The Graphic Legacy of Zvi Hecker: Towards an Archive of Intellectual Complexity

The cultural legacy of the architect and artist Zvi Hecker (Kraków, 1931 – Berlin, 2023) stands as a paradigmatic example of how diverse graphic modes can testify to the enduring dialogue between thought and drawing manifested in art, architecture, and daily life. But how can such a legacy be effectively communicated? How might we analyse and render accessible the extraordinary aesthetic and creative research on form as it evolves into a project? We pose these questions to two individuals who, in different ways, in the latest years have closely accompanied the work of this great architect, who passed away in 2023. Paolo Fontana collaborated with Hecker for over twenty years, serving as his right hand in the Berlin studio; while Paola Ardizzola is the scholar who, since 2019, has been dedicated to the academic study and dissemination of Hecker’s work, with whom she had established a profound intellectual affinity.