The journal diségno publishes essays on theoretical topics and advanced research outcomes concerning the scientific-disciplinary area of graphic representation, promoting advanced dialogue in the fields of architecture, engineering, design, landscape, cultural heritage, archaeology, and cultural and creative industries. The journal also deals with Drawing in the broadest sense as a cognitive medium of formal structure, as a tool for the analysis, transmission, fruition and dissemination of cultural heritage and existing values, tangible and intangible, with possible interrelationships between the hard sciences and the humanities. Each issue also features the columns: “Editorial” written by the Editorial Director of the journal; “Cover,” an introductory essay on the issue's theme drafted by the issue's editor(s); “Image,” a drawing evoking the issue's theme, accompanied by a short commentary essay written by a scholar belonging to the cultural area of the journal; “Readings/Rereadings,” a critical review of a book that has been relevant to the theme of the issue or is particularly relevant to the history of the cultural area of the journal; “Reviews,” critical reviews of recently published monographs and edited works by scholars belonging to the cultural area of the journal; “Events,” critical reviews of national and international conferences/seminars/workshops held or sponsored by UID; “The UID Library,” a showcase of scholarly publishing reports. Each issue is the result of an open call that is published about eight months before its release: the first issue of the year, coming out in June, is the result of a call published in the previous October; the second issue of the year, coming out in December, is the result of a call published in the previous March. The first issue of the year concerns a specific but sufficiently broad topic, deduced from the areas of the declaratory of SSD ICAR/17 - Drawing, now SSD CEAR-10/A belonging to GSD 08/CEAR-10 - Drawing, declined according to the principles of topicality, innovation and multidisciplinarity. The second issue of the year is mainly devoted to a reflection on the issues of Drawing referring particularly to a specific discipline of Area 08, especially in light of the issues raised by the Reform of Knowledge. In order to ensure a plurality of viewpoints capable of fueling scholarly debate, each issue is edited by one or more scholars identified among researchers from Italy, abroad and other SSDs. The editor(s), as already mentioned, is entrusted with the opening essay (cover). Each topic proposed by the journal is divided into focus/topics designed to better articulate the theme and accommodate the different voices and viewpoints of the authors. Each focus/topic is generally opened by an invited contribution written by a scholar or protagonist of that specific topic. The journal does not charge authors for submitting, carrying out the editorial process and publishing articles.
The World as Theater, the Theater as World. On Scenography as an Expanded Epistemology in Massimiliano Ciammaichella’s Research
The book by Massimiliano Ciammaichella titled Scenography and Perspective in Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries in Venice. Preconditions and Developments in the Baroque Theatre [Ciammaichella 2021] presents on its cover a digital drawing by the author, an axonometric section of the ephemeral wooden theater designed by Andrea Palladio for the Antigono, staged in Venice in 1565. (read more)
Copyright (c) 2026 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Luigi Serafini’s (1949) passion for nature has its roots in his childhood, when, in Pedaso, in the Marche region, he spent seemingly endless summer days in the enchanted park surrounding his relatives’ house, reached from Rome by car along the Via Salaria with his family. It was within this botanical and zoological enclave, situated not far from the river Aso, descending from the mythical Sibillini Mountains (though perhaps, as Serafini himself maintains, possessing a karstic source near Mount Aso in Japan), that the young Luigi began to draw plants and barnyard animals, perhaps sketching the first iconograms of that fantastic bestiary and herbarium which would later become the Codex Seraphinianus [Serafini 1981]. Symmetrically aligned with the longitudinal axis of the Apennines, as though within the mirror-world of Alice, the passion of Serafini for the classical world –nurtured by his father’s love of antiquities– had the opportunity to develop in the Eternal City, where he was allowed to freely wander among the Fori Imperiali, in a world equally resonant with mythological echoes, composed of arches, columns, brick walls, and precious marble claddings. (read more)
Alessandro Meloni (2025). Percepire e rappresentare lo spazio oltre la visione. Strategie di comunicazione multisensoriale per l’accessibilità del Museo di Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone. Napoli: FedOA
The book Percepire e rappresentare lo spazio oltre la visione. Strategie di comunicazione multisensoriale per l’accessibilità del Museo di Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone by Alessandro Meloni is part of a line of research that has gained increasing relevance in recent years, investigating the relationship between representation, perception and accessibility. (read more)
