Window and Mirror: Translating Architecture

Translation issues arise in the whole process of architecture's production and can shed some light on its functioning mechanisms, both from an autonomous point of view, mainly focused on design conceptualisation, and the more inclusive one of the interaction with the complexity of the real. This paper collects some preliminary notes about translation phenomena in architecture, starting from some definitions of the discipline that try to frame its ‘Identity’ in the process of converting ideas into reality. ‘Precision’ represents a main goal in the ‘Execution’ of projects, while the margins of interpretation that this operation implies open towards a less linear attitude to ‘Negotiation.’ ‘Automation,’ one of the fields where language translation proposes major advancements, rises some concluding – albeit provisional – questions.