Theoretical analysis demonstrates the value of architectural drawing in peripheral territories, suggesting a specialized mode of spatial knowledge production.
This essay argues for research by drawing as a central architectural instrument for negotiating contemporary spatial problems. It is neither a nostalgic defence of disciplinary habit nor a substitute for environmental metrics, political economy, or socio-spatial analysis. It is a mode of architectural knowledge production specific to the discipline — a way of isolating relations, constructing comparability, and rendering built conditions available for judgement. Its urgency lies where contemporary spatial production is least legible and least dignified by architectural discourse — in peripheral territories and in what may be called the disposable city.
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Andreas Lechner (2026) studied this question.
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