“Just as a good ear is indispensable for a musician, so a certain talent for drawing should be necessary for any good architect.

Drawing, in fact, has always been an integral part of architecture – one of the major arts – and of its process of imagination, evaluation and description. We still attribute artistic value (and even autonomy, at times) to this drawing by hand, seeing it as a meaningful, revealing clue about architects and their work. Even though, to be precise, nothing has ever prevented people from conceiving of architecture with the sole force of the imagination, evaluating and developing it by interacting with three-dimensional models. Even more so today, thanks to the virtual representation of reality. As an architect I have a strange relationship of distrust and love with drawing. Perhaps because I fear its seductions and deceptions, though I also understand and seek its evocative power. But for me, architecture remains an ineffable experience. Its language cannot be translated. Its scale cannot be simulated. The best moment of my ‘designing’ is the one in which I manage to vividly imagine and re-live the city, buildings and spaces concentrated in silence, with my eyes closed. The most terrible and fascinating moment is when your dream becomes reality, when the construction grows. It can no longer be stopped. And you would like to start all over again.”