Drawing as Transition between History and Design: Notes about a Roman Continuity

The theme of ‘transition’ has inspired our paper in which we wish to ponder over the role of archi- tectural drawing as a moment of dynamic transition, i.e. a moment of ongoing evolution. Transcience is as a matter of facts one of the distinguishing features of drawing which is an ideal and ‘operative bridge’ between memory and project; between idea and architecture; between memory and foreshadowing. More specifically we will analyse the idea of drawing as a transition from analysis to the idea, the project and a transition between history and modernity and vice versa. Drawing, which is both a universal language and tool, allows remote connections, both unexpected and rich; it moves through spaces and architectures belonging to distant times and geographical contexts. Through its fluidity, it allows transdi- sciplinary passages, it enables and intensifies the flux of ideas, arouses wonder and knowledge updating the history of architecture. Through drawing, we can understand the essence of the past and translate it into a new architectural idea. It becomes therefore primary methodology of the architectural knowhow; not only in the creative moment but also in linking history and project, namely in the transition from memory to prefiguration.