The Club held an on-line sketching evening on the 10th of May 2021. Our host was Narinder Sagoo, a member of the Club and a Senior Partner at Foster and Partners where he leads the Design Communications Team.

Narinder studied architecture at Leeds and the Bartlett and joined Fosters in 1996, he works closely with Norman and gave us a fascinating insight into the creative processes of the practice. Drawing is at the very heart of it, Norman Foster is a brilliant draughtsman himself, and he encourages drawing and sketching throughout the design process.

After showing some examples of his own work and method, Narinder lead the attendees through a series of exercises that explored different aspects of freehand sketching, from loosening up scribbles, to portraits, landscapes and finally works from memory.

Using an iPad and Procreate, Narinder demonstrated how to de-mystify the process and how to get rid of the inhibitions that surround sketching, it was particularly interesting to see the pencil portraits of strangers that he does on his commute to the office. Drawing is both a form of therapy and a form of communication, and as Narinder said it is a “way of listening”.

For all these reasons drawing is a skill that every architect should master, in the age of Teams and Zoom where we spend our time looking at screens, drawing helps us see the world around us.

Below is a selection of works submitted by those who attended the sketch night - click on any of portraits to have have a closer look!