Representation and Restoration Theories for a Digital Life of the Archival Architectural Drawings

The essay focuses on the need to provide a theoretical basis for the transfer in digital environments of the architectural figurative heritage that was produced with traditional techniques. In particular, it focuses on the sense and meaning of the digital transcription of both theoretical drawings and design drawings of unbuilt architecture. The experiments concern works by Franco Purini and Francesco Cellini, two Italian architects, protagonists of international architectural culture, and place us in front of choices and considerations. These have found support in already tested theories produced in different fields from Architectural Representation. The relationship between virtual and real has taken into account some of the positions by Tomás Maldonado, while Umberto Eco has inspired some ideas about the characteristics of contemporary artworks and the theories of architectural restoration expressed by Cesare Brandi, Giovanni Carbonara and, in particular, by Mario Manieri Elia in reference to the concept of "deferred execution", have been taken into account to endorse a methodological procedure.