KENT STATE UNIVERSITY | FLORENCE PROGRAM \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ FALL 2019 + SPRING 2020 KSU FLORENCE
Most Inspiring Students’ Projects
Most Inspiring Students’ Projects
Alberto Francini, Paola Giaconia, Andrea Ponsi)
Introduction . 06 (Fabrizio
Giaconia)
Reece Berry, Corpus Callosum . 16 Elizabeth Burkhart, Generation Bridge . 18 Rachel Kidd, 12358… Santa Rosa Park . 20 David Merchant, Sublateral Voidscape . 22 Dymon Beckum, Alignment . 24 Peter Copetas, Elements of Reflection 26 Chloe Froning, Emerging Transitions 28 Dylan Herrmann-Holt, Neo-Loggia . 30 Jack Mc Michael, Community Courtyard . 32 Alix Wilson, The Jumbled Arcade . 34
Ricciardelli and Paola
Presentation of architecture studio projects . 10 (Filippo Caprioglio,
Index
Presentation of interior design studio projects 36 (Fabio Barluzzi, Federico Grazzini) Jean Paul Soto-Torrado, Pavillion del Grano . 42 Rachel Gesin, AWA | Advancing Women Artists . 44 Elizabeth Koenig, Lazar Khidekel Museum . 46 Madelyn Orcutt, Garden of Lucidity . 48 Amanda Steiner, Fauvism Museum . 50
Most Inspiring Students’ Projects
Introduction
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FABRIZIO RICCIARDELLI, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY FLORENCE DIRECTOR
When the end of the semester comes, I am always fascinated at seeing Architecture and Interior Design students, busy in preparing their studios’ final presentations. The energy and enthusiasm they put in their work is well documented in this little booklet which collects the most inspiring students’ projects of the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters. This publication series, which was started by prof. Paola Giaconia in Spring 2013, in the course of the years will provide important documentation of the activity of Kent State University Florence Program in Architecture and in Interior Design.
The studio projects were quite challenging for our students, all sites being possessing some very special qualities: the area around the Torrino di Santa Rosa in the San Frediano neighborhood and Piazza dei Ciompi for the Architecture studios; the new Exit to the Uffizi and Palazzo Spini Feroni for the Interior Design studios.
As director of the school, I am also very intrigued seeing students’ explorations and design proposals for our city. Their restless explorations result in lively discussions on the occasion of midterm and final reviews.
I especially commend the students whose projects are featured in these pages. They
all demonstrated high commitment to their work. I am sure that absorbing the vitality of Florence’s art and culture during this semester has been especially beneficial for them all.
Finally, I congratulate their professors (prof. Filippo Caprioglio, prof. Alberto Francini, prof. Paola Giaconia, prof. Andrea Ponsi, prof. Fabio Barluzzi and prof. Federico Grazzini), whose intellectual and artistic abilities I am very aware of. I know well what each of them had to offer to our younger generation of designers. A special note goes to Professor Paola Giaconia, whose work as coordinator for the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent State University Florence is invaluable.
Thank you all for your intense work!
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This booklet collects the studio projects awarded in the “Most Inspiring Students’ Project” competition that launched in the Fall 2019 and in the Spring 2020 semesters.
This is a recognition that, as coordinator for the Architecture and Interior Design program at Kent State University Florence, I deem especially important. First of all because it constantly documents the growth and evolution of our didactic program. Secondly, because it enhances a dialogue among students and challenges them individually, while also reminding them of the experiences and abilities of their own colleagues.
In particular, the competition was open to all students enrolled in the Architecture and Interior Design studios at Kent State University, Florence Program. It celebrated emerging student talent by awarding the top student work.
We evaluated a very varied array of design proposals (on four different sites - the area around the Torrino di Santa Rosa in
the San Frediano neighborhood, Piazza dei Ciompi, the Uffizi and Palazzo Spini Feroni - and with different design programs - a community center and a park, a piazza and a playground, a museum for the visual arts) which represent, overall, a testimony of the academic activity in the two semesters.
A jury composed by Kent State University Florence design studio faculty (professors Filippo Caprioglio, Alberto Francini, Paola Giaconia, Andrea Ponsi) and faculty from Kent State University CAED (professors Ivan Bernal and Jon Yoder in Fall 2019; professors Ivan Bernal, Charles Graves, Mark Mistur, David Thal, Jon Yoder and William Willoughby in Spring 2020) selected the winners.
