re-appropriation
2010
workshop
architecture
international
milano
miaw
Milano Architectural International Workshop (MIAW) 2010 is an initiative promoted by a multidisciplinary group of colleagues working in the Master of Science programs in Architecture and Urban Planning at the School of Architecture and Society of Politecnico di Milano that involves its students and a number of international guest tutors. The focus of MIAW is the city of Milano. The idea for 2010 edition was to develop design explorations along the definition of the key word ‘re-appropriation’. Policy makers, architects and artists have more and more to deal with unexpected uses, raising demands for the use of spatial resources different from the one resulting from institutional planning rules or consolidated traditions and power assets. From the variety of spaces and situations, MIAW illustrated possible scenarios capable to revitalize these dormant places. The MIAW outcomes display different possibilities and contexts as well as a variety of design solutions, interventions, languages and expressive tools.
Curators Lorenzo Bini Massimo Bricocoli Antonella Bruzzese Giancarlo Floridi Andrea Gritti Paolo Mestriner Ingrid Paoletti Matteo Poli Massimiliano Spadoni Luigi Spinelli Miaw 2010 Coordinator Gennaro Postiglione
Contents
008 Introduction
014 028 038 050 066 078 092 104
Projects WS.01 / Sami Rintala WS.02 / John Nastasi WS.03 / Alexander Rรถmer WS.04 / Silja Tillner WS.05 / Enric Massip-Bosch WS.06 / TallerDe2 WS.07 / Anouk Vogel WS.08 / Adam Kurdahl
WS.01 Sami Rintala*
with Paolo Mestriner and Massimiliano Spadoni Participants Erica Borsa Simone Bossi Marco Carrara Laura Di Donfrancesco Tamara Dinic Federico Dottorini Anna Chiara Leardini Federica Manenti Maria Marzia Minelli Yasaman Rezaee Pietro Sala Aster Sittoni Michele Sordi Zui Tao Hande Yildiz Federico Zarattini
* Sami Rintala, architect and artist, founder of Rintala Eggertsson Architects (Oslo), his
work is based on narrative and conceptualism. Resulting work is a layered interpretation of the physical, mental and poetic resources of the site: Sixty Minute Man (Venice Biennale 2000), Land(e)scape (1999).
WS.01 / Sami Rintala / 017
It’s business time! Business time, or re appropriation of real value The concept is to discuss and criticize the western capitalist winning philosophy of measuring all human activity in economic value, and in this way leaving many interesting and meaningful ideas unused/ unstudied as they do not posses the seemingly necessary idea of short-term gain or maximum productivity. Our cities have become a no man’s land of non personal corporate buildings, sterile commercial spaces and oversized traffic systems; something to pass by or to consume. We live in a series of spaces of no special interest, a non-place. It is time to reclaim the human environment from the uncivilized hordes of money-makers. We need a good business plan. 1. Day We try to find the best ‘business idea’ for a specific site in the university area. We will create a ‘business plan’ that is rooted on other deeper and more real human needs, and to make a small ‘gas station’ or ‘shopping mall’ or ‘kiosk’ for selling these values, for everyone’s gain. A good business needs a logo, a name and market strategy as well, so these will be exploited.
022
WS.03 Alexander Römer*
with Giancarlo Floridi, Lorenzo Castellini and Anna Spreafico Participants Massimo Adami Elisa Boscarato Klodeta Krasniqi Arcangelo Mazza Marina Meloni Elisa Meroni Giulia Molino Lova Nicola Petaccia Chiara Pieri Ilaria Quirico Silvia Rota Elena Soltesova Dhu Yang Yezi Zhang Maddalena Scarsella Paolo Ceresatto Chiara Ferrario Izabel Rainer Harbach Juliana Gotilla
* Alexander Römer has started the idea of ConstructLab due to the professional background as carpenter, journeyman and architect. He is involved in collective EXYZT’s projects: Southwark Lido (London), City Eco Lab (Saint Etienne Design Biennale 2008), Metavilla (Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006).
WS.03 / Alexander Römer / 041
Politecnico arcipelago
The idea behind ConstructLab’s practice is to rediscover a constructive intelligence in materials themselves, to design at the same time as we handle the material. It is not about technical prowess but rather finding a common sense approach whose building techniques can be appropriated and used by everyone. ConstructLab is more about the approach to, rather than the method of, building. ConstructLab’s work integrates environmental awareness from conception to realisation. Projects includes recycled materials and are designed and built with future re-use of the raw materials in mind. Constructlab workshop aim was to build new places through fiction becoming reality and playing ‘games’ or storyboards that can be new rules for spaces democracy. Re-appropriating spaces at Politecnico Campus wanted to encourage student creativity, reflexion and renew social behaviours. Considering space as made by dynamics of exchange, the workshop pushed students to be the architects of their world. Workshop’s interventions were directed through a transdisciplinary field, combining construction with video, graphic design, photography, designing a space for interaction, freedom, sharing, informality and unpredictability.
046 / WS.03 / Alexander Rรถmer
WS.03 / Alexander Rรถmer / 047
WS.04 Silja Tillner*
with Massimo Bricocoli and Antonella Bruzzese Participants Michael Angelo Albert Monica Corsaro Lia Crupi Fausto Cuzzocrea Vera Djurdjevic Edoardo Giancola Bich Le Ngoc Federico Marcantognini Alain Marino Aidin Naimi Baraghani Pietro Pedercini Andrea Poloni Yu Yoshii Dibnara Shakiba Marco Zenoni
* Silja Tillner studied Architecture at the TU Wien and Urban Design at UCLA Los Angeles. Since 1995 she runs her own office in Vienna in partnership with Alfred Willinger. Among her recent projects in Vienna: Urbion, the redevelopment of the Gürtel area and the ‘Skyline Spittelau’ Office building.
