SKETCHBOOK

Yann Leroy on Fenghuang, China.

Born in the Congo Republic and trained as an architect in Paris and Tokyo, Yann Leroy ( yannleroy.com) began his career in New York and now runs his own architectural design practice out of Bangkok. The firm’s regional clientele provides him with plenty of opportunities to travel, as well as to exercise his love of sketching. “A while ago, a client from Chengdu asked me to design a resort city between Guiyang and Guilin,” Leroy says. “I spent a month on-site with his team designing the project, which gave me the chance to explore this part of south-central China in some depth. One my greatest discoveries was the ancient town of Fenghuang, located just over the provincial border in Hunan.” Built during the early Qing dynasty, it’s a picturesque riverside settlement of wooden stilt houses, pagodas, and bridges that light up prettily at night. “Though it’s not without tourist crowds, Fenghuang was a true moment of time travel. I made many sketches of its well-preserved buildings and alleyways, each one an attempt to give shape to my dreams as I contemplated this beautiful old town.”