Crafting Glitches - From Postcard to Post-Digital - Proposal/Appendix

1

2

FROM POSTCARD TO POST-DIGITAL

3

4

FROM POSTCARD TO POST-DIGITAL

/ FRANCESCO DEGL’INNOCENTI CRAFTING GLITCHES

5

APPENDIX

/ HISTORY OF FLORENCE WALLS AND FORTIFICATIONS The ancient Roman city was founded around 60 B.C.; it was located in the area between today’s Piazza del Duomo and Piazza Santa Trinita and has its fulcrum in today’s Piazza della Repubblica, at the crossroads formed by the two main streets, cardo (Via Roma and Via Calimala) and decumanus (Via Strozzi and Via del Corso).

In the 2nd Century A.D. Florence counted around 10,000 inhabitants, and was surrounded by a first wall; after the fall of the Western Roman empire the city suffered a deep crisis, so that in 6th Century it counted a mere 1000 inhabitants: a second city wall was then built, protecting a smaller area than the Roman one.

Florence flourished then again, and at the beginning of 10th Century the city was surrounded by a wider third wall which for the first time extended itself to the river Arno.

The building of the fourth wall begun in 1078: Florence was a 20,000 inhabitants city and the Duke of Tuscany had moved his capital from Lucca to Florence. The new city walls surrounded also Piazza del Duomo, but the quarters of Oltrarno remained still unprotected.

In the years 1173-1175 the city government decided the building of the fifth city wall: for the first time a defence wall was built also in Oltrarno, due to the increasing importance of the dwellings around the churches of San Felice, San Jacopo in Soprarno and Santa Felicita. Three city gates were built in Oltrarno (near today’s Piazza San Felice, Costa de’ Magnoli and Piazza Frescobaldi), but a real stone wall was not built: the protection consisted of palisades connecting the gates and houses whose outer façades were built without windows in order to offer more protection.

6

A sixth wall was planned since 1284 (possibly under direction of Arnolfo di Cambio). These walls enclosed a very wide area and should protect the whole city with all its newer and outer dwellings. The gates were 35 meters tall, and were decorated with religious frescoes (the Madonna and Saints); originally, on the square in front of each gate was also a statue of a famous Florentine writer or poet. The building of the walls was completed in 1333 - and finally the quarters of Oltrarno received a complete protection.

In 16th Century all city gates were pollarded (with exception of the gate of San Niccolò) in order to make them less vulnerable to artillery; when the city prepared itself to face the army of the German empereor Charles V in 1530 new fortifications were added around the Church of San Miniato al Monte. After that, Grand-duke Ferdinando I commissioned Bernardo Buontalenti with the building of a fortress; it was completed in the years 1590-1595 near the gate of San Giorgio and was named Fortress of Santa Maria, but became rapidly known as «Fortress of Belvedere».

Between 1865 and 1871 Florence was provisory Capital of Italy: the city walls were demolished in order to build the new ring road. Only the walls in Oltrarno survived, with all their towers.

In 1982 Unesco inscripted the “historic center of Florence” in the World Heritage Site List, deciding the border of the protected area to be almost exactly running along the 13th century expansion of the walls; beyond that line it was constituted a surrounding buffer zone, under special planning conditions.

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APPENDIX 60 B.C.

2ND C.

6TH C.

10TH C.

13TH C.

1870 8

/ HISTORY OF FLORENCE WALLS AND FORTIFICATIONS

PROJECT SITE

21ST C. UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE 9

APPENDIX

1590

* Possible to grasp the very regular borders of the block beside the church. Each house must likely had a small plot of land for cultivation. Medici Granary already defines a square shape.

1783

* *

Two centuries later the block has lost regularity but still hosts land. The square is noted as Piazza dell’Uccello. Important water access downstream, outside the wall’s Door to the city.

1837

*

Mainly agricutural riverfront, the banks are protected only where the water changes level. source: Comune di Firenze, Istituto Geografico Militare

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1843

*

Only a few years from the previous map, there is a further step toward the definition of the square: the monastery beside the church expands toward the water, forming an enclosure.

1865

*

*

Interesting to note how the new monastery building is not rectilinear, but ends with a smaller turn toward the Granary. The block on the opposite side regains structure.

1873

*

Erased the final spur from the extension of the monastery. Condition similar to the current.

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APPENDIX

/ HISTORY OF FLORENCE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RISK In such a layered historical context, it’s essential to study the stratification of the area of intervention.

With the data (only partly geo-referenced) released by the Comune di Firenze, it was possible to reconstruct maps of archaeological risk, according to the amount of historical discoveries in relation to the city life of that century.

They have been studied trying to keep a coherent link with the expansion of the city walls. The relation between the existence of fortifications and the quantity of archaeological findings exposed interesting elements. It’s clear that during the Roman Age, even with an established city limit, life was mainly developing not only in the castrum, but along the axis which were connecting the city with the surrounding villages, Fiesole to name one.

In the following centuries, the city activities got more compact and shrinked toward the inside, with the fortifications acting as an actual border. The vast majority of discoveries was therefore inside that enclosed perimeter.

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San Frediano in Cestello was absorbed inside the walls only with the sixth expansion in the 13th century.

Although during the centuries after the foundation of Florentia, the area was close to one of the main commercial paths, it lost importance until its inclusion in the city limit.

This highlights the lower possibility of archaeological discoveries during construction, and therefore opens up chances for hypogeum interventions (otherwise unthinkable in some of the surroundings).

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APPENDIX ROMAN AGE

4TH C.

6TH C.

10TH C.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RISK LOW own data-visualization, source: Carta digitale di Rischio Archeologico per il centro di Firenze, Comune di Firenze

HIGH 14

/ HISTORY OF FLORENCE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RISK

PROJECT SITE

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RISK UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE 15

APPENDIX

/ TAXONOMY OF PUBLIC SPACES OLTRARNO HISTORIC GARDENS The history of the Oltrarno is deeply bond to its green spaces and gardens.

Characterized by spinning mills and factories throughout the middle ages, it seemed doomed to be a suburban area: but its fate changed in 1549, when Eleonora di Toledo moved the Medici abode in the Palazzo Pitti with an historic choice; from then on, a continuous massing of aristocratic mansions constituted a peculiar phenomenon in its morphology.

This aspect is nowadays still recognizable, not really in the presence of historic palaces (comparable in numbers to other central districts) but especially in the historic gardens of the neo-feudal nobility (Boboli, Frescobaldi, Ricasoli Salviati, Corsi, Torrigiani, Magnani etc‌).

The green contributed to produce the typical density mixed with leafy peeps, so different from the compact building structure which identifies Florence as the walled city archetype.

With the high concentration of historic private corners of retreat, at the same time the neighbourhood is totally missing green areas publically accessible, especially for kids: the only one, the Bartlett Nidiaci garden, was unexpectedly privatized and sold in 2011.

The controversial decision led to the mobilization of the population, and the creation of a very active association of neighbours often protesting in Piazza Pitti against the closure.

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50m

100m

MAGNANI FERONI GARDEN

400m

FRESCOBALDI GARDEN

BARTLETT-NIDIACI GARDEN

RICASOLI SALVIATI GARDEN

TORRIGIANI GARDEN

CORSI GARDEN

BOBOLI GARDEN GREEN AREAS ACCESSIBLE GARDENS accessible green

previously accessible green historic garden private green single tree existing pedestrian area

own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze, Fondazioni private

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meeting

APPENDIX

/ TAXONOMY OF PUBLIC SPACES OLTRARNO SQUARES In this dense fabric of garden enclosures mixed with mid-tall houses, the public spaces always played a vital role for the gathering of citizens: as imaginable, they were characterized by the presence of a church, often integrated by contingent structures such as parrocchie and monasteries.

Today, the most vibrant ones are Piazza Pitti, typical attraction for foreigners, as much as the small Piazza della Passera, and Piazza Santo Spirito with the church

by Filippo Brunelleschi. Piazza del Carmine and Piazza di San Frediano in Cestello have been for decades misused as parking lots, with the former recently undergoing renovation and repurposing.

The 5 squares all have a very different use and peculiarities, which makes them the perfect occasion for a urban plan acting as a link. By now, this is the critical cause of their disconnection: it’s lacking a net of safe pedestrian areas for both visitors and locals, especially when it comes to San Frediano.

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50m

100m

PIAZZA SAN FREDIANO IN CESTELLO

400m

PIAZZA DEL CARMINE

PIAZZA DELLA PASSERA PIAZZA SANTO SPIRITO

PIAZZA PITTI

PUBLIC SPACES OLTRARNO SQUARES

existing pedestrian area

own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze

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meeting

OLTRARNO SQUARES PIAZZA DELLA PASSERA

APPENDIX

One of the oldest public space in the area, the little square is used almost exclusively by locals as a meeting place, also due to the presence of young bars and traditional restaurants.

20th

02-08 08-14 14-20 20-02

HISTORY

10th HOURS

XL SIZE

L

M

95% LOCALS

S

USERS

PERFORMATIVE USE

relaxing

meeting

enclosure

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OLTRARNO SQUARES PIAZZA PITTI

church market garden cultural restaurant/bar sitting, informal sitting, furniture parking

In the late 15th century the Medici family moved here their residence, starting a proto-gentrification of Oltrarno for aristocracy (this is why all famous gardens nearby).

Palazzo Pitti museums and the entrance to Boboli garden makes this large public space a common tourist attraction. Its institutional character and visibility makes it suitable for local protests and demonstrations.

15th

19th

02-08 08-14 14-20 20-02

HISTORY

HOURS

XL SIZE

L

65% TOURISTS

M

USERS

S PERFORMATIVE USE

scene

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performing

strolling

enclosure

gathering

relaxing

APPENDIX

OLTRARNO SQUARES PIAZZA SANTO SPIRITO

The unfinished facade of Brunelleschi’s church of Santo Spirito faces one of the most lively spots in the nightlife of Florence.

