LABORATORIO DI PROGETTAZIONE SULLA PREESISTENZA E ARCHITETTURA DEGLI INTERNI M - Z

The purpose of the laboratory is to guide the student through the understanding and practice of the urban and architectural design on the pre-existence. The course aims to provide students with a critical methodology to tackle the architectural project on an urban scale, recognizing its peculiar trans-scalarity, the complex connection between the characteristics of a transformation of the existing and the interface with the pre-existence.

The items will be developed combining design exercises with the lectures. A final design essay will be the moment of synthesis and verification of what has been learned during the laboratory.

The main training objectives of the course are:

a) to elaborate on, through architectural practice, the relationship between new and pre-existing in the recovery as well as in the regeneration of the historical heritage of cities;

b) to develop a new systemic planning in the relationship with the pre-existence perceived not as a passive and isolated component but as a vital matter of the redefinition process of the contemporary city.

The idea of the pre-existence project also implies an interdisciplinary involvement in which the concepts of memory, matter, time and space are intertwined, fueling a dialogue aimed to giving a proactive response to the need of a regeneration of the existing, through an open and flexible identity strategy.

The teaching will take place with ex cathedra lessons and with the development of an application project on a study area.

Thence, the teaching of the laboratory will have, as a final moment, the participation of the students to a final course project, that is a synthesis experience and a learning verification moment of the course topic principles. The final exercise intends to elaborate on some design solutions from the scale of the urban space to the architectural one, in response to some contemporary problems of the city of Melilli.

Acquired skills in former architectural and urban design courses are sufficient. 

Basic knowledge of architectural and urban design methodologies. 

Basic knowledge of technical drawing methodologies. 

Manual of freehand drawing and models skills. 

Theoretical and historical knowledge of contemporary architecture. 

The will, determination, curiosity and passion.

Attendance is binding for courses called "Laboratory". Students can request total or partial exemption from the attendance obligation for serious and / or justified reasons. The dispensation is deliberated by the Degree Course Council and at the same time it must provide for the possibility of participating in the sessions of the related exams.  

Teaching will take place with ex cathedra classes, alternating with short individual exercises, and with the development (in groups of 2 or 3 students) of an application project on a study area. Each exercise includes lectures on the course topics and collective and individual laboratory activities, some of which are in situ. Seminars are also planned, held by external teachers and experts on the topics covered. The laboratory, therefore, develops by combining lectures, seminars, and design exercises with final design work that will constitute the moment of synthesis and verification. 

The main exercise will consist of the project to refunctionalize and equip the Pirrera Sant'Antonio in Melilli (SR). In detail, the project will deal with the use and preparation of specific spaces for public activities to be carried out inside the quarries

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Gli scritti e le parole, a cura di Vittorio Pizzigoni, Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, Torino, 2010.

Frampton, K., Tettonica e architettura. Poetica della forma architettonica nel XIX e XX secolo, edizione italiana a cura di Skira editore, Milano, 2005. 

Moneo, R., Inquietudine teorica e strategia progettuale nell’opera di otto architetti contemporanei, prima edizione italiana Electa, Milano, 2005.

Marti Aris, C., La centina e l’arco. Pensiero, teoria, progetto in Architettura, edizione italiana a cura di Christian Marinotti Editore, Milano, 2007. 

Schulz, C. N., Genius Loci. Paesaggio Ambiente Architettura, edizione Mondadori - Electa (Collana Documenti di Architettura), Milano, 1979. 

K. Lynch, Progettare la città, Etaslibri, Milano, 1990.

The exam includes an oral interview on the disciplinary contents and course documents, including the design ones and those of the first semester’s exercises.

During the oral interview the following must be demonstrated: mastery of the topics covered during the lessons, overall expressive ability, ability to report examples relating to general topics, ability to connect with other topics, relevance of answers, quality of content and personal contribution to team work. 

- Describe the design solutions in your laboratory exercise, focusing on the theme of the relationship between historical pre-existence and innovative design solutions.

- The theme of the pre-existence transformation in the historical evolution of architecture and city in europe. Describe some significative cases.