Architecture on paper

The graphic line becomes a tool for analysis and exploration, the outline of the compositional framework and the construction of living

It isn’t always easy to enter a world, cross a threshold, discover a new outlook, a way of seeing reality. Walking into the Roman firm Purini-Thermes for Isplora's ArchiTALKS  also means this, in the sequence of rooms, between books and professional tools, most of the space is dedicated to drawing, to drawings.

A constant, obsessive work carried out by Franco Purini throughout his career, exploring the possibilities of knowledge through drawing, discovering its power in the project and, more generally, in the territory of architecture.

The true way an architect looks out onto the world is by drawing

"Il cubo bianco" by Franco Purini

A "friend" and a crucial place in Franco Purini's research, not a mere tool to represent the project but a graphic line that turns into analysis, dialoguing with the dimension of the city and man. "Outline" as intended by Piranesi, which represents the analytical and constructive structure of architecture, opening up to compositional issues and "invention techniques".

Drawing for Franco Purini is a universe, the one represented by his table which becomes a place for experimentation and research, interplays and narrative schemes that merge and create distance between each other, lines and emphasis of a way of doing research and working on the fabric of cities.

Drawing for me is a kind of secular prayer, of space for experimentation, to investigate what there is and what there isn't. Drawing is the architect's way of looking out onto the world.

A way of working that evokes the component of "mystery", since in drawing new elements, references and different imageries emerge. A metaphysical and physical drawing, almost "surgical" in the ability to separate of the drawing itself, highlighting the different components of the project, building living. Which basically is the architect’s task, according to Purini.

A way of drawing that is "internal" and "external" at once: what is in the mind, imagination, and what is revealed - at a later time - through a translation, a sketch or an image.

"Parete" by Franco Purini

The drawing manifesto

The idea is that the architect should have a theme, "something important to say to others". An argument, which needs to be based on a language in order to be understood.

In the case of the Roman architect, his manifesto is a drawing: “Classificazione per sezioni di situazioni spaziali” [Classification through sections of spatial situations] (1968). 72 drawings consisting of the transformations of a cubic section, 72 metamorphoses.

"Classificazione per sezioni di situazioni spaziali" by Franco Purini

A matrix which each of Franco Purini’s projects will relate to from that moment on, the reference for any future translation into architecture.

To learn more: ArchiTALKS Franco Purini