Locals and foreigners lingers and get together in bars, but the vibrant atmosphere of the square continues during the day, with several neighborhood shops and an historic temporary market.

02-08 08-14 14-20 20-02

16th 13th

HISTORY

HOURS

XL SIZE

L

M

70% LOCALS

USERS

S PERFORMATIVE USE

corso

relaxing

meeting

gathering

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OLTRARNO SQUARES PIAZZA DEL CARMINE

church market garden cultural restaurant/bar sitting, informal sitting, furniture parking

Dominated by another unfinished facade, historically has been one of the most important squares for the neighborhood of Santo Spirito. After decades of misuse as a parking lot, both cause and effect of the lack of commercial functions, nowadays is finally being renovated by the Municipality.

02-08 08-14 14-20 20-02

14th

HISTORY

HOURS

XL SIZE

L

M

85% LOCALS USERS

S PERFORMATIVE USE

parking

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APPENDIX

/ ECONOMY AND PRODUCTION LOCAL CRAFTSMANSHIP Although craftsmanship perhaps reached its highest peaks during the 15th century, the handicraft industry in Florence is as old as the city itself.

Inheriting the tradition from the Scholae of the Roman age, the economy of the city was neatly structured in 21 Corporazioni di Arti e Mestieri, guilds of citizens managing similar enterprises, each one with their own statutes, offices, churches, Patron Saints, emblems and banners.

Each Statuto of the Arts held value as Law, giving them de facto jurisdictional power: though never formally being declared political entities, they acquired a fundamental influence over every aspect of the city life.

In such highly protectionist environment these associations flourished from the 12th century onward, contributing to the creation of the cultural and artistic fabric that prepared the city terrain for the flowering of an incredible number of masters, all of whom spent years as ragazzo di bottega in the workshops of one of the Corporations.

Brunelleschi himself was a goldsmith apprentice, and later affiliate of the Arte della Seta guild.

Carvers, decorators, cabinet-makers, silversmiths, bronze-workers, weavers, ceramists, tapestry-makers were forerunners in the production of artifacts of the highest artistic merit as well as technological achievements, in the use of materials, material processes and finishes.

In an age in which there was no clear distinction between arts and crafts, the botteghe (workshops) were authentic centers of culture, spread evenly inside the city walls. Lately instead, Santa Maria Novella and San Lorenzo gave in to the touristic pressure; medium-term foreign residents (mainly north-american students) reshaped the Rione di Santa Croce and its economy around related services.

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To this day, Oltrarno remains the heart of craft production, with around 200 workshops and showrooms tucked behind storefronts and in the interstices of blocks.

This neighborhood attitude toward production is definitely one of the aspects to keep and preserve, to weaken common center-periphery patterns of dependence, where productive outskirts keep alive the consuming heart.

The business-data available from the Comune offered me insights on the distribution and functioning, leading to possible interventions. According to goodssales, the streetscape was organized into 2 main categories, economic or productive activities: among the former were included neighborhood shops under 150 m² (only two in the 1 km² of examined area exceed this threshold), and shops with a food permit. They are the backbone of local services for neighbors but especially tourists, as it’s easy to understand looking at their displacement around foci of interest, main streets and public squares.

The list of productive activities encompasses 3 types instead: handicraft, manufacturing business, or both handicraft and manufacturing. The distribution is much more capillary, and it evidences also the distinct character of Oltrarno when compared to the northern side of the historic center, far more touristic.

When the dots were clustered altogether it seemed very clear a dual life being carried on along the streets: one (the economic) characterized by a faster, continuous movement across what emerges as a quadrilateral shape beginning with the two bridges.

The other (the productive) is a net of minor segments crossing the aforementioned path, with a slower use.

Manipulating these two different patterns of movement will be the trigger for any neighborhood strategy.

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APPENDIX Andrea Giunti, 28, goldsmith and jeweller, carries on the tradition of Oltrarno experimenting with digital tools.

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/ ECONOMY AND PRODUCTION LOCAL CRAFTSMANSHIP

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50m

APPENDIX

100m

400m

STREETSCAPE ECONOMIC BUSINESSES temporary market

neighbourhood shop <150m² shop with a food permit supermarket

own data-visualization, source: Chamber of Comerce, Comune di Firenze

meeting

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50m

100m

400m

STREETSCAPE PRODUCTIVE BUSINESSES handicraft business

handicraft/manufacturing business manufacturing business

own data-visualization, source: Chamber of Comerce, Comune di Firenze

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supermarkets

50m

APPENDIX

100m

PIAZZA DI SAN FREDIANO IN CESTELLO

400m

PIAZZA DEL CARMINE

PIAZZA DELLA PASSERA PIAZZA SANTO SPIRITO

PIAZZA PITTI

STREETSCAPE ECONOMIC/PRODUCTIVE productive business

economic business

own data-visualization, source: Chamber of Comerce, Comune di Firenze

manufacturing business

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ECONOMY AND PRODUCTION CRAFTSMANSHIP AND COMMERCIAL ROUTES

COMMERCIAL ROUTE

CRAFTSMANSHIP ROUTE

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APPENDIX

MUNICIPALIY

AIRPORT

SITE UNESCO

MOBILITY, MUNICIPALITY STREET HIERARCHY & INFRASTRUCTURES

own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze, Provincia di Firenze, Regione Toscana

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/ MOBILITY STREET HIERARCHY & INFRASTRUCTURES

highways city circulation neighborhood circulation railways

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50m

APPENDIX

100m

PIAZZA DI SAN FREDIANO IN CESTELLO

400m

PIAZZA DEL CARMINE

PIAZZA DELLA PASSERA PIAZZA SANTO SPIRITO

PIAZZA PITTI

MOBILITY VEHICULAR FLOWS existing pedestrian area direction & intensity

own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze OpenData portal

meeting

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50m

100m

400m

MOBILITY BIKELANES & BUS ROUTES existing pedestrian area existing bikelanes bus lines

own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze, ATAF (local public transportation company)

35

APPENDIX

ARCHITECTURE AND PRESERVATION LISTED BUILDINGS listed building

non-listed building

own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze, Unesco, Sovrintendenza ai Beni Culturali.

manufacturing business

36

50m

100m

400m

HEIGHTS BUILT ENVIRONMENT +40m +30m +20m +10m street level, 0m -5m -10m own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze OpenData portal

37

APPENDIX

/ ACCESS TO WATER COPENHAGEN The waterfront of Copenhagen had its main reason of use for long as military and industrial front.

About three decades ago, many areas started being redeveloped, and leisure and cultural functions clustered around the transformed water edge.

Canals, water mirrors, harbours, spaces for boats became part of the architectural language of the city, which coherently decided to exploit in full its presence giving direct access with bathing facilities and public slopes.

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access bathing (no) boats 50m

bar culture nature

100m

showers sport parking industrial footbridge

2

1

500m

own data-visualization, source: GoogleMaps, BingMaps

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WATER ACCESS COPENHAGEN #1

APPENDIX

One of the most famous architectural projects of the last 10 years, the public bath was designed by PLOT, encompassing a numer of functons and uses which contributed to its success and turned it into a prototype of river development.

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access bathing (no) boats bar culture nature showers sport parking industrial footbridge

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WATER ACCESS COPENHAGEN #2

The water is the end of a inner canal, and is surrounded by dense buildings enjoying the presence of natural elements. The gentle slope is treated with big stairs, providing citizens a place to sit and relax for a while.

Fundamental is the role of vegetation.

APPENDIX

/ ACCESS TO WATER BORDEAUX Located on the Garonne river, at the 18th century Bordeaux was the a well established harbour, fundamental for exchanging trades with the west of France.

The river has played historically an important role, both economically and demographically, and it presents nowadays signs of its industrial past along the riverbanks.

With the shift toward a service economy, the secondary sector has been partly abandoned, leaving room for central areas to be transformed into tourist attractions, green parks, sport facilities and new residences.

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access bathing (no)

2

boats bar

50m

100m

culture nature showers sport parking industrial footbridge

1 500m

own data-visualization, source: GoogleMaps, BingMaps

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WATER ACCESS BORDEAUX #1

APPENDIX

The very wide riverbank creates a bufferzone between the life of the center and a place designed for strolling up and down.

Bathing in the river is made impossible by a fence, but a wide surface with water-games provides the atmospheric possibility of refreshment.

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access bathing (no) boats bar culture nature showers sport parking industrial footbridge

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WATER ACCESS BORDEAUX #2

Downstream from the center of the city, former industrial zones are being transformed into residential areas, with direct access to water through a wide sandy beach.

Piers for boats are quite common.

APPENDIX

/ ACCESS TO WATER MADRID The first nucleum of Madrid was founded by the Mores on the Manzanares river in the 11th century.

The relation through history of the expanding city with the water has been unstable and uneven: for decades it was cut out from the neighborhoods it crossed, due to the existence of highways on both sides of the river.

In 2003 the city of Madrid developed a massive infrastructural plan, digging 43 kilometres of tunnels: the exit routes and motorways of the six-kilometre section along the River Manzanares disappeared, therefore they held an international competition to develop a linear park connecting the riverbanks.

The careful design, together with the engagement of local entities and communities, was decisive for the success of the project.

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access bathing (no) boats 50m

bar culture nature 100m

showers sport parking industrial footbridge

1

own data-visualization, source: GoogleMaps, BingMaps

47

2

500m

WATER ACCESS MADRID #1

APPENDIX

The fantastic project of Madrid Rio has been a great success, also for the possibility to finally appreciate the river Manzanares.

