Steven Holl’s Drawings at the Tchoban Foundation in Berlin

From the Kiasma Museum for Contemporary Art to unrealized projects such as the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice, the exhibition “Steven Holl – Drawing as Thought” showcases the American architect’s works through his vision of drawing as a form of thought.

The Tchoban Foundation Museum of Architectural Drawing in Berlin, established in 2009 by the architect Sergei Tchoban and dedicated to promoting the art of architectural drawing, will host the exhibition Steven Holl – Drawing as Thought, curated by Kristin Feireiss, starting on February 6, 2025.

The exhibition will focus on a small selection of Steven Holl’s extensive artistic production—comprising more than 50,000 sketches, drawings, and watercolors— as a fundamental testament to his architectural process and a unique perspective from which to explore its core principles: drawing as the driving force of architecture, attention to perception and the phenomenological value of light, space, and materials, all mediated by a deep connection with the built and natural environment.

Rhinebeck Campus, Round Lake Hut
Rhinebeck Campus, Round Lake Hut, Rhinebeck, New York, USA, 2001, watercolour and charcoal on paper, sketchbook, 13,65 × 20,95 cm © Steven Holl

Alongside the large-format black-and-white drawings from his 1988 project which won first prize in the competition for the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek in Berlin, the exhibition will include sketches of unrealized buildings such as the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice and Porta Vittoria in Milan and feature drafts from his sketchbook of some of his most significant public and cultural structures, the Kiasma Museum for Contemporary Art in Helsinki, the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University, Maggie’s Centre in London, and The REACH, an expansion of the renowned cultural center in Washington, D.C..

The exhibition culminates with a deeply personal series of watercolours depicting Holl’s lakeside retreat in Rhinebeck, the Round Lake Hut, a place he considers his ideal environment for drawing and creative exploration in a contemplative silence.

Exhibition: Steven Holl - Drawing as Thought Curated by:  Kristin Feireiss Location: Tchoban Foundation Museum of Architectural Drawing, Berlin, Germany Date: from 6th February 2025 to 4th May 2025

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