architecture school design magazines english books A survey of a building can be perceived less as a set of objective metric and formal characteristics and more as the tracing of geometric forms of varying complexity, the attribution of a trend or style, or the unveiling of a tectonic order or the materials used. Silvia Sgariglia's survey and restitution of the Athenaion at Syracuse demonstrate that the survey is, above all, a distinctly poetic element - in the etymological sense of the Greek "poiein", to make, produce or create something new - which brings understanding and therefore quality to an architectural form. The richness of such a study shows how a survey can be compared to a musical composi- tion based on notes, pauses and accents in one of the many possible and relevant stories that can be told based on the material provided by a single building.
