Lebbeus Woods
Galerie Pepe is pleased to present Lebbeus Woods an exhibition of drawings by architect Lebbeus Woods (USA 1940 - 2012). May 15th - August 9th, 2025
Lebbeus Woods didn’t draw buildings—he drew ruptures in reality. His works, from the subterranean rebellions of Underground Berlin to the fractured autonomy of Zagreb Free Zone, are dispatches from a future born in the wreckage of the present. These are not designs for construction, but for insurrection. Einstein’s Tomb floats in deep space, defying gravity and time; the Geomagnetic Flying Machines twitch, hover, and mutate, machines of pure architectural delirium. Woods’ architecture is forged in destruction, rebuilt and driven by the raw urgency of science fiction’s impossible promises —Alien 3.
This is architecture as aftermath and prophecy. Cities are no longer planned—they scar, heal, and hallucinate. In Woods’ world, buildings erupt from fault lines and war zones, parasite ruins, and drift through gravitational collapse. His lines—precise, obsessive, visionary—map zones of freedom within chaos, spaces where the laws of physics and politics are rewritten. The city is no longer a place, but a question. Who controls space? Who rebuilds after the fall? What comes after the end?
This show is not a retrospective—it’s a manifesto in lines and light. Here, destruction is a necessary condition for creation. Woods dares us to imagine an architecture without rules, without ground, without fear.
Lebbeus Woods didn’t draw buildings—he drew ruptures in reality. His works, from the subterranean rebellions of Underground Berlin to the fractured autonomy of Zagreb Free Zone, are dispatches from a future born in the wreckage of the present. These are not designs for construction, but for insurrection. Einstein’s Tomb floats in deep space, defying gravity and time; the Geomagnetic Flying Machines twitch, hover, and mutate, machines of pure architectural delirium. Woods’ architecture is forged in destruction, rebuilt and driven by the raw urgency of science fiction’s impossible promises —Alien 3.
This is architecture as aftermath and prophecy. Cities are no longer planned—they scar, heal, and hallucinate. In Woods’ world, buildings erupt from fault lines and war zones, parasite ruins, and drift through gravitational collapse. His lines—precise, obsessive, visionary—map zones of freedom within chaos, spaces where the laws of physics and politics are rewritten. The city is no longer a place, but a question. Who controls space? Who rebuilds after the fall? What comes after the end?
This show is not a retrospective—it’s a manifesto in lines and light. Here, destruction is a necessary condition for creation. Woods dares us to imagine an architecture without rules, without ground, without fear.
Lebbeus Woods,
Einstein's Tomb, 3rd Design [Quadrant E], 1980,
Graphite on board,
35.6 x 59.7 cm,
14 x 23 1/2 in
(LW-025)
Lebbeus Woods
, Einstein's Tomb, 3rd Design [Quadrant W], 1980,
Graphite on board
, 35.6 x 59.7 cm
, 14 x 23 1/2 in
(LW-023)
Lebbeus Woods
, Einstein's Tomb, 2nd Design, Continuum 1, 1979,
Ink on paper
, 41.9 x 61 cm,
16 1/2 x 24 in
(LW-022)
Lebbeus Woods,
Einstein's Tomb, 2nd Design, Continuum 1+, 1979,
Ink on paper
, 41.9 x 73 cm
, 16 1/2 x 28 3/4 in
(LW-024)
Lebbeus Woods,
Einstein's Tomb: Buildings (Bldg #315), n.d.
