a r c h i t e c t u r e p o r t f o l i o
g i o r g i a g r e c o
birth architect education
08_08_1994 Rivoli (To), Italy Habilitation to the profession November 2020 Diploma (2013) Language High School B. Pascal, Giaveno (TO) Italian, English, French, German score 100/100
Degree (2016) Architecture Politecnico di Torino score 108/110
Master Degree (2019) Architecture Construction City Politecnico di Torino
score 110/110 with honors and publication
master thesis
The global city as a domestic space Living in Shitaya-ku and Mukodai-cho, Tokyo https://webthesis.biblio.polito.it/10186/
international research
international schools
language certificates
The University of Tokyo Master Thesis Tokyo (Japan) March - December 2018 Language School (Boston) Simmons College Campus Boston (Massachussets) July - August 2010 First Certificate B2 (English) Delf B2 (French) Certificate of Language Excellence (English, French, German)
computer certificates other skills
ECDL (Computer licence) Autocad, SketchUp, Rhinoceros, Revit Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects Office (word, powerpoint, excel, publisher) Physical model making (laser cut / 3D print) Hand drawing, Digital illustration, photography Teamworking and leading, critical thinking
g i o r g i a g r e c o 7, Per Brunate street, 22100 Como (CO), Italy ACTIVE SWISS G PERMIT Valid until 2026 +39 342 57 62 714 giorgia.greco1994@gmail.com IG // @gio_joy
CURRICULUM VITAE
job experiences UnTerritorio
Co-Founder - Turin, May 2021 - on going . Non-Profit Cultural Association specialized in: * development of public architecture and urban design * valorization and digitisation of architectural, urban and lanscape heritage * architectural festivals and events curatorship . on-going projects: * Curatorship & media partner for “Asti Architecture Festival 2022” promoted by Ordine degli Architetti di Asti * Curatorship for “Sound of Traces: esperienze digitali per il comune di Santa Vittoria d’Alba 2021-22” winning project at “Bando Fuori Orario, sperimentazioni culturali” promoted by Fondazione CRC
Isplora.com - Narrative Learning for Architects
https://www.isplora.com/us/Films Co-Head of Editorial Staff - Switzerland, January 2021 - on going . Curator of film editorial plan . Author of documentaries on architecture: * Pre-production (editor of the interviews) * Authorial production (curator of on-site and remote shooting) * Post-production (curator of graphic design & video-editing) . Referent for architecture firms and companies . Manager of social, graphic & editing department . Author of contents recognized by the Italian National Council of Architects (CNAPPC) . Author of contents recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) . Curator and author for Isplovers Magazine . Curator of Social Media editorial plan (IG) . Curator of brand & graphic productions Architecture Film Screenwriter - Switzerland, July - December 2020 . Assistant for the production of documentaries on architecture: * Pre-production (assistant editor of the interviews) * Post-production (assistant curator of graphic design & video-editing) . Curator and author for Isplovers Magazine . Social Media content creator (IG) . Brand & graphic Designer . Scouting of contemporary architectural firms Architecture Content Creator - Switzerland, January - July 2020 (stage) . Author of articles for Isplovers Magazine . Social Media content creator (IG) . Graphic Designer . Scouting of contemporary architectural firms
Independent projects
Architect - 2019 - on going . Novanta’s Café outdoor area (Turin, Italy) - realized . Design consulting for the renovation of a residential apartment in Milan (Italy) - on going . Design consulting for the restoration of a residential building in Settimo Torinese (Turin, Italy) - on going . Design consulting for the restoration of a residential building in Villarbasse (Turin, Italy) - on going
Subhash Mukerjee Architect - MARC
Architecture internship - Turin, 2016 . Project conception and visualization: preliminary, definitive and executive design
awards
NexTO - Envisioning Torino
Design proposal for Lingotto area: Sòlum Cura - WINNER II POSITION Team: Un Territorio (G. Greco, D. Vero) + A. Cerrato // 2021
ATA2020 - Architectural Thesis Award 2020
Master Thesis: The global city as a domestic space - SPECIAL MENTION URBAN PLANNING Team: E. Spadea // 2020 https://www.archistart.net/news/ata2020-winners/?fbclid=IwAR3ojP3xeNdNUnxc7JjkOvhsRJ8liBPNQ3b9q8P4HZ5-KsD5tN1RkGPNGFQ
