Architect Drawings : A Selection of Sketches by World Famous Architects Through History

Schinkel, Karl Friedrich (1781–1841)
Sketches of a church at Grundriß Square, 1828, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
SM 41d.220, 40.3 30.3cm, Black ink
Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a prominent Prussian neoclassical architect, was born at Neuruppin/Mark
Brandenburg in 1781. After the death of his father in 1794, the family moved to Berlin. Deciding that
architecture was his interest, he joined the studio of David Gilly to study with he and his son,
Friedrich Gilly. Schinkel subsequently enrolled in the first class of the Bauakademie and from 1803 to
1805 he embarked on a journey through Saxony, Austria, Italy, and France to view examples of architectural
antiquity.
Schinkel’s first major project was a commission by Friedrich Wilhelm III to design the Neue
Wache at the Platz am Zeughaus. In 1821 he designed the Schauspielhaus in Berlin with its symmetrical
wings, double entablature and raised pediment, all distinctive of his creative use of the neoclassical.
His architecture evoked the Greek and Roman but reflected his own interpretation of classicism. One
of the buildings he designed in Berlin was the Alte Museum in the Lustgarten, along with planning the
development of the area. The distinctive element of this project, executed between 1824 and 1830,
was a long colonnaded façade fronted by a large open plaza, giving the building a classical, monumental
context.
This page of sketches for a square church (Figure 3.7) exhibits a search for form in plan, section, and
elevation. It also conveys Schinkel’s use of memory as a device in his design process, expressed through
his freehand sketches. They are in some ways dependent upon memory since thoughts, images, and
experiences, all part of the architect’s whole being, determine what the sketch will be. Body memory,
interpretation, and even specific items that are retained in memory over other experiences influence
what each architect sketches. 1
The quick, often uncontrolled process of sketching reveals how memory influences the form of the
images. The haphazard placement and the heavy lines for correction are evidence of a thinking process.
Schinkel uses his memory both to remember aspects of antiquity and to be reminded of the form of
his earlier projects.
The square shape of this church is reminiscent of a Renaissance Palazzo with its heavy cornice and
frieze. The center is open, so as to be an atrium or interior courtyard also evoking the Renaissance
Palazzo theme. Other details speak of Schinkel’s concern for history, such as the Pantheon-like portico,
very similar to the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo. The tall, central
space, possibly three to four stories, terminates in a domed oculus skylight.
The sketches also convey Schinkel’s memory of his own earlier design projects, by the way he
repeats certain elements in a new context. The image on the right shows the same square church, but
on the lower level a long, colonnaded, raised portico surrounds it. One is distinctly reminded of the
long colonnade on the Alte Museum, not yet completed at the time of this sketch, but possibly still
very much in Schinkel’s mind. The portico, rendered on the alternative to the left, is reminiscent of
the façade of his earlier work, the Neue Wache, designed approximately twelve years earlier. These
elemental shapes are reflective of the neoclassical style, but they are reused in creative ways, distinctive
in his design.
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