01069 - Town-Planning (A)

Learning outcomes

The objective of the Urban Planning Laboratory, of which this course is a fundamental component, consists of acquainting students with the knowledge and critical evaluation of the different factors influencing and shaping urban planning.  Students will learn to use technical and analytical tools for  planning, evaluation and representation of an urban project consistently with the regulations in effect.

Students will develop a critical and thoughtful attitude to the organisation and operation of urban and territorial system issues, together with the ability to propose adequate solutions  through the tools of spatial planning.

Fundamental components of this learning path are: knowledge of urban/territorial system needed to highlight issues and potentialities of the intervention area; objectives, in order to build project scenarios and verify requirements of sustainability and high social quality; project ideation and disciplinary, institutional and procedural coordination, essential to the effective unfolding of plan intervention.

Course contents

The course aims at developing an  experience in urban planning able to define criteria of intervention through the design of a project proposal in the form of a master plan and a plan volumetric project, starting from the knowledge, analysis and interpretation of the "site", and through an intermediate phase of synthesis and meta-planning.

Core topics of the course will be urban density set in the form of environmental and territorial sustainability and aimed at high standards of life quality, redevelopment/renewal of urban spaces including those deriving from changes in the infrastructural networks, territorial organisation of a linear town, and redesign of the waterfront.

The study among various study areas having in common the redevelopment of urbanised territories along the Adriatic coastline  of the provinces of Forli'-Cesena and Rimini will be agreed on with the different groups of students. Especially, the themes of the laboratory will be selected within the urbanised strip crossed by the coastal railway, between Rimini and Cesenatico.

 

The learning path will develop along with group activity, first tackling the conditions at the basis of the project:

a) knowledge of legislative body, reading of typical data of plan and urban project,

b) analysis of surrounding conditions and critical reading of context;

c) actors involved in urban planning: promoters, implementers, project recipients, residents.

 

The approach to the project will also include:

d) defining functional, morphological, environmental, social and economic objectives;

e) site analysis;

f) project planning (rules, conditions, installation study, typologies);

g) sustainability assessment.

 

The practical class will conclude with the elaboration of a project proposal.

The project ratio will be typical of an urban project, going through the territorial framing (1:10.000 but in some cases 1:25.0000), to the typical ratio of town planning scheme (1:5.000), to the ratio of the urban project (1:2.000/ 1:1.000, and for especially important points up to 1:500). Carrying out a model ratio 1:2000 / 1:1000 will be useful but it is not considered compulsory.

The practical activity for each group is mainly characterized by the cognitive phase and the project phase.

The first one will consist in the critical study of an assigned case of urban redevelopment of national or international importance, whose results will be presented in a common seminary. Together with those analysed and presented by other groups, the study will constitute a first foundation of shared knowledge related to the themes of urban transformations. It will also consist in the analysis of a defined study area which, through field trips, surveys and plans synthesis, will constitute a kind of cognitive body, synthesis of the analysed territory.

The second phase will mainly look at planning a detailed urban ratio, from defining objectives, strategies and critical evaluation, to the thorough examination of some more significant or critical parts.

Readings/Bibliography

L. Benevolo; Origini dell'urbanistica moderna; Laterza, Bari, 1963

Le Corbusier; Maniera di pensare l'urbanistica; Laterza, Bari, 1981 (Note: Tit. orig. Manière de penser l'urbanisme, Paris, 1963, trad. it. di G. Scattone

L. Reale; Densità, città, residenza. Tecniche di densificazione e strategie antisprwl; Gangemi Editore, Roma, 2008

K. Lynch; Progettare la città. La qualità della forma urbana;  Etas Libri, Milano, 1990

M. Carmona , T. Heath, T. Oc, S. Tiesdell; Public places urban spaces, the dimensions of urban design; Architectural Press, GB, 2003

C. van Eesteren; The idea of the functional city; NAI, Rotterdam, 1997

MVRDV, Winy Mass; KM3, Excursion on capacities; Actar, Barcellona, 2005

Winy Mass, Jacob van Rijs; Farmax, Excursions on density;: 010 Publishers, Rotterdam 1998

Teaching methods

The main activity consists in the assistance and assessment of the group work (maximum three-four students).

Frontal classes and presentation of concrete experiences, with the collaboration of external experts who contributed to them, will be held. A field trip is scheduled for every study area.

The following seminaries are scheduled: a seminary of presentation of case studies assigned within the month of November, an intermediate  seminary regarding the conclusion of the cognitive phase of the defined area, and a final seminary at the end of the course.

Assessment methods

The evaluation of the activity will be carried out during the laboratory with special attention to common seminaries and will be concluded with the presentation and discussion of the work carried out by students, both as group work and individual contribution.

Teaching tools

The course consists of frontal classes, assessment seminars and continuous assistance in the activities of analysis and urban planning of work groups (maximum four students). 

Office hours

See the website of Edoardo Preger