction to architectural renderings \u2013 I had no previous understanding that architects worked, thought or expressed themselves in this way. While I loved teaching, I was intrigued with the seemingly impossible idea that I could get paid for drawing and imagining built space. It\u2019s safe to say that I became an architect initially because I loved to draw and wanted to draw daily in my professional career.<\/p>\n

I shared my idea for applying to architecture school with a parent of one of my students, a practicing architect in Boston. He advised me to do three things:<\/p>\n