Syllabus 02 - Architecture Research Agenda

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Alessandro Rocca - Design, research and methods Stamatina Kousidi - Primers, partis, prototypes: towards new methodological approaches in architectural design research Andrea Gritti - At a critical distance. The experience of the virtual classroom in a Ph.D. course in architecture Li Jiaxi - Synthetic landscapes, capable to deal with coastal issues Liu Xiaoyun - Healing the vacancy Alessia Macchiavello - incrE(LE)MENTAL PREVision reseARCH Oljer Cardenas Nino - Pierre Jeanneret housing projects Marianna Frangipane - Narrative as a design tool in marginal landscapes Carla Rizzo - Architectural plans Francesca Gotti - Multi-public groundscapes Li Xiang - Architecture without architects Hu Dan - Participatory new vernacular public buildings Lu Zhaozhan - Participation methodologies Sara Anna Sapone - The agency of nature Kevin Santus - Nature based solutions for climate change Hailong Chai - A design strategy for underground space based on TOD-Hubs Cecilia Cempini - Design the spaces of mediation Pablo Gamboa Samper - The university campus and the city of Bogotá Valentina Dall’Orto - Country after people Sarah Javed Shah - Urban and interior public spaces Rose Ann Mishio - Architecture in the pandemic Carla Bulone - Graphene in building construction Liheng Zhu - Crime prevention in urban parks Adrian Moredia Valek - Cooling Cities: Innovative water-based cooling systems

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Syllabus is a Pedagogical Supplement of FUOCO AMICO Architectural Review ISSN 2385-2291 Syllabus presents experiences and research made inside formative courses at different levels: bachelor, master, doctorate.

The goal is to offer these results, provisional and incomplete as they can be, to the scientific community, enhancing dialogues and exchanges.

Scientific Board Andrea Gritti, Stamatina Kousidi, Alessandro Rocca (Ph.D. Program of Architectural Urban Interior Design, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano) Editor in Chief Alessandro Rocca Kevin Santus collaborated at the editing of this issue. ©2022 MMXII Press piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 26 20133 - Milano MMXIIpress@gmail.com

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contents Alessandro Rocca - Design, research and methods

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Stamatina Kousidi - Primers, partis, prototypes: towards new methodological approaches in architectural design research

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Andrea Gritti - At a critical distance. The experience of the virtual classroom in a Ph.D. course in architecture

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contents architecture research agenda

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Li Jiaxi - Synthetic landscapes, capable to deal with coastal issues Liu Xiaoyun - Healing the vacancy Alessia Macchiavello - incrE(LE)MENTAL PREVision reseARCH Oljer Cardenas Nino - Pierre Jeanneret housing projects Marianna Frangipane - Narrative as a design tool in marginal landscapes Carla Rizzo - Architectural plans Francesca Gotti - Multi-public groundscapes

029 047 065 083 103 117 135

Li Xiang - Architecture without architects Hu Dan - Participatory new vernacular public buildings Lu Zhaozhan - Participation methodologies Sara Anna Sapone - The agency of nature Kevin Santus - Nature based solutions for climate change Hailong Chai - A design strategy for underground space based on TOD-Hubs Cecilia Cempini - Design the spaces of mediation

147 163 173 183 207 227 237

Pablo Gamboa Samper - The university campus and the city of Bogotá Valentina Dall’Orto - Country after people Sarah Javed Shah - Urban and interior public spaces Rose Ann Mishio - Architecture in the pandemic Carla Bulone - Graphene in building construction Liheng Zhu - Crime prevention in urban parks Adrian Moredia Valek - Cooling Cities: Innovative water-based cooling systems

247 257 267 291 319 333 343

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Architecture Research Agenda

Alessandro Rocca Design, research, and methods

Alessandro Rocca is a professor of Architectural and Urban Design and the Head of the Ph.D. Program of Architectural Urban Interior Design at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano.

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The framework of the research undertaken by AUID doctoral students in the first semester traces a very varied landscape and often with interdisciplinary characteristics.

Concerning the centrality of the architectural project, the backbone of the program, almost all the proposals introduce external elements involving other-dimensional scales, social and technical problems, and references to ecological, urban, and landscape issues.

Furthermore, the Anthropocene question is manifest in many proposals, and we could say that it is a kind of shared background. Therefore, a sphere of reflection spontaneously arises around the destiny of the architectural project in the face of a new relationship with natural elements: people and other living forms, territories, life on the planet.

Classical themes remain marginal, such as architectural composition, urban morphology and building typology, architectural theory, architectural design, the relationship between design and construction. For Ph.D. students, it seems that architecture has lost the characteristics of autonomy that have been dominant for a period of about half a century. On the other hand, architectural research focuses, above all, on the themes of the crisis. With a clear return to a neo-functionalist and neo-modernist attitude, architecture again seems a problem-solving practice. The main point in

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starting the research is the perimeter of a problem essential not only for scientific research but also for a community.

This attitude foreshadows excellent opportunities and some risks. The vantages are obvious: architecture, taking on solving general collective problems and not those that instead concern it exclusively, is a practical, generous science aimed at the common good. After decades in which architecture mainly aimed at celebrating different political, economic, and cultural powers, this turn seeks to recover a different role, certainly more popular, from a moral point of view, and more understandable for non-specialist interlocutors. And, more generally, for society. The immediate effect of this opening to the world is the activation of a dialogue with other disciplines and non-scientific actors, social and political subjects who cross the research trajectories and benefit from its results.

By reviewing the research proposals, we find topics of broad interest that pose a specific problem: how to bring a general question, such as climate change, to a design dimension. Jiaxi Li accepts this challenge, tackling the planetary question of sea-level rise by identifying some theoretical formats, such as Sponge City, and proposing a Design-Driven Research path that addresses the issue in precisely identified areas.

Numerous researches investigate Natural Based Solutions.

Sara Anna Sapone places emphasis above all on the topic of

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Architecture Research Agenda

the Smart City, where “the goal is to realize living architecture and environment, able to perceive and respond: an animated interface between humans and their habitat.” Kevin Santus studies “the role of Nature-based solution and Circular economy within the design transition due to the climate change,” elaborating operational links “from global issues to specific actions.” Adrian Moredia’s research on tools to reduce the effects of the heat island in the urban environment is of in-depth technical analysis regarding the broad theme of global warming.

Also linked to the reform of urban space is Hailong Chai’s research, which focuses on the use and development of the Urban Underground Space concerning infrastructures and high-density areas. An even more specifically technical nature is Carla Bulone’s work on the possible services, in the architecture, of a material with a high technological quotient such as graphene.

Xiaoyun Liu’s theme aligns with the policies of the Chinese government and sees the redemption of rural territories, in social and productive terms, as a strategic field of operation.

The vernacular architecture studio of the Dong villages in South-West China aims to distinguish the possible elements of continuity by creating a new architecture with the necessary technical and typological adjustments. Also, in

this case, the project applies to an indicated case study, the village of Gaobu, characterized by aging and depopulation phenomena, where half of the houses are abandoned. Xiang Li also studies a rural area in China, the Jiulong River Delta in Fujian Province, trying to understand and design the architectural urban-rural continuum with architectures in dialogue with the past and the future.

The study of vernacular architecture is the starting point of Zhaozhan Lu, with “a research which aims at exploring participatory design methods for promoting place identities of contemporary architectural design via Design-Driven research methods, with a focus on public community buildings.”

The Rural Revitalization Strategy government program is the context of Dan Hu’s research, which “proposes to develop a low-tech Ecological Rural Settlement model based on the research and the evaluation of existing settlements.”

Valentina Dall’Orto tackles similar themes, the project of rural living, in the Loja region, in southern Ecuador.

The theme of low-cost housing is also at the center of “IncrE (LE) MENTAL PREvision ReseARCH”, by Alessia Macchiavello. Her research addresses “the problems of social housing in the countries of the South of the world,” thus immersing the themes typical of architectural design

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in the vast social and economic problems of the Global South. Starting from the model indicated by the Mexican collective firm Elemental, Macchiavello investigates other previous experiences, such as Previ (Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda), waiting to define its field of investigation and design action.

Marianna Frangipane observes the marginal contexts in the Milanese area with particular attention to narrative and participatory techniques in architectural design. Also referring to vulnerable populations are the studies of RoseAnne Mishio, who seeks new architectural typologies for weak social categories concerning well-being, comfort, personal and group interaction.

Liheng Zhang explores similar topics but transposes them into the public space, recognizing that the Urban Green Spaces “play a vital role in the contemporary society, and they are an indispensable part of people’s lives. Considering elements of social cohesion, health security, and participation.

The main purpose is to combine relevant theories with actual construction through the design-driven research method to further illustrate the feasibility of this approach.”

In Francesca Gotti’s research, there is a strong focus on participatory logic and social behaviors in public spaces. In analyzing the formal characters, Gotti includes techniques

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of ethnographic research, developing a transdisciplinary perspective.

Sarah Javed Shah also focuses on public space, internal and external, seeking a relationship between the tradition of the Walled City of Lahore (Punjab, Pakistan) and recent architectural research that creates other models of public space. Case studies are OMA’s Seattle Library, the Parasol, in Sevilla, by Jürgen Meyer, the TEK Building in Taipei, Taiwan,

by Bjarke Ingels Group.

Cecilia Cempini assumes the study of the soil as a decisive factor in understanding the relationship between natural and built environments, focusing on the border areas between urban and rural.

The research that draws on the history of architecture is of a different kind. Niño Oljer Cardenas, for example, sets out to analyze the work of Pierre Jeanneret, a 20thcentury hero overshadowed by his irrepressible cousin, the great Le Corbusier. The fields of study are housing and technological innovation, investigated because Jeanneret’s example may be helpful to reformulate the terms of our reflection. A challenging goal to pursue. The Latins said “historia magistra vitae,” but this transport from an era before ours is always complicated and requires a significant injection of imagination. Above all, it appears necessary to

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develop an original working methodology because it is up to the researcher to graft on issues of a bygone era, relevant elements for today. Pablo Gamboa Samper studies the architecture of university campuses starting from classic modernist examples, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s IIT in Chicago, intending to introduce new architectural parameters on the campus of the National University of Bogotà.

Some Ph.D. Students ground their research on historical references, which only works if the researcher can act as an author, imposing new techniques and languages about the investigation and exposition. As examples of this literature, we recall Project Japan: Metabolism Talks (2011), by Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist, and the two books

by Peter Eisenman Giuseppe Terragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Critiques (1986), and Palladio Virtuel (2015). In these three types of research, the personality of the architect-author resonates, and sometimes even in conflict, with the architecture analyzed, generating a knowledge that goes beyond historical data and instead becomes a theoretical and critical contribution to architectural design.

Carla Rizzo’s work focuses on architectural design, analyzing above all the plan as a generative schedule of the project and as a parameter for the critical analysis of architecture.

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Overall, we see a great variety of themes and places and a concentration of research on common macro-areas, such as climate change, public space, Global South, and social and territorial fragility elements. On the other hand, we also see a strong homogeneity in foreseeing a substantial part of the work through the methodology of Design Driven Research. We introduced this methodology in the Manifesto of the AUID program, and we intend to develop it with an experimental approach. The main goal is to understand the most effective ways of keeping research and project together and, on a more general level, the specific knowledge of architecture and the world in which it operates.

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Architecture Research Agenda

Stamatina Kousidi Primers, partis, prototypes: towards new methodological approaches in architectural design research

Stamatina Kousidi is an associate professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano.

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This new beginning, and the long build-up that followed, has been concerned with inducing, as it were, into the bloodstream of the architect an understanding and feeling for the patterns, the aspirations, the artifacts, the tools, the modes of transportation and communications of present-day society, so that he can as a natural thing build towards that society’s realization-of-itself.

– A. Smithson, ed., Team 10 Primer, 1968 The new architect will know by his previous workshop training that only the closest collaboration of art, science, and technology guarantees an organic building, purposeful in both the physical and socio-biological sense.

– L. Moholy-Nagy, The New Vision; and, Abstract of an Artist, 1947 C’est qu’il m’importe sur toute chose, d’obtenir de ce qui va être, qu’il satisfasse, avec toute la vigueur de sa nouveauté, aux exigences raisonnables de ce qui a été. Comment ne pas être obscur ?

– P. Valéry, Eupalinos ou l’architecte précédé de l’Âme et la Danse, 1923

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Architecture Research Agenda

Issues of novelty, originality, newness have always been central to architectural practice and thinking. Built and written works are most often additions to already existing contexts and bodies of literature, corrective acts on parts of an already existing framework, physical or material, theoretical or ideological. This issue brings together works that derive from the Architecture Research Agenda course (proff. Rocca, Gritti, Kousidi) held during the first year of the doctoral program in Architectural Urban and Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano in spring 2021: a period that was marked by fervent discussions on the demand for renewal. Architecture is once again faced with the challenge to define “new roles of the architect:” to pave the way into new research directions, new modes of practices, new narratives, and new visions of the ways in which we inhabit, share, and appropriate, and at the same time understand, shape, and interpret, the built environments around us. The essays in this collection address this need, by focusing on crucial issues of architectural design, namely public interiors, new vernacular architecture, resilience and adaptation, future living, and by outlining possible strategies towards these issues. In this light, they may be regarded as research primers, partis or prototypes: Their viewpoints regarding design may vary, but common to their stance is the structuring of new

methodological approaches in architectural design research.

As the four central themes comprising the essays suggest (Position Project; References; Key Words – Key Projects; Paper), their shared point of departure has been a critical reflection on knowledge gained from previous design experiences. Preliminary knowledge, in the form of tacit knowledge, was understood as a driving force for the first take towards the definition of a subject matter and the limits of a specific field of operation. Design held a central role in the externalisation, elaboration, and representation of this knowledge; it was intended as an expressive tool, able to articulate the conceptual boundaries of a research project.

First works – manifestoes, projects, books, buildings, primers – have held a somewhat mythical position in architectural discussions: visionary and original, they have paved the way for further research, design, and teaching programs. In his introduction of the exhibition catalogue First Works: Emerging Architectural Experimentation of the 1960s and 1970s, Brett Steel underlines how these works point to the close connection between theory and practice, as “questions associated with beginnings are inevitably – simultaneously – problems of a practical and theoretical nature” (Steele 2009). In a similar vein, theory and practice complement one

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another in this issue, shedding light on a reciprocal critical process of documentation, organization, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, proposition and so on.

different scales and spatial contexts and are the result of critical processes of redrawing and/or speculation, thereby emerging as essential media for knowledge.

In particular, the role of design in research and vice versa the role of research in design is at the center of attention, with the claim to map new methodological frameworks in architectural research. By focusing on the study of past design references, the essays explore the notion of design as a critical-analytical tool which oscillates between objectivity and subjectivity, fact and abstraction (Cardenas, Cempini). Conversely, they question the notion of design as a generative-propositional tool, as the central part of a creative process which, founded on a solid theoretical framework, is capable of leading to site-specific design guidelines and solutions (Chai, Li Jiaxi, Moredia). “[I]f we want to discover the real quality of our being together,” Giancarlo de Carlo pointed out in 1967, “it is important to face the meaning of our theoretical statements through the forms we are able to give them in our architectural production” (de Carlo: Smithson 1968, 4). The dialectic relationship between writing, drawing, and building continues to play a key role in architectural design research today. Collages and diagrams, sections and details, maps and illustrations cross between

History has been of pivotal importance to this investigation.

The study and contextualization of specific design works, projects, and processes, in their original chronological framework, has aimed at a better understanding of the ways theory and practice may interrelate. Not with the aim to “update past experiences,” but with intent “to extract, or rather ‘distil’ the conceptual core” of an architect’s thought, “not by analyzing his writings, but by putting those writings in relation to the built works, because architecture speaks, with silent eloquence, but with its own language, and there is not always a precise coincidence between theories and works” (Gravagnuolo 2012, 18). On the other hand, the study of historical precedents has also attempted to connect past phenomena to contemporary design issues, exploring the ways in which these have influenced subsequent architectural processes, built forms, and theories on form, as well as the foundations of current views, of an ecological, social, or cultural nature, that may drive shifts in architectural thinking and practice.

Architecture Research Agenda

A first set of essays engages with historical traditions, through field research, empirical knowledge, observation, and experience, designating an area of operation which includes the study of past phenomena through obtaining non-mediated impressions of architectural artefacts and spaces (Dall’Orto, Frangipane, Liu, Macchiavello, Zhu). A second set of essays sets out to map historical continuities with reference to research inquiries that center around an in-depth comparative analysis of architectural forms, in connection to buildings for housing, for education, for the community (Rizzo, Gamboa, Li Xiang, Lu, Zhu). These inquiries aim at revealing stratifications of architectural production and culture: They acknowledge the need to trace the new in the old, to understand past narratives in new ways, to create new genealogies of constructed forms, meaningful in present sociocultural contexts, in the sense of Kenneth Frampton’s definition of a certain branch of the comparative process as able to constitute “a genealogy in itself, in as much as by passing from one comparative analysis to the next, one reveals the pattern of a constantly changing value system as expressed through the open-ended evolution of architectural culture over time” (Frampton 2015).

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Several of the essays, however, look beyond the boundaries of architecture to elucidate prevalent phenomena in the field of architecture. The authors are driven by a keen interest to reveal how certain issues connected with the built environment belong to a shared terrain with other disciplines, that are intersecting with architectural thinking, in search of common discursive territories that have the potential to reevaluate the tools, processes, and techniques that underpin architectural design today (Gotti, Javed Shah). Crossdisciplinary inquiries have always characterized architectural practices and discussions. In the context of the environmental crisis, however, their spectrum extends beyond the fields of engineering, history, science, the arts, and the humanities to address a broader spectrum of areas of knowledge concerned with the relation between architecture and notions of ecology.

In consequence, a particular branch of the essays draws upon cross-disciplinary intersections that shed light on the complex relations between natural and built environments, biology and technology, technical and aesthetic demands, stressing the need to study architectural artefacts as parts of a broader system (Hu, Li, Mishio, Santus, Sapone). The prompt “to try to distinguish and clarify […] a theoretical process within the description and limits of our artistic practice, not to isolate

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ourselves but to move from it towards a dialogue with other theories and practices, each starting from its own historicallydefined and in-the-process-of-mutation essence” (Gregotti 2008, 42) becomes, in this regard, even more relevant today: Owing to ever-increasing sustainability demands, the agency, the networks and the synergies of architecture are put under close scrutiny.

The governing principle of the essays in question is to introduce the central hypothesis that each project puts forward, and to which the various verbal and non-verbal parts of the final research work will ultimately correspond. In the spirit of a parti diagram, defined “as a system of relations that indicates both the overall character of the design” (Pai 2002, 250) and its precise details, the essays can be regarded as preliminary critical positions targeted at mapping out a prospective ‘system of relations’. “The term parti,” Hyungmin Pai reminds us, “derives from the phrase prendre parti (to take a side, make a decision)” and it represents “the critical founding act of design” (ivi, 43), aligning the various architectural needs with their proper correlations. Uptakes of architectural research are increasingly called on today “to take a side,” to relate this ‘critical founding act of design’ to issues of reform and revision. The essays in this collection therefore

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share a kindred approach: They comprise individual critical stances towards architectural research, situated in the present, with the distinct purpose to open up new perspectives for conceiving and interpreting architecture, oriented towards the future.

Bibliography Frampton, Kenneth. 2015. A Genealogy of Modern Architecture.

Comparative Critical Analysis of Built Form. Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers.

Gravagnuolo, Benedetto. 2012. L’ultima lezione. Ornamento e pensiero in Adolf Loos. Naples: CLEAN. Gregotti, Vittorio. 2008. Contro la fine dell’architettura. Torino: Giulio Einaudi.

Moholy-Nagy, László. 1947. The New Vision; and, Abstract of an Artist. New York: Wittenborn.

Pai, Hyungmin. 2002. The Portfolio and the Diagram. Architecture, Discourse, and Modernity in America. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Smithson, Alison. ed. 1968. Team 10 Primer. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Steele, Brett. 2009. “Last Laughs, and Plenty to Say: The Communicative Imperative of an Architect’s First Work,” in First Works: Emerging Architectural Experimentation of the 1960s and 1970s, edited by Brett Steele and Francisco González de Canales.

London: Architectural Association.

Valéry, Paul. 1923. Eupalinos ou l’architecte précédé de l’Âme et la Danse. Paris: Gallimard.

All translations are by the author, unless otherwise stated.

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Architecture Research Agenda

Andrea Gritti At a critical distance.

The experience of the virtual classroom in a Ph.D. course in architecture

Andrea Gritti is an associate professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano.

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- The “distance” that we should try to inhabit, first of all, is not our property. Nor is it - not only and not in the first place - a void into which we are thrown or even tossed. It is, instead, a distance to be built in the sense that we must make it habitable, defend it, possibly make it an instrument against blindness, deafness, aphasia. Risks that we run when proximity becomes a tight and suffocating dress, almost a straitjacket with its set of fascinations. In reality, what we need today is breathing: spaces and times to think, pauses, cavities, play spaces, to be able to move and give meaning to our lives.

Pier Aldo Rovatti, Abitare la distanza, 2007

Architecture Research Agenda

When the second edition of the Architectural Research Agenda (A.R.A.) course began, reserved for those enrolled in the first year of the AUID Ph.D. program of the Politecnico di Milano, a year had passed since the beginning of the pandemic. Therefore, behind the teachers and students, there was an impotent mobilization of opinions about the role of architecture in different fields: reshaping cultural and social practices, reconfiguring essential services and infrastructures, and experimenting with new forms of living. In the light of an emergency that had quickly assumed the syndemic proportions (Singer, 2009), that debate, like other analogs, had rapidly polarized around agendas supported by trust or distrust placed in digital technologies, seen as helpful or harmful tools for the reconfiguration of cities and territories based on new or old temporal and spatial balances. During the winter and spring of 2021, the emphasis or skepticism that accompanied mainstream slogans (“living in the city of 15 minutes”, “repopulating of abandoned villages,” etc.) were already showing the difficulties of architectural culture against the pandemic shock. The cyclical division between “apocalyptic” and “integrated” (Eco 1964) had been reproposed, preventing the elaboration of a shared thought not even on the space, almost entirely virtual, in which that debate was taking place.

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The reflections on the mutations caused on the environments of social life by the application of the rules of “physical distancing” (Žižek 2020) have mostly run aground on the rocks that opposed, in a biopolitical key, community, and immunity (Agamben 2020). Yet there had been no shortage, and of course, there is no shortage, of ideas to measure the architectural manifestations of “dromology” (Virilio 1984) or the spatial consequences of the “immune paradigm” (Esposito 2002) or the ways through which to “inhabit the distance” (Rovatti 1994, 2007). With this title, the philosopher Pier Aldo Rovatti has published a book for the first time in 1994 that invited us to question the anthropological paradox that reveals the “distance” through the search for places to “stay.” Even though countless clues were scattered along the paths already traveled to display new research directions, it is not improper to say that the reflection on the consequences of the pandemic was a missed opportunity for architectural culture. This observation would suffice to consider this syllabus a helpful document. Carried out entirely in a virtual classroom, in an era characterized by health restrictions and attempts to overcome them through technological tools, the A.R.A. course is a significant sample to record how doctoral research in architecture has been oriented during the pandemic year 2021.

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The agendas of architectural research This syllabus collects the results of a monographic course in which 21 Ph.D. students have set as many agendas for architectural research. An agenda is a reasoned diary to plan tasks. For those attending a Ph.D. in architecture, an agenda is an essential tool to remember, day by day, to assign to the project the role it deserves.

An architectural research agenda has the task of preventing the project from slipping into rearguard positions from where it risks being a useless ornament, allowing it, on the contrary, to remain at the top of the list of reasons for the research. As in any agenda, in the texts elaborated by the Ph.D. candidates of the A.R.A. course, it is easy to find lists of books to read, topics to be treated, keywords, concepts, drawings, and images to contemplate, analyze and deepen. In the background appears a map of the networks – discourses, theories, and ideas – that support contemporary research in design-driven architecture. As in every agenda, the 21 texts collected here contain the self-assessment of how the research priorities have been proposed, organized, and written. In particular, the authors used the agendas to indicate the theoretical works that inspired them and the case studies they applied.

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A significant sample Analyzing the research titles proposed by the authors, an apparent detachment from the health emergency emerges, being only one explicitly mentions the pandemic. One might think that 21 Ph.D. candidates from all over the world took advantage of the virtual classroom where they met periodically to adopt the Decameron narrative scheme. In the hundred novels of Boccaccio’s masterpiece, the plague can only be considered the pretext, circumscribed and temporary, thanks to which to deal with the most relevant themes of late medieval society and culture.

However, just rereading the titles of the texts that appear in this syllabus, it is easy to realize that almost all the research addresses the issues highlighted by the pandemic in systemic terms, which we have learned to appreciate by rereading the analyses of David Quammen (Quammen 2012).

A good part of the research has chosen to identify their priorities with the study of ecological and environmental emergencies. In parallel, an equally significant number has focused on public and community space themes or on strategies and tactics that promote participation in design disciplines. Alongside these research lines, the explorations dedicated to the domestic environment understood as a frontier space and those reflecting on the relationship

Architecture Research Agenda

between tradition and innovation have also taken shape.

The missed opportunities of distance learning The teachers and students of the A.R.A. course are among the many who have recognized in “distance learning” the extensive application of technologies, which already supported “face-to-face teaching”: platforms for remote connection, devices for the production of digital content, etc.

From these technologies, perfected in the telecommunications sector, the virtual classrooms have drawn most of their tools, limiting to a minimum the adoption of those developed in the e-learning and digital-learning fields. Perhaps because of this excessive confidence with the medium, few have bothered to represent in architectural terms the virtual space into which teaching and public debate had migrated. Thus, advanced studies in architecture have missed the opportunity to renew a vast repertoire of research, which in the past had been dedicated to the representation of multidimensional spaces on simplified supports, thanks to the use, per example, of “lucida” and “dark” rooms (Barthes 1980, Hammond and Austin 1987, Hockney 2006).

The virtual classroom space A virtual classroom is a multimedia polyhedron, with

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variable complexity, at the top of which are located the digital workstations of the participants in the lessons. According to the technology adopted, the classroom is represented as a section of the original polyhedron on the interconnected screens of teachers and students. The same technology also guarantees the selective reproduction of sound contributions, coming from the vertices able to transmit them. As in the actual classroom, also in the virtual one, teachers and students assume precise postures that respond, ultimately, to proxemic principles (Hall 1974), learned in “face-toface teaching” and adapted (or transfigured) at a “distance learning”. The enigmatic placement of the bodies in their respective environment and the obsessive reproduction of reflected images deprives the guests of the virtual classroom of the possibility of storing the data derived from their own spatial experience. The correction of these alienating effects would require, in fact, the adoption of privileged points of view, such as those experienced in cinematographic masterpieces such as “The Lady of Shanghai” or “Rear Window” (Berthomé and Thomas 2008).

Bodies, spaces and environments of research Given the starting conditions, it is impossible to demonstrate that the virtual classroom space has decisively influenced

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the drafting of the agendas collected here. However, the exceptional situation in which this teaching experience took place allows us to hypothesize that the environment in which the research priorities matured was a potentially distorting factor both of their form and content. Studying these anamorphisms (Baltrušaitis 1978) with the tools, methods, and techniques of doctoral research in architecture is probably a goal that, in the immediate future, may be worth trying before being distracted by new and, only apparently, more urgent agendas. Bad that it goes will be an opportunity to resume some interrupted research on the relationship between the body and the inhabited space (Bloomer & Moore 1978, Wagner & Cepl 2014), which today more than ever should constitute the foundation of the theories and practices of architecture.

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Bibliography Baltrušaitis, Jurgis. 1978. Anamorfosi o Thaumaturgus opticus.

Milano: Adelphi.

Barthes, Roland. 1980. La chambre claire. Note sur la photographie.

Paris: Gallimard.

Berthomé, Jean-Pierre, and François Thomas. 2008. Orson Welles at Work. London: Phaidon Press.

Bloomer Kent C., and Charles W. Moore. 1978. Body, Memory, and Architecture. Yale: Yale University Press.

Eco, Umberto. 1964. Apocalittici e integrati: comunicazioni di massa e teorie della cultura di massa. Milano: Bompiani.

Esposito, Roberto. 2002. Immunitas. Protezione e negazione della vita. Torino: Einaudi.

Hall, Edward Twitchell. 1974. Handbook for Proxemic Research.

Arlington: American Anthropological Association.

Hammond, John H., and Jill Austin. 1987. The camera lucida in art and science. Milton Park: Taylor & Francis.

Hockney, David. 2006. Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters. London: Thames and Hudson.

Quammen, David. 2012. Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. New York: W. W. Norton.

Rovatti, Pier Aldo. 2007. Abitare la distanza. Per una pratica della filosofia. Milano: Raffaello Cortina editore.

Singer, Merrill. 2009. Introduction to Syndemics: A Systems Approach to Public and Community Health. San Francisco: JosseyBass.

Virilio, Paul. 1984. L’espace critique. Paris: Christian Bourgois Editeur. Žižek, Slavoj. 2020. Pandemic! Covid-19. Shakes the World. London: OR Books.

Architecture Research Agenda

Wagner, Kirsten, and Jasper Cepl. 2014. Images of the body in architecture: anthropology and built space. Tübingen: Wasmuth.

25

26

Syllabus 02

The Architecture Research Agenda is a course addressed to Candidates who are just starting their individual research. Since all Candidates start the program presenting a research project, we asked them to work starting from this document, elaborating a short series of five exercises, reported in this summary of the course syllabus.

Architecture Research Agenda Auid Ph.D. Program Architectural Urban Interior Design Department of Architecture and Urban Studies Politecnico di Milano XXXVI Ph.D. Cycle, a.y. 2020/21 Professors Alessandro Rocca, Andrea Gritti, Stamatina Kousidi The course aims to enable doctoral Candidates to refine their research questions, strengthen their research goals, and identify the appropriate research methodologies to achieve these goals through observation and critical analysis. A.R.A. wants to exploit design-driven research, looking for a constant and organic relationship between research and design, considered as a fundamental component of any investigation in the field.

27

Architecture Research Agenda

Architecture Research Agenda

This issue presents the Paper Assignment elaborated by the Candidates in the doctoral program of Architectural Urban Interior Design, held within the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, in Spring 2021.

28

Syllabus 02 Jiaxi Li EDUCATION: Politecnico Di Milano, Sep. 2017 - Dec. 2020, Master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Design, Milano, Italy; Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Sep. 2012 - Jul. 2017, Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, Xi’an, China.

PUBLICATIONS: Book chapter: Undergraduate dissertation published in “Between The Rails and Ties - Six School Joint Graduation Project of Urban Planning & Design”, 2017, ISBN: 9787112212095, pp. 76-105.

Journal article: Zhao Yachen, Li Jiaxi, “Green Ecological Design Strategy of Yulin Fuzhou Ancient City”, published in Urbanism and Architecture, ISSN: 1673-0232, pp. 78-82.

Li Jiaxi, Zhao Yachen,Tang Mengying, “Research on the rationality of courtyards’ spatial design of commercial complex based on structure perspective”, published in Research on Urban Construction Theory, 2019, ISSN: 2095-2104, pp. 61-62.

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Architecture Research Agenda

Climate change and rising sea levels present immediate threats to humanity. The aim of this research is to design solutions that slow down the pace of land subsidence, absorb the impact brought by rising sea level, especially those exposed to risk of coastal hazards. Incorporating a research through design approach while developing vegetative and water-based systems, and flexible/dynamic infrastructure that intervene in ecological corridor to respond to slowly occurring sea-level rise hazards and abrupt coastal hazards; improving the overall microclimate of selected area. This research topic relates exclusively to waterrelated ecological corridor design which will be applied to coastal wetlands, ecological network to mitigate the threats both from land subsidence and slowly rising sea level.

Jiaxi Li Synthetic landscapes, capable to deal with coastal issues

30

Syllabus 02

Position Project Adaptation through design - Coupling of the Green City master plan and sponge city facilities.

problems in Nanwang Town through ecological design, based and at the same time drive the urban renewal of Nanwang Town.

topic This project is located in Nanwang Town, Shandong Province, which is the highest point on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Here, the water diversion channel that represents the highest construction technology on the Grand Canal is located (Li 2006, 96-104). In recent years, heavy rainfall exceeding 50mm has been frequent, causing frequent flooding in 17 counties including Nanwang City. Many cities are now suffering from flooding (“Shandong’s Economic Losses From Flooding Disasters Are Reduced By 90%, And Provincial Emergency Command Center Is Built” 2020). This is not only the problem of poor drainage and unreasonable underground pipe network, but also the city has neglected the ecology in the development process, making it lose its flexibility (Wu 2019, 12).

method Learning from the Chinese method of gardening landscapes, this project uses ecological technology to respond to the problem of flooding, under the guidance of Sponge City Theory. This project is articulated in three phases and more precisely in:

aim To protect the water diversion channel and improve citizens’ living comfort, the purpose of this project is to respond to the frequently occurring waterlogging and other environmental

1. The Green City Master Plan, establishing an urban green space system relying on the blue system.

Urban parks and green spaces are natural sponges in cities, and they have a certain ability to collect and absorb rainwater.

The existing green land along the river is fragmented, and a large amount of green land is occupied by construction.

2. The design of a reserve park, rendering the park absorbent.

The existing urban parks and green spaces lack rainwater collection and reuse systems. As a result, when heavy rain comes, the park’s green space cannot effectively absorb rainwater from surrounding buildings and roads, which increases the possibility of urban waterlogging. At the same

31

Architecture Research Agenda Phase 1: Establish the “green city”: the green area along the river + the “green fingers” inside the town.

Step 1: Recover and create the green space along the river, improve green space’s continuity.

Step 2: Extend green fingers SYS inside the built-up area to form the future green city.

Step 3: Introduce new public services to the future green city.

Mapping and demolish buildings in the green canal zone, green finger SYS and for future regeneration development.

Master plan of the Green city.

32

time, it wasted the function of the giant sponge in the urban park green space. The plants in the park’s green space need water for irrigation every day, and the waste of drainage and rainwater has a massive impact on the park’s sustainability.

3. The design of details in sponge facilities (Sponge City Design Diagram 2017, 28-72), such as the following: a. Rain garden: The rain garden can effectively collect the surrounding rainwater runoff and avoid rainwater and waterlogging disasters. At the same time, the landscape effect of the rainwater garden can meet the viewing effect of the citizens. b. Sunken green land: The sunken green land can collect surface runoff from the buildings, roads and squares around the park, and reduce the loss caused by regional waterlogging during the rain and flood period. At the same time, the underground water tank can store rainwater and reuse it. c. Permeable pavement.

Design Phase 1: Establising an urban green space system relying on the blue system.

1. Recover and create the green space along the river, improve green space’s continuity (Increase urban green area);

Syllabus 02

2. Extend green fingers SYS inside the built-up area to form future green city (Separate motor vehicles from non-motor vehicles, green finger, only non-motor vehicles can pass on the greenway); 3. Map and demolish poor-quality buildings to restore the green system and develop existing green area to secondary green system which we called green fingers, and forbid to touch any unconstructed land to construction; 4. Introduce new public services to the future green city for urban renewal, e.g. kindergarten, caring center for the elderly, etc.

Q: How to determine the appropriate ratio of water and green land area and total land area in the town? (Reflection on research) Phase 2: Make reserve park the heart of green city 1. Apart from the new-built museum and water diversion channel, demolish the existing buildins on site.

2. Create a pond to improve the capacity for water storage and improve citizens’ psychological perception.

3. Bring the concept of grand canal and express it as the route and using the principle of Chinese traditional garden to organize the corridor and buildings.

Architecture Research Agenda

Phase 2: Make the reserve park the heart of the green city.

33

34

Master plan of Reserve Park.

Syllabus 02

Architecture Research Agenda

Collection of rainwater Rain garden Sunken green land Distribution of sponge facilities in Reserve Park.

35

36

4. Introduce rain garden, sunken green land, and permeable pavement to enhance resilience.

Q: How to transform existing green space instead of demolishing and reconstructing? (Reflection on research) Phase 3: Detail design in sponge city construction 1. Rain garden: put plants with drought-tolerant, barrentolerant, and waterlogging-tolerant properties into the rain garden and set a pebble area in the middle to prevent rain washing; 2. Sunken green land: make it into a basin with the lowest point about 0.8m below the ground level, and put the underground water tank under the sunken green land; 3. Permeable pavement.

Q: If rain garden and sunken green land are inside an ecological design tool kit, how can we localize these components in a specific design? (Reflection on research).

From infrastructure to landscape Coastal communities are experiencing the effects of climate change, including sea level rise, more intense storms,flooding, and erosion. Coastal flooding has more than doubled in the past 30 years (Climate Science Special Report 2017, 6).

