Friday 7 November 2025
18.00 – 20.00
Doors open at 18.00, talk begins 18.30
8 Smart’s Place, London, WC2B 5LW

Design is a very compact activity where you’re not sure about what it will do. You work by instinct, and that instinct either unfolds to be something good over time, or it doesn’t. While you know that some things will have an immediate effect, the long-term and cultural effects are things you cannot foresee. — Tony Fretton

To celebrate the opening of 'Tony Fretton: Everything I saw became important', Drawing Matter will host a conversation between Benjamin Machin and Tony Fretton about the role of drawing in architectural practice.

The exhibition will be displayed from Saturday 8 November – Sunday 9 November 2025. At its centre are four projects, represented by drawings, sketchbooks, and photographs from the Drawing Matter Collection: Mute Records (1986, unbuilt), Lisson Gallery I (1986), Lisson Gallery II (1992), and a competition entry for the Holy Island Buddhist Retreat (1993).

Alongside these, the exhibition includes photographs of the architect’s early performance works with Station House Opera, of which he was a member in the early 1980s, and Get Ready (1981), a series of images documenting Fretton’s morning routine. For the first time in over forty years, Get Ready will be presented with its original audio track.

Please arrive promptly at 6 pm to view the exhibition before the conversation begins at 6:30 pm.

Drawing Matter’s public programme offers the public opportunities to experience our drawings collection, which is usually only open to researchers by appointment and for student/practice workshops. Events take the form of talks at the archive, workshops by practitioners and open weekends.

To be notified of future events, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram.

Tony Fretton in Conversation with Benjamin Machin