As an architect, I can’t help noticing buildings, corners, light, shadows. This journal became my place to capture them before the feeling faded.
Slowly it turned into a travel companion. A way to slow down, look closer, and listen to the mood of a place. Now, flipping through it feels like stepping back into tiny memories I didn’t want to lose.
So as you scroll, think of each page as a small pause.. just a moment I decided was worth keeping.
OBSERVATIONS IN INK
I’ve been carrying this sketchbook journal since 2015. It’s been in my bag through cities, airports, mountains, and a lot of questionable weather. I began with a tiny promise: one ink drawing a month. Nothing ambitious. Just enough to keep my hands honest. It didn’t pay me or advance my career. But over time, I realised these pages are where I express things words never quite hold.
FIRST LINES
Drawn from imagination, before the world caught my eye.
I still remember the first sketch I ever made in this journal: a homeless man holding a cigarette. No reference, no photograph.. just a fleeting idea in my mind.
It wasn’t perfect, but it had life. It was the first spark of what this sketchbook would become: a place to capture what I noticed, imagined, or simply couldn’t let go.
BEHIND THE LINES
Start rough, refine slowly, and let the details reveal themselves.
What begins in graphite finds its voice in ink.
TERRAINS
Buildings. Forests. Airports. Bridges. The sketchbook became a place to trace both the built and the natural, side by side.
Cary Quadrangle, Purdue University, Indiana, USA - 2021
And this little book continues to grow with me, one quiet observation after another.
Categories
Info
contact@ankit-rai.com
Virginia, USA
Reflections
I built this website in 2025 as a place to bring my work, ideas, and experiments together. What started as a simple portfolio quickly became a space to explore the things I care about: design, construction, digital systems, and the tools that connect them.
Here, I share projects that reflect how I think, from architectural design work to digital delivery workflows, diagrams, sketches, and visualizations. Some of these projects are professional; others are personal explorations created to test ideas, refine my process, or learn something new.
Every so often, I revisit these projects, refine the language, update the visuals, and shape them into a portfolio that reflects where I am in my journey. It’s an ongoing process, and one I’m proud of.
Ankit-Rai, ©2026 | All rights reserved.