Syllabus 02

Additionally, due to sea level rise, high tides are becoming higher and higher, and the highest tides—king tides, which usually occur seasonally—are projected to become daily high tides, leading to even further flooding (Siddall and Pollard 2012, 1-7). On top of this, gray infrastructure built to “control” flooding, especially in the face of extreme weather, is increasingly failing to do its job (Schueler 2017, 2-5). Climate change impacts require a re-evaluation of infrastructure solutions. Nature itself it is never in equilibrium and what has to do is not try to compensate or balance but catalyze different nested equilibrium cycles that allow the system to evolve what nature does (Miriam García 2015, 2). Therefore, how we have designed our cities’ infrastructure to respond to disturbance both internal and external is important.

Infrastructures along coasts is a way of closed systems that were capable of producing and conceiving, and those closed systems have paralyzed the very capacity of systems to adapt later. We need to inject changes to activate that resilience process (Schueler 2017, 4). Studies suggest coastal naturebased solutions can mitigate flood and storm damage more effectively than gray infrastructure alone, and are more resilient (Maza 2020, 1). However, resilience design has to do with modularity with working from the small work and modular, allows this connection of the components and its

37

Architecture Research Agenda

Rain garden scenario.

Sunken green land scenario.

38

Syllabus 02

adaptation, of the condition that is on the periphery of those systems that is, the makes much more flexible elements of the system capable of adapting. Therefore, the knowledge acquired from this project has involved breaking down the projects submitted after hurricanes Katrina, and from there extracting some pieces.

can respond. There is need, and risk feels global. Therefore, I looked at two scenarios, catastrophic hurricanes Katrina and Sanders in the United States: not only design response that occurred after these hurricanes. I focused there also because the country’s economy and a whole country can be rethinking its design agenda from other budges.

Q1: How to fix America’s crumbling infrastructure?

Q2: How to make communities more resilient to climate impacts?

Synthetic Landscapes Practice: Living breakwater The project combines coastal resiliency infrastructure with habitant enhancement techniques and community engagement models, deploying a layered strategy that links in-water protective forms to on-shore interventions.

Reasons for choosing the Living breakwater project The Anthropocene condition signifies a different mode of change and a different mode of existence that calls for a design revolution. (Timothy Morton 2017, 14-30). There is a revolution from structure to the synthetic metamorphosis of landscapes where metamorphosis is about generating and implementing resiliency in the age of climate change (Miriam García 2015). The focus should be on what is now emerging future structures, norms, and new beginnings (Ulrich Beck 2014). He said that it is the moments of great anthropological clashes when allowing civilizations to emerge new orders where innovation arises from a global crisis because the powers are tempered at that moment, and only innovation

aim Advance ideas that help protect us from periodic weather extremes while improving the quality of our everyday lives. method Rather than cut off communities from the water with a levee or a wall, living breakwater embraces the water and its economic and recreational opportunities, using shallow water landscapes to stabilize the shore. Ecosystems can be restored to step down risk faced by coastal communities and to rebuild diverse habitats. The LAYERED APPROACH extends across

Architecture Research Agenda

Subtidal breakwater.

Fig. 1. Exposed breakwater.

Fig. 2. A set of scattered breakwaters with various programs.

39

40

a thick section, creating multiple lines of defense that will not fail singularly and catastrophically. People are a critical component of any ecosystem.

They have thus developed a framework to link people with the shoreline and with the water through education, engagement, and the expansion of a water-based recreational economy.

Shallow, slow, and safe water opens up a variety of in-water programming opportunities, from sport diving to charter fishing to kayaking to citizen stewardship, all enabled by the layered approach.

This project can be summarized as following four aspects: 1. Using a set of scattered breakwaters instead of a solid wall. Similar to reefs and submerged reefs, they can slow down waves breaking, reduce wave height, prevent coastline erosion, and expand beach areas for human activities (Fig. 1).

2. In order to restore the ecology of the waterfront, they designed a special “ecological breakwater”. The underwater “reef ” is composed of “ecological concrete blocks”, which can be isolated from the outside world, and fish, shrimp and oysters can live and multiply here. The water part can accommodate seagulls and birds to build nests and provide habitat for carnivores (Fig. 2).

3. While protecting the ecology, the designer did not prohibit

Syllabus 02

human activities in a “one size fits all” manner. They designed a three-dimensional aquatic center that can be matched with surrounding facilities (Fig. 3).

4. In addition to reducing waves and developing economic and leisure potential, Living Breakwaters also introduced a new partner-a program called Billion Oyster. The latter plans to restore the ecology of New York Harbor in the next 20 years, with the number of live oysters reaching 1 billion. (Fig. 4).

41

Architecture Research Agenda

Fig. 3. Revive recreational economics.

Fig. 4. The reef “Street”.

42

Key Words — Key Projects Adaptation through design Capable synthetic landscapes to deal with coastal issues Research Subject: Coastal ecological corridor as a naturebased defense to tackle rising sea level. aim The research topic relates exclusively to water-related ecological corridor design, which will be applied to coastal wetlands, ecological networks to mitigate the threats both from land subsidence and slowly rising sea level, especially coastal disaster’s impact and improve the psychological perception of citizens.

Hypothesis: Coastal ecological corridor has good “resilience/ flexibility” in adapting to environmental changes and responding to coastal issues. method This research starting from understanding the current coastal environment situation, exploring why nature-based defense is effective in responding to sea level rise; secondly, integrate and collect innovative coastal ecological corridor applications as tool kits; thirdly, localize the applications of the model on real situations.

Syllabus 02

Phase 1: From risk to resilience (Understanding the current coastal environment situation) Keywords: Metamorphosis Case study: Resist, delay, store, discharge (OMA 2014) We are in a post-ecological era in which nature as a distinct archetype of humans no longer exists. An era is known as the Anthropocene, in which global warming is the most emblematic crisis. I became aware that, like many of us, the human being who inhabits the planet earth today is very different from the first human beings. What is important is that living in the current era means to inhabit and design differently because the condition in which we live is no longer generated by the forces of nature itself but by man’s interaction with nature. In this context, Timothy Morton, in his book” Hyperobjects” tells us that we do not know how to relate within the Anthropocene with this crisis more critical which is precisely that of the climate change Nantes taking awareness of these two things and try to understand we live on a planet that is causing problems and this planet is over-designed(Morton 2017, 8-33). A moment, therefore, of personal and global responsibility, in which the action is necessary (Purdy, 2015). The German sociologist Ulrich Beck denominates the metamorphosis of the risk (Beck, 2015).

43

Architecture Research Agenda

In her work “Toward the synthetic metamorphosis of the coast”, Miriam García mentioned that there is a revolution from structure to the synthetic metamorphosis of landscapes where metamorphosis is about generating and implementing resiliency in the age of climate change. It is not only about contemplating the negative consequences brought by the new global economic and ecological conditions, to take advantage of the unexpected, but potentially positive and emancipatory consequences of the catastrophes.

Phase 2: From infrastructure to landscape (Integrate and collect innovative coastal ecological corridor applications as tool kits).

Keywords: Structural measures and natural-based measures Case study: The Big U (“NYC: The BIG U | Rebuild By Design” 2021).

Natural-based: artificial reefs, constructed wetland, diversion infrastructures, rain garden, sunken garden, etc.

Structural measures: basic wall, bulkhead, dike ring, drainage inlets, groyne, levee, etc.

Though case studies and literature review, massive applications for water management and design, for example learning from tool kits, like “cool pills” in Miriam García’s

work. The landscape acquires its entire dimension since the landscape is a cultural construction representing the relationship of a man and a means and the construction.

However, landscape design always starting from the small work. Modular allows this connection of the pieces and this adaptation. I will apply them to the coast as I have my pieces of generative design components that are structural measures and natural-based measures to this synthetic application.

Phase 3: From design to design thinking (Localize the applications of the model on real situations) Keywords: localization.

44

Bibliography

Team OMA. 2014. Resist Delay Store Discharge. Ebook. 1st ed. Team OMA. http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/data/files/673.pdf.

Morton, Timothy. 2017. Hyperobjects. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Moosa, Ahdha, Khoa Do, and Emil Jonescu. 2020. “Design Response To Rising Sea Levels In The Maldives: A Study Into Aquatic Architecture”. Frontiers Of Architectural Research 9 (3): 623-640. doi:10.1016/j.foar.2020.04.002.

Miriam, García García. 2014. “Coastal Landscapes, Living Laboratories For Spatial Planning”. Exploring Landscape Infrastructures, 114-122.

“NYC: The BIG U | Rebuild By Design”. 2021. Rebuild By Design. http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/our-work/all-proposals/ winning-projects/big-u.

Li, Dihua. 2006. “Why Is The Grand Canal Nominated For World Heritage”. Chinese National Geography 547: 96-104.

“Shandong’s Economic Losses From Flooding Disasters Are Reduced By 90%, And Provincial Emergency Command Center Is Built”. 2020.

Chinanews. http://www.sd.chinanews.com/2/2020/1010/75276.html.

Sponge City Design Diagram. 2017. 1st ed. Nan Jing: Jiangsu Phoenix Science and Technology Press:28-72 Wu, Yegang. 2019. Sponge City Design:Concept,Technology&Case Study(Revised Edition). 2nd ed. Nan Jing: Jiangsu Phoenix Science and Technology Press:37-56.

Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock, 2017. “Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment”, Volume I. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, 470 pp, doi:10.7930/ J0J964J6.Siddall, Mark, and David Pollard. 2012. “Sea Level Rise How Much And How Fast Will Sea Level Rise Over The Coming

Syllabus 02

Centuries? [Past]”. PAGES News 20 (1): 31-31. doi:10.22498/ pages.20.1.31.

Miriam, García García. 2014. “Coastal Landscapes, Living Laboratories For Spatial Planning”. Exploring Landscape Infrastructures, 114-122.

Maza, Maria. 2020. “Nature-based Solutions for Coastal Defense: Key Aspects in the modeling of Flow-Ecosystem interactions”.

Coastal Engineering Proceedings, no. 36v: 6. doi:10.9753/icce.v36v. keynote.6.

Morton, Timothy. 2017. Hyperobjects. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

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Architecture Research Agenda

Scheme

Store

Discharge

Delay

Resist

Fig. 1. Strategies for Resist, delay, store, discharge (OMA).

Fig. 2 Co-design with community participation in project. The Big U.

46

Syllabus 02 Xiaoyun Liu is a XXXVI-cycle PhD candidate of the Architectural Urban and Interior Design program at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano. In the AUID program, her supervisor is Prof. Alessandro Rocca and her tutor is Prof. Stamatina Kousidi. She is interested in history, theory, and criticism of traditional architecture which is concerned with the interrelation between the contemporary and the vernacular.

47

Architecture Research Agenda

With the acceleration of the modernisation process, the contradiction between rural and urban areas becomes apparent. Villagers now abandon many traditional dwellings because of the lack of living-comfort and the migration. And since the main residents in rural would be the elder people, it is important to plan an active and effective community for the aged. Through the adaptive renewal renovation methods and a passive-house perspective, the research hopes to reactivate the vernacular community, balance the relationship of among building, people and environment and continue the unique tangible and intangible structure of the traditional village.

Xiaoyun Liu Healing the vacancy

48

China’s rapid urbanisation in the past forty years has been accompanied by the disappearance of millions of natural villages in the countryside (Fang 2009). The resources and value of rural settlements as ecological barriers, cultural and technical heritage and liveable rural settlements have been underestimated and neglected (Fang 2009). Open plans, and limited financial input are not enough to generate the motivation for the sustainable development of the village. The natural and human values of the rural settlements require new relations of production and ways of life.

This research project centres on reactivation of the vernacular architectures under their traditional context and the renovation design for the aged generation to re-bond urban and rural relationships from a family community perspective.

Position Project Healing the Vacancy Research tries to mitigate the village hollowing problem. On the one hand, China is entering the population ageing. The dependence of large cities on land finance and the limited availability of carrying capacity means that pension facilities are scarce and expensive. On the other hand, many empty villages on the outskirts of cities are left to live alone. Effective using the idle resources to rebuild the healthy elderly living community to form a sense of

Syllabus 02

belonging to the community of life, passionate community and production community. Young people struggle to work and live in the city, while the elderly return to the countryside in a nearby suburb. The close consanguinity of one big family connects the urban and rural space closely. research area The research area would be the Dong settlement in Southwest China. The Dong minority is one of China’s fifty-six ethnic groups. They mainly live in the southwest of China, related to three provinces HUNAN, GUANGXI and GUIZHOU. The highest temperature can reach thirty-five degree centigrade in summer, the lowest temperature in winter is usually about two to three degree centigrade, and the humidity is always about seventy to eighty percent (“Hunan Climate-Hunan Climate-China Weather Network” 2021).

The research would take Gaobu Village as a research paradigm, analysis the village hollowing problem, choose site and design project under the scope of Gaobu.

Gaobu is located in south HUNAN, a typical mountain area and an underdeveloped region. It was contained in the World Cultural Heritage Reserve list in 2017, and it is a comprehensive representation of traditional Dong village.

49

Architecture Research Agenda

Gaobu

Village

GUIZHOU

Latitude: 27.5N Longitude：109.7E Altitude：272.2m

HUNAN Gaobu

GUANGXI 0

The Ground Floor

The First Floor

The Second Floor

The ground floor houses animals (chicken, pigs and buffaloes).

On the first-floor living area, the kitchen, a veranda and often a small altar located adjacent to the fireplace.

The upper stories are used for bedrooms and storage.

km 50

Location of Dong.

Section of the house

Elderly people.

Climate information of Gaobu.

Prototype Dong house.

0m

4m

50

research object The research object would be Dong Dwelling. The Dong residential house usually have three bays and are mostly three storeys high. The standard house dimensions vary between two to five bays, each bay approximately three-half metres wide, resulting in houses with floor plates between fifty to hundred-twenty m2. Furthermore, all houses are built entirely with one material, China fir.

The bottom section is defined by the pillars on which the house is built and used to feed animals. The floor above is the living space. And the top storey is the private space for bedrooms. typology research for dong dwelling From the plan, regarding the number of bay, it could generate three types of dwelling: Mult-bay room, a three-bay room and a two-bay room. The three-bay type is most in Gaobu. Each bay is around three-half metres wide.

Then from the section, regarding the number of columns, the dwellings could be sorted into three main types: fivecolumn type, four-column type and three-column type. The five-column type is most in Gaobu. The gap between columns usually is three to four metres. The height of each layer is usually four metres.

Syllabus 02

So, combine the plan and section; here are at least nine types of dwelling in Gaobu. And the house with three-bay and fivecolumn is most typical in the village. field research for gaobu village The need for a well-organised community of the aged is quite evident in the rural. Through the public data from the Gaobu village committee, in the twentieth century, there are fiftysix percents Gaobu population leaving the village to work, and the resident population is forty-four percents, which is less than half (Cai, Liu and Wu 2020). Moreover, there are seventy-three percents of the resident population are over sixty years old (Cai, Liu and Wu 2020).

The amount of idle house overgrows in recent years.

Regarding the essential field investigation of Gaobu, the number of dwellings is five-hundred and seventy-one in total (Cai, Liu and Wu 2020). The three-hundred and thirty-six of them are still used (while the left two-hundred and thirty-five of them have abounded) (Cai, Liu and Wu 2020). So, almost half of them have been abandoned, and the house-vacancy rate of the dwelling is forty-one percents.

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Architecture Research Agenda

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52

References The critical literature required to frame this paper’s agenda is divided into Chinese Rural Villages, Dong Minority Architecture and Vernacular House. vernacular house The key point of this part is to define the meaning of new vernacular for the local residents. This research needs to make a clarification of contemporary and vernacular and their relationship. chinese village Chinese rural development has a big gap for many reasons in society, especially after the nineteeneighty centrury. The research on the adaptability of the Dong village has not yet formed a system. dong dwelling The Dong area research mainly consisted of field research that sheds critical insight into the social, anthropological and architectural realm. From all perspective, Timber ecosystem includes technology, structure and so on represents the foundation of Dong tradition.

Syllabus 02

research aim Depending on these references and under the village hollowing background, the older people cannot live without rural habits and get used to the urban life, while the young people have to work in the rural.

With the generations’ living apart, the connection of the family becomes weaker and weaker. This research wants to meet the need of the aged people who wants to retire in the village and heal the family relationship by improving the living condition. Using the existing idle house in the village could provide more private space for the different generations and enlarge more public space that the whole family might stay together.

The research tries to respond to these questions: How to update the living condition for the old?

How to enclose the family community?

How to reconnect the urban and rural?

Moreover, the main research question would be: How to Revitalise the community and reactivate the idle house healing the village vacancy?

53

Architecture Research Agenda • Chinese Villages

References mapping.

• Dong Architecture

ECOLOGY

ECOLOGY

Environment

The mapping of topics is divided into three central regions according to the topics' detail. Further seven divisions are according to the related knowledge and depth involved in the literature.

Design

0

THEORY

.2

.4

.6

.8

SOCIOLOGY

ARCHITECTURE

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.4

.6

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.4

.6

.8

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ARCHITECTURE

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1

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Heidegger’s Hut; 2006 Environment

Technique

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Design

0

THEORY

.2

.4

.6

.8

1

PRACTICE

SOCIOLOGY

• WHAT

The cognition of traditional architecture and traditional technology has gradually weakened, while the vernacular house has irreplaceable relation-connection among building, people and environment.

ARCHITECTURE

ANTHROPOLOGY

Village

Culture

House

.8

research is a prerequisite to meet the ecological resilience, climate resilience and cultural heritage, from the user's daily appeal Modern modification or renewal of buildings in functions, construction techniques, materials.

ARCHITECTURE

1

SOCIOLOGY

Village

Culture

House

.6

ECOLOGY

Design

0

.4

Culture

Tradition

THEORY

.2

SOCIOLOGY

Technique

1

SOCIOLOGY

Culture

Design

0

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Environment

Technique

Technique

Tradition

ECOLOGY

Environment

THEORY

Environment

House

China's Vanishing Worlds: Countryside, Traditions, Vanishing Tradition; 2006 and Cultural Spaces China's Vanishing Worlds; 2013 Technique

• HOW

Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First The Century Theory, education and practice; 2005

Village

Culture

House

Environment

ARCHITECTURE Village

1

SOCIOLOGY

Village

Culture

1

ECOLOGY

Design

0

.8

PRACTICE

Culture

Tradition

THEORY

.6

SOCIOLOGY

Technique

1

PRACTICE

.4

ANTHROPOLOGY

ECOLOGY

.8

.2

House

Environment

Technique

0

0

THEORY

Village

Rural Urban Framework: TransforAllegorical Architecture; 2006 ming the Chinese Countryside; 2013

THEORY

Design

1

PRACTICE

Culture

Technique

Tradition

House

1

PRACTICE

.4

SOCIOLOGY

ECOLOGY

.8

.2

ANTHROPOLOGY

Village

Tradition

2 .2

0

House

Environment

0

Design

THEORY

Environment

Technique

Tradition

1

PRACTICE

Culture

ECOLOGY

Environment

Technique

Tradition

ECOLOGY

THEORY

• Vernacular House

From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society; 1992 The Kam People of China; 2003 Architecture Without Architects; 1964

Village

Culture

House

House

• WHY

The Modern Evolution and Protection Preservation and Valorisation of Learning from Vernacular; 2006Chinese Public Historical Areas in Gaobu; 2018 Development Strategies of Dong; 2012 ECOLOGY

ECOLOGY

Environment

Design

0

THEORY

2 .2

4 .4

.6

.8

SOCIOLOGY

ARCHITECTURE Village

Culture House

Design

0

THEORY

.2

.4

.6

.8

SOCIOLOGY

ARCHITECTURE Village

Culture House

Design

0

THEORY

Environment

Technique

Tradition

1

PRACTICE

ANTHROPOLOGY

ECOLOGY

Environment

Technique

Tradition

1

PRACTICE

ANTHROPOLOGY

ECOLOGY

Environment

Technique

Tradition

.2

.4

.6

.8

SOCIOLOGY

ARCHITECTURE Village

Culture House

Design

1

PRACTICE

ANTHROPOLOGY

Technique

Tradition

0

THEORY

.2

.4

.6

.8

1

PRACTICE

SOCIOLOGY

ARCHITECTURE

ANTHROPOLOGY

Village

Culture House

rural development has a big gap for many reasons for society, especially after the 1980s. The research on the adaptability of the Dong house has not yet formed a system.

54

Key Words — Key Projects To gradually frame the research, here uses the keywords and related cases illustrating the process. Firstly, the research intends to learn from vernacular and the basic Dong traditions finding the scientific parts that could continue.

Then, based on the local conditions, it would discuss the design interventions considering the relationship of people, building and environment. Lastly, it would propose a renovation method for an abandoned house to explain the adaptive design hypothesis. The three keywords would be “Traditional Structure”, “Vernacular Capacity” and “Adaptive Regeneration”. traditional structure-case I “Traditional Structure” means the Dong timber beam-column system, which is the foundation of the Dong Architecture philosophy.

The “Gaobu Book House” hopes to provide a space for these children to play and study and fix the problem caused by “village-hollowing”. The architect learns from the local traditional house’s timber structure, Preserves the traditional timber skeleton, and uses the basic timber knots. The new creative space is based on a vernacular system.

Syllabus 02

vernacular capacity-case II “Vernacular Capacity” refers to the balance among people, building and ecology according to the local reality.

In the case “Well House Boutique Hotel”, the old wooden buildings, rivers and wells, and terraced rice fields all reflect the harmony of a much older way of life. The Well House is a new boutique hotel that aims to situate itself contextually in the simple and austere lifestyle of the village. The challenge was to find ways to update the traditional methods of building with contemporary amenities and evolved design without losing the integrity that makes Dali what it is. adaptive regeneration-case III “Adaptive Regeneration” for the abandoned house is the research aim of “healing the vacancy” research. This practice hopes to provide another method to revitalise the community and reactivate the idle house responding to the village hollowing.

The case “The Old House, The New Home” envisaged that the old wooden houses in their hometown were idle or abandoned and combined and redesigned to form a micro-community aged. The design aims to explore how architecture, or space, can be a platform for projecting the internal social system based on traditional wooden architecture and revealing new possibilities.

55

Architecture Research Agenda GAOBU BOOK HOUSE HUAIHUA, CHINA Architects: CONDITION_LAB, UAL Studio Area: 200 m² Year: 2018

The Well House Boutique Hotel Dali, CHINA Architects: ATLAS Area: 440 m² Year: 2020

THE OLD HOUSE, THE NEW HOME TIANZUO Design Competition Designers: Wu Haoming, Wang Yaning Year: 2019

Case study II.

Case study III.

Book House (Source: Photo from Google)

Case study I.

56 THE OLD HOUSE, THE NEW HOME TIANZUO Design Competition Designers: Wu Haoming, Wang Yaning Year: 2019

Analysis of ‘Case study III’.

Syllabus 02

Architecture Research Agenda

57

58

research method Regarding the Design Driven Research methods, the research would mainly contain three processes, observation, intervention and solution. The specific methods could be: Space mapping, Quantitative/qualitative analysis and Sociological analysis. The research will start from investigations on the current village community and the dwelling.

(1) Collecting relevant information on traditional Dong residences, including history, anthropology, sociology, and economics.

(2) Organising and collecting the existing surveying and mapping of traditional Dong dwellings.

Then, the research will systematically discuss and analyse strategies and transformation methods.

(1) Case study. Research on low-tech technologies and contemporary techniques samples.

(2) Establishment of the research framework. Taking the advantages of aspects with material use and detail with issues that could revive the resident.

Finally, the researvch will select design a prototype project for the community. It would summarise the renovation of the idle houses in the village and further discuss the means of enclosing the family community and connecting the relationship between urban and rural.

Syllabus 02

Conclusion Regarding the current Chinese society situation, the rural area is increasingly becoming a negative place and the connection between the rural and the urban is weaker than it used to be.

So, both architectural design and planning should consider more to revive the connection and activate the living rural community from a broader prespective.

The hypothesis of the “Healing the Vacancy” research project is that the renovation design for the old idle house could be connected to re-bond the family of different generations and enclose the relationship between rural and urban as a family community perspective.

In this case, rather than accepting urban migration as a given, the research aims to restore dignity and induce development through learning from tradition and achieving new space with the original technique.

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Architecture Research Agenda

Gathering

GAOBU Daily Traditional house

Clan Plaza

GAOBU Year

Threater Plaza

DRUM TOWER Additional house Card Playing

Dancing

ceremony Renovation house

Chatting

Dwelling

fete Gaobu mental mapping.

60

Bibliography Asquith, Lindsay, and Marcel Vellinga. 2006. Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First Century. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis.

Cai, Ling, Xiaoyun, Liu and Xiaopeng Wu. 2020. “A Study On Passive Renewal Design Of Traditional Wood-Frame Houses In Dong People Based On TAS Software: A Case Study Of Gaobu Village”.

Settlement Z1: 188-195.

Cai, Ling, Yi, Deng and Xing Jiang. 2011. “The Modern Evolution And Protection Development Strategies Of The National Rural Settlement: The Dong Ethnic Group As Case Study”. Advanced Materials Research 368-373: 3311-3319. doi:10.4028/www.scientific. net/amr.368-373.3311.

Fei, Xiaotong, Hamilton, Gary G. and Zheng Wang. 1992. From The Soil, The Foundations Of Chinese Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Fang, Chuanglin. 2009. “Urbanization And Urban Development In China Since The Reform And Opening-Up 30 Years Ago”. Economic Geography 1: 19-25.

Frey, Pierre. 2010. Learning From Vernacular. Arles: Actes Sud. Geary, D. Norman. 2003. The Kam People Of China. London: Routledge.

Lin, John, and Sony Devabhaktuni. 2021. As Found Houses: Experiments From Self-Builders In Rural China. Hongkong: Oro Editions.

Messmer, Matthias, and Hsin-Mei Chuang. 2013. China’s Vanishing Worlds. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Ruan, Xing. 2006. Allegorical Architecture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Rudofsky, Bernard. 1964. Architecture Without Architects. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Syllabus 02

Sharr, Adam. 2017. Heidegger’s Hut. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Wang, Shiruo, Augelli, Francesco, Cai, Ling and Peter W. Ferretto.

2019. “Preservation And Valorisation Of Public Historical Areas In Gaobu Village, Dong Minority Of Hunan, China”. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science And Engineering 471: 082049. doi:10.1088/1757-899x/471/8/082049.

Weather data. “Hunan Weather”. Accessed May 1, 2021. Hunan.

Weather.Com.Cn. https://hunan.weather.com.cn/ hnqh/07/744714. shtml.

Weber, Willi, and Simos Yannas. 2014. Lessons From Vernacular Architecture. Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Zwerger, Klaus. 2007. Vanishing Tradition. Hong Kong: Orchid.

Architecture Research Agenda

Dong people.

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62

Shudong village.

Syllabus 02

Architecture Research Agenda

63

64

Syllabus 02 Alessia Macchiavello is an Architect and PhD candidate at the Politecnico di Milano. She graduated from Politecnico di Milano with honours with a thesis developed in collaboration with the RMIT University on participatory design, experimenting directly within Aboriginal communities. She attended the master course ‘Emergency and Resilience architecture’ at the IUAV University of Venice. On the academic side, she has also worked as a Teaching Assistant in Master’s and Bachelor’s degree courses, she taught at the Design for Development master course and she collaborate as a Consultant Architect in research projects such as “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” and she developed a flexible housing module in Pemba (Mozambique) for the E35 Foundation support services.

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Architecture Research Agenda

The paper is a reflection on the methodological approach using the projects as a research tool declined in two ways: on the one hand, the project will be a tool for the analysis of reality through the observation of existing situations. The project wants to be an empirical instrument of knowledge: through the investigation of some projects, I aim to bring out the problems of social housing in the countries of the South of the world. In fact, the working methods that will be privileged consists of two types: the analytical one, to describe, interpret, contextualise and deepen specific concepts or phenomena; the empirical one, used in the field with regard to the identification of implemented projects, instrumental in deepening problems and ways of using housing in Sub-Saharan Africa, necessary to guide a process of housing development.

Alessia Macchiavello incrE(LE)MENTAL PREVision reseARCH

66

The research project aims to analyse the housing issue in the countries of the Global South. In addition to investigating the phenomenon, it will focus on strategies to guide a process of developing affordable, low environmental impact housing, maximising social acceptability, architectural and urban quality. Being at an early stage of my PhD research, I would like to reflect on the methodological approach of my research since the working methods that will be privileged consists of two types: the analytical one, to describe, interpret, contextualise and deepen specific concepts or phenomena, based on the reading, interpretation and constant verification of information and data; the empirical one, used in the field with regard to the identification of implemented projects, instrumental in deepening problems and ways of using housing in Sub-Saharan Africa, and through the design probes necessary to understand possible strategies to guide a process of housing development aimed at improving the comfort, sustainability and affordability of buildings. This approach is also instrumental in deepening problems and ways of using housing in Sub-Saharan Africa and also through the design probes necessary to understand possible strategies to guide a process of housing development aimed to improve the comfort, sustainability and affordability of buildings.

Regarding the analytical approach, is important to define

Syllabus 02

the state of the art: until the beginning of the 21st century, it was Latin America that led the field of research into experiments and housing policies in informal settlements and it is only in recent decades that the theme of the social habitat has taken on a role of great relevance within critical disciplinary reflection. The 15th Architecture Biennale, “Reporting from the front”, curated by Alejandro Aravena, can be taken as a synthesis and as one of the highest moments in which these themes have been put at the centre of the debate, as the curator himself underlines on the occasion of the presentation of the guidelines for the Bienniale: “[...] The concept of quality of life extends from basic physical needs to the most abstract dimensions of the human condition. It follows that improving the quality of the built environment is a challenge to be met on many fronts, from ensuring practical and concrete standards of living to interpreting and realising human desires, from respecting the individual to caring for the common good, from accommodating the performance of everyday activities to encouraging the expansion of the frontiers of civilisation.” If we go deep into the disciplinary tradition and reconstruct the timeline of the debate of lowcost housing in Global South contexts through some critical texts (D’Auria V. et. al., 2010), we go back to the roots of the debate on the social housing project: the CIAM IX of 1953.

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Architecture Research Agenda

SOUTH AMERICA

Until the beginning of the 21st century, it was Latin America that led the field of research on experimentation and housing policies in informal settlements. It is for this reason that probably in the research the comparison of significant case studies will refer more to the South American context, as in the case of PREVI and ELEMENTAL.

A geographical research map.

SUB-SAHARIAN AFRICA

despite the relevance of the topic, research on social housing in Sub-Saharan African countries has not yet consolidated a critical mass of experiences that would spread new and more virtuous practices.

68

It was on this occasion that the term habitat was born, when, especially the members of Team Ten, undertook to reinterpret the tradition of the Modern Movement, bringing the inhabitant to the forefront and assigning him a fundamental role in the project. The main characteristics of the habitats were typological indeterminacy, flexibility and non-enclosure, i.e. the undefined a priori possibility to evolve, grow and change almost spontaneously, like the villages, especially the African and Maghreb villages and the suburban squatters of the Global South. This example shows how reflection on housing issues in the African continent has ancient roots and was a field of experimentation that allowed the protagonists of those researches to redefine the coordinates of “another modernity”, which consisted in the assimilation of modern architecture through the search for a point of mediation with places and cultures.

On the other hand, the research aims to use the project as an empirical research tool to understand how it behaves in contexts of poverty, inequality and the effects of climate change through which to deepen some project probes to bring out more clearly the problems related to the social housing issue of the countries of the Global South. The aim is to organise a case study atlas in order to identify implemented projects which are instrumental to investigate problems and

Syllabus 02

ways of using housing in Sub-Saharan Africa also through experiences in different countries.

My doctoral research seeks to engage in the debate on low-cost housing in the Global South contexts but without falling into trivialisation by confusing the formal, and the control it implicitly means, falling in the worst cases into an idealised replacement of the formal, with a simple and picturesque celebration of informality as the only alternative to government control over the production of urban space.

Facing such generalisation, it is necessary to refer to models that have been consolidated in their process through agreements between policies designed and directed from above and citizen participation from the bottom up.

As far as the empirical approach is concerned, from my point of view, we can also consider it as a design-driven research. Considering my research and therefore my field of application of the method, is seen as a helpful approach to plan for the future, especially in projects concerning complex environmental challenges. In fact, characteristic for study by design is generating know-how and understanding by studying the effects of actively and systematically varying both the design objects and their complex context. In research by design, the architectural design process forms a pathway through which new insights, knowledge, practices or products

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Architecture Research Agenda

ANALYTICAL In order to describe, interpret, contextualise and deepen specific concepts or phenomena, based on the reading, interpretation and constant verification of information and data.

EMPIRICAL It is used in the field with regard to the identification of implemented projects, instrumental in deepening problems and ways of using housing in Sub-Saharan Africa, and through the design probes.

Research method.

S T A T E

O F

T H E

A R T

RESULTS

C A S E

S T U D I E S

ON SI T E EXPERIME NTAT ION

Possible STRATEGIES to guide a process of HOUSING DEVELOPMENT aimed at improving the comfort, sustainability and affordability of buildings.

70

come into being. It generates critical inquiry through design work. Therefore, research results are obtained by, and are consistent with, experience in practice that, as Sarr also points out in his essay Afrotopia (Sarr, 2018) in order to be sustainable, development must be rooted in the local culture.

Methods of DDR serve as a focal lens able to identify specific themes and practices, allowing us to explain their origins and effects in projects, in the design process and finally in its application. This then, as far as I can see, leads to two results: firstly, this methodology has an impact on the researcher who applies it, making explicit ways of designing and thus making it possible to understand and improve the quality of his or her projects. Secondly, and no less importantly, especially for my field of research and application of it, the DDr methodology will make it possible to relate a specific work to its community of practice and to relevant architectural theory and history.

Within the just outlined framework, to look to projects thought analytical and empirical approach, I start comparing two case studies: PREVI, in Lima, built in 1965, and Quinta Monroy in Chile, built in 2002, one of the projects of the extensive Elemental programme by Aravena, in order to start from the analysis of the current situation and the best of the international experience in this field. In both cases the communities were involved in the decisions to be taken and

Syllabus 02

possibilities were left open for future expansions according to changing needs, growth in the number of members or improvements in the economic conditions of the families. In order to compare the two projects and learn, both from their successes and failures, I group the parameters to evaluate the quality of the living space: the functionality, spatiality and flexibility of the housing solution, the technical construction aspects and finally, the economic aspects that are connected and related to the two previous ones and the relationship of the housing with the city, its link with the urban context. In order to better understand the projects, I redraw the projects trying to identify their evolution over time, identifying the planned phases and those left to the inhabitants’ self-governance.

incrE(LE)MENTAL approach to housing ELEMENTAL is still a “young project”, perhaps is still too early to draw conclusions about the process, which is still ongoing, but because of this it is interesting to understand how it is evolving. Quinta Monroy, the project selected from the several projects carried out in the Elemental programme therefore the one you can see redraw here, is intended as an opportunity to develop some reflections on the implications and reasons for not to simplify the design strategy for

71

Architecture Research Agenda

P R E V I

-

Lima, 1965

Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda

VS E L E M E N T A L

Quinta Monroy - Chile, 2002

Case studies comparison.

Parameters to evaluate the quality of the living space: - Functionality, - Spatiality of the housing solution - Flexibility of the housing solution - Technical construction aspects - Economic aspects -Relationship of the housing with the city

72

settlement where there are not only spatial laws but much more complex and less visible textures and networks than architectural ones. Quinta Monroy was built in 2002, so over the course of 15 years, we can already see Quinta Monroy’s transformations, how it was reconfigured from an informal settlement through a process of formalisation, only to return to a state of informality. In fact, until 2003, the Quinta Monroy settlement was a collection of self-built dwellings on half a hectare of rented land in a popular location in the coastal city of Iquique in northern Chile. While in the 1960s the density was sufficiently low to have vegetable gardens between the houses, subsequent demographic pressure doubled the number and size of houses. Maximum density was reached by building with the available material, much of which was recycled from discarded packaging at the local port. This spontaneous process continued as the number of occupants increased, properties were subdivided to such an extent that narrow walkways led to cramped rooms, many without natural light or ventilation. Despite the pressures of densification, open spaces had been maintained as much as possible by the community to facilitate social interaction, a social resource that Elemental later used as a starting point for its urban design strategy.

For Quinta Monroy Elemental began with two key ways to

Syllabus 02

reduce costs in the immediate term, while taking care of opportunities for residents to realise their housing aspirations over an extended period of time. They provided two types of house designs, one at ground level and another above, both of which could be expanded into allocated spaces as residents’ resources allowed. Elemental approached the project as an open system. As De Carlo said, “open systems are always growing, always changing, flexible and feasible by design phases” (De Carlo, 1973). The basis of the project process is in fact to imagine it as an open-finished system where, at the end of each phase, the system takes on a finished configuration, even if it is ready to be opened again.

In fact, Elemental conceived the project as a ‘collective building’ consisting of 13 blocks containing the 93 individual houses around four courtyards. These low, repeatable blocks were ‘porous’ and designed so that residents could complement the formally built structure with self-built extensions, which they began building when the houses were delivered in 2005.

