In his editorial, Lucio Altarelli reflects on the interdisciplinary value of the Italian word ‘trama’, understood both as narrative plot and as a structure of threads, grids, and patterns. From text to fabric, from art to fashion, from graphics to architecture, the thread becomes a key interpretative tool able to connect different languages and read the complexity of contemporary design.
In this issue of “XY”, threads are explored in terms of the city, essence, palimpsest, and fabric. They describe urban identity, the initial idea of a project, the relationship between existing traces and new signs, in which the plan drawing takes on particular importance, and the skin of contemporary buildings. Representation thus emerges as a dynamic system of overlays, shifts, and relationships: a surface that is only apparently two-dimensional, yet capable of generating temporal depth, memory, and new design possibilities.
