Which drawing to deliver more information?

The paper explores the potential of methods and languages designed to facilitate the communication of appropriate information content for the different levels of detail required in the creation of an architectural design, levels with different purposes, but nevertheless co-ordinated. Within this thesis, the many different facets of drawing and the language of graphics are confirmed as agents of intellectual mediation, as a support for expression and also as dynamic cultural and evolving factors. In order to reply to the new demands of performance, due to the increasing fragmentation of responsibility for design, some adjustments in the workflow are needed, essential to support renewed practices; in fact, supporting this dynamic, the representation seems to have recovered a role of increased visibility and importance, regaining an effective recognition through a reconfirmation that remarks the delicate function of communication, interpretation and criticism. The added value of the BIM methodologies (Building Information Modeling), is not limited by the ability to handle graphical representations at different scales with a single 3D model, but it answers to some requests connected by the data complexity inherent with the design and construction, actively supporting the engineering process: this means to relate actors or the building process to each other in a new way, reforming the assets and the processing modes, requiring explicit coordination for activities and procedures. At this regard, we analyze new operational workflow through a brief description of some designs carried out through the collaboration between DISEG (Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering) and the Building Service of the Politecnico di Torino, speaking about drawings and representations.