CAPTURING THE CONCEPT: The Sketchbooks of Sir Nicholas Grimshaw CBE PRA from 1982 to 2007

Throughout his career, SIR NICHOLAS GRIMSHAW developed his ideas and concepts in a series of A4 sketchbooks revealing a particularly systematic approach to architectural design. The sketchbooks contain drawings usually hidden from public view once the process of commissioning and construction are underway. Ambitious and complex projects that subsequently employed high tech processes all started in a humble sketchbook, hand drawn with a pen.

Hosted by the gallery at wimbledon, and originated by the Centre for Drawing at University of the Arts London, in collaboration with Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and the Royal Academy of Arts, this exhibition focuses on the interface between the starting point, the computer assisted designs and the final resolution. Bespoke display cabinets will contain the sketchbooks open at significant pages with Grimshaw’s initial drawings and annotations. Architectural models will demonstrate 3D conceptual thinking and the gallery walls will display images of finished designs and buildings.

An award-winning proponent of modernist architecture and President of the Royal Academy of Arts, SIR NICHOLAS GRIMSHAW is best known in the UK as the architect of Waterloo’s International Terminal, the Eden Project, and the Financial Times Print Works in London’s East End. Overseas, his most significant projects include the National Steel Museum in Monterrey, Mexico; the Transport Centre at ground zero, New York. His design for the refurbishment of Southern Cross Station in Melbourne, Australia, won RIBA’s prestigious Lubetkin Prize in 2007. He was elected a Royal Academician and an Honorary Fellow of the AIA in 1994. Knighted in 2002, he was elected President of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2004.