Emanuela Chiavoni, Giulia Pettoello, Giorgia Potestà, Federico Rebecchini (2025). Disegno per la Moda / Drawing for Fashion. Roma: Sapienza Università Editrice
Within the framework of recent reflections on Drawing in university education and interdisciplinary research, Disegno per la Moda / Drawing for Fashion is a contribution of particular interest to the academic community of Drawing and, more generally, to scholars in the fields of representation, visual culture, and fashion studies. (read more)
Renato Angeloni (2024). Rappresentazione digitale e realtà estesa. Soluzioni per la fruizione del patrimonio culturale. Roma: Aracne
In contemporary debates on digital cultural heritage, there is no shortage of highly technical volumes on surveying and many, often more popular, texts on virtual and augmented reality. Renato Angeloni’s book, Rappresentazione digitale e realtà estesa. Soluzioni per la fruizione del patrimonio culturale, occupies an interesting intermediate position: it is neither an operational handbook nor a simple catalogue of ‘immersive’ experiences, but rather a deliberate attempt to establish continuity between the culture of architectural surveying and digital fruition practices, taking the 3D model as a shared infrastructure between documentation and access. (read more)
Issue 18 (2026) of the biannual scientific journal diségno is intentionally being published on 12 July. This date was not chosen by chance, but was established in September 2025, when the Editorial board - coordination proposed to the UID General Assembly that the call for papers be devoted to the research themes explored by Massimiliano Ciammaichella, member of the Scientific Committee for the 2024-2027 term, who was born on 12 July 1973 and passed away prematurely in August 2025. Symbolically, this issue of diségno represents today the gift of the UID scientific community to his memory on what would have been his fifty-third birthday. (read more)
Reading Drawing: 1Libro: 1Disegno Scientific Review and the Emerging Geographies of UID Research
Throughout 2025, the review series 1Libro: 1Disegno, promoted by the Unione italiana per il Disegno (UID), once again confirmed its role as a stable forum for scholarly discussion devoted to the editorial production of the CEAR-10/A disciplinary sector. Conceived as an initiative to share and debate the most recent publications in the field of Drawing and structured around monthly online meetings, the series has progressively evolved into a critical apparatus for examining the sector’s scientific output. Through books, scientific editions, and scholarly debates, it has made visible the epistemological, methodological, and taxonomic transformations currently reshaping the discipline. (read more)
On November 27 and 28, 2025, the city of Assisi hosted the fifth edition of the International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Images and Imagination, sponsored by the IMG Network association and organised by the University of Perugia at Palazzo Bernabei. The initiative, organised by a committee comprising Paolo Belardi, Ornella Zerlenga, Valeria Menchetelli, Vincenzo Cirillo, Giovanna Ramaccini, Monica Battistoni, Francesco Cotana, Eleonora Dottorini, Matteo Lanfaloni, Camilla Sorignani, and coordinated by Valeria Menchetelli, took place under the patronage of the Unione Italiana per il Disegno, the City of Assisi, the Sacred Convent of St. Francis in Assisi, the Artemis Interuniversity Alliance, and the REAACH association, confirming the event’s distinctly interdisciplinary nature. (read more)
TALES 2025. Tangible Aspects and Legacy Enhancement through Storytelling
The International Symposium TALES Tangible Aspects and Legacy Enhancement through Storytelling, held on 16 and 17 December 2025 at the Department of Architecture and Design of the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, contributes to the contemporary debate on Cultural Heritage as a significant occasion for interdisciplinary exchange. It focuses on the role of storytelling in processes of knowledge production, interpretation, valorization, and transmission. (read more)
FORTMED 2026. International Conference on Fortifications of the Mediterranean Coast
Now in its ninth edition, the International Conference FORTMED Fortifications of the Mediterranean Coast has confirmed its role as one of the leading scientific events dedicated to the study, conservation, and enhancement of Mediterranean defensive architecture. (read more)
The P(r)o(bl)em. Studying, Processing and Communicating Wicked Problems
On 6 March 2026, the international symposium The P(r)o(bl)em. Studying, Processing and Communicating Wicked Problems was held at the Department of Architecture and Design of the University of Genoa, within the framework of the PhD Programme in Architecture and Design. (read more)
VL 2026. International Conference on Visualizing Landscape
On May 7 and 8, 2026, the second edition of the international conference Visualizing Landscape, titled Beyond the Dominant Aesthetic: Landscapes, Perceptions, and Transformations, was held at the Rectorate of the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. (read more)
EGA 2026. XXI Congreso Internacional de Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica
