
© Pietro Cataudella
Moleskine notebooks, sketching, architecture photography, imagination, and Instagram—these are all curiosities that arouse the interest of a stereotypical architecture lover. So it’s hard to believe that Pietro Cataudella, author of the CityLiveSketch project, is neither a trained artist or architect, but a student of geophysics.
In the summer of 2014, the Italian began a project to “describe the land in an alternative way by the combined use of photographs and drawings that represent the landmarks of splendid Italian towns (and beyond).” He has traveled from Pisa to Paris, London to Barcelona, and sketched famous buildings that include Stefano Boeri’s Bosco Verticale and the Eiffel Tower.
Cataudella told Archive Collection Magazine: “My ability to draw and to reproduce a landscape or a building comes from passion, practice and the desire to improve myself.” The reproductions range from faithful, classical sketches reminiscent of those created during the influential grand tours of centuries ago to whimsical cartoons that play with the scale of the urban environment.
Follow Pietro and CityLiveSketch on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.