Sketches are the first inkling into the design process of an architect, a way of observing and investigating a project’s development or even representing solutions for it. Through an architect’s sketches, one can better understand how a specific design move mirrors echoes throughout an entire work. Here, we have compiled sketches by Pritzker Prize winners - designers who have been awarded the highest recognization in the field of architecture - offering diverse techniques that can certainly inspire your next freehand experiment.

Save this picture! Sketch - Nadir Afonso Contemporary Art Museum / Álvaro Siza Vieira

Save this picture! Sketch of Premabhai Hall. Image Courtesy of Pritzker Architecture Prize

Save this picture! Sketch - Convento Das Bernardas / Eduardo Souto de Moura

Save this picture! The very first sketch Gehry made of the design for the Guggenheim Bilbao. Image Courtesy of Gehry Partners

Save this picture! Sydney Opera House: perspective from staircase between the two halls looking towards the north. Image © Jørn Utzon

Save this picture! Sketch - The Pavilion / Norman Foster Foundation

Save this picture! Sketch - Casa da Canoa / Oscar Niemeyer

Save this picture! Cais das Artes, projeto de Paulo Mendes das Rocha, Vitória, ES, 2006 – obra em construção. Crédito: Reprodução Acervo Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Image

Save this picture! Philip Johnson and Gideon Ziv, Sorek Nuclear Research Center, Israel, 1956-9 (from: Zvi Efrat, The Israeli Project: Building and Architecture 1948-1973)

Save this picture! Sketch - Château La Coste Art Gallery / Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Save this picture! Concept sketch for the National Assembly for Wales.. Image Courtesy of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Save this picture! Sketchbook: Morocco / NMK.2008.0734.124.018. Image Courtesy of Nasjonalmuseet Digital Archive

Save this picture! Section of Koshino House by Tadao Ando