In the wonderful setting of the city of Barcelona, World Capital of Architecture 2026, the XXI Congreso Internacional de Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica (EGA 2026) took place from May 28 to 30. Organized by the Departamento de Representación Arquitectónica (DRA) [1] of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), the congress was hosted by the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona (ETSAB), precisely within the spaces of the famous extension of its headquarters built between 1978 and 1982 according to the design by José Antonio Coderch de Sentmenat. (read more)
Social Synapses: Situated Knowledge and the Deconstruction of Privilege between Law, Drawing, and Practice-Based Inquiry
The aim of this essay is to map a number of study and research trajectories through which ‘social synapses’ may be activated as practices of resistance, with the aim of interrogating the conditions of possibility of a form of knowledge –specifically that related to the field of Drawing– that is capable not of reproducing discrimination and privilege, but of deconstructing them from within. The analysis is based on a complementary external perspective –that of Law– and takes a transdisciplinary approach, integrating theories and practices of drawing, critical legal theories and practice-based studies applied to gender issues. (read more)
Women and the Railways: The History of the Uniform Design
As part of a research project, in collaboration with the Fondazione FS Italiane, issues relating to the development of the visual identity of Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) are being addressed for the first time. Among the company’s representative elements is the FS uniform, an expression of railway culture, whose design intertwines and connects stories and contexts of a cultural, social, fashion and corporate nature. Moving away from the military-style uniform, the early 1970s saw the launch of the ‘new uniform’ initiative, which introduced new styles, a new colour –powder blue– and marked the arrival of female railway workers. This contribution initiates an early reconstruction, from a historical, iconographic and design perspective, drawing on primary and unpublished sources, of the FS uniform project, highlighting its social and cultural function. It is a pivotal element in comprehending the spirit of the era, aiding in the delineation of a collective identity, not solely of the railway but of the nation as a whole, and unveiling a past that remains unfinished to the present day, yet serves as a compass for the future.
Geological Drawing and the Artistic (Re)interpretation of Rurality During the Spanish Avant-garde
The aim of this research is to analyse the presence of the geological imagery in the context of the Spanish artistic avant-garde, and its role in the aesthetic-ideological (re)interpretation of the rural Castilian landscape. Specifically, we refer to the creative process led by the so-called Vallecas School (1927-1933) and its two most prominent artists: Alberto Sánchez and Benjamín Palencia. To this end, an exhaustive review has been carried out of all geological publications from the period (1912-1936) in order to document the visual relationships between scientific drawings and those produced by both artists; in some cases, for the first time in the study of this phenomenon of convergence between scientific and aesthetic landscape. We shall also examine how this synapse was not limited to the visual representation of the rural nature; for, in tune with the political climate of the time, it also involved a political commitment to a shared area of action (the rural territory) which geologists and artists from Vallecas School –each from their respective disciplines– perceived as a symbolic space for an alternative form of social progress through rural nature, dissident to the dominant urban-technological-bourgeois modernity.
Digital Modeling and Social Connections for Heritage Management: the Case of the Palazzo del Governatore in Parma
The knowledge and management of architectural heritage can no longer be considered merely technical or conservation-oriented operations. In this perspective, drawing, modeling, and representation become critical acts capable of generating new social connections among subjects, institutions, architectures, and data. This contribution explores this perspective through the case study of the palazzo del Governatore in Parma, where the construction of the digital model –from survey activities to information management, including cloud-based and immersive environment experimentation– is configured as a process of knowledge co-production rather than mere digitization. Parametric modeling, BIM, and collaborative platforms were used to integrate management, maintenance, and exhibition-related needs within a shared information environment. The model supports different forms of consultation and building management by the actors involved, enabling more inclusive approaches to management, maintenance, and design. Through this approach, representation goes beyond its descriptive function and emerges as a space in which knowledge, the role of the architect, and forms of participation in the construction of contemporary cultural heritage are ethically redefined.
