About
Architects have to become designers of eco-systems. Not just designers of beautiful facades or beautiful sculptures, but systems of economy and ecology, where we channel the flow not only of people, but also the flow of resources through our cities and buildings.
—Bjarke Ingels
Capital Cities has been an ongoing project since 2018, one that I expect will carry me through to 2030. It’s a growing series of 12 x 12 inch gouache paintings, each one mapping a single capital city somewhere in the world. When finished, there will be 297 paintings in all, a painted atlas that views the world from above, yet draws its colours from the ground — from the lived experience of being in these places.
Each map begins with colour. I build palettes from what defines a nation’s visual identity: the flag, the coat of arms, the traditional dress, the crafts, the flora and fauna, the local food, the patterns and textures of daily life. These sources combine to create a portrait of each place that feels both geographic and emotional, a translation of culture into colour.
The cities still waiting to be painted appear as green markers on my working maps, reminders of how much of the world remains to be interpreted through pigment and memory. Capital Cities continues to grow as both a cartographic study and a meditation on belonging, tracing the ways that colour carries the character of a place long after you have left it.
