Images for analyzing the architectural heritage. Life drawings of the city of Venice

For architects, analysing architectural heritage means performing all those operations that are useful for getting to know it, in order to gather together all the data and information needed for its promotion, regeneration or, quite simply, maintenance. These operations take place through drawing and surveying the urban context first of all, in order to understand the place, then the building as a whole, and lastly its most important details. It is precisely through drawing that a journey of subjective awareness is made through the space, and images are created which clarify not only the individual features but also the relationships that link them together. Drawing, therefore, not only represents a technique for illustrating, but also and especially a fundamental element for reading architectural heritage. The contrast between man's creation and the untamed environment, that is, the contraposition of built and natural environments in a context such as the city of Venice, provides much food for thought and inspires graphic experimentation. In this city, not only can the beauty of individual pieces of architecture be observed, but the images of the buildings themselves as they are reflected in the Lagoon can also be enjoyed. These images constantly change dimension, shape and even their colours, depending on how much light there is on a particular day and what time of day it is.It is this marriage between the vertical façades of the buildings and their horizontal reflections in the Lagoon that has been sought in freehand drawings from life, experimenting with different traditional drawing techniques such as pencil, coloured pencil, various coloured pens and watercolours. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group.