18547 - Architecture and Architectural Composition 3

Course contents

The workshop approaches the issue of replacement of consistent portions of the urban fabric issue ofurgentrelevance in architectural research that involves the more general issue of the urban landscape and its upgrading.

Because of the events regarding the spatial planning in Italy between '50s and '60s, our cities, especially the smaller towns and medium-sized, have suffered in those years, the failure of a building without architectural rules and planning. At the edge of historic cities have thickened urban pieces with striking impact, consisting mainly of residential buildings of lowest constructive value and aesthetic, sitting on the ground on an incongruent density compared to the subsequent urban development. The Development Plans have then consolidated in the 70's, these urban portions, such as dense urban pockets, out of the idea of ​​the historical city as that of the modern city, subject to rapid and indecent deterioration, from housing and planning point of view.

Their position in connection with historic city or major infrastructural axes, it now makes feasible a radical redevelopment of them, given the low real estate value of buildings and the high value of the affected areas, committing the city to rethink organically these neighborhoods, as a part of a general rethinking of the overall Forma Urbis, also considering the image of the city in a quick view (how you enter in the town, how you look at a fast switch, which synthetic aspects it transmits). This is an issue that, due to the earthquake that struck Emilia this year, is current dramatically applied in urban areas that have suffered serious damage from the earthquake

The workshop intends to study these possibilities of intervention, comparing the contributions of architectural and planning disciplines, with elements from the disciplines of economics and administrative law, in order to identify possible strategies for transforming a general pathology of our cities into opportunities to urban renewal of the same.

The study area could be identified among those affected by the earthquake, according with other initiatives in teaching and research at the Faculty. The opportunity to make a decisive restructuring of large parts of the built tissue, involves the opportunity to rethink the urban setting close to the major access roads to the city, an issue crucial to define the identity of a city; the ancient theme of urban port, suitable to present circumstances, also retains a decisive role in the contemporary city, diffused and fragmented. The idea that the main communication routes pass through an industrial landscape devoid of any mitigation of the visual impact or an urban landscape without quality, strongly influences the current image of the city. But it is not obvious that this should last for inaction or that these areas should inevitably in future be subject to renewal according a parcel and fragmented logic.

Although lab work is supported by a vision of teaching and research project outside the usual scene of the urban development, and often in conflict with their inertial motion, this does not mean that it's needed to found a strong rooting in actuality. As more the project will be able to tie on actuality, as greater the effect of innovation. Therefore is better that the work proceeds under the knowledge of the real processes, but not however yield to them uncritically.

The project will cover both the urban dimension, such as the scale of the building and architectural detail, with aim to rethink updated forms of housing, which attempt to combine the personal privacy with the collective dimension of using the urban space.

Office hours

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