81931 - Analysis of the Built Environment

Learning outcomes

This module focuses on the dynamics of urbanization as drivers determining recurrent space-production patterns, infrastructural networks, and digital systems over a territory. The module aims at developing an understanding and scenarios of valorization of the natural, built, and cultural heritage layered into the contemporary landscape continuum. At the end of the course, the student will be able to: understand the dynamics of urbanization; identify the recurrent space-production patterns; map the fundamental networks, systems, and services of the dwelling function.

Course contents

Organization of teaching modules:
The "Laboratorio di Design dei sistemi B C.I." is an integrated course consisting of the sections "Analisi dell’ambiente costruito - modules 1 and 2" (4 CFU) and "Service design per l'innovazione" (6 CFU). The analysis modules offer skills and tools for a reading of contemporary space propaedeutic to the innovative design of service to be offered to the communities that inhabit the diffuse urbanity of the present, between the city, the peri-urban, the countryside, and nature. The laboratory as a whole is aimed at acquiring skills useful for the master's thesis elaboration and integrates the contributions of the urban and landscape design sectors and the service design sector.

Readings/Bibliography

The course bibliography will be composed of short excerpts from the sources below, weekly assigned by the instructors.

The built environment as a contemporary landscape continuum:

• Christian Schmid, Monika Streule, eds. (2023) Vocabularies for an Urbanising Planet: Theory Building through Comparison, Birkhäuser [Open Access]

• Neil Brenner, Nikos Katsikis (2020) 'Operational Landscapes: Hinterlands of the Capitalocene', Architectural Design, 90(1): 22-31 [Open Access]

Mapping/tracing to read the built environment:

• Carola Hein, Yvonne van Mil, Lucija Azman-Momirski (2023) Port City Altlas. Mapping European Port City Territories: From Understanding to Design, nai010 publishers
• Jill Desimini, Charles Waldheim (2016) Cartographic Grounds: Projecting the Landscape Imaginary, Princeton Architectural Press

Diffuse peri-urban and dense urban landscapes in the built environment:

• Martin Basdevant, ed. (2021) Transforming Landscapes: Michel Desvignes Paysagiste, Birkhäuser [B. Interdip. Ingegneria e Architettura, Bologna]
• Pablo Sendra, Richard Sennett (2020) Designing Disorder: Experiments and Disruptions in the City, Verso [B. Interdip. Ingegneria e Architettura, Bologna]

Ecosystem analysis of the built environment:

• Richard T.T. Formann (2019) Towns, Ecology, and the Land, Cambridge University Press [SBA online access / B. Alberti, Campus Cesena]
• Richard T.T. Formann (1981) 'Interaction Among Landscape Elements', in Proc. Int. Congr. Neth. Soc. Landscape Ecol. , Pudoc Wageningen [Open Access]

Elements of GIS and Open Data:

• Ramdani, Fatwa (2023) Exploring the Earth with QGIS. A Guide to Using Satellite Imagery at Its Full Potential, Springer
• QGIS Workshop and video tutorial, Harvard University [Open Access, https://gis.harvard.edu/qgis-workshop-and-video-tutorials-0]
  

Experiences in Radical Cartographies:

• Lorenza Pignatti (2023) Cartografie radicali. Attivismo, esplorazioni artistiche, geofiction, Meltemi
• Kollektiv Orangotango+ (2018) This is not an Atlas. A Global Collection of Counter-Cartographies, Transcript [Open Access]

Attraversamenti e derive nell’Ambiente Costruito:

• Rebecca Solnit (2018) Storia del Camminare, Ponte alle Grazie
• Francesco Careri (2006) Walkscapes. Camminare come pratica estetica, Einaudi

Photography and the Contemporary Landscape:

• Robert Adams et al. (2009) New topographics, Steidl
• Luigi Ghirri, Gianni Leone, Enzo Velati, eds. (2024) Viaggio in Italia, Quodlibet

Teaching methods

The course will develop through lectures and practical activities aimed at analyzing the built environment, the contemporary landscape continuum crossing the consolidated and diffuse city up to the systems of naturalistic relevance. The applied exercises will be integrated with theoretical contributions to support the design activity.

Assessment methods

The final exam of the courses of "Analisi dell’ambiente costruito" (4 CFU) and "Service design per l'innovazione" (6 CFU) will be taken jointly and the evaluation will be pondered.

Teaching tools

Lectures with slide projection; practical exercises on the topics of the course; analysis and representation of phenomena of space production in the contemporary landscape continuum.

Students with different abilities or SLD who require educational adaptations or compensatory tools are invited to communicate their needs to the teaching staff to coordinate the appropriate interventions with the competent bodies.

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Pasini

See the website of Amir Djalali