The Images of the Survey: Interpreting Architecture between the Perceived and the Inaccessible

Abstract

In 1988, in the opening editorial of issue 6-7 of «XY dimensioni del disegno», Roberto de Rubertis spoke of the “irreducible plurality of expressions” of surveying, which he considered in need of strategies to ensure its scientific rigour, and urged the “implementation of advanced data collection and processing procedures, with the aim of maximizing the image’s informational content and improving its accessibility” (de Rubertis 1988: 2). The evolution of surveying techniques and methodologies has made it a tool capable of producing high-quality, accurate, verifiable, assessable, and shareable information. The new mode of access to digital culture enabled by current technologies encourages reflection on the potential of a different approach to the representation of the survey and a different way of communicating the architecture in question. This paper presents a study of several contemporary sacred architectures in Bari, explored through the creation of meaningful images and unconventional model visualisations. These serve a strong interpretive function as they result from rigorous surveying and modelling processes, yet are intended as a visual narrative of the work – one capable of conveying its complexity and form, and of engaging with a sensory dimension to recount the history, meaning, and profound significance of the architecture in a new way. The experiment was developed through an exhibition on one of the surveyed buildings, presented to the public with a visual model that departs from the tradition of architectural survey drawings to adapt to an iconic figurative language. This language represents forms as they are perceived in the real world but presented from unusual viewpoints, with the aim of making the values and visions of a modern architectural and compositional language accessible. A reinterpretation connecting meaning and form. Appearance and substance of the built environment. Thought and representation.