federico babina graffitis architects' names on famous building façades

federico babina graffitis architects’ names on famous building façades
all images courtesy of federico babina

italian artist federico babina continues to look at architecture and the elements that constitute it with his latest series of illustrations ‘ARCHIWALL’. babina sees building façades as a key ingredient in interpreting various styles and architectural languages — particularly how famous creatives in the field typically choose to use material and color in their work. ‘the wall is the ‘skin’ of architecture, the archetype, the protection, the enclosure, the barrier, the mediation, the shell and the synthesis of formal and technical research,’ babina summarizes. ‘I always enjoy reading the passage of time through the wrinkles that form on the walls and mark the maturation of architecture.’

for ‘ARCHIWALL’, babina illustrates the surfaces of well-known walls by architecture elites: rem koolhaas’ golden façade for the fondazione prada; cardboard tubes used by shigeru ban across multiple pavilion projects; alvar aalto’s brick clad muuratsalo experimental house. on these illustrated exteriors, babina has written the names of each project’s author in a distinct graffiti style, incorporating motifs from each of the architects’ oeuvre. ‘in these images, I have tried to summarize and photograph through graphics fragments of architecture,’ babina continues. ‘drawing a wall — drawing on the wall — drawing architecture drawing on architecture.’

1/8