From Vision To Practice

German architect Erich Mendelsohn had produced unparalleled amount of expressive sketch drawings during his entire life and keep believing that sketching together with practical experience constitute a crucial stage in the architectural design process. These drawings explored many great ideas which formed a very important part of what is later known as the Avatn-Garde Movement during WWI. These drawings and the visionary ideas imbedded inside indicated the architectural development in the industrial age and added enriching colors to the 1920s modernist architectural movement in Germany as well as the worldwide popularization of the International Style.This paper chronologically categorizes and analyzes Erich Mendelsohn’s sketches in three stages:The Early Era-study explores on how Mendelsohn’s unique style of visionary sketches is formed from his personal growth and educational background; The Time in Germany-in the social context during Mendelsohn’s stay in Germany, the paper analyzes how his sketches had influenced and been translated to the built works of commercial, industrial and residential buildings he designed during that period of time; The International Period-Lastly, the thesis tries to investigate on how sketches had helped the architect to explore and understand the different territorial and cultural context outside Germany in which he designed his later works.At the end of this paper, four fundamental characteristics of sketches are crystallized from all the analysis on Mendelsohn’s work. The interconnection between these characteristics and their power to inform architectural design are summarized as a conclusion to the thesis.