Diagrammatic Drawing for Sequencing across Disciplines and Pathways
This paper frames curriculum redesign as a practice of diagrammatic drawing in which shared representations operate as synaptic surfaces: operational interfaces used to connect disciplines, impose temporal sequencing constraints, and make pathways legible. In a Sino-Italian joint bachelor’s program (delivered entirely in China with a mixed Chinese-Italian faculty), the initial issues were identified based on a synthesis provided by the partner institution of recurring student feedback, along with consultations with teaching staff. A multidisciplinary working group iteratively co-designed alternatives on a shared diagrammatic surface, formalizing successive versions in a verifiable mapping file. Syllabus analysis supported a two-level model: mutually exclusive Disciplines (used for conservative quantitative checks via delivered contact hours) and non-exclusive Pathways (used to articulate and describe transdisciplinary trajectories). The representation-track case study shows how the process makes the progression across methods and techniques of representation explicit and negotiable. The paper reports structural evidence and decision traceability only, deliberately excluding claims about potential employability outcomes for students.
Synapses. Expressive and Relational Pathways in Drawing
In the vast majority of cases, the outcome of research may be understood not as the simple discovery of a datum that already exists, but as the generation of new meaning: an emergent result arising from the encounter, tension, and synthesis between two or more previous bodies of knowledge. New knowledge is therefore not an isolated element, but the outcome of a process of connection, resembling a dynamic structure in continuous evolution. (read more)
Drawing, which fundamentally underpins all forms of graphic representation, is one of the oldest modes of expression, with the earliest recorded marks dating back approximately 30,000 years [Massironi 2002]. As a means of expression and communication, it predates and serves as a precursor to written language. It is also one of the most versatile and virtually universal expressive media, capable of transcending linguistic barriers. (read more)
Sensory Synapses of Drawing. Touch, Imprint and Embodied Knowledge in Giuseppe Penone’s Drawings
This essay investigates the role of drawing in Giuseppe Penone’s work, considering it not as a preparatory or ancillary practice in relation to sculpture, but as an autonomous device of knowledge. Through the analysis of significant nuclei within his graphic corpus –from the references to Chauvet and Leonardo to Sulla punta delle dita, Rovesciare i propri occhi, Palpebre, Pressione, Propagazioni, and Paesaggio del cervello– the article shows how drawing operates as a site of relation between body, matter, and perception. The notion of analogy makes it possible to read the morphological continuity between natural and bodily forms, while touch and imprint shift the cognitive process beyond the primacy of vision. In Penone’s works, the surface is not a passive limit, but an active threshold: skin, paper, wall, and skull become sites of registration, emergence, and transformation of the mark. Drawing thus appears as an embodied practice, capable of making visible correspondences that are normally imperceptible and of restoring to representation an epistemic function. From this perspective, Penone’s graphic work is configured as a sensory and relational field in which contact produces form and the mark becomes the trace of thought in action.
Designing from Within: Sensual Design as Epistemological Ground for Territorial Social Innovation
Traditionally understood as an eminently visual practice, drawing has been conceived as the translation of optical perception onto a surface. This paper advances a synesthetic reconceptualization, framing drawing and design as synaptic processes capable of engaging the full spectrum of sensory experience. Within this perspective, drawing assumes a performative and relational function, operating as a device for investigating and mapping the atmospheric dimension of places, understood as a constellation of immaterial yet perceptually tangible qualities. By exceeding its conventional disciplinary boundaries, drawing emerges as a multifaceted cartography that connects sound, touch, movement, and embodied memory, generating situated forms of spatial knowledge. The research is grounded in sensual design, i.e. experimental sensory and affective design practices –including blindfolded sound walks, poetic writing, acoustic mapping, and collaborative workshops conducted in both peripheral and historic urban contexts– aimed at exploring how urban representation can activate and be activated by sensory synapses. The introduction of AI further expands the field of inquir y, translating concise verbal formulations into evocative, oneiric imager y capable of resonating with the perceptual qualities of place and articulating its intangible identity. Drawing thus emerges as both an epistemic and participatory practice, fostering spatial literacy, social innovation, and processes of territorial regeneration.