Several weirs and small walkable dikes provide a direct contact with water on different levels.

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access bathing (no) boats bar culture nature showers sport parking industrial footbridge

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WATER ACCESS MADRID #2

The last part of the landscape/infrastructure project has been dedicated to sports, and the water surface is used as well, as an opportunity for rowing clubs and kayak. Low buildings provide facilities, with piers giving direct access to the water level.

APPENDIX

/ ACCESS TO WATER FLORENCE The presence of the Arno river was the reason itself of the city foundation.

Until the 16th century, Florence had an active harbour very near the project site, which opened the waterway to the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, access to water has never been prohibited before the 20th century, on the contrary most of its citizens learned to swim in the river: it was only after the 1966 flood that it was closed the last swimming pool in the Arno.

Some of the ways to the water are still available, and are being rediscovered lately, especially during warm periods, when they get colonized by bars and beach services.

All buildings developed around the river now constitute the archetypes of â&#x20AC;&#x153;tuscanâ&#x20AC;? architecture: regular openings, wide planar walls, warm colors; it is in total in conformity with the preservation rules that impose visual coherence, especially in parts of the city that offer long views and deep perspective angles.

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access bathing (no) 50m

boats bar

100m

culture nature showers sport parking industrial footbridge

500m

2 1

own data-visualization, source: GoogleMaps, BingMaps

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WATER ACCESS FLORENCE #1

APPENDIX

Blocking at first the visual of the river, the gentle slope creates an interesting path to descend to the water level. Even if forbidden to bath, the place is used as a urban beach during the warmer months, with services available and bars nearby.

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access bathing (no) boats bar culture nature showers sport parking industrial footbridge

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WATER ACCESS FLORENCE #2

The place is barely accessible, even if plenty of people jump the fence to enjoy the view of the river from the Pescaia di Santa Rosa.

Some occasional fishermen cluster on the upper side, to exploit the water stillness.

METERS TOPOGRAPHY

The Arno river is the second longest of the Italian peninsula, extending for 241 km from Monte Falterona (1358m) to the Mar Tirreno

1358

450 145

APPENDIX

KILOMETERS LENGHT

10

50

100

Sie

WIDTH TRIBUTARIES Chiana

Ambra

HYDRAULIC WORKS DAMS / DIKES Levane

URBAN NUCLEI INHABITANTS

La Penna

Pon Stia

Montevarchi

RIVER BANKS ARTIFICIAL

RIVER BANKS ACCESS/NO ACCESS

PROTECTED PARKS NATIONAL/REGIONAL

SPORTS ROWING/ KAYAK own data-visualization, source: Adbarno.it

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WATER ACCESS ARNO RIVER

PROJECT SITE SAN FREDIANO

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5 150

200

Bisenzio

eve

Mugnone

241

Usciana Pescia

Ombrone

M

Pesa

Elsa

Era

A

Vingone Greve

R T

ntassieve Florence

Empoli

Pontedera

Pisa I R R E N O

55

APPENDIX

31 jan 14 3,41m 21 jan 13 3,40m

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

jan

source: Settore Idrologico Regionale, Regione Toscana.

apr

56

HYDROMETRY WATER LEVEL, 2011-2015

The analysis of the Arno hydrometry shows a regular rise of waters during cold seasons.

The walkable triangular platform right under the Pescaia di Santa Rosa starts flooding when the water level rises above 1.30m s.z.i. (above hydrometric zero). Over the last 5 years, it happened an average of 41 days a year. Above 2 meters instead is an event that happens annually only a few days.

>2,00m 2% >1,30m 12% not available - average

sep

57

dec

APPENDIX

PROJECT SITE

Study of facade colors along the Unesco WHS, diving sectors according to bridges

58

RIVER DEVELOPMENT FACADE COLORS

FACADE SECTORS UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE 59

COMPRESSED DATA FACADES

APPENDIX

COMPRESSION BEGINNING

source: Settore Idrologico Regionale, Regione Toscana.

60

/ CONTEXT MODEL 1 - COMPRESSION SOUNDSCAPE

COMPRESSION END

61

APPENDIX

COMPRESSED DATA COLOR HEIGHT WIDTH DISTANCE FROM RIVER #FLOORS #OPENINGS

62

/ CONTEXT MODEL 1 - COMPRESSION SOUNDSCAPE

63

APPENDIX

/ DIGITAL IMAGE SAN FREDIANO IN CESTELLO

Dynamic composition of pictures taken from the opposite Lungarno with fixed intervals

64

65

APPENDIX

DIGITAL IMAGE PICTURES AGGREGATION

First 150 geo-localized photos of the area, Panoramio.com

66

67

DIGITAL IMAGE PICTURES LOCATION 50m

APPENDIX

100m

500m

DIGITAL IMAGE PHOTO CONCENTRATION concentration of picture spots own data-visualization, source: Panoramio.com

68

50m

100m

500m

RECONSTRUCTION OF DIGITAL IMAGE PLANAR EXPOSURE visual cone > 75 pics 55 > pics > 75 35 > pics > 55

69

existing/new bikelanes

APPENDIX

/ ACCIDENT IN ARCHITECTURE STICKHOLDERS: POLITICS The political situation of Florence (and Tuscany at large) has always been very stable: throughout the last three decades both Municipality, Provincia di Firenze and Regione Toscana have been always administered by center-left parties, establishing a continuity that lays its roots in the Resistence to Nazi occupation.

Right party oppositions and neo-populist movements, whereas they grew lately, still are very far from the possibility of a fair chance of governing. Their role is quite limited to City council discussions, and their presence is felt usually in search of facts to politicize, therefore instrumentalize.

Curiously, the strongest opposition in the last 10 years has been internal to the Left, which more times threatened to separate.

Due to this stability, it would be possible for local institutions to plan ahead of time, conscious that on voting day an alternation (without major scandals) is an unlikely event.

At the same time, all local governments must administer their budgets very carefully, and depend almost entirely on the finances allocated to them from national institutions in power.

70

On the contrary, the national government has changed 24 times in the last 36 years (including several “technical governments”), swinging dramatically from side to side.

The lack of planning for longer than the government’s mandate has been evident in the infrastructural immobility and lack of trust in institutions, throughout the peninsula.

The consequence on architecture is, for instance, translated into the biblical times to complete public buildings: Fuksas’ congress center, la Nuvola in Rome, was just completed 17 years after the competition.

Staying within the borders of Florence, the new Courthouse was designed in 1988, and completed in 2013.

Most of the times, competitions or preliminary designs will never reach a further phase due to the political fluctuations, and the continuous yet sudden budget cuts.

As in the case described in “Architecture Parable #2”, hardly ever the design is the reason for the stop.

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STICKHOLDER POLITICS

POWER

--

SITE

CITIZENSHIP

SHOP OWNERS

++ HOME OWNERS

APPENDIX

LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS

LOCAL YOUTH

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

ONLINE MEDIA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

UNESCO HERITAGE

TERRITORIAL SCOPE

LOCAL PARTIES

PROFESSIONAL REGISTERS

MUNICIPALITY

PROVINCE

REGION

OFFLINE MEDIA

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

TOURISTS

NATIONAL PARTIES

GOVERNMENT

72

/ ACCIDENT IN ARCHITECTURE STICKHOLDERS: POLITICS

GOVERNMENTS MUNICIPAL

GOVERNMENTS PROVINCIAL

GOVERNMENTS REGIONAL

GOVERNMENTS NATIONAL

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

ARCHITECTURE PARABLE #2 THE FARCE OF ISOZAKIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LOGGIA 2005

2010

2015

73

own data-visualization, sources: www.governo.it, www.wikipedia.com, www.comune.fi.it

APPENDIX

/ ACCIDENT IN ARCHITECTURE STICKHOLDERS: LOCALS In the analysis of the local actors, a crucial aspect is the strong neighborhood identity. Often they refer to themselves as the real Firenze, being the other lost running after tourists.

Since the urban fabric does not allow large aggregations of square meters of shops, the old botteghe keep their commercial activity and social function.

The most interesting aspect comes out when examining the local associations of citizens. They are several, but all very active and coordinated: it’s quite common to see protests in the streets, sit-ins and demonstrations in Piazza Pitti, especially led by one, “Amici del Nidiaci in Oltrarno”.

This is an association of transversal citizens, born to defend (and then, to protest) the only public garden for kids of the neighborhood, the Bartlett-Nidiaci Garden, closed in 2011: the story was quite controversial, having been privatized all of a sudden after a secret transfer of property.

Ever since, they have worked raising awareness against the current stand-by situation, and established their role as leaders and promoters of most of the current local initiatives: lately, they have been against the creation of an underground parking lot in Piazza del Carmine (complaining for immediate lack of parking spaces and the absence of a quota of spots for local inhabitants in the project).

In this occasion they joined forces with the Professional Register of Architects, a provincial institution which does not count much but protests a lot, especially when not consulted before public competitions and architecture projects.

The Register does not move masses in terms of consensus, but keeps having a presence in the old media.

74

STICKHOLDER LOCALS

POWER

--

SITE

CITIZENSHIP

SHOP OWNERS

++ HOME OWNERS

LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS

LOCAL YOUTH

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

ONLINE MEDIA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

UNESCO HERITAGE

TERRITORIAL SCOPE

LOCAL PARTIES

PROFESSIONAL REGISTERS

MUNICIPALITY

PROVINCE

REGION

OFFLINE MEDIA

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

75

TOURISTS

NATIONAL PARTIES

GOVERNMENT

APPENDIX

/ PRE-PROGRAM CLUSTERS OF FUNCTIONS This is the synthesis of 3 previous phases of analysis, respectively of the neighborhood context, of the 4 squares, and of the case studies on water-access.

