From Trace to Thought Mapping the Rhizomatic Process of Knowledge Production in the Archives of Alvar Aalto and Álvaro Siza (1933-1993)

Abstract

What is the relationship between the act of mapping and the investigation of the creative process of architecture through its analogue archive? Mapping is an abstract operation that begins with the need to understand and provide meaning to the chaos of reality, in spite of its final result. The possibility of laying out the non-linear patterns of thinking, based on its drawn and written traces, allows for a deconstruction of the architect's though process.

Methodologically, this study seeks to reconstruct selected conceptual, epistemological, and formal structures inherent in the architects' design methods. This is achieved by following the visible traces of their thought, meticulously recorded in their preliminary sketches and textual annotations, before the challenges of the built work. The approach aims to uncover the very roots of their architectural thinking, specifically decoding and clarifying the intricate system of heuristic mechanisms and recurring mental patterns, or invariants: these cognitive structures consistently stimulated their unique interpretations of a site, enabling its operationalisation as a guiding concept—an essential design tool and the foundational material for evolving architectural work.

Keywords: Álvaro Siza, Alvar Aalto, cognitive patterns, philosophical systems, rhizomatic mapping