Workshop: Design Thinking Drawing

DesignThinkingDrawing Workshop - Reconnect with drawing as an essential tool for design

DesignThinkingDrawing is a practical, hands-on workshop exploring how freehand drawing can be used to think about, develop and communicate ideas in architecture and urbanism.

Led by architect and urban designer Peter Richards, the workshop draws on more than 40 years of his practice and teaching, using drawing to analyse, synthesise, generate and explain ideas.

Participants will work through a series of individual and group exercises, from interpreting the qualities of an image through drawing to developing a town centre masterplan using urban tissues. Plans, sections, diagrams and perspectives are explored as tools for communicating design ideas.

What will you learn?

• How to conceive and better communicate strategies and ideas

• How to identify the types of drawings that best communicate design intentions

• Develop skills and confidence in drawing, including line types, tones, colour and perspective

• Better understand the scale and morphology of the built environment

• Develop confidence to contribute to collaborative design processes

• Become a more responsive and better designer

The workshop

The session will begin with an introduction to design thinking through drawing, followed by a series of practical exercises.

The workshop combines presentations, drawing demonstrations, individual and group work, tutorials and review. No particular level of drawing ability is required — the workshops are designed for professionals and students of different experience and drawing abilities.

Workshop Details

Two sessions available - the same workshop will be delivered at each session.

Friday 4 December 2026
2:30pm – 5:30pm

Saturday 5 December 2026
10:30am – 1:30pm

Price
UDA Members: $225 Non-Members: $325

UDA members please use your unique access code when registering to receive the discounted price. Spaces are limited. Choose your preferred session when registering.

Venue
Community Room 1
Juanita Nielsen Community Centre
31 Nicholson St, Woolloomooloo

About Peter Richards

Peter Richards is a South-East Queensland-based architect, urban designer and teacher, and a principal of Archipelago Architects. He is well known as a strong exponent and advocate for freehand drawing, which has been the cornerstone of his design practice and teaching for more than 40 years. His felt pens and crayons have enabled him to work throughout Australia on many significant and challenging projects.

Peter is the author of DesignThinkingDrawing, which forms the basis of training workshops he has undertaken throughout Australia, as well as in London and Auckland, for more than a decade.

Since 2017, Peter has extended his drawing for work to become an urban sketcher, part of an international movement of people who sketch on location and attend sketching symposia. His sketches have been included in the international publications London by Urban Sketchers and The World of Urban Sketching by Stephanie Bower.