OVERVIEW

Advanced urban planning studies the mutations produced in the territory and in the contemporary city in recent years - with the advent of the information (or digital) era - and its multiple approach from strategic, socio-cultural and environmental, spatial and interactive parameters ( from the dynamic treatment of information to the flexible orientation of urban phenomena) at all levels and scales of incidence; from the human habitat to the landscape that sustains it and to the social relationships that are generated.

AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The Urban Planning Laboratory of the Degree Course in Architectural Sciences introduces the student to the analysis of the quadruple value Territory-City-Architecture and Landscape, specifying from a theoretical point of view the methodologies used and developing the essential skills for a basic interpretation and conceptualization and perspective of the scenarios and contexts under investigation.

The main purpose of this theoretical-practical teaching clearly related to the Architectural and Urban Project at different scales, is to provide students with in-depth knowledge on the growing holistic ability of interrelation between different levels of spatial, functional and environmental intervention, oriented to connect contextual and architectural response, urban and environmental reading and multiple purpose, urban-territorial, in mutual synergy (from analytical recognition to synthetic strategy, from global interpretation to local operation). Exploring complexity, favouring and articulating diversity, raising multiple interaction - between processes and information, programs and uses, contended and realities, cities and citizens (designing and formulating new spaces - new scenarios - transversal, architectural, urban, territorial and social, in tune with a new more open and adaptable relational logic) and the priority objective of the course.

The strategic planning workshop for urban and landscape planning introduces the student to the analysis of the quadruple value of Territory-city-architecture and Landscape, specifying from a theoretical point of view the methodologies used and developing the essential skills for the interpretation and conceptualization perspective of the scenarios and contexts under investigation.
The main purpose of this theoretical-practical teaching clearly related to the Architectural and Urban Project at different scales, is to provide students with in-depth knowledge about the growing holistic ability of interrelation between different levels of intervention, spatial, functional and environmental, in mutual synergy. Exploring complexity, favouring and articulating diversity, raising a multiple interaction - between processes and information, programs and uses, contests and realities, cities and citizens (designing and formulating new spaces - new scenarios - transversal, architectural, urban, territorial and social, in tune with a new more open and adaptable relational logic) and the priority objective of the course.  
"Large Scale, Landscape, Mapping and Multi-Scale Urban Design are essential aspects of the multi-scalar approach of the course: the course wants to favour this transversal thinking, presenting a theoretical-practical approach to the new multiple conditions (multi-level and multi-relational) of the contemporary city and territory. This approach wants to deepen the cross-relationships between "city and territory". (especially in the case of Europe) and its relationship today with the emergence of integrated and innovative strategies, particularly in the areas of new strategic planning, mixed planning, urban resilience and new technological capabilities.  That is, the anticipatory perspective as a guideline that is both vectorised and flexible at the same time. The approach to various systemic techniques of analysis, representation and urban-territorial formulation (innovative and expressive representation, programming diagrams, processes, etc.) will be fundamental for the development of the course, based on an analytical-critical, critical-propositional methodology, through operational approaches to concrete situations, from similar and differential preferences - at the same time - in the local Ligurian and international global environment.
Attendance and active participation in the proposed training activities (frontal lessons and laboratory activities) and individual study will allow the student to - know in depth the main dynamics present today in our areas of life and relationship and understand their complex, hybrid, mixed and intertwined conditions.

PREREQUISITES

The course is designed as a continuation of a sequential process of approach to urban planning and urban design and a transversal City-Architecture reading for students of Architectural Design. The expression and communication of a new kind of challenges for the contemporary city and the design of new convivial/relational scenarios (public spaces and inter and pro active collectives) will be the basis of the tasted experimental path.
These are fundamental requirements:
- Know how to critically use the knowledge, analytical apparatus, operational, planning and strategic tools of the urban planner to analyze and interpret places, define their transformation processes, evaluate the conditions of transformability and prefigure future scenarios.
- To be able to respond to the demand for new urban spaces and the new landscape with innovative projects, taking the project as a transversal tool with respect to contemporary urban and territorial scenarios.
- To be able to identify innovative strategies for the design of public space, understood in its productive and social values and in its relationship with contemporary urban conditions.
- Know how to set morphological-spatial, economic and social simulations of urban transformation, evaluating its effects and potential outcomes.
- To be aware of the socio-cultural challenges related to the use of new technologies and the emergence of new forms of citizenship, to instruct and guide shared and shared design processes.

