In an interview with German architect Sergei Tchoban—accompanying an exhibition of his original drawings at the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture in New York—he says, "I cut sections through my buildings to reveal what’s on my mind."

The entirely unpartitioned see-through duplex apartment, where the institute hosts exhibitions at the top of the Modulightor Building, now displays Tchoban’s fantastical visions: ideas, competitions, submissions, personal manifestos and depictions of buildings currently under construction. All artworks presented in Sergei Tchoban: Sections of the Mind—an assembly of 30 freehand charcoal and ink drawings, watercolours, pastels and prints—explore effective and imaginary use of the architectural section. The Modulightor Building was designed by illustrious American architect Paul Rudolph as his home, studio and light fixtures' production facility and showroom. It was built in 1994, three years before Rudolph’s death. The exhibition, curated by Vladimir Belogolovsky, brings together selected drawings that pay tribute to Rudolph's seductively beautiful sectional perspectives.

Cutting through buildings, colonnades, domes and whole chunks of cities, Tchoban not merely exposes his structures' spatial and material complexities but also reveals hidden histories and meanings. In his drawings, the architect addresses clashes of extreme dualities head-on. He looks for the right balance between pragmatic and artistic, ordinary and spectacular, historical and contemporary and offers his take on how to build more engagingly, responsibly and ecologically.

Tchoban’s idiosyncratic explorations include an above-and below-ground single-family villa concealed within a characteristic residential courtyard in the city of his birth, Saint Petersburg; nostalgic ruins overtaken by nature; ghostly church spires rising out of the water over abandoned cities in Russia; and, most strikingly, surreal urban scenes where futuristic glass cantilevers of the 21st century are juxtaposed over Piranesi’s representations of ancient and baroque Rome. Sections of the Mind at the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture in Manhattan is Tchoban’s inaugural exhibition. His drawings are being shown in New York City for the first time.

Sergei Tchoban (b. 1962, Saint Petersburg, Russia) wears many hats—architect, artist and collector. He graduated from the Repin Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in 1986. Tchoban has lived in Germany since 1991. At the helm of Tchoban Voss Architekten in Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg, his built works include the Tchoban Foundation’s Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin, the Federation Tower complex in Moscow, the Jewish Cultural Centre and Synagogue Chabad Lubavitch in Berlin, and Russian Pavilions at the Milan (2015) and Dubai (2020) World Expos. He served as the curator of the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 and 2012, and is also the recipient of the 2018 European Prize for Architecture by the European Centre and The Chicago Athenaeum. His architectural drawings have been exhibited worldwide and are in permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Albertina, Vienna; Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), Frankfurt; and Museo della Grafica, Pisa.

The architectural exhibition opened on April 3 and will remain on view until June 7, 2025. In his opening speech, Tchoban addressed a full-capacity audience, including New York architects Steven Holl and James Wines. He said, "For me, drawing is like writing a diary. I draw not because I have to draw. I draw when I notice something interesting."

Watch the full interview with Sergei Tchoban for the exhibition here.

‘Sergei Tchoban: Sections of the Mind’ is on from April 3 – June 7, 2025, at the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture, New York.

STIR is a media partner with the exhibition No Doubt About It, which will be on display at the Magazzino Gallery at Palazzo Contarini Polignac in Venice from May 8 - November 23, 2025. Curated by Vladimir Belogolovsky, No Doubt About It traces the intentions and design strategies of six international projects, including Tchoban's in-progress project for Festival Hall for the Waldorf School in Magdeburg, Germany.