ABSTRACTThe article discusses the case of architectural copies to develop a reappraisal of Karsten Harries’ [1997. The Ethical Function of Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press] theory of architecture as a representational art. Focusing on examples from contemporary China and nineteenth-century European architecture, it becomes clear that many works of architecture represent and ‘re-present’ other buildings – and that, in some cases, this is the result of an attempt to translate what the ‘original’ buildings represent. This representational character of architecture is especially significant in the context of tourist experiences. If, as Salvatore Settis [2016. If Venice dies. New York: New Vessel Press] argues, cities have a ‘body’ and a ‘soul’, both are deeply affected by the huge crowds of contemporary mass-tourism. This phenomenon leads to further analogies between urban disorders and relational pathologies, discussed along the buberian dialogical approach: a building can be addressed as an ‘it’, or a ‘Thou’, but only in the latter case may this relation demand an effort of translation – and representation. The article closes with a reference to the case of the architectural morphology of the city of Rio de Janeiro – marked by numerous attempts to create ‘tropical’ translations of other cities, especially Haussmann's Paris –, its tourism patterns and attractions.