YTAA2020 - Young Talent Architecture Award 2020 (Fundacio Mies Van Der Rohe) Master Thesis: The global city as a domestic space - NOMINEE
Team: E. Spadea // 2020
Dying. Alternative design for cemiteries (Non Architecture Competition) Memory Collector - FINALIST
Team: L. Borghetti // Ottobre 2019
Hustle Hub (Moscow, Russia)
Life for Rent - FINALIST Team with: M. Giancane, E. Spadea // August 2019
Europan 14 - Productive Cities (Cuneo, Italy)
Making Room(s) - WINNER RUNNER UP Team with: arch. C. Renzoni, arch. I. Vassallo, arch. S. Lanteri, arch. E. V. Margaria // January 2018 https://www.europan-europe.eu/en/exchanges/making-room-s https://www.europan-europe.eu/en/publications/europan-14-results
publications
Memory Collector
in “Dying. Alternative design for cemiteries”
Non Architecture Competition, ed. Roma Tre, inArch, DomPublisher, pp. 79-80, 2020
Il progetto come strumento formativo
in “Qui Abito. Un progetto di Public History per le scuole del quartiere Vallette”, Cliomedia Public History (a cura di), Turin, pp. 93-95, 2019, ISBN_9788894130065 https://www.quiabito.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ebook%20Qui%20abito%20pdf%20interattivo%20DEF.pdf
Ritratti di città. Il doppio volto di Tokyo
in “Il Giornale dell’Architettura”, Turin, May 2019, ISSN 2284-1369 http://ilgiornaledellarchitettura.com/web/2019/05/08/ritratti-di-citta-il-doppio-volto-di-tokyo/
Ann-Gawa. Hard-edged block
in “Edo-Tokyo, Challenging the Urban Fabric” with introduction of prof. Hidenobu Jinnai, Hosei University Research Center
for Edo-Tokyo Studies + Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engeneering and Design, Hosei University + Sci-Arc + Politecnico di Torino, ed. Shokokusha Publishing Co., Ltd, Tokyo, pp. 64-67, April 2019
Sumiyoshi-cho
in “Planning for the Global Urban Agenda. Shaping ecodistricts in Tokyo suburbs.”
C. Cassatella, A. Murayama (editors), Politecnico di Torino, Torino, pp. 76-83, September 2018, ISBN_978-88-85745-15-5 https://iris.polito.it/handle/11583/2712031#.W4fT-jHcjzI%20
Making Room(s)
in “Europan 14 - Productive Cities. Italian Results Book”
Europan Italia Publication, Rome, pp. 38-41, January 2018, ISBN_97888909795-2-1
Sperimentazione progettuale per l’area centrale del quartiere Le Vallette a Torino
in “Didattica Ricerca Progetto. Rigenerare spazi da condividere: Le Vallette a Torino” M. L. Barelli, P. Gregory in “La domanda di architettura. Le risposte del progetto. Atti del VI Forum della Società scientifica nazionale del progetto. Docenti Icar 14 15 16”, C. R. Cellini (a cura di), VI FORUM ProArch, Rome, pp. 335-368, September 2017, ISBN_97888-909054-5-2
research scholarships China goes Urban // The city to come
Graphic editing curator of the exhibition (room 5, room 9), China Room at Politecnico di Torino + Prospekt Photographers + MAO (Museo d’Arte Orientale) with Tshingua University and Intesa Sanpaolo Turin, 2019-2020
AxTo - Qui Abito
Collaboration in bottom up rigeneration initiatives of urban suburbs in Turin, Politecnico di Torino + Cliomedia Public History Turin, 2019
CURRICULUM VITAE
teaching assistant Urban Design Studio
Atelier Progetto Urbanistico C, master degree “Architecture Design for Sustainability” Politecnico di Torino, March 2019 - going on prof. Angelo Sampieri
Architecture and Urban Space
Atelier Architecture and Urban Space, master degree “Architecture Construction and the City” Politecnico di Torino, March 2018 - July 2018 prof. Michele Bonino
Architecture and Construction Systems
Atelier Architettura e Sistemi Costruttivi A, master degree “Architecture Construction and the City” Politecnico di Torino, October 2017 - February 2018 prof. Paola Gregory
Architecture and Urban Space
Atelier di Composizione e Urbanistica C, degree “Architecture” Politecnico di Torino, March 2017 - September 2017 prof. Marco Bosio
Architecture and Representation
Atelier Progetto e Rappresentazione, degree “Architecture” Politecnico di Torino, October 2016 - February 2017 prof. Davide Tommaso Ferrando
Architecture and Technology
Atelier Costruire nel Costruito F,, degree “Architecture” Politecnico di Torino, March 2016 - September 2016 prof. Marco Mancini
Architecture and History
Atelier Composizione e Storia, degree “Architecture” Politecnico di Torino, October 2015 - February 2016 prof. Michele Bonino
