Steven Holl and the art of an architect

New York based architect Steven Holl has used a watercolour kit as a building design aid for 30 years, and has built up an impressive portfolio of work… to say nothing of the buildings he also designs.

Among architecture aficionados, Holl’s wat­ercolors are a cult phenomenon. In an age when buildings often appear designed for photographs, and the photographs can be hard to distinguish from digital renderings, it seems almost quaint for the 60-year-old architect to carry a little watercolor kit with him as he flies around the world to meet clients. But for Holl the drawings are a source of inspiration, a method of exploration, and also a practical tool. In 1978, a year after moving to New York, he gave up his obsessively detailed pencil drawings for the more impressionistic and intuitive watercolors. “With the watercolor, in the quickest way, I could shape a volume, cast a shadow, indicate the direction of the sun in a very small format,” he says. “And I could carry these things around because I was always traveling.”