Inscriptive Practices
Inscriptive Practices
BEA MARTIN
ENTER SITE
GO TO CALENDAR
IP Site Symbols
Your key to navigating Inscriptive Practices online.
BOOK A PLACE
FAQ
Go to Homepage
Go to Programme Calendar
Go to More Information
Go to About Bea Martin
Go to Inspiration
Go to Frequently Asked Questions
email Bea Martin
Click to Book a Place Lab / workshop /Seminar
Click to Folow on Instagram
FAQ
INSCRIPTIVE PRACTICES
... is a design and research laboratory, at MSA, that treats drawing, modelling, and making as experimental, inscriptive acts. These practices invent new media and methods, allowing students to think and design architecture on their own terms. It is concerned with the literal and figurative manifestations of ideas, and with how propositional tools can generate hidden and speculative dimensions of architecture.
Follow IP on Instagram
BEA MARTIN
email
FHEA RIBA ARB OASRS
'B' is a British architect, artist, and educator. A Senior Lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture and PhD student at the Bartlett, her work explores the unknown, the unformed, and the not-yet, through speculative drawing, visual studies, and experimental architecture. Founder of Speculative Assemblies, she treats drawing as a living apparatus—an inventive process where architecture is always in flux. With over fifteen years of professional experience, including at Richard Rogers and Partners, Bea’s practice bridges architectural precision with open-ended inquiry, embracing abstraction, ambiguity, and cross-disciplinary encounters to unsettle conventional modes of making and thinking.
CRITICAL CONSTELLATIONS
Perry KULPER
Peter J Baldwin
Ephraim JORIS
Neil LEACH
Nat CHARD
Emma Kate MATTHEWS
Michael CHAPMAN
Clement LAURENCIO
Bryan CANTLEY
Mathew EMMET
Niloufar ALENJERY
Anders ABRAHAM
Neil SPILLER
Ray LUCAS
Fabio BARILARI
Mark DORRIAN
Riet EECKHOUT
Pedro PITARCH
YOU + PEA
Philip BEESLEY
SMOUT ALLEN
Caleb SKENE
Connery FRIESEN
Larissa FASSLER
Michael WEBB
Elis FINNEGAN
Mark Foster GAGE
C J Lim
Peter COOK
Scott TULAY
Drawing Architecture Studio
Thomas PARKER
Daniel K BROWN
Gem Barton
Felix ROBBIINS
Eric WONG
Adrian LABAUT
Mark WEST
Hazem TALAAT
George THEMISTOKLEOUS
Michael YOUNG
Thom MAYNE
Stefan LENGEN
Chiara BUGATTI
Jerome TRYON
Tomás SARACENO
Brian M KELLY
Cesare BATTELLI
Architects, artists, makers, theorists and educators whose work sparks new methods and tools.
Next
MONDAY 26 JANUARY
LAB VI
Drawings and their Consequences
Architectural drawings are never passive. They organise attention, encode assumptions, and quietly determine what architecture can be thought, seen, and acted upon. The lab begins with a fast-paced morning talk that introduces the full spectrum of architectural drawings—not as a taxonomy to memorise, but as a set of operative instruments. From plans and sections to diagrams, perspectives, notations, collages, and palimpsests, the talk frames each drawing type through what it privileges, what it suppresses, and the kind of architectural thinking it enables. In the afternoon workshop, Three Drawings in Tension, students put this knowledge to work by analysing, isolating, and deliberately recombining different drawing types. By forcing distinct representational logics to coexist, the lab tests how drawings produce knowledge, structure meaning, and shape architectural thought. The day culminates in an analytique or palimpsestic composite drawing that makes the consequences of drawing choices explicit.
Morning TALK 11:30-12:30
No Drawing Is Innocent
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
Three Drawings in Tension
BOOK A PLACE
Next
MONDAY 2 FEBRUARY
WORKSHOP LED BY Dr RAY LUCAS
Drawing Parallels
about Ray
Why do we make axonometric, isometric, and oblique drawings? This talk and workshop will explore the worlds of parallel projection and the reason why they are useful to draw. The talk will make use of arguments from my book ‘Drawing Parallels’ which examined the work of five architects who made extensive use of parallel projection in their designs: Peter Eisenman, Cedric Price, JJP Oud, John Hejduk, and James Stirling. Each architectural firm used these conventions differently, but made unique contributions to architecture along the way.
