The plenitude of the Roman camp: a diagrammatic inquiry

Extract

The most common mistake of contemporary ‘experimental’ architecture is to turn the space of the diagram or graph literally into the space of the drawing, and, therefore, of the building.²

(Alejandro Zaera-Polo)

The diagram […] does not act as a code, but as a modulator.³

(Gilles Deleuze)

Often thought of in somewhat static, explanatory terms, the typical architectural diagram is used as a form of shorthand to succinctly communicate condensed information about a project and/or its conditions. In this way, the diagram functions as kind of coding device. Contrary to this typical coding function, Georges Teyssot describes the potential of a diagram that functions not as a code (mould) but rather as a modulator: ‘while molding leads to a permanent state of things, modulation introduces the factor of time’.⁴ Modulating is simply, as Deleuze says, ‘molding in a variable and continuous manner’.⁵ Critical to the modulating function is a degree of indeterminacy, which allows a diagram to be both responsive and flexible.