The LA Forum interviewed architect Elena Manferdini about her current exhibition at the A+D Museum in the L.A. Arts District. Her work has been featured in LACMA as well as at the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Her office, Atelier Manferdini, has completed art and architectural projects in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Elena Manferdini is also the Graduate Program Chair at SCI-Arc.

Can you tell us about your current exhibition “A Line of Inquiry” at A+D?

The collection of drawings in the show explore the use of process as a tool to script and weave images into each other. The intricate line-work is then translated into facade-scale imagery.

How strict is your process and what drives it?

The process is not strict, though the tools usually are. My work is often propelled by my obsession with a specific tool or technique that I need to master– such attraction is feral.

Your body of work has cultivated a very graphic tone. Can you walk us through your process?

The medium of architecture is not a drawing, but a fully built object who’s essence is larger than merely its form of graphic representation. Therefore, the working space of a drawing is an disciplinary playground in which the architect creates graphic forms of memory— not a built environment.

The risk associated with working through graphic techniques, rather than the actual architectural medium, is that architectural drawings inherently become hostages of other disciplines such as fine art or graphic design.