Makers
A Chat With Architect & Artist Nigel Peake
19 May, 2025
01
Photo by Akiko Hashimoto.You’re a trained architect, do you still practice or have you solely transitioned to the art world?
I studied architecture for six years, I have taught it in different schools in Switzerland and Scotland. I have never practised it. I designed my working space that is a reworked small cottage by the sea in Ireland. At the moment I am slowly making a small garden. This for me is the same process of thinking as it would be to build something.
02
Architectural style drawings.We came across your work in Japan, can you tell us about your connection to the country?
I first went to Japan maybe 8 years ago for a project. Since then I have returned as often as possible, trying to visit different areas and to take time just to be there. I have been there for exhibitions of my drawings and for other kinds of projects, but my favourite part of being there is experiencing the everydayness of it. Going to the supermarket, visiting the local libraries, sitting on a train. There is something about how it all occurs that can be very nice to be part of.
03
Hotel Drawings book.04
Hotel Drawings book.I have no interest in style. I am interested in drawing and making things in response to something.
How would you describe your art style? Can you talk to us about how you merge your technical skills with your creative ones?
I really do not think of what I do in terms of style. I have no interest in style. I am interested in drawing and making things in response to something. It is as much a practise of looking and listening and reading as it is drawing. I am interested in making drawings that in some way have the feeling of the thing that I am trying to catch.
05
From Hotel Drawings.06
From Hotel Drawings.We fell in love with “Hotel Drawings” that we found in Japan. What inspired you to create this and can you tell us about your collaboration with Jun Iwasaki?
I was in Japan for four weeks in different places. I made the drawings for myself in the hotel rooms. I enjoyed making them for no reason. They travelled folded in my suitcase. I always like to look out through hotel windows. Sometimes the view can be almost too nice. Sometimes it can be looking into an air conditioning stack. But it is always interesting because it is different. And temporary. When I returned the drawings sat in a box for two years and each time I saw the box I thought it could make a book about those few weeks in Japan.
I had met Jun previously when I was having lunch at Dover Street Market in Tokyo and by chance he was one of the people at the lunch. I had seen his work at Post books in Tokyo and at Yvon Lambert’s in Paris. I naturally liked his photographs but also how he used text to hold his work. When we were working on the publication Bruno Mayrargue, the book manager at Yvon’s, suggested Jun could write the text. It was perfect and I was happy to collaborate with him. I think he wrote the text when he was staying in a hotel in Bologna.