But in this case the idea of a good-half-house is more a good economic strategy but not necessarily a good mode of spatial production. In fact, fifteen years after the intervention, the evidence suggests that Elemental’s vision for a utopian ‘collective building’ process did not extend far beyond the design and contractor stage. Elemental’s parting gift to the

73

Architecture Research Agenda

Site plan of original self-built settlement

Urban evolution.

Site plan as built, 2005

Site plan of self-built expansion, 2017

74

community was a ‘habitability manual’ which unfortunately failed to provide guidelines to further additions. In fact, Elemental has observed that all the original 93 families, except one, have extended their homes but as many as 60 expansions have not followed the framework defined by the architects. The residents’ experience of being active players in the construction of their homes has fostered significant commitment and pride but this has not been enough to preserve the development from overly zealous additions with extensions encroaching on spaces not condoned in Elemental’s drawings such as constructions within collective courtyards, rooms overhanging public and private spaces, as well as new rooftop rooms creating a fourth floor. Many rear courtyards are now completely enclosed within the house and openings in the front facade are often the only way to provide natural light and ventilation. Subdivisions and subletting activities extend the size of households to such an extent that up to 11 people live in one house, replicating the overcrowding first identified by the architect in the original settlement.

Perhaps more importantly, there was no thought to the governance required to support the community over the longer term. Residents’ investments in their homes might have been paired with many available government subsidies for improvement of the houses and urban amenities.

Syllabus 02

Elemental initiated a process that, over the course of 15 years, reconfigured Quinta Monroy from an informal settlement through a process of formalisation, only to return to a state of informality. While this informality was once structured through the lens of invisible (and non-architectural) community networks, evidence suggests that this attribute has been diminished by many of Elemental’s interventions. Then again, as Sarr also points out in his essay Afrotopia (Sarr, 2018) to be sustainable the development must be rooted in the local culture and this example leads us to reflect on how challenging it is for architects to anticipate how a community may be able to navigate a transition through formalised/ informalised processes and, in doing so, anticipate a longterm vision for any particular settlement, where there are not only spatial laws but much more complex and less visible textures and networks than architectural ones. Elemental’s design strategy, however, has inadvertently created domestic spaces that in many cases replicate the “slum-like” conditions they sought to address. At the same time, they set the scene for a series of ongoing and contested community interactions that could have been avoided with a more nuanced understanding of community relations and urban design strategy. No thought was given to Quinta Monroy’s social capital and the governance required to sustain the community

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Architecture Research Agenda

5

3

3

1 4

4

2

2

1

PLANS, 2005

4

4

3

4

3 4

6

7 7

PLANS, 2017

Architectural modification.

2

Caption: 1. Entrance 2. Living 3. Kitchen 4. Bedroom 5. Courtyard 6. Laundry 7. Storage

76

in the long term. Residents’ investments in their homes should have been accompanied by institutional support to ensure quality of life, safety and community cohesion and in order not to lose the social capital during the Elemental’s ‘incrementalism’ experiment unfolds.

PREVIsion structure PREVI- Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda, on the other hand, is a well-established case study, the results of which can be analysed after about 40 years - which is actually the minimum time over which town planning works should be analysed. It is an experimental neighbourhood built in Lima, Peru, in the late 1960s under the leadership of Peter Land, and the support of the United Nations, which involved the best architects of the international radical avant-garde, chosen from among those who had a solid reputation in social housing. Since the 1950s, Latin American capitals have faced the emergency of squatter settlements. In 1965, Peru’s president-architect Fernando Belaúnde Terry began consultations on a social housing programme to regulate the unstoppable flow of people seeking an urban destiny. Thirteen architects involved in the most interesting social housing experiments of the early 1960s were invited to participate in this urban design, which became a true urban collage. In

Syllabus 02

PREVI, these thirteen internationally renowned architects, together with an equal number of Peruvian architects, were given the task of developing a model neighbourhood of 1,500 housing units that would develop prototypes of urban houses capable of incorporating the programme of any future transformation. PREVI dwellings were to be considered an organisational structure within which informal development could proceed, a structure that would ensure that adequate health and safety standards were met. PREVI housing is an interesting study and a reflection opportunity on the issue of social housing in terms of making sure that, even after leaving the project, people have a safe and positive place to live. For the experimentation implemented, PREVI turns out to be an important case study because it fielded a building dynamic based on the model of low, high-density houses founded on a general flexible scheme. Perhaps this project was the first act of slum upgrading, the recognition of the value of the dynamics of informal growth adopted in slums.

Indeed, the projects that make up PREVI’s urban collage, rather than providing only for flexibility in the interior spaces of dwellings, or at most, the modest expansion of a small set of houses, are based on a primary strategy of providing a spatial and physical framework for the expansion of houses well beyond the limits of the original structure, and this was

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Architecture Research Agenda

Site plan of self-built expansion

Critical interpretation of urban modification.

Site plan of building typologies

Site plan of pedestrian system

78

implemented at the scale of an entire neighbourhood.

Among many different housing typologies, designed by over fifty architects, James Stirling dwelling concept has been the most compelling and, therefore, followed.

This is therefore the case study redrawn here as a design and graphic exemplification of the above concept. Sterling design, square in plan and centred on an exterior courtyard, has shown to be particularly well suited to expansion being able to provide sufficient access to light and ventilation as building massing is increased. In one case, the Zamora Family original one-store dwelling for a single family was gradually expanded into a structure that incorporated three tenant spaces - a small shop, clinic, and legal office - transforming a humble, single family house into both a dwelling and a significant source of income. At PREVI such adaptations have been the norm rather than the exception.

The aim for which I decided to compare these two case studies is to try to start to set parameters in order to identify positive and negative aspects of the processes and results to be able to make considerations to improve the design quality of the social housing in Sub-Saharan Africa and to set the methodological scheme in order to replicate it on a larger number of case studies which are going to organise my analytical and empirical working method.

Syllabus 02

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Architecture Research Agenda

James Stirling’s typology house

Configuration IN 1978

Configuration IN 2003

Ground floor

Ground floor

Expansion of James Stirling dwelling concept.

First floor

Second floor

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Bibliography Bellin, Eric. 2011. “Life’s Net [or] a Framework for Growth and Change.” Architecture in the Fourth Dimension. Boston, MA, USA. Boyars, Marion. 1970. “PREVI-Lima: Low cost housing project”.

Architectural Design vol 4: 187-205.

Crawhall, Niegel. 2007. “The Role of participatory cultural mapping in promoting intercultural dialogue”. UNESCO Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue.

D’Auria, Viviana, De Meulder, Bruno, and Shannon Kelly, 2010. “The Nebulous Notion of Human Settlements”. UFO2, Amsterdam: Sun Academia.

De Carlo, Giancarlo. 1973. L’architettura della partecipazione. Milano: Il Saggiatore.

Fondazione Bruno Zevi. 2012. “Previ-Lima: Architettura come opera aperta collettiva. Idee di housing sociale nell’architettura moderna peruviana.” Premio Bruno Zevi.

Iacobelli, Andréas, and Aravena Alejandro. 2012. Elemental: manual de vivienda incremental y diseno participativo. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz.

John, Maym, and Reid Anthony. 2010. Architettura senza architetti.

Guida alle costruzioni spontanee di tutto il mondo. Milano: Rizzoli.

Land, Peter, and Stephen White. 1994. “PREVI Twenty Years After”.

Architecture and Design Magazine: vol. 11, n. 2.

McGuirk, Justin. 2011. “PREVI, The Metabolist Utopia”. Domus 946: 58-71.

Pillau, Janet. 2013. Cultural Mapping: A guide to understanding place, community and continuity. Strategic Information and Research Development Centre.

Rudofsky, Bernard. 1987. Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Sarr, Felwine. 2018. Afrotopia. Edizioni dell’Asino.

Syllabus 02

Architecture Research Agenda

James Stirling, Previ House, Lima, 1969-72.

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Syllabus 02 Niño Oljer Cardenas is a PhD candidate in the Architectural Urban and Interior Design program at Politecnico di Milano. Architect by the Universidad de los Andes (2014). Master’s in Architectural Design from Politecnico di Milano (2019) with Cum laude thesis “Pierre Jeanneret and Domestic space: The government houses of Chandigarh”. His main research concerns the history and analysis of modern architecture, focusing on the study of Pierre Jeanneret. He collaborates as an architect and coordinator of residential projects in Bogota-Colombia and Milan-Italy. He has also collaborated as a research assistant in publications such as “Casa+casa+casa= ¿ciudad? - Germán Samper Una investigación en vivienda” (2012) or “Le Corbusier en la arquitectura instalada en su sitio: Los museos de Ahmedabad y Tokio” (2015). He has published articles such as “The Indian room designed by Pierre Jeanneret in Chandigarh” (2020) and “San Pedro de El Abra” (2015).

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Architecture Research Agenda

Under the name Housing and Innovation: Technique and Domestic space in the Residential Works by Pierre Jeanneret, A Contemporary Analysis for Design Housing Solutions, the doctoral thesis focuses on the research carried out by a forgotten modern architect; his quest to solve the domestic habitat in different geographical and emergency contexts is presented, with the aim of contributing and enriching contemporary research on prototypes, techniques and tools for new residential proposals that respond to contemporary socioeconomic and climatic conditions, pursuing what Walter Benjamin wrote: “Nothing that has ever happened can be taken for lost”, since the new is accompanied by the redemption of everything past.

Oljer Cardenas Nino Housing and innovation in Pierre Jeanneret’s work

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The problem of modern housing is, above all, architectural, despite its technical and economic aspects. It is a complex planning problem.

And can only be solved with creative thinking…

Mies van der Rohe, Housing and Construction, 1927 Position Project: From the housing crisis to Pierre Jeanneret’s solutions As a result of the consecutive seismic events that occurred in different parts of the world during the last decade (L’Aquila, 2009: Chile, 2010: Haiti, 2010: Japan 2011: Emilia, 2012: Central Italy, 2016: Osaka, 2018), along with the growing number of forced displacements generated by the current internal conflicts in different countries, which have resulted in refugee camps such as Dadaab, Zaatari or Kakuma, all of them with a population of more than 100,000 refugees, have created a need for temporary residential solutions to support the housing crisis and provide shelter for victims, which is consistently increasing. Therefore, emergency housing, characterized by light construction and assembly, rapid transport, and adaptability to different types of soil, plays a primary role in providing a short-term and temporary solution to the similar habitability problems.

The solutions to the residential crisis presented so far have the

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limitation of seeking to counteract the situation in quantity, therefore forgetting the residential quality of the proposed housing. Given the lack of answers that combine both quality and quantity to the problem of emergency housing, it is essential to re-examine the recent history of architecture in search for proposals that succeed in giving an innovative solution to the residential crisis.

The period of political, social and economic difficulties triggered by the Second World War also entailed an unprecedented housing crisis. In this context of instability and difficulty, the Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret, came to address the issue of prefabrication as a response to the crisis.

Together with Jean Prouvé, were part of the Grenoble Central Construction Bureau (BCC), led by Georges Blanchon, where they assumed responsibility and commitment to solve the problems left by the war in a short period of time. Thus, their mission within the BCC was not only to solve the problem of housing, but also to redefine it so that it would be able to adapt to extreme circumstances. Their enterprise entailed the study of a compatible construction system, together with the optimization of materials that were scarce at the time, as a response to a certain idea of living.

The result leaves a variety of residential prototypes with a high aesthetic and constructive character, as part of a wide

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Architecture Research Agenda

Fig. 1.1. Maison Démontable 8 x 8, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé, 1941, BCC. Drawing of the central space with the V’s portico as part of the space.

Redrawn by the author.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

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Fig. 1. Maison Démontable 8 x 8, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvè, 1941, BCC. Drawing of the module’s external and internal perspective based on the photographs taken by Pierre Jeanneret. Redrawn by the author.

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repertoire of solutions that were designed under established modern standards and that take shape in a process of research, on the design of industrialized constructions, which is developed individually and in association between 1934 and 1944 by Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé. Its relevance lies in the ambition of its authors to improve the construction of dwellings by bringing the advantages of the new materials: the lightness of steel, which will later be replaced by wood, and assembly by prefabricated elements, typical of industry (Fig. 1).

Indeed, one of the main instruments of the manifestation and development of modern architecture was technology: it was assumed that technological progress would univocally mean social and economic progress so that all hopes of changing the established order would be deposited in it. In other words, technical advances in materials and construction arise to develop a new language, which responds to the spatial needs of new forms of life. Architecturally speaking, the role of the structure becomes more representative, not only as its bearing condition, but it begins to be part of the domestic space and the language of the house.

Jeanneret was part of the discussion, so from his theoretical presentations as from his architectural proposals, he insisted on the possibilities of new materials related to new construction systems, as a reflection to improve the quality

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of domestic space. A paper on the subject was written by P. Jeanneret in 1944, in the middle of the war, as a synthesis to his investigations. In the paper, “Responds to a whole set of problems of the Habitat, along with techniques and the participation of the large building industry” and in which one of its major concerns is the search for simplicity, considering the relationship that must generate with the industry.

The idea behind the study is that the dwellings designed

by Pierre Jeanneret are prototypes that gather together the principles and conclusions reached in the preceding conceptual and scientific approaches. This means raising them as a design tool that helps the process of designing new residential systems that supplant the need for housing caused by natural events.

Time Frame: Approaching the residential work of Pierre Jeanneret What is known of Pierre Jeanneret is related, for the most part, to the works carried out in association with Le Corbusier. An extensive production that began in 1922 and ended in 1940, because of the war, resuming in late 1950 with the commission for Chandigarh. Of these two stages a long bibliographical reflection can be found which, for the most part, focuses on the figure of Le Corbusier, leaving Pierre Jeanneret as the

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PIERRE JEANNERET 1890 1910

1930

Clarté apartment block (Geneva)

1926

1920

Guiette house (Antwerp)

« Mon cousin Pierre Jeanneret: finesse, talent et loyauté, il a un idéal sur terre et beaucoup de dons. Notre travail d’équipe a permis une production architectural et urbanistique importante. Nous soutenant l’un, l’autre, nous avons pu créer utilement une œuvre commune.

Entre nous il y a eu, toujours, confiance illimitée totale, malgré les difficultés d’une vie de travail. Plus tard, á Chandigarh, la tâche de Pierre Jeanneret fut écrasante, et sans lui cette ville n’apparaitrait sans doute pas maintenant comme un témoignage des temps modernes, réalisé dans la pauvreté des moyens. El l’architecture Corbu á Chandigarh ne serait peut-être pas. Nos caractères personnels en tout cela cheminaient, bien et mal, tant chez Pierre que chez mai. Peu importe, Pierre Jeanneret a été pour moi le meilleur des amis malgré des aspects difficiles parfois. Je suis heureux de le dire » Le Corbusier

1896

1927

22th March: Pierre Jeanneret is born in Geneva

Charlotte Perriand begins working with them at 35 Rue de Sèvres (Paris

1911 Principles of scientific management Frederick Taylor

1919 Founding of the Staatliche Bauhaus by Walter Gropius, In Weimar (Germany)

1914 - 1918 First World War

« his constructional sense was such that his projects illustrated something already completely built in his mind and were not the result of dithering about looking for a way to do it » Jean Prouvé

1927

La Roche-Jeanneret (Paris)

Started to work in the Perret’s Atelier in Paris

M. Lipchitz – Mietschaninoff (Boulogne-sur-seine)

Two houses for Weissenhof (Stuttgart) Plainex houses (Paris)

Project B — Unité d’Habitation: the Bastion Kellermann housing block

1933

Project C — Center for Contemporary Aesthetics for the exhibition

1931

1934

Villa for Madame de Mandrot (near Toulon)

Urbanization projects for Stockholm, Antwerp, Algiers, Nemours, Zlin. Various city and state competitions

Palace of the Soviets (Moscow) De Beistegui penthouse (Paris) Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor (Paris)

1940

1943

1947

1950

1951

1960-65

House projects for the S.P.A (Lannemezan)

TCD house.

Master plan for Puteaux (Puteaux)

Centre d’apprentissage Beziers (Beziers)

Sector Theory development

He undertakes urban development and architectural work in Pandoh, Sundernagar, Slapper, Ahmedabad, and Talwara

Maisons montées à sec

S4F house.

V5 house.

“101” transportable house.

Costructtions “Champignons” (Unlocated)

Project D - Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux also known as the Musee d’Éducation Populaire.

1940 1934 Maison de Week-end (La Celle-saint-cloud)

May 1940: Charlotte Perriand leaves for Japan

1935

1941

Designs the acronym for the FFI (French Forces of the Interior).

Furnishings for a bachelor apartment at the Exposition Universelle (Brussels)

Demountable House 8x8 Jean Prouvé (BCC)

Designs the Ecole des Cadres (Uriage).

1921 July: while continuing with the Perret brothers, he begins to work on the Berque commission with his cousin Charles-Edouard Jeanneret ( Le Corbusier, pseudonym adopted in 1922)

1924

1928

1932

Maison et cantine (Lège)

Church house (Ville d’Avray)

Maison du Tonilin (Bordeaux)

Swiss Pavilion at the Cité Universitaire (Paris)

Centrosoyuz office block (Moscow)

Cité du Refuge (Paris)

Citè Frogès (Pessac) Maison Planeix (Paris)

1935 Villa “Le Sextant” (Les Mathes)

Murondin project (France)

Office block project for the Lion Noir company (Lyon)

Berque house Project ( Paris )

CIAM III Brussels (Belgium) About the rational development of space

Redevelopment of slum district no. 6 (Paris).

Salon d’Automne (Paris): modern city of 3 million people Apartment block / Villas program for the Société Franco-Américaine Gault house project (Paris)

1925

1932

Pavillion de L’Esprit Noeveau (Paris)

International Style

Plan Voisin (Paris)

Philip Johnson

1922

1926

1929

1930

After First World War, the housing problem is discussed from the quantity versus the quality. It is to be considered that the solution to the housing deficit is a fundamental aspect in the welfare construction of society and that it is in the industry itself where the mechanisms have been found to provide solutions to housing.

Besnus house “Ker-Ka-Re” (Vaucresson)

Palais du Peuple dormitory (Paris)

Ozenfant artist’s studio (Paris)

Minimum house project

CIAM II Frankfurt del Meno (Germany) Focus on Ernst May’s housing work and minimal housing

It is the time of experimentation; the dwelling is worked on two dependent scales: the basic or minimum unit and the city resulting from its summation.

The architects, from the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), encourage the discussion and put on the table a diversity of theoretical - practical projects.

1928 1920-1925 L’Esprit Nouveaou

CIAM I La Sarraz (Francia).

Founding of the CIAM)

1929 Wall Street Crash

L’Atelier 35 Rue de Sévres

Late 1939: designs light buildings for war refugees.

Projects for portal frame buildings with Le Corbusier and Jean Prouvé (temporary schools, village club, housing, etc.).

Cartesian skyscraper project

Biology research station

Centre National de Réjouissance (National Center for Celebration) for 100,000 participants.

1939 June-December 1940: stays at Ozon in southwestern France with Le Corbusier and his wife Yvonne.

1933

5 December 1940: Pierre Jeanneret joins the BCC in Grenoble;

CIAM IV Athens (Greek) Publication of the Athens Charter

12 December 1939: creation of the Bureau Central de Construction (BCC)

CIAM V París (France) About housing and leisure

The era of large projects

1939 - 1945 Second World War

1942

1946

Furniture for Georges Blanchon’s office (Grenoble)

17 October: he declines Le Corbusier’s invitation to join the ATBAT constructors group.

Furniture including a table for Jean Prouvé’s family (Nancy)

Unité d’Habitation: the Bastion Kellermann

1937

Maison MEP (Unlocated)

House Peon’s Houses (Several sectors)

1962-63

Master Plan Talwara (Talvara-India)

Gandhi Bhawan (Chandigarh University)

1958-66 Master Plan Punjab University (Chandigarh)

Furniture and fittings for the home of the sports director at the Solvay plant in Dombasle

1948

1964

Maison Georches Blanchon (Bréhat)

Indira Holiday Home (Sector 24)

January: Pierre Jeanneret joins the team commissioned by the Indian government to build Chandigarh, the new capital of Punjab, with Le Corbusier, Maxwell Fry, and Jane Drew. Works with Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew until 1954, then on his own with the Chandigarh architects and engineers office.

1939

1936

1952

Urban development project for Grenoble on the Fort Robeau site.

(Grenoble)

Villa Savoye (Poissy)

1930

1960

Sarup Kishen’s House (Sector 8)

1950-51

1951

1929

1921

Throughout these years, in addition to his own work, P. Jeanneret coordinates the oversight teams for the monumental esplanade designed for the Capitol by Le Corbusier, including the Legislative Assembly, the High Court, the Secretariat, and other, more modest building such as the museum and the school of architecture

1957

1945

Refits the Isère départennent Prefecture building.

Salon d’Automne (Paris)

1960-65

1943 Le refuge Tonneau with Charlotte Perriand

Creation of a line of furnishings by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand

Project for the FT house in the Paris suburbs

Plouet house (Ile de Bréhat)

Designed the covers for the magazine L’Esprit Nouveau, founded in October

During the summer, Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier move into 35 Rue de Sèvres (Paris)

Minister’s House (Sector 2)

Projects for chalets in the Alps

1947

Demountable portal frame structures for the SCAL at lssoire, with Jean Prouvé: housing, dormitories, ecc.

Furnishings for the L’Équipement de la Maison company which takes them over and expands the BCC catalog.

1928

House Type A - 3 (Unlocated)

Called on by Le Corbusier for the renovation of the facades of the Swiss pavilion (Paris)

Pavillion des temps Nouveaux (Paris)

1940

1924

Project for a block of 200 apartments (Puteaux)

1947

1937

1938

1910

Formation

Project A — housing exhibition

Project for the Schweiz Rentenanstalt building (Zurich)

1960

Nursery School (Unlocated) House Type 6-J

1920

Studies architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva

Period of service in the Swiss Army

Gilles Barbey

1923

In January leaves Switzerland

1913-1919

1916-1917

« Pierre Jeanneret donne l’image du créateur véritable, de l’homme assoiffé de découverte constante. Il observe autour de lui, invente et propose avec la générosite de ceux qui vivent intensément. Toute sa vie est à l’affût d’une vérité. Démêler, comprendre, trouver des réponses fraîches… Cet appétit pour la création l’engage dans l’urbanisme, l’architecture, le dessin des meubles et même de bateaux. Il dessine, écrit, photographie, et cette ardeur au travail donne à ses oeuvres une dimension constamment renouvelée »

1920

1933

Jeanneret travels aboard the Massilia from Marseille to Athens. Excursions in the Peloponnesus with Charlotte Perriand.

Cook house (Boulogne-sur-seine)

1956

1950

As part of the preparations for the 1937 International Exhibition:

1930 Pavillion d’aviations S.T.A.R (Le Bourget)

1940

1936

1949 Maison de Charlotte Perriand (Unlocated)

1951 Photo series, chandigarh before Chandigarh

1946

1949

Contract with Knoll for “Chair 92” (USA)

Holiday house project (Frontignan)

1946

1949

Trip to the United States: crosses the country with Alexander Calder

CIAM VII Bérgamo (Italy) About architecture as art

1940

1947

After Second World War, states begin massive housing production supported by private property developers.

CIAM VI Bridgwater (England) About the reconstruction of the cities after II World War

Industrialization and mass habitation

1951

1947 Indian independence

CIAM VIII Hoddesdon (England) About the heart of the city

Search for a local character

1959-65

1962

Museum of Knowledge (Sector 10)

Boat prototypes

1953

1965

House Type 4-J (Several sectors)

Cricket Pavillion

1963 Dispensary (Sector 47A)

1959 Gautam Sega’s House (Sector 5)

1953 CIAM IX Aix-en Provence (France) Publication of the “Room Charter”

1965

1959-65

August: for health reasons he returns to live with his niece Jacqueline Jeanneret in Switzerland

Museum of Knowledge (Sector 10)

1956

1951-65

1967

CIAM X Dubrovnik (Yugoslavia) About the Habitat Team X’s First Presence

Numerous programs: individual and collective accommodations for all social classes, the Chandigarh Architects’ Agency, schools, university dormitories, hospitals, library, etc.

Furniture for Chandigarh’s public buildings: High Court, Secretariat, Legislative Assembly, Library, etc

4 December: Pierre Jeanneret dies in Geneva, his ashes were scattered in the Chandigarh lake

1959 CIAM XI Otterlo (Netherland) Dissolution of the CIAM

1965 25 August Le Corbusier dies

Chandigargh

Fig. 2. Chronological reconstruction of Pierre Jeanneret’s works by the author.

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operational and technical executor of the projects. Even worse, of the decade after the separation, between 1940 and 1950, his production is unknown, a period little documented that has only left record in the collaborations that he made with other architects and designers such as Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé; but that represented a stage of experimentation and conceptual deepening on the meaning and form of domestic space (Fig. 2).

Now, with the above in mind, how can we determine P. Jeanneret’s contribution to the construction of the modern habitat and thus its implementation in contemporary residential research if we do not know his residential work in depth?

It becomes inevitable to reconstruct and know the work of Jeanneret before making any formal or technical analysis of the projects, reconstructing them in such a way as to see the research period as a holistic process in order to extract the elements, systems or technical or architectural themes that contribute to contemporary design, as Josep Quetglas puts it: “The act of seeing does not consist in the passive and automatic reception of a fixed and established image in front of us, but in the active process of elaborating, approaching, separating, building relationships. The eyes receive an impact, and the memory sets off in search of possible links, producers of meaning”1.

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Tonneau hut: How to see a project In 1938, architects and designers Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand designed and modeled an alpine hut in the form of a mobile barrel, the Tonneau hut (Fig. 3), an experimental hut without a precise location, which was initially conceived for the steep terrain of the Alps as a modern solution to the mountain chalets2. The project is not an isolated invention proposed by the architects: the N° 4 of the magazine L’architecture d’aujourd’hui of April 1939, dedicated to the Constructions en Montagne, proves it. It arises from a series of reflections that both architects had been investigating and checking for several years3. Reflections that were the basis of prototypes and models that were projected and built during and after the Second World War. In this order of ideas, a reconstruction and critical analysis of the structure can give rise to contemporary architectural solutions.

The project has a scarce and non-existent bibliography, apart from the few pages that can be found in the monographs dedicated to Charlotte Perriand’ work, as there are equally scarce publications on the work of Pierre Jeanneret4. Therefore, to understand the project and its contemporary importance, it is necessary to redesign and describe it, together with the construction of a technical bibliography that helps us see it.

Architecture Research Agenda

Fig. 3. Tonneau hut, reconstruction of the facade. The hut is a prefabricated barrelshaped shelter which is manufactured in a factory, can be carried on someone’s back and quickly installed on a mountain side. Drawing by the author.

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Fig. 3.1. Tonneau hut, reconstruction of the project floor plans. The two floors, dodecahedral in shape, are divided by function. Drawing by the author.

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Representation and drawing in architecture In order to understand the project, you must first look at its planimetry, as Jhon Berger in the book Sul disegnare states: “Il disegno è la documentazione autobiografica della scoperta di un evento: visto, ricordato o immaginato”5. In the Tonneau hut it is possible to find the section and a schematic plan and a series of details, so making a reconstruction of the planimetry will help in the description of what is seen and in understanding it (Fig. 4). Drawing is important, especially when it comes to architecture, to represent - to transmit and explain - as Le Corbusier would express it when he wrote in 1965 that “Le dessin est un language, une science, un moyen d’expression, un moyen de transmission de pensée (…) Le dessin permet de transmettre intégralement la pensée sans le concours d’explications écrites ou verbales”6. Thus, the drawing is the document that contains the necessary elements that evoke the object of study, even if it has been a project or has disappeared.

Given the importance of the drawing as an investigative document, there is another series of documents that help the reconstruction of a project without losing the elements of the object being looked at, like photography. A similar relationship between drawing and other systems of representation is presented by Víctor Hugo Velásquez in his

Syllabus 02

doctoral thesis El libro abierto: “In photography, for example, an analogous attitude is evident. Behind the camera has taken command of a gaze that is not satisfied with the objectivity of recording a “constructed reality”, but aspires to compose a complex testimony, where the architecture interacts with the landscape, enhancing the formal characteristics and spatial relations of the proposal...”7. photography: the origin of architectural form Both Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand used photography as a working tool8, so it is not surprising that, when studying the form of the Tonneau hut project, they turned to photography. Indeed, what the two architects learned and photographed in their recurrent travels played a significant role, as Jacques Barsac states: “Its structure was inspired by a fairground merry-go-round that she [Charlotte Perriand] had photographed in Croatia in 1937. The carousel was light, quick to assemble and disassemble, like a Meccano structure”9.

This way of approaching the origin of form has already been raised in other fields such as art, in the book Memorie del Neutro: Morfologia dell’immagine in Aby Warburg10, Andrea Pinotti exposes from the study of Aby Warburg’s philosophy and his Atlas Mnemosyne the genesis of an artistic work

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5 6 7

9

10

8

1 2 3 4

salle

Fig. 4. Tonneau hut, Reconstruction of the section of the project. The light and itinerant structure is resumed the metal skeleton composed of a central pole and a top that recalls a large umbrella of twelve segments. Drawing by the author.

9

Fig. 5. Tonneau hut, Formal and structural similarity between the photograph taken by Charlotte Perriand in Croatia in 1937 and the structure of the Tonneau Hut designed in 1938. Photography : Charlotte Perriand, Merry-go-round, Croatio, 1973. Axonometric drawing by the author.

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bequeathed to memory “Questo ricordare non è dunque ricorrere alla memoria come a un serbatoio di imaginni passate in qunto modelli ripetibili perché un tempo attuali: è un aprirsi alla dimensione della Menme come memoria del possibile, come luogo delle forme potenziali”11. On the other hand, in architecture, as Josep Quetglas states in Les Heures Claires, “A project is never started on a blank paper and by an amnesiac hand”12, making allegory to the memory of the architect who has studied, seen, learned architecture. Or from literature, in the words of Carlos Martí Arís, quoting Borges, “Literature is made from literature”13. So architectural project and form are linked to study other architectures, to time, as can also be read in the words of Freud when he describes Rome in its strata in the Malaise in Culture: “nothing can disappear if, at a certain moment, it has been part of life”14.

Returning to our project, the travel photographs of Ch. Perriand and P. Jeanneret will be echoed in the photographs they will make of the Tonneau hut project (Fig. 5).

Technique, Construction, and Method Eleven photographs in the form of a manual show, step-bystep, the construction of the structure (Fig. 6). A series of texts accompanying the photographs describe the materials, their assembly, mounting and internal comfort characteristics.

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Showing the series of pieces that make up the prefabricated system and how they are assembled.

The use of industrial systems is a reflection that P. Jeanneret carried throughout his professional career, as indicated

by Heléne Cauquil: “la recherche de la simplicité est une des préoccupations essentielles de P. Jeanneret concernât le rapport à l’industrie”15. Similarly, Ch. Perirand discusses the subject when referring to metal: “Because it allows of mass production in the factory (lessens amount of labor required); Because by means of the different methods of manufacture it opens out new vistas; new opportunities of design”16.

These reflections on construction and industrial production were of great interest during the inter-war period and after the end of the Second World War, as illustrated in N° 4 of the magazine L’architecture d’aujourd’hui of November 1945 dedicated to Prefabrication or N° 9-10 of the magazine Techniques et Architetture of September-October 1942. Such interest reaches our time for its innovative aspect, but beyond that, it derives to the ‘Technical’ resignation of the built object.

On structuring: On innovation and technic As the title of the thesis indicates, the research wants to stipulate the innovative and technical character of P. Jeanneret’s residential projects seeking to discern that it was

Architecture Research Agenda

Fig. 6. Tonneau hut, Axonometric reconstruction of the model made by Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand showing the assembly of the shelter and the way the different parts are assembled. Drawing by the author.

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Fig. 6.1. Tonneau hut, Details of the joints of the different parts of the shelter. Above: joints between floor, wall and roof panels. Below: joints of the tubular structure, and stiffening cables. Drawing by the author.

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orchestrated as a process of heuristic projection. In order to do so, it is necessary to determine what is meant when we talk about innovation and technique, as principal key words, starting with the meaning and etymology in order to begin to understand. In one hand, to innovate is to create or alter something, to introduce a novelty; its own Latin etymological root indicates it: “in” (to penetrate, to be inside) and “novus” (the new). The definition resonates in the words of Alvaro Siza: “Architects do not invent anything they just transform what already exists”. But what does exist and what was new in the work of Jeanneret? It will one of the questions the thesis wants to afront. In the other hand, technique, from the Greek, derives from the word tekton, carpenter or builder. It can be understood, if the intent is not specified, as Bruno Reichlin explains: “Occorre poi segnalare che in architettura, quando si scrive di “Tecnica” senz’altra precisazione o dichiarazione d’intenti, si designano almeno tre “oggetti” diversi: - la costruzione intesa nel suo aspetto materiale, e quindi la struttura e il suo guscio, i materiali e i dispositivi tecnici che si collegano a essa, le installazioni come pure le modalità di fabbricazione e il procedimento di messa in opera; - l’immagine “tecnica” dell’opera vale a dire ciò che nell’opera compiuta è dato di vedere e comprendere della sua costruzione.

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(…) indicata con il termine “tectonica”, - il complesso dei saperi, dei metodi e degli strumenti di cui gli architetti (…) si sono dati per occuparsi in modo razionale ed efficace della concezione, e quindi dell’innovazione e della creazione, architettonica” (…)”17.

Following this order of ideas, the thesis is structured from the four main periods of the residential work of Jeanneret, the first, his training and collaboration in the atelier 35 rue de Sèvres between 1922 and 1940. The second, with a greater burden of research and exploration to the resolution of the residential unit, industrialization and housing for the masses between 1937 and 1945. The third, the search for a local character of architecture, starting from an exploration that began before the split with Le Corbusier and carried forward with the construction of villas and chalets during 1940-1951, and finally, the design and construction of the city of Chandigarh, during 1951 and 1965, with the formulation of about thirty residential models that were part of the main body of the city. Each of the periods will be analyzed following the structure drawn from the idea of technique: the first, the case studies: the contextualization of the period, the reconstruction and description of the residential projects from the planimetry (Fig. 7). The second, the technique, understood as the technical devices that make

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4

4 5

3

1 1

6 2

Fig. 7. Maison Démontable 8 x 8, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé, 1941, BCC. Reconstruction of the project floor plans. Drawing by the author.

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up the building, its materiality, structure, operation and installation (Fig. 8), all of them at the mercy of the domestic space, or in the words of Marcel Breuer: “Space is not plastic, static, positive, projecting. It is hollow, negative, retiring. It is never complete and finite. It is in motion, connected to the next space and to the next - and to the infinite space. It is materially defined by slabs of masonry or wood or what have you, by structural frames, by a dome or by a sheet of glass”18.

An archive to explore Following the example of his cousin Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret meticulously archived much of the documentation related to his projects and research. The archive currently held by the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal contains correspondence, personal letters, extensive photographic material, sketches, maps, and films that reveal Pierre Jeanneret as an architect, designer, and craftsman. The holdings contain enough material and variety to provide a holistic kaleidoscope of works, while demonstrating the various documentation techniques employed by Pierre to capture the residential models that were under construction. Similarly, among the archived tracings, one can find scraps of paper with freehand details and drawings: a sectional elevation on a windowsill, a built-in storage unit, a windbreak on a wall, a sketch of a

Syllabus 02

cross-legged chair, a bamboo lamp, a gargoyle. These objects seem somewhat casual at first glance, but the extremely well-proportioned details, hand-drawn in India ink, colored pencils, or oil pastels, reveal Jeanneret’s eye for detail, consistency, and passion for his work.

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Fig. 7.1. Maison Démontable 8 x 8, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé, 1941, BCC. Reconstruction of the project section plan. Drawing by the author.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Fig. 8. Maison Démontable 8 x 8, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé, 1941, BCC. Joint system between panels. Drawing by the author.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Architecture Research Agenda

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Fig. 8.1. Maison Démontable 8 x 8, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé, 1941, BCC. Central portico, basic component in the construction of the house space.

Drawing by the author.

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Notes 1. Josep Quetglas, Restos de Arquitectura y de critica de la cultura, (Barcelona: Arcadia, 2017) p. 144.

2. The shelter project, apart from the model photographed by the architects, was never built. In 2012 Cassina as part of the Salone del Mobile built the shelter. Cassina worked closely with Perriand’s sketches and notes, as well as with his daughter Pernette PerriandBarsac, to create a reproduction, which allows to enter for the first time in the visionary structure.

3. Several projects explore the same ideas of the prefabricated shelter by Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. In Georgia Ntelmekoura’s master thesis, “Analysis of the mountain shelters and weekend huts”, a series of shelters built by the two architects in collaboration or independently are analyzed in terms of their structure, their architectural composition and their habitability.

