The Persistence of Hand Drawing:
Interior Design Today
New York School of Interior Design
2024
Co-curated with Thomas Mellins
This exhibition focused on hand drawings by 12 established and emerging New York-based architects and interior designers. Drawings and design portfolios from the New York School of Interior Design Archives provided context for this contemporary work
Today, when computer imagery is ubiquitous, there remain a number of contemporary architects and designers who persist in drawing interiors by hand. Their drawings enhance the designers’ powers of observation. They promote the understanding of scale and proportion to highlight this ongoing practice that reminds us of both the artisanry and ideation that the nearly wholesale adoption of CAD by the design industry has marginalized. Hand renderings exert an impact on the client or viewer. Distinct from other types of interior design drawings—plans, sections, and linear elevations—renderings emphasize the depiction of three-dimensional form and space, often using color and emphasizing the effects of light. More romantic than computer-generated images, hand renderings offer an opportunity to imagine oneself within the depicted interior by, in a sense, filling in the blanks. Renderings thus become powerful tools of persuasion used to promote designers’ ideas to clients, patrons, and the press.
Mr. Albrecht worked with co-curator Thomas Mellins to develop the show’s themes, select artifacts, write exhibition text, and work with the design team.
Press
Coverage in Women’s Wear Daily.
Credits
Exhibition and graphic designer: Darling Green
Photographer: Rob Stephenson