From these I had gathered knowledge on the activities that the larger context would require, or (for the international cities examined) which has been accommodated in comparable cases.

They have been clustered in 6 main fields, then split according to their pertinence to each.

At the same time, after the analysis the context has been divided into 5 elements of different scale.

Big to small, the largest scope has been focused on the neighborhood of Santo Spirito, intended not in its entirety but as a net of relations between the 4 squares and San Frediano (the project site).

As noted, the fact all the Piazzas are very different makes them perfect to connect, studying a system of paths that narrate the diverse scenarios present in the neighborhood.

Secondarily, has been delineated the riverside area, close to the Pescaia di Santa Rosa: momentarily un-accessible, it has been decided to reinvigorate it with the introduction of functions that can activate it as a public space.

Third, the square of San Frediano, as the culmination (or alternatively the beginning) of the neighborhood pathways, giving back the space to its public use.

Then, the old Medici’s “Granary of Abundance”, a listed building struggling to find a new purpose, after hosting for a century the administration offices of the Italian military. It has been recently sold to the Comune, which planned to renovate it in 5 years, assigning it by now an undefined “public program”.

At last, to increase the economic sustainability of the other 4 projects, it has been inserted the possibility to densify the block facing San Frediano square.

76

Once all the possible activities have been defined, they have been assigned to their most appropriate range among these five.

Important to notice how, of all the functions, only some have been taken into account, in a later phase, and selected to become the information to undergo â&#x20AC;&#x153;glitchingâ&#x20AC;? (as a strategy, see theory book).

77

APPENDIX

SPARE TIME LEISURE

NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVITIES

CULTURE

DIGITAL COMMUNITY

SPORT

URBAN MOBILITY

78

NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER CRAFTSMEN EDUCATION ARTISAN MUSEUM CRAFTSMEN MARKETING PARKOUR SKATING JOGGING SLACKLINING FABLAB NEIGHBORHOOD THEATER POP UP LIBRARY GASTROZONE URBAN GARDENING CHILD PLAYS OUTDOOR CINEMA URBAN BEACH RELAX AREAS VEGETATION URBAN PARKLETS TEMPORARY MARKET ROWING FISHING MINI THEATER PLACELOGGING WI-FI NEIGHBORHOOD WALKS BIKE SHAING SHOPPING CONFERENCES CONCERTS BIKE LANES SUN BATHING RIVER BATHING WATER GAMES SWIMMING CLIMBING OFFICES CO-WORKING BIKE PARKINGS SHARED SPACES SIDEWALKS DIGITAL WORKSHOPS DIGITAL MANAGEMENT

79

NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER CRAFTSMEN EDUCATION ARTISAN MUSEUM CRAFTSMEN MARKETING

APPENDIX

PARKOUR SKATING JOGGING SLACKLINING FABLAB NEIGHBORHOOD THEATER POP UP LIBRARY GASTROZONE URBAN GARDENING CHILD PLAYS OUTDOOR CINEMA URBAN BEACH RELAX AREAS VEGETATION URBAN PARKLETS TEMPORARY MARKET ROWING FISHING PARKING PLACELOGGING WI-FI NEIGHBORHOOD WALKS BIKE SHARING SHOPPING CONFERENCES CONCERTS BIKE LANES SUN BATHING RIVER BATHING WATER GAMES SWIMMING CLIMBING OFFICES CO-WORKING BIKE PARKINGS SHARED SPACES SIDEWALKS DIGITAL WORKSHOPS DIGITAL MANAGEMENT DENSIFICATION

80

MEDICI GRANARY

RIVERSIDE

SQUARE

NEIGHBORHOOD

HOUSING

81

FLOODS

1492

APPENDIX

13.09.1557

Planning against natural accidents (floods and earthquakes) and for wars is completely unrealistic and anti-economic.

According to Nicholas Nassim Taleb in his 2006 book, trying to oppose “black swans” does not build resilience; instead, incorporating accidents in case they happen might have positive effects, as in the case of the 1966 flood and Superstudio.

This is a accurate data visualization of the catastrophic glitches suffered from Florence in the last 524 years, from 1492, the beginning of the Modern Age in history: each pixel is a day, each horizontal line constitutes a year.

They ain’t many.

04.11.1966

2016

source: Università di Firenze, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, storiadifirenze.org

82

EARTHQUAKES & OCCUPATIONS

JAN

13.06.1542

25.05.1855

18.05.1985

11.10.1944

DEC

83

APPENDIX

/ LOCAL GLITCHES LANDSLIDES During a hot day of summer in 1965, a 70mm water pipe broke, one of the main water supply pipes for the whole Oltrarno area; it was coming directly from the aqueduct 4 km upstream, running two meters under the street level, along the river.

The enormous quantity of water released caused a landslide along the Lungarno Soderini, exactly in front of square of San Frediano in Cestello, where also my project area is: a portion of land 40 meters long, 5 meters wide, detached and slid down. About 5000 cubic meters of earth collapsed, killing one and injuring several.

In 1990 another water-related malfunction along the same section of Lungarno Soderini generated a crack 150m long, running parallel to the river.

For years it seemed highly improbable the occurrence of similar infrastructural failures thanks to scheduled maintenance; but on the night of 25th May 2016, a pipe of similar width broke again only 300 meters far from the historic Ponte Vecchio (and 2 kilometer upstream from San Frediano), and this led to a landslide that swallowed 200 meters of asphalt and more than 40 parked cars; fortunately, no citizen was injured.

84

These 3 events underline the absolute necessity of severe improvement of the underground pipes (more than 70 years old, on average) along the whole Oltrarno riverside (south of the river), or complete replacement.

As for the area facing San Frediano in Cestello, since a big portion of it collapsed already 50 years ago, this contributes to lower even more the unlikely discovery of archaeological elements of value during construction phase.

The study of these â&#x20AC;&#x153;pipe glitchesâ&#x20AC;? reinforced the possibility of hypogeum interventions in the design.

85

APPENDIX 4th July 1965, landslide along Lungarno Soderini, photo by L’Unità

86

/ LOCAL GLITCHES LANDSLIDES

1965 1990 2016

4th July 1965, landslide along Lungarno Soderini, photo by L’Unità

87

APPENDIX

SOURCE ANALYSIS CONTEXT MODEL 5

ARCHITECTURE ART & DESIGN MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY PHILOSOPHY CONTROL CONTEXT HISTORY PERCEPTION

NEW CHAPTER NEW SECTION 88

SOURCE ANALYSIS HISTORY DIGITAL POST-DIGITAL

8. MANON 6. ITO 9. MENKMAN

7. BLUMENKRANZ 10. SOMOL

2. McLUHAN

5. DE KERCKHOVE

3. McLUHAN

4. GOW

89

1. AGAMBEN

SOURCE ANALYSIS RELATIONALITY

BOOK EXCERPT

APPENDIX

BOOK

SCIENTIFIC PAPER

OTHER PAPER

HISTORY

2

3

6

4 1

5 10

9

POST-DIGITAL

DIGITAL 7 8

ARCHITECTURE ART & DESIGN MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY PHILOSOPHY CONTROL CONTEXT HISTORY PERCEPTION 90

SOURCE ANALYSIS HISTORY 1. Agamben, Giorgio, Che cos’è il contemporaneo e altri scritti, Roma (IT), I sassi nottetempo, 2008.

2. McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding media, the extension of man, XIV ed., Cambridge (US), The MIT Press, 2001.

3. McLuhan, Marshall & Fiore, Quentin, The Medium is the Massage, XI ed., Gingko Press, Germany, 2001.

4. Gow, G. (2001) Spatial metaphor in the work of Marshall McLuhan, Canadian Journal of Communication, vol. 26.

/ WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY GIORGIO AGAMBEN

1

2

/ THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE MARSHALL McLUHAN & QUENTIN FIORE

3

4

ARCHITECTURE ART & DESIGN MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY PHILOSOPHY CONTROL CONTEXT HISTORY PERCEPTION 91

/ UNDERSTANDING MEDIA MARSHALL McLUHAN

/ SPATIAL METAPHORES GORDON GOW

NEW CHAPTER NEW SECTION

ARC ART MED PHIL CON CON HIST PERC

SOURCE ANALYSIS DIGITAL

APPENDIX

5. De Kerckhove, Derrick, The Architecture of Intelligence, Birkhauser, Basel (CH), 2001.

6. Ito, Toyo, Tarzans in the Media Forest (Architecture Words), Architectural Association Publications, London (UK), 2011.

5

/ THE ARCHITECTURE OF INTELLIGENCE DERRICK DE KERCKHOVE

6

/ TARZANS IN THE MEDIA FOREST TOYO ITO

ARCHITECTURE ART & DESIGN MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY PHILOSOPHY CONTROL CONTEXT HISTORY PERCEPTION

NEW CHAPTER NEW SECTION 92

SOURCE ANALYSIS POST-DIGITAL 7. Manon, H. and Temkin, D. (2011) ‘Notes on Glitch’, World Picture 6.

8. Blumenkranz, A. (2012) Instrumentalising the accident, MA Dissertation in Interactive Media, University of London.

9. Menkman, R. (2009) Glitch Studies Manifesto, Amsterdam/Cologne: http://rosa-menkman.blogspot.com.

10. Somol, R. & Whiting, S. (2002) Notes around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism, in Perspecta #33.

