Eric Adlercreutz: the architect’s pen meets the paper
small exhibition hall
The mind must be allowed to be playful in all forms of creative endeavour. If this exhibition has a message, it’s this: celebrate the joy of drawing! It also underlines that people, animals, landscapes and architecture are all inseparably intertwined.
– Eric Adlercreutz –
The Museum of Finnish Architecture is pleased to host a solo exhibition presenting the rich and varied career of Eric Adlercreutz, highlighting the important role that drawing plays in the work of an architect.
Drawing has been a lifelong passion for Adlercreutz, for whom it not just a technical work stage, but a way of thinking, with the brain and hand working in unison. Although CAD and software have become standard tools in the profession, drawing by hand still remains an important tool of conceptual formulation for many designers.
The exhibition shows different aspects of Adlercreutz’s drawings. The first section is dedicated to his early drawings of people and animals. The second features his travel sketches, highlighting his travels in Italy. The architettura minore found in small Italian towns has inspired many generations of architects who have travelled around Italy and the Mediterranean region.
The third section present competition entries with accompanying perspective sketches. What Adlercreutz finds interesting about perspective sketches is the way the new building interacts with the existing environment.
The fourth section, titled “from sketch to final proposal”, charts the evolution of selected works from the initial drafting stages to the polished end result. It clearly demonstrates the concept of “thinking by drawing”, including excerpts of contemporary research confirming that manual exercises also develop the brain.
The fifth section consists of architectural drawings executed in various techniques and on many alternative scales. The feel for space that is unique to architecture also finds evocative expression in Adlercreutz’s abstract acrylic paintings and drawings in coloured pencil.
The exhibition is curated by Juha-Heikki Tihinen, PhD. It is produced by the Pro Artibus Foundation and the Museum of Finnish Architecture.