Lutyens image up for adoption

Sir Edwin Lutyens, an architect engaged on one of the most important projects of the day, might have taken offence at the pipe smoking caricature concocted by his office staff in New Delhi.

But he was so proud of it he brought it back to England and set it up over the door of his office in London. It ended up in the drawings collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba).

The bust, which was made in 1917, was fashioned out of bits and pieces of wood lying around the New Delhi office, where Sir Edwin was laying out the new city, still admired as a model of neo-classical design.

Sir Edwin's bust is now available for adoption. And so is a Le Corbusier drawing, one of the four sketches of his idealised housing estate - the Unite d'Habitation, near Marseilles.

The "adoption" scheme involves people sponsoring individual drawings from the collection, to help fund its new £10m home at the V&A museum. This will incorporate a study room and an architecture gallery.