TEACHING METHODS

The course will be divided into ex-cathedra lessons, seminars, mainly collective exercises, seminar corrections of the exercises, a final intensive workshop.
The lessons will cover issues that are considered essential for the acquisition of critical skills and design skills appropriate to the theme of the workshop. The exercises are conceived as a path of progressive deepening of the laboratory theme.
The teaching is therefore composed of frontal lessons, for a total of 20 hours, and a part of theoretical-practical laboratory of 60 hours. Attendance to lectures and laboratory is compulsory, as per didactic regulations. The laboratory will be held by the teaching staff, assisted by laboratory tutors. At the beginning of each laboratory activity there will be a short theoretical-practical introduction with the aim of providing the basic principles on which the methodologies used and the balance of the fact up to that moment are based. In the practical part, students, divided into groups of two or three and with the support of teachers and tutors, will have to apply the experimental tools provided and the methods described. At the end of each particular activity, students will have to exchange a critical view with the teacher on the results obtained from the experimental activity itself. The organization and the dates of the laboratory activities will be communicated directly by the teachers at the beginning of the week.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course organized around the GIC-Lab Research Group is articulated - starting from a primarily theoretical approach able to introduce the student to the trinomial Conception/Organization/Formation (or if you prefer System/ Logic/Action) at different levels and scales of intervention, with particular weight in the parameters or factors of simultaneity, dynamism, diversity, intersection and interchange or interaction.
The course program will be developed, therefore, simultaneously on different conceptual and design levels:
- at the urban and/or territorial scale (maps, schemes and strategic diagrams)
- to the architectural scale (mixed programs "residence-production-vagus")
- to the collective scale (approaches to contemporary public space)
- to the environmental scale (proposals for positive interaction with the environment)
- to the ephemeral scale (time actions and participatory installations)
- on the socio-cultural scale (transversal exchange and synergy)

The territories of the complex development in its different urban and landscape declinations - and in particular the Mediterranean coastal scenarios as paradigmatic contexts of this process - will constitute the main fields of research and deepening.
At the end of the course the student will be able to acquire essential notions on.
- The knowledge of the methods and criteria with which the transformations of the city, the territory, the environment and the landscape are analysed, controlled and planned.
- The synthesis of the methods of analysis, interpretation and design of landscape architecture with the aim of promoting the knowledge of different approaches, methods and techniques for the analysis and design of the landscape itself, understood as a system of eco-systems.
- The knowledge of the dynamics of contemporary urban and territorial transformations: practices and regional dimension of living and production; mobility, accessibility and urban welfare systems; forms of regeneration; objectives of sustainability and resilience.
- The knowledge of innovative approaches to urban and territorial design and adaptation strategies of living environments as dynamic, complex and evolving systems.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

All the slides used during the lessons and other teaching materials will be available on aul@web. In general, the notes taken during the lessons and the material on aul@web are sufficient for the preparation of the exam. The books, presented in the graphically edited program available on aul@web and indicated below are suggested as supporting texts, but students can also use other texts of University level, as long as they are editions published in the last 5 years.

YOUNG JOON Kim, GAUSA Manuel, CINN Eungee (a cura di, 2020) : Superground / Underground: Seoul New Groundscapes, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul

GAUSA, Manuel (a cura di ); Towards Resili(g)ence. Città Intelligenti, Paesaggi Resilienti, GUP Genova University Press, Genova 2019

WACHTMEISTER, Jesper - GAUSA, Manuel; Microtopia, Otras formas de habitar Ed. Fundación ARQUIA, Madrid 2019

GAUSA, Manuel; Open(ing), Space-Time-Information 1990-2000. The beginnings of Advanced Architecture Ed. Actar Publishers, New York-Barcelona, 2018

GAUSA, Manuel; CANESSA, Nicola: AC+ Agri-Cultures, Agro-Cities, Eco-productive Landscapes (TUCCI, Giorgia, ed), 2018

GAUSA, Manuel: Abilitare, Abitazione, più X meno (LEONE, Sabrina, ed). 
Ed. LIST Lab, Barcelona-Trento, 2017 (Col. Babel)

GAUSA, Manuel ; RAVEAU, Florence: Entre Escalas, Complejo no –siempre– es complicado 
Ed. Actar, Barcelona, 2015

GAUSA, M: TOTAL GOA, ed- Actar, Barcelona 2014.

GAUSA, M.–RICCI, M.: AUM 01, Atlante Urbano Mediterraneo, ed- List, Trento 2014.

GUALLART, Vicente: La ciudad autosuficiente. Habitar en la sociedad de la información, ed RBA, Barcelona 2012

– RIFKIN, Jeremy (2011). The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 35-36, ISBN: 978-0-230-11521-7

RICCI, Mosé: Nuovi Paradigmi, Ed. List Laboratorio Editoriale Internazionale, Trento 2012.

GAUSA, Manuel: "City Sense: Territorializing Information" in A.A.V.V.: City Sense, 4th Advanced Architecture Contest ed. Iaac, Actar, Barcellona 2012, Pagg. 6-13

GAUSA, Manuel: Open, Spacio-Tiempo-Información, ed Actar, Barcellona 2010.

