65921 - Rural buildings and Spatial Planning

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student acquires the basic elements for the design of rural buildings as well as information on the main tools of regional and urban planning for the design of construction actions in rural areas, with particular attention to those of municipal level and the main procedural aspects. The student is able to define the design process of a rural building, until the completion of the preliminary project, and to apply the tools of protection and regulation of land use in the management and planning of building actions in rural areas.

Course contents

Prerequisites: The student who accesses this teaching has a good preparation in the fundamentals of mathematics, statistics and physics.

Planning and design of rural areas are considered synergistic actions linked by a two-way relationship that over time created the present landscape and will determine its future changes. This idea permeates the course contents that are developed through a program divided into theoretical teaching units and multi-disciplinary practices, communicating with each other, aimed at a final synthesis project.

Teaching unit 1 (40 hours): rural landscape planning

The teaching unit consists of a theoretical module, seminars and laboratory activities.

In a first part we introduce a cultural reference framework within which lies the discipline of planning. From the first theories and conceptions of the landscape to the European Landscape Convention (2000), and its transposition into national legislation, the course analyzes the fundamental laws of the discipline of planning and the tools that regulate the complex transformation of rural areas with a significant reference to the legislative experience of the Emilia Romagna region, at different scales of land government (Regional Law 47/78 up the LR 20/2000).

The teaching unit includes also in-depth seminars on specific topics of land use planning at the local scale and practical exercises of reading the territorial plans at the municipal level, concerning both cartography and technical regulations.

Expected results: at the end of the teaching unit the student knows the institutional tools in force, at the regional and local level, and is able to read and interpret the various kinds of planning tools.

Teaching unit 2. Fundamentals of technical drawing (10 hours)

Expected Results: The student knows the conventions for the preparation of technical drawings for the representation of projects, the student knows and is able to apply the rules of projective geometry with regard to the orthogonal projections and sections of buildings.

· Drawing tools and conventions in the representation

o ISO (UNI) formats

o types and thicknesses of line

o dimensions and scales of proportion

o text and symbols

· Fundamental geometric constructions

· Orthogonal projections

· Axonometry, perspective

o plans and plants, front views, sections

Teaching unit 3. Computer Aided Design (CAD) (14 hours)

Expected results: the student knows the operation of a CAD software and is able to use it for the preparation of drawings for the design of basic rural buildings, up to the scale of detail of the final design.

- Fundamentals and main commands 

· Layer management 

· Dimensions 

· Page layout and print settings.

Teaching unit 4. Practice sessions (CAD) (16 hours)

Expected results: the student applies what learned in the previous teaching units by means of exercise sessions guided by the teacher.

- Rural building drafting

- Rural building design

Readings/Bibliography

Lecture notes.

For further information, refer to specific chapters of the following books: 

Agostini Stella, 2015. "Manuale di Edilizia Rurale. criteri di progettazione integrata". EdiSES, Napoli.

•“Progettazione urbanistica”, F. Oliva, P. Galuzzi, P. Vitillo, Maggioli

•Storia del paesaggio agrario italiano, Emilio Sereni, Laterza,

•Regione Emilia-Romagna, 2013. “Paesaggi da ricostruire”.http://territorio.regione.emilia-romagna.it/paesaggio/pubblicazioni/paesaggi-da-ricostruire

•M. Docci, M. Gaiani, D. Maestri "Scienza del disegno", Città Studi, 2011.

•Autodesk “Guida in linea software Autocad”, Autodesk, 2015.

Teaching methods

The course is subdivided into teaching units which provide theoretical lessons, exercises, seminars and study visits.

With regard to the teaching activity, through the administration of the teaching units in the classroom, students acquire the knowledge necessary for drawing and representing simple rural construction works.

The teaching unit 4 (guided exercises in the CAD laboratory) is taught entirely in the laboratory of CAD by conducting guided exercises that students develop in first person with the supervision of teachers. The faculty-student interaction in this part is constant and takes the form of periodic reviews in which the students are stimulated to become critical thinkers, guiding them towards processing and graphic design solutions best suited to develop the theme.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral test, a practical test, and a discussion of the drawings produced during the course within the tutorials. The oral examination is aimed at verifying the knowledge and skills acquired in the teaching unit 1. Passing the oral test with a rating at least sufficient is a necessary condition to be able to proceed with the exam. The practical test, aimed at verifying the knowledge and skills acquired in the teaching units 2, 3 and 4, consists in an exercise using the CAD software taught in the course. The exam ends with an oral interview where the student presents and discusses the drawings produced within the tutorials. The exercises consist in developing CAD reproductions of a rural building (which requires at least plan, elevation and section) and in the project from scratch of a rural building (which requires a minimum plan of the farmstead, plant, two elevation views, one section, axonometry and the technical report). The discussion of the first exercise is aimed at verifying the learning of the fundamentals of technical drawing and CAD tools. The discussion of the second exercise aims to evaluate the preparation on the criteria for the representation and presentation of the design. The overall assessment is made by the Commission taking into account the level of knowledge and skills acquired by the student in relation to the contents of all the teaching units.

Teaching tools

Overhead projector and PC, computer laboratory with CAD software.

Office hours

See the website of Patrizia Tassinari

See the website of Giovanni Pollicino