Following this, in the afternoon, we will make use of parallel projection drawings as field drawings. Rather than the default sketch-perspective, understanding geometry and form is much more effective through axonometric and other parallel projections. The depiction of three dimensional spaces and objects relies on a rational process of constructing a drawing. I will present examples of my work from projects looking at marketplaces in South Korea and festivals in Japan for a forthcoming book. We will apply these tools to the spaces around us.
Morning Seminar 11:30-12:30
Drawing Parallels Talk
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
Drawing Parallels Workshop
BOOK A PLACE
Next
MONDAY 9 FEBRUARY
GUEST WORKSHOP
Matthew Poon
In the morning session, Matthew will present a range of analogue and digital processes he uses to conceive and visualise his architectural projects: Monastery of the Stranded and Institute for Hydraulic Calibration and Hydrometrical Automata. He will reflect on the development of architectural narratives and the search for a personal practice within the field, while opening space for questions that are often left unasked.
In the afternoon workshop, Matthew will focus on his methods for developing sections and illustrations, working together with participants to produce and refine drawings.
Morning TALK 11:30-12:30
2D+3D Methodologies for Speculative Futures
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
Narrative-driven Drawing Development
BOOK A PLACE
about Matthew
Next
MONDAY 16 FEBRUARY
ALL DAY WORKSHOP
Building Drawings
This is all-day studio workshop focused on developing new architectural work from what already exists. Students bring all current working drawings—complete, incomplete, and unresolved—and use them as active material rather than finished artefacts. Through group discussion, critique, and collective testing, drawings are extended, reworked, and transformed into new propositions. The session emphasises drawing as a continuous process of construction, where ideas evolve through feedback, iteration, and deliberate rethinking, with the final studio portfolio submission firmly in mind.
Morning SESSION 11:00-13:00
BOOK A PLACE
Afternoon SESSION 14:00-16:30
Next
MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY
GUEST WORKSHOP
Tom Rowntree
The Day with Thomas Rowntree from tomrowstudios explores architecture through communication, identity, and influence. Through talks, discussions, and a hands-on workshop, the day focuses on how architects can shape and communicate their projects and portfolios in a holistic way. The session reflects on my architectural journey and the role of personal branding, storytelling, and communication in shaping my work. This is supported by a book event for Architectural Influence, a practical guide to building visibility and impact through social media, featuring insights from 21 leading architecture creators. The event also offers space for discussion and exchange of ideas. The workshop centres on developing a coherent graphic identity, encouraging students to view projects as complete systems of communication. Participants will learn how to use colour, typography, hierarchy, and layout to create confident, consistent, and compelling presentations and portfolios.
Morning TALK 11:30-12:00
Branding Architecture
LUNCH EVENT 12:30-13:30
Book Signing: Architectural Influence
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
BOOK A PLACE
Viewing Architectural Work as a Brand
Next
MONDAY 2 MARCH
LAB VI
Hybrid Compositions
This lab introduces composite drawing as an inscriptive practice in which architecture emerges through acts of layering, collision, and reconfiguration. The session positions drawing not as the representation of a prior idea, but as a site where ideas are actively produced through the interaction of fragments, scales, media, and logics. By working with pre-existing drawings and reassembling them through digital and analogue operations, students explore how meaning arises from juxtaposition, distortion, annotation, and material transformation. The workshop frames hybridity as an architectural condition—where authorship is distributed, images are unstable, and composition becomes a speculative method for thinking rather than a tool for resolution. This session equips students to work critically and confidently with hybrid drawings, developing an understanding of their potential as generative, analytical, and propositional architectural instruments.
