Lebbeus Woods: Undercurrents

Zooming in on two of Woods' drawing projects, The Storm and Turbulence, to situate his "conceptual architecture" within history

The founder of the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture, Lebbeus Woods (1940-2012) took a wholly conceptual approach to the discipline. He visualized designs through vivid, almost dystopian drawings capturing the invisible forces that crash against buildings and human beings alike--whether brought about by war, nature or human ingenuity. Centered around the 2026 exhibition of the same name at New York's A83 Gallery, Undercurrents brings to light archival documentation, oral histories and previously unseen drawings centered around two of Woods' projects: The Storm and Turbulence. New essays situate these works for the present and the past: contributors examine Woods' foresight in describing a world we are only now coming to see, while also revisiting the inspiration the architect drew from da Vinci's drawings of flowing water and war machines.