Atomik: Studio Conversations 2.3

Cycle to MIPIM - Sketchbooks

By Mike Oades - Managing Director, Atomik

In March I completed the Knight Frank Club Peloton Cycle to MIPIM ride, which is 1438 kilometres from London to Cannes. I had decided to capture aspects of the preparation and training as well as the ride, as a souvenir of the locations and of the experiences, sometimes alone, but often shared.

I try to carry a sketch book with me all the time. This is easier said than done. It’s ok at work and when I’m travelling, as I usually have something to put my sketchbook, pens and paints in. However, at festivals or on a bike it is a little more difficult, as you are limited by pocket space. I do have a little landscape moleskin sketch book for this purpose. I tend not to sketch while I am cycling, although I would really like to - my younger self might have tried. On a recent Five Ferries ride which takes in the West Coast of Scotland, Arran, the Mull of Kintyre and Bute, I used the opportunity to draw the ferries as markers along the journey when safely off the bike.

Sketching can take many forms and last year I attended a RIBA East London Group drawing workshop that was led by Phil Dean (aka The Shoreditch Sketcher). I really enjoyed his approach to sketching: go straight in with a pen; start somewhere on the page and work out from there; leave some white space to frame the drawing. This took me out of my comfort zone - even as a regular sketcher. I am from the generation of architects that started their careers on drawing boards. You must be quite controlled with the way you set up your drawing sheets so that you have space for the whole plan, elevation or section you are drawing, as well as your notes, scales, North points and title block. This discipline translates into to the way I organise my sketching subjects - tending to measure views more formally out first before diving in. The sketches of my bike rides this year have been a combination of both Phil’s approach and my usual way of setting up a drawing.

When you are drawing from life there is a different way of looking or seeing. You must really look to see what is in front of you. Looking for the sense and meaning in the architecture and buildings. Often you can feel the hand of the building’s original architect - it’s like reading music. You have the equivalent of instrumentation, tempo and key signatures, decoration and ornament. You learn different things from a proper look. I enjoy everyday buildings that may or may not have an architect’s involvement. Traditional vernacular details tell you a lot about the climate of a region, the amount of rainfall, sun, wind, snow and frost. You can pick out changes and adaptations over time. Repairs and changes in taste, design and the type of materials that are readily available. There is a novel to be read in the elevation of every building regardless of is architectural merit.

On the ride through France, sketching offered opportunities that would have passed me by. While the rest of the peloton were taking a much-needed refreshment break. I stood sketching in front of an unremarkable semi-detached house in the village of Villadin. This behaviour can spark a little curtain twitching and curiosity in the neighbours - if 80 cyclists and the support team wasn’t enough. The village mayor walked over from the mayhem and joined me to see what I was up to. I think that he was surprised by my modest choice of subject - it is a beautiful village. He asked me if I had seen the ‘epi de toiture’ - I hadn’t. The epi de toiture are little roof groins at the intersection of the roof hips and ridge - it’s a very traditional and simple detail seen all over this region of France. The mayor asked me to look again at the neighbouring roof - did I notice anything. Sure enough, I noticed that the epi de toiture on each neighbouring house was different. Instead of the traditional zinc or terracotta groin these were glazed ceramic groins except they were not groins they were jugs, all different colours shapes and sizes, decorative jugs, and jugs depicting men and women. Why? The mayor explained that the village had been making pottery for the past 500 years, it had become a tradition to place a jug on the roof of your house. It was a subtle contrast to the minimal simplicity of the houses. ‘Come with me’ he said ,’there are more…’

There is no amount of looking that could have ever told me this story, however. It brings me back into the present and reinforces the importance of human relationships in habitation - less I forget.

Quite simply, sketching as a medium, is much more than chronicling and capturing a moment. It’s the time it allows you to pause and consider your surroundings; an opportunity to talk to new curious people; or calming your mind as pen meets paper.? In our busy lives, where most people would take a quick photo – that will most likely end up buried in your phone library – a sketch is about connection. In some ways, the ethos of what the ride to MIPIM is about?