Unbuilt. Un progetto per Palermo

The contribution analyses Vittorio Ugo and Cesare Ajroldi's project presented in 1970 in the competition for ZEN 2 in Palermo, attempting to reconstruct its spatial and figurative qualities through a process of critical reading based on redrawing. The investigation is substantially based on the examination of the documentation received, characterised by a meagre consistency, and its graphic-critical reading. In this context, the recourse to two- and three-dimensional digital drawing has constituted a decisive tool for understanding the structure and spatial organisation of the project and the thought of the authors; the three-dimensional model has also allowed for the production of unpublished visual renderings, revealing aspects and relations that do not emerge from the original documentation and offering new interpretative keys to the architectural and urban layout. The redrawing is therefore configured not only as a cognitive tool, but as a critical and interpretative device, capable of restoring the project in all its complexity and contributing to the construction of the image of a possible city, conceived and remained in the drawers of the archives.