The Pyramid at Louvre

The American Society of Architectural Perspectivists was formed in 1986. Since then, the society has held many international competitions showcasing three-dimensional visualisations of architects’ designs by specialist illustrators and artists.

The exhibits throw light on how a different genre of art has emerged out of the end-user’s need to perceive technical drawings.

This form of art has been vastly influenced by computer-aided design and drafting in recent years. But over the years, there has been a clear shift towards preference of artistic impressions capturing the mood, ambience and character of the built environment over a precise photographic view of the building.

Henry Cobb, architect and partner of Pei, Cobb and Freed, the creator of the Pyramid at Louvre, said in his foreword to the 10th anniversary publication of the US society that in the age of cyberspace, perspectivists may be the last true romantics. “For they alone celebrate in their art that supreme distillation of romance, the vanishing point.”

The highest award that the US society gives for overall excellence is the Hugh Ferris Memorial Prize. It was awarded to Lee Dunnette, an American architect, in 1996 for his rendering of the Pyramid at Louvre. Executed in airbrushed acrylic, the stunning sectional night view of I.M. Pei’s design combines reality with engineering without compromising on its romanticism.

Another drawing, by Paul Stevenson Oles of the US, is a dramatic rendering of a New England aquarium on a rough textured paper with a wax-based pencil. It captures the rugged quality of the free-form reinforced concrete, glass and steel structure on the waterfront in stark contrast with its neighbouring buildings.

In the third example, the contrasting style of a contemporary structure surrounded by traditional architecture is illustrated in ink and coloured pencil drawing on myler sheet by Gordon Grice for a building in Abruzzi, Italy.

The coloured pencil renderings of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam by Willem van den Hoed shows how a sensitive portrayal of architectural design can evoke the mood and spatial quality required for such a renovation project.

The last example is a sketch by Peter Magyar of the Public Safety Building at Pittsburgh by architect L.D. Astorino. This single-line drawing captured the spirit of the design with clarity.

In India, such illustrators were initially influenced by their western counterparts as portfolios of European and American architects were the only examples of professional work available to them.

Gradually, as they evolved a contemporary Indian style, many illustrators started exploring new mediums and styles of expression.

Today, architectural drawings of many Indians are worth preserving. But in the absence of patronage from publishers, many remarkable examples of Indian architectural renderings get destroyed after they are submitted to clients for their approvals.

Recognition of these creations are long overdue. A fitting tribute would be a travelling exhibition of such drawings from different parts of the country.