Here at Architectural Digest, we, of course, think that all architects are artists, working in a three-dimensional medium on a grand scale. But their artistry actually goes beyond their buildings—in fact, such skill is in play well before a cornerstone is laid. Architects are often accomplished draftsmen, some working in an exacting form with meticulous attention to detail, others choosing to put pen to paper in a more emotional, stylized manner. And across the duration of a project, they may even work in both styles. The new book Drawing Architecture (Phaidon, $80) is a collection of more than 250 works by some of the world’s best-known architects, from Michelangelo to Zaha Hadid. “Polished presentation drawings made to seduce clients, or for publication, sit alongside instructive diagrams and impromptu sketches communicating intense emotion,” writes author Helen Thomas in the introduction. “The diversity of the examples collected in this book shows that the definition of an architectural drawing encompasses many and varied approaches.” Take a look at ten of our favorite drawings from the book here, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Fallingwater and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s abstracted floor plan for a private home.

Frank Gehry used computer software to draw this image of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Gehry was an early adopter of computer technology; this was created in 1992. Photo: Courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP

Zaha Hadid used colored pencil and paint to create this 1982 drawing of The Peak Leisure Club, a private club in Hong Kong. The project was never built, however, because it was impossible to do without computer-aided design—technology that didn’t exist yet. Photo: © 2018 Zaha Hadid

In 1560, Michelangelo Buonarroti drafted this study for Porta Pia. Photo: © 2018. Photo Scala, Florence

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s 1923 plan for a brick country house looks like an abstract work of art in the style of Piet Mondrian. Picture credit: © DACS

Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers used pencil to draw this 1971 image of the Pompidou Centre. Photo: © Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Vladimir Tatlin, who was a pivotal figure in the Constructivism movement in Russia, drew this Monument to the Third International in 1920, but the structure was never built. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence

Ettore Sottsass’s Progetto di architettura monumentale per la conservazione delle memorie nazional-popolari, 1976, was part of an exhibition on radical architecture in Bologna, Italy. Photo: © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London

Renzo Piano created this energetic sketch of London’s Shard in 2004. Photo: Courtesy of Renzo Piano

Chamberlin, Powell and Bon drew this detailed cross section of London’s Barbican Centre in 1970. Photo: Courtesy of John Maltby / RIBA Collections