WS.04 / Silja Tillner / 053
Rubattino
Re-appropriation of…
Rubattino district and the re-appropriation issue: site and task Before starting the MIAW workshop a general thesis for approaching the topic of “re-appropriation” was postulated. The selection of a site fort he field work in the city was operated along a research and design line that could be summarized as “re–connecting individual pieces of the fragmented city fabric”. The general description of an expected but unknown situation was definingthe criteria for the site selection: “A neighborhood in the city of Milano with areas where the urban pattern has been separated by infrastructures (railways, highway, river,...) and has suffered as a consequence. Deterioration of buildings and open spaces as well as an abundance of left-over spaces in the vicinity of the dividing line are usually the visible results of these inner-city borders. Furthermore, these infrastructural elements are often followed by a buffer zone that even widens the interstice. Low-value uses and vacancies in adjacent buildings reflect the problems of the area.” The Rubattino district fits this description perfectly: although located close to the vibrant hub of ‘Città Studi’, a large university district, the area is separated from the central city of Milano by the railway-line that runs along its western and southern edge. Moreover, towards the east, the ‘Tangenziale Est’ freeway forms a barrier and causes a negative
060 / WS.04 / Silja Tillner
WS.04 / Silja Tillner / 061
WS.07 Anouk Vogel*
with Lorenzo Bini Participants Negar Abbasi Gauri Avasak Gabriele Borella Chiara Cabrini Luca Carizzoni Francesco Corona Michela Fancello Chiara Guerrieri Matteo Martella Raffaella Mira Brendan Patrick O’Donnell Alessandra Rimoldi Francesco Rondelli Elinor Sinai Maja Tanevska Erica Ubbiali Serena Vaccari
* Anouk Vogel was born in Geneva, Switzerland. She studied landscape architecture at the Metropolitan University of Manchester. She has been living in different countries and has worked for West 8, Bureau B+B, and Petra Blaisse. In 2007 she founded her own practice for landscape architecture and design in Amsterdam.
WS.07 / Anouk Vogel / 093
Darsena 2010
The history of Milan is closely connected with the system of canals that pass through the whole city. The Darsena harbour was built in 1603 and its basin is the only remaining evidence of the vast system of waterways in Milan. Until recent years the Darsena played a significant role in terms of urban life. Especially the younger population of Milan regarded it as an important meeting place. Every Saturday a flea market used to take place there. It is located in one of the most picturesque areas of Milan that is characterized by the Navigli. This part of the city is known for its boutiques, cafès, and artists ateliers. The area is particularly vibrant at night with its many restaurants and bars. Several years ago, the Darsena was earmarked for the development of an underground car park. Works on the site started and were stopped abruptly with the discovery of a section of the 16th-century walls dating back to the Spanish control of the city. This discovery leads to the Darsena being fenced off and abandoned. What the population used to regard as an attractive part of the city is now being considered as an unsightly wasteland. Because the water is continuously being pumped out of its basin, the bottom of the Darsena is now visible. It currently consists of partly bare hard surfaces, and partly of wet areas. The different conditions that are present on the site, combined with the fact that it hasn’t been accessible to the public for some time, has allowed a variety of urban flora and fauna to slowly colonized the former water basin. For the Miaw 2010 workshop, 16 students where asked to generate
096 / WS.07 / Anouk Vogel
WS.07 / Anouk Vogel / 097
WS.08 Adam Kurdahl*
with Matteo Poli and Chiara Geroldi Participants Benedetta Bardeili Tommaso Conti Katerina Dimova Ugo Gorgone Dario Gusmini Berk Kangoz Serena Maria La Placa Silvia Lista Samaneh Rezvani Virna Luihi Paolo Pedrini Giovanna Reggiori Martina Romano Elisabetta Rota Gerardo Semprebon Amir Ebn Sharif Veronica Siciliano
* Adam Kurdahl is partner in Space Group Architects. Space Group Architects is an
international Norwegian practice working in large scale urban planning, urbanism and large projects in the public realm. Adam Kurdahl and Space Group has won numerous prizes for their work, among others first prize in Archiprix International. Prior to Space Group Adam Kurdahl worked with OMA, Rotterdam.
WS.08 / Adam Kurdahl / 105
Appropriating Milan / Milan appropriated
Milan is an anomaly among Italian cities. Milan doesn’t suffer under the clichés of the archetypical picturesque Italian city. Milan is the one city in Italy, which not burden with its historical past, has managed to rethink itself. It has since the rebuilding been the engine of Italy for good and bad. Originally as a result of its strength within art and design Milan has become known for its fairs and venues. Development has turned the city from a producer of ideas to an importer of ideas. The furniture are no longer designed in Milan, its star architects are imported (‘New International Style’), the new peers in fashion are educated in London. We no longer travel to Milan, we travel to its fairs. Milan is ripe for a second rebirth. 1 million people live in Comune di Milano, 7 million people around the city; Milan reveals for us the collapse of the European centric city model. It has become inherently unsustainable. For the last 30 years Milan the population of Milan has declined. Simultaneously the surroundings have been sprawling. The sprawl has a density that should suggest urbanity, the region around Milan is one of the densest populated in Europe. The region of Milan is mono centric. Commuter traffic suffocates Milan on a daily basis. The city centre is increasingly becoming a caricature of itself; brand shops, brand bars, brand hotels, brand brands. The city is becoming mono functional. The city cannot sustain its own cultural production; from diverse culture to consumer
108 / WS.08 / Adam Kurdahl
WS.08 / Adam Kurdahl / 109