CREATIVITY GAME

The tradition of architectural drawing that was cultivated at the school and passed down from Plečnik to subsequent generations gained recognition throughout the broader European context. Architects trained at the Ljubljana School of Architecture were therefore highly regarded not only as artists but also as excellent draftsmen. This reputation was well known even in the Paris studio of Le Corbusier at 35 Rue de Sèvres. Among the nine Slovenians who worked in the atelier of Le Corbusier before the mid-twentieth century, Edvard Ravnikar stood out especially for his exceptional drawing skills. In recognition of this skill, Le Corbusier even allowed him – something very unusual in the studio – to leave his own signature on a drawing.

Sketching – as a distinct and perhaps the most immediate form of an architect’s expression – has always been an important part of the teaching tradition at the Ljubljana’s Faculty of Architecture. Study trips and excursions with a sketchbook in hand formed an essential component of architectural education for both masters, Jože Plečnik and Edvard Ravnikar, as well as for other professors at the school.

As the most outstanding student of the professor Otto Wagner, Plečnik was awarded a study trip to Italy in 1898–1899. Later, when he became a professor of architecture himself, he frequently travelled with his students on study excursions, particularly across Slovenia.
Plečnik’s foremost student, Ravnikar, later developed the concept of the so-called “Italian trips”. This tradition was subsequently continued for nearly thirty years by his assistant, and later professor, Marjan Ocvirk. Unfortunately, the tradition was interrupted for approximately twenty years. As times changed, drawing gradually lost some of its importance, while digital drawing increasingly became the principal tool used by both professors and students of architecture.

And yet we are increasingly aware that, in a time dominated by virtualization and artificial intelligence, the architect’s hand – what Juhani Pallasmaa famously described as the “thinking hand” – remains the most direct and sensitive instrument for expressing architectural perception and ideas.

This was precisely what we practiced again last year during the excursion to Italy. After many years, sketching once again became a daily activity. Along the way, we explored cities, squares, palaces, churches, and other sites, with each of us capturing them in our sketchbooks in our own unique way.