The communication of technological design

This paper illustrates the process used by the international technical review “Il Sole 24 Ore – Arketipo” to communicate about the constructional issues of architectural projects. The authors are part of the editorial staff of the review since its launch in 2006. Each project is presented through an introductory section, including a text explaining the architectural features, general plans, sections and pictures; an in-depth analysis of the building follows, including texts focussing on specific technical aspects – such as sustainability, structures and construction technologies – and detail drawings that are specially redrafted for the review. The elaboration of technical information for publication requires, first of all, the choice of two/three sections that are significant for the topic of the review (each issue is monographic about themes such as energy efficiency, structures, flexibility, etc.). The idea behind redrafting the construction drawings is to communicate synthetically to the reader the main technical aspects of the project, making the related choices (functional, aesthetic, technological, etc.) explicit. Detailed drawings are redrafted according to a specific graphic code aimed at highlighting the single layers constituting the building fabric; short descriptions explain the technical features of the layers. The typically heterogeneous materials coming from different specialists (architect, structural engineer, M&E engineer, etc.) is thus assembled into synthetic drawings that can be read from different points of view. This paper will illustrate the main steps of the process and the challenges required by the transformation of drawings that are conceived for practical purposes into drawings fit for publication (communication). The experience accumulated in 50 issues of the review also allows to draw some conclusions about the available construction drawings according to the country, the size of the project and the relationships among the different specialists in the design process.