GROWING UP FRAGILE

Abstract:

This project is based on the historical problematic development in Piacenza, Italy. Students randomed distrubuted worked together with different designated topics within 18 days coming up with the solutions. Usually Day time charette and Night different Lectures.

Part of the intensive design experience was the activation of one or more areas in order to build a common and shared vision, also capable of involving new inhabitants.

The project was communicated with the traditional instruments of design discipline (drawings and above all models, in line with the formative approach of Piacenza Campus of the Politecnico di Milano) but also through a form of story-telling (on all, videos) up to a final installation capable of being contaminated with the methods of scenography. The complementary landscapes towards which the project will direct the gaze coincide then on the one hand with the architectural fact itself, rooted in the local context, on the other they are strongly integrated with the urban and territorial dynamics (“the city is the landscape and the landscape is the city").

After World War II, the development of the city stagnated. Some military service buildings and their ancillary spaces left in the war were well preserved, but they were not fully utilized, and due to the economic downturn, many citizens went out to work thereby the population in the city is very small.

A. main private residential apartments and military facilites with large fringe green area which are equipped with the high desity fence which the accessibility are quite low and the building are now no longer in its appropriate function.

B. within the narrow city boundaries. Most of the space is a military service space and an abandoned church. For example, the prison and the the hospital inside.

1. Former barracks "Lusignani"

2. Former "Pertite" military area

3. Former barracks d' Armi

4. Former Tobacco Manufacturing

5. Hospital

6. Arsenale barracks, former Military Hospital

7. Vacant open space

8. Former Del Carmine Church

9. Bastione Fodesta

10. Politecnico di Milano

11. Benedettine s convert

Void

12. Former barracks "Lab. Pontieri"

13. Area Militare genio Pontieri

14. Locomotives storage "Berzolla" former logistic center, dismantled trucks

15. Former Consorzio Agrario

16. Residual industrial open spaces

17. Agricultural University

18. Former "Macra Staveco"

C. This area was developed afterwards main with some economical value as well as cultural context as for the logistic center and former vegetable markets.

We live in a shared umwelt, sharing information, sharing resources and even time and space. The land we are on right now were shared by primitive communities, is the embodiment of the efforts of our ancestors for generations.

The project is about sharing space, knowledge and culture between the Modern American and Indian by planning and design the fringe area in the south of Headquarter of John Deere, full of experimental practise take place with all kinds of space sensation.

Native American History Vanishment

JULY 29, 1829

The Potawatomi and other tribes sign a treaty in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, giving up much of their territory in northern Illinois. This treaty sets aside a reservation of 1,280 acres for Shab-eh-nay (He Who Paws Through), a Potawatomi and Odawa leader, near the present-day town of Shabbona in DeKalb County, Illinois. Several Potawatomi individuals — including Billy Caldwell, Alexander Robinson, and Archange Ouilmette — are granted pieces of land around the Chicago area.

AUGUST 15, 1812

During the War of 1812, U.S. troops evacuate Fort Dearborn. As 57 soldiers and 12 militia members head south with nine women, 18 children and an escort of Miami warriors, they’re attacked by 500 Potawatomi. More than 50 of the white soldiers and settlers are killed, and others are taken hostage. The Potawatomi burn down Fort Dearborn.

1750 — 1800

At this time, the main people occupying the land just southwest of Lake Michigan — the prairies, woods, and swamps that would become today’s Chicagoland — was the Potawatomi with the Ojibwe and Odawa were in an alliance called the Council of Three Fires. Other local Native Americans included the Sauk (Sac), Ho-Chunks (Winnebagos), Fox (Mesquakie) and Kickapoos.

The U.S. government creates the Northwest Territory, encompassing the future states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and portions of Minnesota. The U.S. promises: “The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians, their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent.”

AUGUST 3, 1795

Defeated by U.S. troops at Battle of Fallen Timbers in Ohio, a confederation of tribes signs the Treaty of Greenville. Among them, the Potawatomi surrender six square miles of land surrounding the mouth of the Chicago River. The U.S. takes control of this land, including the central part of today’s Chicago, while Native Americans continue to occupy surrounding territory. The treaty says “the Indian tribes who have a right to those lands, are quietly to enjoy them, hunting, planting, and dwelling thereon, so long as they please, without any molestation from the United States.”

OCTOBER 20, 1803

The U.S. Senate ratifies President Thomas Jefferson’s deal with France — the Louisiana Purchase — buying 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River and greatly expanding the size of the United States. The U.S. government begins pushing Native peoples west of the Mississippi.

DECEMBER 7, 1824

President James Monroe says the U.S. should persuade all Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River. Using coercion to achieve this goal would be “revolting to humanity and utterly unjustifiable,” he tells Congress.

MAY 24, 1828

A U.S. government official tells the Sauk tribe that this should be the final summer they spend at Rock Island before moving west of the Mississippi. He points out that the Sauk gave up this land in a treaty, but the Sauk insist that isn’t true.

APRIL 1832

A prominent Sauk named Black Hawk leads a group of his people, along with Fox and Kickapoos, from Iowa across the Mississippi. They aim to reclaim land in Illinois and the future state of Wisconsin. This sparks the Black Hawk War, a conflict with the U.S. Army and Illinois militia.

OCTOBER 27, 1832

The Kaskaskia and Peorias — survivors of the dwindled Illinois Confederation — sign a treaty in Missouri, abandoning their final claim on land in Illinois, the state named after their people. According to the Illinois State Museum, their population within Illinois had been reduced to just one village with fewer than 300 people.

AUGUST 1, 1832 — AUGUST 2, 1832

Militia attack the last of Black Hawk’s warriors at the Battle of Bad Axe (near present-day Victory, Wisconsin), killing 150 or more Native Americans, including women and children, and collecting scalps from the bodies.

Observers see clearly the outline of the buildingEmpty sense of space

One can observe the whole picture of the building community and have sufficient distance to observe the spatial composition of the building

One can observe the whole picture of a single building Open sense of space

People’s attention is more concentrated, easier to notice the architectural details and feel the space to maintain a balanceIt is a more closed space.

One can see the lower part of the building. People’s attention is easy to focus on the details of space, feeling more compact and bustling.

GrasswithCrops Stream PedestrianWalk(goingdown)

Mounds

12%slope(goingup)

9%slope(goingupanddown)

Mounds

MINE Bouquet

from the core design studio 4 at Washington University in St. Louis

Completed in Spring 2022

Instructor: Irene L. Compadre

Location: Colombia, Missouri, the U.S.

Approximately 80% of all flowers in the US are imported from countries such as Columbia, Ecuador, the Netherlands, and Canada. While the import flower industry has historically thrived, it poses environmental challenges such as carbon dioxide emissions. To address this issue, local flower industries have emerged. Missouri’s diverse landscape and nurturing Mississippi river basin make it an ideal location for cultivating a variety of flora and fauna. In my project, we grow specialty cut flowers that are often heirloom, have high economic value, and are difficult to transport. This initiative contributes to environmental and ecosystem health, encourages community participation, and creates job opportunities. Additionally, it promotes a healthy lifestyle on-site through phytoremediation and serves as a green space for visitors and residents to enjoy on both weekdays and festive occasions, connecting urban and suburban areas.