Editorial. Freehand Thoughts

Abstract

In the editorial, Alessandra Cirafici, Paolo Giordano and Ornella Zerlenga reflect on the value of manual drawing as a privileged expression of mental elaboration. In a context increasingly shaped by digital technologies and the debate on the Digital Twin, freehand drawing is reconsidered as the architect’s thought-form: a place where ideas take shape, become clearer, and turn into communication and memory. “XY” therefore opens a critical reflection on the relationship between hand, body, mind and representation. Sketches, diagrams, collages, maquettes, and other analogue forms are not outdated tools, but opportunities for critical thinking, capable of restoring a gestural, tactile, and temporal dimension to design. Manual drawing thus becomes an act of knowledge and cultural resistance: a way to give form to thought, understand space and keep the freedom of design imagination alive.