Morning Seminar 11:30-12:30
Hybrid Drawings
BOOK A PLACE
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
Assembling Drawings
Next
MONDAY 9 MARCH
LAB
Drawing Your Portfolio
This lab focuses on the portfolio as a book—a constructed object with its own structure, rhythm, and argument. Through a talk and hands-on workshop, students will explore how architectural work is authored through sequencing, pacing, framing, and editorial decision-making. Rather than treating the portfolio as a neutral container of images, the session positions it as a spatial and narrative artefact, where meaning is produced across pages. The lab supports students in transforming accumulated outputs into a coherent, deliberate book that communicates a clear architectural position.
Morning TALK 11:30-12:30
You are your Portfolio!
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
The Portfolio as a Book
BOOK A PLACE
Next
MONDAY 16 MARCH
all day workshop
WOW Drawing
This is an all-day studio workshop focused on producing a single, ambitious drawing that clearly articulates the core idea of your studio project. Students will work intensively to identify, develop, and commit to one drawing capable of carrying conceptual weight, spatial intelligence, and visual impact. The session prioritises decision-making, refinement, and finish—transforming existing project material into a confident, authored image with the final studio portfolio submission firmly in mind.
Morning Seminar 11:00-13:00
BOOK A PLACE
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
BOOKING
Individual Tutorials
Individual tutorials offer dedicated time to discuss your work in depth, with a particular focus on drawing, visual thinking, and the development of your own representational language. These sessions are an opportunity to test ideas, review drawings at any stage of completion, and work through questions around composition, method, and portfolio direction. Tutorials are typically available on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and can take place online or in person. Sessions are flexible and student-led—you are encouraged to bring current drawings, experiments, or unresolved work for focused discussion and feedback. To book a tutorial, please email me directly with your availability and a brief indication of what you’d like to discuss.
BOOK A TUTORIAL
IP PROGRAMME SPRING 2026
FAQ
MON 16 MAR
MON 9 MAR
MON 23 MAR
MON 2 MAR
MON 16 FEB
MON 23 FEB
MON 9 FEB
MON 2 FEB
MON 26 JAN
all day WORKSHOP
LAB
TUTORIALS
LAB
GUEST WORKSHOP
LAB by Ray Lucas
LAB
all day WORKSHOP
GUEST WORKSHOP
WOW Drawing
Drawings and their Consequences
Individual Tutorials
Drawing Your Portfolio
Drawing Parallels
Branding Architecture
Methodologies for Speculative Futures
Building Drawings
Hybrid Compositions
Matthew POON
Tom ROWNTREE
Dr Ray LUCAS
CLASSES AFTER EASTER BREAK
IP PROGRAMME SPRING 2026
FAQ
MON 27 APR
MON 27 APR
MON 20 APR
MON 20 APR
EASTER BREAK
TUTORIALS
LAB
LAB
TUTORIALS
Portfolio Wrap-Up
(Un)conventional Drawing
Building Drawing
Portfolio Storytelling
with Ray
with Bea
with Bea
with Ray
BOOKING AVAILABLE LATE MARCH
FAQ
Inscriptive Practices (IP)
is a design and research laboratory at the MSA that treats drawing, modelling, and making not only as ways of representing architecture, but as ways of discovering it. IP focuses on helping you develop your own experimental practice: the methods, tools, and media through which you think and design. You will be encouraged to take risks, to speculate, and to embrace the unknown. This means working with methods that are unusual, sometimes awkward, but always generative. Labs and workshop exercises often begin not with a fixed idea of what architecture should look like, but with a question, an experiment, or a tool that provokes unexpected outcomes. Inscriptive Practices is less interested in diagrams that explain ideas and more in the literal and figurative manifestations that produce them. The work of the lab is grounded in rigour — every experiment should reveal a precise relationship between concept and technique.
By taking part in IP’s ongoing labs, students will have the opportunity to:__ Invent or refine their own drawing or making methods.__ Use these to explore hidden logics, speculative worlds, and alternative forms of architecture.__ Learn how to situate their work within contemporary discourse through exhibitions, publications, and collaborative events. Participation in IP’s labs is open and ongoing — students are invited to engage as much as they wish. The more you experiment, the more you will cultivate your own growth and practice.
