The silhouettes of architects including Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Zaha Hadid are each depicted within a window from one of their buildings in these new illustrations by Federico Babina.
Entitled Archiwindow, the latest series by the Italian architect and graphic designer features 25 architects and studios, also including Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto, Louis Kahn and Tadao Ando.
"The windows are the eyes of architecture," said Federico Babina, whose previous illustrations have combined architecture with film posters and famous artworks.
"Through the windows enter the light and shadows that create and design spaces," he said. "The windows invite the landscape to enter and are the cracks through which to spy on architecture. They are like paintings framing narratives and stories."
One image shows the silhouette of Le Corbusier in the window of La Tourette – the convent that the architect designed near Lyon, France. With a pipe in his mouth, he appears to be standing in the same pose as the Modulor Man, his system of proportions.
Mies van der Rohe is also shown holding his pipe, sitting on a Barcelona Chair in his famous pavilion, while Frank Lloyd Wright can be seen leaning on his walking stick inside his iconic Falling Water house.
"I wanted to spy as a 'voyeur' the architectural life that is hidden behind a window, to observe the architects and their languages as observing from a keyhole," said Babina.
"A single window can open up a world of information," he added. "It allows you to find clues of the stylistic aesthetics and linguistic of architecture."
Zaha Hadid is the only female architect shown alone in the series. Her outline can be seen in one of the parallelogram-shaped windows that can be found on several of her buildings.
The other two are Ray Eames, pictured alongside her husband Charles in the house they designed for themselves, and Kazuyo Sejima, shown with SANAA partner Ryue Nishizawa in one of the square windows of the Zollverein School of Management and Design.
The most elaborate windows pictured range from the organic forms of Antoni Gaudí's Casa Batlló to the sharp angles of Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum and the overlapping circles at Carlo Scarpa's Brion-Vega Cemetery.
Other recognisable characters in the series include Rem Koolhaas posing behind the pivoting circular shutter of Maison à Bordeaux's front window and Jean Nouvel standing against the decorative glazing of his Institut du Monde Arabe.
Babina has also collaged all 25 images together to create an imaginary megastructure from all of the windows.
"I always liked to throw a glimpse behind a window while walking down the street," he said. "I feel like James Stewart spying across the street 25 windows behind which hide and live the architects who created them."