The top projects were selected based on:
• quality of the project;
• effectiveness of its presentation.
10 merit awards were issued to these Architecture students:
• Dymon Beckum
• Reece Berry
• Elizabeth Burkhart
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PAOLA GIACONIA, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY FLORENCE CAED COORDINATOR
• Peter Copetas
• Chloe Froning
• Dylan Herrmann-Holt
• Rachel Kidd
• Jack Mc Michael
• David Merchant
• Alix Wilson
4 merit awards were issued to these Interior Design students:
• Rachel Gesin
• Elizabeth Koenig
• Madelyn Orcutt
• Amanda Steiner
And 1 merit award was issued to this Architectural Studies student:
• Jean Paul Soto-Torrado
Commencement ceremonies were held at the Teatro della Compagnia in Florence, on the occasion of the end-of-semester school celebration, in Fall 2019; and in a virtual celebration in Spring 2020.
Winners were given a certificate and were awarded with the publication of their project in this booklet. Also, the winning entries were displayed at the end-of-semester school reception.
As a series, these booklets represent a comprehensive trajectory of the school’s design work and pedagogical identity developed at Kent State University, Florence program. They reflect the students’ educational experience during their semester abroad and together they aspire to gauge the progress the school has made in the course of the years.
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Most Inspiring Students’ Projects
Presentation of architecture studio projects
FILIPPO CAPRIOGLIO, ALBERTO FRANCINI, PAOLA GIACONIA, ANDREA PONSI
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The area of study of the Architecture Design Studio is the relationship between a building and its context. In particular, students were challenged with the task of understanding the role and place of contemporary architecture in the historic city center of Florence. They learnt to recognize and interpret the special character and quality of the historic environment; they understood the significance of the place; and they proposed new projects that, while speaking the language of their time, considered the authenticity and integrity of the local urban heritage.
In Fall 2019 the Architecture Studios - led by professors Alberto Francini and Paola Giaconia - dealt with the design of a community center and a park in the San Frediano district of Florence. The site, located by the Torrino di Santa Rosa, will become a place for social and cultural engagement, where users may recognize the value of the Arno river as an urban asset and a place where biodiversity may thrive.
In Spring 2020, under the guidance of professors Filippo Caprioglio, Alberto Francini, Paola Giaconia and Andrea Ponsi, the students worked on the redesign of Piazza dei Ciompi where a multi-program urban building yields unexpected synergies to revitalize the neighborhood.
The project sites and their programs offered the students an opportunity to focus their attention on issues related to construction in historical contexts as dealt with by contemporary architectural culture. Also both are architectural interventions that bear significant urban implications, especially relevant for the city of Florence at this time.
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The Architecture Studio project site in Fall 2019: the area around the Torrino di Santa Rosa.
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The Architecture Studio project site in Spring 2020: Piazza dei Ciompi and the Loggia del Pesce.
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Presentation of interior design studio projects
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FABIO BARLUZZI, FEDERICO GRAZZINI
The KSU Florence Interior Design Studio fosters an interdisciplinary approach and aims at promoting critical thinking on the disciplines and activities that shape our environment. In particular, it provides an understanding of the Italian and European approach to interior and architectural design in comparison with the American one, together with the discovery and exploration of Italian and European urban environments and designs in historical contexts.
In Fall 2019, the Interior Design studio led by professor Federico Grazzini dealt with one of the most important sites and projects of contemporary Florence. The students were asked to conceive a new exit for the Uffizi Gallery towards Piazza del Grano and a new design for the square itself, set to become an important gathering place in the historical city centre. The design for a new exit for the Uffizi Gallery is a long-time necessity for the city of Florence and for the museum itself, one of the most visited cultural institutions in Europe and the world.
The main Interior design project for the 2020 Spring semester was dealing with the adaptation of a historic Florentine Palace, Palazzo Spini-Feroni, into a Museum for the Visual Arts. The Palazzo is a very grand prototype of medieval architecture and was the seat of the City Council in the decade
when Florence was capital of Italy. Professors Fabio Barluzzi and Federico Grazzini guided the students in a careful historical analysis of the building. This was the premise to the project: students were asked to define the collection of the museum and then conceive the spaces around the selected artworks. This put the young designers in the special and interesting condition to be both the curator and the designer of their own museum.
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The Interior Design Studio project site in Fall 2019: the Uffizi Gallery exit.
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The Interior Design Studio project site in Spring 2020: Palazzo Spini Feroni.
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Students’ Projects
Interior Design