Follow IP on Instagram
FAQ
email B for more details
What kind of work comes out of IP?
What is IP?
Labs often generate drawings, models and artefacts that lead to publications and exhibitions. All can be used to strengthen your portfolio.
Inscriptive Practices (IP) is a design and research laboratory at the MSA. It explores drawing, modelling, and making not only as ways of representing architecture, but as ways of discovering it.
How does IP connect to studio work?
Why is IP important for students?
IP runs independently from your design studio, offering methods and tools you can apply to your studio projects, helping you expand the way you design and think.
IP gives you space to take risks, test unusual methods, and develop your own experimental practice. By working with inventive tools and media, you will learn to question conventions, uncover hidden logics, and produce rigorous, original work that can enrich your portfolio.
What is a seminar in IP?
Who is IP for?
For each seminar in a lab, students are given a set of readings. You do not need to read everything — just pick up on something and bring it to the group. A seminar in IP is a conversation, not a lecture: a chance to exchange thoughts and explore ideas together.
IP is open to all MSA students who want to push their critical thinking, methodologies, and tooling. It is especially for those willing to speculate, experiment, and embrace the unknown. No prior experience is needed — only curiosity and a readiness to learn from getting things wrong.
How do I book a place on a lab?
Click the Book link to access the form. Places are limited to 15 students and allocated on a first come, first served basis. If you get a place, a confirmation email with the lab brief will follow. Please book only if confident you can attend, so that others also have the chance to take part.
When and where do labs run?
Labs take place on Mondays in MTC Studio C.
What should I bring?
How do I book an individual tutorial?
Normally your laptop and/or traditional marking tools. Depending on the workshop, specific materials may be advised.
Email: Bea Martin at b.martin@mmu.ac.ukIndividual tutorials are normally held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
Matthew POON
Matthew is an architect, prototype designer, photographer and avid toy collector. He devoted over a decade teaching at UCL Bartlett, University of Nottingham and Westminster, alongside research in ludic architectural design. His professional work spans major infrastructure and civic projects, including HS2 Stations, University of Cambridge, South Bank University and Fulham Stadium Experimental Pier.
His doctoral research explores spatial toy design through open-ended, design-led methodologies to generate unexpected spatial ideas. His work has been recognised with accolades including AJ100 New Talent, World Architecture Festival Visualization Prize, Architizer’s Top 100 Architectural Drawings, Architectural Drawing Prize, the KRob Memorial Delineation, UCL200 Photography Competition and RIBA Photography Award.
x-studio.co.uk/portfolio/matt-poon
Tom ROWNTREE
Thomas Rowntree, the founder of tomrowstudios, is an architecture social media pioneer as one of the first and largest architecture-focused personal brands on social media. His brand has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and more than 500,000 monthly views at the time of writing. He has produced viral content reaching millions of views as he shares his message to inspire, educate and guide designers across the globe.
CHECK HIS NEW BOOK:
Architectural Influence: Mastering content creation and social media marketing
FOLLOW TOM:
YouTube
Dr Ray LUCAS
MSA /// Reader in Architecture
Ray is a Reader in Architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture, where he has taught since 2010. His research focuses on architectural anthropology, drawing, and filmic architecture, with additional expertise in multi-sensory urbanism and Japanese architecture. He is the author of several monographs with Bloomsbury and Routledge, including work on festival, temporality, and thresholds in Japanese architecture. Ray co-leads the Built Heritage Research Group, leads the MArch 2 cohort in the Non-Standard Habitats Atelier, and is a member of the Inscriptive Practices and Future Processes teams, contributing to extra-curricular teaching in drawing, notation, film, and sound design.