Georgia Ntelmekoura, Analysis of the mountain shelters and weekend huts, (Master Thesis UPC, Barcelona).

4. The bibliography on Pierre Jeanneret is very scarce, the first and only monograph was published in 1987 by Hélène Bauchet-Cauquil.

The rest of the information about Jeanneret is found in a few journal articles that will be cited in this text as part of the collection of information for the reconstruction of the bibliography of the project.

5. John Berger, Sul disegnare, (Milano: il Saggiatore, 2017) p. 12.

6. Le Corbusier, Dessins, (Forces Vives, 1968).

7. Victor Hugo Velasquez, El libro abierto: Sistemas de representación arquitectónica en el libro Gesamtes Werk – Ouvre Complète, Le Corbusier – Pierre Jeanneret, 1910 – 1929 (Tesis doctoral, UPC, Barcelona) p. 345 (Translation by the author) 8. Books such as Jacques Barsac, Charlotte Perriand and Photography: A wild-Angle Eye or Tim Benton, Le Corbusier Secret Photographer help understand the relationship that these architects

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had with photography. In the case of Pierre Jeanneret, there are more than 3,000 photographs in the Pierre Jeanneret Archive Fund belonging to the Canadian Center for Architecture, yet to be studied.

9. Jacques Barsac, Charlotte Perriand and Photography: A wildAngle Eye (Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2011), p. 44.

10. Andrea Pinotti, Memorie del Neutro: Morfologia dell’immagine in Aby Warburg, (Milano: Mimesis, 2001).

11. Ibidem, p. 199.

12. Josep Quetglas, Les Heures Claires: Proyecto y Arquitectura en la Villa Savoye de Le Corbusier y Pierre Jeanneret (Barcelona: Massilla, 2008), p. 39 (Translation by the author).

13. Carlos Marti Aris: Silencios Elocuentes, (Barcelona: Ediciones asimetricas, 2019), p. 15.

14. Sigmund Freud, El malestar en la cultura, (Omegalfa,2010) p. 10 15. Hélène Cauquil, Pierre Jenneret: La Passion de Construire, (Paris, 1983), p. 58.

16. Charlotte Perriand, Wood or Metal?, (The Studio 97, no 433, 1929), p. 279.

17. Bruno Reichlin, Introduzione, In AA.VV, Jean Prouvè: The poetics of the technical object”, (Ginevra – Milano: SKira, 2007) 18. Marcel Breuer, Marcel Breuer: Sun and Shadow, (New York, 1955), p. 60.

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Bibliography Titles on Pierre Jeanneret AA.VV. Chandigarh: Forty years after Le Corbusier. Amsterdam : Architectura & Natura, 2006.

—. Jean Prouvé and Pierre Jeanneret: Maison Démontable BCC. Paris : Galerie Patrick Seguin, 2014.

—. Le Corbusier y Chandigarh: Ritrato di una cittá moderna. Roma: Edizioni Kappa, 2003.

- Avermaete, Tom, Maristella Casciato, Barrada Yto, y Takashi Homma. Casablanca Chandigarh : a report on modernization. Zurich: CCA y Park Books AG, 2014.

Barbay, Gilles. “Pierre Jeanneret.” Das Werk: Architektur und Kunst = L’oeuvre: architecture et art, 1968: 390-396.

Bauchet-Cauquíl, Hélène. Pierre Jeanneret: La Passion de Construire.

Paris: EAUG, 1983.

Bauchet-Cauquil, Hélène, Michael Roy, Le Corbusier, y Pierre Jeanneret. Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret : Chandigarh, India 1951-66.

Paris: Galerie Patrick Seguin, 2014.

Benton, Tim. The villas of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, 19201930. Basel: Revised and expanded ed, 2007.

Casciato, Maristella. “Cuatro Europeos en Chandigarh: LC + Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew y Maxwell Fry.” RA: Revista de Arquitectura, 2010: 17-24.

Jeanneret, Pierre. “Incidences des techniques locales et du climat sur la construction à Chandigarh.” L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, 1956: 180.

Perriand, Charlotte. Io, Charlotte: Tra Le Corbusier, Léger e Jeanneret.

Roma: GLF Editori Laterza, 2006.

Other titles AA.VV., Jean Prouvè: The poetics of the technical object, Ginevra – Milano: Skira, 2007.

Berger, John, Sul disegnare, Milano: Il Saggiatore, 2017 Freud, Sigmund, El malestar en la cultura, Omegalfa, 2010 Le Corbusier, Dessins, Forces Vives, 1968.

Marti Aris, Carlos. Silencios Elocuentes, Barcelona: Ediciones asimétricas, 2019.

Mazzucco, Katia, Genesis di un’opera “non finibile”, In AA.VV., Introduzione ad Aby Warburg e all’Atlante della Memoria, Milano: Mondadori, 2002.

Perriand, Charlotte: Complete Works Vol. 1: 1903-1940, Paris: Archives Charlotte Perriand; Zurich: Scheidegger und Spiess AG, 2014. __ Wood or Metal?, The studio 97, no. 433 (Apr. 1929), 278-279 Pierini, Simona. Imagenes Por Palabras: Circo, No. 182, 2012 Pinotti, Andrea. Memorie del Neutro: Morfologia dell’immagine in Aby Warburg, Milano: Mimesis, 2001.

Quetglas, Josep, Les Heures Claires: Proyecto y Arquitectura en la Villa Savoye de Le Corbusier y Pierre Jeanneret, Barcelona: Massilla, 2008. __ Restos de Arquitectura y de critica de la cultura, Barcelona: Arcadia, 2017. __ “El formato 40F (sobre la planta: retícula, formato, trazados).” En Masilla: Anuario de estudios Lecorbuserianos, de AA.VV, 85-87.

Barcelona, 2002.

Reichlin, Bruno. Dalla soluzione elegante all’edificio aperto: Scritti attorno ad alcune opere di Le Corbuiser. Zurich : Mendrisio Academy Press/ Silvana Editoriale, 2013.

Warburg, Aby. Atlas Mnemosyne, Madrid: Ediciones Akal, 2010.

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Syllabus 02 Marianna Frangipane is a first year PhD candidate in Architecture Urban Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano. She studied at ENSAP of Lille and ENSA of Paris-Malaquais and she gained her bachelor and master’s degree at Politecnico di Milan, where she graduated in 2019.

She worked at Mosbach paysagistes office in Paris. She is member of the Terzo Paesaggio Association board of director and co-founder of Forme Tentative Association. She is currently involved in different actionresearches, and she is tutor in Design Studio course by Prof. Andrea Di Franco at Politecnico di Milano.

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The focus of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of possible architectural design methods and tools when related to marginal contexts. Taking advantage of my previous and ongoing experiences herein I firstly debate my experience of ‘Spectacular Courtyard’ in San Siro social housing neighborhood, as my position project. This experience identifies the horizon of meaning of my research, by pointing out the need of employing a direct observation of the action research when related to marginal contexts.

Marianna Frangipane Narrative as a design tool in marginal landscapes

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Architectural artefact as a telling document I propose as Position Project the one of Spectacular courtyard, a project I have been recently directly involved in the framework of West Road Project action-research held by Politecnico di Milano.

A new “open room” occupies part of the courtyard via Abbiati 6 in the San Siro social housing neighborhood. It is a wood platform – 5x5 meters – grafted with a 3-meter-high iron structure colored in blue and orange. It is a stage open to appropriation.

The context of this experimentation is San Siro, characterized by a “super-diversity” (Vertovec 2007) expressed through both conditions of multiple fragilities and a dense network of players who dialogue on shared projects. Here the morphology of the rationalist open system, concluded by fences to delimit its crossability, generates a network of uncertain open spaces, between public and private use: courtyards. Complex and contradictory situations “where the tension towards change is so high that any possibility of a project is annihilating” (Di Franco 2019) and marginal situations, due to the difficulties in interpreting the context’s complexity. Here the marginality manifests itself as the absence of a project, as the apparent impossibility of identifying an explicit modification demand. In this uncertain

Syllabus 02

but fertile ground the space modification project is unable to answer, thus the need firstly to arise and set the project demands, by questioning the contexts.

In Abbiati 6 courtyard “Spectacular Courtyard” was raised, promoted by the action-research teams Mapping San Siro, WRP in partnership with Outis and financed by Mibact.

A project that had the aim to work on the re-design and reactivation of Abbiati 6, on which the back of the OffCampus space overlooks, through co-design activities with the inhabitants in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team composed of architects, urbanists, artists, performers, and anthropologists. This position project identifies the space modification execution phase as an intermediate moment of a multidisciplinary process that lasted more than one year.

“Trabucco Gigante” (the structure name) experiments with a project that takes on the value of a “telling document” due to its path and to its use. In a process made up of cumulative interactions, the possible operative design tools, to focus the gaze of the project by revealing the existing conditions and generating a dialogical plan between heterogeneous components, are represented by narrative forms. These forms support an idea of weak and uncertain architecture that opens up to a plurality of competencies with the capability of triggering transformation processes and able to adapt to the

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SPACE MODIFICATION

competencies

appropriation relationships ??? practices policies perspective people stories imaginary 5m

t

‘Spectacular Courtyard’, the experience in the marginal context of San Siro, 2019.

methods

conflicts

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changing dynamics of the context. A conceiving defined by Pier Carlo Palermo as “Suggestive, but at risk, because it could easily become elusive, ephemeral, irrelevant and therefore conservative, due to an excess of disengagement” (Palermo 2009, 32). The project experiments with the architectural idea that hosts awareness of uncertainty, modifies its actions based on the information collected and the possibilities found, and questions “renovated tools for the design and management of physical transformations” (Magnani 2017).

This project represented an occasion to observe in action the design practices when related through a “complex project platform” (Cognetti 2020). This platform questions the role of design by considering itself as a tool to: Develop operative knowledge (Di Franco 2020), Establish a network among players and spaces, Trigger modification process. The project is considered as an open tool of knowledge, looking for the meaning of the project itself, it is informed and instructs a process that has involved an “active following and proceeding together” (Ingold 2019). Accordingly, I have been directly involved in specific co-design actions that articulated the project process.

The approach was multidisciplinary, and the process was conducted through different narrative forms that have generated open knowledge: drawings, written texts, artistic objects,

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technical relations, reports, social communication, flyers, spatial devices. These kinds of forms have taken value as “social objects” (Ferraris 2009), by welcoming and contaminating each other through the multiple competencies (expert and ordinary) that have contributed to the project definition. Thus, the narrative forms that pass through numerous micro-stories, become a tool for experimenting with the conditions of reality and the activation of the imaginary, translating its products into a form comparable and operable by those who have the opportunity to interact with the project. Narrative represented an operative design tool to deal with the specificity of the context and allowed a dynamic and continuous interaction with the inhabitants to reveal and develop courtyard representations.

This experiential vision is the starting point of my research, considering the space modification and its narrative forms as able to dynamically receive, record, tell, detect, and reveal the phases and seasons that pass and manifest in the project contexts. This vision represents a possibility of exploration of the complexity introduced by human space modification, within an ecosystem that is always elusive with respect to a single clarification. The choice of this position project stems from the idea that narrative may represent a possible design tool of interpretation, relationship, and measurement of the modification of the spaces.

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Architecture Research Agenda autumn 2019

spring 2020

autumn 2020

summer 2020

time

winter 2020

'CORTILE SPETTACOLARE'

TRABUCCO GIGANTE CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS PRELIMINARY DRAWINGS

design narrative forms

PROPERTY AND RESPONSABILITY DECLARATION

TECHNICAL REPORT

DESIGN SCENARIOS ARTISTIC SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION

ARTISTIC SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION

MEETINGS MAP THEATRICAL TEXTS

COURTYARD ADDRESS BOOK

PROJECT PROPOSAL

ALER

competences

Craftman Actor Agronomist Antropologist Visual Artist Inhabitant Urbanist

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project actions

Architect

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The necessity to deal with narrative arises from the following question: how could design deal with uncertainty and complexity without reducing it?

Design from the inside On the trail of outlining the framework of the research, the Lacaton and Vassal project of the transformation of Bois le Prêtre in Paris may represent an opportunity to define the following three crucial issues related to the design approach I would like to deal with in my research.

- The project stems from the recognition of the richness of everything that exists in both material and immaterial meaning. Hence the choice to include constraints and complexity that the building generates as complex project materials, starting from the dialogue, adopting an approach that Lacaton and Vassal themselves define as “a delicate attention to everything that exists”.

My research is guided by the dialogic-relational value of the project where the relationship is mainly traced with the existing context. The existing relation that I am talking about could be found in those fragile fragments of the contemporary city that are the object of Petrillo’s thought.

Places where the complexity of social and economic dynamics emerge in their contradictions, defined by characters

Syllabus 02

of multiplicity, heterogeneity, and stratification which correspond to a semantic plurality that determines a hard interpretation of the phenomena occurring.

- The chosen project hosts the decision not to demolish but rather keep the buildings, and “just add” (Lacaton and Vassal 2015): design becomes a tool to reveal the existing possibilities and to open new ones.

Following this approach my research would like to consider the design forms in exploratory rather than compositional terms, as a tool through which new possibilities of living are revealed, thus looking for the sense of the project itself for the space modification. This in agreement with Barbieri who in the article “contexts in flight” introduces the concept of “tentative forms”, intended as a “tool and not as the aim of a relational process, such as that which is fed by personal poetics, corresponds to the authorial model still widespread” (Barbieri 2017). This architectural idea is strictly linked to the concept of spatial agency introduced by Awan et al. associated with three criteria against which to measure potential entries: “spatial judgment”, “critical awareness” and “mutual knowledge”. “Mutual knowledge implies openness as to what may contribute to spatial production […] expands the means by which knowledge may be displayed and developed. Thus stories (which can be shared) are as productive as drawings

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demolition?

recognize the complexity

?

?

? ? ?

inertia to modification?

opening possibilities

!

?

!

!

?

? ? !

?

design from inside

Modification approach of Bois la Prêtre tower, Lacaton et Vassal, Paris, 2011.

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(which often exclude non-experts), and actions are privileged as much as things” (Awan et al. 2011, 33).

- The Bois le Prêtre project process is raised “starting from inside, from the inhabitant situation, and then develops space around it at a different scale” (Lacaton and Vassal 2015). The transformation process has been made of small fragments connected and intersected with each other and developed through a direct dialogue with the inhabitants, which allowed the open demands that the project substantiated to come to light. Thus, a housing building project became a public space project because a space of dialogue represented the answer to a problem to be shared and the open solution desired.

This approach states the role of architecture as a social practice and opens the debate on how the immaterial relational dimension of the project may contribute to the space modification, becoming an operable tool for the project itself.

In the book “Theory of Architectural Design” architecture is considered as a social practice and its procedures in relation to the nebulae of social phenomena. The outcome of the architectural project practice is not directly identified in the architectural achievements, but rather in the “set of all the conflicts, social and technical negotiations that were necessary for its construction” (Armando and Durbiano 2017): the structure of the relationships that underlies it. The success

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or failure of the work will then depend on the quality of this relational structure.

The perspective of my research considers this dialogicrelational design approach to interpret marginal contexts and to trace possible space modifications, considering the project as tentative, as an open work, as a social practice.

Tentative research overview Thus my project could be defined by a tentative research map which foresees a link among different issues identified by the following keywords and key projects: Marginal contexts The research evaluates a design approach that assumes the identity of a specific application field represented by marginal contexts. Marginality is considered not an absolute condition but a relative one, defined by the lack of projects: marginal contexts are “project orphans” (Di Franco 2020). In these areas, the disciplinary and the traditional projects get into crisis due to complexity and turbulence that hamper the possibility of defining an order that the project can reinvent and build.

This complexity generates linguistic structures which are so dispersed, not dialoguing, and conflicting that making it hard to find a way of understanding and then defining project form.

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dissemination of the project Video maker

psyco-sociologic research Urban planner

Social psycologist

artistic action

Inhabitant photographic story telling

Visual Artist

communication designer

Craftman

public amministration

Photografer Architect co-costruction workshop

‘Prossima apertura aprilia’, the open complex process of modification of the space, 2016-ongoing.

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Theoretical framework

Taxonomy

Experiencing

Methodological perspective for a narrative design approach

Tentative research structure.

Participative processes (key project – “Prossima apertura Aprilia”, Orizzontale) – Working on the pursuit of a pertinent language allows building a communicative plan to make the best sense of the place by considering the architectural project as an “open work”. On this basis we should consider the project in a procedural dimension, favoring a circularity of process determination by discrete steps and tentative forms, to accommodate uncertainty and the outcome of a path “inclusive and participatory” (Ward 2017).

The scenario of these dynamics by involving the experts and non-experts generates the search for a “choral” methodological device, opens to different knowledge and actors, flexible and interactive in all phases and on all levels of the transformation process, able to recognize and adapt to the conditions of possibility over time, aimed in this sense at a “bricolage” action (Lévi-Strauss 1962).

Narrative Considering the project as a bricolage action connecting languages and contents to architecture, narrative opens up the possibility of establishing a dialogue that is no longer just internal to the discipline values but extended to lived experiences placed in an already open horizon of “common

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belonging” (Calvi 1991). Through the contamination of languages, starting from the interpretation of the complexity the project may represent a synthesis able to produce a configuration of the existing, connecting the fragments in an innovative way (Ricœur 1996). Starting from the hypothesis that narrative represents a possible effective approach and tool to the project of modification of the space in marginal contexts I advance the following tentative questions: - How can the narrative act on the space before the space modification starts by raising and revealing the desire (demand) of modification (if it can)?

- How can the narration of the project be considered as an intermediate device for the context’s engagement and negotiation of the meaning of the project itself (if it can)?

- How can the spatial project substantiate itself in urban narratives and what are its effects?

- How can the narration be an operable legacy of an experience?

Design knowledge Furthermore, a narrative may trigger, connect and store different forms of design knowledge. This concept is related with two main aspects, on the one hand which forms of knowledge are needed by the project to build its sense in the

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unfolding of the process and who contributes to producing knowledge and how they affect the definition of the spatial project; on the other hand, how this complex knowledge, as result of multiple languages and experiences, can be mapped and deposited to become operable.

I could then put forward that the research may advance in a tentative way based on the interaction between the direct experience and a theoretical study. The experiences represent a methodological need to be able to deal with a specific condition of marginality. Considering the impossibility to define the marginality condition in abstract terms, or to define some guidelines, then the experiences may represent a knowledge that instructs a further action.

In conclusion at this point the research is structured in a: Theoretical framework (based on selected readings and relevant scientific literature to define a possible state of the art and a historical glance), Taxonomy (based on the process of redrawing, on interviews and on direct observations of relevant case studies to structure storytelling that make them comparable), Experiencing (based on my direct experience of the opportunities: “ACTS A Chance Through Sport” (Polisocial award 2019), “Campo-Gioco Forma-Azione” (Scuola dei quartieri).

My effort is to identify what uses, forms and effects of

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narrative related to the architectural project to define a renovated methodological perspective for a narrative design approach to deal with marginal contexts.

Bibliography Armando, Alessandro, and Giovanni Durbiano. 2017. Teoria del progetto architettonico. Dai disegni agli effetti. Roma: Carocci editore.

Awan, Nishat, Schneider, Tatiana and Jeremy Till. 2011. Spatial Agency. Other Ways of Doing Architecture. Milton Park: Routledge.

Deleuze, Gilles. 1989. Qu’est-ce qu’un dispositif? Paris: Le Seuil.

Barbieri, Pepe. 2017. “Contesti in volo.” Ardeth 1: 125-136.

Calvi, Evelina. 1991. Tempo e progetto. L’architettura come narrativa.

Milano: Edizioni Angelo Guerini e Associati.

Cognetti, Francesca. 2020. “Periferie. Riconoscere gradienti e ricomporre frammenti.” In Periferie del cambiamento. Traiettorie di rigenerazione tra marginalità e innovazione a Milano, edited by Francesca Cognetti, Daniela Gambino and Jacopo Lareno, 138-147.

Macerata: Quodlibet editore.

Di Franco, Andrea. 2020. “Il progetto del progetto.” In Le domande del progetto. Sperimentazioni nei margini urbani, edited by Andrea Di Franco, Marianna Frangipane and Gianfranco Orsenigo, 11-34.

Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli Editore.

Di Franco, Andrea. 2019. “La cura del rimosso.” In Il progetto di architettura come intersezioni di saperi. Per una nozione rinnovata di Patrimonio, a cura di Alberto Calderoni, Bruna Di Palma, Antonio Nitti e Gaspare Oliva, Atti del VIII Forum ProArch, 904-909.

Ingold, Tim. 2013. Making: Anthropology, Archeology, Art and Architecture. Milton Park: Routledge.

Lacaton, Anne, and Jean-Philippe Vassal. 2015. Freedom of Use. Cambridge, MA: Sternberg Press.

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Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1962. La Pensée sauvage. Paris: Librairie Plon.

Magnani, Carlo. 2017. “Editoriale.” Ardeth 1: 19-29.

Palermo, Carlo P. 2009. I limiti del possibile. Governo del territorio e qualità dello sviluppo. Roma: Donzelli editore.

Ricœur, Paul. 1996. “Architettura e narratività.” In Identità e differenze. Milano: Electa.

Schon, Donald. 1983. The Reflexive Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.

Vertovec Steven. 2007. “Super-diversity and its Implications.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30: 1024-1054.

Ward, Colin. 2017. Architettura del dissenso. Forme e pratiche alternative dello spazio urbano, edited by Giacomo Borella. Milano: Eleuthera.

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Tentative research map.

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Syllabus 02 Carla Rizzo studied architecture between Palermo and Milano, where she graduated in 2017 with Marco Biraghi with a thesis on the urban real estate development of Milano Porta Nuova. After the degree she continued her research activity as teaching assistant for the course of History of Architecture at the Bachelor of Architecture at Politecnico di Milano. She is member of the architecture collective Gizmo since 2017 and PhD candidate at Polimi since November 2020. She contributed to many publications on contemporary architecture including Milano.

L’architettura dal 1945 a oggi (Hoepli, 2018) and the new edition of Nuove Architetture a Milano (Hoepli, 2020).

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Through the three following chapters a research method is investigated.

The leading concept recognises in the architectural drawing, in its pure twodimensional character, the basis from which to study and comprehend architecture, in particular nowadays that the general trends use to privilege other representation methods, like the three-dimensional drawing or the photorealistic one. Specifically, a general consideration of the plan as the fundamental graphic representation for architecture and for its practice is supported, and with the awareness of its representative strength, the research method is based on the necessity of a revaluation for the plan in the post-digital condition.

Carla Rizzo Architectural plans

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Position Project The Position Project aims to clarify a personal investigation interest and to address the critical position that led the development of the project itself, above all in terms of methodology. topic and aims Going deeper into the specific case of the Position Project, presented firstly in 2017, it was titled “Verso la città discontinua. Il caso di Porta Nuova come paradigma di una nuova condizione urbana per la metropoli europea” (Towards the discontinuous city. The case of Porta Nuova as a Paradigm of a New Urban Condition for the European Metropolis).

The centre of the research was the urban transformation process of the well-known Milanese area of Porta Nuova.

The main intents were, on one side, to analyse and discuss the design strategies and aspects, the urban and architectural choices, those already taken and those in the process of being defined, and on the other side to highlight as much as possible the development process, revealing it in all the complexity of its intricate, and not always transparent connections, with the economic and political structure.

To exasperate, the provocation beyond the entire research was to put in evidence how in this specific urban regeneration

Syllabus 02

condition the extremely fragmented design was completely subdued to the same economic and political structure and by the out-of-control market regulations; more precisely, it is the same historical fabric of the city of Milan, nowadays still recognisable, to make explicit the tension with the global model inserted in it. method Some ideological premises and some references were fundamental to support the research, and the first and most significant was the “Architecture and Utopia. Design and Capitalist Development”, a lucid diagnosis elaborated by Manfredo Tafuri in 1973. Through it, he predicted the end and the impossibility of the utopia as urban model, but at the same time he was reflecting, as intellectual, about the necessity of accepting the irrational component of the system in which at that time, and we can say also at our time, metropolises were arising. In synthesis, acceptance of the state of contradiction to turn the crisis to our advantage.

The relevant aspect to be highlighted in this occasion about the development of the Thesis regards the method of investigation. In fact, the critical discussion and the study of the site in historical terms, and of the many difficult steps of transformation proposed from the second half of the

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20th Century to nowadays, was always accompanied with a collection of redrawings, useful to make visible specific issues.

The final outcome and configuration of the site registers a hyper-fragmented design, caused by the coexistence of three main different master plans for the area, and the final involvement of more than fifteen architectural firms for the design of the buildings.

The need was to respond to the total lack of a unitary design: concretely, reclaim that material strictly pertaining to architecture, the drawing, which exists in a fragmented dimension – often incoherent with reality – just as the design was carried out, stripping it of all those magnificent shiny frills that usually adorn most of the images provided by architects, and finally recomposing and comparing these materials, in an attempt to clarify how many design choices were made in order to satisfy just economic priorities.

Concluding, as the architectural drawing was the great absent of the Porta Nuova design project, the real effort was to recovery and recompose it, and to discuss it analytically in order to focus on trends and directions of this contemporary architecture, and to focus on its deep raison d’être.

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References 1st group: The House and the Society Dolores Hayden, The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities, 1981.

Christian Norberg-Schulz, The Concept of Dwelling, 1985.

Witold Rybczynski, Home. A Short History of an Idea, 1986.

Marc Augé, Ville e tenute. Etnologia della casa di campagna, 1989.

Michelle Perrot, Histoire des Chambres, 1999.

Iñaki Ábalos, The Good Life. A Guided Visit to the House of Modernity, 2017, first published in 2001.

2nd group: The Type, the Plan Aldo Rossi, L’architettura della città, 1966.

Giorgio Grassi, La costruzione logica dell’architettura, 1967.

Rafael Moneo, On Typology, published in Oppositions 13, 1978.

Rafael Moneo, “Prólogo” to the Précis des leçons d’architecture

by J.N.L. Durand in the Spanish edition, 1981.

Carlos Martí Arís, Mies in chiave tipologica, in Le variazioni dell’identità. Il tipo in architettura, 1990.

Pier Vittorio Aureli, Life, Abstracted: Notes on the Floor Plan, 2017.

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1.

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2.

1-4. Drawings of the most significant variants proposed for the Porta Nuova project, including completed and suspended buildings, and pending construction master plan, longitudinal and cross-sections. Redrawn by the author.

3.

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HISTORICAL FABRIC

5.

NEW PERSPECTIVE AXES

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5-10. Morphological diagrams.

NEW BLOCKS AT THE CITY LEVEL

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NEW BUILDINGS

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NEW ELEVATED PODIUMS

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NEW GREEN

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PIERLUIGI NICOLIN

11.

Syllabus 02

ALDO ROSSI

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BRUNO GABRIELLI

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ARQUITECTONICA BAUKUH BOERISTUDIO CAPUTO PARTNERSHIP CINO ZUCCHI ARCHITETTI CITTERIO-VIEL & PARTNERS KOHN PEDERSEN FOX ASSOCIATES LUCIEN LAGRANGE ARCHITECTS MARIO CUCINELLA ARCHITECTS MICHELE DE LUCCHI MUÑOZ + ALBIN

GIORGIO GRASSI

14.

MANUEL PORTACELI

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11-16. Drawings of the 1991 ideas competion (1-15) compared with the present project (16). Redrawn by the author.

PELLI CLARKE PELLI ARCHITECTS PIUARCH STUDIO M2P ASSOCIATI VALENTINO BENATI WILLIAM MC DONOUGH AND PARTNERS

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Drawing up a preliminary bibliography map, and identifying 12 main references, it is possible to imagine two macro groups.

A first group gather texts about domesticity including different perspectives through which to consider the topic, some strictly related to the architectural dimension, some others pertaining to the historical sphere, or the sociological, the anthropological and the philosophical ones, in order to show how the general context of a society usually affected, and still affects, the development of the way and the form of living.

A second group regards methodology and in particular typology. Recognising in Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand the pioneer of this kind of approach, all the mentioned authors, like Aldo Rossi, Giorgio Grassi, Rafael Moneo, always refer to Durand’s work in an essential way. While affirming that we should “study the antique with the eyes of reason” in order to design our present, the French architect used to believe in the potential of the historical background as an endless source of inspiration to look at with intelligence and creativity.

To use Aldo Rossi’s words “the type is the true expression of society, it is a constant and manifests itself with a character of necessity; it is a cultural element which reacts with society matters of all kinds”. For this it is possible to consider the type as a creative matrix for the architectural practice.

Syllabus 02

The selected project wants to cement what mentioned above.

The Brick Country House by Mies van der Rohe, designed between 1923 and 1924, in its unicity and in its inevitable relation with other projects by the same Mies reveals itself as the generator for an architectural vision that will be progressively codified by Mies and this happens mainly through the plan.

The Brick Country House marks the passage undertaken by Mies towards the displaying of a new language, his future absolute spatial code, and the beginning of a reduction process to the essential, a tendency to universality.

The plan of the villa, with its synthesis made of walls and glass, affirms itself as the generating typological matrix, origin and primary cause of the following work by Mies; applied at the beginning mainly in the domestic projects it develops a space made of fluidity and dynamic, pushed to the limit of indifference regarding any function to be performed into the space and reaching its consecration with the Barcelona Pavilion, the Tugendhat House in Brno, to some of the last uncompleted works of his European period, such us the Golf Club in Krefeld or the courtyard houses series, where the matrix is in a way introverted.

The distance between type and function is evident in Mies’s production who, more evidently compared to his

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18.

17.

19.

The New Domestic Space: origin, codification and progressive freedom 17. Brick Country House, LMvdR, 1923-24 - main floor plan.

18. Erich Wolf House, LMvdR, Guben, 1925-27 - main floor plan.

19. Joseph Esters House, LMvdR, Krefeld, 1929 - main floor plan.

20. Fritz and Grete Tugendhat House, LMvdR, Brno, 1929-30 - main floor plan.

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contemporaries, realises his work in the continuous research of an objective architecture, of a “general” building type, which can include in itself all possible types, which refers to the principle function of container, sometimes collective, some others intimate – in the drawn plan of the Brick Country House Mies writes the most generic information of “spaces for living” and “service spaces”.

So, if the Brick Country House is a proto-house, it is clear that the Barcelona Pavilion is a house too, and that the Golf Club, because of its formal structure, is not so far from many of those houses designed by Mies before expatriating to America.

To quote Ignasi de Solà Morales, in Mies van der Rohe it is essential to look at “the repetition as a novelty, as a mechanism of freedom, of death and life; repetition as a will, against the laws of nature […] a repetition that only becomes tense and creative with the cracks of differences, with disequilibrium, innovation, openness and risk”.

Key Words – Key Projects The historiographical approach requires the positioning of a ground zero, the original moment from which to develop a considered reflection.

About the genesis of the modern house, it is of course possible to identify a different origin for each different house model,

Syllabus 02

and all these various architectural expressions inevitably mirror the sentiments of a specific society or of a specific social class. This is the case of the individual bourgeois country house as of the affordable housing spread in the urban context.

The following considerations try to point out the boundaries of an ideal genealogy of the house as product of the society, identifying projects that in this sense were crucial and focusing on possible kinds of domesticity. modern living - key project 1 If we consider the model of the individual house in the Western culture, it is undoubtable to set a significant transitional moment in the historical line at around the half of the 19th Century, especially in that English geography where the Arts and Crafts Movement took its root.

For the first time a great consciousness about the personal needs of daily life, a new taste for comfort and a particular regard for intimacy were prevailing to those pre-established models of the neo-Palladian tradition mostly common in the English regions.

The Red House in Bexleyheath built by Philip Webb in 1859, for and with his friend William Morris, stands as the true paradigm of the modern life.

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22.

21.

23.

24.

As neutral as domestic: the “general” type.

21. Brick Country House, LMvdR, 1923-24 - main floor plan.

22. Barcelona Pavilion, LMvdR, Barcelona, 1929 - main floor plan.

23. Herbert Gericke House project, LMvdR, Berlin, 1932 - main floor plan.

24. Exhibition House, German Building Exhibition, LMvdR, Berlin, 1931 - main floor plan.

25. House with Three Courts project, LMvdR, 1938 ca. - main floor plan.

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The Red House undermine the canonical distribution of the rooms recognised until then, now replaced by a practical distributive structure; a very new element appears, a hallway in the middle of the L-shaped plan frees the inhabitants from the uncomfortable crossing of all the rooms, and at the same time it interconnects the different spaces.

A strong asymmetry along the whole composition confirms the countertrend against the traditional models of the epoch, with a huge attention to orient the house taking advantage from the best solar radiation in contrast with a pre-codified sequence of rooms.

Everything inside the house is conceived as part of a whole, all is merged in a modern dimension of living, and starting from the Red House the formula will be notably experimented, changed and declined in so many different possibilities to strongly affirm the will of a new rising intellectual bourgeoisie. house of the future - key project 2 With the Modernist Era coming to its end, many ideas supported and applied by that generation of architects were at the point of being totally questioned and the discussion about how to live in the Postmodern condition was of course at the centre of the debate.

From the second half of the Fifties onwards, young groups of

Syllabus 02

radical architects and thinkers were predicting a renovated need to re-occupy the city, recovering the human component everywhere.

The standardized housing type, had to collide with the advance of a new progressively increasing mass culture.

Occasionally history provides moments of crisis with consequent socio-cultural transitions impossible to be ignored. Alison and Peter Smithson were actually riding that wave of social revolution, proposing their 1:1 prototype for an ideal house at the 1956 “Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition” in London.

Behind the only conservative element of the rectangular perimeter The House of the Future tries to incorporate new home appliances generating original solutions for the domestic imaginary.

The Smithsons designed a compact house model for a highdensity urban scenario, made of plastic resin curvy surfaces, with all appliances and specific service spaces built in cubicles; the rooms flow into one other like the compartments of a cave and a small indoor garden attracts all the cubicles, some of which are literally embedded.

This and more conceptual projects elaborated by Alison and Peter Smithson are to be read as the downside of their built production, even if in both sides it is the same mass and pop

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26. Red House, Philip Webb, Bexleyheath, 1859 - ground floor plan and hallway diagram.

27. Red House, Philip Webb, Bexleyheath, 1859 - first floor and hallway diagram.

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28. House of the Future, Alison and Peter Smithson, Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition, London, 1956 - plan.

29. House of the Future, Alison and Peter Smithson, Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition, London, 1956 - diagram of circulation.

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30. House in a Plum Grove, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, Tokyo, 2017 - plans.

31. House in a Plum Grove, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, Tokyo, 2017 - diagrams of floor area and distribution.

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culture to be accomplice of an always more social and ethical idea of architecture. how will we live together? - key project 3 Again thinking about privacy and intimacy, among the house benefits probably the most compromised by the pandemic, it is interesting to look at alternative considerations of these values depending on different cultural contexts. Kazujo Sejima often intends intimacy not in terms of isolation, but on the contrary according to the intimacy of the others, as a privileged form of relationship with the others.

The House in a Plum Grove in Tokyo is an effective example of this contextual consideration of intimacy, confirmed by Sejima’s asserting that European people probably could not live in it.

Sited in the outskirts of Tokyo the house has to host 5 inhabitants. Because of the request to preserve some existing plum trees in the site, the architect minimized the building volume locating it in the centre of the area, generating 17 different rooms distributed on 3 elevations in a total floor area of 77,68 m2, with 4 double height rooms and a tiny roof terrace, everything conceived as a single connected space.

The smallest rooms are engaged in a proximal relation with the other spaces sometimes avoiding doors in-between,

Syllabus 02

and thanks to the use of structural steel plates of 16 mm as internal walls and of these same panels integrated with insulation and gypsum board as external walls, for a total thickness of 50 mm.

Minimize to densify and to increase the possibility of intimate but shared experiences.

In light of the effects of the pandemic, is it possible that we will live together differently, experiencing a new intimacy, shared in hyper densified spaces, with non-genetic families?

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Bibliography Ábalos, Iñaki. 2017. The Good Life. A Guided Visit to the House of Modernity. Zurich: Park Books.

Augé, Marc. 1994. Ville e tenute. Etnologia della casa di campagna.

Milano: Eleuthera.

Aureli, Pier Vittorio. 2011. The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Aureli, Pier Vittorio. 2017. Life, Abstracted: Notes on the Floor Plan.

E-flux. Accessed June 14, 2021. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/ representation/159199/life-abstracted-notes-on-the-floor-plan.

Cacciari, Massimo. 2012. La città. Villa Verucchio: Pazzini Editore.

Chaslin, François. 2003. Architettura della tabula rasa. Due conversazioni con Rem Koolhaas, ecc., Milano: Mondadori Electa.

Debord, Guy. 2001-2002. La società dello spettacolo. Milano: Baldini&Castoldi.

Grassi, Giorgio. 1967. La costruzione logica dell’architettura. Padova: Marsilio.

