Moleskine: The Latest Architecture and News

Moleskine, the go-to brand of sketchbook lovers have expanded their luxury notebook line, The Art Collection. The Italian paper-manufacturing brand and architects' favorite (we know we are!) dedicates this new collection to those who value the creative process just as much as the final result and want to translate their stories and ideas onto papers. Whether it’s drawing, doodling, painting, sketching, or composing, the Art Collection meets the diverse needs of its users who "simply need get lost in their colors and visions without fear of losing the spirit of their work."

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Even as architecture moves deeper into the digital realm, drafting and rendering by hand remains quintessential to the craft. The George Architect channel on YouTube—managed by Reza Asgaripour and Avdieienko Heorhii—aims to inspire both practitioners and fans of architecture by demonstrating new ways of depicting the built environment with impeccable style. Tune in to see how you can improve your own sketches.

To promote the launch of their new Game of Thrones notebooks, Moleskine has released a video that recreates a portion of the series’ title sequence using only paper architecture models. Made by Milan-based animation studio Dadomani, the stop motion video uses over 7,600 paper cutouts.

The video shows the fortress in King’s Landing, starting with a view of the surrounding houses before panning to the castle where its cogs and gears begin to spin. Slowly the castle folds into itself, becoming a page in the Moleskine notebook.

Moleskine has announced a new product which it hopes will allow users to "bridge their analog and digital worlds." The Smart Writing Set is a system that includes the Paper Tablet, a specially-made Moleskin sketchbook which works in tandem with the Pen+, a digitally-enabled pen that recognizes the notebook and tracks the user's movement. The Pen+ then sends this information to the new Moleskine Notes App (for Apple users) or Neo Notes (for Android) in order to record the user's notes digitally, in real time.

Moleskine, the go-to brand of sketchbooks beloved by creatives around the world, recently released another title in its Inspiration and Process in Architecture series: Studio MK27, led by architect Marcio Kogan.

The series already features monographs dedicated to Studio Mumbai, Wiel Arets, Dominique Perrault, Zaha Hadid, and others. Studio MK27 joins this prestigious list along with Kengo Kuma, Grafton Architects, Frits Palmboom and Michael Graves, whose monographs were also recently announced by Moleskine.

Read on to find out how you can win a copy of Inspiration and Process in Architecture - Marcio Kogan Studio MK27!

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As part of their quest to synchronise our digital and analogue worlds, sketchbook designer Moleskine have joined forces with the Adobe Creative Cloud platform to "simplify workflows" for illustrators, designers and architects. Suggesting that the initial stages of the creative process often occur offline, out of the studio or in transit, the team behind the collaboration note that as a portable, uncomplicated object, the Moleskine notebook "can be used anytime, anywhere and especially on the move. Sketching on paper is immediate, and can even be done on a crowded train."

Now users with a Creative Cloud subscription, combined with a special Moleskine sketchbook, can capture images of their drawings with the associated app (iOS only). These are then converted into smooth vector files which are automatically synchronised to desktop programs such as Photoshop (as a .jpeg) or Illustrator (as a .svg).

Forget about scanning the pages of your notebook - you can now work in both analog and digital at the same time. Moleskine recently teamed up with Livescribe, a smartpen manufacturer, to create two new notebooks that work exclusively with Livescribe smartpens to instantly transfer ideas from paper to screen. The notebooks feature add-ons that make this possible, but still retain the rounded edges, elastic closures, ribbon bookmarks, and other details Moleskine notebooks are known for. To learn about the notebook add-ons and how they work with the smartpens, keep reading after the break.

Moleskine notebooks go as hand-in-hand with architects and designers as the color black. Over the years, these creative individuals have hacked and personalized the simple design of the Moleskine notebook, turning it into wallets, key chains, pen holders, and more. In response to this culture, Moleskine recently came out with their own hack called the Moleskine Tool Belt.

The Tool Belt is an add-on that attaches to the cover of their notebooks. It contains several compartments for storing pens, smart phones, business cards, eye glasses, and more. We also have two Moleskine Tool Belts to give away - check out the article after the break for your chance to win!

From the Publisher. This book gathers together projects and theoretical reflections immortalized through exacting, oversized perspective views, snapshots, photographic sequences and architectural ideograms in felt pen. This is how architect and theorist Wiel Arets ‘freezes' his thoughts, fixing nascent ideas onto paper. The book opens with an essay by Kenneth Frampton, while previously unpublished hand sketches and coloured pencil perspectives fill the pages.

Wiel Arets, former director of Berlage Institute and currently Dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, is known for his academic progressive research and hybrid design solutions. He has taught in many universities and designed numerous important buildings, including the Academy of Art and Architecture in Maastricht and the university library of Utrecht.

From the Publisher.This book, collecting sketches, maquettes, project drawings and notional references from architecture to science or music intermingled in graphic narratives, composes a highly autobiographical and layered manifesto. Theoretical ideas and architectural practice coexist systematically, tracing out Cino Zucchi's scientific and personal profile.

Cino Zucchi is Chair Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Politecnico di Milano and Visiting Professor at Harvard University. He's well known for his projects for the residential buildings in the former Junghans area of Venice and those of Nuovo Portello in Milan, and for the extension of the National Automobile Museum in Turin. Zucchi's various international awards include the Special Mention at the 13th Architecture Biennale (2012), the International Award Architecture in Stone (2009), the Piranesi Award (2001).

From the Publisher. A selection of materials produced by DPA Studio for two international contests for museums, showing how unfinished works can also become remarkable experiments. Sketches, maquettes, notes and diagrams narrate these endeavors.

Dominique PERRAULT, the author of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris and of the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, received many prestigious prizes and awards including: "Grande Médaille d'or d'Architecture" in 2010, "Seoul Metropolitan Architecture Award" for EWHA Womans University in Korea, "World Architecture Award" in 2002, "Mies van der Rohe prize" in 1997, "French national Grand Prize for Architecture" in 1993.

From the Publisher. This book shows the development of Jain's personal mind-process as well as the collective dialogue through which each project evolves. Dialogues unfolded through study sketches made by both Bijoy Jain and the carpenters, as well photographs taken during journeys used as study and inspiration, showcasing a critical part of their design process. Studio Mumbai consists on a group of Indian architects and craftsmen, all resident artisans of Studio Mumbai, headed by Bijoy Jain, one of India's foremost architects.

Studio Mumbai's awards and honours include the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture from the Institute Français d'Architecture (2008), a Special Mention at the 12th Architecture Biennale (2010), the BSI Swiss Architectural Award (2012).