Survey methodologies through the archive: Studio BBPR Fund as a case study
Abstract
The contribution proposes a methodological reflection developed within a doctoral research project, based on the arrangement and inventorying of the Studio BBPR fonds at the Centro Archivi del MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo. By considering the archive not merely as a repository of sources but as an active instrument in the construction of historical knowledge, the essay investigates the role of archival reordering practices in shaping the image of architecture and its authors.
The complexity of the fonds, related to a Studio operating as a unified entity despite the plurality of individual contributions, required a careful reconstruction of its original classification logics, project codes, and the relationships among heterogeneous materials. The organization into series and the establishment of cross-references among drawings, photographs, correspondence, and printed materials have enabled a transversal reading of the design processes, highlighting how the archive itself contributes to forming a specific representation of the work of BBPR.
The case of the Torre Velasca demonstrates how the documentation makes it possible to interpret the building not only as a completed form but as a stratified process: from technical and structural decisions to negotiations with institutions, and finally to critical and media reception. Architecture thus emerges as the outcome of multiple representations—design, constructive, and public—which archival arrangement renders visible and recomposable. From this perspective, inventorying takes shape as an interpretative practice and as an integral part of the critical construction of the image of architecture.
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