Hayden, Dolores. 1981. The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: The MIT Press.

Harvey, David Harvey. 2012. Il capitalismo contro il diritto alla città.

Verona: Ombre Corte.

Koolhaas, Rem and Ungers, Oswald Mathias. 2013. The city in the city. Berlin: a green archipelago. Zurich: Lars Muller Publishers.

Martí Arís, Carlos. 1994. Le variazioni dell’identità. Il tipo in architettura. Torino: Città Studi Edizioni.

Moneo, Rafael, 1978. “On Typology”. Oppositions 13: 23-45.

Norberg-Schulz, Christian. 1985. The Concept of Dwelling. New York: Electa Rizzoli.

Perrot, Michelle. 2011. Storia delle camere. Palermo: Sellerio.

Rosenkranz, Karl. 1984. Estetica del Brutto. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino.

Rossi, Aldo. 2011. L’architettura della città. Macerata: Quodlibet.

Rybczynski, Witold. 1986. Home. A Short History of an Idea. New York: Penguin Books.

Tafuri, Manfredo. 2007. Progetto e Utopia. Bari: Editori Laterza.

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Syllabus 02 Francesca Gotti is a PhD candidate at the DASTU Department of Politecnico di Milano. She has worked as architect and exhibition designer in Italy, China and Germany, following in parallel projects of urban re-appropriation and participatory management of Urban Commons. She is currently involved in the reactivation of former Sant’Agata prison (Bergamo) and she is part of the editorial board of ARK Magazine and STOÀ. She began collaborating with DASTU Department in 2019, as a research fellow for the European project En/ counter/points, on the theme of design in participatory processes of public spaces regeneration.

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Which groundscapes can be considered successful from a point of view of multipublic appropriation? And what are the architectural qualities that contribute to this success? What is good for designers is as well good for ethnographers?

The research moves from a confrontation between the contemporary investigation in the fields of groundscape design and of ethnography, looking for successful common cases in Europe, and identifying parameters and values on which the two different methods are based.

Through this interdisciplinary dialogue, the research questions which methodologies and elements can support the architectural process in re-designing multi-public groundscapes.

Francesca Gotti Multi-public groundscapes

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When Aldo Aymonino and Valerio Paolo Mosco write their book about architecture ‘zero volume’ they aim at reclaiming the architectural value of public spaces beyond their characterisation as interstitial places. The ‘zero volume’ is defined as a consistent manifestation of architecture, but freed from “functional enslavement” and that manages to create ‘the most engaging relationship with the public”. They look at a wide range of design elements, from “flooring systems, to arcades, canopies, belvedere, pedestrian bridges, noise barriers” as architectures (Aymonino 2006, 18).

Drawning on this renewed concept of public space and moving forward to a more transversal spatial matter, we encounter GROUNDSCAPES. This term includes open and closed spaces and remark the potential of their intersection, the need to dissolve the duality inside/outside within urbanscapes, possibly opening new scenarios in formulating hybrids between architectures and infrastructures.

The concept of groundscape in the context of architectural debate is investigated by Andreas and Ilka Ruby in a book that retraces the use and role of ground in contemporary architecture (Ruby 2006). A similar operation, which connects historical and modern cases, is carried out by Dominique Perrault with an exhibition and a publication 10 years later (Perrault 2016). The results of the two researches

Syllabus 02

don’t overlap, but they instead show different interpretations and values that groundscapes can acquire.

Identifying these places also implies to define their spatial and temporal relation with the surrounding: we don’t refer to isolated artefacts, but to entities deeply woven in the urban context.

They can be newly built objects or adaptations of existing structures, but they are in any case products of constant transformations happening within a specific fabric, at a micro and macro scale. And in a mutual exchange, they as well generate transformations - aesthetic, functional, social, environmental - on the fabric, characterised by permanencies, historical presences, rooted imaginaries.

More than any other state of being, being (on) the ground means to be crossed by daily re-configurations, formal and informal, planned and unplanned, short-term and long-term, strategical and tactical, especially when this refers to public spaces.

Clarifying the definition of groundscapes, in regard to existing theories, will be the first step of the research, together with a selection of projects realised in Europe in the last 20 years.

Questions on construction and occupation The ‘zero volume’ of Aymonino and Mosco evokes a central topic concerning publicness: the liberation from the function.

The absence of a given program is a determining factor

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Plaza Domingo Guascon, Teruel, by Mi5 Arquitectos + PKMN Architectures.

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concerning the design of the space, as it affects the spatial organisation, infrastracturalisation, accessibility, and the implemention of specific devices. This also shifts the focus of the space to the experience users make of it, which lead to the definition of MULTI-PUBLIC model.Breaking out of the idea of a functional-characterisation of a place and exclusivity of the users, the multi-public implies the redefinition of the space itself as the public is redefined, as new groups are “incorporated into wider conceptions of who the public is” (Orum 2009, 204), including not only social groups, but also natural and animal entities.

As well as users, consequently, also informal activities and uses are progressively incorporated and come to inhabit the same place contributing to a diversification of site practices.

Multi-public is challenged by the design of the space and is what challenges the collective management of conflicts.

Deciphering the relationship between the physicality of design elements and the practical manifestations of public is the central structure of the investigation, and this is carried out through the critical analysis of few chosen projects.

But to understand wether and how the public is shaped by design, it is as well necessary to identify the correspondance between spatial elements and meanings, and how this has evolved through time.

Syllabus 02

Not only uses but also meanings are in fact part of the negotiations happening in public spaces. Daily practices allow people and communities to express and join the multiplicity of identities composing the urban context. And it is through negotiations that a place is made inclusive or exclusive, conflictual or silent.

Spatial elements are used to practice negotiations (Mäntysalo 2013), and designing and redesigning them within the same site implies a modification of the social dynamics, behaviours and of the typology of actors/users involved. Analysing this layer through a temporal perspective - looking backward to the former users and forward to the actual and potential future users - delineates the evolution of the audience in relation to the physical transformations.

It is, finally, a negotiation of multi-public through design.

So a question emerges at this point: what is a good design that allows a successful appropriation? Can it be that a successful design is not a successful place for multi-public, or viceversa?

Transdisciplinary perspective Looking for successful examples of multi-public groundscapes brings out a consistent question regarding parameters of evaluation, it highlights a gap between what is considered good from a design point of view or from a usage perspective.

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You reach I teach!

Woah!! Nice bowl... what a ride!

You will never beat me, this court is my lucky one.

1

1

3

14 y.o. girl skating since 6 p.m

mixed group playing basketball

2 There’s a nice line that starts here..

Such a nice day today.

We need to train our flow!

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Perfect place to enjoy it!

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two friends training parkour

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two friends chatting at the bar

0 Streetmekka, Viborg, by EFFEKT Architects.

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Diving into this matter primarly requires a method able to create a dialogue with the actors of the place, by using multiple languages and by registering minor and major dynamics. Architecture “is itself defined and shaped by the accidents of the site and the participation of the people who inhabit it. [...] Working continously across scales ranging from 1:1 to 1:1000, the architect moves fluidly between different dimensions, between part and whole, between the empirical and the abstract” (Kajima 2018, p. 5). And this is what defines the method of ARCHITECTURAL ETHNOGRAPHY. Borrowing from the ethnographic method means to relink architectural and non-architectural elements, to revamp the relationship between construction and occupation as “parts of spatial practice for the ecology of livelihood” (Sigler 2017, 35).

Architectural Ethnography rebuilds the narrative of spaces through observations and drawings, emphasising the behaviours of users, spatial practices and appropriations, while strongly relating them to the architecture of the space, to its structure, to its material and atmospheric qualities.

How can this method - in its collaborative declination - support the definition of proposals for contemporary groundscapes? How can it promote design interventions able to mediate and remedy their conflictual negotiations?

Syllabus 02

Supporting the process The investigation of these projects crosses the entire life of each place, each fragment of their long-term design PROCESS. It is about the past of the place: what did the site look like prior to its current state? How was it perceived and inhabited, and by whom specifically? How did it come to be like it was, through which transformations?

It is about the present, the newly built form given to the place: what does the current design of the place look like?

Which was the intention of the designer in doing so? Which material-conceptual-social process has produced it?

And it is about the imminent future, which is shaped by the daily practices, by actions and reactions generated by the place and by the people day-by-day.

It is about redrawing the entire process of production of each place, connecting the spatiality with the experience of thinking, designing and inhabiting it.

The desired result is to elaborate a qualitative record of spatial relations and to identify those design features, from the small to the big scale that (possibly) produce these relations. The participatory process, together with the ethnographic insights, would represent the testing aspect of the analytical research.

This doesn’t aim to create guidelines of design, but rather to

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Architecture Research Agenda PALACE OF GRAPHIC ARTS INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION

BARCELONA 1929

PALACE OF GRAPHIC ARTS

O UIC

I N A U G U R A C I O ANELLA OLIMPICA DE MONTJUIC Barcelona 1990

VISIT BARCELONA

O C

S

MIRADOR DE LES GLORIES

I N A U G U R A C I O ANELLA OLIMPICA DE MONTJUIC Barcelona 1990

Vols veure come avancen les obres de Glories?

Vine i puja mirador!

VISIT que travessa les B A R C E L OLloc:obres Npassadis A(davant del DHUB) Data: 12 de gener i cada primer dissabte de mes Hora: de 10.00 a 14.00 h

barcelona.cat/glories

Els Encants Market, Barcelona, before and after the project.

MIRADOR DE LES GLORIES

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detect methodologies to understand groundscapes within urban contexts: to support the process of spatial re-design based on the concept of multi-public, decentralising them from anthropocentric, ethnocentric or functional-centric approaches.

Guiding story Barcelona, 1928 The City is chosen as the venue for the coming World’s Fair and the Municipality implements a series of renewal actions to improve the quality of the urban center. The market Els Encants is considered one of the most degraded sites and is consequently moved to Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, in the Eixample Neighbourhood, in a vacant lot of 15.000 sqm. Following five centuries of history and displacements around Barcelona, informality and transitoriness resist as fundamental principles. The market has already been object of controversy at the end of the 19th century, seen as “the most irrefutable testimony of the intolerable disorder of life on the streets” (Guardia 2015, 286), going against the will to improve the image of Barcelona through the “control over forms of urbanity and the moralisation of customs” (Guardia 2015, 274). Nevertheless, because of the level of employment it could provide (700 stallholders by the end of the 1880s)

Syllabus 02

and being a reference for the marginalised working class and groups of immigrants, the market is not dismantled.

The situation of the area remained unchanged until the 1980s, when a new planning proposal was developed for the Plaça de les Glòries in anticipation of the Olympic Games. The area is set to become part of a system of “new centralities”, “spaces in which it is considered opportune to favour a certain concentration of service sector uses and public facilities, in order to create new reference points in the geography of the central areas of the city” (Marshall, 2004, 124). The crossroad is turned into an elevated infrastructural joint, but, despite the consistent changes taking place in the surroundings, the market is not interested in any kind of intervention.

The Els Encants continues representing a marginal reality in a dilapidated site for other 20 years, a site of convergence for complex social dynamics, provoking “multi-layered conflict rather than cooperation between residents and outsiders (tourists, street-sellers, etc.) and between native and immigrant residents” (Pastore, 2016, 116).

In 2008, the Barcelona City Council finally decides to intervene in the lot and finance the regeneration of the market, understanding the potentiality of the place as an “area of encounter which directly influence inter-group relations” (Pastore, 2016, 117). The project is assigned to b720 Fermín

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Multipublic model: passerby, informal practices, established activities

The covering

O.Niemeyer, French Communist Party HQ, 1980

P.Virilio, C.Parent, Palais des Exposition, Charleville 1966

The (inter)section

R.Koolhaas, Kunsthal Rotterdam ,1992

Vázquez Arquitectos who completed it in 2013.

The Els Encants market can be seen as one of the Hearts of Barcelona, and the new project deals with the delicate issue of regenerating marginalised public spaces. The redesign of the borders of the market, the redefinition of the relation between the inside and the surrounding, of accessibility and permeability, constitute relevant challenges. And these challenges raise a high topic: that there “should be multiple, simultaneous conceptions of the public, [...] public space can be expanded and gained, therefore, as the public is redefined, and especially as formerly excluded groups are incorporated into wider conceptions of who the public is” (Orum, 2009, 204).

The project sets in the stream of “rediscovery of the ground in architecture: [...] the ground as archeological archive, [...] the concept of infrastructural ground, [...] the morphologic redefinition of the ground as building, [...] from natural singularity to artificial plurality” (Ruby, 2006, 22-23).

The building as a groundscape is what produces the main achievement of the project: the negotiation between formal and informal spatial practices, therefore the balance between accessibility and safety, the management of conflicts of spatial occupations.

The cosmopolitan canopy

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Bibliography Marshall, Tim. 2004. Transforming Barcelona. London: Routledge.

Aymonino, Aldo, and Mosco, Valerio Paolo. 2006. Spazi pubblici contemporanei - Architettura a volume zero. Milan: Skira.

Ruby, Andrea, and Ilka Ruby. 2006. Groundscapes - The rediscovery of the ground in contemporary architecture. London: Springer.

Orum, Anthony, and Neal, Zachary. 2009. Common Ground?: Readings and Reflections on Public Space. New York: Taylor&Francis.

Mäntysalo, Raine, and Balducci, Alessandro (eds.). 2013. Urban planning as a trading zone. Berlin: Springer.

Guardia Bassols, Manuel, and Oyon Banales, Jose, and Fava, Nadia.

2015. “The Barcelona Market System”, in Making cities through Markets Halls : Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries, Museu d’Història de Barcelona.

Pastore, Ferruccio, and Ponzo, Irene. 2016. Inter-group Relations and Migrant Integration in European Cities. London: Springer.

Perrault, Dominique. 2016. Groundscapes - Other topographies.

Orleans: HYX. Sigler, Jennifer, and Whitman-Salkin, Leah (ed). 2017. Atelier Bow Wow - Architectural Ethnography. Harvard: SternbergPress.

Kajima, Momoyo, and Stadler, Laurent, and Iseki, Yu. 2018.

Architectural Ethnography. Tokyo: TOTO.

Confronting Groundscapes: Atocha Station (Rafael Moneo, 1992, Madrid), Porta Palazzo (XVIII-XIX centuries, Torino), Centro El Born (Enric Soria i Badia, 2013, Barcelona), Els Encants (B720 Firmin Vazquez Architectos, 2013, Barcelona).

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Syllabus 02 Xiang Li is a PhD candidate of the AUID (Architectural Urban Interior Design) PhD program in the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) at the Polytechnic University of Milan.

His current research interests include theories and projects on vernacular architecture and Chinese rural vitalization.

PUBLICATION TOPICS: Enlightenment of Postmodern Space Philosophy on Spatial Development of Urban - Rural Areas in China; Ecological Wisdom of Traditional Settlements and Architecture of Yongding Earth Building; The Interpretation of the formation of Gardens in South-Eastern China by Schulz and Heidegger’s Phenomenology.

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The research analyzes literature of vernacular architecture, focusing on the case study in the rural Jiulong River Delta, Fujian Province, China, by the methodology of the architectural urban-rural continuum.

It indicates a holistic design approach to improve the current “single manifesto” strategy that lacks consideration of natural and social contexts. Then it takes two practices in Chinese rural areas as references. The research proposes to consider, as a source for design, the unit “landscape/architecture” as an alternative to the current practice of Chinese urban development which is physically destroying the original architecture and the landscape of rural areas.

Xiang Li Holistic design in Chinese urban-rural continuum case

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Existing problem, research object and research aim Chinese cities have witnessed rapid development with orthogonal grids extending and indifferent landscape forming, characterized by a few repetitive building types determined by real estate power (Meriggi 2018a, 66), it is more evident in coastal areas where the economy booms rapidly since the reform open-up in 1978. For example, as the Special Economic Zone, the case in Jiulong River Delta has witnessed the fast urban sprawl and regeneration destroys traditional architecture/landscape units (Fig. 2).

The dialogue among tradition/vernacular/modernity is crucial and evident in the case study area. Modern and traditional architecture landscape mix up here. But modern buildings here are international style without local characteristics, and the traditional buildings are eliminating. Most of them only exist in rural areas, though the government plans remained the historical center (Fig. 1).

Jiulong River delta is located in Fujian, Southeastern Coastal Province of China, where the terrain is complex and the geographical barrier is obvious (Fig. 3). These barriers formed different language clans here. Each clan developed different and unique social culture, and craftsmen speaking the same language spread similar construction approaches then formed unique architectural features.

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The natural context in the rural area of Jiulong River Delta is of alluvial origin and has been reclaimed during several centuries through drainage canals, forming a landscape of cultivated and built-up islands with a strong relationship with water. The architecture in the rural area is “C” shape, which is “Climb Line” with three enclosures and “Four Golden Points” with four enclosures (Cao 2016, 18; Dai 2020, 115-123 (Fig. 4). Though beautiful and unreplaceable, the vernacular architecture here is disappearing rapidly. So, the research aims to point out a holistic design approach respecting the natural and social contexts based on traditional interpretation, in alternative to the current practice of Chinese urban development physically destroying original architecture and landscape in rural areas.

Fig. 1. Comparison between Modern and Tradition, Urban and Rural in Jiulong River Delta.

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Fig. 2. Build-up Area Before (Above) and After (Below) Fast Urban Expansion.

Fig. 3. Geographic Features, Language Family in Fujian Province and Case Study Area.

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Fig. 4. Natural Context, traditional village, and vernacular architecture in Jiulong River Delta.

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References The central literature related to the research, divided into two parts-Chinese rural system and vernacular architecture, are six books. The research uses the Krebs Cycle of Creativity (KCC) map, which includes four modalities of human creativity converting step by step—Science, Engineering, Design, and Art, to illustrate the literature content (Oxman 2016). It found that literature of the Chinese rural system focusing on analyzing the architectural typology, social convention, and networks (Bolchover and John 2013; Meriggi 2018b; Skinner 1964, 1965a and 1965b), literature about vernacular architecture mainly stops introducing the profiles (Cao 2016; Dai 2020; Rudofsky 1987). The research gaps exist in analyzing the primary contexts and then consider them to develop the design and construction approaches for applying in the Chinese rural. (Fig. 6).

In order to point out a holistic strategy considering natural and social context, the research emphasizes on analyzing two books - Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China written

by G. William Skinner and The Architecture of the Urban-rural continuum in China. Hakka Settlements in East Guangdong written by Maurizio Meriggi.

Skinner used the central places theory model to describe the traditional Chinese rural marketing system (urban-rural

Fig. 5. G. William Skinner’s Traditional Chinese rural marketing system (Urban-rural continuum).

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continuum) (Fig. 5), which is also a social system, as along with commodity exchange, cultural communication happens in this system. Aiming to achieve a more profound knowledge on Chinese traditional vernacular architecture, Maurizio Meriggi extended to the analysis of the essence of traditional Chinese settlement by a holistic approach — architectural “urban-rural continuum” (Fig. 7). According to these two books, the research draws the map of the urbanrural continuum in Jiulong River Delta in order to conduct the typological and morphological analysis of vernacular architecture and traditional settlements/landscape and points out the particular holistic design approaches here in the future (Fig. 8).

Practices The research then analysis the practices about modern and tradition among new generation Chinese architects in rural China, which only in recent years arrived in a kind of public acknowledgment with the Pritzker Prize awarded to architect Wang Shu in 2012. In the current practice, even the cultured and sophisticated architecture of the projects by the new generations of architects in China are often missing this essence of landscape/architecture units since their projects are narrowed to the role of “manifesto building” in a neutral

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context. With some exceptions in the works of Wang Shu in Wen village and the practices of Design and Architecture Studio (DNA) Leaded by architect Tiantian Xu in Songyang, Zhejiang. The Wen village project, located in Yangzi River Delta near Shanghai, a small village with a similar natural environment with settlements in the Jiulong River Delta (Berg 2017). Wangshu and his team have built and regenerated traditional local residential houses based on the thinking that “Wen village should learn from itself.” So, the new house area kept the high density, making new village fabric grow naturally, and the houses he designed almost remain the courtyard and other basic traditional layouts to remain the locals’ daily life. The materials selected are all local (Fig. 9).

Rural revitalization in Songyang is another holistic practice in Chinese rural. Beijing DNA (Design and Architecture) studio and its founder, Tiantian Xu, first came to Songyang County in 2014, a small county in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province.

They completed 13 projects in just five years, nine are under construction, and five are under planning. These projects form a small-scale network with intervention through the catalyst acupunctural strategy and spread to the surrounding areas of Songyang village. Just like sowing seeds in the field, each seed contains infinite potential. As an option conducive to development in a more profound sense, its goal is to

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Fig. 6. Literature review using the Krebs Cycle of Creativity map.

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Fig. 8 Urban-rural Continuum in Jiulong River Delta.

Fig. 7. Architectural Urban-rural continuum in rural China.

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provide a more refined, more complex and diverse, and more sustainable future of Songyang village (Fig. 10). conform to the natural context The first project analyzed detailly is the Tofu factory. This new factory is programmed on a linear slope following the river by the village entrance, a village collective economic entity, and upgrading traditional tofu production. The building volume is spreading along the slope by six production functions following the upward of the bench terrace: preparation room, grinding compartment, boiling compartment, deep-frying compartment, drying compartment, and tasting hall (DNA 2018) (Fig. 11). conform to the village’s original settlement fabric The second practice the research introduces is the Hakka Indenture Museum. The project and landscape follow the terrain of terraced fields, echo and supplement with the surrounding village center and traffic flow line, continue and supplement the loop relationship formed by village, square, and traffic, and become an important public cultural place two villages. Water is the guiding clue of the site. The flow of the drinking water canal follows the terrain and enters the village, supplemented by a gravel path. The process of reaching the site is like searching, full of poetic (DNA 2017a) (Fig. 12).

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Fig. 9 Rural Revitalization in Wen Village (Designed by Wangshu).

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holistic approach The third project is the Pingtian Village Center. The significance of this building is not only the improvement of single building quality. The houses in the village, like inhabitants, have formed a kind of complicated “patriarchal relationship” for hundreds of years. This project takes the “district” as a unit because of the close relationship between the houses in the village. Extending to the surroundings always pays attention to the coordination between the neighbors and the overall village-style maintenance. So, this transformation strategy for “district” may avoid focusing only on the individual performance of “single” buildings, respecting the growth law of the village and considering the whole contexts (DNA 2017b) (Fig. 13).

Conclusion The case study in the Jiulong river delta tries to point out a holistic architecture and landscape approach that respects the natural and social contexts. The settlements and their networks here have a strong relationship with water. There is all size of ports, irrigation systems, canals, and other water elements. The architecture of buildings and settlements is formed according to the “wind and water” philosophy. As for the social context, the geographic barriers and the location

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along the sea make it form its stable clan structure that does not speak mandarin, craftsmen speaking the same language spread similar construction approaches then formed unique architectural features. By the literature and practice analysis, the research illuminates that modern design in Chinese rural based on traditional interpretation is not individual performances or does not just imitate the vernacular architecture style and build the “manifesto” single building without considering the whole context. It is forms or concepts or philosophies that integrate the land, water, and other natural environments and the organization of settlements, the distribution of activities and the network of clans.

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Fig. 10. Drawing based on the pictures from the DNA Studio.

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Fig. 11. Drawing based on the pictures from the DNA Studio.

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Fig. 12. Drawing based on the pictures from the DNA Studio.

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Fig. 13. Drawing based on the pictures from the DNA Studio.

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Bibliography Berg, Nate. 2017. “Renovation of Wencun Village.” Accessed May 1, 2021. https://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/ renovation-of-wencun-village_o.

Bolchover, Joshua, and John Lin. 2013. Rural Urban Framework: Transforming the Chinese Countryside. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Cao, Chunping. 2016. Min Nan Chuan Tong Jian Zhu [Minnan Traditional Architecture]. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press.

Dai, Zhijian. 2020. Min Hai Min Xi Min Ju [Minhai Local Dwellings].

Canton: South China University of Technology Press.

DNA. 2018. “Tofu Factory.” Accessed May 1, 2021. http://www. designandarchitecture.net/project/1590989679.

DNA. 2017a. “Hakka Indenture Museum.” Accessed May 1, 2021. http://www.designandarchitecture.net/project/1525702497.

DNA. 2017b. “Pingtian Village Center.” Accessed May 1, 2021. http:// www.designandarchitecture.net/project/1525328431.

Meriggi, Maurizio. 2018a. “Four Schools of Architecture in China.

Teaching Tradition by Apprenticeship - Interview to Wang Shu. Teaching in Between Three Worlds - Interview to Nasrin SerajBozorgzag.” Architettura Civile 20-21-22: 63-73. http://hdl.handle. net/11311/1052037.

Meriggi, Maurizio. 2018b. L’architettura del Continuo Urbanorurale in Cina. Insediamenti Hakka nel Guangdong Orientale [The Architecture of the Urban-rural Continuum in China: Hakka Settlements in East Guangdong]. Cuneo: Araba Fenice Press.

Oxman, Neri. 2016. “Age of Entanglement.” Journal of Design and Science. https://doi.org/10.21428/7e0583ad.

Rudofsky, Bernard. 1987. Architecture Without Architects.

Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.

Skinner, G. William. 1964. “Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China, Part I.” The Journal of Asian Studies 24 (1): 3-43. https://doi.

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org/10.2307/2050412.

Skinner, G. William. 1965a. “Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China, Part II.” The Journal of Asian Studies 24 (2): 195-228. https:// doi.org/10.2307/2050562.

Skinner, G. William. 1965b. “Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China, Part III.” The Journal of Asian Studies 24 (3): 363-399. https:// doi.org/10.2307/2050342.

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Syllabus 02 Dan Hu EDUCATION: Southwest Jiaotong University, China, Master of Engineering in Urban Planning and Design, 09/2007-12/2009; Bachelor of Engineering in Landscape Architecture, 09/2002-06/2007, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, PhD Candidate, 11/2020-present.

WORKING EXPERIENCES: Chengdu University of Technology, China, Lecturer, 04/2010-10/2020; Chinese Certified Urban Planner.

SELECTED PUBLICATION: Hu, D. & Chen, J. Study on the reconstruction of residential style along the roads around Chengdu.

Sichuan Architecture, 2013, 33(5): 71-73.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCES: National Social Science Fund, China, Project Director, “Study on the Protection of the dwelling houses in the Qiang Villages in China”, 2018.

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In 2021, the Chinese government once again stressed the importance of the Rural Revitalization Strategy. China has a large rural area. Given the centralized land development, there is a large number of settlements built for landless farmers and this fact leads to many problems.

The research proposes to develop a lowtech Ecological Rural Settlements model based on the research and the evaluation of existing settlements. The study also tries to alleviate a series of existing economic and social problems in rural settlements through design.

Dan Hu Low-tech rural settlement design

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Position Project Topic and aims My project is concerned with the design of a residential settlement in Mugecuo Scinic Area, China. The project is located in the Tibetan and Qiang areas which are characterized by a unique architectural culture. The area is situated between two roads, followed by a shallow hill (Fig. 1), with a maximum height difference of 14 m. The settlement is planned to accommodate 12 households. The design of the residential settlement aims to reflect the local culture, meet the needs of villagers, reflect the comfort of modern buildings, and save energy and cost. method The local natural and cultural conditions are obtained through literature. Then, site surveys and investigations are carried out to describe the specific situation of the site. In addition, photography is taken, and the CAD topographic map is obtained through surveying and mapping organization. The design requirements involve a parking, a resettlement area, a yard, the activity site requirements, cost, etc. The local traditional architecture is studied and integrated into the design. First of all, I sketch the plan (Fig.2) and carry out the architectural design. Based on the analysis of the traditional

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architectural space, three architectural forms are extracted.

The courtyard is added in front of the building (Figs. 3, 9).

The architectural layout conforms to the terrain, and the orientation is roughly unified. Then, the road and parking lot are arranged (Fig. 4) and a waterscape, which plays the role of beautifying and cooling, is interspersed in the middle, (Fig. 5). Finally, some local landscape elements are used for cultural promotion (Figs. 6, 7). The Diaolou Towers were designed near the mountain to form a more undulating skyline.

A local material, rubble, is used in the design, but in an improved manner in order to meet the needs of earthquake resistance. When the stone structure is changed into reinforced concrete structure, only a layer of stone, which does not play the role of bearing load, is placed on the outside. (Fig. 8). reflection Although some attempts have been made, the traditional design method is, in essence, still being applied, with high costs and difficult implementation processes in the later stages of construction. In the context of using contemporary technologies in traditional village design in China, the research proposes to develop a low-tech Ecological Rural Settlements model to alleviate these problems through design.

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Design of residential settlement in Mugecuo Scenic Area, China, 2013.

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References Due to the centralized development of rural lands, it is necessary to build a large number of centralized resettlement communities. Multiple problems arise, including: a. Lack of funds; b. Government and designer dominating, causing problems of not meeting the real wishes of the residents; c.

Poor building quality and insufficiency of infrastructure; d.

Living habits problem; e. Energy costs and social forms also need attention.

In the case of the Jintai village, Sichuan Province, the residents’ houses have become ruins. It is necessary to design a village residential area with 22 houses (Fig. 10). a. Before the design, the design team held several workshops to collect the villagers’ opinions; b. Reduce earthwork: originally, as the high retaining wall is not safe, the land should be leveled into two sites, but that also increases the workload. In the design, two platforms are reorganized in nine platforms, each measuring only 75 cm.

Roofs are designed in accordance with the micro topography (Fig. 11). c. Low cost: owing to the lack of financial funding, its concise design is not a style, but an interpretation of the local context (Fig. 12). d. The concept of Low-Tech is introduced. The green terrace

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roof is well received by the villagers who keep the habit of planting in the farming society. Raw water collection system and graywater recollection system are equipped in residential buildings. Livestock keeping facilities are combined with biofuel pool. The concept of low-impact development is also adopted for village regeneration. The ground of the village adopts a permeable floor. The constructed wet land and hydrophilic plants can recycle the water source (Fig. 13).

After the designs were put into use, the residents’ sensitivity to space and the transformation situation were studied.

Low-tech Ecological Architecture refers to the combination of traditional technology, with little or no modern technology used, to build ecological architecture.

There are four morphological patterns: thermal adaptation, wind effect correspondence, light adaptation and landscape fit. At present, the research scope of low-tech ecological architecture in the world includes: a. Modern application and development of traditional technology (rammed earth, earth-covered building, etc.); b. Technical improvement of traditional materials (the improvement of bamboo utilization technology, etc.); c. Recycling of industrial materials and wastes (wheel-tire soil mode, etc.); d. In-depth study of passive strategy.

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Post-earthquake reconstruction of Jintai village, China, 2016.

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Key Words – Key Projects: Low-Tech Architecture Charles Correa proposed “Form Follows Climate” which tends to hold that architecture should capture the elements of climate from plane, section, shape, material, and proportion.

His architecture is mainly represented by “tube house space”.

The hot air rises and leads out along the top port. At the same time, the pressure difference will bring fresh cold air to the bottom. Depending on the adjustable house mask, the summer type profile is pyramid shaped, which can seal the heat radiation of the sky in the hot noon. The winter type profile is an inverted triangle, which can maximize the absorption of heat in the cold season (Fig. 14).

Hassan Fathy’s representative is Adobe Architecture. He integrated the harmonious scale of eclectic architecture into the traditional Egyptian architectural elements and improved the traditional materials. He put forward a new idea of revitalizing rural architecture; his construction is not only intended for building, but also for instilling technology into people and promoting community reconstruction.

Simon Velez focuses on the Bamboo “Umbrella”. He improved the traditional bamboo material by pouring concrete into the places where the two ends of the bamboo need to be fixed to make the structure more stable.

His project in China, titled “Bamboo Bridge”, is one of

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his masterpieces: his drawings are very simple and can be completed by one designer. His “Low-Cost House” (1999) costs only $5000 in Colombia.

Phillip Jones is the representative of the contemporary LowTech Architecture. His works focuses on low carbon and sustainable design in the built environment and has included the of the building energy model HTB2.

TYIN tegnestue Architects have carried out a series of projects in Thailand. They use very simple and easy methods to build structures to make good use of wind and light and to recycle industrial materials and wastes (Fig. 15).

Rural Settlement Design Rural settlement design is a new emerging field. In the design of the Dong Ziguan village, the scenes painted by the famous Chinese painter Wu Guanzhong were reflected vividly. The project attempts to abstract the common characteristics from the perspective of typology and to restore the prototype space.

Following certain rules, designers move and mirror basic units to form complex large-scale clusters with courtyards. Each cluster has a semi-public open space which is conducive to the formation of neighborhood communication, group cohesion and a sense of belonging (Fig. 16). It explores the relationship between industrialization and traditional elements.

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Low-Tech Architecture and Village Design.

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Conclusion A description of the main research methodologies follows. a. Literature research involves the study of related theories and cases of Low-Tech Ecological building, of the reasons for the formation of rural settlements, issues of social background, of funding, etc. b. Fieldwork involves choosing representative rural settlements, researching the planning, building space and infrastructure, conducting post-use evaluation. c. DDR involves the choice of relevant low-tech buildings or planning cases for further analysis. Relevant design and technology will be analyzed for use, such as simple design drawings, exploring the possibility of self-construction methods carried out by the residents, the application of local materials, the low-impact development of rainwater system, self-sufficient energy supply, etc. Then, the study of the current situation of rural residential planning, architecture, landscape, public facilities, etc. follows, so as to set the material status analysis at the basis of the design.

Next, the representative rural settlements will be selected for investigation and evaluation. The adopted methods include questionnaires, interviews, etc. Through data analysis, we can get the design mode based on the needs of the villagers. Finally, by means of collaborative design, a

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low-tech ecological village model will be obtained, which includes not only the architecture, but also the environment.

These models are presented in the form of drawings, physical models, computer models, etc. which can be refined through continuous modification. The design may contribute to cost saving, social life change and many other problems and can be extended to the vast rural areas as a reference for further design and planning: a process especially useful for China where rural construction is growing fast.

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Bibliography Zhang, Li. 2021. “Farmers’ New Expectation And Response to Resettlement Houses.” Xinjiang Agricultural Reclamation Economy 2021 (03): 32-37.

Lin, John, Bolchover, Joshua, and Jinqiu Zhang. 2018. “Jintai Village Reconstruction, Bazhong, China.” World Architecture 2018(8): 32-38.

Kwan, Crystal. 2018. “From Envisioning to Buiiding: A Modern Chingese Village.” Architecture Journal 2018(1): 29-35.

Wang, Pu. 2007. “Morphological Analysis of Low-tech Ecological Architecture.” MSc diss., Hefei University of Technology.

Ye, Xiaojian. 2003. Architectural Space Of Charles Correa. Beijing: China Architecture&Building Press.

Cao, Yunhu. 2020. “Form Following Climate-Four Paradigms of Charles Correa’s House Design.” Urban Architecture 2020(17): 59-62.

Fan, Min. 2009. “An Approach to Ideas and Works of Hassan Fathy.”

MSc diss., Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology.

Liu, Chongyi. 1985. “Hassan Fathy And Adobe Architecture.” World Architecture 1985: 62-68.

Liu, Yubo. 2009. “Simon Velez And His Bamboo Buildings.” World Architecture 2009 (06): 94-97.

Coma Bassas, Ester, Joanne Patterson, and Phillip Jones.

2020. “A Review Of The Evolution Of Green Residential Architecture”. Renewable And Sustainable Energy Reviews 125: 109796. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2020.109796.

Lisbet, Harboe. 2015. “Integrating On-Site Education And Practice.”

Architectural Design 85: 82-87.

Dewey, Thorbeck. 2018. Rural Design-A New Design Discipline.

Beijing: Electronic Industry Press.

Yang, Pei, and Jijun Ding. 2017. “An Analysis of The Regional Expression of New Rural Dwelling Design in Historical And Cultural Villages.” Design 2017(11): 146-147.

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Syllabus 02 Zhaozhan Lu is a CSC-funded PhD candidate at AUID XXXVI cycle, DAStU, Politecnico di Milano, supervised by Professor Marco Bovati.

His research interests include: critical regionalism, vernacular architecture, participatory design, architectural sustainability, the place identities of contemporary architecture.

He obtained his Master of Arts in Architectural Design with distinction from the Welsh School of Architecture (WSA), Cardiff University, UK. During the postgraduate studies, he studied participatory design and learned to use architectural design to help the vulnerable groups in the context of city development and to rebalance social relations.

Before his Master’s degree, he participated in contemporary placespecific housing design in the vernacular context in China.

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Contemporary design researches and practices, based on learning from the vernacular, have been practised worldwide and led to considerable results in cultural and environmental sustainability. These researches and practices have caused the introspection of the relationship between locality and globality. In the context of design creations based on the notion of place identities, it is of great significance for architects to understand vernacular architecture, to get inspiration from vernacular wisdom, as well as to consider the social results of knowledge transformation and sharing. Thus, this research aims at exploring participatory design methods for promoting place identities of contemporary architectural design via Design-Driven research methods with a focus on public community buildings.

