Students are asked to develop an intellectual reflection through which they may develop their own idea of architecture, through the formulation of thoughts that are never merely abstract, but oriented towards the definition - and therefore the construction - of buildings that may convey an intrinsic value system of beauty and solidity. The objective is to stimulate students to conceive and construct a new architecture, speculating on the principles of the discipline (context, form, type, programme, structure, construction and space), on its complexity and on the experience of space that we can make of it.
The course is set up as a design workshop: it includes constant discussions between the lecturer and students on the project and the basic teaching profile will be supplemented by a series of preparatory activities designed to accompany students during the process of defining their intentions. The workshop will take place in the University's classrooms.
CRITICS. The weekly project critiques represent the most important moments of confrontation and must always be accompanied by printed drawings, study models and a PDF presentation (beamer). In order to ensure clear and comparable language, a precise method of graphic representation will be provided and should be used throughout the semester. An Intermediate Critique with invited guests will take place in November and a Final Critique - which will serve as an examination - at the end of the course.
LESSONS. We will organise a series of lectures given by the lecturer and by invited speakers followed by discussions with the students.
VISITS / EXCURSIONS. In order to deepen the themes addressed in the workshop, we will visit the dry docks of the port of Genoa and other infrastructures that characterise the city. Students will however be invited to visit the context in which they will have to carry out the project independently.
WORKSHOPS. In order to deepen the themes of representation and to finalise the projects in view of the intermediate and final critiques, workshops will be organised to make models, verify presentations, and to build large models and set up shots for the rendering of spaces.
The students, who will work in pairs or small groups, are asked to design infrastructural buildings or otherwise architectures in physical and conceptual relationship with the infrastructure, the context that produced it, its principles and poetics. Students will be confronted with the themes of landscape, production and construction, designing buildings that provide answers to pragmatic, cultural and spiritual questions. Each type of construction offers the opportunity to reflect on the principles of architecture and how it - with its forms - relates to our lives. The location of the project will be chosen by lot from a series of contexts located within the region, while the extent and modalities of the intervention will be freely defined by each group following precise investigation. No specific request or spatial programme will be assigned, nor will a given typology be imposed. The students will not receive any other information from the lecturer and any subsequent reflection will have to derive from their own research and imagination. A landscape intervention, a topography, a basin of water, a vertical element, a bridge, access to a gallery, a platform, a series of volumes... During the semester we will encourage, and expect, a large catalogue of proposals.
James Corner, Alex MacLean Taking measures across the American landscape, Yale University Press, Yale 1996
Andrea Deplazes, Constructing Architecture, Birkhäuser, Basel 2005
Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings, Thames and Hudson, London 2000
Kenneth Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture, the Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture, MIT Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 1995
Rem Koolhaas, Elements of Architecture, Taschen, Köln 2018
Carlos Martí Arís, Le variazioni dell’identità - Il tipo in architettura, CittàStudi, Barcellona 1996
Carlos Martí Arís, Simona Pierini [a cura di], Silenzi eloquenti, Christian Marinotti Edizioni, Milano 2021
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Vittorio Pizzigoni [a cura di], Gli scritti e le parole, Einaudi, Torino 2010
Mit Center for Advanced Urbanism, Infrastructural Monument, Princeton Architectural Press, New York 2016
Anand Nikhil, Akhil Gupta, Hannah Appel (editori), The Promise of Infrastructure, Duke University Press, Durham 2018
Valerio Olgiati, Markus Breitschmid, Architettura Non-Referenziale, Park Books, Zurigo 2019
Bernard Rudofsky, Architecture Without Architects, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1964
Kazuo Shinohara, Giorgia Cesaro [a cura di], L’eco nello spazio, Christian Marinotti Edizioni, Milano 2021
Livio Vacchini, Capolavori, Allemandi, Torino 2006
Francesco Venezia, La natura poetica dell’architettura, Giavedoni, Pordedone 2010
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1966
Peter Zumthor, Atmosfere, Ambienti architettonici. Le cose che ci circondano, Mondadori Electa, Milano 2007
Ricevimento: Students can be received on the day of the lesson, subject to an agreed appointment by email.
VALTER SCELSI (President)
ALBERTO ROSSI (President Substitute)
The first day of classes will be 26/09/2024. Classes are held every Thursday from 14:30 to 18:30. On the days of intermediate critiques or guest lectures the class schedule may be changed, subject to prior notification and verification of compatibility with other courses.
An Intermediate Critique with invited guests will take place in November and a Final Critique - which will serve as an examination - at the end of the course. In addition to these two moments, the final evaluation will also take into account all the intermediate deliverables such as the redesign exercise and the site analysis, as well as adherence to deadlines.
Verification of the process from first ‘intention’ to ‘construction’; relationship of the project with the chosen context and the theme of the semetre; spatial complexity of the project and coherence of the proposed structural and construction system; quality of presentation; quality of representation (drawings, diagrams, model); quality of the model.
The design workshop requires compulsory attendance of classes (weekly reviews, lectures and critiques), with a maximum number of absences set as per university regulations. The main language of the course is Italian, but attendance in English is guaranteed.