workshop & summer school assistant Trans-use: interdisciplinary and international summer school
Summer School by Politecnico di Torino + Tsinghua University (Beijing) + Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, July 2019 China Room / F.U.L.L. research groups of Politecnico di Torino
Identity and Change
IX edition of IAAD TURIN DESIGN WORKSHOP, February 2018 Identity and Spaces, prof. Walter Nicolino
Design for cities
VIII edition of IAAD TURIN DESIGN WORKSHOP, February 2017 Urbs Ludens, prof. Walter Nicolino
lectures The global city as a domestic space in Atelier “No Home”, Urban Design
Atelier Progetto Urbanistico C, master degree “Architecture Design for Sustainability” Politecnico di Torino, March 2019
Visualizing architecture: Chinese and Japanese perspectives in Atelier Architecture and Technology
Atelier Architettura e Sistemi Costruttivi A, master degree “Architecture Construction and the City” Politecnico di Torino, November 2017
Osmotic façades: fading filters between home and cities in Atelier Architecture and Urban Design
Atelier di Composizione e Urbanistica C, degree “Architecture” Politecnico di Torino, May 2017
Inclusive spaces
in Atelier Architecture and Technology
Atelier Costruire nel Costruito F, degree “Architecture” Politecnico di Torino, March 2016
events & exhibitions China goes Urban // the new era of cities - Museo d’Arte Orientale (MAO)
Graphic editing content creator and curator of the exhibition (room 5, room 9), China Room at Politecnico di Torino + Prospekt Photographers + MAO (Museo d’Arte Orientale) with Tshingua University and Intesa Sanpaolo 15th October 2020 - 14th February 2012 (on-going)
Horizon2020 - Trans-Urban Eu-China
Collaboration to the coordination of the event, Turin, 27-29 March 2019
if - imaging future // sensitive places
Curator and content creator of the exhibition for Torinostratosferica Festival, Spazio Q35 Turin, October 2018
Planning for the Global Urban Agenda
Curator and content creator of the exhibition at Sala delle Colonne, Castello del Valentino (Politecnico di Torino) Turin, May 2018
students group co-founder if - imaging future Politecnico di Torino April 2018 - October 2018
workshops Challenging the Urban Fabric (Tokyo, Japan) Hosei University Tokyo - Sci_Arc Los Angeles July 2018
Scenography and Music (Turin, Italy) Teatro Regio di Torino March 2018
Shaping Ecodistricts in Tokyo Suburbs (Tokyo, Japan) The University of Tokyo March 2018
Productive Cities (Cuneo, Italy) Europan Italy, Cuneo January 2018
Thinking Outside the Box (Aosta, Italia) Pepinière Aosta September 2015
i s p l o r a . c o m g r e a t f i l m g r e a t architects
ISPLORA.COM // https://www.isplora.com/us/Films Narrative Learning for Architects Switzerland, 2020 - on going
ISPLORA is a multidisciplinar hub for research in the field of architecture, urbanism and design, specialized in the production of films and documentaries for the professional continuous education of architects. Each cinematic contents is recognized and approved by the Italian National Council of Architects (CNAPPC) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The platform offers cinematic-quality films about an hour long, which allow architects to immerse theirselves in the design and construction process of the buildings, from method to practice, from concept to realization, exploring different realities in the contemporary panorama. ISPLORA is also an architecture magazine, a place to find information useful for the profession, a look at the territory and innovation, a reference for all events connected to design, urbanism and architecture. The mission is an exploration of the world of architecture, a journey in time and space through the stories of great contemporary projects. High-quality films which aim at revealing
the behind-the-scenes work of the most important architecture firms, providing new interpretation keys and tools for everyday professional practice. The research lab is composed by a heterogeneous working group where architects, graphic designers and communication and video experts work hand in hand, in the belief that the narration of architecture through the eyes and words of architects can pass on experience and knowledge. The Narrative Learning method allows to identify completely with the buildings’ construction process, simply learning with a story and dealing directly with the design practice of the most interesting architecture firms.