, Colored pencil on board
, 35.6 x 27.9 cm,
14 x 11 in
(LW-013)
Lebbeus Woods,
Einstein's Tomb: Buildings (Bldg #317), n.d.,
Colored pencil on board,
35.6 x 27.9 cm,
14 x 11 in
(LW-017)
Lebbeus Woods
, Einstein's Tomb: Buildings (Bldg #314), n.d.,
Colored pencil on board,
35.6 x 27.9 cm,
14 x 11 in
(LW-012)
Lebbeus Woods
, Einstein's Tomb: Buildings (Bldg #316), n.d.,
Colored pencil on board
, 35.6 x 27.9 cm
, 14 x 11 in
(LW-014)
Lebbeus Woods,
Einstein's Tomb Phase M, 1980,
Mixed media,
101.6 x 43.2 cm,
40 x 17 in
(LW-027)
Lebbeus Woods,
Einstein's Tomb Phase F, 1980
, Mixed media,
101.6 x 48.3 cm,
40 x 19 in
(LW-026)
Lebbeus Woods,
Alien III, n.d.,
Pencil on tracing stock,
36.8 x 58.4 cm
, 14 1/2 x 23 in
(LW-007)
Lebbeus Woods
, Alien III, n.d.,
Pencil on paper,
36.8 x 58.4 cm,
14 1/2 x 23 in
(LW-003)
Lebbeus Woods,
Alien III, n.d.,
Pencil on paper,
36.8 x 58.4 cm,
14 1/2 x 23 in
(LW-001)
Lebbeus Woods,
Alien III, n.d.,
Pencil on paper
, 36.7 x 58.4 cm,
14 1/2 x 23 in
(LW-004)
Lebbeus Woods,
Alien III, n.d.,
Pencil on paper
, 36.8 x 58.4 cm,
14 1/2 x 23 in
(LW-001)
Lebbeus Woods
, Geomagnetic Flying Machine, n.d.,
Graphite on paper,
55.9 x 48.3 cm,
22 x 19 in
(LW-019)
Lebbeus Woods,
Geomagnetic Flying Machine, n.d.,
Graphite on paper,
55.9 x 48.3 cm
, 22 x 19 in
(LW-009)
Lebbeus Woods,
Geomagnetic Flying Machine, n.d.,
Graphite on paper,
55.9 x 48.3 cm,
22 x 19 in
(LW-016)
Lebbeus Woods,
Geomagnetic Flying Machine, n.d.,
Graphite on paper,
55.9 x 48.3 cm,
22 x 19 in
(LW-018)
Lebbeus Woods
, Geomagnetic Flying Machine, n.d.,
Graphite on paper
, 55.9 x 48.3 cm
, 22 x 19 in
(LW-009)
Lebbeus Woods
, Geomagnetic Flying Machine, n.d.,
Graphite on paper,
55.9 x 63.5 cm,
22 x 25 in
(LW-008)
Lebbeus Woods
, Paris, n.d.,
Graphite on board
, 50 x 70 cm
, 19 3/4 x 27 1/2 in
(LW-034)
Lebbeus Woods
, Paris, n.d.,
Ink on vellum,
68.6 x 45.7 cm,
27 x 18 in
(LW-028)
Lebbeus Woods
, Untitled, 1978
, Mixed media on board
, 40.6 x 30.5 cm,
16 x 12 in
(LW-015)
Lebbeus Woods,
Paris Aerial, n.d.,
Color pencil on paper,
58.4 x 36.8 cm,
23 x 14 1/2 in
(LW-005)
Lebbeus Woods
, Paris Aerial, n.d.,
Color pencil on paper
, 58.4 x 36.8 cm
, 23 x 14 1/2 in
(LW-006)
Lebbeus Woods,
Zagreb / DMZ, 1991,
Ink and colored pencil on vellum
, 52.7 x 35.6 cm,
20 3/4 x 14 in
(LW-011)
Lebbeus Woods,
Paris, n.d.,
Graphite on paper,
55.9 x 76.2 cm,
22 x 30 in
(LW-033)
Lebbeus Woods
, Paris, n.d.,
Ink on vellum on board
, 81.3 x 53.3 cm
, 32 x 21 in
(LW-032)
Lebbeus Woods,
Berlin: Underground Berlin, n.d.,
Ink on vellum on board,
81.3 x 50.8 cm
, 32 x 20 in
(LW-031)
Lebbeus Woods,
Berlin: Underground Berlin, n.d.,
Ink on vellum on board,
81.3 x 50.8 cm
, 32 x 20 in
(LW-030)
Lebbeus Woods
, Berlin: Berlin Free Zone, n.d.,
Pencil on vellum
, 41.9 x 91.4 cm,
16 1/2 x 36 in
(LW-029)
Lebbeus Woods
, Lebbeus Woods: Berlin Undergound 2AES, San Francisco, June 17 - July 17, 1988, Exhibition Poster, 1988,
Printed poster
, 55.9 x 43.2 cm
22 x 17 in
(LW-002)
Lebbeus Woods,
Zagreb / DMZ,
Ink on paper
, 34.5 x 21 cm
, 13 5/8 x 8 1/4 in
(LW-021)
Lebbeus Woods was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1940. The son of an accomplished military engineer, he worked with Kevin Roche at Eero Saarinen and Associates before turning decisively, in the mid-1970s, to independent, conceptual work staged through drawings, models, and installations. He co-founded the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture and was a Professor of Architecture at the Cooper Union as well as a lecturer at the European Graduate School. The author of many books and subject of many exhibitions worldwide, his writings and drawings have inspired architects, film directors and story-writers. Woods’ drawings are held in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Carnegie Museum of Modern Art; the Getty Research Institute; and the Museum für Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna.
Big thanks to Frida Escobedo and Friedman Benda for their support in organizing this exhibition.
Big thanks to Frida Escobedo and Friedman Benda for their support in organizing this exhibition.
Amsterdam 123 B, Col. Hipódromo CondesaMexico City, Mexico 06100