From the representative to the presentative

Collective mapping and project assemblies

Abstract

This article is concerned with representation issues that in spite of going beyond the architectural disciplinary field enable to rethink the deployment settings from a specific production perspective, i.e., that of the design project.
It is useful to reflect upon a widespread criticism to representation that approaches reality without discursive mediations. This can also be found in very different domains that range from theatrical to political ones giving rise to a confuse overlapping of “work” and “what to do” notions within the ontological framework.
Techniques and instruments should be denaturalized by questioning their supposed operational neutrality condition so that to make visible their transforming and releasing potential for collaborative design processes. Focusing on collaboration implies concerns about architectural sustainability as a widely extended phenomenon that seeks to build a sustainable architecture. This takes into account Felix Guattari’s three ecological registers: the environment, social relations and human subjectivity; all of them leading to the possible reformulation of a new way of being-in-the-world.