@drawing_parallels
MSA Inscriptive Practices - Spring '26
Bea Martin
Created on January 21, 2026
Start designing with a free template
Discover more than 1500 professional designs like these:
View
Vision Board
View
Periodic Table
View
SWOT Challenge: Classify Key Factors
View
Explainer Video: Keys to Effective Communication
View
Explainer Video: AI for Companies
View
Corporate CV
View
Flow Presentation
Explore all templates
Transcript
Inscriptive Practices
Inscriptive Practices
BEA MARTIN
ENTER SITE
GO TO CALENDAR
IP Site Symbols
Your key to navigating Inscriptive Practices online.
BOOK A PLACE
FAQ
Go to Homepage
Go to Programme Calendar
Go to More Information
Go to About Bea Martin
Go to Inspiration
Go to Frequently Asked Questions
email Bea Martin
Click to Book a Place Lab / workshop /Seminar
Click to Folow on Instagram
FAQ
INSCRIPTIVE PRACTICES
... is a design and research laboratory, at MSA, that treats drawing, modelling, and making as experimental, inscriptive acts. These practices invent new media and methods, allowing students to think and design architecture on their own terms. It is concerned with the literal and figurative manifestations of ideas, and with how propositional tools can generate hidden and speculative dimensions of architecture.
Follow IP on Instagram
BEA MARTIN
email
FHEA RIBA ARB OASRS
'B' is a British architect, artist, and educator. A Senior Lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture and PhD student at the Bartlett, her work explores the unknown, the unformed, and the not-yet, through speculative drawing, visual studies, and experimental architecture. Founder of Speculative Assemblies, she treats drawing as a living apparatus—an inventive process where architecture is always in flux. With over fifteen years of professional experience, including at Richard Rogers and Partners, Bea’s practice bridges architectural precision with open-ended inquiry, embracing abstraction, ambiguity, and cross-disciplinary encounters to unsettle conventional modes of making and thinking.
CRITICAL CONSTELLATIONS
Perry KULPER
Peter J Baldwin
Ephraim JORIS
Neil LEACH
Nat CHARD
Emma Kate MATTHEWS
Michael CHAPMAN
Clement LAURENCIO
Bryan CANTLEY
Mathew EMMET
Niloufar ALENJERY
Anders ABRAHAM
Neil SPILLER
Ray LUCAS
Fabio BARILARI
Mark DORRIAN
Riet EECKHOUT
Pedro PITARCH
YOU + PEA
Philip BEESLEY
SMOUT ALLEN
Caleb SKENE
Connery FRIESEN
Larissa FASSLER
Michael WEBB
Elis FINNEGAN
Mark Foster GAGE
C J Lim
Peter COOK
Scott TULAY
Drawing Architecture Studio
Thomas PARKER
Daniel K BROWN
Gem Barton
Felix ROBBIINS
Eric WONG
Adrian LABAUT
Mark WEST
Hazem TALAAT
George THEMISTOKLEOUS
Michael YOUNG
Thom MAYNE
Stefan LENGEN
Chiara BUGATTI
Jerome TRYON
Tomás SARACENO
Brian M KELLY
Cesare BATTELLI
Architects, artists, makers, theorists and educators whose work sparks new methods and tools.
Next
MONDAY 26 JANUARY
LAB VI
Drawings and their Consequences
Architectural drawings are never passive. They organise attention, encode assumptions, and quietly determine what architecture can be thought, seen, and acted upon. The lab begins with a fast-paced morning talk that introduces the full spectrum of architectural drawings—not as a taxonomy to memorise, but as a set of operative instruments. From plans and sections to diagrams, perspectives, notations, collages, and palimpsests, the talk frames each drawing type through what it privileges, what it suppresses, and the kind of architectural thinking it enables. In the afternoon workshop, Three Drawings in Tension, students put this knowledge to work by analysing, isolating, and deliberately recombining different drawing types. By forcing distinct representational logics to coexist, the lab tests how drawings produce knowledge, structure meaning, and shape architectural thought. The day culminates in an analytique or palimpsestic composite drawing that makes the consequences of drawing choices explicit.
