My background in Architecture has instilled in me the importance of people and place, and the impact environments have on our understanding of community and creativity. I have developed my ongoing investigations of buildings through recording, measurement and drawing by hand.  

In order to document something as large and complex as a building onto a piece of paper, Architects work to a reduced scale, using symbols and codes to represent the world. 

However, my drawing process aims to use the conventions of architectural drawings to describe space as a lived experience rather than as a static or predictable moment of perfection.

The Summerhall Drawings demonstrate an honest, observant and perceptive approach to this unique historic site, exhibited and recorded through carefully constructed scale pen drawings, atmospherically enhanced with watercolour. Applying Architectural Conventions of Plan, Section, Elevation and Scale enable me to investigate spacial qualities of the former University of Edinburgh Vet School. The drawings show how the scale, layout and nature of the building have allowed its successful adaption and transformation into ‘a vibrant cultural village in the heart of Edinburgh’.

The objects of my study are recorded as a lived-in experience, exactly as I found them when visiting, with furniture, finishes and further ephemera all precisely depicted. The drawings produced accurately show the nature and variety of spaces, and the forensic detail reveals their character, thus allowing the viewer to engage in the subject matter in a new way. This will hopefully lead to further appreciation of the buildings’ qualities that allow, support and enhance ‘things happening, all kinds of interesting, wonderful and downright inspiring things’.