Life drawing with Chris Wilkinson RA
Morning session
Saturday 13 October 2018 10.30am - 1.30pm
The Life Room, RA Schools, Piccadilly
£120 for one session. £200 if booked in conjunction with the Humphrey Ocean RA life drawing session. Includes all materials, light refreshments and a complimentary ticket to the Renzo Piano exhibition.
Renzo Piano
Terms and conditions
Take part in a practical life-drawing class in the RA’s historic Life Room with architect and Royal Academician Chris Wilkinson, inspired by the Renzo Piano exhibition.
"It seems to me that for centuries architects have always used drawing as part of the creative process, as a means of communicating. And I guess I've followed that tradition, mainly because I enjoy drawing."
Chris Wilkinson RA, 2015
Celebrated architect Chris Wilkinson RA, founder of the WilkinsonEyre practice, leads an informal life drawing session inspired by his lifelong admiration of and commitment to drawing, with particular reference to the Renzo Piano exhibition and the relationship between the body and the building in drawing.
Listen to the podcast below, in which architect Chris Wilkinson RA and painter Humphrey Ocean RA discuss what it is to draw, and why the process is central to their work.
This morning session is available to book as an individual class or with the afternoon session, led by Humphrey Ocean RA, which will take place on the same day from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. Individual session £120, full day (both sessions) £200.
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About the tutor
Chris Wilkinson RA
Chris Wilkinson RA made his reputation with a series of long-span lightweight structures which reflected his roots in the high-tech movement and his particular interest in large clear span sheds. After spells working with Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Michael Hopkins, he set up Chris Wilkinson Architects in 1983, which became WilkinsonEyre four years later when Jim Eyre became a partner. The firm made its reputation with the Market Depot and station at Stratford on the Jubilee Line Extension and received the Stirling Prize for best building of the year by a British architect for the Magna Science Centre in Rotherham (2001) and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge (2002).
Both these projects show how Wilkinson has developed the high-tech tradition, from its origins as a rhetorical expression of construction and material to a way of communicating narrative and metaphor. The Magna Science Centre is a series of pods in which visitors can play with and begin to understand how earth, air, fire and water behave, all located within the cavernous spaces of a redundant steel mill. As well as opening to let boats through, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge provides the opportunity to linger over the River Tyne and contemplate its surroundings. Elegant bridges, the structures of which trace fine filigree patterns recalling natural forms, are a hallmark of his practice. The command of structure they demand is also reflected in WilkinsonEyre’s growing roster of skyscraper designs.
Wilkinson’s ability to weave narrative into architecture is evident in a series of visitor destinations. From his most recent project redesigning the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, to Explore@Bristol, which turned a railway shed into a science exploration centre, while the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea tells the story of the industrial and maritime history of Wales, interleaving new construction with existing buildings and exhibition installations. The massive King’s Waterfront arena, conference and exhibition centre, on the Mersey bank in Liverpool, marks a jump in scale. However, the way it fits with the city’s distinctive skyline shows a similar sensitivity to introducing new objects into an established setting.
Wilkinson’s contribution to architecture has been recognised by the award of an OBE in the Millennium Honours List, election to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2006, and an Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architecture in 2007. In addition to the Stirling Prize for Magma and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, WilkinsonEyre has also received the RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the Guangzhou International Finance Centre in China (2012) and for the Cooled Conservatories at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore (2003). Current projects include the restoration of Battersea Power Station, the re-use of three Grade II-listed gasholders in King’s Cross to provide 145 apartments, a landmark tower overlooking Sydney Harbour, a new tower in the heart of the City of London and the continuing expansion of Dyson’s Research and Development Headquarters. Wilkinson is the author of Supersheds, The Sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson and co-author of Bridging Art & Science, Exploring Boundaries, Techtonics and Wilkinson Eyre Architects/Works.
At the Royal Academy, Chris Wilkinson has chaired the Client Committee, which has overseen the redevelopment of 6 Burlington Gardens, since 2009. He was responsible for hanging the Architecture Room in the 2012 Summer Exhibition with Eva Jiricna RA and presented the sculpture Landscape to Portrait in the Annenberg Courtyard in the same year designed with Diana and Dominic Wilkinson.
About the space
The Life Room
The Royal Academy’s historic Life Room sits at the heart of the RA Schools. Usually closed to the public, this unique and significant space was designed in the 1860s, when the galleries and art school first moved to Burlington Gardens.
The semi-circular seating arrangement, based on an ancient design, traces its British history back to Hogarth’s Academy in St Martin’s Lane from around 1730. Directional light is used to enhance the delineation of the model’s musculature and aid life drawing, which has been practised in this room by generations of Royal Academy artists and students.
Our courses and classes programme
Our programme of short courses and classes offers the opportunity to explore a range of subjects, led by expert tutors and practising artists.