Spilled hybiscus and rosehip tea seemed to me like islands waiting for urbanization. Apparently I see cities everywhere.
​Streets, alleys, waterways interweaving. 
​
The red color of the tea immediately turned mauve, apparently a reaction with some substance added to the paper..

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Size: 19 x 25 cm
​Technique: Hybiscus and Rosehip​Tea, Graphite and Blue Watercolor on Paper.​

​How is it like to live by a water courtyard leading to another water courtyard? 
The water seems to be shallow and apparently there are some stones to walk upon.
 


​Size: 19 x 14 cm 
​Technique: pencil and watercolor on paper.

When cities were left to their own development - without the dogmatic restrictions of modern architecture and planning - harmonic features evolved: connected buildings, vertical windows, ornament, 'connection to the sky' and more.

Looking at the streets of modern cities I'm possessed by a drive of dressing the bare urban environment  with its natural garments. 
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Can't we  keep the advantages of modern architecture and urban design without ​throwing the baby out with the bath water?

My first trial on a graphic tablet.
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Drawing on an horizontal pad and looking at a vertical screen made me dizzy in the beginning but I sort of got used to it after a few moments.

Still missed the inaudible sound of a pencil making marks on  paper and the inconsistencies of the graphite and the paper.

 

The thin, semi-opaque pages of this  sketchbook let the felt-tip markers show through, creating clues for drawings in the verso of the sheet.
​The hazy smudges produced in the verso  looked to me like buildings, I only had to draw lines around the marks consolidating their final shapes and volume.
​
Size: 13 x 8 cm
​Technique: pencil and felt-tip markers on paper.​

Another urban reverie, a neighborhood composed of courtyards, main spaces, alleys. 
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​Without any premeditated planning, I just let shapes emerge out of a latent inner collection of urban patterns, absorbed ever since I became interested in places and placemaking.
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​Size: 16 x 11 cm
​Technique: pencil and felt-tip marker on paper.
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A variation of the 'main building' theme.
​I generally explore a subject for a long time, triggered by some conscious or subconscious source of inspiration, until I feel I learned or exhausted the subject.
​As a practicing architect, my sketches are a depiction of imaginary, yet feasible places. 
​

​​Size: 14 x 11 cm
​Technique: pencil on paper.​

The stamps' hinges left ocher marks in the yellowing pages of this old booklet that was long ago used as a family philatelic album, a great starting point for unconscious thoughts to flow into the blank pages and condense into unexpected urban shapes. 
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To a certain extent, his method mimics incremental urban processes, where new layers are build upon previous facts on the ground, frequently reinterpreted by newer intentions or realities.

Size: 19 x 13.5 cm
​Technique: pencil and old marks found on  paper.​

Another recurring theme I try to explore in my architectural 'daydreaming' is the essence of traditional composition and its principles, such as symmetry and subtle asymmetry, axiality, hierarchy, focal points, rhythm, repetition.
​I believe that patterns canonized through history somehow reflect  hidden patterns of the mind.

Size: 13 x 12 cm
​Technique: pencil and watercolor on paper.​

Some subjects stick in my mind for quite a long time, and I make endless variations of the same theme. This facade-towers-aqueduct-steps theme recurred for a while in my sketchbook. The semi-opaque pages of this sketchbook were too thin to support any watercolor, so I applied a felt-tip marker layer of a warm color for the buildings and a blue layer for the sky.

​Size: 13 x 8 cm
​Technique: Pencil and felt-tip markers on paper.​

Urban plans is another recurrent theme that pops up obsessively and involuntarily in my daily, compulsive sketching, mostly suggesting cities built incrementally over time, showing layers of grids,  landmarks, public spaces, synergies of organic development and formal structures.
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Although I sketch with no particular purpose, sketching allows a constant research on design themes and a constant training of composition skills.

This sketch surfaced during a phone conversation, a short time upon returning  from a study trip to the Oia village  in  Santorini, Greece.
​The soft architecture forms and interlocked architectural patterns of the village that were still awake in my memory after returning, unintentionally flew onto that piece of paper left at my desk. 
The full report of this field course by the Technion's Faculty of Architecture students can be seen here.
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Size: 16 x 11 cm
Technique: Technical pen on tracing paper