Zhaozhan Lu Learning from vernacular wisdom

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From the Architecture Research Agenda (ARA) course, I have obtained a further understanding of my PhD research from the perspectives of the starting point (Position Project), the knowledge framework (References) and the approach for structuring the research content (Key Words – Key Projects). The reflections include the identified research topics that I actually focus on: contemporary critical regionalism, participatory design and vernacular architecture. In the process, I have also learned the significance of DesignDriven research (DDr) as an innovative research method in architectural design research.

Therefore, the effectiveness of the methodologies adopted in the course assignments determines the understandability of my illustration for broader audiences. This report summarises and explains the adopted methodologies in each assignment and the implications of the results.

Position Project By applying the rule of the Golden Circle, this assignment aims to understand the previous project, titled “Architecture for the Wellbeing of Homeless Youth”, and the involved fields of knowledge and research methodology, from the perspective of the “what, why, how” questions, for clearly demonstrating, understanding and reflecting on the starting point of the current research.

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First of all, mapping is used for illustrating the location and the distance between the site and the city centre, which revealed their weak connection that represents the cultures and lifestyles of the city of Cardiff, demonstrating the official planning concept, the garden city, and emphasising the connections between various functional groups. This approach was deployed for understanding why the social participation methods were adopted in this project (why).

Subsequently, sequential drawings illustrate the architectural techniques extracted from the cases and applied to several improved designs. After analysing and combining the literature review, I adopt the detail drawings to illustrate the secondary extracted design method to apply to the final design (how). Based on the above, the plans, the structural drawings and the axonometric diagrams are used to demonstrate the features of the final design obtained via research by design (what).

Since this project involves public participation and the design strategies for the construction process, these illustrations might be insufficient to describe the involved stakeholders and their involvement in each improved design and in the final design, limited in length. Plus, the expansion steps of incremental housing design have not been adequately illustrated.

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Mapping of Cardiff

WHY

Long Distance from Centre

Garden City Concept

HOW WHAT

Simon Sinek, The Golden Circle, TED, 2009.

Case 1: Y:CUBE

Case 2: Walters Way

Case 3: Hedgehog Community

prefab foundation

vertical increment

vertical gardens

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References The purpose of this assignment is to frame the current research via precedents and via literature, to demonstrate and understand the application of participatory design and to involve vernacular architecture knowledge for deepening the understanding of my doctoral research.

The selected precedent, the Sun Commune, is firstly illustrated in connection with the geographic environment, the location of the picking local bamboo and thatch adopted in the design, and the general situation of the surrounding traditional buildings, in the form of mapping and contextual diagrams.

Based on the understanding of the context, I used structural drawings to show how these local thatch, bamboo and stones are applied to the building in a local-friendly way. Combining the reflection and the literature review of this case, I identified the fields of knowledge involved in my research and I made a knowledge mapping to confirm possible research gaps in the current knowledge framework involved, reconfirming my research knowledge framework and the research direction.

This assignment discussed social engagement in participatory design, which current analysis methods might be insufficient to reflect the effects of this social process on the architectural results. The knowledge fields involved in knowledge mapping

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could be further supplemented and subdivided in depth to obtain more definite research gaps.

Key Words – Key Projects Inspired by Aldo Rossi, the contemporary architectural design rooted in the local context should be generated with its geography, history, culture and community (Rossi 1982).

The final design result should be different from the traditional buildings of the area in which it is located, interpreting the locality in new approaches. Based on this hypothesis, this assignment attempts to interpret the research content to the ‘growing process’ of architectures, present it in the structure of a Sonata (Exposition, Development, Recapitulation).

I chose to illustrate the structure, the materials and the techniques of the buildings with perspective sections to explore the relationship between the labour in the process, the building structure and the applied materials. Then, I adopted generative diagrams to analyse the participatory design process of the Sun Commune compared with the one of Walters Way to explore the differences from the aspects of construction methods, labour and building components by different involved stakeholders and cooperations. Finally, by emphasising and comparing the translation results of the architectural language deriving from vernacular architectures

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Participatory Design Haoru Chen, Sun Commune, Hangzhou, China, 2014.

Research Gap

Local Materials&Techniques

ANT

Cooperation

Vernacular Modernism

Cultural Confidence

Knowledge Transfer

Vernacular Culture

Social Relation

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in contemporary architectural designs, through different aspects of understanding, I indicate that the purpose of this research is to improve place identity in contemporary architectural design.

Generative diagrams may not be sufficient to illustrate the social process of participation. The mutual effects between the stakeholders and the influence on the construction result may be supplemented by more abstract mappings.

Conclusion In summary, the adopted methodologies have basically achieved the expectations and are understandable for the audience with all the key points. The illustration of social behaviour in the building formation process may be a shortcoming of concrete static diagrams due to the rich information. This reminds me of the potential of abstract diagrams which I will apply in future research presentations.

Looking back at the ARA course, DDr has played an essential role in advancing my understanding of the research. This doctoral research in architecture should be essentially a process of innovation as well as a process of creating complexity. This requires a broad understanding of the state of the art (Fallman 2007), based on the investigation of the literature and on the understanding of the edge of the

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knowledge, the targeted case studies as reflections, and the return to the edge of the knowledge to promote the research.

By applying DDr, research and design could be brought together in the reciprocating process of continuous deepening and of specific research involving different disciplines and case studies.

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Structure-Materials-Labour Critical confrontation.

Comparison of Building Process

Different Aspects-Different Translations

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Bibliography Fallman, Daniel. 2007. “Why Research-Oriented Design Isn’t Design-Oriented Research: On the Tensions Between Design and Research in an Implicit Design Discipline.” Knowledge, Technology & Policy 20 (3): 193–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-007-9022-8.

Rossi, Aldo and Peter Eisenman. 1982. Architettura Della Città.

Boston: MIT Press.

Index 1 Allweil, Yael. 2018. “Experimental Architecture for Homeless SelfHousing.” Journal of Architectural Education 72 (1): 99–104. https:// doi.org/10.1080/10464883.2018.1410666.

Alvarado, Rodrigo García, Dirk Donath, and Luis Felipe González Böhme. 2009. “Growth Patterns in Incremental Self-Build Housing in Chile.” Open House International.

Bredenoord, Jan, and Paul van Lindert. 2010. “Pro-Poor Housing Policies: Rethinking the Potential of Assisted Self-Help Housing.”

Habitat International 34 (3): 278–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. habitatint.2009.12.001.

Busch-Geertsema, Volker. 2005. “DOES RE-HOUSING LEAD TO REINTEGRATION?” Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research 18 (2): 205–26. https://doi. org/10.1080/13511610500096541.

Ferguson, Bruce, and Peer Smets. 2010. “Finance for Incremental Housing; Current Status and Prospects for Expansion.” Habitat International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2009.11.008.

Gaetz, Stephen. 2004. “Safe Streets for Whom? Homeless Youth, Social Exclusion, and Criminal Victimization.” Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 46 (4): 423–56. https://doi. org/10.3138/cjccj.46.4.423.

Heath, Kingston. 2009. Vernacular Architecture and Regional Design.

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Oxford: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780080939841.

Jenkins, Paul, and Leslie Forsyth. 2009. Architecture, Participation and Society. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203869499.

Latour, Bruno. 1996. “On Actor-Network Theory: A Few Clarifications.” Soziale Welt 47 (4): 369–81.

Manzo, Lynne C., and Douglas D. Perkins. 2006. “Finding Common Ground: The Importance of Place Attachment to Community Participation and Planning.” Journal of Planning Literature 20 (4): 335–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885412205286160.

UN. 1998. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” The International Journal of Human Rights 2 (3): 84–88. https://doi. org/10.1080/13642989808406748.

Wates, Nick, and Charles Knevitt. 2014. Community Architecture (Routledge Revivals). London: Routledge.

Yaneva, Albena. 2013. Mapping Controversies in Architecture. Oxford: Routledge.

Index 2 Bødker, Susanne. 1996. “Creating Conditions for Participation: Conflicts and Resources in Systems Development.” HumanComputer Interaction 11 (3): 215–36. https://doi.org/10.1207/ s15327051hci1103_2.

Boychenko, Kristina. 2019. “Agency of Interactive Architecture in Socio-Technological Relationship through Actor-Network Theory.”

In “Hello Culture” 18th International Conference CAAD Futures 2019, 192–202.

Brown, Roni. 2008. “Designing Differently: The Self-Build Home.” Journal of Design History 21 (4): 359–70. https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epn033.

Cristiano, Silvio, and Camilla Falchetti. 2019. “Vernacular Wisdom as a Path Towards Ecologically Sustainable Housing and Settlements:

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Participatory Design and Building to Rehabilitate Local Adobe Brick Constructions in El Salvador.” Journal of World Architecture. https:// doi.org/10.26689/jwa.v4isi1.889.

Dabaieh, Marwa. 2011. “A Future for the Past of Desert Vernacular Architecture: Testing a Novel Conservation Model and Applied Methodology in the Town of Balat in Egypt.” PhD diss., Lund University.

Frediani, Alexandre Apsan, and Camillo Boano. 2012. “Processes for Just Products: The Capability Space of Participatory Design.”

In The Capability Approach, Technology and Design, edited by Ilse Oosterlaken and Jeroen van den Hoven, 5:203–22. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Heath, Kingston. 2009. Vernacular Architecture and Regional Design.

Oxford: Routledge.

Hill, Jonathan. 2005. Occupying Architecture: Between the Architect and the User. Routledge.

Ren, Xiang. 2017. “Rural Face, Urban Mask: Architecture of Communal Form and Collective Practice in Two Chinese Villages from 2010 to 2015.” Architecture and Culture 5 (1): 57–76. https://doi. org/10.1080/20507828.2017.1283124.

Sabiescu, Amalia G., Salomão David, Izak van Zyl, and Lorenzo Cantoni. 2014. “Emerging Spaces in Community-Based Participatory Design.” In Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference on Research Papers - PDC ’14, 1–10. https://doi. org/10.1145/2661435.2661446.

Sanchez Munoz, Nuria, and Sébastien Moriset. 2017. “Building Vernacular, Building Sustainable. Case Studies of Contemporary Architecture.” SOStierra2017 UPV, Sep 2017, Valencia, Spain. https:// hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01880783.

Yaneva, Albena. 2013. Mapping Controversies in Architecture. Oxford: Routledge.

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Syllabus 02 Sara Anna Sapone is an architect and a PhD candidate at Politecnico di Milano. She collaborated with this institution to research and teaching activities since her Master degree with honors in Architectural design in 2017. In 2019 she also participated in the G124 research project, organized by Renzo Piano and promoted by Politecnico di Milano.

The initiative focused on the requalification of Italian peripheries, with a specific intervention on the north periphery of Milan. Meanwhile, she also worked in an architecture firm in Milan, addressing urban renewal and architecture design in European and national contexts, from the scale of the city to the one of the building’s interior. Her current research aims to define the nature-technology paradigm in the context of a Smart city.

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Throughout history humans acted to transform nature into an artificial entity to fulfill their need. At the same time, technology, seen as a mere tool to achieve their wants, has increasingly become an integral part of our lives. In the Smart City context, we can invert the trajectory, rendering the artificial animated, while Nature can reenter the scene as a performative nature or an informal landscape. Entities, both alive and inanimate, interact with their environment, perceiving and answering to their surroundings through biology or through sensors. Nature is ultimately understood as a functioning mechanism that structures reality. The goal is to realize “living” architecture and environment, able to perceive and respond: an animated interface between humans and their habitat.

Sara Anna Sapone The agency of nature

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Positioning | Starting from experience To start something new one must look at the past, at what we know and where we started from. To conceive a way to design in the smart city, in between nature and technology, it was natural to me to look at this project, experimental and full of unexpected results.

Framing the design The work I’m referring to is titled “Code_XcITy: Sharing spaces for the future city”, a design formulated in the frame of the OC summer school intensive workshop, where I had the chance of being part of the teaching team. The general aim of the workshop was to imagine the city of Piacenza in 2040 through the lens of the motto “sharing landscape 4.0”, underling the intention to involve the local community and the city’s landscape. The opportunity was provided by the regeneration of an abandoned military area, the ex Caserma Pertite, located in the outskirts of the city. This was a unique chance to focus on vulnerabilities and strength of the city, identifying possible trends in urban development. The end goal was to elaborate predictions on the future organization of the entire city as a whole, starting from the site as a testbed.

In this sense, the site was a generative tool thanks to its peculiar characteristics, being an abandoned military area

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with the potential of becoming an urban park as a result of the spontaneous action of nature.

The design strategy considered the site as an ideal hub in the frame of a city where technology plays an important role, influencing both behaviors and living quality: a city which is managed through a series of sensors, able to register the present condition and to anticipate future needs through data analysis.

Nevertheless, control is not surrendered to the machine: an individual can’t control the process but humankind as a collective entity can shape this system, dictating the rules of the game, establishing software principles and the mechanisms that generate responses. The site plays a key role: its center, the core, is organized as a research center, with server farms and a supercomputer facility able to control and interpret the city’s needs.However, this center is also a place where technology and nature meet, being in the heart of an informal urban park. Here users can enjoy the feeling of being lost in nature, whereas the surfaces in between this condition are devoted to public spaces for the users of the research facility and for all the citizens.

The term “Code” of the title is used in its manifold meanings, as a way to read the city and the characteristics which marked its past and will be transmitted into the future.

A choice is always required, but the outcome is only one of

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Code_XcITy, Piacenza, OC Summer school 2018, Interpretative plan and section.

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the possible futures, a vision open to possible shifts.

This notion was partly built upon a literature related to urban utopias: the Broadacre city of Wright, the No-stop city of Archizoom, the images of the city by Lynch, the shrinking city

by Ungers and so on. Also, different design references were considered: from disruptive designs such as the Fun Palace by Price to the study of real computing centers designed in our time, like the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

Ultimately the project aimed to interpret and develop a code that both underpins and passes on an ideal outcome.

On the design methodology The design research started elaborating a manifesto through a collective group effort. The keywords suggested by the students were related to the characteristics of Piacenza and their ideas for the Landscape 4.0. The result was the formulation of 8 claims, translated into interpretative images on the territory of the city through the lens of “paradox” that allows two opposite ideas to be both true; this possibility was suggested by the military wall, both limit and shelter.

Considering this, the urban scale was represented through four layers: existing buildings to regenerate, public and shared spaces, system of limits, connection and nodes.

A single drawing was produced combining all the readings to

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represent an interpretative image for the future city, focusing on the abandoned and fringe areas.

The following step was the approach to the site through three crucial themes: 1. The relationship with the limit and its overcoming, setting a strategy that using wedges could break the military enclosure, transformed into an inhabited wall variable in thickness and section, and creating new connection to the surrounding.

2. The “third landscape” and its colonization, using the natural forest born on the site along the years of abandonment. It was considered like an historical heritage to protect and preserve.

The system is integrated through spontaneous essences and productive nature like experimental farming on the empty surfaces.

3. The core of the system, the heart of the functions of the area.

Reusing the pre-existing buildings to host the supercomputer, the new “mind” of the city, able to adapt variables in real time but also to predict needs and threats.

Sensors collect a massive quantity of data, information about air quality, temperature, traffic, energy consumption and so on.

Its architecture is quite unique: the supercomputer is very dense, focusing on a small space the computing power to manage the whole city. The building is thought to bear great weight load and reuse the enormous quantity of water

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CASERMA PERTITE | MASTER PLAN

LIMIT | INHABIT

FOREST | COLONIZATION

Code_XcITy, Piacenza, Master plan and atmospheric images.

CORE | FUNCTIONS

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employed to cool down the system. The building’s skin is interactive thanks to a reflective material which mirrors its surroundings. Functionally, the core is composed of a research facility and a server farm which forms a library for the future to host the data generated by the supercomputer but also the humankind’s knowledge. Finally, the design results were displayed in an interactive installation, recreating in an analogic way the server farm to allocate all the design findings.

Relevance in the overall research frame This design provides relevant reflections for a Smart city research, like the ideas around the role of technology to shape physical spaces and the interaction between the latter and the immaterial realm. Moreover, it also renders the role of nature relevant, both as a third landscape and as a productive one, as a shield that protects the digital core but also as a place where humans can reconnect to their habitat. Being the result of a workshop, the design can be naive in some points, but it presents fascinating ideas that could be tested in more realistic settings.

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References | Build a common ground Going further in the understanding of the research, it is relevant to reflect on the theories and designs that revolve around nature and technologies, understanding the possible implication of their use in the context of a Smart city.

Theoretical framework When we say Smart city, although there exists no formalized definition, we refer to an urban strategy where traditional physical grids and public services are improved through digital systems and technologies, managing the use of resources and enhancing the processes’ sustainability (Boorsma 2017). The components of this network are interconnected and regulated by protocols that collect and react to flows of data, dealing with issues but also forecasting future outcomes. However, this may not be enough to make a city truly smart, as the contemporary debate argues (Ratti and Claudel 2017): in order to do so, the human scale must be considered.

One possible attitude to take into account is through the involvement of nature, as humans instinctively crave for with natural environment and the benefit from it (Fath et al 2018). Through time, nature was understood both as an ideal original state, a frightful force, and as a resource with a clear boundary, to shape and tame to fulfill humankind’s needs and

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CORE | VIEW

LIMIT | INHABIT

FOREST | COLONIZATION

Code_XcITy, Piacenza, Aerial view of the core and atmospheric images.

CORE | FUNCTIONS

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beliefs. The overall tendency is toward the transformation of nature in an artificial entity. Today we live in a new age, the “age of Natural fabrication”, where nature is dealt with a scientific approach” (Girot 2014). Nature and landscape have partially left their contemplative role as otherness to tackle issues like climate change, food scarcity, comfort condition, becoming a performative nature (Somarakis et al. 2019).

At the same time, technology has historically been a tool to fulfill humankind needs and necessity, growing in importance through time. Today, it is both material and immaterial, governing the physical and virtual space but also able to relate material and immaterial networks. In recent years, its action has grown more pervasive, also inhabiting the digital sphere. Digital technology is an “ubiquitous entity”, living inside the objects we interact with daily. It is a “constant and bidirectional extension in between the animate and inanimate beings” (Ratti and Belleri 2020). Technological advancement and possibilities have always been (and probably will be) an engine for conceiving fulfill humankind needs.

This through time helped generate both urban utopias and dystopias (Wilkinson 2018). Just to name a few, we can think about the Città Nuova by Sant’Elia, the Broadacre city by Wright, the City in the air by Izosaki and the Plug-in City by Archigram. There are also many other examples that could

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contribute to this list, but I believe that all this vision, although very fascinating, have always some core issues (ecology, livability, cost-effectiveness etc.) that don’t have an easy fix, being bounded to an idealistic vision of the city (Bott and al.

2019). Moreover, trying to solve everything with technology and mega-structures alone may leave out the human perception, creating beautiful cities where it could be horrible to live in (Sanseverino 2015). One example is Songdo in South Korea, where the design is virtually perfect, enforced through a top-down approach and the use of the most advanced solution to envision a whole new city (Timmeren 2015).

This created a soulless city, fostering an ideal environment for business, where people life is always monitored and controlled, attracting just the rich and young and not allowing any kind of social mixité. Ultimately, to investigate further this “common ground” the choice is to analyze a specific design, the Jade Eco Park, where both technology and nature are used to make livable an inhospitable environment.

Natural elements are used for their innate “climatic” properties, working with technological devices that respond and interact with their surroundings thanks to a “smart park”, controlled and managed by a central system. It doesn’t constitute a “perfect” example, but a starting point for a general reflection on these thematic.

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WARM // COLD

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HUMID// DRY

010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 1010101010101010101010 01010101010101010101010101010

POLLUTED// CLEAN

01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 10101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 10101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 10101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101

Jade Eco Park, Master plan and keywords related to the key actions.

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Performative landscape | Jade Eco Park Jade Eco Park or Taichung Gateway Park is located in Taiwan, on the ground of a former airport (Rahm 2014). It consists in a 70 hectares park, conceived by a composite design teams (Philippe Rahm architect, Mosbach paysagistes, Ricky Liu& Associates) and completed in 2018. The credo of the design is “Form and Function follow climate” (Rahm 2017), conceiving a design that reclaims an abandoned land addressing the city’s difficult climatic condition, characterized by a subtropical warm and humid climate. Mapping the site through sensors and collected data, three systems are created, each to tackle a specific issue: temperature, humidity and pollution. This analysis is complemented through fluid dynamic simulation which identifies the areas naturally warmer, more humid or polluted and the ones with better conditions. The design intervenes in particular on the latter, to exploit at best the characteristics of the site and to avoid excessive use of energy. The design creates eleven “climatic Lands”, named Coolia (coldest areas), Dryia (driest areas) and Clearia (less polluted). Specific activities are coupled to specific climates: the coldest areas host leisure and relaxing facilities, the driest sports ones, and the cleanest for children’s playgrounds. They are connected through three climatic paths, also characterized by climatic conditions linked to the function of the areas: the

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cool path is shaded and with a soft surface, the dry path is hard to allow sport activities and the clean path is accessible for families and children. The three routes are overlapped, creating different climatic conditions to achieve a range of different sensorial experience along the park, still presenting punctually one or come condition of discomfort, like points cool and dry but still polluted. The creation of these climatic lands was allowed by the introduction of climatic devices, both natural and artificial, characterized by cooling, drying and depolluting functions. They are placed very densely or in a disperse way, to follow the conformation of the climatic paths, determining the degree of comfort and enjoyability of each point. The climatic devices may be passive, using innate characteristics of nature (e.g. density, color and dimension of leaves) or can be active, though using also energy coming from renewable sources (photovoltaic, geothermal energy).

The cooling devices work on “meteorological phenomena like convection, conduction, evaporation or reflection” to manage the condition of the environment or of the human bodies. The depolluting ones work to reduce the pollution in the air and the excess of noises through trees that are both sound barriers and absorb pollutant particles. Even the architecture of the site’s functional buildings follows the climate as formative guidance. Particularly interesting is the conception behind

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CLIMATIC DEVICES | Cooling, drying, depolluting Cooling devices

ARTIFICIAL

NATURAL

A-108_ATOMIZER

Rendering Detail

Anticyclone

Stratus / Cirrus / Cumulus cloud

Underground Breeze

Moonlight

Solar Chimney

Atomizer Isometric

Isometric

Elevation

Zelkova serrata

Melia Fraxinus azedarach

Zelkova serrata

Fraxinus

Acer palmatum

Scale 1:10

Drying devices

Desert Wind

Waterspout

Dry cloud

Dry Beach

Phytore- Medow mediation

Depolluting devices

Silent spot

Geranium

Jade Eco Park, Climatic devices (selection).

Ultrasound repellant

Pre-industrial Photocatalytic draught Concrete

Inverse Noise

Calocedrus Pinus

Phytore- Medow mediation

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the Climatorium, the visitor center of the park. It is realized through a system of layers, each addressing one of the climatic issues mentioned above. The layers are separated or drawn near to create “habitable interstices” (Rahm 2017) that repel or allow specific climatic forces, creating unique and differentiated areas. The ratio is going from the exterior to the interior, moving from the most uncomfortable to the most pleasant area. The first layer is a wide grid of white aluminum, a see-through skin that acts to reflect the sunrays, avoiding overheating. It can be opened and closed at different times of the day and provide spaces in between indoor and outdoor for cafés and gardens, which are distanced from the second layer.

The latter is a waterproof membrane, conceived to shelter visitors from the rain but also to allow it in specific points to create inner gardens. The third layer, made of recycled PET wool, provides thermal insulation; it is also punctually detached from the others to allow natural ventilation in the connecting spaces. The insulated spaces are the functional ones, dedicated to the café and offices. The last layer is the one that sees the creation of three rooms, the Climatoriums, constructed to replicate a particular climatic parameter, and a “oasis” where one can experience ideal conditions of health, humidity and pollution, in contrast to the city’s conditions.

These spaces realize “built atmospheres” in which the visitor

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can move and experience an invisible architecture. Ultimately, this project claims the creation of a “smart park”, where a constant monitor of the climatic conditions can regulate the active climatic devices in real time. It works through sensors that render their analysis on giant screens and on a smartphone app that can inform the user and suggest certain activities according to their location and desires.

Strength and weaknesses and relevance for the research The project is successful in using both nature and technology in an interdependent way but is still flawed in some aspects.

The first may be the use of a human-centric approach: only the well-being of the users is considered, not the one of the habitat.

Overall, no attention is given to the preservation of biodiversity and to the use of informal nature. The use of nature itself is a bit limited, being only implied for its innate characteristics. Besides, it is also lacking the link to the social and historical context of the site, creating a system that, even if it carefully maps certain aspects, is indifferent to others (social engagement, culture etc.). Nevertheless, it shows interesting solutions both in the design of wide surfaces (climatic lands) and in punctual solutions (Climatorium). Technology is also more than a simple inanimate tool, is a responsive entity, able to shape spaces and influence human behaviors.

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CLIMATORIUM | Ground Floor

Functioning scheme Real time Humidity rate Mountain weather station

Storage

Dryium

Visitor center

Historical climatic condition

Data control

Clearium Entrance / Inner garden

Cafè

Coolium

Service Area

Jade Eco Park, Climatorium, Plan, elevation and functioning scheme.

Legend

Action on the physical space

Heat protection greed Waterproofing layer Thermal insulation layer Climatorium’s wall

DRYIUM Air humidity emission

COOLIUM temperature emission

CLEARIUM water and temp. emission

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Structuring | Complementary oxymoron To “build” the research structure, is deemed important to work through keywords, exemplary of the research themes and aims. At once they allow to create unprecedented links, leading to unforeseen paths and guiding the research. I started from the keywords that mostly mirrored my research theme: physical and digital. This duplicity led me to organize my words through the juxtaposition of contrasting, apparently oxymoronic terms. I proceeded to define these terms from their obvious sense, enriched through an interpretation to fit the specific topic to reach a complex meaning.

This process is represented through a drawing, a research map constantly adapting and changing to host the new findings, like a city or a circuit where everything is interconnected.

Search for meaning | State of the art and framework Physical Related to things perceived through the senses as opposed to the mind; tangible or concrete (Encyclopedia Britannica) Digital designating or of data, images, sounds, etc. that are stored, transmitted, manipulated, or reproduced by a process using groups of electronic bits (Collins Dictionary)

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Physical \\ Digital Reflection on a physical space of the city that also is perceived and modified through digital devices, using platforms and remote sensing. Physical and digital are not separated but intertwined, with one dimension constantly influencing and interacting with the other.

Starting this dissertation with postulates allows to make evident the intrinsic contrast inside this theme, dealing with the design of a physical space in the smart city frame, a strategy based on the use of virtual entities. The research starts with the construction of a precise framework, a state of the art, a critical positioning on the research themes. It dialogues with design in a manifold way, going back and forth in between the theoretical level and its manifestation in physical experience and factual programs, gathering theoretical reflections and design references (as the ones described in the second paragraph) as informative examples to follow or avoid. The multidisciplinary aspect of the work, being a theme in between different fields of study (such as architecture, landscape, engineering, sociology to name a few), is always considered crucial. The need is also to include some fields that, even not purposefully, may introduce reflections useful for the discourse, forerunner to the architecture discipline. In order to start the research is deemed crucial to investigate its

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FRACTURE// NETWORK PHISICAL // DIGITAL CONNECTED // IN BETWEEN PUBLIC N A T U SPACE R E

TERREIN VAGUE

SMART CITY SMART CITY

Performative Park Cool Park Dry Park Clean Park

FRAGILITY // RESILIENCE

Research map, like a city or a circuit where everything is connected.

NATURE // ANTHROPOCENE

FLOW // CONTROL

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meaning, posing a set of initial questions, in particular about the relationship between humans and their environment, to change the paradigms connected to the terms technology and nature. To do so we can look at the reflections proposed by Augustine Berque, geographer, orientalist and philosopher.

He stated that the relation between humans and environments is not limited to the ecological or planetary scale, but it also refers to the level of meaning, the semiosphere (Berque 2002).

This relationship may change according to the different culture and specific condition of the spaces.

Thinking about this reflection, it is considered sensible to reflect on the possible role of the digital dimension intervening on the semiosphere, especially concerning the relationship between individuals and the physical space.

In this way technologies could convey an ulterior meaning, beyond what is merely visible.

In this sense, the work by Christophe Girot (Girot 2014) is exemplary of this attitude. Mapping a landscape through point cloud technology allows the architect to own this landscape, proposing “impossible views”. Dematerialising the Alps, it transforms them into an “interactive digital sculpture”, going beyond the simple objective representation and giving a new design point of view.

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Focus the lens | Core of the research Nature Nature is a multilayered entity, composed of untouched wilderness, productive landscapes and gardens as cultural artifacts. It can be affected by human attribution of meaning and ownership.

Technology Tool to fulfill humankind needs and necessity, both material and immaterial. It governs the physical and virtual space and is able to relate material and immaterial networks.

It is a “constant and bidirectional extension in between the animate and inanimate beings” (Ratti and Belleri 2020) Nature // Technology Nature in the age of the Anthropocene, is shaped and controlled to be adapted to users’ needs and fulfill ulterior motives but also allowed to be an informal landscape that fosters biodiversity.

Technology can be seen as an animated entity, able to interact with its surroundings, both physically and digitally. It’s possible to create artificially “living” buildings and environments, able to replicate the behaviors of a living being and actively interact with its surroundings.

This section aims to find and define the precise scope for the research, narrowing the field with a clear focus.

The general focus is on the relationship between nature and

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KEY THEMES // KEYWORDS PHYSICAL // DIGITAL

NATURE // TECHNOLOGY

FLOW // CONTROL

Design in between the physical and the digital, working with material and immaterial network and a parafigm that may be both physical and immaterial.

Nature as informal landscape or artificial entity, paired to a technology, digital and physical that can be an “animated artificial” in dialogue with the environment.

Information is produced freely but to be used need to be collected and controlled, also through the design process.

Graphical representation of the research themes and keywords.

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technology and the implication on the physical and digital space of a specific context, the Smart city.

This choice is motivated by the actuality of the theme, being a trending topic in the policy-making sector, but also by the lack of specific design experimentation and the uncommon relation among the terms.

In order to clarify what we mean a general overview is required. Today we can’t anymore identify nature only as an ideal original state, disrupted and changed permanently by human action through time. We live in a new age, the “age of Natural fabrication”, where nature deals with a scientific approach and may tackle specific issues and needs (Girot 2016). An example in this sense can be found looking at the project for the Jade Eco Park mentioned in the second chapter, which focuses on the well-being of the users through the use of climatic devices, both natural and artificial to recover an inhospitable land.

Furthermore, as theorized by Gilles Clement in his “third landscape” (Clement 2015), in our age nature is not simply contained by the boundaries of the garden but constitutes an anamorphic entity, aimed at maintaining biodiversity.

This informal nature can be found in the abandoned and fringe areas, left alone by humans, where the unexpected can happen and biodiversity can thrive.

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At the same time technology, formerly seen only as a digital or physical tool to fulfil certain needs, can be animated: through the use of actuators and sensors, it can perceive and respond to human interaction. It’s possible to create a living artificial (Ratti and Belleri 2020), buildings and environments able to replicate the behaviors of a living being and interact actively with its surroundings. The final aim is to create a new paradigm that sees together this understanding of nature and technology, enabled by the Smart City context.

The goal is to produce a shift in the unbalanced relationship between humankind and the environment, creating a continuity between living and inanimate systems.

On scale and impact | How to relate theory and design Flow Spontaneous movement of natural elements and continuous effortless production of information.

Control Action aimed to direct and confine an activity or information according to specific goals and uses.

Flow // Control Natural flow of things but also digital flows of uncontrolled information opposed to control of natural behavior and collection of data to guide the design interventions.

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KEYWORDS // KEY PROJECTS

Cool Path

Dry Path Clean Path

PHYSICAL // DIGITAL

NATURE // TECHNOLOGY

FLOW // CONTROL

Gotthard Landscape, The Unexpected view ”Impossible views” of the Alps which transform the landscape in an interactive three-dimensional sculpture

Jace Eco Park, Performative park for the Taiwan airport 09 Use of “controlled nature” and technological devices to make an inhospitable place a park for the city.

Precision Agriculture Reference of an attitude to avoid in the use of technology in tackling specific issues.

Graphical representation of the research keywords and key projects.

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The project in a way can be perceived as a control mechanism on an existing condition and on effortless flow of information. It represents one of many possible choices, creating a peculiar standpoint. An example in a broad sense, could be found considering Precision agriculture. Farming is no longer a simple care but a complex mechanism, where a flow of data is constantly monitored to achieve an ideal optimization of the productive process.

Nevertheless, this puts biodiversity at risk, which can foster especially thanks to unexpected events. One could argue that we could experience something similar in the design field: which could be the consequences of leaving the care of physical spaces to technology? The risk to avoid is the creation of a “perfect model” that ignores the unexpected, which makes a public space livable. A way to do this is to reflect upon the attribution of meaning to the process, avoiding mechanical results and considering a specific place, without having the ambition to solve all the world’s problems. For this reason, in this final section is identified a possible testbed that informs the methodology and scale of the research. Railway yards are the chosen testbed because of their peculiar character that brings together different aspects that may favor the nature-technology paradigm to thrive.

To describe the most important ones we can start addressing their location: being in the outskirts of the city or barriers in city centers, they represent an opportunity to mend physical

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and social disconnection. These sites also rely on a system of physical networks, allowing the creation of physical and virtual connection to a wider territorial system.

Finally, nature reenters spontaneously in this context as an informal landscape that creates biodiversity whereas it can also serve to solve specific issues, occupying abandoned lands or acting to remediate pollution and fragilities. Ultimately, the rail yards present a unique possibility to combine the field of architecture and engineering with an integrated approach. This may allow the production of a methodology which sets a scenery and specific action to be adapted to different context, conceiving solutions that work on the site surface and on specific punctual interventions.

To achieve this, the project has to go back and forth between different city-size, from middle-sized city to megalopolis, understanding the relation of the design to the a-scalarity of the digital network. Moreover, in this frame is vital to estimate the impact of the intervention, to see if the proposed solution can improve or worsen the original conditions, both during the design phase and in the future. The foreseen design result is a thought-provoking project that defines the characters of “living” architecture and environment, able to perceive and respond, an animated interface in between humans and their habitat.

Architecture Research Agenda

Bibliography Antonelli, Paola, and Ana Tannir. 2019. Broken nature: XXII Triennale di Milano. Milano: La Triennale di Milano Electa.

Balducci, Alessandro, Chiffi, Daniele and Francesco Curci. 2020. Risk and resilience. Socio-Spatial and Environmental Challenges. Cham: PoliMI Springer Briefs, Springer Nature.

Balducci, Alessandro. 2012. “Smart Planning for Smart Cities”. The Planning Review 189: 4-5.

Berque, Augustine, Conan, Michel, and Pierre Donadieu, Alain Roger. 2002. “Mouvance: A lanscape Lexicon. The French Contributions”. Lotus Navigator 5: 78-79.

Boorsma, Bas. 2017. A New Digital Deal: Beyond Smart Cities. How to Best Leverage Digitalization for the Benefit of our Communities.

Soest: Uitgeverij Boekscout.

Bott, Helmut, C., Grassl, Gregor and Stephan Anders. 2019.

Sustainable urban planning: vibrant neighborhoods, smart cities, resilience. Munich: Detail.

Carta, Maurizio. 2014. Reimagining urbanism: creative, smart and green cities for the changing times. Trento: LISt. Clément, Gilles. 2005. Manifesto del Terzo paesaggio. Macerata: Quodlibet.

Contin, Antonella. 2015. Questo. Metropolitan architecture.

Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli.

Fath, Brian D., and Sven E. Jorgensen. 2018. Encyclopedia of Ecology.

Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.

Gardner, Jennifer. 2019. “The inclusive healthy places framework: A new tool for social resilience and public infrastructure”. Biophilic Cities Journal 2(2): 11-15.

Girot, Christophe. 2016. “Topology and Landscape Experimentation” Conference during the new summit on landscape architecture and the future, Philadelphia, Video.

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Kabisch, Nadja, Korn, Horst, Stadles Jutta and Aletta Bonn. 2017.

Nature-based solutions to climate change adaptation in urban areas: linkages between science, policy and practice. Cham: Springer Nature.

Lisdorf, Anders. 2020. Demystifying Smart Cities: Practical Perspectives on How Cities Can Leverage the Potential of new Technologies. New York: Apress Media - Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Parks, Lisa. 2002. “Satellite and Cyber Visualities: Analyzing Digital Earth”. In The Visual Culture Reader, edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff.

London: Routledge.

Pask, Gordon. 1969. “The Architectural relevance of cybernetics”.

Architectural Design 39(9): 494-96.

Kahn, Peter H. 2011. Technological Nature: Adaptation and the Future of Human Life. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Rahm, Philippe. 2014. Atmosfere costruite: L’architettura come design meteorologico. Milano: Postmedia books.