t h e g l o b a l c i t y a s n a domestic s p a c e
MASTER THESIS // winner ATA2020 Special Mention Urban Planning // nominee YTAA2020 Living in Shitaya-ku and Mukodai-cho, Tokyo Tokyo (Japan), 2018 - 2019
Objects of studio are two different urban fabrics, both located in the vast Japanese capital within the Tokyo Metropolitan Region. The first one, Shitaya-ku (下谷区), is part of Taito-ku (台東区), one of the 23 Special Wards that define the Tokyo City. The second one, Mukodai-cho (向台町), part of the administration of NishiTokyo City (西東京市), is a suburban municipality located on the immediate outer border of the Tokyo City. The structure of the research follows the logic of the inductive process, in order to undermine the conventional distinction between observation and design, by stimulating a symbiotic dialogue between the two parts. The project - climax - is not intended as a formal response, but as a manifesto, an open question that can lead to a transversal process of understanding, description and reinterpretation of the individual living in a global city. Conjunction. Separation. Transition. The exact point of contact between the house and the city summarizes in itself antithetical and equivocal conditions. Material and immaterial threshold, it is presented at the same time as tree-dimensional, two-dimensional and a-dimensional. It shows and hides what is inside and what is outside. The boundary that delineates the domestic dimension in relation to the urban one is constituted by different and contradictory forms, actions and daily practices. The inside and the outside touch and melt each other and for this reason it is necessary
to observe the dwelling with a deep reading tool, able to catch the promicuous character of the living. Is there a real limit between home and city? The aim of the thesis is to intercept this promiscuity and design new forms of individual living, by reinterpreting the relationship between urban space and domestic space in the global city: what is left of the space of intimacy? How does the space of the house tend to dissolve itself in the city, and the city to enter every dimension of domestic life? Is it possible to reinterpret the way of inhabiting a global city in the intermingling of the urban space and the domestic space? As a first step to answering these questions, in the first chapter the reader is pushed directly into the domestic “single-family” Tokyo landscape. Defined by Pons as a “mégalopole de villages” already in 1993, Tokyo-to (東京都) shows its face as a boundless body of dwellings at a human scale. An individual dimension, a horizontal city [Atelier Bow-Wow, 2002 and Radovic, Boontharm, 2012] with medium proportions that rhythmically touch a maximum of two or three floors in height. A repeated individual living, overlapped and cut into the space of a metropolitan area that now counts a total of 38 million inhabitants. Ten sheets of single-family residences open the thesis path, focusing on the observation of the form of the independent living. It is not
important, in this first phase, to define the belonging to one or the other urban fabric. Rather than that, what is fundamental here is to lead the reader to focus on the relationship between the domestic space and the immediately adjacent urban space, paying attention to the themes of access, view, openings, distances and vis-à-vis. Which kind of relationship is there between built and open space? Which density? Which kind of surfaces and spaces of transition regulates the exchanges between one dimension and another? Divided into two sections, the second chapter aims, through a broader look, to explain the reasons that led the two urban fabrics
Trasformations of the urban fabric, 1990 - 2018 On the top: the current morphology of the urban fabric Below: the previous morphology of the urban fabric
Shitaya-ku, Tokyo
Mukodai-cho, Tokyo
to assume over time the current conformations. Environmental catastrophes and fires continually undermine the durability of Tokyo’s face, which already used to changing its forms with an extreme speed. The average life of the residential buildings is slightly weaker than 30 years, leading the city to quickly change its appearance in terms of image (and not only). A simple arithmetic approximation suggests that most of the buildings now existing in the urban fabric have been demolished and rebuilt already at least three times since the second half of the twentieth century [Kitayama, Tsukamoto, Nishizawa, 2010]. The hand of the private
Hadaka no tsukiai, abitare la “relazione nuda” Shitaya-ku, Tokyo
ground floor plan
intervention, encouraged by the public administration, moves the urban transformations, from the scale of the single lot to that of the large sectors, leading Tokyo to make its own metamorphoses in a relationship of dependence with the individual will: city made by individuals, say Shima, Hiramoto, Seta, Katayama, Kim, Cho and Matsutani already in 2007. But which are the causes that have moved the modifications of the two fabrics? And which are the effects of these transformations on individual living? The first case study (Shitaya-ku), whose morphology has survived the great Kanto earthquake of 1923, is currently characterized by a dense plot of single-family dwellings - of a maximum of two or three floors - enclosed by a “belt” of high-rise buildings and big arteries of the “Disaster Prevention Network” that