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MDes Graphic Design/​​Illustration/​​Photography School of Design

Aoqing Zhou

M.Des Illustration

Focus: Urban sketching, illustration archives, cultural heritage, concept art and visual storytelling

I am an illustrator specialising in observational drawing, with a practice that focuses on creating visual archives of urban environments through on-site sketching and illustration.

My project Sauchiehall Street Sketch Archives (2025) consists of fifteen sketch illustrations that capture the atmosphere and character of one of Glasgow’s most recognisable streets. The work highlights the street’s impression in 2025, continuing a thread of visual documentation a decade after the BBC documentary The Street (2014) filmed in the same street.

Contact
aoqingzhou@gmail.com
A.Zhou1@student.gsa.ac.uk
Instagram
Works
Sauchiehall Street Sketch Archives (2025)

Sauchiehall Street Sketch Archives (2025)

Sauchiehall Street Sketch Archives (2025) is a visual documentation project that records and interprets one of Glasgow’s most recognisable streets. This project documents and interprets Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, in 2025 through a combination of fieldwork, reportage drawing, and archival research. Working as an outsider, I focused on vacancy, transformation, and cultural memory along the street.

The series consists of fifteen sketch illustrations that capture the atmosphere, architecture, and cultural presence of Sauchiehall Street in its 2025 form. By approaching illustration as a method of visual archiving, the project preserves both observed details and subjective impressions, situating drawing as a tool for reflection as well as documentation.

Approaching the work as an outsider to the city, I sought to collect and document aspects of Sauchiehall Street that felt worth remembering, despite my limited resources and perspective. While fifteen illustrations are by no means sufficient to fully represent the street in its entirety, the series stands as a continuation and response to the BBC documentary The Street (2014). It is my hope that in the future, more artists will contribute to this ongoing record, ensuring that Sauchiehall Street continues to be visually archived and remembered.

Artist: Aoqing Zhou

O2 ABC, Sauchiehall Street (2025)

The former music venue was destroyed by fire in 2018 and scheduled for demolition in late 2024. By August 2025, it remained in a half-ruined state. This work is part of the Sauchiehall Street Archives project, which documents the street in 2025, and belongs to a series of 15 sketch illustrations.
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Savoy Market, Sauchiehall Street (2025)

Once a lively indoor market, by 2025 only a handful of retailers remained, leaving the interior in a state of near-vacancy. Despite this decline, the exterior of the building continues to stand as one of the street’s most imposing presences.
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M8 Motorway, Sauchiehall Street (2025)

The motorway cuts across Sauchiehall Street, effectively dividing it into two distinct halves. To the west lies a residential area of Victorian terraces, while the eastern side leads toward the city centre, forming part of the commercial district known as Charing Cross. At this junction stands the Charles Cameron Memorial Fountain, noticeably leaning slightly to the right, a detail that reflects both age and the pressures of its urban surroundings. Behind it rises the Charing Cross Mansions, whose striking red-brick façade marks the beginning of the eastern stretch of Sauchiehall Street. The architecture not only defines the threshold between west and east but also establishes the warm colour palette that characterises this side of the street.
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Beresford Hotel, Sauchiehall Street (2025)

Amidst the surrounding cluster of traditional red-brick architecture, the Beresford Hotel stands out as a striking Art Deco skyscraper. Its streamlined modernist design creates a sharp contrast with the historic fabric of the street, making it one of Sauchiehall Street’s most distinctive landmarks.
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Sauchiehall Street Sketch Archives (2025)

Sauchiehall Street Sketch Archives (2025) consists of fifteen observational drawings arranged sequentially from the western end of the street to its eastern conclusion. The project was conceived with the intention of being presented as a concertina book, allowing viewers to hold it in their hands and walk along Sauchiehall Street while matching the drawings with their real-life locations. In doing so, audiences are invited to notice what has changed and what has remained the same as they progress along the street. Approaching the work as an outsider to the city, I sought to collect and document aspects of Sauchiehall Street that felt worth remembering, despite my limited resources and perspective. While fifteen illustrations are by no means sufficient to fully represent the street in its entirety, the series stands as a continuation and response to the BBC documentary The Street (2014). It is my hope that in the future, more artists will contribute to this ongoing record, ensuring that Sauchiehall Street continues to be visually archived and remembered.
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