7

8

9

10

/ NOTES ON GLITCHES HUGH MANON

/ GLITCH STUDIES MANIFESTO ROSA MENKMAN

ARCHITECTURE ART & DESIGN MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY PHILOSOPHY CONTROL CONTEXT HISTORY PERCEPTION 93

/ INSTRUMENTALISING THE ACCIDENT ANNA BLUMENKRANZ

/ THE DOPPLER EFFECT ROBERT SOMOL

NEW CHAPTER NEW SECTION

PROPOSAL

EDGE

/ DISCRETIZATION HOUSING ALIASING

INFORMATION EDGE

/ BLURRING NEIGHBORHOOD FRINGING

EDGE & CONTENT

/ MANIPULATION RIVERBANK ENCODING/DECODING 94

/ SAN FREDIANO IN CESTELLO FIVE PROPOSALS

CONTENT

/ DECOMPOSITION SQUARE COMPRESSION 95

CONTENT

/ MORPHING MEDICI GRANARY DATA MOSHING

SELECTED

PROPOSAL

CRAFTSMEN MARKETING

JOGGING

POP UP LIBRARY URBAN GARDENING

VEGETATION URBAN PARKLETS

PLACELOGGING WI-FI NEIGHBORHOOD WALKS BIKE SHARING SHOPPING

BIKE LANES

DIGITAL WORKSHOPS DIGITAL MANAGEMENT

96

/ BLURRING NEIGHBORHOOD

The identity of two main circuits, commercial route and craftsmen route, is reinforced to change the patterns of movement in the neighborhood: slow down the commercial, encourage the craftsmen one. As people explore more, economic activities will grow, and the scope will move to other streets to encompass in the shared spaces net.

The Municipality will receive money from commercial activities that extend their surface over the shared space.

97

PROPOSAL

/ BLURRING NEIGHBORHOOD The neighborhood of Santo Spirito will be altered through the strategy named “blurring”. It is based on the “fringing” glitch operation, from a chromatic aberration of pictures where highly contrasted areas result blurred: it does not act on the content of the information, which is preserved; the alteration is perceivable only on the final artifact perturbing the data edge.

With the results of the analysis previously carried out, I will use the information present in the neighborhood critically, individuating the sectors in which there seems to be the highest contrast: they will become the elements to manipulate.

The area, as mentioned, is one of the very few active nuclei of craftsmanship production, resisting the waves of tourists. The friction resulting between everyday city and momentary experience (each with their separate economies) is definitely the first fundamental data to use in the transformation.

Another aspect to alter is definitely the use of all public space, especially streets: it’s evident that while pedestrian areas have proliferated in the tourist center, Oltrarno streets are still mainly used by cars, with a distinction of punctual pedestrian squares from the vehicular mobility to connect them. Sidewalks are small, uneven, in need of maintenance.

One third factor, related to public green, is the duplicity in the way vegetation is used: there are many historic and private gardens, famous and cared, but public ones are either non-existent, located further than normal, of they’ve been recently privatized (Nidiaci Garden).

This contrast pops out especially walking around: from a map it’s hard to render the enclosures that protect each existing green spaces, making them not only unaccessible, but also unperceivable.

98

NEIGHBORHOOD PATTERN OF MOVEMENT

50m

100m

PIAZZA DI SAN FREDIANO IN CESTELLO

COMMERCIAL ROUTE

400m

PIAZZA DEL CARMINE

PIAZZA DELLA PASSERA PIAZZA SANTO SPIRITO

PIAZZA PITTI

CRAFTSMANSHIP ROUTE

STREETSCAPE ECONOMIC/PRODUCTIVE productive business

economic business manufacturing business

50m

50m

100m

100m

PIAZZA DI SAN FREDIANO IN CESTELLO

MAGNANI FERONI GARDEN

400m

400m

PIAZZA DEL CARMINE

FRESCOBALDI GARDEN

PIAZZA DELLA PASSERA

BARTLETT-NIDIACI GARDEN PIAZZA SANTO SPIRITO RICASOLI SALVIATI GARDEN

PIAZZA PITTI

TORRIGIANI GARDEN

CORSI GARDEN

BOBOLI GARDEN GREEN AREAS ACCESSIBLE GARDENS accessible green

previously accessible green historic garden private green single tree existing pedestrian area meeting

99

MOBILITY VEHICULAR FLOWS existing pedestrian area direction & intensity meeting

PROPOSAL

From the concentration of productive activities and economic ones it emerges how they have developed around different axis due to the evolution of the economy of the neighborhood: the commercial shops clustered around the sides of a quadrilateral shape that connects with the two bridges. This path constituted historically the most direct access to the neighborhood, and there is a continuous movement of people inwards and outwards, and relax areas are not present; the streets have in general a wider section.

Manufacturing and artisanal activities instead (once the majority) today are occupying secondary roads, segments that repeatedly intersect the â&#x20AC;&#x153;commercial perimeterâ&#x20AC;?. Narrow streets are more common for this type of activity, but there is very little movement if not for the mere access to buildings, or cars hoping to park. Sidewalks are small, uneven, in need of maintenance. By now, people can station only inside the borders of the 4 squares (which are pedestrian).

To connect the existing 4 squares I will use the 2 types of path, and manipulate their patterns of movement to strengthen the economic activities, and empower craftsmen activities: the route will culminate in the renewed Piazza di San Frediano in Cestello.

The first set of information to alter is the mobility: lacking a net of pedestrian spaces, I will transform the 2 pathways into a net of shared spaces; all the street section along the productive and commercial paths will be cohabited by cars, bikes and people.

Using shared spaces (woonerven, in dutch, main promoters) instead of pedestrianizations is a strategic move in terms of stickholders: when the area around the Cathedral was turned pedestrian in 2009 (after years of debates), shop-owners protested for long against the former Mayor, fearing a decrease in business volume due to the absence of vehicles.

100

STICKHOLDER NEIGHBORHOOD

POWER

--

SITE

CITIZENSHIP

HOME OWNERS

LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS

INITIAL RISK

ACTUAL RISK

SHOP OWNERS

++

LOCAL YOUTH

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

ONLINE MEDIA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

UNESCO HERITAGE

TERRITORIAL SCOPE

LOCAL PARTIES

PROFESSIONAL REGISTERS

MUNICIPALITY

PROVINCE

REGION

OFFLINE MEDIA

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

101

TOURISTS

NATIONAL PARTIES

GOVERNMENT

PROPOSAL

Despite their opinion the adopted measure was a success, but their action dilated times enormously.

Vegetation will be the main element to identify the transformation of the neighborhood: if pockets of public green are barely present, the routes themselves will encourage the public use of the street section.

Parking will be allowed along both types, but only where the width is more than 7,5m, strictly positioned between trees and elements of urban furniture.

The treatment of the 2 paths will reinforce visually their different identity, through the use and implementation of characteristic elements.

Given its civic character and binding function to the rest of the center, investments from the Comune will be allocated to plan modifications of the street section: sidewalks will be erased to reinforce the priority of slow flows, and the vehicular surface will be leveled and repaved with local materials.

The goal of the economic route is to slow the flow along the commercial quadrilateral, and to make people linger more in the area: parklets and similar relax areas will provide additional square meters, in case ground floor shops want to extend their surface (with the long-term economic benefit for the Municipality which could cover part of the initial investment).

The plantation of few, scattered trees of bigger dimension will contribute to the better fruition of the reclaimed public space.

Alternatively, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be implemented the â&#x20AC;&#x153;productive routeâ&#x20AC;? (continuously crossing the other in specific joints) to generate a movement of people which is now absent.

Linking the segments with a higher concentration of artisanal workshop, I lower the risk of disappearance of local traditions provinding visibility.

102

103

Parklet in a shared space, Boston, 2015

PROPOSAL

At the same time, it becomes a sort of narrative walk along the neighborhood and its history: craftsmen will benefit from it through the possibility of showcase and sell their products, inviting tourists into their world.

The interventions will be less intrusive structurally, but equally important: through a graphic treatment of the asphalt it could be possible to evidence the shared character of the street, and involve continuously local artists and the community.

The main investment will be toward the plantation of several trees of small dimension, along only one side of the street; to decide which, the rule is based on the presence of listed buildings facing that street sector: if there is, then the trees will be planted on the opposite side, leaving the façade uncovered. Otherwise, the preferred side will always be the north side of the street, so that the vegetation has a better access to light.

In case of a street-cross, the tree will have to be placed at least 3,5 meters before, due to visibility issues.

The choice of which species to utilize is taken according to multiple factors: from the space of branches and roots, to moderate necessity of water, from presence or adaptation to the local climate to production of fruits. In the end, the most used natural element of this path will be the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ligustrum Japonicumâ&#x20AC;?, already used in similar cases of narrow street-sections elsewhere in Italy and Spain.

The interventions aim at the definition of a prototypical shared space, to be extended (in a later stage) to the whole Rione of Santo Spirito.

104

Speculating on the success of the described first phase, the new flow of people along the “productive route” will raise the money flow on them, attracting economic activities: with an environment where productive and commercial activities coexist, now the scope can be enlarged to other segments of production with the creation of other artisanal paths to renovate, and so on.

NEIGHBORHOOD INITIAL NET OF SHARED SPACES

HYBRID PRODUCTIVE & NEW PRODUCTIVE NET

MIXED NEIGHBORHOOD

SHARED SPACE PRODUCTIVE ROUTE ECONOMIC ROUTE ECONOMIC & PRODUCTIVE 105

PROPOSAL

The use of the entire section has been either dedicated to mobility or “flexible”: the first indicated the fixed presence of car lanes/sidewalks (even when shared), the second includes space for public, commercial, artisanal, cultural activities, as well as for the plantation of trees.

In the streets up to 9,5 meters wide, the priority will be for pedestrian and bikes, and other slow means of transportation over vehicular mobility.

If the “commercial route” does not present streets narrower than 7,5 meters, they are in predominance when instead we analyse the artisanal paths. This aspect, together with the street section made smaller by the kept sidewalks, force the plantation of trees only on one side, with the majority of the flexible space between them. Established the lane dedicated to cars in 3 meters, and the minimum flexible space in 1, the rest of the section constitutes a suppressible buffer zone.