define its sharp edges, and it’s therefore defined as “Urban Village”. The second case study (Mukodai-cho), result of the progressive expansion of the metropolis from the 60s onwards - and also mainly consisting in the single-family residential type of a maximum of two or three floors - is characterized by the presence of open spaces of agricultural production that, over time, have undergone a deep reduction due to the real estate and fiscal pressure, which have led to the continuous subdivision of private parcels (for this, “Subdivurban”, short for “Subdivision of Suburban”). So, result of a continuous densification of a consolidated fabric (Shitaya-ku) and of the suburban expansion of the Japanese metropolis (Mukodai-cho), both fabrics seem to have reached a point of maximum saturation. In fact, result of a planning driven by the individual interest, the plot of the blocks now shows the signs of this process: abandoned homes, vacant houses and lots of uncomfortable proportions - insufficient and inadequate for future edifications - are hidden in the dense nucleus of the city, showing the dual face of a Tokyo. At the same time, with the exclusive 6% of its surface dedicated to public open space, the city is now facing the lack of the ground resource and, in the suburban landscape, it tries to prevent the building densification where, although rare and private, the open space has remained accessible. In both situations under observation, the individual living has
therefore undergone considerable changes. Pushed by the desire to maximize the land use production, the face of the Japanese global city continually changes not only under the power of the real estate market, but also under rigid urban and building regulations, both factors that determine the way of living, the architectural quality and the morphology; morphology of a city in which the individual tries to materially remark his own intimate dimension, by defining, even in micro, his domestic space. But how to combine the attempt to densify a city that seems to have no more space, with the uses and practices of individual living? In this regard, the third chapter, divided into three paragraphs, aims to explore the observation of the transitional space between the house and the city, the exact point in which the individual passes from one state to another, in order to intercept the characters that can be kept or reinterpreted in the construction of a new way of inhabiting the global city. Which are the devices that describe the threshold between the two environments? And what tangible and intangible relations do they underlie? Is there really a strict and sharp limit between one dimension and another? As mentioned, the process of continuous and uncontrolled division of the parcels led to a significant alteration of the layers between the domestic and urban dimensions, which progressively reduced, overlapped and modified together with the spaces of the house, in a symbiotic relationship. The first section of the third chapter explores the alterations of the proximity thresholds due to the subdivision process, which led the individual to translate some of the domestic practices from the inside to the outside of his home, in a dimension of living that transcends the physical borders of the house or the lot that, however, continues to exist. Separated from distances of less than 50 cm, the houses are composed, however, by openings, windows and juts that face each other, making people, willingly or not, live in an extreme proximity. Domestic uses and practices enter the urban, the dimension of vis-à-vis is taken to the extreme, the sense of intimacy deeply touched. But who lives in these places? The characteristics of the population that inhabits the two neighborhoods are now explored, observing them not only within
Hadaka no tsukiai, abitare la “relazione nuda” Mukodai-cho, Tokyo
ground floor plan
their rigid boundaries (urban and domestic), but also - and above all - in its space of relations with the outside world. In this sense, the radical change in the composition of the family, the daily habits and the space-time compression given by the phenomenon of globalization, are among the reasons that most influence the ways with which the individual makes use of his own domestic space, determining the inadequacy of the spaces of the house as they are conformed today. These factors, combined with the strict Japanese working time schedule and the fact that 3/4 workers are daily forced to travel to reach their one hour far away work position, imply that, on average, the time spent at home by an individual is increasingly reduced and, consequently, it is evident that some spaces within the domestic sphere are no longer necessary or can be radically reinterpreted. With a dynamic routine, therefore, the individual builds a dense network of its own spaces that goes beyond the domestic material boundaries. In fact, the daily practices of the contemporary man, measured in time and space, make the house itself as a neglectable place. In fact, on the one hand, the habits related to work lead people to spend less time in some rooms of the house throughout the day and, on the other hand, when they are inside their homes, they are constantly connected to the outside world through web surfing, communications, television, smartphones, the use itself of objects, appliances and resources of global