Interior of the Café brasserie of the Aubette, Strasbourg, axonometry 1926

Theo van Doesburg made this axonometric drawing for the interior of the Café brasserie of the Aubette in Strasbourg, and it’s all about lines, lines, lines, mapping out what might be an incredible space. I can’t help thinking of the artist, bent over his drawing board, working out the perspective, the angles, the way the space might flow. You know, it’s funny, you see the drawing of the café, and I can almost hear the clatter of cups, the chatter of people, the life that was meant to fill it. Van Doesburg was part of the De Stijl movement, interested in abstraction and pure geometry. I imagine him trying to distill the essence of a social space into these basic forms. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? How do you capture the spirit of a place, a feeling, in a drawing? Maybe he wasn't just designing a café, but sketching out a new way of seeing the world.