This work aims at focusing the inner relationship between the formal intuition of the design process and the structural/technological boundaries behind the creation of any architectural constructed form. Through the analysis of some noteworthy architectural examples, we highlight the reasons for which their designers achieved a virtuous equilibrium between shape, design and constructive awareness. In a contemporary era in which the major architectural production seems more interested to show off and amaze the spectators with huge scales and charming contaminations from the entertainment industry, a call for the need of the Vitruvian lesson appears essentials: the more we push our creativity as designers, the more we need to keep it firmly stick to the principles of firmitas, utilitas and venustas