Drawings, tracings, automatic drawings, ink blots like Rorschach have no clear connection to architecture. Yet they offer a base from which research into the possibility of architecture can start. Could they be used as a plan for the building? If so, which parts? What might be the size of this work in relationship to the building? And so on.

To appropriate a drawing also comes with constraints. Some moments are not entirely logical from a conventional architectural point of view: strange corners, irregular spaces, and parts of the house that are so slim you can only squeeze through. This mode of translating non-architectural references into built form can thus also enhance the experience and embodiment of space.

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Anne Holtrop started his own practice in 2009. It currently has studios in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Muharraq (Bahrain). Holtrop is an associate professor at ETH Zürich. For his practice he received the Charlotte Köhler Prize for Architecture (2017), the Iakov Chernikhov International Prize (2016), and the Aga Khan Award (2019).