Dario Passi (1939-2018) was an Italian architect who lived and worked in Rome. Although deeply rooted in a culture involving architectural projects, the works of the architect and painter Dario Passi lay claim to a complete visual autonomy. Echoing the architectural research of Aldo Rossi on the one hand and the work of artists such as Enzo Cucchi or Francesco Clemente on the other, Dario Passi is a key player in the ‘Tendenza’, that architectural current which re-introduced the symbolic signs of history into contemporary creation. In his work architecture is expressed through a monumental strength resounding with the permanence of typological forms which have traversed history. The drawings collected in this publication bear witness to his architectural research throughout the 1rst half of the 80’s, a decade during which Passi worked to his last architectural projects such as the urban development for the Lungotevere Flaminio in Rome, the design competitions for the Opera La Bastille in Paris and the Lützowplatz in Berlin as well as his participation to the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Venice directed in 1986 by Aldo Rossi.