106

50m

100m

400m

BARTLETT-NIDIACI GARDEN

MOBILITY NEW STREET-LAYOUT new shared space pedestrian area commercial route, parklets crafstmen route, trees existing/new bikelanes

107

meeting

50m

PROPOSAL

100m

400m

MOBILITY WIDTH OF STREETS < 7,5 m

7,5 - 9,5 m 9,5 - 11,5 m > 11,5 m own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze

existing/new bikelanes

108

NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL ROUTE

FLEXIBLE

MOBILITY

public activities

car lane

commercial activities big trees cultural activities

MOBILITY MOBILITY FLEXIBLE

FLEXIBLE

USES SECTION

USES SECTION

USES SECTION

STREET WIDTH >11,5m BUS, EMERGENCY 5m

STREET WIDTH 9,5 - 11,5m BUS, EMERGENCY 5m

STREET WIDTH 7,5 - 9,5m BUS, EMERGENCY 5m

20

20

FLEXIBLE

20

109

MOBILITY

PROPOSAL

MOBILITY

2

existing sidewalks car lane

7

FLEXIBLE public activities commercial activities big trees

3 6

5

cultural activities

4

20 4.50

3.00

4.50

12.00

USES SECTION

5m 7

2

STREET WIDTH >12,5m BUS, EMERGENCY 5m 8

3

5

6

1

20

20 FLEXIBLE SPACE

SHARED SPACE

FLEXIBLE SPACE

110

NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL ROUTE

ELEMENTS 1. PAVING Substitution of current materials with others, traditional and compatible with the architectural and monumental character.

ELEMENTS 2. ILLUMINATION

ELEMENTS 5. URBAN PARKLETS Areas for resting, relaxing and other activities for citizens.

They might incorporate vegetation.

ELEMENTS 6. COMMERCIAL PARKLETS

Main poles to light scenographically both buildings and public spaces.

Parklets will have their own light systems.

ELEMENTS 3. HISTORIC, TOURIST SIGNS

ELEMENTS 7. TREES

Urban furniture that promotes the knowledge of the history of Florence, its traditions and identity.

Plantation of local species of tree of bigger dimension, such as the .

ELEMENTS 4. UNDERGROUND CABLES

ELEMENTS 8. PARKINGS

The substitution of the current pavement enables the underground covering of cables through prefab inspectable channels.

111

Car parkings are allowed for streets wider than 7,5m only, and reorganized in line, among elements of urban furniture and trees.

P

50m

PROPOSAL

100m

400m

MOBILITY WIDTH OF STREETS < 7,5 m

7,5 - 9,5 m 9,5 - 11,5 m > 11,5 m own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze

existing/new bikelanes

112

NEIGHBORHOOD CRAFTSMEN ROUTE

FLEXIBLE

MOBILITY

public activities

existing sidewalks

artisanal activities

car lane

small trees

FLEXIBLE

MOBILITY

MOBILITY

FLEXIBLE

MOBILITY

USES SECTION

USES SECTION

USES SECTION

STREET WIDTH 9,5 - 11,5m EMERGENCY EXISTING

STREET WIDTH 7,5 - 9,5m EMERGENCY EXISTING

STREET WIDTH <7,5m EMERGENCY EXISTING

20

113

FLEXIBLE

20

20

PROPOSAL

NEIGHBORHOOD STREET SECTIONS

MOBILITY existing sidewalks car lane 2

FLEXIBLE

6

public activities artisanal activities

3

8

4

small trees

20 1.00

3.00

1.00

1.00

7.30

USES SECTION 8

1

STREET WIDTH 7,5 - 5 m EMERGENCY EXISTING

4

3

6 5

20

20 SIDEWALK

own data-visualization, source: Comune di Firenze, Fondazioni private

SHARED SPACE BUFFERS SUPPRESSIBLE

FLEXIBLE SPACE

SIDEWALK

114

NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL ROUTE

ELEMENTS 1. PAVING

ELEMENTS 5. URBAN PARKLETS

Graphic treatment in case of asphalt, to stress the shared character of the space.

Areas for resting, relaxing and other activities for citizens.

They might incorporate vegetation.

ELEMENTS 2. ILLUMINATION

ELEMENTS 6. TREES

Illumination along facades to avoid heavy works at the street level.

ELEMENTS 3. ARTISAN SIGNS

ELEMENTS 7. PARKINGS

Signs that promote the knowledge of the history of craftsmanship in Florence, its traditions and identity.

Car parkings are allowed for streets wider than 7,5m only, and reorganized on one side of the street, in line, among elements of urban furniture.

ELEMENTS 4. ARTISANAL PARKLETS

ELEMENTS 8. PLACELOGGING

Possibility to extend punctually the surface of artisansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; workshops to showcase artifacts.

Empower craftsmen through the digital annotation of physical places with user-generated content, accessible via-mobile.

115

P

SELECTED

PROPOSAL

PARKOUR SKATING JOGGING SLACKLINING

POP UP LIBRARY URBAN GARDENING

URBAN BEACH RELAX AREAS VEGETATION

ROWING FISHING

SUN BATHING RIVER BATHING SWIMMING CLIMBING

116

/ MANIPULATION RIVERBANK

The residual space is activated by the performative dynamism of urban disciplines.

To relieve the Comune from economic burdens, empowering these young communities will be essential for the maintenance of the area, which could be rebuilt in partnership/sponsorship with private brands.

117

PROPOSAL

/ MANIPULATION RIVERBANK The area includes the riverbank under Piazza San Frediano in Cestello, and the walkable surface of the Pescaia di Santa Rosa.

Glitch-wise, it has been paired with the operation Encoding/Decoding: the data is filtered through a code, which requires the participation of the user of the information to be decoded. The strategy related to it, the concept, is â&#x20AC;&#x153;Manipulationâ&#x20AC;?: the public space will be twofold, potentially becoming activated only by the presence of certain people, which are the most important factor also in the sustainment of the economic mechanism.

In this case, the study of stakeholders played even a more important role than others, since the alteration deals with direct manipulation of the environment by the user of the information.

It has been decided to engage with parts of the society usually less considered in the architecture process, but curiously using more often contemporary architectures: urban disciplines practitioners and associations, parkour, skateboard and graffiti. The area seemed absolutely perfect for it symbolically, being the forefront of the neighborhood facing the institutional side of the river, from which is instead almost invisible.

Moreover, the type of surface needed for such activities does actually benefit from the low-definition (in detail) necessary in a floodable area. The conformation of the site, with the acute angle between Lungarno and Pescaia di Santa Rosa provides the best visibility of the sport-zone a few meters below, favored by the slope of the dam. The 2.5 meters gap offers a perfect surface for graffiti, to limit them elsewhere.

Some of the associations mentioned (Parkour Firenze) have partnered up with the Municipality occasionally but remain (as of last month, after I spoke to Paolo Serlupi, founder) without a steady place to train.

118

PARKOUR SPOTS SKATE SPOTS COMUNE DI FIRENZE

PZA LEOPOLDO PIAGGE PARTERRE STADIUM PZA ALBERTI PROJECT SITE

PZA BARTALI

own data-visualization, source: parkourfirenze.org, skatemap.it/spot/Firenze, google.com/mymaps/

119

PROPOSAL

So, in what would consist the Manipulation, if the matter of the information are these stakeholders? It is easily said when one takes into account the position in relation to water: the lower surface is flooded about 20-35 days each year, due to the level of river rising. This means that the whole area is left dirty and with branches and all sort of residues for long, and it requires occasional maintenance.

The choice of involving urban sports comes from this economic leverage: these two disciplines have a total dependence on the environment they use, therefore they take great care of obstacles and surfaces, cleaning them methodically before each and every training session.

In terms of stickholders, this would deprive them of the principal argument (money for maintenance), basically delegating it to local groups.

Moreover, the exceptional visibility of such a space could foster private-public partnerships with the several companies gravitating around urban disciplines: a brand like RedBull Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sure would be interested in linking its name to one of the most iconic x-parks to memory, and use it for international events as they globally do.

Even in the occasion of a big gathering of people, for instance, for a competition, there would be no problem of noise for the citizenship: you would be about 80 meters detached from the closest house, and 6-8 meters underground.

Best case scenario, a specialized brand would pay for the construction and engaged locals would take care of the maintenance; in any case, the municipal investment to modify the lower area into a suitable surface for urban sports would be minimal.

Zero expense for a Comune, no power to stickholders, and a tourism related to urban disciplines to exploit.

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STICKHOLDER RIVERSIDE

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LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS

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LOCAL YOUTH

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

ONLINE MEDIA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

UNESCO HERITAGE

TERRITORIAL SCOPE

LOCAL PARTIES

PROFESSIONAL REGISTERS

MUNICIPALITY

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OFFLINE MEDIA

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

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TOURISTS

NATIONAL PARTIES

GOVERNMENT

RIVERBANK SECTIONS, 5m

FLEXIBLE

MOBILITY

relax areas

URBAN DISCIPLINES

sidewalks

parkour

fishing

graffiti

buffer zone

skateboard

PROPOSAL

spontaneous vegetation

MOBILITY FLEXIBLE URBAN DISCIPLINES

FLEXIBLE relax areas

zone spontaneous vegetation

MOBILITY sidewalks

URBAN DISCIPLINES parkour

skateboard

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RIVERBANK DIAGRAM OF USES

MOBILITY FLEXIBLE URBAN DISCIPLINES

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PROPOSAL

6

5

4

3

2

1

ELEMENTS 1. LO-DEF PAVING Substitution of current surface with smooth concrete, suitable for urban discliplines and that requires little maintenance, 3% slope

ELEMENTS 2. SKATE ELEMENTS Same materials of the surface, seamlessly joined, avoid pointy shapes, plasmated around the slope to avoid stagnating waters.

