In what sense architecture is complex: the role of drawing in architectural design

Abstract

This essay traces the fundamental relationship between architecture as a discipline and a work of architecture. Architecture and works of architecture are constantly swapping places within a circle, an experience which, over time, has built up and gradually standardized their rapport: works start from the nomenclature of which the discipline is constituted, whose validity is in turn certified by the works built. The midpoint term which conveys the flow along the (circular) process of architectural design is drawing, in its twofold value of representation and figuration, with that semiotic and notational value with which Leon Battista Alberti exhorted his students to learn to paint as one learns to write.

Keywords

• composizione architettonica
• rappresentazione
• disegno