B3350 - Iconic and Figurative Characters of the Landscape

Learning outcomes

The goal of the course is to introduce the student to the critical analysis of the iconic and figurative components that define the character of landscape architecture.The course is proposed as a moment of critical and operational synthesis on the knowledge necessary for the development of an architectural project capable of measuring itself with the formal, iconic and functional complexity of the concept of landscape. Considering landscape also from the broader and more complex point of view of the notion of territory.A particular focus will be paid to the anthropological, representational and expressive aspects of the architecture-landscape relations. At the end of the course, students know the basic tools for the iconic and figurative interpretation of the landscape for the purpose of controlling the insertion of architectural design into the urban context and the man-made landscape in a dialectical and critical way.

 

 

Course contents

As part of the Graduate Laboratory "Architecture.Museum.Image," the component of "Iconic and Figurative Characters of Landscape Architecture" aims to provide students with the tools to deal with critical reading and interpretation of the landscape as fundamental moments of anticipation and verification of the project.

The laboratory proposes a reading exercise, preceded by the introduction of significant case studies, to train the eye to see the landscape, to break it down into basic elements and complex systems in order, subsequently, to "recompose" it through design.

The "Characters" that the course proposes to investigate are built forms and intangible components of a culture that make a built place unique and unrepeatable, in which architecture is seen as a further manifestation of the choral construction that is the theater of the landscape.

The museum, or more broadly the collective building, which constitutes the central exercise of the thematic laboratory, is since the 20th century the main urban place deputed to the construction and transmission of culture. Because of its civic purpose, museum architecture acquires a crucial urban role in the representation of the values of a community, and in the construction of the urban landscape.

The course enables the student to acquire the ability to control the project in relation to an urban or territorial surroundings in which the museum, or the complex of civic buildings that includes the museum, is presented as a character participating in the construction of the landscape and its iconic and figurative character.

Readings/Bibliography

F. Braudel, Il Mediterraneo: lo spazio e la storia, gli uomini e la tradizione, Bompiani, Milano 1987.

G. Consonni (a cura di), Teatro Corpo Architettura, Laterza, Roma 1998.

M. G. Eccheli, C. Cavallo (a cura di), Il progetto nei borghi abbandonati, FUP-Firenze University Press, Firenze 2022.

G. Ferrara, L’architettura del paesaggio italiano, Marsilio, Padova 1968.

E. Panofsky, Studi di iconologia: i temi umanistici nell'arte del Rinascimento, Einaudi, Torino 1975.

P.P. Pasolini, La lunga strada di sabbia, Contrasto, Roma 1998.

E.N. Rogers, Esperienza dell’architettura, Einaudi, Torino 1958.

A. Rossi, E. Consolascio, M. Bosshard, La costruzione del territorio. Uno studio sul Canton Ticino, Clup, Milano 1986.

G. Samonà, P. Lovero (a cura di), L'unità architettura-urbanistica: scritti e progetti: 1929-1973, Franco Angeli, Milano 1975.

L. Semerani, Progetti per una città, Franco Angeli, Milano 1980.

L. Semerani, Passaggio a nord-est: itinerari attorno ai progetti di Luciano Semerani e Gigetta Tamaro, Electa, Milano 1991.

E. Sereni, Storia del paesaggio agrario italiano, Laterza, Bari 1961.

E. Turri, Il paesaggio come teatro, Marsilio, Venezia 1998.

Teaching methods

In the first part, the laboratory will include lectures and seminar activities aimed at leading students within the meaning horizon of the course through the analysis of the approach to landscape architecture that we can find in some notable examples.

The second phase of the work introduces the interpretation of the landscape of the project through historical-critical investigation and morphological reading.

Specific characters and constituent elements of the landscape in which the project area is located will be explored while identifying some significant analytical categories (built, empty, pre-existing, structure and form of settlement, site morphology, infrastructure...) in parallel with the recognition of characters, figures, icons with eminently representative value.

The third and final phase of work consists of the restitution of the interpretative reading of the landscape through critical texts, drawings and models which are capable of highlighting the proper characters of the place the student selects and interprets as capisaldi and privileged systems of relationships within the project.

Assessment methods

The Graduate Laboratory "Architecture, Museum, Image" (C. I. 16 CFU, 192 hours) consists of: A) the characterizing teaching of Architectural and Urban Composition (8 CFU, 96 hours); B) a teaching of 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 teaching of Iconic and Figurative Characters of Landscape Architecture (2 CFU, 24 hours).


The proficiency exam of the graduate laboratory "Architecture, Museum, Image" includes verification of the learning of the contents of all its component teachings and is conducted in a unique examination.

Teaching tools

The lecture material presented in class will be made available to the student in electronic format via digital platform, or delivered directly to the classroom, as will be indicated at the beginning of the lab. The lab has its own space for classroom exercises. Teaching support: model lab, PC, digital video projector, audiovisual tools and products, printers and plotters.

Office hours

See the website of Claudia Cavallo