Drawing in the Wake of Sorolla. Synaptic Landscape and Sensitive Cartographies from Lloret de Mar
The landscapes that Joaquín Sorolla drew and painted in the early 20th century cannot be understood solely as visual representations of an environment, but as perceptual assemblages that continue to influence the way we view the territory. This article proposes the concept of the synaptic landscape to analyze how certain drawing practices articulate relationships between representation, memory, bodily experience and the transformation of the landscape. Drawing on Sorolla’s archive from the cove of Santa Cristina (Lloret de Mar) and a contemporary experience of on-site drawing carried out in the same location, a methodology is proposed that understands drawing not as a descriptive tool, but as a critical device capable of linking different temporal and perceptual layers. From this perspective, the landscape is conceived as an open relational network that is actualized through the act of drawing, allowing for a reinterpretation of inherited landscape imaginaries from a situated practice.
Beyond Vision. Drawing and Design as Multisensory Synaptic Processes
This paper explores drawing and design as cognitive and perceptual processes grounded in multisensory dynamics. Through an interdisciplinary theoretical-critical approach, the essay proposes the metaphor of the synapse as an interpretative model capable of describing drawing as a relational device that connects perception, the body, matter and the construction of experience. The multisensory paradigm and theories of embodied cognition allow us to reinterpret representation as an active environment of simulation, anticipation and design modulation. The case study dedicated to the ceramic surfaces project, developed as part of an inter-university teaching initiative between Florence and Perugia, highlights the role of two-dimensional drawing in the generation of sensory surfaces, subsequently materialised through 3D printing. The analysis highlights how the transition from the mark to three-dimensional morphology significantly affects the interactions among vision, touch, and light, contributing to the definition of situated perceptual behaviours. Drawing thus emerges as the cognitive infrastructure of contemporary design.
Drawing through Phantasmata. On the Synaptic-Performative Expression of Sign
Issue no. 18 of the journal diségno is devoted to the theme of the synapse as a metaphor for a dynamic relational manifestation within/of complexity, whose signs foreground, above all, the expressive dimension of the act of drawing beyond mere description. Focus 1, in particular, addresses the performative valence of synaptein. Let us begin with the word: synaphé or sýnapsis –the nominal counterpart of the Greek verb synápto (‘I connect’, ‘I bind together’)–, in general terms, denotes the various modes of the spatializing operation of touching, joining, knotting, intertwining, articulating. (read more)
Drawing at the Opera. Settings, Evocations and Visual Imagery in the Stage Backdrops of Operas
Opera can be regarded as a total work of art, one of the most multidisciplinary and multimedia forms of performance. In opera, the stage production takes the form of a true artistic synaesthesia, where the languages of music, drama, dance, poetry and the visual arts converge. The latter define the aesthetics of the performance through set design, staging, lighting, make-up and costumes. In the staging of opera librettos, a crucial role is played by images: whether painted or projected, they evoke settings, suggest emotions and stimulate associations, facilitating an understanding of the plot and immersing the audience in the narrative. Despite the evolution of stagecraft –which has seen the rise of sculptural elements and three-dimensional architecture– drawing and two-dimensional images retain an absolute centrality. Today, however, the tradition is evolving towards digital projections, which offer greater creative flexibility and a reduction in production costs. This article discusses the contribution of drawing to the success of operas, beginning with a presentation of the long-standing tradition of painted backdrops and extending to an exploration of the most advanced forms of digital projection and rear projection of images onto both opaque and semi-transparent materials, to highlight the relevance of drawing and graphic arts within the performing arts and their ability to adapt to new technologies.
Towards a Deconstruction of Ilomorphism. Imago-Magia and Visionary Drawings. From Baroque Metonymy to Contemporary Polycentric Spaces
This paper proposes a reinterpretation of drawing and artistic practice that goes beyond the traditional hylomorphic paradigm, which interprets creative activity as the formal imposition of an active subject upon a passive material. From an ontogenetic and relational perspective, it introduces the notion of synaptic drawing as an interpretive model that describes the creative process as an event of connection, emergence, and co-constitution among the author, the material, and the context. In dialogue with Bruno’s metaphysics of polycentricity, Michel Foucault’s hermeneutics of the subject, and Walter F. Otto’s anthropological theory, the text challenges the form/matter and active/passive dichotomies, highlighting how the work emerges from a dynamic process of interaction. Through a theoretical exploration that weaves together philosophy, art history, and architectural theory, the text analyses perspectival devices as practices that generate subjectivity and meaning, from the crisis of linear perspective to the polycentric and unstable configurations of modernity and contemporaneity. Within this framework, visual and design examples –from the visionary architectures attributed to François de Nomé to the graphic experiments of Daniel Libeskind and the critical practices of Lebbeus Woods– demonstrate how space emerges as a relational field and the image is constituted in the tension between the visible and the invisible. Synaptic drawing is thus understood as a practice that activates relationships, transforms the subject, and reconfigures reality. This gives rise to an aesthetic and epistemological paradigm in which the work takes shape as an event and an encounter, opening up to a polycentric and non-hierarchical conception of artistic practice, in which matter, author, and world mutually participate in the genesis of form.
