24708 - Architectural and Urban Composition I

Learning outcomes

The goal of the graduate laboratory is to provide students with a formative, conceptual and figurative method, regarding the invention and development of an architectural project intended as part of the city.This approach to design invention involves in acquiring of the relationships between theory and design, through which the student will be able to be aware of necessary for the development of a design theme considering in its relations: 1) with the urban history of the city; 2) with the physical and geographical place object of the urban transformation; 3) with the historical and critical culture of a place; 4) with compositional techniques and its expressive extensions; 5) with structural and constructive figuration. In this way, the student learns how to intervene autonomously and responsibly within a complex architectural and urban reality with the awareness that every transformation of reality requires a critical reflection, which is both technical, ethical and aesthetic.

Course contents

The "Architecture, Museum, Image" graduate laboratory (16 CFU) consists of: A) the characterizing teaching of Architectural and Urban Composition (8 CFU); B) a teaching of Theories and techniques of architectural composition (4 CFU); C) a teaching of Forms and techniques of architectural structures (2CFU); D) and a course in Landscape Aesthetics and Thought Figures (2CFU).

The design experience offered by the graduate laboratory concerns the design of a collective building, particulary a museum. Why the project of a museum? Here it is worth recalling at least three important aspects. The first aspect of a theoretical-compositional order, the second of a theoretical-urban order and the last is a reason of a cultural-economic nature.

Regarding the first aspect, the theoretical-compositional one, it says immediately that the theme of the Museum represents an emblematic example for reflecting on the search for the relationship between form and meaning in the architectural project.

The Museum, as well known, is a central theme in the experience and reflections of contemporary architecture. Especially through the Museum, Contemporary architecture has measured its potential and the limits of its inventions. With the Museum, a compositional culture has measured the limits of what is accomplished to what, paradoxically, can also include the unfinished. As regards, therefore, the theoretical question of composition, it should also be noted that, through the theme of the Museum, contemporary compositional culture has problematized the dimension of production of the meaning of architectural form. Problematized in the sense that in Contemporary experience the meaning of architectural forms no longer appears simply bound to principles and norms that push design invention in the direction of the accomplished, of the finite - a movement that goes from what has not done to what do, finish, accomplish a more or less normalized way - but it also appears associated with the possibility of thinking and realizing what comes unexpectedly - in thought and from outside one's own thought - in an unpredictable way, not subject to any technical and definitive economic. The Museum represents, in fact, a particular example of this tendency to produce the meaning of forms starting not only from codified rules and techniques but also contemplating the dimension of the occasion and of freedom. This, however, does not mean that the laboratory admits the risk of a sober relativism of design theory and practice, nor does it allow space for the adventures of a cynical nihilism. The laboratory, therefore, assumes the problematic aspect mentioned above and starts proposing the research on the significant forms of the architecture of our time through theoretical and compositional reflection.

With regard to the second aspect, that of the theoretical-urban order, it must emphasize that the research on the significant forms of architecture obviously involves not only a discourse on the language of the forms of the Museum, but also involves its dimension as a collective building and therefore implies also its relationship with the history, culture and shape of the city. The design experience that the laboratory proposes concerns, in fact, the design of a collective building, the Museum, intended as part of the city, that is, conceived in harmony with urban history, the typological figures of reference, and the human desire for invention. of a significant place of the aspirations of a community.

Museum, therefore, as an urban fact endowed the one hand with an intense relationship with the reality and culture of places, and on the other hands, as a reality characterized by its own autonomy in terms of formal, spatial and structural invention. Now, for the development of the invention of this urban theme (of a museum but in reality, of any architectural theme) it is important to research the meaning, also understood as direction, of the forms of the project.

In order to achieve an awareness of the relationship between invention and the sense of the forms of the project, the laboratory intends to take urban studies as a theoretical basis of reference for design development. These studies clearly express the rational basis of architectural design, based on the study of urban phenomena and on understanding the dialectic between permanence and transience of the forms of city architecture.

Starting from these general assumptions, the graduate laboratory proposes the transformation of an urban area into a consolidated city in which to design a museum. The intention is, of course, not just to design a new building. The Museum project is also to be understood as a pretext for enhancing a part of the city through a collective space and a new and old image at the same time.