LANDA, Manuel: Real Virtuality: Meshworks and Hierarchies in the Digital Domain, 2006

– FLORIDA, Richard (2005): Cities and the Creative Class, 2005. Routledge,

ISBN: 0-415-94887-8

Gausa, M., Optimismo Operativo en Arquitectura, ed. Actar, Barcellona 2005.

Gausa, M., Guallart, V., Muller, W., HiperCatalunya, Territoris de Recerca, ed. Actar, Barcellona 2003. 

Gausa, M., Guallart, V., Muller, W., Soriano, F., Porras, F., Morales J., The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture. City , technology and society in the information age, ed. Actar, Barcellona 2003 (prima edizione in lingua spagnola edita da Actar, Barcellona 2000).

RIFKIN, J.: The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth, Jeremy P. Tarcher,  2002

NEL.LO, Oriol: Ciutat de ciutats, reflexió sobre el procés d´urbanització a Catalunya, Ed. Ampuries, Barcellona 2001.

Gausa, M., Salzar, J., Housing+singular housing, Actar, Barcellona 2001.

Gausa, M., Otras “Naturalezas Urbanas”: Arquitectura es ahora Geógrafía, ed. EACC, Castellón, 2001.

RIFKIN, J.: The Age Of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where All of Life is a Paid-For Experience, Putnam Publishing Group, 2000

GAUSA, M: "Land - Links: operative lands" nel catalogo Archilab 01, Ed. Archilab, Mairie d´Orleans, Orléans 2000

Gausa, M., Salazar, J., Singular housing, ed. Actar, Barcellona 1999.

BALMOND, Cecil: Informal, ed Prestel 2002; también “La nueva estructura y lo informal” en Quaderns nº 222, 1999.

ALLEN, Stan: “Distributions, Combinations, Fields” en The Berlage Cahiers nº 5 (Studio 95-96) ed. 010, Rotterdam, 1996, pg. 72 y BAU nº 014, 1996.

ASHER, François: Métapoles ou l´avenir des villes, Les éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1995

KOOLHAAS Rem: S,M,L,XL., ed. 010 Publishers, 1995.

CASTELLS, Manuel: The informational City, ed. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1989.

RIVISTE

Quaderns n. 224, 1999 (numero monografico: ‘Destellos’)

Quaderns n. 220 1998 (numero monografico: ‘Topografías operativas’)

Quaderns n. 222 1998 (numero monografico: ‘Espirales’) •           

<<2G>>, n 3 (Landscape Architecture), 1997.

Quaderns n. 217 1997 (numero monografico: ‘Land-Arch’)

Quaderns n. 219 1996 (numero monografico: ‘Arquitectura Reactiva’)

Quaderns n. 3 1995 n. 196, 1993 (numero monografico: ‘Dunes’)

IAAC BITS (rivista digitale) >  iaac.net/iaac/publications/iaac-bits-about/

Mugazine 1 e 2, GUP, Genova 2019 e 2020

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MANUEL GAUSA NAVARRO (President)

GIAMPIERO LOMBARDINI

NICOLA VALENTINO CANESSA (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Second Semester  (See Official Calendar)

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam involves the production of a written composition based on a theme related to the course, associated with the project of the Laboratory undertaken and analyzed during the course. Eventually the construction of audiovisual materials will be necessary. The initiative in the creation of additional formats will be considered an added value.
The presentation of the material will coincide with a workshop at the end of the course (on site or outside the city) in which all the texts and projects can be compared together in a single space. The examination will therefore consist of the delivery of the foreseen materials and an oral test of presentation of the production, which is compulsory (which students attending can take during the year) and a short essay integrated in the dossier or summary book.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Details on how to prepare for the exam and the degree of depth of each topic will be given during the lessons. The examination, mainly oral but with a short written essay, will verify the actual acquisition of basic knowledge about the methodologies tasted and their applications for the analysis and synthesis of the proposals submitted. The narrative, communicative ability and open questions and problems will allow to evaluate the ability to apply the knowledge in practical situations that may occur with reference to good laboratory practices. The student should be able to link and integrate the knowledge learned during the workshop activities with the knowledge provided during the frontal lessons.
The oral presentation will mainly focus on the proposal developed in relation to the topics covered during the face-to-face lessons and will aim to assess not only if the student has reached an adequate level of knowledge, but if he or she has acquired the ability to critically analyse problems that will be posed during the examination. The ability to describe the processes and proposals clearly and with correct terminology will also be assessed.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

The course will evaluate the originality and strategic and conceptual relevance of the proposals, the degree of sophistication and development of the designs and graphic expressions related to the projects, the communicative and expressive capacity and the clear and committed involvement with the course, both individually and collectively, in synergy with the working group. Identity of the particular work and coherence of the group research will be values taken into account.