95846 - METHODS FOR THE REPRESENTATION AND MODELLING OF THE CITY AND TERRITORY

Learning outcomes

Once completed the course, the student knows the principles, the methods and the techniques for surveying and representing architectural artefacts and urban contexts and he/she is able to plan and lead these analyses to return the results using digital tools.

Course contents

The course ‘‘Methods for the Representation and Modelling of the City and Territory Architectural Design I” (6 CFU) is part of the integrated course "The City and Territory values Lab" which also involves the disciplines of history of architecture with the course "History and Theory of Architecture" (3 CFU) and of architectural design with the course "Architectural Design I" (6 CFU).

The course intends to deal with the theme of representation as a tool for the analysis and communication of the project with different techniques.

The course presents the relationship between the architectural project and the way in which it is represented, through drawing, in the different phases that characterise it and in the multiple communicative needs that this imposes.

Through examples belonging to different historical periods, some common aspects of drawing in the design process will be identified, in order to understand the role and influence of the representative act in the various moments of definition and communication of the idea and to identify some constant and general rules related to the pursued aims.

Cartographic images become an instrument of synthesis, require conceptual choices that aren’t innocent vehicles of information: representation forces choices and accentuates the difference between abstraction and reality, in a continuous mutation of meanings between urban space and cartographic space.

The city of Bologna and part of its peri-urban territory will be studied through an analytical path of knowledge that, from a reading of historical maps, will reconstruct the process of development of the urban form, going to identify elements of permanence, urban facts, monuments, forms of settlement, natural elements, infrastructure, etc., to establish design lines of development or enhancement of the existing.

The course will be marked by a series of seminars, reviews and presentations of the progress of the graphic works produced.

The activity of the course is fundamentally of laboratory, students will analyze the urban structure divided into thematic groups.

The courses “History and Theory of Architecture” and “Architectural Design I” will be closely related to the activities of the course of “Methods for the Representation and Modelling of the City and Territory” and will allow on the one hand the deepening of the themes of the European city and on the other hand will allow of urban analysis as a design tool.

The course will be characterized by a first cognitive phase, based on critical/analytical exercises and by a phase of design application of the acquired knowledge through the identification of 'potential areas' unified by the common concept of 'limit'. An example is the structure of the Walls of the city, testified by the permanence of some fragments and by the presence of the twelve urban Gates; it is identifiable in areas characterized from the formal or functional point of view, as the University citadel or the Fair area; it is visible in that limit generated by the presence of a different urban pattern that isolates some great residential districts or still in those areas of limit between built environment and natural/rural environment.

The study of the city will therefore allow to know its development, but at the same time to identify potential areas, here briefly highlighted as 'limit areas', to prefigure possible developments, related to different and increasingly fluid and temporary uses of urban space.

Readings/Bibliography

For a theoretical framework of the themes that will be addressed during the course, it is recommended to read some of the following books:

• Docci Mario, Maestri Diego, Gaiani Marco, Scienza del disegno, Città Studi (collana Architettura), Novara, 2011.
• Docci Mario, Diego Maestri, Manuale di rilevamento architettonico e urbano, Laterza, 2009.
• Migliari Riccardo (a cura di), Disegno come modello, Kappa, 2004.
• Paez Roger, Operative mapping maps as design tools, Elisava, 2019.
• Yee Rendow, Architectural Drawing: A Visual Compendium of Types and Methods, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2012.

Teaching methods

The course is organized through laboratorial activities with design exercises as application of the acquired notions; the students will analyze the urban structure divided into thematic groups.

Assessment methods

The final evaluation will take into account the results achieved in the different activities (“Methods for the Representation and Modelling of the City and Territory”, “Architectural Design I”, “History and Theory of Architecture”). The final exam will combine the evaluation of the project exercises developed within the single teaching modules and an oral discussion on the contents of the activities carried out during the course.

Grading on the exam will depend on the quality of the exercises and the of their presentation, with references to the course bibliography. In addition to drawing and representation techniques, particular importance will be given to the ability to use appropriate and correct disciplinary terminology.

The exam will be preceded by a mandatory seminar (details will be provided at the beginning of the course). The exam will take place with the exposition and presentation of the analysis and mapping work.

The examination committee will assign the student a grade following an evaluation grid that will consider the quality of the exposition, the knowledge acquired, the theoretical depth, the correctness of the project and the quality of the drawings.

Teaching tools

Each student needs to be provided with tools for the development of the project, both for hand drawing and digital drawing. All the drawings will be developed on a layout that will be provided at the beginning of the course.

The related teaching materials will be available to the student in digital format on UNIBO's VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT platform (https://virtuale.unibo.it/).

Office hours

See the website of Caterina Morganti