provenance, etc. [Allen, Massey, Pryke, 2001] For this reason, the limits of the physical space do represent a mere “separé”, an apparently closed box in a world made of other relationships that transcend the “local”, to flow into the “global”. For this reason, there is an evident contrast between the practices of the individual and the forms that welcome his dwelling. There is, then, a palpable detachment between the habits of man and his way of living, colonizing, using the city. Is it still correct, therefore, to continue to observe and act on the lot space, blindly denying the relationships that the domestic dimension weaves with the outside? The last step of the third chapter summarizes, therefore, some practices of pioneering projects that begin to reinterpret the point of contact between the house and the city. In the city of Tokyo
there are architects who have intercepted these modifications of living, bringing them from phenomenon to architecture and investigating the architectural quality (Sou Fujimoto, SANAA). Finally, the last chapter explores, through two scenarios, the space of promiscuity in which the individual is inserted, that indefinite dimension, elusive and indistinct, in which he is already unconsciously absorbed. Already in the current condition, in fact, given the circumstances traced, it is as if the individual was unconsciously naked in front of the city, as if the distance between his body and city was suddenly dissolved. [Grosz, 1992] The boundaries and limits of the domestic environment are suddenly denied and the space of the house is exploded on the outside - or the space of the city imploded inside -, linking the urban and the domestic in a dialectic relationship. The body (the most intimate nudity of the individual) is completely stripped of its masks and in the same way, the house (the private dimension of the individual) sees its filters gradually compromised [Colomina, 1992]. A parallelism applicable to this condition concerns the use of the Japanese public bath (onsen 温泉, or sentō 銭湯). In Japan, the term “hadaka no tsukiai” (裸の付き合い) - literally “naked relationship” - used in symbiosis with this type of environment and atmosphere, suggests a type of relationship in which both sides have nothing to hide from one another, with the consequent implication to be in a comfort zone even if they are naked together. [Fruneaux and Gardner, 2015] By transposing this concept to dwelling, the house can dissolve itself in the city or the city permeate every dimension of the house. In this sense, in a complex dialogue of interconnection between the levels of intimacy of the domestic space, living transforms its morphological conformation and its way of being understood and lived, reasoning not only on the system of a single living unit, but bringing its dimension to the urban block. The lot limit is ignored, transcended. The density of housing in the city has increased considerably, creating an environment in which the individual radically redesigns the space of his house: the way he accesses it, passes through it, dwells there, carves out its own intimacy.
n e x T O envisioning T o r i n o
COMPETITION // winner II position Turin (Italy), 2021 team: UnTerritorio (Giorgia Greco, Davide Vero) + Alice Cerrato
Past, present and future seem to compete for the dominance of Turin’s Lingotto. From the car factory to Olympic projects, offices and events, studying and living, the center of commerce and the future - of politics and health. Nothing is missing (?) A stratified situation, on which transformations, strategies and intentions, policies and conflicts have concentrated over the years. Lingotto in pieces (?) An underlying complexity, unrelated elements in the urban chessboard, islands and anchors in the middle of a space to rethink. Against the grid (?) Two linear riverbeds that contain the natural and human flows, the Po river and the railway that cut through the city. Entrance to Turin (?) The city gate. The project of the public space, on the ground, capable of bringing together architecture and urban planning, landscape and conservation, “recycling” the territory. The soil project (!) As a founding strategy of work, as an operational necessity, as a vision over time, a manifestation of an environment marked by man and a place of relationship. “Care” as a responsibility that moves from observation
to interpretation, rethinking the coexistence between urban objects and humans. The idea of an axis, a place of sociality and slow mobility that proposes a change of nature up to the inhabited fabric that lives on them. Soil as a value, as a resource,a system of strips cultivated through specific phytotechnologies, hybridizing cultivated areas and wetlands, for an alternative land use. A cultural landscape. An itinerary that identifies in art and culture the device of reconnection, in the reconciliation between body and world, contaminations between visual arts and design, figurative disciplines and theater, education and training. A productive landscape. Producing economic value through exhibitions and installations, works, events and flows, agricultural and productions, new technologies and connections. Permeable. A soil that works by intensity of actions and possibilities, exploiting the existing or working around small elements, possible archetypes of future development. Time as a vision, providing tools for change, freeing interpretation.
