LABORATORIO DI COMPOSIZIONE ARCHITETTONICA 1 M - Z

The course is based on two main educational objectives: Architecture as a representation and as a logical construction of space. The concepts will be developed alongside the lectures with design exercises; a final design essay will be the moment of synthesis and verification of the proposed teaching.

The project is as a matter of facts the place of confluence of all the different disciplines - historical-critical, aesthetic, physical-mathematical, technological - offered by the school of architecture. The basic knowledge of the architectural discipline - an initial as well as essential moment in student's cultural and design training - constitutes the primary objective of the course. It is organized in two phases: the first consists of the study of known architectural works on the theme of the single-family house, the second consists of composition and design exercises.

The course will be introduced by some lessons on the systems of representation and on the technical, constructive and graphic norms of the housing project. Proposed exercises are of two different orders: study of known architectural works on the theme of the single-family house, and composition and design exercises.

The course will be introduced by some communications on the representation systems and on the technical, construction and graphic standards of the residence project. The proposed exercises are of two different orders: study exercises of a known architectural work, a single-family house, and composition exercises.

In particular, the course is divided into a series of lessons and exercises that develop five main topics:
a. Writing, analogy and semiology processes.
b. Classical architecture syntax / The transition from classical and modern code .
c. Elements of modern syntax - composition by fragments: decomposition and composition of planes (neoplasticism), assembly of volumes (rationalism / constructivism), the concept of free plan.
d. The space of the modern city: space definer and space occupainer; urban space from the nineteenth-century city to modernity and modern urban theories.
e. Elements of contemporary design: 1. the machine and the post-foundational phase of modernity in the 1960s; 2. Subtraction languages ​​- concept of semantic emptying of the object (Eisenman); 3. Addition languages - from Pop Art to Postmodern (Venturi); 4. Louis Kahn; 5. deconstruction and transarchitecture.

MAIN BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vitruvio, De Architectura

Le Corbusier, Verso un’architettura

Robert Venturi, Complessità e contraddizioni nell’architettura

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Specific bibliographies are given in each lesson. The main reference texts are:

Documents

1. Vitruvio, DE ARCHITECTURA, Roma 1990
2. Leon Battista Alberti, L’ARCHITETTURA, Milano 1989
3. Andrea Palladio, I QUATTRO LIBRI DELL’ARCHITETTURA, Milano 1979
4. Marc Antoine Laugier, SAGGIO SULL’ARCHITETTURA, Palermo 1987
5. Jean Nicolas Durand, LEZIONI DI ARCHITETTURA, Milano 1986
6. Camillo Sitte, L’ARTE DI COSTRUIRE LA CITTÀ , Milano 1982
7. Bruno Taut, LA CORONA DELLA CITTÀ, Milano 1973
8. Le Corbusier, VERSO UNA ARCHITETTURA, Milano 1979
9. Robert Venturi, COMPLESSITÀ E CONTRADDIZIONI NELL’ARCHITETTURA, Bari 1980

Art, analogy and semiology

1. Giorgio Agamben, L’UOMO SENZA CONTENUTO, Macerata 1994
2. Ernst Gombrich, ARTE E ILLUSIONE, Torino 1978
3. Nelson Goodman, I LINGUAGGI DELL’ARTE, Milano 1976
4. Enzo Melandri, LA LINEA E IL CIRCOLO. Studio logico-filosofico sull’analogia, Macerata 2004
5. Umberto Eco, SEGNO, ISEDI - Milano 1978
6. Roland Barthes, MITI D’OGGI, Torino 1978
7. Gianni Rodari, GRAMMATICA DELLA FANTASIA, Torino 1973
8. Bruno Munari, CODICE OVVIO, Torino 1971
9. Raymond Queneau, ESERCIZI DI STILE, Einaudi - Torino

Historical and critical texts

1. Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, STORIA DELL’ESTETICA - vol. 1 L’estetica antica, Torino 1979
2. Rudolph Wittkower, PRINCIPI ARCHITETTONICI NELL’ETÀ DELL’UMANESIMO, Torino 1996
3. Emil Kaufmann, TRE ARCHITETTI RIVOLUZIONARI, Milano 1979
4. Emil Kaufmann, L’ARCHITETTURA DELL’ILLUMINISMO, Torino 1981
5. Bruno Zevi, POETICA DELL’ARCHITETTURA NEOPLASTICA, Torino 1974
6. Fabio Ghersi, EISENMAN 1960/1990 - DALL'ARCHITETTURA CONCETTUALE ALL'ARCHITETTURA TESTUALE, Palermo 2007
7. Fabio Ghersi, SCRITTI SULLA MODERNITÀ, Reggio Calabria 2008
8. Colin Rowe, THE MATHEMATICS OF THE IDEAL VILLA AND OTHER ESSAYS,  Cambridge 1982
9. Colin Rowe – Fred Koetter, COLLAGE CITY, Il saggiatore - Milano 1981
10. Reyner Banham, LE TENTAZIONI DELL’ARCHITETTURA, Bari 1980

The exam consists in the discussion of the requested project, represented according to the contents and the detailed papers in the exam program that will be provided to the students. This discussion will refer to the contents analyzed during the lectures and exercises for both the architectural composition and the architectural design.
Students are therefore required to have knowledge of the topics covered in the lessons and detailed in the exam program and will have to submit to the exam all the documents developed for architectural drawing and architectural design.

Questions on reasons and choices for the final project and on the topics covered by the course:

b. Classical architecture syntax / The transition from classical and modern code .

c. Elements of modern syntax - composition by fragments: decomposition and composition of planes (neoplasticism), assembly of volumes (rationalism / constructivism), the concept of free plan.

d. The space of the modern city: space definer and space occupainer; urban space from the nineteenth-century city to modernity and modern urban theories.

e. Elements of contemporary design: 1. the machine and the post-foundational phase of modernity in the 1960s; 2. Subtraction languages ​​- concept of semantic emptying of the object (Eisenman); 3. Addition languages - from Pop Art to Postmodern (Venturi); 4. Louis Kahn; 5. deconstruction and transarchitecture.