Rahm, Philippe. 2017. Form follows climate: About a Meteorological Park in Taiwan, Online: OFL. Ratti, Carlo, and Daniele Belleri. 2020. “Verso una cyber-ecologia/ towards a cyber ecology”. AGATHÓN – International Journal of Architecture, Art and Design 8: 8-19.

Ratti, Carlo, and Mattiew Claudel. 2017. La città di Domani: come le reti stanno cambiando il futuro urbano. Torino: Einaudi.

Raxworthy, Julian. 2017. “The discourse of the digital in contemporary landscape architecture”. Journal of Landscape Architecture 12: 88-93.

Riva Sanseverino, Eleonora, Sanseverino, Raffaella Riva and Valentina Vaccaro. 2015. Atlante delle Smart city: comunità intelligenti europee ed asiatiche. Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Somarakis, Giorgos, Stagakis, Stavros and Nektarios Chrysoulakis.

2019. “Think Nature: Nature-Based Solutions Handbook”, EU.

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Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Timmeren, Arjan van, Henriques, Laurence and Alexandra Reynold.

2015. Ubikquity and the Illuminated city. Delft: TU Delft.

Walliss, Jillian, and Heike Rahmann. 2016. Landscape Architecture and Digital Technologies: reconceptualizing design and making. Oxon; New York: Routledge.

Wiener, Norbert. 1948. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

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Atmospheric image of the design intentions.

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Syllabus 02 Kevin Santus is an Architect and PhD candidate at the Politecnico di Milano. He won an interdisciplinary grant (2020) for a research dealing with the design transition in urban areas facing climate change. In particular, it investigates the role of circular economy and nature-based solutions in architectural and urban modification.

He graduated cum laude at the Politecnico of Milan in Architecture and Urban Design (2019), awarded the honourable mention for the “Italian Sustainable Architecture Award” and nominee for the “Young Talent Architecture Award”. He spent a period of study at TU Delft (2018) and participated in the International Design Research “City of the future Stad van de Toekomst” dealing with climate change in European cities.

In addition, he is a didactic tutor in Architectural studios and cosupervisor of Master theses at Politecnico di Milano.

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The contribution frames the ongoing doctoral research upon the role of Naturebased solution and Circular economy within the design transition due to the climate change.

Through the presentation of a selected project, a case study research, and the definition of a research perspective, the article highlights the current limits in the usage of NBS and CE, focusing on the necessity of an aesthetical and cultural specification of these strategies.

Finally, the need for a systemic design approach and the necessity of a longterm resilience open to a deeper research investigation.

Kevin Santus Design transition and climate change

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Designing the transition what | the research perspective revealed by a project The research aims to develop a deeper understanding of the design modification due to the application of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and Circular Economy (CE). It intends to interpret and experiment how the adaptation and mitigation processes are related to cultural, aesthetic, and quantitative relapses within the project.

Following this, understanding the reformulation of the urban and architectural project means investigating how NBS and CE could be integrated into the design process, to define choices and directions of intervention in a logic open to ecosystemic impacts (Ellen Macarthur Foundation 2019).

The presented project was developed during the International Design Research “City of the future - Stad van de Toekomst” by the Politecnico teamwork, which results are useful to hinge the relation between research and design.

The project is located in the periphery of Amsterdam and is part of the so-called megacity Randstad. It focuses on a dock of the former harbor of the city, located in the northern part of Sloterdijk, which is a relevant railway junction. The intervention promotes an interscalar approach, assuming NBS and CE as strategies in defining solutions for adaptation to climate change. Accordingly, the challenge of the project is

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to build a settlement strategy capable of dealing with climate issues by reflecting on the necessary transition of the project.

The scope of the project consists of elaborating a site-located strategy, making the area suitable for the changes taking place, and regenerate a neglected part of the city. Hence, the need for an interscalar perspective aims to define different operational sets, to delineate a scenario for the regeneration. Moreover, a first reflection upon the semantic modification of the project will lead to an aesthetical question of the contemporary usage of adaptation tools, questioning the future perspective of our cities. why | from global issues to specific actions The project is set within the global changes taking place that, together with the residues from the urban development, require a reflection on the project and the strategies that intersect architecture and urban design discipline. Climate change effects seem to worsen within urban areas (Bulkeley 2013), where it is possible to find a stratification of problems due to climaterelated fragilities, generally overlapped on previously unstable socio-spatial contexts such as peripheral or abandoned areas.

Therefore, it is urgent to study methods to face and counteract the effects of the changes, and urban areas can play a crucial role in this rethinking, being the place with major CO2 emissions.

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City of Amsterdam

Project site

SIT

E

Regenerated scenario

Identification of the project area and of the design opportunities.

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Moreover, effects such as the heat island, the decrease in biodiversity, the increase in atmospheric pollution, the sea levels rise, and the increasingly frequent rainstorms produce relevant socioeconomic effects. In this context, urban and architectural design become tools through which it is possible to respond to new spatial needs, and, at the same time, a way to understand how contrasting and adapting strategies can help to define a shifted semantics of the project itself.

Indeed, the presented project relates the issue of climate change as a new risk factor for urban areas. Understanding the application of adaptative operations sets means responding to an urgency, in which it is equally essential to understand the possibilities that interact with the project and its designing phases. Developing a set of strategies and finding their direct application is, consequently, part of a project aimed at dealing with the growing vulnerability of urban territories, in which it is necessary to reflect on the relationship between project and nature, durability and temporary, adaptation and contrast.

Nevertheless, the application of Nature-based solutions and Circular Economy highlights some limits of the project.

At first, more in-depth knowledge of quantitative data is required, to evaluate an effective reduction of environmental impact and CO2 emissions. Secondly, a lack of the aesthetical

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point of view emerged, making clear the necessity of study the cultural and aesthetical relation between these strategies, design, and environment. This, not to frame NBS and CE only as technical tools but envisioning the possibility of a rethinking of the ecological aesthetic of contemporary projects (Morton 2009), understanding the cultural relapses derived by the usage of these tools. how | the design perspective on Circularity and NBS The project development was composed of three main steps, where we first compared the physical and spatial characteristics of the site, interpreting the problems and the potentials of it, addressing different emerging issues through an interscalar design strategy.

The work phases can be summarized as follows: 1. Critical analysis of the urban context, in its morphological consistency and relation at the territorial scale referring to the Randstad. Analysis of environmental factors identifies the potential hazards connected to climate change.

2. Elaboration of design actions designing with NBS and CE. 3. Application of the actions to the project site, configuring a specific settlement strategy, identifying some key elements within a defined time horizon.

At the first step, the site was related to the territorial scale,

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Usage of Nature-based solutions and Circularity as design strategy.

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framing the Sloterdijk as an important branch connecting to the Dutch megacity, so a fertile development area for an interchange hub. From this, we then moved on to developing specific actions for the regeneration of the dock, formulating a theme for each topic investigated.

Thus, the circularity was declined by reflecting both on the possibility of reuse of some structures and defining fixed and flexible portions of buildings. On the other hand, nature-based solutions have been adopted for the definition of new collective public spaces, located in areas where land reclamation is required, or, equally, in which it is possible to rethink soil waterproofing. Herein, the study of a typological section has identified the possibility of inserting raingardens and ecological corridors, useful for responding proactively to climatic criticalities such as the heat island effect and rainstorms.

Finally, the outcome shows a design perspective where the usage of NBS and CE has defined a scenario for the City of the Future.

Nature-based solutions and Circular economy as unique resilience tool experimental practices: the de ceuvel case study On a similar perspective of the previous project, in 2012, the Dutch studio Space & Matter began to work in a neglected

Syllabus 02

area in Amsterdam North. The area was characterized by heavy soil pollution and a lack of public spaces. Here the studio has developed a project called de Ceuvel, with an expected duration of 10 years, transforming the area into a hub for creative and social enterprises, applying circular economy and nature-based solutions to regenerate the soils and produce a low CO2 impact.

The project is configured as strongly “process-oriented” in which the purpose is to identify possible effects and understanding how to implement these strategies throughout the design process.

The project is proposed as a test site, highlighting possible configurations and experiment with solutions deriving from the aforementioned approaches. It shows the need for a transdisciplinary method, in which the role of the architect is supported by other specialized figures (agronomists, landscape architects, etc.) to support actions on the metabolic cycle of the area.

The intervention is based on the vision that the project could be a tool to regenerate a polluted area, rethinking a social fabric through circular and nature-based actions, turning abandoned space into a new livable urban place.

In this regard, phytoremediation is used for the polluted soil, drawing a micro-landscape along the city docks, where

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I. RECLAIM AND REUSE

Regeneration Process: Designing the City of the Future.

II. GREEN CORRIDOR AND ADDITION

III. NEW CONSTRUCTIONS

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Reuse and Recycle

Public areas - Raingardens

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Reclamation and Addition

Regeneration Process: Designing the City of the Future.

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selected plants stabilize and absorb pollutants. The theme of circularity, instead, is interpreted taking into account the idea of sharing and reuse the physical assets. This operation tries to regenerate and restore the social and natural capital of the neighborhood, integrating circularity logics aimed at the effective use of resources with systems that consider nature as a project tool, in which the design effects are evidence of the “reduce, reuse, recycle” paradigm (Cheschire 2016).

The master plan presets retrofitted houseboats placed in connection through a raised element that configure a promenade that interacts with the neighborhood scale, producing public areas.

What transpires through this case study is the potential of the project to combine “socio-ecological systems in a comprehensive approach to sustain and potentially increase the delivery of the ecosystem services” (Eggermont 2015, 244), in which the regeneration of space involves a social reactivation producing public space and better environmental quality.

The case study displays that applying circularity means reasoning and interpreting the different life cycles of the place, trying to interact with the inner metabolism of the neighborhood. Moreover, the combination of this strategy with the NBS shows alchemy that opens to the possibility of being a healing tool, to repair and sustain the neighborhood.

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Regeneration is so framed as a growing and adaptive instrument (Bergevoet and van Tuijl 2016), anchoring the project in its specific urban landscape, intimately entangled with the community process among the sites.

Finally, equally important within this “test site” is the quantitative assessment of the impacts. Through the renaturalization of some areas and the circular processes, the project has estimated the reduction of about 200,000 tons of CO2 over the 10 years, with the further advantage of land reclamation. The topic of a quantitative evaluation defines a necessity, as it is the measure of the effects that these strategies (NBS and CE) can produce if applied to regeneration processes within the architectural and urban project (Lavagna 2020). between transition and permanence Although the regeneration of the de Ceuvel is producing good results, it is possible to note how the project assumes circularity as a fully ephemeral process and mainly from a technical perspective. Indeed, the architectural and urban project is instrumental to the dock’s regeneration and social reactivation, in which, therefore, there is no permanence of the project.

Instead, the nature-based solution seems to outline an emerging aesthetic, connected to the concept of the “Tiers Paysage” (Clement 2003), defining a connection between

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Phase I. Abandoned and polluted dock

Phase IV. Reuse of houseboats for working spaces

Design Process for the 10 years project of De Ceuvel.

Phase II. Use of Nature for reclamation of land

Phase V. Design of public spaces recycling materials

Phase III. Design of a public promenade

Phase VI. Project removal once the land is reclaimed

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regeneration processes and environmental urgencies. The role of nature becomes not only a technical solution but reflects upon a new urban landscape, making closer the user and the environment.

However, the main risk highlighted by this project - as well as by others, such as the Luchtsingel pedestrian bridge by the ZUS studio completed in 2015 - is to assimilate the circularity with a permanent temporality, in which the durability is assumed in the mere quantification of the time required for the reclamation of the site. In this sense, the intervention highlights some questions that the research proposal wants to investigate, regarding the role of the resilient project seen as a process of modification and as “inevitable actor of the place” (Gregotti 2006), in which the concept of duration and overwriting of the territory could not be replaced by the elimination of the traces of the project itself.

Structuring a research perspective the need for a long-term resilience Thomas L. Friedman highlights in his book “Thank you for being in late” the convergence of changes – climatic, social, economic, and technological – and the increasing speed of the transformations taking place, referring to the emerge of an incremental “Great Acceleration” in which human action

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influences structural changes of spaces and relationships.

As presented in the previous chapters, this paradigmatic change produces a shifting condition for the project, stressing the need for long-term resilience (Balducci, Chiffi and Curci 2020).

With this perspective, Nature-based solutions and Circularity should not represent only technical and punctual solutions.

Instead, they should reveal possible alteration of the design lexicon of contemporaneity aimed to define long-term horizon for a climate change transition.

In this regard, design practice and research should investigate how to define a longue durée of projects, working toward environmental and cultural resilience. The need for long-term resilience should conduct the research not only to investigate the tools but also to understand their design possibilities and specification. reflecting on practice NBS and CE show different ways in which they can contribute to foster a resilient urban environment. Indeed, they present different approaches, also due to the various application scales.

NBS are mainly based on the concept of adaptation closely related to the mitigation of the climate effects among urban spaces. Key projects, in this perspective, can be seen in the Copenhagen strategic flood master plan, in which the

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Reuse of former houseboats and recycling of materials

Definition of a public promenade over the polluted ground

Nature-Based Solution for the reclamation and design af permeable public space

Layering of De Ceuvel’s design strategies.

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Ramboll studio designed a green infrastructure where the public space became also the urban fragments that can accumulate water during rainstorms and floods. In addition, a variety of specific actions (e.g. implementation of green roofs on buildings) displayed an interscalar strategy able to adapt the Danish neighborhood to the climate hazards.

Similarly, Ecosistema Urbano worked for the Malaga Campus, improving the climate comfort through the design of a new green urban landscape, and enhancing the potential of existing green spaces.

Instead, the aforementioned project by Space&Matter operates with NBS working with the idea of a healing nature used to rebalance the environment, restoring an abandoned and depleted ground.

This design perspective, which stresses the healing capacity of nature, reveals the relationship between nature and the built environment, contributing to redefine urban landscapes.

Circularity, on the other hand, works toward a contrast of climate change. Circular approaches are based on the idea of reducing the environmental impact due to the building process, relating the concept of producing less CO2.

An interesting case study could be seen in the BAMB initiative, in Belgium, in which the application of a circular logic frames the building “as a material bank”. This approach showed

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how the reuse of structural frames significantly reduced the environmental impact of the design process, reducing climatealtering emissions. More focused at the urban scale, the project

by BNR studio in the city of Saintes, displays how through a declination of the concept of “urban mining” the new project can work with the material flows derived from the demolition.

Moreover, it shows how the idea of reuse and resilience could be associated with a renovated concept of permanence, building new quality spaces from neglected ones.

Through this case study research, we could synthesize different approaches and scales. Nevertheless, to foster longterm resilience, an interconnection between adaptation and contrast actions is required to design urban space adapted to the new climate condition and, at the same time, contrasting the increasing climate change acceleration. applying a systemic design action As the case study research showed, the ability and possibility of the project to answer to climate-related risks have to deal with a heterogeneous and interdependent network of issues, spaces, and design strategies.

Moreover, to address the climate change transition with a design action, the project has to jump scale the focus from isolated architectural objects to fabric systems and interact

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Blu infrastructure

Building as Material Bank

Green roofs

Living plant constructions

ADAPTATION // Adapt the built environment // Mitigate the effects of the climate change

Design approaches synthesized from the case study research.

Reintroduction of materials into the environment

Design for Disassembly Design for adaptability

BUILDING SCALE

Variety of abacus for punctual devices

Reuse of materials for new structures and builsings

Glass

Plas tic

Green walls

Green infrastructure

Clay

Periurban forestation

Material Flows Reuse and Recycling

City as Urban Mining

e on

Green/Blu Infrastructure Urban Forestation Wetlands

CITY SCALE

Define ecosistemic / biodiversal / socio-economics systems

Main strategies

General Approach

St

Main strategies

Iron

General Approach

Apply specific solution to the building

BUILDING SCALE

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

d oo W

CITY SCALE

NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

MITIGATION // Reduce the emissions and waste // Contrast the climate change

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with local metabolisms. The neighborhood scale, so the fabric, allows a perception of the whole, working where the scales interact between territory/environment and architecture, recognizing a balance of relationships.

The fabric is a semantic unit that includes spatial, social, and economic instances in a co-evolutionary and assimilative relation between nature, architecture, and local culture.

Here, the project needs to open to systemic thinking (Buchanan 2019) approach, interconnecting design, ecology, technology, and other aspects, to develop a long-term resilience. Furthermore, the limits of the presented projects highlight an emerging question that is not only related to eco-technical issues but with more profound interrogatives.

A more in-depth understanding of the nature-based solution and circularity is necessary. Indeed, these strategies should lead to a study of their possible specification and design modification, interpreting the lack in the nowadays application and displaying the cultural, environmental, and aesthetical perspective of the project.

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Bibliography Alberti, Marina, and Marzluff John. 2004. “Ecological resilience in urban ecosystems: Linking urban patterns to human and ecological functions”. In Urban Ecosystems, edited by Laura R. Musacchio and Jianguo Wu, Vol. 7, 241-265. Springer Publishing.

Balducci, Alessandro, Chiffi, Daniele and Curci Francesco (Eds.) 2020. Risk and Resilience, Socio-Spatial and Environmental Challenges. Cham: Polimi Springer Briefs.

Bergevoet, Tom and van Tuijl Maarten. 2016. The Flexible City: Sustainable Solutions for a Europe in Transition. Rotterdam: Nai Publishers.

Buchanan, Richard. 2019. “Systems Thinking and Design Thinking: The Search for Principles in the World We Are Making”. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation 5, no. 2 (Summer): 85-114.

Bulkeley, Harriet. 2013. Cities and Climate Change. New York: Routledge.

Clements, Gilles. 2004. Manifeste du Tiers Paysage. Paris: Éditions Sujet/Objet.

Cheshire, David. 2016. Building revolutions. Applying the circular economy to the built environment. Newcastle upon Tyne: RIBA Publising.

De Kay, Mark. 2011. Integral sustainable design: transformative perspectives. London: Earthscan.

Eggermont, Hilde, Balian, Estelle, Azevedo, José Manuel N., Beumer, Victor, Brodin, Tomas, Claudet, Joachim, Fady, Bruno, Grube, Martin; Keune, Hans, Lamarque, Penelope, Reuter, Katrin, Smith, Matt; van Ham, Chantal, Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Le Roux Xavier.

2015. “Nature-based Solutions: New Influence for Environmental Management and Research in Europe”. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives on Science and Society 24, no. 4: 243-248.

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Hazards Floods

Neighbourhood Scale

Heat island effect

Modification of Urban spaces

Climate Change Sea-level rise

Architectural Scale

Abandoned spaces

Intervention Scales

Need for Transition

Territorial Scale

Resilience as new opportunity

New Public spaces

Design for Disassembly

Circularity

Building Landscape Durability

Recycle Reuse

Nature-Based Solution Question of Time

Techinal knowledge

Quantitative Evaluation Permanence

Research network, interconnected key themes.

LCA Analysis

Temporary CO2 Evaluation

Material Flows

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Ellen Macarthur Foundation. 2019. “Circular economy in cities.

How can we embed circular economy principles to build thriving, livable, and resilient cities?”. Accessed: 10.05.2021 https://www. ellenmacarthurfoundation.org.

Friedman, Thomas Loren. 2017. Grazie per essere arrivato tardi.

Milano: Mondadori.

Gregotti, Vittorio. 2006. L’architetura nell’epoca dell’incessante. Roma: Laterza.

Kabisch, Nadja, Korn, Horst, Stadler, Jutta and Bonn Aletta (Eds).

2018. Nature- Based Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas: Linkages between Science, Policy and Practice. London: Routledge.

Lavagna, Monica. 2020. “Circular Approach in Green Planning Towards Sustainable Cities”. In Green Planning for Cities and Communities: Novel Incisive Approaches to Sustainability, edited by Giuliano Dall’O’, 95-117. Springer.

Lorasso, Mario, Lucarelli, Maria Teresa, Regillo Marina and Valente Renata (Eds.). 2020. Adattarsi al clima che cambia. Innovare la conoscenza per il progetto ambientale. Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli Editore.

Marini, Sara and Corbellini Giovanni (Eds). 2016. Recycled Theory: Dizionario Illustrato/Illustrated Dictionary. Macerata: Quodlibet.

Morton, Timothy. 2009. Ecology without nature. Rethinking environmental aesthetics. Cambridge: Harvard University.

Pollak, Leopoldo. 2006. “The landscape for urban reclamation infrastructures for the everyday space that includes nature”. In Lotus International,128: 32-45.

Zanotto, Francesca. 2020. Circular Architecture. A Design Ideology.

Siracusa: LetteraVentidue.

ZUS. 2016. The New Re-public – City of Permanent Temporality.

Rotterdam: NAi010 Booksellers.

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Syllabus 02 Hailong Chai is a PhD candidate of Architectural Urban Interior Design, DAStU. He received a Master of Science degree in Southwest Jiaotong University. Research in Urban Design, Urban Underground Space and TOD. Publication topics: Research on UGB Demarcation Method Based on Urban PREE System Evaluation; A Brief Discussion on the Application of UGB in Planning and Construction of Village; On the Planning of Integration of City and Industry in Chengdu Tianfu New Area; Research on Urban Renewal Based on Urban Resilience Theory.

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Urban Underground Space (hereinafter referred to as UUS) is an important space resource for urban construction. It plays an important role in improving the utilization rate of land resources, optimizing the urban form and protecting the ecological environment.

The high-density land development with the TOD-Hubs is often accompanied by large-scale UUS construction. Under the premise of lack of integration design, the UUS systems with mixed functions show chaos and inadaptability. The research takes the development and construction of UUS in a meso-scale (100Ha) as the objective and explores the integrated design strategy under the multi-system. By using TOD-Hubs as an Urban Catalyst and combining Space Syntax to analyze the interaction among diversified systems, the aim is to establish a theoretical model of UUS integration design.

Hailong Chai A design strategy for underground space based on TOD-Hubs

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Position Project why 1) From the perspective of people. With the new trend of global public transport-oriented development (especially subway), the fast-paced and high-efficient life style makes the utilization of UUS more and more frequent (Fig. 1).

2) From the perspective of UUS. Reasonable use of UUS can release more ground space and create a better living environment. Under the background of new functions implantation in UUS, the problem of chaos and lack of integration thought in the traditional developing mold urgently needs to be promoted.

3) From the perspective of TOD-hubs. The construction of TOD-hubs is often accompanied by large-scale underground space construction. The increase of the density of subway stations provides the conditions for the overall connection of underground space within the region. what UUS refers to a kind of space resources which under the surface of the earth that can be used and constructed in the city.

TOD-hubs refers to the development mode with rail transit stations as the core, which is characterized by high density, mixed functions and three-dimensional development (Fig.2).

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The research adheres to a people-oriented subject with a focus on the UUS service for people. Starting from the study of three groups of relationships - the relationship between surface and underground, the internal relationship between underground systems, and the underground connectivity between different regions - the goal is to establish a comfortable, efficient and safe underground space environment model. how This research is a comprehensive study, including qualitative research and quantitative research and other related contents.

Firstly, the history and development trend of the research field were comprehensively understood through literature review to find out the problems and establish the research framework. Secondly, through sufficient case analysis and data collection, the design strategy is summarized and the innovation points are found.

Finally, through the Design Driven Research (DDR), the established theoretical model is tested and improved in the context of the design practice, providing a certain reference for the future research.

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Fig.1-2 The Urban Mtroline Transport Affordability

Fig. 1. The Metroline mileage changes in China (2012-2020).

Fig. 2 The Traditional TOD-hub Development Mode.

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References state of theart The use of UUS in the modern context can be traced back to Europe in the 19th century. In 1910, Eugène Hénard put forward the solution of “overground and underground threedimensional intersecting and people and vehicles diverging” in the construction of transportation hub in Paris, which exerted a profound influence on UUS in the future. In 1991, the Tokyo Declaration pointed out that the 21st century is the century for the development and utilization of UUS. “Tomorrow-the City Inside” as the theme of the 7th International Conference on Underground Space, held in Montreal, Canada. In 1998, the International Conference on Underground Space discussed the “Underground Cities” in Moscow.

From the perspective of practice, La Defense in Paris, France, has put its entire vehicle system underground to create a car-free surface environment. The underground city of Montreal, Canada, connects more than 60 building clusters using a pedestrian system. The complex underground space of the Shinjuku Transportation Hub in Tokyo, Japan, serves as a transit system. In China, Hongqiao CBD in Shanghai also relies on the transportation hub to connect the buildings in a certain area underground hubs, to explore the spatial restructuring and the connection pattern of paths. DDR,

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taking the western district of Tianfu CBD in Chengdu City as the research site, puts the theoretical model of the previous research into the practical design for testing (Fig. 4).

Key Words — Key Projects Keywords: UUS; TOD-Hubs; Integration Design; Space Syntax. subject The research mainly studies the perspectives of four aspects.

First, what is the impact of TOD-hubs on UUS? What are the functions of UUS around TOD-hubs? Second, what is the internal relationship between the UUS systems? How to design so that the various functions are coordinated. The third is how to improve the connection of UUS and the efficiency of land use in the area of many TOD-hubs. Fourth, how to improve the environment of UUS. method The research uses a mixed methodology, mainly including Qualitative Research, Quantitative Analysis and DDR. Qualitative research, which takes TOD-hubs as an urban catalyst, determines the impact of TOD-hubs on UUS and determines the functions of UUS through literature research, investigation and case studies. Quantitative analysis that is,

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Urban design

Section view

Fig. 3 Integral design of UUS of Qinhuangsi Tos-hub, Chengdu, 2019.

Pedestrian system

Diversified functions along the walk path

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using the Space Syntax model, carries out quantitative analysis on the spatial accessibility and relevance between several TOD-hubs, to explore the spatial restructuring and the connection pattern of paths. DDR, taking the western district of Tianfu CBD in Chengdu City as the research site, puts the theoretical model of the previous research into the practical design for testing (Fig. 4). aims There are three main aims of this research: First, to summarize and conclude the research of UUS at the present stage, and put forward my own opinions for the theoretical development of UUS. Second, to explore a new theoretical model for UUS construction under the background of TODhubs, so as to improve regional traffic efficiency and land use efficiency. Thirdly, Tianfu CBD of Chengdu City is taken as the research subject, aiming to create a comfortable, safe and efficient underground space environment for this area, and enhance the use efficiency and vitality of underground space.

Conclusion With the development of cities, TOD-hubs, as a new urban catalyst, have an important impact on the development of urban underground space. Because of the complexity of the

Syllabus 02

underground space system, it is impossible to realize the coordinated development of each system through a single engineering design. Therefore, the overall design of regional underground space is highly necessary, including but not limited to the plane layout, the vertical connection, the system coupling and other elements of each system.

The research mainly includes three parts: namely, the qualitative research to clarify the functional requirements of underground space, the quantitative research to clarify the spatial correlation and the practical composition of the design-driven research (DDR). Through the theoretical research of urban catalyst, space syntax, resilience theory and so on, the paper discusses the integrated development of diverse fields and puts forward some opinions for the theoretical development of underground space.

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The Landscape Core

The Underground Parks

The Relationship between TOD-Hubs and Metro Stations

Fig. 4. The UUS System of Tianfu CBD (West), Hailong Chai.

The Pedestrain System

The Commercial Space

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Bibliography Belyaev, V. L. 2013. Plans for development of the underground space of moscow. Vestnik MGSU. Bobylev, N.. (2009). Mainstreaming sustainable development into a city’s master plan: a case of urban underground space use. Land Use Policy.

Cervero, Robert, and Jennifer Day. 2008. “Suburbanization and transit-oriented development in china”. Shanghai Urban Planning Review, 15(5): 315-323.

HankDittmar, GloriaOhland, & forewordbyPeterCalthorpe. (2004).

The new transit town: best practices in transit-oriented development.

Island Press.

Liu, X. Y.. (2016). Underground space planning case. Paris la defense.

Territory & Natural Resources Study.

Loo, B., Chen, C., & Chan, E.. (2010). Rail-based transit-oriented development: lessons from new york city and hong kong. Landscape & Urban Planning, 97(3), 202-212.

Lucy, E., & Hewitt. (2013). The transactions of the royal institute of british architects town planning conference, london 10-15 october 1910. Planning perspectives: 28(1): 167-169.

Yanotadashi, T. 2012. “Toward the tokyo declaration of japanese acupuncture and moxibustion. Zen Nihon Shinkyu Gakkai zasshi (Journal of the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion), 62(2): 125-139.

Zacharias, John. 2000. “Modeling pedestrian dynamics in montreal’s underground city”. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 126(5): 405-412.

Zacharias, John, and Jun Munakata. 2007. “Underground and surface pedestrian environments at shinjuku station,tokyo”. Urban Design International 7: 3-17.

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Syllabus 02 Cecilia Cempini is an Architect and Master in Architecture from Politecnico di Milano (2016). During the period 2014-2015, Cecilia was a visiting student at the University of São Paulo’s School of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU-USP), where she conducted part of her thesis, focused on São Paulo’s 2014 water crisis. Currently, she is PhD candidate in Architectural Urban Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy). Since 2017, Cecilia is an Instructor and Researcher at Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), Ecuador, where she is part of the research group habitAndes. Since 2018, is the head with Franco Tagliabue of the international project “Rural-urban design studio” an academic program developed through the collaboration POLIMI and UTPL university focused on the study of peri-uran trasfromation of Loja throught design activities.

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The many conflicts between natural and built-up environments that arise from rapid urbanization processes in Andean intermediate cities sparked the present research. It focuses on the ground, as it is the area where the most critical social, spatial, and environmental transformation occurs. In the light of climate change, the main objective of the research is to structure a critical discourse about the role of the ground as infrastructure in rural-urban transition. The ground project functions as an explorative and interpretive tool capable of “rilevare” and at the same time “rivelare” new realities throughout different scales, times, and disciplines. Using Loja as a testing ground, the research aims to define design tools for representing the ground capable of structuring an architectural approach to studying the territory and its transformations.

Cecilia Cempini Ground as infrastructure

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The ground in the Anthropocene We can say that in the Anthropocene the ground on which we stand – physically, conceptually, even ontologically – is becoming increasingly unstable.

Since man learned to excavate, transform and transport terrestrial materials, he has produced a transition in ground stratification that up to that time was caused only by natural phenomena. It exerts increasing impacts on the environment on all scales. In the present geological epoch, human activities have become so pervasive and profound that they have the power to both influence and affect soil ecosystem services, provoking its instability. Therefore, there is a growing census among different scientists that the ground demands a new approach capable of envisioning it not just as a surface but as an alive interface responsible for the balance of the entire planet. The “skin of the earth” that we need to take care of and protect to guarantee our society’s survival.

Framed by this global debate, architecture is called upon to think of itself as a geological actor capable of radically transforming the Earth’s atmosphere, surface morphology, and prospective stratigraphy (Turpin 2013, 3-11).

“To think about design demands an archeological approach.

You have to dig, dig into the ground, underground and deep into the earth” (Colomina 2016, 10).

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new ground vocabulary From this challenging perspective, the present research starts from a re-signification of the ground, capable of overcoming its superficial meaning to comprehend the richness and polysemy that the word implies.

As Jean Pierre Raison explains, terra is an ambiguous term that include in the same root, different scales, times, and meanings.

In such a way, the ground is not just the surface on which we walk, on which we carry out most of our actions.

If we go further, we discover that it is also soil, the organic and alive material that conditions and orients the city’s shape— the interface between air, water, and Earth. Despite being subject to changes in use, it is the land that evokes a sense of belonging- homeland. It’s the Earth’s global responsibility.

Therefore, the ground is the result of a complex stratification of meanings and materials that are deposited one onto the other through time. In such a way, architecture needs to activate a new gaze both vertically, in the depths of the Earth, and horizontally, embracing the entire globe.

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E a t h

1920

1960

Ground

l

o

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Anhangabaú river transformation, Sao Paulo city center, Brasil.

s

s

o

i

i

s

o s

s

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i o

i

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I n t e r f a c e

r Land

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Ground as infrastructure In the light of climate change, it is clear that transitions produced through architecture on/in the Earth’s surface escape the plan and the project, causing the progressive devaluation of the ground as physical matter and infrastructure that support human settlements (Pavia 2018).

The contemporary forms of territory colonization are considered destructive practices, unable to dialogue with the physicals characteristics of the soil. Simultaneously, the fragmentary and diffuse form of the city questioned the value of ground as a common good; “il suolo è diventato una merce” (Bernoulli 1951).

The “project of the ground” proposed by Secchi in the ’80 sounds now particularly up-to-date. However, the environmental crisis requires a paradigm shift. The open spaces, the space between things, can no longer be conceptualized as surfaces but needs to be understood as interfaces – thick supports that divide the space above and under the ground. It is essential to understand what is under to build what is above, establishing a new dialogue between nature and culture.

In such a way, the project for the Gavia Park is considered a reference for its capability to convert the arid soil of Vallecas, a slum area on the fringes of Madrid, into a new

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water infrastructure for the city. The deep reading of the morphological and physical site conditions has allowed the improvement of the environmental and the social conditions of the neighborhood, transforming the ground into a performative surface that supports peri-urban transition. rural-urban transition Conflicted territories, such as peri-urban areas of the low Andean regions, present the perfect context for starting a serious consideration of the ground. Shattered by intense spatial transformation, these areas present conflictual processes intertwined with different political forms of control, new ways of governance, and conquest of the ground.

The superposition of an abstract grid, the legacy of the colonial system and the challenging topography causes a friction in which the ground is reduced to a threshold. It ultimately leads to its instability (Di Campli 2017, 84). At the same time, the unplanned and planned growth of the urban footprint, according to low-density and mono-functional patterns, has questioned the value of the ground as a common space.

Supposedly, the ground is the place where the most critical transformations take place. Can the ground project be a tool of inquiry for “measuring” the fragile process of rural-urban transition of Andean cities?

Architecture Research Agenda

Toyo Ito, Gavia Park, Vallecas - Madrid, Spain, 2004.

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The ground project: a methodological approach Given the increasingly fragmented and extended condition of rural-urban areas, thinking about the ground means facing a multi-scalar problem in which architecture cannot avoid confronting the scale of the territory and its transformations (Gregotti 1965, 1-22).

In this sense, design is seen as a “projective action” tool of inquiry for its ability to disclose and to project the emergence of new realities through different scales and time.

The ground project is converted into a method to develop the research operating through two different movements: the selection and delimitation of the land for the project and the construction of the ground project (Gritti & Hodebert 2018, 161-173).

Starting from the deep reading of the soil condition and ground morphology, the project articulates and gives new meaning to the ground plane and to the ground line to overcome the universality of their significance. Attacco al suolo, linea di terra, linea de tierra, plant baja, linha de terra, ground line, need to reflect the specific condition of the site.

In such a way, ground construction must be envisaged as the creation of an infrastructure, a “new ground”, shaped through “l’ispessirsi e il dilatarsi della linea di terra che non divide più il costruito dal suolo, ma diviene essa stessa il luogo della città” (Barbieri 1999). Through a continuous contamination between

Syllabus 02

theoretical research and the work on the case study, the project is converted into a practical exercise that acquires a cognitive value, turning into a reconnaissance and interpretative tool of anthropized territories. (Coccia 2012, 15).

Given this challenging perspective, the “ground” can no longer be statically represented and juxtaposed to the figure as a pochè (figure-ground diagram). The “ground” needs to be readable and projected through plans and deep sections, capable of translating the three-dimensional condition of the Earth’s surface into a twodimensional representation.

In this way, the drawings are used as a critical toolkit for developing the research where the scale plays the role of the “operatore logico strutturale del progetto che permette di padroneggiare la totalità attraverso i suoi frammenti” (Gritti 2018, 9).

In such way, the research aspires to determine design tools capable of questioning the role of the architectural representation of the surface and the subsurface in making territories (Hooimeijer 2018, 9). From this point of view, the Edificio Grotão Infrastructural hub is the result of a multiscalar approach of the ground project that starts from an extended environmental fragile condition of the Paraisopolis district for identifying a nevragical site to structure an architectural discourse.

Architecture Research Agenda

Urban Think-Thank, Grotão infrastructural hub, Sao Paulo, Brasil.

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Bibliography Di Campli, Cuenca, Cuadrado and Luzuriaga. 2016. Densificando las ciudades medias ecuatorianas, preguntas, problemas, cuestiones de diseño. EdicionEs AbyA-yAlA Barbieri, Giuseppe. 2000. Architettura per metropoli piccole.Editore associati Bernoulli, Hans. 2006. La città e il suolo urbano. Corte del fontego editore.

Coccia, Luigi. 2005. L’architettura del suolo. Alinea.

Colomina, Beatriz and Wigley, Mark.2016. Are we human? Notes on an archaeology of design. Zürich, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers.

Gritti, Andrea. 2018. Modulazioni. La concezione scalare in architettura. Maggioli Editore.