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COMPETITION // finalist position Hustle Hub, 2019 Moscow, Russia team with: E. Spadea, M. Giancane 1. Why “Life for rent”? How can the new “way of living” change and improve the actual conditions of the young generation? “Life for rent” tries to achieve a new “way of living” to go beyond the precariousness in which the young generation seems now to be sunk. The radical proposal leads to the extreme (but controlled) condivision of goods, services and skills through the rent model: instead of watching at the rental business as a negative sample that blocks the longterm plans, we believe that the sharing economy can enter every part of our life, solving the question. It is not only about renting a place in which you live, work or relax, but mostly about putting yourself in rent as a resource for the system, while you have the chance to use and be part of that system, building your career, family and future. 2. What kind of secondary and tertiary activities are a part of this hustle hub? What is their purpose? The design proposal is intended to rethink not only the spaces, but mostly the new way of living. For this reason, inside the hub, the hosts can find a lot of alternative services that are normally missing in an ordinary hostle. The flexibility and rentability of the spaces are the main issue:
triple, double and single rooms or bed in dormitory are available for sleeping; if needed, “plus spaces” are addable to the rooms or separately rentable; even furnishings can change or move adapting to the necessities; private spaces to study, work or chill dot all the floors; a bright and spacious open space offers the possibility to rent different kind of devices (desks, exhibitors, floor mats,…); closed meeting rooms or classrooms are rentable for private speeches, while a baby parking takes care about your children; an auditorium can host performances; a gym helps people to keep their fitness; a free wood inside the courtyard is the green lung of the system. 3. How does the online platform work? The online platform works as a collector of relationships: a mix between a social and a business network. After the hosts sign in and log in their profile, they become “hubbers” making their registration to the system, with basic info, curriculum vitae, interests and curiosities. In this sense, they can see and propose each other collaborations, events, courses, lessons, etc. According to their privacy settings, they can show their skills to the other hubbers and keep in touch with them to link new useful or plaesant relations.
Axonometric concept of the spaces composed to guarantee flexibility for different functions in several moments of the day and night time.
To n g z h o u zohutong u r b a n d e s i g n
ACADEMIC PROJECT Atelier architecture and urban space, 2017 Tongzhou, Beijing (China)
The first step for the design proposal was about mapping Tongzhou, a challenge in understanding a deeply stratified yet quickly renovating reality. The incapability of a trustful representation of a such complex urban context becomes even stronger while trying to narrate the manifold reality of the hutong and siheyuan. Which city are we looking at? “Beijing municipality favors the conservation of 17% of the existing hutongs and the demolishment and the sell of the land of the rest [...] In this vision of the future, the hutong is no longer a living habitat. [...] From 1949, with the Communist Era, 3/4 of hutong has already been demolished” (Zacharias, 2015). “The rapid escalation of housing prices in some of these areas lead to the dispersal of the traditional community” (Shin, 2010). Focusing on the hutong area, we investigated and then understood that the heritage is not only linked to the architectural objects, but also to the immanence of the hutong in terms of its social sphere. Is there a value in the way of living in this kind of urban context? Could it be reinterpretated? For this reason, the social aspect is what we care
about. As a Hutong district in future CBD area, our strategy is to preserve the urban pattern and not impose any sort of top-down transformation, but to enhance a bottom-up one. Transformed from the name of Tongzhou, Zohutong becomes our city: the anagram is made by “zohu”, whose Italian sound is similar to the Chinese word “zou”, which means walk. So, “walking in hutong” or better “feeling hutong lifestyle by walking”. In this sense, the project aims to envelope the hutong area in order to protect it from the rapid new urban transformations. The idea is to create a system that can let it transform without any sort of imposition, but with a spontaneous process: hutongs will be influenced by our surrounding design, but they will change independently, without being directely touched. To create this system, the design identified the analogy between the urban area and the human cell: site boundary as membrane while Hutong area as DNA nucleus. In this sense, the membrane preserves the hutong from the urbanization of the new city and it is intended as a mixed infrastructure producing facilities to the city.
Stratification of the morphologies of the urban fabric Hutong typology involution
Residential tower building
Residential linear building
Residential danwei Hutong
Ceci n’est pas Tongzhou
nucleus
between
membrane
梳子
the comb
壁
the wall
园林
the park
The Comb 梳子 Inside the membrane, a system of line buildings takes the use of cohousing with mixed used open spaces on the ground floor. The line buildigs are connected all together through a multilevel park that fluidly enters the buildings.
