Taken from over 300 sketchbooks, the 198 drawings included in this book offer unique insight into the workings of two great architects' minds. Professors Andy MacMillan and Charlie MacCallum were colleagues at the iconic post-war Scottish architectural practice, Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, and at consecutive times, Heads and Professors at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art, one of the world's great architecture schools. Theirs was a generation trained in traditional, analogue drawing. Hard line draughtsmanship was an essential medium to translate architectural designs into constructed reality. Never intended for scrutiny, the work here is refreshingly unguarded, full of life, spontaneity and humour. But taken as a collection, these sketches also allow us to see the world as they saw it, with an architect's eye, concerned with space, form, light and detail. Recording our surroundings with pen and ink is a deeply instinctive human activity. These drawings, from the hand of two eminent practitioners, are fascinating moments captured in time, simultaneously revealing and intriguing, significant for anyone with an interest in architectural process.
But their simplicity and honesty makes their appeal universal, a visual feast for those who take pleasure from life observed.