Drawing Heritage in transformation: survey and representation as mediation between memory and innovation

In the contemporary debate on World Heritage, there is an increasing urgency to overcome a static and purely conservation-oriented view of the built legacy, acknowledging its nature as a dynamic system in constant transformation. Within this perspective, the present contribution investigates the role of architectural drawing and surveying as fundamental tools for mediating between memory and innovation. Far from being neutral or merely descriptive practices, surveying and representation are understood here as interpretative acts, capable of revealing the stratified complexity of heritage and consciously guiding its future transformations. Through drawing, heritage is questioned, selected, and narrated, becoming an active structure of knowledge that informs both conservation and design. The paper proposes a theoretical and methodological reflection on architectural surveying in World Heritage contexts, highlighting how practices of documentation, analysis, and representation can evolve from tools for recording the past into critical devices for the present. In this sense, drawing is configured as a space of mediation between different temporalities, able to connect built memory, contemporary interpretation, and future visions. The aim is to reaffirm the role of architectural drawing and surveying as central practices in the construction of a living heritage—one that is knowable and capable of being responsibly transformed.