Archaeological Landscapes and Drawings

Learning from the ruins of the archaeological landscapes through the architectural drawing is an essential lesson to understand the value of the historical structures and compare them with the contemporary city. Archaeological landscapes are a complex and dense heritage to be enhanced; they are a precious resource for architectural design in its dialogue with the ancient. With the study of the forms of the past, investigated through the drawings, the architects have always been able to express more clearly the fundamental principles of their design research, setting out the contours and figures guiding the project. Focusing on the ancient has always accompanied architectural research: the study trips and the educational requirement in knowing how to redesign classical forms accounted for generations of architects the cognitive foundation and encouragement for the construction of their own design identity. Le Corbusier, Louis I. Kahn in their trips to Rome and to the Mediterranean countries made a series of remarkable drawings in which the figures of antiquity contributed to the clarification of their architecture. The text offers an opportunity to reflect on the centrality of architectural design as a description of the compositional process of significant works by architects who have confronted the ancient. Their experience constitutes a didactic model to learn how to read the stratified and complex structures of history, with the perspective of re-introducing them into the dynamics of the contemporary world. The choice of drawings constitutes a vast panorama that includes the different scales of the architectural project, from the design of the landscape and open spaces of the historic city, to the theme of the layout.