Ritning som byggande: Lewerentz och ritningarna till S:t Petri

Since the onset of the 16th century, the architect's labor has been increasingly distanced from the site of actual construction. Unlike earlier periods, where the architect conducted a project directly on the building site, by the Renaissance architects practiced their profession increasingly away from the site and into drawing studios. Today, with complex tools of virtual communication between builders and designers, it is quite common for an architect to design buildings without ever setting foot on the construction site. In contrast to the strong distinction between drawing and building made in today's professional setting, Sigurd Lewerentz relished in the possibility of fluctuating between them. As is well-known, he spent large amounts of his daily work conversing with workmen and conducting design decisions at the building site, particularly in his later years on the churches of S:t Mark and S:t Petri. Through close collaborations with materials and builders, Lewerentz translated his ideas into an architecture that was deeply personal. What is more, such an approach was thoroughly inseparable from his unique method of engaging construction through drawing and sketching. Upon examining a few, what seems clear is that the conventional understanding of the architect's drawing as a representation of a future, completed building is not adequate for understanding how Lewerentz utilized the medium of pen and paper. Instead, for Lewerentz, drawing is building, and although the physical acts of drawing and building are separated, in his imagination the two remain indivisible.