You’re rather excited about this Blackwing pencil sitting between us. What can you tell us about it – this is the marque John Steinbeck wrote with, right?
Yes, and in the thirties, all of the Disney animators used these. 

One was buried with a Blackwing – I’m sure I’ve read that before.
It’s true. What happened with the company was the machine that made that steel piece with the little rubber, the ferrule, well, it broke. So, they decided, fuck it, we won’t reinvent it. They stopped making them. And then stopped altogether. These pencils became cult like, and originals were being sold for $200 – it was crazy. And then, about five or six years ago, this American outfit in California picked up the license for the brand, found a company in Japan who could do the wood and carbon elements, but then they had to make the ferrule machine at great cost. See you can pull out the eraser and it’s also this unique flat shape and that’s another reason why so many designers love them, because they don’t roll off the desk.   

You’re not that old – when you started out, I imagine drawings were being conceived digitally?
If I go back to high school and tech drawing and art class, it was all about using a pencil and sketching and drawing and drafting. And despite the programs that came into being, I’ve always resonated [with hand drawing] and for the reason that it’s easier to communicate – it’s the way that my brain works. Don’t get me wrong, I watch the team on Revit and InDesign or whatever it is, and I sit there and go, ‘oh, I wish I could do that.’ I don’t really actually, but I’m glad they can. 

He who controls the pen – there’s something in that?
Oh absolutely. And it started for me being on a building site and sitting with the builder and being able to do a little sketch detail with an axonometric or a perspective on the wall where we are building and then to go, yeah, cool, I get it. There was a lot of power in that. And then that translated into, as you get a bit more mature and a bit older and you’re then sitting in a meeting, and then I’m suddenly the only one who can draw. Everyone else is saying they can make changes and address things later – I can do it on the spot.  

It’s about communication.
It’s about communication.  And an immediacy with that. I can go and knock up a plan, a section, a quick perspective or an axo; here’s a little detail of what things might be. And you watch people and, I’ll be honest, sometimes it doesn’t matter what you’re drawing, it’s the fact that you’re communicating all this stuff and they’re watching and engaging and seeing things transform. There’s a real power in that. 

That’s also about a heightened sense of connection.
Yes, it’s kind like this immediate birthing of the project in front of [a client’s] eyes. If you sit down and design a project with a client and you’re sketching as you’re talking to them – it’s amazing how they feel like they’re part of the process, that they have real purchase in that process. So, when the design outcome is presented and it’s built, they’re sold. There’s never a, ‘fuck we should have done that differently’ because they were there at Genesis in some respects. And the other point here too, if you go through this process with a client, and once again, this speed of a sketch also means we’re not blowing fees, I’m not spending thousands of dollars. That’s one of the big things for me – being able to do these things in a relatively efficient manner means you’re not spending $50,000 of a client’s money on stuff that’s wasted and that leads to trust and rapport. 

I’ve looked at Frank Lloyd Wright’s sketches over the years – not surprisingly there’s a strong fluidity to his drawing style…
Frank’s a bit outlandish but still fantastic. They all were. I’ve got a whole library of books full of architect sketches… Seeing how Norman Foster’s office would communicate, and just an amazing drawer, staggering communicator with a pen and pencil. 

Do you archive your own sketches?
Unfortunately, I do all my drawings on butter paper — but I’ve got boxes full of old sketches and stuff that goes back to when I was 25 years-old.   

Do you ever go back to them, become lost to them?
Occasionally, yeah. 

Yours is a youthful office – do you encourage them to draw with pen or pencil or is there push back as it doesn’t inform modern education? 
I think they can be scared of committing to it. But I say, ‘show me what you’re thinking, just give me the intent.’ I don’t care if it’s good, bad or different. It can be chicken scratch, but just show me. What I also say to the team about this [when they don’t hand draw] is that they’re missing a trick in their development. My pen, for me, is my conch. If I’m carrying a pen, I’ve got the conch shell and I’m in charge. And it doesn’t matter who it is — if it’s a consult meeting and I’ve got a structural engineer and a hydraulic engineer and we’re sitting there trying to resolve some sort of detail, half the time they can’t draw. So, we’re able to communicate with them and resolve things. 

What are you utilising when sketching in the office?
Usually, it’s an Artline. It’ll be a 0.4 and a 0.6. You’ve got to have a couple of different weights. And I’m blue in colour, in the past it’s been green. And before that it was red. So, I kind of go through phases of what kind of feels good. But conversely, I’ve also got a selection of pencils, which, wow, we’re really getting into the weeds now, but I’ll go to the parallel drafting table beside my desk on occasions … to sit down with one sheet of fucking film, not tracing paper, but film, old school film, and hand draft with a 0.3, pencil, two H lead, that makes my day…  

True?
Well, usually there’s a bottle of red beside me. To be honest, it actually feels incredibly self-indulgent to find the time to sit there and do it when I know that I don’t have to. But I do love it. And you will often

Do you draw or sketch outside of work?
I don’t sit at home and sketch buildings and stuff like that. If there’s a pen there, you’ll pick it up and I’ll doodle. I’ll sketch my daughter — but those sketches are, well, I realised very early on that drawing people was not my forte. They always look a bit Picassoesque – and not in a good way.