Artful Practice: Architectural Drawings by Richard Norman Shaw
Take a look at Architectural Drawings by Richard Norman Shaw at the Royal Academy of Arts
Discover the architecture of Richard Norman Shaw in a fantastic free exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Although born in Edinburgh to an Irish father and Scottish mother, probably no other architect since Wren can claim to have defined more clearly for his time the Englishness of English architecture. Many people have remarked on the nautical flavour of some of Shaw's finest buildings. Half-timbered walls and gables, mullioned windows, sweeping roofs and high chimneystacks all symbolise home's promise of shelter and the light and warmth of the hearth.
Developers of suburban housing have endlessly recycled the shadow of Shaw's redefinition of English architecture well into our own day, to the point of parody and beyond. However to gain a sense of the impact that Shaw wanted his best work to have on posterity one need look no further than the magnificent series of pen-and-ink perspectives that he put into the Academy's annual exhibition in the 1870s and '80s.
A selection of these, nearly all in his own hand, forms the core of this display, which is drawn almost entirely from the large collection of Shaw's office drawings bequeathed to the Royal Academy by the architect's son in 1959.
The exhibition is taking place in the Tennant Room between Saturday February 23rd and Sunday May 25th; the exhibition is open from 1pm to 4pm Tuesday to Saturday and 10am to 6pm Saturday and Sunday.
Find out more about events at the Royal Academy of Arts.
How to get there
The closest tube stations are located at Green Park and Piccadilly Circus.
If travelling by bus you can jump on the 3, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 22, 23, 38, 88, 94, 139, 159 or the 453.
