Drawing and the primacy of expression

This keynote address explores the potential of drawing in contemporary practice as a vital form of creative visual thinking. It argues that drawing, in all its varied forms and diversity of techniques, remains fundamental to primacy of expression in design professions that are increasingly globalized and homogenized. Architects engage in drawing as an experimental process, in order to work through problems — they draw in order to discover. The visual language of architecture is not simply a medium of communication, or illustration, but a process of thought, a kind of visual intelligence. This talk addresses the ways in which the visual intelligence of drawing is embodied in physical materials and actions, and considers the ways in which expressive mark making will continue to make a distinctive contribution as technical capabilities respond to the human challenges of design.