ELEMENTS 3. GRAFFITI WALL Use of the vertical surface Pescaia to provide paintable areas

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RIVERBANK ELEMENTS

ELEMENTS 4. PARKOUR ELEMENTS

ELEMENTS 5. STAIRS Substitution of the current surface on top of the Pescaia with large prefab elements to create stairs suitable for sitting.

ELEMENTS 6. FISHERMANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CORNER

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SELECTED

NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER CRAFTSMEN EDUCATION ARTISAN MUSEUM

PROPOSAL

CRAFTSMEN MARKETING

FABLAB

GASTROZONE

TEMPORARY MARKET

CONFERENCES

POP-UP OFFICE CO-WORKING

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/ MORPHING MEDICI GRANARY

Keeping its appearance, the Medicean Granaio dellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Abbondanza will be revolutionized into a vibrant neighborhood center focused on the tradition of craftsmanship.

Opening a Pop-Up Office, it will immediately become the space to involve the citizens within the design process.

As a public building, its economic feasibility and sustainability will depend on the Comune, which will benefit from the engagement of the community.

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PROPOSAL

/ MORPHING MEDICI GRANARY The building was constructed in 1695 for Granduca Cosimo III de Medici, and was used specifically as a granary in case of starvations.

In the 19th century it became property of the Military, which used it for administrative purposes until last year, when it was sold to the Municipality after 3 years of limited use of its 6000 square meters.

The Comune has decided to transform it in the next 5 years, inserting â&#x20AC;&#x153;a mix of public functionsâ&#x20AC;?; as of today, the program is undefined.

Being a listed building of recognized architectural value, it will hardly be possible to modify the envelope.

Therefore, changing entirely the purpose leaving the edge untouched makes it a suitable example of the glitch technique Data-Bending, in which there is the passage of the information from one sequence to a different one, without solution of continuity and without altering the frame. Morphing is the connected strategy.

The building is thought as the physical culmination of the one of the pathways that develop through the neighborhood, the craftsmanship/productive ones.

It will become a neighborhood center containing workshops, exhibition areas, co-working spaces, all related to the theme of craftsmanship. It will become important also the role of digital fabrication facilities, because many artisans that do not have access to new machineries: the attitude of the new public building will be highly aimed at the education of craftsmen (as well as locals and foreigners), not mere exposition of history and artifacts.

128

129

Medici symbol over the front door of the Granaio dellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Abbondanza, photo Wikipedia

PROPOSAL

Being a public building by all means, most likely the investments will be the biggest matter of dispute for stickholders (not only local, also national): it is a subject upon which is hard to intervene and picture consequences from afar, depending so much on money.

At the same time, it will be absolutely necessary to create a local consensus around the initiative starting with the neighborhood associations (especially the many craftsmen ones), involving them in the elaboration of the competition brief for the restoration.

A competition seems the best way to address the redesign, also bringing on board the professional Register of Architects: as mentioned earlier, it is not very powerful in Florence but very aggressive when it comes to not being involved, especially in consultations prior to urban transformations.

From the beginning of the process of design, to define possible variants to the competition program, the Municipality should establish in the usable parts of the building a Pop-up office: not a showroom, nor an office space, nor an information center; rather, all of them at once. It would host conferences, workshops, meetings, and exhibitions taking place throughout the creative process. In addition to the organized activities, the space was open to visitors and spontaneous citizen contributions. A place to collect, share, and generate ideas. A new and creative space, similarly to what happened in 2011 with the project DREAM HAMAR in Norway, by Ecosistema Urbano.

The continuous presence of a coordinated group would make possible to take care of the constant, coherent and cohesive transmission of information, offering a physical place of interaction with citizens.

Important, contemporarily, to open and curate a channel for participation also of non-locals, using digital tools, most likely managed by the same people.

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STICKHOLDER GRANARY

POWER

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CITIZENSHIP

HOME OWNERS

LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS

INITIAL RISK

ACTUAL RISK

SHOP OWNERS

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LOCAL YOUTH

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

ONLINE MEDIA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

UNESCO HERITAGE

TERRITORIAL SCOPE

LOCAL PARTIES

PROFESSIONAL REGISTERS

MUNICIPALITY

PROVINCE

REGION

OFFLINE MEDIA

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

131

TOURISTS

NATIONAL PARTIES

GOVERNMENT

PROPOSAL

ELEMENTS 1. NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER

ELEMENTS 2. ARTISAN MUSEUM Exhibition space explaining the history of the neighborhood in relation to craftsmanship, and invitation of local artisans to exhibit.

ELEMENTS 3. CRAFTS EDUCATION

ELEMENTS 4.FABLAB Fablab Firenze will move in, to work in conjunction with craftsmen, merging the digital age with the tradition of local workshops.

132

MEDICI GRANARY ELEMENTS

ELEMENTS 5. CONFERENCES Presence of small rentable rooms to hold conferences and meetings, available to fablab, craftsmen, co-workers.

ELEMENTS 6. CO-WORKING

ELEMENTS 7. POP-UP OFFICE Space for workshops, meetings, conferences during the redesign process, to explain and engage: open to spontaneous contributions from visitors and citizens.

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PROPOSAL

SELECTED

JOGGING

DIGITAL PRESENCE POP UP LIBRARY

CHILD PLAYS OUTDOOR CINEMA RELAX AREAS

TEMPORARY MARKET

PARKING WI-FI NEIGHBORHOOD WALKS BIKE SHARING

MOVABLE FURNITURE

WATER GAMES

BIKE PARKINGS RECONFIGURABLE SPACES SIDEWALKS

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/ DECOMPOSITION SQUARE

The Piazza will regain its public character, and the physical transformation will be integrated by the establishment of a strong digital identity.

The parking underneath will generate revenues to be invested in the public space: to avoid protests against it, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be necessary to engage early with local associations.

135

PROPOSAL

/ DECOMPOSITION SQUARE The square would become the culmination of the neighborhood renovation, the element that brings all other elements to come together, the reclaimed public space where to relax and enjoy the view, after decades of misuse.

For its inner complexity it will be treated through the glitch operation of compression, spatialized into the strategy of decomposition. The space, like any other encoding artifact, would require the participation of the user of the information. In this case, there will be a very strong push toward the re-configurability of the space, and its continuous update through the use of the launched digital platform, named Altrarno (playing with the name Oltrarno, and the word Altro, “other” in Italian): technology is the aspect that identifies compression artifacts.

Altrarno is a set of platforms and services created for online content sharing and personal interaction around the Cestello square, expanding the participation process and connecting local and global stakeholders under a “common virtual roof”. It has several tools: - Altrarno.org: blog with updates on the project. Allows interaction for participants and readers to make proposals and start discussions.

- Altrarno.app: an open source web and mobile application, to give citizens the opportunity to propose and share georeferenced ideas (text, image, or video), used also in the neighborhood for placelog-ging.

- Online workshops are going to be maintained for the global community; they, with the support of experts and professionals, work on specific issues in hybrid format: class and group work.

136

The physical space will also foster the manipulation and recombination of its elements, for example with the use of movable furniture; the distinct areas will be possibly merged or separated by the user itself, as the occasion requires. Through the Altrarno platform it will be possible to change aspects of the perception of the square; in this case the studies done on the digital identity of San Frediano can come in handy, to see which part to prioritize.

This aspect is also to strengthen the alternative role of the new Piazza del Cestello in comparison to the design of the other 4 squares of the neighborhood, to offer a difference from the stiffness of their urban design.

137

PROPOSAL

Talking about the stickholders, a big obstacle might be the cancellation of the current 98 parking spaces that are available. The possibility of putting them underground is indeed a good possibility, since the archeological maps shower that in the area of the square the risk is considerably lower than in most of the rest of the Unesco Area.

Notable that the communities have protested in 2014, as mentioned, against the construction of the underground parking in Piazza del Carmine, together with the Architecture Register: their concerns were purely pragmatic, unsure if it would have hosted a quota of spaces for residents. Their demonstrations were led by the Nidiaci Association.

Given the importance of the project, and for their capability to move consensus in the neighborhood, it seems vital to establish a dialogue to have them on board before any design decision is taken; for this reason it could be proposed a bargain for the support of the underground parking project: some of the money from the change of urban planning indexes (that allow the densification) will be allocated for the acquisition, expropriation of the former Giardino Bartlett-Nidiaci from the privates that own it now.

Together with the adjacent game-room, its re-opening is an absolute priority, therefore in case of long negotiation the Comune might use the urban planning tool “perequazione edilizia”, inserted in the last adopted Structural Plan of Florence: to make procedures faster, the institution can propose the private a deal of “equivalent building rights” in another urbanizing part of the city, usually re-sulting in a growth of buildable volumes.

The garden would be made public again, gaining the the support of the association and of a large part of the citizens of the neighborhood.

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STICKHOLDER SQUARE

POWER

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SITE

CITIZENSHIP

HOME OWNERS

LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS

INITIAL RISK

ACTUAL RISK

SHOP OWNERS

++

LOCAL YOUTH

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

ONLINE MEDIA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

UNESCO HERITAGE

TERRITORIAL SCOPE

LOCAL PARTIES

PROFESSIONAL REGISTERS

MUNICIPALITY

PROVINCE

REGION

OFFLINE MEDIA

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

139

TOURISTS

NATIONAL PARTIES

GOVERNMENT

PROPOSAL

The underground parking can trigger already an economic mechanism, generating constant revenues for Firenze Parcheggi, the parking managing company linked with the municipality. Considering the current rate of 3 euros per hour, it would create a considerable steady flow of money coming in, to be used for enhancements in the rest of the neighborhood.

