Urban design europe

The city is like a great house: urban design in Europe

Pierre‐Alain Croset, Politecnico Torino, April 1, 2014

Leon Ba9sta Alber;, 1404‐1472

De Re Aedificatoria, On the Art of Building, 1452

“In fact, if the City, according to the judgment of the philosophers, is like a great House, and the opposite the House is a small City, why don't we say that members of it as the courtyard, the loggias, the Hall, the porch, and all these are sDll the same like small houses? “ Leon Ba;sta Alber= Liber I (Book 1), De Disegni (On Design)

“The house is a small city”

Monastry of Ema, Florence

“The house is a small city”

Monastry of Ema, Florence

“The house is a small city”

Monastry of Ema, Florence

“The house is a small city”

Le Corbusier, Unité d’Habita=on, Marseille, 1945‐52

“The house is a small city”

Le Corbusier, Venice Hospital, 1961‐65

“The house is a small city”

Le Corbusier, Venice Hospital, 1961‐65, ground floor

“The house is a small city”

Le Corbusier, Venice Hospital, 1961‐65, first floor

“The house is a small city”

Shinonome Canal Court, Tokyo, (Riken Yamamomoto,Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma and al.), 2008‐2010. Housing + SOHOs (Small offices and home offices)

“The house is a small city”

Shinonome Canal Court, Tokyo

“The house is a small city”

Shinonome Canal Court, Tokyo

“The house is a small city”

Riken Yamamoto, Local Community (theore=cal project), 2012

“The house is a small city”

Riken Yamamoto, Local Community (theore=cal project), 2012

“The house is a small city”

Riken Yamamoto, Local Community (theore=cal project), 2012

“The house is a small city”

Riken Yamamoto, Local Community (theore=cal project), 2012

“The city is a great house”

“ I said you elsewhere that the House was a small City. We must therefore consider almost all those things that are enDtled to make a City, i.e. that it is extremely fine, has all the things you need, and finally all the comforts who benefit to live with quiet, peace and gently. “ Leon Ba;sta Alber=, Liber V (Book 5), Degli edifici parDcolari (On Private Buildings)

The Piazza as a Room

Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, Lucca

The Piazza as a Room

Piazza Ducale, Vigevano

The Piazza as a Room

Piazza Ducale, Vigevano

The Piazza as a Room

Piazza Ducale, Vigevano

The Piazza as a Room

Place des Vosges, Paris

The Piazza as a Room

Photo Piazza San Carlo, Torino MB

Piazza San Carlo, Torino

The Piazza as a Room

Piazza San Marco, Venice

Venice in the words of Henry James

“ I was more than ever struck with that queer air of sociability, of cousinship and family life, which makes up half the expression of Venice. Without streets and vehicles, and with its liMle winding ways where people crowd together, where voices sound as in the corridors of a house, where the human step circulates as if it skirted the angles of furniture and shoes never wear out, the place has the character of an immense collec5ve apartment, in which Piazza San Marco is the most ornamented corner and palaces and churches, for the rest, play the part of great divans of repose, tables of entertainment, expanses of decoraDon. And somehow the splendid common domicile, familiar, domes;c, and resonant, also resembles a theater, with actors clicking over bridges and, in straggling processions, tripping along fondamentas. “ Henry James, Aspern Papers, 1888

The Street as a Corridor

A Street café in Rome

The Street as a Corridor

The Street as a Corridor

Soria y Mata, ciudad lineal, Madrid

An Alber;an tradi;on: Ci;es with a formal order

The Ideal City, Pain=ng of an anonyme Floren=ne Ar=st, end of 15th century

An Alber;an tradi;on: Ci;es with a formal order

Plans of “ideal” ci=es: Filarete, Sforzinda Project, 15° century

An Alber;an tradi;on: Ci;es with a formal order

The city of Pienza, 15° century

An Alber;an tradi;on: Ci;es with a formal order

Plans of “ideal” ci=es: Palmanova, 16° century

An Alber;an tradi;on: Ci;es with a formal order

Plans of “ideal” ci=es: Lisbonne Pombal MB

Lisbon, Reconstruc=on aher the earthquake, 18° century

The break of Modernism: the architecture beyond the city

Le Corbusier, A contemporary City, 1922

The break of Modernism: the architecture beyond the city

Le Corbusier: A contemporary City, 1922, perspec=ve: dilata=on of the urban space

