Our story
Florian Afflerbach (1980-2016) was a remarkable person and sketcher. His self-chosen job was to revive the art of freehand drawing, most notably for students of architecture, because „the spontaneous and intuitive freehand drawing is capable of authenticating the designer’s idea on paper.“ He coined the sentence: „You can only see well with a pencil“.
Florian was a trained architect and teacher, assistant professor of the Department of Spatial Design and Design at the University of Siegen, as well as assistant professor of the Department Architecture at the University of Dortmund. He was an author, urban sketcher, car enthusiast, urbanist and so much more.
He was torn out of his life too early with just 35 years. Please help us to make his artistic heritage unforgettable!
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The book
With your help and support we will create an extraordinary book about a very special person and sketcher - a cross-section from the more than 2,000 sketches and drawings that Florian made throughout his career. We will produce it in landscape format as a high-quality hard cover book sized DIN A4.
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The book reflects many different facets of his art of sketching: drawings showing urban images and buildings, special vehicles and classic cars, fleeting ideas, scenes from daily life, designs for contests, and even the beginnings of his creative expression as a small boy.
Florian shows us his world using pen and watercolor brush. Incredibly fine and skillful. From dramatic perspectives. Sometimes reduced to the essentials, sometimes full of wonderful details.
Florian's companions - from architecture, from universities, from sketching trips and workshops - have already agreed to contribute and will have the opportunity to speak. These texts will be published in German and English.
We want to publish a high-quality book with a first print run of 500 copies. As a backer of this campaign you will help us to bring our idea to life and thus get the book for the special price of 40 €. Later on the book will be available in stores for a higher price.
Once this crowdfunding campaign ends we will conclude the choice of drawings and text contributions, start lay-outing the book and launch the preparations for the print shop. Our goal is to send you the finished book early in 2018.
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Note: The final layout of the book may differ from this mock-up
The book with add-ons
In addition to the book, you have the opportunity to purchase a set of postcards with drawings by Florian or a print of his „Siegen“ drawing, which he exhibited for the first time in December 2014 at the „Siegener Kunstwechsel“.
In more than 200 hours, Florian achieved the impossible: he drew the Siegen city center in a bird perspective (you can view his short time-lapse video here on vimeo). He did not rent a hot air ballon or used a drone. He worked with innumerable photographs taken on long walks through the city, aerial photographs, an old model and city map. „Building after building, I created the city of Siegen as a single drawing: Upper town, lower town, the castles, the church called „Krönchen““, he explained on the occasion of the exhibition. The numbered and signed prints are made from high-quality, age-resistant, UV-protected handmade paper in the format 60x30 cm.
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About Florian Afflerbach
Florian studied architecture at the University of Siegen. He went to Paris for one term, where his passion for drawing awakened in him. From this time on he was constantly on the move with his sketchbook and pencils both in his daily life and during his various trips to Sao Paolo, New York and Venice.
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After his degree course he was first employed as an architect in Stuttgart. Although he won prizes with many of his designs, he craved for more: He went to Cottbus to study architectural communication and interpretation.
What occupied him most was the revival of the art of drawing especially for the master of architecture course. He viewed himself as a procurer of architecture. This is why he decided to teach drawing at university.
For Florian, drawing was “the best way to fully grasp a building”. He added: “When I draw, I walk around it, look at each side, go inside, if possible, and choose the best perspective in order to understand it well.”
Since 2013 he was an assistant professor of the Department of Spatial Design and Design at the University of Siegen, as well as assistant professor of the Department Architecture at the Technical University of Dortmund.
In 2013 Florian explained during an interview with the magazine “Baunetzwoche”: “I only draw what fascinates me. This is why an overview of my drawings is a perfect reflection of myself."
In 2012, he had already co-founded the publishing house “Schaff-Verlag” (schaff-verlag.de) for “communication of architecture”, in which his drawings from Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Berlin and especially from Hamburg are published. You can find these drawings among many others in our book "Florian Afflerbach - Der Zeichner", which his partner Dr. Jörg Schilling will publish as well.
Many know Florian as a committed urban sketcher. He was one of those who helped set up the German urban sketching community in Stuttgart, Cottbus, Berlin, Munich and Siegen.
Some of you might know Florian as “Flaf”, others as the “car guy”, because he had an exceptional talent for drawing vehicles. Once he said: “When looking at vehicles you can learn a lot about designs and proportions. They dominate urban images just like architecture itself.”
Florian loved sharing his skills, for instance at international sketching workshops in Lisbon, Barcelona or Malaga.
This is what we would like to take up, this is why we want to publish this book.
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Who we are
Florian’s family and friends stand behind the idea for this project, the crowdfunding campaign as well as the publication of the book:
Tina Jacke
Heinrich Afflerbach
Katharina Afflerbach
Claudius Afflerbach
Arno Hartmann
Jutta Drewes
Dr. Jörg Schilling
Useful links
If you want to follow-up on Florian’s work, these websites provide you with more information.
Credits
- Music: Composed and played by Rainer Seyda
