between memory and design
Schinkel was actually a groundbreaking architect, who transgressed and transformed tradition without hesitation every time he was in contrast with the task (L. Hilberseimer, 1931)
The chance of observing analytically, measuring the evolution of a fragile context such as the Museum Island in Berlin, with regard to Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s work, the theme of classicism and the Mediterranean travel, has allowed a framework of reasoning going beyond the agreement between technique, space and design. This has helped the teaching work in defining a framework of relationships over time, language and components positioned beyond the physical dimension of the place. It has led research in a panoramic dimension with the distant - but close to us - Italian logic and, in the meantime, has allowed the construction of a cognitive framework of an unfamiliar context in every single student. In this respect, the teaching experiment aimed at building the knowledge of a place students could initially know to a limited extent or ignore in terms of physical features, relationships and dynamics. Equipped with tools for the construction of a personal cognitive framework, students were guided through the analysis of specific factors: space, relationships between built landscapes, varieties, character of the buildings. This method induced a process of observation-classification-understanding. Research and teaching have paid great attention to the role of the Mediterranean travel, so predominant in the creation of a reference panorama filled with components to define an idea of Berlin as a city. In the urban culture, according to Horst Bredekamp, there are connections also between Berlin and Florence, along with the Greek and Mediterranean image of the ideal Berlin. The German culture in the 19th century, as well as the French one in the 18th century with the Academy in Rome and the tradition of the Grand Tour, and the English one in the 17th century thanks to the role played by Inigo Jones at the end of the previous century, were shaped by observing closely the realizations and the theoretical definitions of the Renaissance architecture in Italy as a mature reprocessing of classical models. Generally speaking, thanks to the practical study during the Grand Tour or during other travels, they relied on the theme of the relationship between architecture and landscape, architecture and space, architecture