Morning TALK 11:30-12:30
No Drawing Is Innocent
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
Three Drawings in Tension
BOOK A PLACE
Next
MONDAY 2 FEBRUARY
WORKSHOP LED BY Dr RAY LUCAS
Drawing Parallels
about Ray
Why do we make axonometric, isometric, and oblique drawings? This talk and workshop will explore the worlds of parallel projection and the reason why they are useful to draw. The talk will make use of arguments from my book ‘Drawing Parallels’ which examined the work of five architects who made extensive use of parallel projection in their designs: Peter Eisenman, Cedric Price, JJP Oud, John Hejduk, and James Stirling. Each architectural firm used these conventions differently, but made unique contributions to architecture along the way. Following this, in the afternoon, we will make use of parallel projection drawings as field drawings. Rather than the default sketch-perspective, understanding geometry and form is much more effective through axonometric and other parallel projections. The depiction of three dimensional spaces and objects relies on a rational process of constructing a drawing. I will present examples of my work from projects looking at marketplaces in South Korea and festivals in Japan for a forthcoming book. We will apply these tools to the spaces around us.
Morning Seminar 11:30-12:30
Drawing Parallels Talk
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
Drawing Parallels Workshop
BOOK A PLACE
Next
MONDAY 9 FEBRUARY
GUEST WORKSHOP
Matthew Poon
In the morning session, Matthew will present a range of analogue and digital processes he uses to conceive and visualise his architectural projects: Monastery of the Stranded and Institute for Hydraulic Calibration and Hydrometrical Automata. He will reflect on the development of architectural narratives and the search for a personal practice within the field, while opening space for questions that are often left unasked. In the afternoon workshop, Matthew will focus on his methods for developing sections and illustrations, working together with participants to produce and refine drawings.
Morning TALK 11:30-12:30
2D+3D Methodologies for Speculative Futures
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
Narrative-driven Drawing Development
BOOK A PLACE
about Matthew
Next
MONDAY 16 FEBRUARY
ALL DAY WORKSHOP
Building Drawings
This is all-day studio workshop focused on developing new architectural work from what already exists. Students bring all current working drawings—complete, incomplete, and unresolved—and use them as active material rather than finished artefacts. Through group discussion, critique, and collective testing, drawings are extended, reworked, and transformed into new propositions. The session emphasises drawing as a continuous process of construction, where ideas evolve through feedback, iteration, and deliberate rethinking, with the final studio portfolio submission firmly in mind.
Morning SESSION 11:00-13:00
BOOK A PLACE
Afternoon SESSION 14:00-16:30
Next
MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY
GUEST WORKSHOP
Tom Rowntree
The Day with Thomas Rowntree from tomrowstudios explores architecture through communication, identity, and influence. Through talks, discussions, and a hands-on workshop, the day focuses on how architects can shape and communicate their projects and portfolios in a holistic way. The session reflects on my architectural journey and the role of personal branding, storytelling, and communication in shaping my work. This is supported by a book event for Architectural Influence, a practical guide to building visibility and impact through social media, featuring insights from 21 leading architecture creators. The event also offers space for discussion and exchange of ideas. The workshop centres on developing a coherent graphic identity, encouraging students to view projects as complete systems of communication. Participants will learn how to use colour, typography, hierarchy, and layout to create confident, consistent, and compelling presentations and portfolios.
Morning TALK 11:30-12:00
Branding Architecture
LUNCH EVENT 12:30-13:30
Book Signing: Architectural Influence
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
BOOK A PLACE
Viewing Architectural Work as a Brand
Next
MONDAY 2 MARCH
LAB VI
Hybrid Compositions
This lab introduces composite drawing as an inscriptive practice in which architecture emerges through acts of layering, collision, and reconfiguration. The session positions drawing not as the representation of a prior idea, but as a site where ideas are actively produced through the interaction of fragments, scales, media, and logics. By working with pre-existing drawings and reassembling them through digital and analogue operations, students explore how meaning arises from juxtaposition, distortion, annotation, and material transformation. The workshop frames hybridity as an architectural condition—where authorship is distributed, images are unstable, and composition becomes a speculative method for thinking rather than a tool for resolution. This session equips students to work critically and confidently with hybrid drawings, developing an understanding of their potential as generative, analytical, and propositional architectural instruments.
