The present doctoral thesis on the theory of architectural design originates in the study of the written traces of design. As the first records of architectural design, lines and words encapsulate a type of thought that can solely be ascribed to architecture. In order for this study to approach and examine this type of thought, it focuses on the fundamental materiality of architectural thought; that is, it focuses on the lines and words of design, on what is defined as the double writing of architectural design.

Being recorded on the same piece of paper, the signs of double writing are retained and, thanks to this essential co-placement, the gesture of drawing lines and the gesture of putting into words – although ontologically incompatible and partly supplementary – are regarded in the present study as a common act of fixing the peculiar architectural thought. The lines and words of architectural design are thus fixed in a common locus, which requires a definition beyond the neutrality of any material medium of stabilization. On the surface of a piece of paper, lines and words are obviously retained, but they exist in the depths of a still unexplored medium where they are essentially inscribed: even though recorded on the surface of a piece of paper, the lines and words of architectural design are inscribed on a medium of another order and they are com-posed precisely because of that. The present doctoral thesis argues that the medium that opens up from the lines and words of the double writing of architectural design assumes the dimensions of a special space, one that is defined as the space of inscription.

In the space of interpretation that opens up, the words no longer render what is represented, while the lines do not aim at transcribing the text into an image. The terms in which architectural design is interpreted are altered. Instead of the accustomed descriptions of design through its forms, in the space of inscription the form loses its primacy: depiction and description are suspended thanks to the indicative function of the signs of double writing towards the architectural-real space. Instead of the dialectics between the iconic and the verbal, the lines and words – as signs of double writing – are systematically regarded as a unit of signification, always in accordance to the space of inscription, which is solely reflected upon as a locus of architectural design. In a paradoxical way, these signs are founded on the locus, that of the location of the work of architecture.

This research revolves around certain reference concepts, certain reference works and a historical context, whose contribution designates the structure of the text of this doctoral thesis and the content of its sections. Among the reference works, one can detect Danteum by G. Terragni and P. Lingeri, Cannaregio by P. Eisenman, and The Large Glass by M. Duchamp. On the other hand, the historical context is divided into images which, as they are extracted from the historical continuum of writing and architecture, encapsulate, in general, the significant changes in the process of fixing the thought, and the architectural thought, in particular. This thesis advocates that every shift from mythography to the alphabet, and then on to typography and digital media upsets the correlations between the act of expression and the act of depiction, as these are recorded in the architectural design of every historical era.

Conclusively, the course that the text of this doctoral thesis suggests is not realized in the order that the temporal sequence and the systematic lining up of people and works would determine. In contrast, the text of the thesis has assumed the form of a list of words – which stem from the reference concepts – that is accompanied by images and texts, whose structure ultimately resembles that of a glossary. Organized in concepts, the entries of this glossary designate a course within the object of this research, a research that is realized at the moment of writing.

Key terms: architectural design, writing, inscription, gesture, line, word, text, locus.