The break of Modernism: the architecture beyond the city

Le Corbusier: Plan Voisin for Paris, 1925

The break of Modernism: the architecture beyond the city

Ludwig Hilberseimer, Skyscrapers’s City, 1924

The break of Modernism: the architecture beyond the city

F.L. Wright and Broadacre City = the city of the dispersion

“Autopia” : the cars beyond the City

View of highways in Los Angeles in the post‐war period

“Autopia” : the cars beyond the City

“Autopia” : the cars beyond the City

Hans Scharoun, Plan for the reconstruc=on of Berlin, 1958

The “culturalist” reac;on against Modernism: the ‘50s and ‘60s

Team X: Van Eyck, De Carlo, S=rling, Smithson, Ungers

A protagonist of the ‘70s: Oswald Mathias Ungers (OMU)

Oswald Mathias Ungers, 1926‐2007

OMU Dean at the Cornell University, 1969‐75

Oswald Mathias Ungers with the students at the Cornell University, 1972

OMU and Team Ten at the Cornell University, 1971‐72

Colin Rowe and “Collage City”, 1978

Colin Rowe, 1920‐1999

Colin Rowe and “Collage City”, 1978

Nolli Plan of Rome, 1748

Colin Rowe and “Collage City”, 1978

Figure/ground representa=on of urban structure

OMU and “The green archipelago”: Berlin as a case‐study

Cornell University’s Summer Academy, Berlin, 1977

OMU and OMA (Rem Koolhaas)

Rem Koolhaas as a teaching assistant of OMU at Cornell University, 1977

Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York, 1978

BERLIN AS A GREEN ARCHIPELAGO

A polycentric model for Berlin: The city within the city

The green archipelago: Berlin, 1978. The wall, the grid, the islands

The wall. Berlin as a divided city

The grid. A neutral structure. No hierarchy

The Islands. The city within the city

Südliche Friedrichstadt as an Island

1938

1945

1977

OMU’s proposal, 1978

IBA Berlin, 1979‐1987

Josef‐Paul Kleihues, 1933‐2004

IBA Berlin, 1979‐1987

Ungers’ and his students’ plan for Südliche Friedrichstadt (1978)

Kleyhues’ Masterplan for the IBA (1981)

Südliche Frie ones

IBA Berlin, 1979‐1987: Architects’ houses for the City

Aldo Rossi

John Hejduk

Peter Eisenman

Alvaro Siza

The fall of the Wall in Berlin, 1989

Josef‐Paul Kleihues, 1933‐2004

Acer the reunifica;on: the future of the Green Archipelago

Alberto Geuna, Diplom Thesis, Politecnico Torino, 2014

Barcelona as a case‐study

The plan Cerda

Barcelona as a case‐study

The Olympic Plan

Barcelona as a case‐study

Oriol Bohigas

Barcelona as a case‐study

The renewal of the Waterfront

Barcelona as a case‐study

The Olympic Village

Barcelona as a case‐study

The Olimpic Village

Barcelona as a case‐study

Montjuic, anillo olimpico

Barcelona as a case‐study

Rambla Raval

Barcelona as a case‐study

Rambla Raval

Barcelona as a case‐study

Renova=on on Plaza Reyal

Barcelona as a case‐study

Plaça del Sol. Gracia

An Alber;an hero: Luigi Snozzi

Biennale di Venezia, Interna=onal Architecture Exhibi=on, 2012

Luigi Snozzi’s Aphorisms

Architecture is the void: you must define it !

Monte Carasso: the exemplarity of a small city

Monte Carasso: the exemplarity of a

Monte Carasso: the exemplarity of a small city

Monte Carasso: the exemplarity of a

Monte Carasso: the exemplarity of a small city

Monte Carasso: the exemplarity of a

Monte Carasso: the exemplarity of a small city

Luigi Snozzi’s first sketch, 1979

Monte Carasso: the exemplarity of a small city

Luigi Snozzi’s first sketch, 1979

Monte Carasso: the search of a center

Luigi Snozzi’s first sketch, 1979

Monte Carasso: the search of a center

Luigi Snozzi’s first sketch, 1979

Monte Carasso: the search of a center

The Monastery as a Piazza, 2010

Monte Carasso: the search of a center

The Monastery as a Piazza, 2010

Monte Carasso: rules for the densifica;on

The Monastery as a Piazza, 2010

Deltametropolis olandese, 2001

Delta Metropolis: a formal order for a large territory

A City is never too small, and never too big: firstly you need to design the

space of the City