Drawing the Invisible: the manual representation of landscape in the work of three contemporary Italian architects

Abstract

The drawings of an architect can reveal much about their way of interpreting reality: as a tool of knowledge and design, the representation of a project, even before the project itself, offers a privileged means of delving into an author’s thought.

Furthermore, when marked by deep historical stratifications, the built landscape presents itself as a privileged context for understanding the relationship between permanence and transformation, and representation becomes the means that guides the project.

Starting from these premises, the contribution proposes to explore the modalities of manual representation in the design research of three contemporary Italian architects who, despite the authorial differences, share a similar hermeneutic tension toward the ancient landscape: Luigi Franciosini (Orvieto, 1957), Francesco Venezia (Lauro, 1944), and Renato Rizzi (Rovereto, 1951).

The analysis is based on a comparison between hand drawings and physical models, selected from notebooks and direct sources, in the conviction that representation possesses a cognitive, descriptive, and analytical value – as a design action in itself.

In an era where digital tools and artificial intelligence increasingly drive creative processes, the manual work of these architects invites reflection on the value of an analog approach to design. In such an approach, the gesture of the hand reveals a multiple time – from the slow lingering to the sudden appearance of an idea – mirroring the stratified time that characterizes the landscape itself.

Through this correspondence, the drawing of the landscape becomes a drawing of timing tangible form to what is most invisible.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.35.2025.1