Lebbeus Woods

Woods's tiny sketchbooks serve as his mobile studio during periods of intense travel; he draws in them in the cafes, airports, and other public spaces he passes through. Known for the experimental architecture projects he has produced since the mid-1970s, Woods uses the sketch as a form of investigation, often devoting a series of drawings to the development of a single idea. Not intended for realization, the forms described in these drawings were created as a speculative departure from current architectural production.
Following his interest in the potential of storms, earthquakes, and sociopolitically disruptive events to inspire new architecture, through his sketches Woods invents dynamic forms that respond to rapidly changing contemporary urban cultures and environments. He depicts fields of expansive energy through extremely dense, dark accumulations of acutely angled lines and shapes that usually fill the entire page. Voids within this system create charged space between tightly packed elements. These visionary drawings reflect Woods's growing interest in artificial landscapes and terrains and in the construction of ever-changing fields, and as such they represent an important shift in the development of his work. They offer a unique critique of the existing architectural landscape by planting the seed for a cultural and material alternative.