AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

In the second semester, Laboratorio di progettazione 1A (cod. 95263) will share themes and theoretical-critical content with Design Workshop 3B (cod. 107025), coordinating lessons and activities and periodically comparing project progress. In addition, the courses will benefit from the contribution of lecturers and researchers from other disciplines, such as architectural history and town planning. Sharing the didactics of two courses is intended to be an enriching opportunity for the students, who can learn from confrontation with colleagues and from a working method similar to that of an architectural atelier.

Lab1A and Lab3B will reflect on the idea of the future in architecture: the object of study are the visions and projects that helped define the urban imaginary in 1950s and 1960s America. The two courses are intended as an investigation into the aspirations and hopes of an era that prefigured a radiant and innovative future. The two workshops are intended as an opportunity to confront today's challenges in architectural and urban design, developing critical and creative skills. Through this path, the aim is to stimulate an in-depth reflection on the evolution of the domestic environment and the city, encouraging the birth of innovative ideas that can contribute to defining new paradigms of living.

In particular, Laboratorio di progettazione 1A aims to:

- provide tools for the understanding and critical interpretation of simple architectural organisms;

- encourage the development of critical design reasoning and the control of compositional choices;

- develop students' critical and creative skills, stimulating reflection on the evolution of the domestic and urban environment;

- train students in the main drawing codes necessary for the correct representation of an architectural project;

- provide students with an initial and selected set of bibliographic and design references for progressive and autonomous learning.

TEACHING METHODS

The course is divided into lectures and exercises on urban visions of a possible future: students in Lab 1A will be asked to investigate the innovations and trends that characterised American residential architecture in the mid-twentieth century, using this knowledge as a basis for developing new housing solutions. In parallel, students in Lab 3B will focus on the design of collective buildings characterised by the optimism of the period and the aspiration for a progressive, technologically advanced and functional future. The projects of the two courses will contribute to the realisation of an imaginary American city of 2062. This collaboration will allow for the integration of residential visions with major collective functions, offering a perspective - even a critical one - on what urban life might look like in the near future.

The courses will include ex-cathedra lectures, tutorials, individual and collective reviews, with students organised into working groups. At their end, an intensive workshop involving both courses will be held. Attendance for both courses is compulsory.

Students who have a valid certification of physical or learning disability on file at the university and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances relating to lectures, courses and examinations should speak to both the lecturer of the course and the dAD disability contact person.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

In the 20th century, the evolution of the idea of the city of the future reflects the continuous interaction between social and economic change, technological progress and architectural innovation. In the middle of the last century, with its climate of optimism and prosperity, America gave a decisive impulse to this evolution, radically transforming the urban landscape and domestic lifestyle. The space age, post-war economic growth and the rise of automobile culture shaped a vision of the future dominated by progress and modernity: inspired by new technologies, architects and urban planners imagined cities where efficiency, functionality and design combined, fuelling visions of ultra-modern cities and avant-garde housing. The futuristic visions and technological optimism of that period continue to influence contemporary architecture and urbanism, leaving a legacy of dreams and aspirations for an increasingly uncertain tomorrow - our own.

With rapid urbanisation, climate change, technological evolution, social transformations initiated in the post-pandemic era, and global political uncertainty, architects must be prepared today to create environments for new future needs. Questioning the idea of the city and living in the future is crucial, as it allows today's students to anticipate the challenges they will face tomorrow.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Essential bibliography (to be defined)

Ábalos, I. (2009). Il buon abitare. Pensare le case della modernità. Milano: Christian Marinotti Edizioni.

Banham, R. [1960] (2005). Architettura della prima età della macchina. Milano: Marinotti.

Banham, R. (2004). Architettura della Seconda età della macchina: scritti 1955-1988. Milano: Electa.

Banham, R. [1971] (1983) Los Angeles: l’architettura di quattro ecologie. Genova: Costa & Nolan.

Bradbury, D. (2019). Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses. New York: Phaidon Press.

Canevari, A. - Servente, D. (2020). Abitare nel Tempo. Venti ville del Novecento. Genova: Sagep Editori.

Fitch, J. M. [1972] (1987). American Building: The Environmental Forces that Shape It. New York: Schocken Books.

Ferriss, H. [1929] (2022). Metropoli del futuro. Bologna: Pendragon.

Fishman, R. [1997] (2016). Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Hess, A. (2004). Googie redux: ultramodern roadside architecture. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Koolhaas, R. [1978] (2004). Delirious New York: un manifesto retroattivo per Manhattan. Milano: Electa, 2004.

Le Corbusier [1923] (2005). Verso una architettura. Milano: Longanesi.

McCoy, E. (1962). Modern California houses: case study houses, 1945-1962. New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp.

Mumford, L. [1922] (2008). Storia dell'utopia. Roma: Donzelli.

Mumford, L. (1971). Il futuro della città. Milano: Il saggiatore.

Russo Spena, R. (2019). L’architettura americana cerca una identità 1932-1948. Siracusa: LetteraVentidue.

Scully, V. [1969] (1971). Architettura e disegno urbano in America: un dialogo fra generazioni. Roma: Officina.

Serraino, P. (ed.) (2018) Julius Shulman. Modernism rediscovered. Ediz. italiana, spagnola e portoghese. Cologne: Taschen.

Storrer, W. Allin. (2002). The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tigerman, B. (2013). A handbook of California design, 1930-1965: Craftspeople, designers, manufacturers. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. 

Venturi, R. - Scott Brown, D. - Izenour, S. [1972] (2010), Imparare da Las Vegas. Macerata: Quodlibet.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

According to the didactic calendar.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam will be individual.

The student must show both theoretical knowledge, based on the lessons and the bibliography of the course, and practical knowledge, with respect to the work done in the preparatory and project exercises (carried out both in groups and individually).

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral exam will allow you to verify the level of learning of the primary notions of architectural design