26381 - Operational Architectural Design II

Learning outcomes

The Final Synthesis Laboratory deals with analysis methodologies, control tools and operating procedures determining the feasibility of architectural design, through the coordination of competences and disciplines that characterize the building process, in a unitary picture that takes into account any restraints and actual building process complexity degrees.

Notions and tools acquired by the student during the first part of the course will be included in a unitary and synthetic picture taking into account any restraints linked to the building process. They are broadend on the basis of theoretical principles, methodologies and operational criteria for the definition of the executive design and the outlining of the resolution of building, plant and structural issues in line with the formative aims of the subject.

Course contents

The course will define methods and tools required for managing and controlling building processes design, with particular reference to self-construction methods with the employment of local building systems and resources, the reuse of components and recycled materials, the application of light technologies for flexible systems being adaptable, modifiable and changeable in time and space. Building's life cycle – from construction to dismantling – will be studied, finalizing the process at the end of the cycle itself.

Research during design exercise shall focus not so much and not only on outlining an architectural product that meets the requirements of contemporary residence, as on reflecting on the new process of organization and use of available resources, characterized by the reversibility of the building process itself, i.e. by the possibility of reusing resources employed in other production cycles by deconstructing or dismantling the building after its temporary usage.

Thus, design will concern the living unit in relation to its territory, the ways of aggregation between studied units and infrastructure system, its energetic autonomy (today, an unavoidable term of assessment), its environmental impact also with reference to the potential production of waste after its dismantling, its capacity to be – temporarily and in that specific place – an architectural space fostering human and social relationships.

Readings/Bibliography

• Boeri A., Criteri di progettazione ambientale, Delfino, Milano 2007

• Bologna R. (by), La reversibilità del costruire, Rimini, 2002

• Bologna R., Terpolilli C. (by), Emergenza del progetto. Progetto dell'emergenza. Architetture con-temporaneità, Federico Motta, Milano 2005
•  Falasco C., Architetture ad assetto variabile, Alinea, Firenze2000

• Longo D., Decostruzione e riuso, Alinea, Firenze 2007

• Mangiarotti, A., Lezioni di progettazione esecutiva, Maggioli, Rimini 1998

• Sinopoli, N., Tatano, V., Sulle tracce dell'innovazione. Tra tecniche e architettura, Franco Angeli, Milano 2000

Teaching methods

Seminar activities consist of lessons and exercises. They end up with the final examination.

Work progress phases will be supervised in the lecture hall, in order to complete the project development within the end of the course.

Assessment methods

Learning and exercise progress will be checked in the lecture hall during the course, also in seminar format. The individual examination consists in the theoretical test of subjects dealt with during lessons and in the discussion of project works produced during the course.

Teaching tools

Design phases will be supervised and backed by the lecturer. Faculty equipments will be used (overhead projectors, video projectors, data carriers, laboratories). For in-depth studies refer to bibliography. Reference books are available at the Faculty library.

Moreover, didactic materials will include a set of supporting documents for design exercises, that will be produced and gathered in a set of files available on the Faculty server.

Office hours

See the website of Danila Longo