The Form of the Action

How to retrace the trajectories behind the transformation of the urban space? Into the multifaceted panorama of graphic experimentation related to the architectural practice, much has been done to translate building into concepts, processes into authorial practices, project paths into series of cause-effects connections. However, conventional modes of diagramming often left behind diversions, irruptions, non-human entities, and other unpredictable elements which are instead constitutive nodes of a project. this section explores a series of attempts to define forms of representation, taking into account the complexity, multidimensionality, and multisited nature of the design practice. These works, developed by scholars and students at the Politecnico di Torino, revolving around a pragmatist approach, whose common denominator can be synthesized as follows: extending the scope of action, or the drawing’s board perimeter, to the plurality of circumstances and traceable elements that unfold and assemble in a design process, in order to identify variants and invariants, eventually associating their specific degree of agency.