The third aspect is linked to the cultural aspirations and economic expectations that the design of a museum inevitably brings into play with its presence within a more or less consolidated urban reality.

The museum, intended as a cultural and economic resource capable of enhancing a part of the city, is increasingly perceived as a media-tourist phenomenon that, in some way, is entrusted with the task of building a place in which to communicate and share the experience. of beauty.

To visualize this human desire for beauty to which the museum seems destined, the laboratory proposes a question about the meaning of the image in our time.

Furthermore, as is now known, Western culture - even the memory of Western culture - today finds a reason for unity and continuity in the conception of the image capable of inventing reality.

Well: then full of stimuli, for research on the relationships between place, invention and sense of the forms of the project, it could be precisely the question about the status of the image understood as a knowledge capable of revitalizing and signifying the relationships between idea and theme, type and place, language and technique of architectural forms.

I am of course aware that it is not a question of countering the ever-growing and inevitable technicalization of reality with some vague appeal to feelings with the hope of redeeming the historical and/or personal experience of one's own life through the beauty search.

However, I am quite sure that, at least as regards the architectural project, this search for meaning and beauty cannot and should not be exhausted solely and exclusively through the application of knowledge articulated within a powerful technical-scientific discourse.

Perhaps more important for the design invention seems to me, however, the call of a narrative and figurative dimension capable of orienting the search for the meaning of the project in the direction of rediscovering the dialogic dimension of the sensitivity, emotion, of the singular. That is to say, in other words, to feel the desire to translate with the forms of the project as many forms of life, forms of affectivity, and poetic forms.

As mentioned, the laboratory activity involves the study and transformation of an urban area through the design of a museum. This activity could also be carried out in groups of two students. However, each student's contribution to the conception, development and implementation of the design materials must be clear. These materials (drawings, models, critical texts) will be conceived and created in such a way as to be developed, in the degree thesis, in harmony with a critical and theoretical framework of reference.

Readings/Bibliography

Aldo Rossi. L’architettura della città, Clup·Città Studi, Milano 1991.

Aldo Rossi, Autobiografia scientifica, Pratiche Editrice, Parma 1999.

Colin Rowe e Fred Koetter, Collage city, Milano, Il Saggiatore 1981.

Luciano Semerani, L’altro moderno, Allemandi, Torino 2000.

Antony Vidler, Il perturbante dell’architettura, Einaudi, Torino 1989.

Giuliana Bruno, Pubbliche intimità. Architettura e arti visive, Mondadori, Milano 2009.

Silvia Ferrara, Il salto. Segni, figure, parole: viaggio all’origine dell’immaginazione, Feltrinelli, Milano 2021.

Francesco Dal Co, Tom. Muirhead, I musei di James Stirling, Michael Wilford & associates, Electa, Milano 1990.

Wolfram Prinz, Galleria. Storia e tipologia di uno spazio architettonico, Franco Cosimo Panini Ed. Modena 2006.

Calum Storrie, Delirius Museum. Un viaggio dal Louvre a Las Vegas, Johan & Levi Editore, Milano 2017.

Antonello Marotta, Atlante dei musei contemporanei, Skira, Milano 2010.

Ildebrando Clemente, Infanzia della forma. Opere e progetti di Aldo Rossi, Adda Editore, Bari 2008.

Ildebrando Clemente, Lucus. Intorno al significato nell’architettura di Gianugo Polesello, Aion, Firenze 2016.

Ildebrando Clemente, Hejduk impossibile in John Hejduk, Aion, Firenze 2015.

Ildebrando Clemente, Twisted. La poetica di Aldo Rossi in Aldo Rossi, Aion, Firenze 2017.

Ildebrando Clemente, Adolf Loos. La favola di Dio e del bottone. Aion, Firenze 2022.

