Contemporary design drawings as cultural heritage: interpretation and communication. Towards a digital archive of Rosani's industrial projects.

Contemporary design drawings represent an immense and quite complex cultural heritage to be interpreted, communicated, preserved and publicised. Digital technologies - and the convergence they provide - have much to offer, for example in safeguarding the iconographic heritage ascribed to the field of so-called minor architecture, otherwise in danger of oblivion. Among the prerogatives of digital representation, archive drawings could be used to create models, animations and dynamic interactive exploration tools, which could then be applied to selected examples. This methodology would allow us to reconstruct different design hypotheses, to break down buildings into thematic interpretations and to provide access to otherwise inaccessible buildings. This essay intends to develop these considerations and to propose applications for digital technologies in relation to the Rosani Industrial Architecture Studio Archive, our case study. The Rosani Architecture Studio was founded by Nino Rosani, who received his training in the technical department of the Lancia automobile company in Turin, and later taken over by his son Paolo. In continuity with Nino’s prior experience, the studio was mainly involved in projects for major and mediumsized industries based in Italy and abroad. It obtained prestigious assignments and collaborated with several masters of contemporary architecture, such as Giò Ponti on the design of Lancia Office Building in Turin (1954-‘57).