Illustration and Architecture

Illustration has enormous importance in the world of architecture: not only does it allow communication between the workers and the designer, between the architect and the client, but it is also the first real design act.In these days traditional illustration and drawing undeniably cannot have that precision and punctuality that is required by the technical tables, nor the communicative immediacy of a render. However, it is also true that in the past some illustrations have had even more force and more echo than the projects carried out. Think of the drawings by Sant’Elia, the illustrations by Piranesi, the Brick House by Mies Van Der Rohe. At the same time there are architectures that have been graphically reproposed in thousands of variations, illustrations that not only amplified its fame, but also highlight its ever-changing characteristics. Here we propose, therefore, to analyze some examples that make clear the potential of this means of expression, with particular attention to the posthumous life of the image, to the echo of the architectural image that sometimes exceeds the fame of the building itself, bringing for example the work of some architects, but also of illustrators who with their creations have contributed to making an architecture immortal.KeywordsIllustrationArchitectureVisual studies