Drawing as a Tool for Knowledge. Analysis of the Graphics for a Design Proposal for the E42 in Rome that Remained on Paper

This paper is the result of our ongoing research into high-quality architectural projects that were never actually built, created by architects and engineers considered to the masters of architectural design. The aim is to further our knowledge of this often-forgotten cultural heritage by opening the field to both assessment and comparison with archive material, and to the qualitative analysis of the visual and motorial spaces. This paper presents the first results obtained by placing under the lens of graphic representation the ‘Palazzo dell’acqua e della luce’ by Pier Luigi Nervi, a project created for Rome on the occasion of the 1942 Universal Exposition. This research involved the examination of the original documentation in the cultural institutes of Rome and Parma where the material from Nervi’s studio is housed, in addition to the texts that contextualize his theoretical work. The result is a corpus of drawings created through reasoned observation and comparison between the various design solutions, which together with the archive material constitute a structured set of drawings that can be made use of by those who wish to increase their knowledge of this original building from last century, also via the web.