Valerio Olgiati’s architecture is fascinating. At first sight, this fascination comes from the contradictions one faces when encountering the architecture. Along with the visible contradictions, Olgiati’s architecture also has this invisible and almost inexpressible effect on people – an archival familiarity, and a disquieting confusion – from where the fascination comes.

This paper reflects the inexpressible aspects of Valerio Olgiati’s architecture starting with its visible contradictions, through an encounter with the Bardill Studio. It proceeds by theorising this architectural approach in dialogue with the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s notion of the ‘diagram’, exemplified in conjunction with the works of the Irish painter, Francis Bacon.