From the Museum to the Archaeological Site: Virtual Reconstruction of the Sosandra Sector at the Baths of Baia (Naples)
The paper presents a virtual reconstruction of the Sosandra Sector within the Archaeological Park of the Baths of Baia, aimed at clarifying its architectural organization and proposing a hypothesis regarding the original placement of the Aphrodite Sosandra statue. Located in the Campi Flegrei area, Baia was one of the most important centres of otium for the Roman elite between the late Republican period and the Early Empire, characterized by a complex architectural layout and the close integration of architecture, landscape, and water features. The research is based on a 3D survey carried out through dynamic LiDAR scanning, integrated with archaeological and typological analyses and the systematic comparison of coeval structures. The resulting point cloud provided the metric basis for developing a digital model of the sector, organized into four terraces interconnected on both functional and symbolic levels according to a coherent spatial logic. At the same time, the digitalization of the statue, currently housed at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, enabled the testing of different relocation hypotheses within its original context, assessing its visual impact and semantic value within a space likely functioning as a nymphaeum. From this perspective, virtual reconstruction emerges not only as a tool for documentation and critical analysis, but also as an interpretative device capable of restoring the spatial and symbolic complexity of archaeological contexts.
From Step to Mark: Knowledge and the Proliferation of Undecidable Meanings between Trace, Experience, and Interpretation
This contribution advances an operational thesis: drawing does not merely fulfill an illustrative function; rather, it constitutes a process that dynamically participates in the visual semantic field, acting as a cognitive engine within the creative act. Indeed, it selects, orders, and correlates dispersed data, transforming them into legible and debatable figures. This process is structurally akin to walking: both operate as iterative practices of orientation, grounded in rhythm, correction, and the progressive construction of meaning. Cartography is thus understood as an ‘already reinterpreted space’, a trace that directs the gaze and prefigures itineraries; yet, in the transition from the paper to the physical street, the initial direction does not predetermine the experience. While the trace guides the steps, it cannot govern material friction, micro-perceptual variations, the observer’s affective state, or the situated encounter with the landscape. This gives rise to a proliferation of partly undecidable meanings: the map and the layout generate knowledge not by confining reality within a single reading, but by triggering plural interpretations within shared constraints (scales, codes, sequences). The text integrates case studies and theoretical references: from John Snow’s epidemiological mapping as the graphic proof of a phenomenon, to schematic maps that orient without exhausting, through to the reading of historical routes as devices of memory and perception (Rutigliano). Through a neurocognitive lens, the in situ experience is interpreted as embodied cognition, wherein the environment activates perceptual-motor and affective responses (Gallese). Consequently, drawing –much like walking– becomes an integrated methodology to interpret territories, construct design themes, and render time operable within places.
Diagrams in Action: Performative Synapses and Critical Taxonomy of Graphic Operations in BIG
This contribution proposes a critical reading of Bjarke Ingels Group’s diagrams as hybrid devices, which are simultaneously operational, narrative, and communicative. Starting from the theme of the σύναψη, the performative synapse is defined not as a general metaphor, but as an analytical model capable of describing the transition from heterogeneous conditions –context, program, constraints, data, and intentions– to verifiable graphic and spatial transformations. The article distinguishes between representation, drawing, and diagram, problematizing the rhetoric with which BIG presents its own processes and proposing a taxonomy of recurring diagrammatic operations: single gesture, negotiation sequence, and programmatic loop. The cases of The Twist, VIA 57 West, and Villa GUG are reinterpreted through a grid that identifies input, operator, transformation, function, and limits of evidence. What emerges is a notion of the diagram that is reducible neither to pure formal generation nor to simple illustration, but is rather positioned within an intermediate field where drawing builds connections, makes decisions legible, and organizes design knowledge.