Morning Seminar 11:30-12:30
Hybrid Drawings
BOOK A PLACE
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
Assembling Drawings
Next
MONDAY 9 MARCH
LAB
Drawing Your Portfolio
This lab focuses on the portfolio as a book—a constructed object with its own structure, rhythm, and argument. Through a talk and hands-on workshop, students will explore how architectural work is authored through sequencing, pacing, framing, and editorial decision-making. Rather than treating the portfolio as a neutral container of images, the session positions it as a spatial and narrative artefact, where meaning is produced across pages. The lab supports students in transforming accumulated outputs into a coherent, deliberate book that communicates a clear architectural position.
Morning TALK 11:30-12:30
You are your Portfolio!
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
The Portfolio as a Book
BOOK A PLACE
Next
MONDAY 16 MARCH
all day workshop
WOW Drawing
This is an all-day studio workshop focused on producing a single, ambitious drawing that clearly articulates the core idea of your studio project. Students will work intensively to identify, develop, and commit to one drawing capable of carrying conceptual weight, spatial intelligence, and visual impact. The session prioritises decision-making, refinement, and finish—transforming existing project material into a confident, authored image with the final studio portfolio submission firmly in mind.
Morning Seminar 11:00-13:00
BOOK A PLACE
Afternoon Workshop 14:00-16:30
BOOKING
Individual Tutorials
Individual tutorials offer dedicated time to discuss your work in depth, with a particular focus on drawing, visual thinking, and the development of your own representational language. These sessions are an opportunity to test ideas, review drawings at any stage of completion, and work through questions around composition, method, and portfolio direction. Tutorials are typically available on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and can take place online or in person. Sessions are flexible and student-led—you are encouraged to bring current drawings, experiments, or unresolved work for focused discussion and feedback. To book a tutorial, please email me directly with your availability and a brief indication of what you’d like to discuss.
BOOK A TUTORIAL
IP PROGRAMME SPRING 2026
FAQ
MON 16 MAR
MON 9 MAR
MON 23 MAR
MON 2 MAR
MON 16 FEB
MON 23 FEB
MON 9 FEB
MON 2 FEB
MON 26 JAN
all day WORKSHOP
LAB
TUTORIALS
LAB
GUEST WORKSHOP
LAB by Ray Lucas
LAB
all day WORKSHOP
GUEST WORKSHOP
WOW Drawing
Drawings and their Consequences
Individual Tutorials
Drawing Your Portfolio
Drawing Parallels
Branding Architecture
Methodologies for Speculative Futures
Building Drawings
Hybrid Compositions
Matthew POON
Tom ROWNTREE
Dr Ray LUCAS
CLASSES AFTER EASTER BREAK
IP PROGRAMME SPRING 2026
FAQ
MON 27 APR
MON 27 APR
MON 20 APR
MON 20 APR
EASTER BREAK
TUTORIALS
LAB
LAB
TUTORIALS
Portfolio Wrap-Up
(Un)conventional Drawing
Building Drawing
Portfolio Storytelling
with Ray
with Bea
with Bea
with Ray
BOOKING AVAILABLE LATE MARCH
FAQ
Inscriptive Practices (IP)
is a design and research laboratory at the MSA that treats drawing, modelling, and making not only as ways of representing architecture, but as ways of discovering it. IP focuses on helping you develop your own experimental practice: the methods, tools, and media through which you think and design. You will be encouraged to take risks, to speculate, and to embrace the unknown. This means working with methods that are unusual, sometimes awkward, but always generative. Labs and workshop exercises often begin not with a fixed idea of what architecture should look like, but with a question, an experiment, or a tool that provokes unexpected outcomes. Inscriptive Practices is less interested in diagrams that explain ideas and more in the literal and figurative manifestations that produce them. The work of the lab is grounded in rigour — every experiment should reveal a precise relationship between concept and technique.
