Constellations exhibition reveals architectural drawings to the public gaze Why do architects still draw in an age when so many images are created digitally?

Architectural drawings of diverse styles and approaches are currently on display in Constellations: A Large number of Small Drawings.

RMIT Gallery director, Suzanne Davies, says the exhibition represents Australian drawings from diverse disciplines, including those by more than 20 architects.

"Much of the work is about thinking through ideas and creating images of things that fascinate. A small amount is digital, but the thinking hand remains dominant," Davies says.

Alongside complete architectural drawings of high artistic value, the exhibition included preparatory and digital drawings, designs for installations and sketchbook notes.

The exhibition also reveals drawings of unrealised buildings, such as Frederick Romberg’s dynamic, modernist inspired design for the Gloucester Apartments in 1946, which were never built. Other architectural drawings displayed in Constellations, such as Jason Pickford’s finely detailed fantasy drawings of unreal buildings, were only meant to live on in the imagination.

Architects represented in Constellations include: Gregory Burgess, Barrie Marshall (Denton Corker Marshall), Ainslie Murray, Nigel Bertram and Kim Halik, Cache Architecture Studio, Peter Elliott, Howard Raggart (ARM Architects), Jason Pickford, Ivan Rijavek, Frederick Romberg (Grounds, Romberg and Boyd), Minifie Nixon Architects, Jen Wood, Michael Spooner, Leon van Schaik, Peter Davidson (LAB Architects), Sophie Herel, Stuart Harrison, Vivian Mitsogianni and Dean Boothroyd (M@ Studio), Mauro Baracco and Louise Wright, Adrian Iredale (iredale pedersen hook) and Alex Selentisch.

Architectural works in Constellations revealed to the public a range of styles and periods of architectural drawings, such as older style rendered drawings.

Constellations: A Large number of Small Drawings will be at RMIT Gallery until June 26, 2010.