Ildebrando Clemente, The museum. The space of grace. https://www.famagazine.it/index.php/famagazine/article/view/305/1109

 

Teaching methods

The laboratory includes a series of lectures and seminar activities on the theoretical and compositional contents of the design theme. The lectures will be dedicated to the theme of the museum considered in its historical, theoretical, typological and compositional aspects. Particular attention will be paid to the analysis of the relationship between design theory and practice present in some contemporary architects. There will also be lessons dedicated to the analysis of some museums of the twentieth century deemed significant for project development. The lectures are completed with collective discussion seminars on bibliographic materials and on the progress of the design process. A seminar to share the progress of the project activity will be carried out before the break in teaching activities scheduled for December. The deadlines and methods of presentation of the exercises will be communicated and better detailed at the beginning of the laboratory. Naturally, the lessons will be accompanied by periodic weekly reviews on the analysis and conception work of the design theme. Regarding the conception and representation of the design theme, a willingness to work with the construction of models will be required. For the theoretical-critical development of the contents of the laboratory, the design work will be accompanied by the contribution of the teachings provided in the laboratory.

Assessment methods

The "Architecture, Museum, Image" graduate laboratory (C. I. 16 CFU, 192 hours) consists of: A) the characterizing teaching of Architectural and Urban Composition (8 CFU, 96 hours); B) a course in Theories and techniques of architectural composition (4 CFU, 48 hours); C) a teaching of Forms and techniques of architectural structures (2 CFU, 24 hours); D) a course in Iconic and figurative characters of landscape architecture (2 credits, 24 hours).

 The suitability test of the "Architecture, Museum, Image" degree laboratory includes the verification of learning of the contents of all the courses that comprise it and takes place in a single exam.

For the Degree Laboratory, the didactic regulations provide for a verification of the students' eligibility to start the preparation of their degree thesis. Both the progress of learning and the development of the design theme will be verified during the course of the laboratory, through periodic reviews. Verification of suitability is carried out in a single test, common to all the modules of the laboratory, placed at the end of the laboratory itself. The verification aims to ascertain the individual level of learning achieved, in relation to the contents of all the modules / courses that make up the Laboratory (C.I.).

The verification of the learning of the laboratory themes will concern the evaluation of three aspects: 1) evaluation of the project documents; 2) evaluation of the exercises carried out during the year; 3) evaluation of the knowledge of the theoretical issues dealt with in the laboratory.

For eligibility, the following materials must be submitted: a) historical and cartographic documentation of the city and the study area; b) documentation on urban planning tools relating to the city and the context of intervention; c) plans of the state of affairs and of the project.

Furthermore, to better illustrate the planning, compositional and urban intentions, the project will be developed using the following materials:

- critical, descriptive and illustrative texts, drawings and images of the project elaboration collected in a collective laboratory book;

- graphics printed in A1 or A0 format;

Basic materials required:

- historical-morphological analysis of the area under study including observations on urban transformations, on topographical, formal and figurative aspects and on the relationships between environmental pre-existing structures and project hypotheses;

- floor plans in appropriate scale: 1: 2000 - 1: 5000;

- floor plan: state of the art and project insertion: 1: 1000;

- ground connection plan: 1: 500;

- significant urban profiles: 1: 500;

- ground plan 1: 200;

- in-depth study of a substantial part of the project (for students who claim eligibility individually) and of at least two buildings (for groups of 2 students), through plans, elevations, sections on a scale of 1: 200;

- 1: 200 study model.

In the evaluation phase of the design materials, particular consideration will be given to the expressive and representation methods of the contents and images of the Museum project. With particular attention to the production of the model and its photographic images.

Teaching tools

The goal of the graduate laboratory is to provide students with a formative, conceptual and figurative method, regarding the invention and development of an architectural project intended as part of the city. This approach to design invention involves the acquisition of the relationships between theory and design, through which the student will be able to acquire the awareness necessary for the development of a design theme considered in its relations: 1) with the urban history of the city; 2) with the physical and geographical place object of the urban transformation; 3) with the historical and critical culture of a place; 4) with compositional techniques and its expressive extensions; 5) with structural and constructive figuration. In this way, the student learns how to intervene autonomously and responsibly within a complex architectural and urban reality with the awareness that every transformation of reality requires a critical reflection, which is both technical, ethical and aesthetic.

Office hours

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