By taking part in IP’s ongoing labs, students will have the opportunity to:__ Invent or refine their own drawing or making methods.__ Use these to explore hidden logics, speculative worlds, and alternative forms of architecture.__ Learn how to situate their work within contemporary discourse through exhibitions, publications, and collaborative events. Participation in IP’s labs is open and ongoing — students are invited to engage as much as they wish. The more you experiment, the more you will cultivate your own growth and practice.
Follow IP on Instagram
FAQ
email B for more details
What kind of work comes out of IP?
What is IP?
Labs often generate drawings, models and artefacts that lead to publications and exhibitions. All can be used to strengthen your portfolio.
Inscriptive Practices (IP) is a design and research laboratory at the MSA. It explores drawing, modelling, and making not only as ways of representing architecture, but as ways of discovering it.
How does IP connect to studio work?
Why is IP important for students?
IP runs independently from your design studio, offering methods and tools you can apply to your studio projects, helping you expand the way you design and think.
IP gives you space to take risks, test unusual methods, and develop your own experimental practice. By working with inventive tools and media, you will learn to question conventions, uncover hidden logics, and produce rigorous, original work that can enrich your portfolio.
What is a seminar in IP?
Who is IP for?
For each seminar in a lab, students are given a set of readings. You do not need to read everything — just pick up on something and bring it to the group. A seminar in IP is a conversation, not a lecture: a chance to exchange thoughts and explore ideas together.
IP is open to all MSA students who want to push their critical thinking, methodologies, and tooling. It is especially for those willing to speculate, experiment, and embrace the unknown. No prior experience is needed — only curiosity and a readiness to learn from getting things wrong.
How do I book a place on a lab?
Click the Book link to access the form. Places are limited to 15 students and allocated on a first come, first served basis. If you get a place, a confirmation email with the lab brief will follow. Please book only if confident you can attend, so that others also have the chance to take part.
When and where do labs run?
Labs take place on Mondays in MTC Studio C.
What should I bring?
How do I book an individual tutorial?
Normally your laptop and/or traditional marking tools. Depending on the workshop, specific materials may be advised.
Email: Bea Martin at b.martin@mmu.ac.ukIndividual tutorials are normally held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
Matthew POON
Matthew is an architect, prototype designer, photographer and avid toy collector. He devoted over a decade teaching at UCL Bartlett, University of Nottingham and Westminster, alongside research in ludic architectural design. His professional work spans major infrastructure and civic projects, including HS2 Stations, University of Cambridge, South Bank University and Fulham Stadium Experimental Pier. His doctoral research explores spatial toy design through open-ended, design-led methodologies to generate unexpected spatial ideas. His work has been recognised with accolades including AJ100 New Talent, World Architecture Festival Visualization Prize, Architizer’s Top 100 Architectural Drawings, Architectural Drawing Prize, the KRob Memorial Delineation, UCL200 Photography Competition and RIBA Photography Award.
x-studio.co.uk/portfolio/matt-poon
Tom ROWNTREE
Thomas Rowntree, the founder of tomrowstudios, is an architecture social media pioneer as one of the first and largest architecture-focused personal brands on social media. His brand has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and more than 500,000 monthly views at the time of writing. He has produced viral content reaching millions of views as he shares his message to inspire, educate and guide designers across the globe.
CHECK HIS NEW BOOK:
Architectural Influence: Mastering content creation and social media marketing
FOLLOW TOM:
YouTube
Dr Ray LUCAS
MSA /// Reader in Architecture
Ray is a Reader in Architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture, where he has taught since 2010. His research focuses on architectural anthropology, drawing, and filmic architecture, with additional expertise in multi-sensory urbanism and Japanese architecture. He is the author of several monographs with Bloomsbury and Routledge, including work on festival, temporality, and thresholds in Japanese architecture. Ray co-leads the Built Heritage Research Group, leads the MArch 2 cohort in the Non-Standard Habitats Atelier, and is a member of the Inscriptive Practices and Future Processes teams, contributing to extra-curricular teaching in drawing, notation, film, and sound design.
@drawing_parallels