The Drawing is Not the Building A Cartographer’s Gaze on Architectural Drawings

Architectural drawings, like maps, are not neutral representations but social constructions embedded in systems of power-knowledge. This essay brings critical cartography into dialogue with architectural practice to examine how drawings selectively frame urban contexts, foreground certain imaginaries, and render others invisible. While maps have been widely critiqued, the socio-political role of architectural drawings remains underexplored. The essay argues that drawings inherit cartographic silences yet go further by not only interpreting space but also prescribing its transformation, shaping both perception and built form. Drawing upon a case study of the Taipei Performing Arts Centre in Taiwan by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), informed by the lead author’s own insider knowledge and access about that project, the essay analyses how representations operate through silences, projections, and coding systems. Reframing drawings as performative texts, the essay calls for more reflexive representational practices in architecture, urban design and planning.