An exhibition exploring 40 years of architecture through the drawings of designer David Thompson opens tomorrow at Norwich Cathedral's Hostry.

Eastern Daily Press: Drawn to Architecture - the four decades of work by LSI architect David Thompson on show in the Hostry at Norwich Cathedral, curated by NUA MA students Laura Dennis and Anthony Williams. 1995 drawings of the Technopolis project that later became know as the Forum.Photo: Steve AdamsDrawn to Architecture - the four decades of work by LSI architect David Thompson on show in the Hostry at Norwich Cathedral, curated by NUA MA students Laura Dennis and Anthony Williams. 1995 drawings of the Technopolis project that later became know as the Forum.Photo: Steve Adams

The Drawn to Architecture show has been organised by Laura Dennis and Anthony Williams, who are MA Curation students at Norwich University of the Arts, in collaboration with Norwich-based LSI Architects where Mr Thompson is a partner.

Through highlights of Mr Thompson's 40 year career as an architect, the exhibition shows how the processes for designing buildings has changed over the decades due to advancing technology, but it also shows the continuing importance of the age-old skill of freehand drawing.

The show features everything from freehand sketches and doodles through to work created with the latest digital technology.

Mr Thompson said: 'It is my conviction that the role of the manually-produced sketch, diagram or illustration remains vital for communicating ideas both within an architect's practice and to stakeholders. The mind imagines space as the hand draws and to draw fluently allows the designer more readily to inhabit imagined space, to conceptualise and to explore design ideas.

'I am not alone among architects of my age in thinking this. The question is whether architects and designers in the future will continue to draw – and think – this way.'

Ms Dennis, co-curator, said: 'David's archive of drawings illustrate how the past few decades have borne witness to an important transition from handmade to digital processes.

'Architecture, like many industries, has been revolutionised through advances in technology, yet many still feel that there is no substitute for drawing by hand. The exhibition explores how ideas are communicated through a variety of manual and digital drawing techniques and will resonate not just with architects and designers, but with anyone who has questioned if an email tells as much as a handwritten letter.'

• The exhibition Drawn to Architecture is at Norwich Cathedral's Hostry from tomorrow until Sunday, March 2. Opening hours are Monday to Saturday 9:30am-4:30pm, and Sunday 12pm-3pm. Free admission.

• Do you have an arts story? Email arts correspondent Emma Knights at emma.knights@archant.co.uk