Maps ‘Tailor Made’ to the body of places: design strategies against the indifference of representation

Abstract

This research upholds the Designer’s mediator role in the representation of places and drawing as its privileged tool. In this sense, we question if each place demands its own representation, maps ‘tailor made’ to the body of places. We have adopted a method of research through art and design. The different scopes of intervention and their implications have been mapped regularly through diagrams (mind maps). Afterwards, design strategies have been applied, in the representation of places. The aim is to identify strategies for a significant and different representation of places that can be put into practice by other designers, elsewhere. The observational drawing emerges as an experience enhancer, and it is not dictated by the cartographic representation codes. The intervention areas are the following: freedom of choice, the significant experience of drawing in situ, and the place that dictates its own image. It goes from drawing as a representational medium, to drawing as a way of knowing places.