Drawing Architecture

Coffee table books have bad press, but these two volumes deserve attention. Drawing Architecture gathers almost 300 drawings, from a Sumerian sanctuary floor plan engraved over 4,000 years ago on the sculpture of the architect-king Gudea to H&deM's Elbphilharmonie. The author, Helen Thomas, a British architect who after teaching in London and collaborating in the drawing archives of the RIBA and the V&A became a researcher at ETH Zurich, offers an informative, intelligent write-up on each of the drawings.