The number of parking spaces would be clearly guaranteed is 98 (currently present, thus 2,5*5*98 = 1200sqm plus circulation, around 1900sqm), with an unaltered quota for residents, plus the amount of parking spaces which will serve the new housing densification.

By Italian law 1150/42, art.41, there must be 1 square meter of parking each 10 cubic meters of new volume: it is a mandatory and imperative norm.

Once itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s known exactly the buildable volume, (the rough maximum is around 17000 cubic meters), the necessary amount of be allocated accordingly, but I am not designing it in detail.

140

141

Piazza San Frediano in Cestello, 2016

PROPOSAL

ELEMENTS 1. NEIGHBORHOOD ROUTES Culmination of the Craftsmanship Route, using some of those same elements, recombined into a larger public space.

ELEMENTS 2. RELAX AREAS Areas for resting, relaxing and other activities for citizens.

They might incorporate natural elements and vegetation.

ELEMENTS 3. CHILD PLAYS Space dedicated to kids and playing, with the possibility of water games to strenghten the dialogue with the Arno River.

ELEMENTS 4. MOVABLE FURNITURE

142

SQUARE ELEMENTS

ELEMENTS 5. UNDERGROUND PARKING Allocation under the surface of the current 100 parking spots plus the necessary amount for new housing.

ELEMENTS 6. DIGITAL PLATFORM Launch of online platform to integrate in the virtual world the physical presence of the square, as a tool for citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; participation and engagement.

ELEMENTS 7. DIGITAL MANIPULATION Possibility to modify aspects of the square, illumination and such, through the new digital platform, to foster the playfulness of the place.

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PROPOSAL

SELECTED

DENSIFICATION

144

/ DISCRETIZATION HOUSING

Densifying block overlooking the Piazza is necessary to guarantee a greater economic resilience of the overall projects, otherwise funded by the Municipality through governmental financial aid.

With a variant to the current adopted plan the Comune will change the planning indexes; through the sale of building rights itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll receive money to develop the other four transformations.

145

PROPOSAL

/ DISCRETIZATION HOUSING All these transformations of the urban environment would require a large disposal of public money, a condition that seems not plausible for Italian municipalities. This is why it is important, in order to reach completion, to find multiple ways to raise funds: one of these could consider the modification of norms and planning indexes to allow the densification of housing block beside the church, and raise money from the sale of building rights, or directly the design, construction and sale of new housing units.

The idea comes out of a clear comparison of the density of the block with the rest of the neighborhood, considerably lower. It is clear that what now we see from the square was never supposed to be more than the back façade of those houses, therefore re-establishing an apparently planned condition could be a solution; absolutely fundamental, anyway, would be the preservation of the character of the existing settlement, a glitch-esque aesthetics.

In this case, the technique paired with the intervention would be discretization (from aliasing), as to say a discretization of a signal into smaller, less complex bits.

The level of the intervention is limited to “highly defined bouding box for sophisticated clients” (as warned by Justin Cook in his aforementioned Perspecta essay). This is nevertheless a carefully planned decision, because the housing market is here used to maximize the amount of public funds, later allocated for the other phases of the urban transformation: the market will decide the level of finishings, the facade material and such (in conformity with the strict city rules).

A great tool for the Municipality to establish long-term goals, standards, and stay always on top of the overall planning could be a tailor-made competition brief.

146

147

Informal housing beside the church of San Frediano in Cestello, 2016

PROPOSAL

If the goal of this phase is to gather the greatest amount of finances, it’s necessary to dig in the existing regulations, to find space of movement. They will become the information to be aliased.

Not being an area destined to redevelopment it is not possible to find site-specific coefficients, but we can use the norms applicable to new constructions, in this case new housing.

The definition of the maximum densifiable volume would conform to the maximum height of the building on the same block, 23,5 m; on the North, the perimeter of the block is the expansion threshold; on the South, the distance from walls is the most important parameter.

Here, one aspect stood out of the research: in the Regolamento Edilizio Comunale (Municipal Building Rules), art. 41, it says that it must be 10 meters, calculated creating an horizontal rectangle along the wall.

At the same time, for what concerns balconies and terraces, “and all extensions that do not constitute volume” it cites art. 873 of the (national) Civic Code which states 3 or 6 meters as the minimum distance, according to seismicity of the zone; Florence falls into the low seismic area, so 3 meters.

To maximize the profit I’ve looked at the real estate market: the square meters being equal, houses with terraces have a higher value, but in the historic fabric of Florence they are not typologically common and would go against the Unesco Management Plan.

The expansion of the housing volume is blocked by the block perimeter and by the 10 meters rule, but the new units could expand their surface with terraces toward the existing houses, as much as 7 meters: being invisible from the Square, that might constitute a feasible solution.

148

STICKHOLDER HOUSING

POWER

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SITE

CITIZENSHIP

HOME OWNERS

LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS

INITIAL RISK

ACTUAL RISK

SHOP OWNERS

++

LOCAL YOUTH

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

ONLINE MEDIA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

UNESCO HERITAGE

TERRITORIAL SCOPE

LOCAL PARTIES

PROFESSIONAL REGISTERS

MUNICIPALITY

PROVINCE

REGION

OFFLINE MEDIA

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

149

TOURISTS

NATIONAL PARTIES

GOVERNMENT

PROPOSAL

HOUSING EXISTING VOLUMES

+14 m

+11,5 m

+7 m

+3,5 m

+0 m 150

HOUSING VOIDS

+14 m

+11,5 m

+7 m

+3,5 m

+0 m 151

PROPOSAL

HOUSING FORBIDDEN AREAS FOR CONSTRUCTION, 10m

Minimum distance from walls, Regolamento Edilizio del Comune di Firenze, art.41

HOUSING FORBIDDEN AREAS FOR BALCONIES & TERRACES, 3m

Minimum distance for terraces, balconies and non-volumetric elements, Codice Civile, art.873

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HOUSING BUILDABLE VOLUME

153

PROPOSAL

/ PROCESS DEAD ENDS, ATTEMPTS The process has been characterized by a very exploratory attitude; the reliance on books and articles has provided a framework, but to translate these into architecture has been particularly challenging, especially because I was never working toward a depicted result.

Plenty, plenty of attempts have been made in search of this translation; even more numerous than trials have been dead ends, of all sort, related to perception, research, design, and so on.

I got lost, often, and found myself erring. What kept me motivated was the explanaition that I was dipping my pen into this exact ink, error, a pathway distracted from the â&#x20AC;&#x153;rightâ&#x20AC;? way.

I will just cite one exploration ended nowhere, to give an impression of the risk of having all this liberty and the necessity to bring it back to architecture somehow: at a certain point, around the middle of the semester, flooded in readings of Media studies, philosophy and Information theory, I spent more than a day gathering the information of terms which were often used by all these sources, in order to create a mathematical system to arrive at the insight.

I created mathematic analogies as proportions, organizing each authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s metaphor or comparison between words like Medium, Process, Message, Noise, History, Debate.

The result would have been a demonstration how Contemporary Architecture is pushed out of historic cities, and why glitches are positive in the demystification of the progressive linearity of history.

After a while writing strange formulas, I realized it would have been anyway very hard to comprehend, and quite useless: I dropped it.

It was an interesting exercise of logic and free thought.

154

155

Attempt to describe the whole theoretic framework in mathematical terms, using logic and analogies among authors.

PROPOSAL Final mindmap to define glitch techniques and their features, operations and strategies.

156

157

PROPOSAL Initial diagram to analyse stakeholders.

Working diagram to separate functions, pre-programming phase.

158

One of many attempts to define the neighborhood strategy..

One of many attempts to define the objectives to address in the neighborhood strategy..

159

PROPOSAL Diagrams addressing different ways to approach the water.

Sketch of function distribution in the riverside, and housing densification possibilities.

160

161

One of 13 sketches to try to solve the angle between the church and the monastery.

PROPOSAL Study of perceived opacity of elements for the surface of the square.

162

Four of many attempts to imagine an hypogeum access to the riverside.

Study model to check the link between the square and a potential access to the riverbank.

163

APPENDIX

/ PERSONAL BACKGROUND IN/OUTTA SCHOOL After studying building engineering in Pisa, I got my bachelor in architecture in Venice: both schools have a certain reverential respect when it comes to dealing with the context’s past.

Before moving to Denmark I worked in advertising as assistant in ad-campaigns. I grew a personal interest for the language of media/communication.

In the first semester with “regenerative architecture” i learned to manage very different scales and disciplines, in search for a coherent narrative among them, prioritizing between objectives.

During the summer of 2014, with Prof. Peter Gall Krogh we tried to tie Aarhus University with the Arkitektskolen to form a new Master-Studio/research-unit, with the intent of bridging Architecture with Interaction Design.

The experiment, unsuccessful in practice, opened doors to a path that brought me helping organizing the Media-Architecture Biennale 2014 here in Aarhus, with people from both institutions involved.

In “digital transformation”, i tried to bring together my personal interest within the scope of the course; after a thorough political/social/economic analysis, the result was a rather unexpected: to increase resilience I designed a communication strategy to involve citizens in city-making (first, the new visual identity of all Civic Initiatives, then an architectural crowdfunding/crowdsourcing website to orchestrate them, and a series of architectural pilot projects to kickstart them).

For 8 months I later worked for Ecosistema Urbano in Madrid. I had the chance to prove myself directly on urban plans and civic initiatives (in Paraguay, Ecuador, Singapore, etc.), seeing the growing necessity of an overall design strategy that merges new and old media, digital-, graphic-, interaction-, service-design, and the principles of architecture.

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165

166

FROM POSTCARD TO POST-DIGITAL

167