ground floor plan common spaces for co-housing
upper floors plan co-housing
The comb 梳子 Architectural maquette - 1:200 Study of the interception between architecture and urban space
f r o m p e o p l e t o p e o p l e
ACADEMIC PROJECT Atelier architecture and technology, 2017 Le Vallette, Turin (Italy)
Anthropocentric The quintessence of the project lies in the primary concept of man understood as the fundamental matrix of the urban study and, consequently, of the architectural project. The process of reading the neighborhood immediately focused on the more anthropogeographic dynamics that distinguish it: the neighborhood is not a summa between built and unbuilt, but that thin border line that unites and perceptibly divides these spaces and becomes the true urban place lived by man. The project was conformed through direct dialogue with the inhabitants of Le Vallette for a profound understanding of the actual needs: regeneration arises spontaneously by the users of the place themselves, with a bottom up process, from the inside to the outside. Proxemics Proxemics becomes the key to the project, i.e. the analysis and study of the space perceived, defined and inhabited by man. The study of flows and points of aggregation has allowed the construction of a network
physically and perceptively connecting the existing places, a network from which the generating axes of the new urban design can arise. Materic The concept of proxemics becomes generates the urban and architectural spaces defining distances, thresholds and temporal dimensions, which take the form of buildings, paths, parterres and points of aggregation. Everything is characterized by a deep study on different heights and material perceptions. Given its bioclimatic properties, the theme of urban water has the aim of improving the livability of the urban microclimate. Instead, the solid pure mass of architecture is conceived as a monolithic block cut, rounded and sectioned by thin blades of light. Construction materials and techniques refer to the idea of economic, social and environmental sustainability. In this sense, the choice of using rammed earth walls aims to use local resources and minimize CO2 production, while the use of lightweight steel structures respects the desire to assemble and build using dry technologies.
m a k i n g r o o m ( s ) e u r o p a n 1 4
COMPETITION // winner runner up position Cuneo (Italy), 2018 team with: C. Renzoni, I. Vassallo, S. Lanteri, E. V. Margaria
An interconnected system: places and people. The project aims to propose an original perspective on the city of Cuneo, starting both from a wide and narrow point of observation. The first one highlights the strict connection with its environmental and regional context: the analysis on standards of living, economic issues and relational aspects reveals an overall picture of great interdependence of a wide network of spaces and elements that define the whole territorial structure. The Alpine region with its rivers, the wooded areas, and the agricultural landscape contribute to the creation of renowned escellences in the food&wine sector, playing a relevant role in defining the identity of this place. The second one looks at the scale of the city and neighborhoods and highlights their social capital that ensure a vibrant urban life. From this perspective, the project area offers the opportunity to draw up a new centrality with a process of collaboration and inclusion, treating the dismissed space of the barrakcs as a common good. The project starts from here: a potential involvement of local communities; a project of liveable spaces; a possible program of uses. Together. Step by step. Room by room.
Adopt a space: create a common good. Where? In the spaces of the former barracks but also in the other surrounding rooms supporting different interlinked functions. Why? To create a visible relation between the city and its territory; to allow a new centrality; to expirience a new way of planning the city, more conscious and inclusive. Who? The main stakeholder are you! Send us an idea: we build together your ideal space! Statute of Making Room(s). 1. The holders of the right enjoyment of this common good is the entire humanity; 2. The taking care of the space would be assigned to an association; 3. Sustainable development and promotion of therritory are the main purposes; 4. The structure of the project is always open to welcome new initiatives; 5. The associations guarantee respect for all these points, with strict collaboration with the Municipality.
CHINA GOES URBAN // the city to come
In 1978, 18% of the population in China lived in urban areas. Since then the number of inhabitants in cities has increased approximately 1% per annum and currently makes up 60% of the total population. New infrastructures and settlements have gradually modified the landscape, transformed property rights, swept away administrative boundaries, and “gobbled up” rural spaces and villages. The rapid, disruptive process of Chinese urbanisation unfolds before our eyes. Understanding it is not easy. Existing categories and models are useless. If we believe Chinese urbanisation to simply be an exaggeration and a flaw, we are effectively ignoring the fact it constitutes an epochal change, one which redefines roles and relationships not only
from a geopolitical point of view, but also from the point of view of culture, imagination and possibilities. A change that the current pandemia makes ever more deep and hard. China Goes Urban proposes to change viewpoint, to look at reality rather than pigeonhole it in predefined categories and models. It is an invitation to explore the world by travelling through the city and architecture of today and tomorrow and circumnavigating the concept of city: although we all think we are familiar with and understand this seemingly simple concept, it shatters in the multiplicity of the contemporary urban.
MAO Museum of Oriental Art in Turin, (Italy), 16 October 2020 - 14 February 2021
Politecnico di Torino and Prospekt Photographers with Tshingua University of Pechino and Intesa Sanpaolo
Photographs of some motion infographics’ extracts.