Gritti, Andrea and Hodebert, Laurent. 2018. “La via del progetto e il cammino della ricerca. Note sulla collaborazione tra l’ENSA di Marsiglia e il Politecnico di Milano.” In the Topografie operative.

Ricerche, letture e progetti per l’area metropolitana di Roma edited by Di Franco, Giacomini, Medici, Raffa, Zanda and Zanni. Maggioli editore.

Hooimeijer, Lafleur, and Trinh. 2017. Drawing the subsurface: Integrated Infrastructure and Environment Design.Delft University of Technology.

Pavia, Rosario. 2019. Tra suolo e clima: la terra come infrastruttura ambientale. Donzelli editore.

Reason Jean Pierre. 1997. “Terra”. In the Enciclopedia Einaudi, edited

by Romano Ruggero. Einaudi.

Secchi, Bernardo. 1986. “Progetto di suolo”. Casabella, 520: 19-26.

199.215 Turpin, Etienne. 2013. Architecture in the Anthropocene: Encounters among design, deep time, science and philosophy. Open Humanities Press.

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Architecture Research Agenda

Urban Think-Thank, Grotão infrastructural hub, Sao Paulo, Brasil.

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Syllabus 02 Pablo Gamboa is an architect graduated at Politecnico di Milano in 1991, PhD candidate since 2020. Associated Professor, Architecture Master, Arts Faculty of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia since 1994.

Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano, the Escola Politécnica Superior Universitat de Girona, and the Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala.

Has published articles and the book “The 1950s Californian House (La casa californiana años 50)” and has curated architecture exhibitions for the Leopoldo Rother Architecture Museum in the Universidad Nacional.

In 2001, he opened his architecture office Pablo Gamboa Arquitectos where he has developed public and private architecture and urbanism projects. Honourable mention, XXV Bienal Colombiana de Arquitectura y Urbanismo 2016, with the Laboratory Building for the Naval School in Cartagena.

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Architecture Research Agenda

This research by design thesis starts from a question: How a design at interlinked urban and architectural scales can understand and explore innovative forms to allow the contemporary economic, geopolitical, technological and environmental challenges that the university campus in the American Continent is facing today?

The research proposed is based in the production of new knowledge that arises from the comparison of 20 case study campuses in form, scale, settlement elements and rules at the urban scale. In an architectural scale, this new knowledge is represented by a typological study of spatial and organizational aspects of the university’s buildings and their relationship with the campus.

Pablo Gamboa Samper University campus between urban resilience and typological innovation

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The starting point of the research proposal is the Master Plan for the Bogota campus of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, a project made by me in the period between 2013-14. The objective was to design an expansion area and the renewal of some existing buildings to face the increase in student numbers.

research topic This experience became a research topic; the university campus in the American Continent assumed as a settlement type with its own characteristics, made by a set of autonomous buildings and open spaces with an academic purpose.

The research approach is a central question: how a research by design project at interlinked architectural and urban scales can explore innovative forms to allow the contemporary challenges that the university campus in America is facing today?

Besides, the current delocalization of knowledge and recently students and professors, spread in local, regional and global nets, is in opposition to the concentration that is the primary reason for the university campus 1. These facts prompt big questions about how the architecture and urban design together have to deal those problems, and that represent a research field.

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aims The objective of the research is to deepen, through a comparative analysis, in the knowledge of the internal logics that constitute this type of settlement, in order to then submit them to a project experimentation that looks for possible new ways of updating the type, in light of the current transformations of the university and the contemporary city. methodology The research proposes a comparative analysis of 20 case study campuses in North and Latin America, based on the redrawing of plans and the production of analytical diagrams that build a multiscale approach focused on the concepts of form and scale, grid and module, and molecule, and the study of the literature and projects related to the topics of urban resilience and typological innovations.

The research by design project, focused on the campus of the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá, is based on two main methodological aspects: The first one is the assumption of the analysis as a project research action, focused on the understanding of formal aspects of the university campus.

The second one is the design process that uses the analytical inputs as the starting point for the project explorations can be compared, validated or discarded, to then reorient

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Architecture Research Agenda

USP Sao Paulo

Central Caracas UN Córdoba UNC Bogotá Harvard

Católica Chile

Yale

Concepción

Columbia Princeton

Católica Lima

Cornell Illinois Urbana

USF Quito

IIT Chicago

UH La Habana

UNAM México

Berkeley Stanford

1 The tree scales of the Master Plan for de Universidad Nacional. 2014.

2 Plan of the Universidad Nacional campus 1n 2018

UCLA

3 Map with the location of some of the American campuses for the comparative analysis of form and scale

1. The three 2014.

1 The tree scales of the Master Plan for de Universidad Nacional. 2014. scales the Master Plan for de Universidad 2 Plan ofof the Universidad Nacional campus 1n 2018

Nacional.

3. Map with the location of some of the American campuses for the comparative analysis of

4 Analysis on the form and relation with the territory of the Cornell University Campus, Ithaca, N.Y. State. Above righth: the building group as a form scale. configurator of the external space of and the campus.

3 Map with the location of some of the American campuses for the comparative analysis of form and scale

4 Analysis on the form and relation with the territory of the Cornell University Campus, Ithaca, N.Y. State. Above righth: the building group as a configurator of the external space of the campus.

2. Plan of the Universidad Nacional campus 2018.

Master Plan for de Universidad Nacional. 2014.

Nacional campus 1n 2018

e of the American campuses for the comparative analysis of form and scale

n with the territory of the Cornell University Campus, Ithaca, N.Y. State. Above righth: the building group as a of the campus.

4. Analysis on the form and relation with the territory of the Cornell University Campus, Ithaca, N.Y. State. Above right: the building group as a configurator of the external space of the campus.

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and keep exploring new possibilities with the project. The final objective is to innovate general formal aspects of the university campus design.

Position Project The modern campus: Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, 1938.

According to Philip Johnson (Johnson 1947, 131), the complex is a combination of the intimacy of Oxford’s cloisters with the classic brightness of Jefferson’s Virginia University’s organization, and according to Schultze (Schultze 1985, 228), is the first time that Mies uses a grid as an ordering principle for both the buildings and the exterior spaces. The axial and hierarchical composition of Virginia became more uniform and dynamic thanks to the “displacement of adjacent buildings” that are grouped around a square or a green area.

References: 1. Johnson, Philip. 1947. Mies van der Rohe. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. 2. Schulze, Franz. 1986. Mies van der Rohe: una biografía crítica. Translated by Sainz Avia, Jorge. Madrid: Hermann Blume Editores.

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References The twelve main references of the research are divided according to the main topics that frame the research structure.

For the geographical and cultural context, the references are focused on the evolution of the university and its campus, and on their derivation of an academical and knowledge structure: 1. Hegemann, Werner and Peets, Elbert. 1922. The American Vitruvius: An Architect´s Handbook of Civic Art. New York: The Architectural Book Publishing Co. 2. Stern, Robert A. M. 2010. On Campus. New York: The Monacelli Press.

3. Arango, Silvia et al. 2018. Ciudades universitarias en América Latina: un proyecto moderno, Memorias de la Cátedra Marta Traba, 2015. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Editorial UN. 4. Reinhold, Martin. 2021.

Knowledge Worlds: media, materiality, and the making of the modern university. New York: Columbia University Press.

For the topic of the resilience, the typological innovations and the challenges and problems that the universities are facing today, the references are: 4. ResilientCity.org. n.d. “Resilient Urban Design Principles”.

Accessed October 15, 2020. https/www.resilientcity.org.

5. Chapman, M. Perry. 2006. American places: in search of

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Architecture Research Agenda

Virginia University – Charlottesville - 1819

5 The grid shaped the IIT campus: fixes the size of the external spaces and buildings, and the position of the steel frame columns.

6 Formal structure of the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago 7 Comparison in form and

scale of tree North American campuses

Buildings

Columbia University – New York - 1898 Blocks

5 The grid shaped the IIT campus: fixes the size of the external spaces and buildings, and the position of the steel frame columns.

Virginia University – Charlottesville - 1819 Paths

6 Formal structure of the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago 7 Comparison in form and

scale of tree North American campuses

Topography

Illinois Institute of Technology– Chicago - 1938

5. The grid which shaped the IIT campus: fixes the size of the external spaces and buildings, and the position of the steel frame columns.

7. Comparison of form and scale of three North American campuses.

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the twenty-first Century Campus. American Council on Education, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

6. Kelbaugh, Doug. 2019. The Urban Fix, Resilient cities in the War Against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation. New York: Routledge.

7. Lange, Alexandra. 2016. “The Innovation Campus: Building Better Ideas”. New York Times, August 4, 2016.

For the methodological aspects related to the analysis and the research by design project, the references are: 8. Wurman, R. Saul. 1974. Cities: Comparisons of form and scale. Pennsylvania: Joshua Press.

9. Busquets, Joan. 2020. Urban Grids. Handbook for Regular City Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Graduate School of Design; Oro Editions, 2020.

10. Burdick, Anne. 2003. Design Research, methods and perspectives. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

11. Lewis, Paul, Tsurumaki, Marc, and Lewis, David J. 2016.

Manual of the Section. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.

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Key Words — Key Projects A comparison in form and scale of the campuses, reinterpreting the S. Wurman method, is proposed to understand their structure and their relations with the territory.

The grid and module concepts are used in the search of geometrical orders that linked the architectural and urban scales in the campuses using the recent studies of Busquets on urban grids.

The spatial and programmatical aspects of the university´s buildings are addressed assuming the campus as the repetition of a set of basic spaces or molecules, as classrooms that linked and combined with special molecules like auditoriums and libraries, make up chains and formations that we call buildings, halls, wings or the entire campus.

The campuses are big green lungs with a resilient role in the contribution to lower temperatures in an Urban Heath Island, but this is in contradiction with the need of growth of the universities. The Resilience Design, the Net Zero Design practice and the typological innovations, to face cultural, social and pedagogical changes, represents a research field in architecture.

Architecture Research Agenda

The Nassau Hall, College of New Jersey, 1757, and the University of Virginia., the firs American campus, 1819 The Nassau Nassau Hall, Hall, College College of of New New Jersey, Jersey, 1757, 1757, and and the the University University of of Virginia., Virginia., the the firs firs American American campus, campus, 1819 1819 88 The

99

The Universidad Nacional Campus in Bogotá, and the Virginia University Campus.

Axial organization around central lawn.

The Universidad Universidad Nacional Nacional Campus Campus in in Bogotá, Bogotá, and and the the Virginia Virginia University University Campus.

Campus. Axial Axial organization organization around around aaa central central lawn. lawn.

The

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Evolution of the campus section: Virginia University, Columbia University and Manhattanville Master Plan of the Columbia University.

Renzo Piano 10 Evolution Evolution of of the the campus campus section: section: Virginia Virginia University, University, Columbia Columbia University University and and Manhattanville Manhattanville Master Master Plan Plan of of the the Columbia Columbia University.

University. Renzo Renzo Piano Piano 10 Architect.

2002 today Architect. 2002 2002 --- today today Architect.

all, College of New Jersey, 1757, and the University of Virginia., the firs American campus, 1819

dad Nacional Campus in Bogotá, and the Virginia University Campus. Axial organization around a central lawn.

of the campus section: Virginia University, Columbia University and Manhattanville Master Plan of the Columbia University. Renzo Piano 2 - today 8 The Nassau Hall, College of New Jersey, 1757, and the University of Virginia., the firs American campus, 1819

The Universidad Nacional Bogotá, and theInstitute Virginia Universityof Campus.

Axial organization aroundChicago. a central lawn.

8. Formal9 structure ofCampus theinIllinois Technology,

10 Evolution of the campus section: Virginia University, Columbia University and Manhattanville Master Plan of the Columbia University. Renzo Piano Architect. 2002 - today

819

und a central lawn.

9. The University of Virginia, the first American campus, 1819.

Plan of the Columbia University. Renzo Piano

ersity. Renzo Piano

10. The Universidad Nacional Campus in Bogotá.

Axial organization around a central lawn.

11. Evolution of the campus section: Virginia University, Columbia University and Manhattanville Master Plan of the Columbia University. Renzo Piano Building Workshop Architects, 2002-today.

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key projects _ Nassau Hall, College of New Jersey, 1757.

Cloister: the paradigmatic model for the colleges. _ University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1819.

Village: The academic village, is the canonical model for the university campus. _ The Universidad Nacional campus in Bogotá, 1936.

Ciudad Universitaria: The model for important campuses in Latin America. hypothesis The edge or limit, is an essential element of the settlement type of the campus since it is what makes the ensemble at urban scale a conclusive, closed spatial unit. The hypothesis is that, by acting on the edge, assumed as the main element of project research on an architectural and urban scale, it is possible to find new potential resilient ways of adapting and updating the university campus.

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12. Columbia University. A settlement inside the Manhattan urban grid of 1811. The campus, shaped following the University of Virginia model, is located in the highest point of the topography.

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Syllabus 02 Valentina Dall’Orto is an Architect and Master of Architecture from Politecnico di Milano (2015). Currently, she is an Executive PhD candidate in Architecture, Urban and Interior Design, at Politecnico di Milano. Since 2017, she works as professor and researcher at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), Ecuador, participating to the activities of the research group habitAndes. Among these Valentina is managing the projects of community service in a marginal district of the city. Previously she collaborated with Quito’s Instituto Metropolitano del Patrimonio (IMP) and SEK University. She has also volunteered experience in different countries, focusing her explorations on South American territory since 2015. Presently, her research focuses on rural houses typologies in Loja region.

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Architecture Research Agenda

The research deals with the themes of the project of rural living, through an analysis of the architectural device of the house and how this has been declined in the southern region of Ecuador: Loja. The dwelling has been selected as a significant material expression of changes in living practices occurring in the Global South. The complex and multifaceted scenario presented by the contemporary countryside is an object of debate in different fields of knowledge.

A multiplicity of conceptual categorization and the blurred nature of the subjects invite researchers to study it through unexplored optics. In this context, architecture is envisioned as an important agent of transformation in re-shaping the future of rural environment.

Valentina Dall’Orto Rural habitat at 0° latitude

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On Global Rural – Position Project Trying to define the current condition of countryside in a globalized world, one comes across a heterogeneous scenario, unified just by the difficulty to ascribe the position of what is not urban through predetermined categories. Some authors identify rurality as a spatial condition (Roskam 2016; Koolhaas 2020) while others deny its existence, stating that there is no longer any outside to urban world (Brenner 2013). Due to the opaque nature of the subject, the necessity to define conceptual tools for the construction of a new rural discourse becomes evident (Di Campli 2019).

In Latin American environment, these territories represent a conflictive space, far from the pastoral image dominated by an untouched nature. Currently are crossed by phenomena dictated by a forced adaptation to global market logics, by migrations and the consequent cultural hybridizations, which have also led to a profound change in living practices.

Such violent events shape a different function for the architectural device of the house. It no longer represents the specific constitutive matrix of the place, but often appears completely unrelated to the context.

The proposed research will be developed in the Andean territory of the province of Loja, in the south of Ecuador, characterized by a mainly mountainous orography and

Syllabus 02

an unstable climate (Alvarado 2017). This frontier land presents several environmental and socio-economic critical issues, related to the coexistence of traditional rural societies and new inhabitants, and to processes of abandonment and intensification of uses and values, which cause deterritorialization and re-territorialization movements (Di Campli 2019). In this context, traditional and contemporary architectural productions appear in an antithetical relationship, despite the difficulties in situating them in a specific temporal or formal horizon. The first, congruent with the image of its creator, shows a clear coherence between the form, its constitutive parts and the function associated with each space. It demonstrates an organic unity with the surrounding landscape. The second, on the contrary, emerge as a result of the flaking of places, a process of radical modification of living practices that manifests its uncertainty through imported architectural forms in perpetual transition. The transformation process leads to a progressive rejection of the typology, in favor of the homologation of domestic spaces to anonymous models.

The necessity for a decolonial perspective – References In order to identify the different reading efforts of the rural device for living made in various historical moments and latitudes, some references have been selected.

Architecture Research Agenda

Research keywords applied to the representation of a traditional Andean dwelling.

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The diverse existing focuses are attributable to the needs of the period in which the studies are produced. In this sense, the explorations carried out after the Second World War, are characterized by a strong documentary intention, justified by the necessity to carry out a reconnaissance of the built environment on the territory. On the other hand, the contemporary focus is often linked to the purpose of rediscovering ancient knowledges based on a balance with the environment, in order to deal with the wicked problem of the climate change.

Regarding the Italian background, the selected studies were developed starting from the ‘30 and are aimed at documenting from different perspectives the condition of rural territory in its components. The research of Giuseppe Pagano and Guarniero Daniel of 1936, titled Architettura Rurale Italiana, is centered on demonstrating the intrinsic esthetic value in the functionality of rural houses. Through a photographical recognition is explicated the origin of the forms that shape the rural fabric. In this way, are explored the climatic, topographic and functional determinants which settle the origin and evolution of the built forms. In the context of CNR monographs of the postwar period, through a mainly argumentative narrative Lucio Gambi describes the rural house of Romagna starting from an historical analysis of the typological consolidation. The research

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records the variations of the architecture based on changing topographies of the region. The approach of Cesare Saibene provides a narrative of the Italian rural landscape based on the recognition of morphological units. The description is realized through the study of the physical, anthropic, economic and human settlement environment: the rural house is therefore a part of a whole.

Regarding the contemporary approaches to the study of the rural house, the subject is often analyzed in its technological component, highlighting how vernacular architecture constitutes an important repertoire of applicative information for today’s construction. Under this perspective, it is important to point out the contribution of the atlas Habitat: vernacular architecture for a changing planet edited by Sandra Piesik in 2017, and of Lo-tek Design by radical indigenism by Julia Watson in 2020.

The relevance of the PhD research proposal lies on the necessity to set up an interpretative spatial model of decolonial origin. As Ananya Roy argued, the dominant theories on the design and governance of cities and territories are rooted in the Euro-American experience and are therefore unable to account for the multiple forms of space production in the southern hemisphere (Roy 2009).

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Myer’s Home - Rural Studio Newbern Alabama, 2020.

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Key Words — Key Projects The key-projects are considered representative as they illustrate the multiplicity of variations assumed today by rural living. In this perspective, it is interesting to point out the exploration of RUF aimed at addressing the consequences of the processes of urbanization of rural villages in China. The collective envisions a three-storey-core that could maximize the flexibility in the building construction, providing also a rooftop garden and a water storage reservoir.

In the European context, the work of the architect Gion Caminada, active in the recovery of the village of Vrin, is characterized by structuring of a dialectic discourse with the local tradition, recovering a direct relationship with the landscape. His architectural production is ascribed to the concept of “cosmopolitanism”, which differs from “globalism”, interpreting the former as the act of focusing on a specific place without losing the vision of the global panorama. The Forest House, represents the transfiguration of the conventional use of the house in a new one, more relational, that can meet the requirements of the present time. At the same time is important to highlight Stephen Petermann’s critical reading of the gentrification process of the Andermatt Alpine Valley (CH), that is undergoing a strong development as a holiday resort of an Egyptian real estate billionaire. The author highlights

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how the social, political and economic landscape is radically determined by neo-Cartesian tech-driven orthodoxies in an evolving process of resortification.

Conclusion The PhD research proposal aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge with a mainly methodological improvement. For this purpose, the rural house is considered a complex cultural product, a living and dynamic organism that is transformed and reacts to the phenomena to which it is subjected. This research will investigate what rural house can express about the global phenomena that affect it and which instruments of architectural domain allow an effective reading of the complex dynamics that are shaping rural territories through the analysis of the dwelling. From that perspective, the contribution is focused on establishing a methodological path useful to read the relationship between the various elements that compose the rural house and their context, observed from a decolonial perspective. This process will facilitate to obtain conceptual tools useful for the purposes of the architectural project.

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RUF proposal for rural village of Shiguang, China, 2016.AMO critical reading of urbanization process of Andermaat, Switzerland, 2017. The Forest House, Gion Caminada Switzerland, 2017.

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Bibliography Brenner, Neil. 2013. Theses on Urbanization, Public culture, Duke University Press.

AMO, Koolhaas Rem. 2020. Countryside: a report. Taschen; Roskam Cole. 2016. Inventing the Rural, in Architectural Design – Designing the rural N.242, edited by Bolchover, Lin, Lange. Jhon Wiley and Sons.

Di Campli, Antonio, and Luigi Coccia. 2019. RuralEstudio, Quodlibet.

De Rossi Antonio. 2020. Riabitare l’Italia, le aree interne tra abbandoni e riconquiste, Donzelli Editore.

Pagano, Giuseppe, and Daniel Guarniero. 1936. Architettura rurale Italiana, Quaderni della Triennale, Hoepli.

Gambi Lucio. 1950. La casa rurale nella Romagna, Consiglio Nazionale delle Richerche - Centro di studio per la Geografia Etnlogica VIIII Staluppi Giuseppe. 1994. Cesare Saibene e il paesaggio italiano, Vita e Pensiero.

Watson Julia. 2020. Lo-tek: Design by radical indigenism, Taschen.

Piesik Sandra. 2017. Habitat: vernacular architecture for a changing planet, Thames and Hudson.

García, Tamayo, Cobo, and Francisco Coronel F. 2018. “Estudio tipológico de la arquitectura vernácula: aportes y síntesis desde la complejidad”. ASRI–Arte, Sociedad revista de Investigaciòn N.14, ISSNN 2174-7563. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/ articulo?codigo=6266274 Hensel Michael Ulrich. 2015. “Rural Studio: Incarnations of a Design-and-Build Programme”, Architectural Design 85 (2): 40-47.

DOI: 10.1002/ad.1875

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Syllabus 02 Sarah Javed Shah is PhD candidate at the DAStU, Politecnico di Milano, and Assistant Professor at the DoA, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. She received distinction in Master’s of Architecture in 2013 and researched on the vernacular traditional architecture of Pakistan. She has twelve years of professional practice and teaching experience.

Currently, she is the executive member of Institute of Architects, Pakistan, affiliated with Architects Regional Council Asia and convened the Student Jamboree, IAPEX in 2018 and 2019. She has authored numerous publications in international journals and is a certified reveiwer for the Elsevier Journal of Sustainability Cities and Society. Some of her recent publications include: Quest for Architectural Identity of Pakistan, Manifestations of Social Realism Across Diverse Forms of Pakistani Art, and Deep Beauty in Architecture.

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Instead of the narrative of loss, decline and reduced publicness, my research is an attempt to trace the distinct narrative that exults the paradigm of public space, as a continuity of urban (streets and squares) into interior (e.g., POPS). The traditional dialogue between the public and private, urban and interior is transforming drastically, approaching the notion that public space is not necessarily entirely public nor utterly private. The main objective of this paper is to explore the transformation of public spaces in the global cities with a focus on Lahore, Pakistan, while considering the paradigm shift of territoriality, interiority, and retail-isation of public spaces.

Sarah Javed Shah Urban and interior public spaces

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Position Project: An Expedition through the Streets of the Walled City of Lahore background The Walled City of Lahore, also known as Old City, forms the historic core of the metropolitan Lahore, the capital of the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The once fortified city was established around the year 1000 (Latif 1892). Presently, the Walled City is an integral part of the city of Lahore along with its object value, a city within the city. It is a bustling center of commerce representing the city in multiple facets as a sustaining continuation and evolution of a historic regime (Leonard 1986). topic An expedition through the gates of the Walled City of Lahore is conducted to draw upon the urban morphology to comprehend the connection of culture and the built environment. The research and documentation included streetscapes with architectural elements on façades, mass and void relationship, permeability of public space into the private domain and mixed-use architectural typologies. It depicts that the streets of the old city of Lahore have yet preserved most of their centuries-old historic structure and culture (Anjum,2016). The layout makes a mesh consisting

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of social and cultural activities with public and private space interconnection, it moves through intricate streets that are often useable merely for pedestrians (Mumtaz 1980). These narrow streets appear as a labyrinth of spaces, cul de sacs offer buffer zones, present in the form of the arches, doorsteps, stone posts or in the surprising thinning and twisting of the streets. People use these adjacent spaces and the overhanging balconies, jherokas as sitting spaces to socialize while watching their children playing in the streets, enforcing the concept of “eyes on the street” by Jane Jacobs (1961).

Consequently, creating a visual and rhetorical connection of the house with the public space of the streets that develops a sense of ownership and natural surveillance. “Windows and doorways, when facing streets, extend the zone of residence’ territorial commitments” (Newman 1972). The figure-ground diagram demonstrates the relationship between built and public open spaces, abundantly located in the northeastern part. The usual typological form in the built environment is such that the ground floors accommodate commercial activities, and upper floors have residential use, while the connected roofs of contrasted buildings function as public space accommodating social activities (Suvorova 2011), also extending the public spaces into the courtyards and roofs of Havelis and Mosques. The digital mosaic of streetscape shows

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Map of Lahore, Showing: Situated on the left bank of River Ravi, Total area: 2,300 sq km with 20 million populationMajor Road Network, Division of Towns, Airport, Railway Station, Position of the dense area of the Walled City of Lahore occupying approximately 2.6 sq km area.

Mass and Void Map of the Walled city of Lahore, Public Spaces (white), Private Spaces: (Black); Roads and Streets Network; Squares, Thirteen gates or entrances; Important Monuments: Lahore Fort, Badhshahi Mosque, Wazir Khan Mosque, Royal Trail, Shahi Hammam, Paniwala Talab, Sua bazar, Baoli bagh, Shahalami bazar market, darbar chowk.

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a significant number of buildings with a considerable height that creates the feeling of enclosure in the narrow streets that in turn directs to conviviality among the people. aims The project, through on-site surveys and consideration of the available literature and previous documentations and research, is an attempt to summarise the urban morphology.

- To develop mass and void relationship in terms of built and open spaces through developing the figure-ground diagram of the Walled City of Lahore.

- To discover important landmarks with historical significance and their adaptive reuse in the built environment along the selected routes through the gates, and to document them in plans and elevations through constructing mosaic images.

- To study the streetscapes, diversity in the street façades and variability in the heights and proportions of the buildings using photogrammetry. methods This project developed a figure-ground map based on Nolli Map (1748), and a methodological way for producing image mosaics both for translating and analysing the architectural quality of the selected streetscapes. It emphases on façade

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series within the context of single image rectification of close range digital photogrammetry. The rectified image mosaics based on close range digital photogrammetric evaluations have the advantage of the reduction of the site survey time and the possibility of viewing the photorealistic details on scaled images compared to the conventional methods often used in the documentation projects. Photographic documentation considering the principles of single image rectification was carried out. Natural points such as an overhang projection, corner of a window, end of a crack or a corner of a building etc. were used as control points.

Archive and historical records by the PEPAC and Walled City Authority (WCLA 2021) was also considered as a part of data collection and analysis. significance Historic cities are repositories of design knowledge; knowledge of the built environment and public life encompass many lessons that could make future design decisions much more appropriate. The public life of a city has a strong connection with its built environment, and each can only be understood in the context of the other, to construct a meaningful discourse. Lahore is one of the oldest cities of the Subcontinent, yet its urban evolution is not fully researched,

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Bhati Gate: It is located on the southern side and is well-known for its traditional food and the Faqeer Khana museum. Just outside the gate, the shrine of sufi saint Data Ganj bakhsh is located where musicians perform qawalis in weekly public gatherings.

Akbari Gate: This gate is named after the Mughal Emperor Akbar who had rebuilt the town and citadel. At present, there is a huge grain market close to this gate, also named after the emperor, the Akbari Mandi.

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Roshnai (Light) Gate: Located in the middle of the Lahore Fort and Badshahi Mosque on the southern side. This gate is still in its original shape and structure. Important public spaces include Hazuri Bagh (garden) and adjacent Shahi Mohalla.

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Sheran (Lions) wala Gate: Grand havelis (mansions) were built inside the Chuna Mandi, a trade hub; Khushhal Singh Haveli and Dhyan Singh Haveli. Presently, these mansions have been reused as government girls’ colleges.

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there are gaps in the recorded evolution of the city in terms of its public life and culture (Sajjad, Naz and Anjum 2020).

Within the objective of the project, figure-ground mapping for mass and void relationship and rectified image mosaic showing the present conditions, is significant is constructing an understanding of the relationship of the built environment with the culture of a historic city. The rectified image mosaic with 2D elevations have established a realistic way for the representation of architectural elements, colors and textures.

Design Concept: Compartmentalized Flexibility The project ruminates on the monstrous marriage of “megastructure” and “mall”, referred in Rem Koolhaas’ Junk Space (2002). The design proposes the surprising dimension of visible, tangible and suggestive relations with the city of Seattle, along with the OMA’s signature themes of densities, intensities, and continuous interiors. It seems an inspiration of a Cubist rendering of a sculptural office building, characteristic of Late Modernism, reinforced by its diamondshaped glazing pattern (OMA/ LMN. 2005). Rethinking the programmatic issues of the library, to comb through the original program reshuffling and reorganizing different areas.

Instead of the non-determined spaces of uniform flexibility, Koolhaas proposes a “compartmentalized flexibility”

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(Mattern 2003), which incorporates the language of hybridity; a place of work, interaction, play and reading.

Configuration: Spatial and Structural The diagrammatic section of the library illustrates five units of stability and regularity and four intermediate areas of instability and irregularity. The five regular compartments are dedicated to the headquarters on top, the book spiral, the meeting level, the staff floor, and the parking at the bottom.

The four irregular interfaces between the stable units function as reading rooms on top of the books spiral, the mixing chamber on the bottom of the spiral, which is also connected by airspace to the living room, with an area for children and teens next to the entrance. However, instead of the regular stacking of volumes like a typical high-rise building, they are shifted to respond to specific external conditions. This staggered construction deals with the enormous massing of the floating platforms, lateral forces, and seismic integrity.

A thin exterior skin consisting of sloping surfaces, covered with copper-framed glazing encases the exterior shape of the building like a single structure. A large volume, The Living Room is a generous social space that is accessible from the Fifth Avenue entrance, providing, according to Koolhaas, the “major free public space in downtown Seattle” (OMA/

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Lohari Gate: The southern-most gate was named after the city Lahore, today, this area is surrounding by commercial activities. It contains Masjid Sadar Jahan, Masjid Shahd Din, and several shops which were originally flour mills.

Kashmiri Gate: facing towards the valley of Kashmir. Important monuments include Sikh period’s Haveli Ayub Shah with secret underground escape tunnels. A big retail market of children clothes and shoes is located inside it.

Taxali Gate: Taxali gate, also known as taxal (Royal Mint), contains a famous market of traditional shoes, another market of aromatic spices, and many famous eating spots. It is one of those gates that exist only in name, and physically completely abolished.

Yakki Gate: The original name was “Zaki,” which was derived from the name of a martyr saint, located on the eastern side, important monuments include Hindu temples and havelis.

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LMN. 2005). The cinematic references of various parts of the building, and the ascribed names, are directives to the public to subscribe to the architects’ fantasy (Böck 2015).

Network: Circulation Pattern - The mixing chamber connects to the living room with its atrium space stretching over three levels (Kuliga, Felizitas, Dalton, and Hölscher 2013).

- Escalators lead up to the mixing chamber and the book spiral and down to the children and teens’ platform, the auditorium, and the entrance on Fourth Avenue. The core of the stable platforms (book spiral), a continuous ramp winds around four floors at a gradual slope from levels six to nine.

- A ribbon running from 000 to 999 guides the collection of books arranged on each side of the sloping ramp.

- On top of the book spiral, the reading room is arranged in a series of terraces, which are oriented northward to avoid glare.

- Between the atrium and the mixing chamber is the level that houses various meeting spaces.

- On the level below the atrium, where the main entrance from Fourth and Fifth Avenue is also situated, equipped as a children’s area, auditorium, and language center.

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Function of Public Space: Semi-Public Space For Koolhaas, the attraction of the library as a public social space is the key difference between the library as a public institution and other media resources (Mattern 2003). Despite representing an unreal, segregated space, his design intends to overcome the separation between the world of daily life and the utopian site through introducing socially shared spaces in the unstable or irregular elements. Although this Library is strictly speaking not a public space, but a semi-public one like the shopping mall, Koolhaas’s notion of stable and unstable zones recalls Richard Sennett’s The Uses of Disorder (1992), where he juxtaposes a purified community and city life with the archaic system of urban disorder. It provides a vast interior space that should function against the increasing erosion of public space in our contemporary cities. Koolhaas describes the library as a “last repository” (Mattern 2003) of public space as free space, since the air-conditioned space is, in effect, sooner or later a conditional space that makes the user pay. His concept of a “compartmentalized flexibility” (OMA/ LMN. 2005), the programmatic approach decisively depends on the extensive use of technological infrastructure in order to generate a spacious, yet air-conditioned, semipublic sphere, such as the escalators, elevators, and the ramp of the book spiral, like a department store or shopping mall.

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Seattle Central Library, Seattle, US, OMA / LMN, 2004 - Spatial and Structural Configuration.

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Besides, it generates an effortless transition from the entrance area to the lounges at various levels, encouraging a pleasant stay and social activities in this semi-public zone (Carnegie and Abell 2009). In this sense, Koolhaas’s idea of the public space of Seattle Library can be interpreted as liberation from the dictatorial script of shopping that has overwhelmed the urban area.

Mazes in the Network of an Urbanist.” PhD diss.,TU Delft.

- Pimlott, Mark. 2016. The Public Interior as Idea and Project.

Prinsenbeek: Jap Sam Books.

- Rice, Charles. 2016. Interior Urbanism: Architecture, John Portman and Downtown America. London: Bloomsbury.

- Karrholm, Mattias. 2012. Retailising space: architecture, retail and territorialisation of public space. London: Ashgate.

References on urban public space - Whyte, William H. 1980. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Washington, D.C. : Conservation Foundation.

- Shaftoe, Henry. 2012. Convivial Urban Spaces: Creating Effective Public Places. London: Earthscan.

- Gehl, Jan, and Birgitte Svarre. 2013. How to Study Public Life.

London: Island press.

- Carmona, Matthew, and Filipa Matos Wunderlich. 2013.

Capital spaces: the multiple complex public spaces of a global city. New York: Routledge.

Key Words — Key Projects New Narrative of Public Space: Exploring the Paradigm Shift of Territoriality, Interiority and Retail-isation Research field: Multidisciplinary; Social Sciences and Design: Interior Architecture, Urban Design, Philosophy, Anthropology, Environmental Psychology.

Keywords: Public Space; New Narrative; Territoriality; Interiority; Retail-isation; Pradigm Shift.

Dialectic: Paradigm Shift: Towards a new coalition between space/ place, urban/ interior, outdoor/ indoor, public/ private, subjective/ objective, formal/ informal, inclusion/ exclusion.

on interior public space - Kayden, Jerold S. 2000. Privately owned Public Space: the New York City Experience. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

- Harteveld, M. G. A. D. 2014. “Interior Public Space; on the

aims - To re-theorize a narrative of public space on the basis of genesis and development of the paradigms of territoriality, interiority and retailisation.

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Seattle Central Library, Seattle, US, OMA / LMN, 2004 - Platform Spaces: Five Units of Regularity and Stability, In-between Spaces: Four Units of Irregularity and Unstability.

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- To study the notion of territoriality of public spaces beyond the dialects of inclusion and exclusion, public and private or urban and interior.

- To apply the alternative concepts of territoriality and interiority to the theoretical debate on the design practice of contemporary public spaces, and to reveal certain tendencies and phenomena to impact future practice.

- To explore the effects of retailisation of public domains on urban life and the diverse roles played by the built environment in the transformation of public space. new narrative In the neoliberal era, the predominant narrative of public space is engrossed in the notion of ‘loss’, ‘decline’ and reduced ‘publicness’ ensuing from the sorts of privatization, commercialization, homogenisation, exclusion and other pressures. However, numerous recent researches and positive affirmations establish that the occurrence is not as bad as it is presumed. A new narrative emerges through public-private partnerships. Instead of loss, this is a narrative of renewal, rejuvenation, innovation that exults the onset of a new paradigm of public space.

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territoriality Territoriality, which began as a political concept, was used to describe foreign states, and areas surrounding a town or under its jurisdiction (Malmberg 1980). In the 18th century, the concept was transformed when it was metaphorically used by Oliver Goldsmith to describe space appropriated by birds through singing. In the 1950s and 1960s, the concept of ‘human territoriality’ was introduced to define a human behavioural phenomenon in the social sciences (Edney 1976).

Initially, human territoriality was described in analogy with zoological territoriality, however, in the 1970s, this approach was advanced to include lenient perceived ownership of places, that is “places appropriated, but not necessarily defended” (Altman 1975). The concept of territoriality representing a social or behavioural approach is, “Human territoriality can be viewed as a set of behaviours and cognitions a person or group exhibits, based on perceived ownership of physical space” (Bell 1996). In public spaces, territories are formed in different ways and by different means and incorporate a wide range of phenomena such as a nation, an urban district, a relaxing space, or someone’s favourite sitting spot. It can be related to Walter Benjamin’s (1969) twofold approach to building appropriation, by use and by

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Seattle Central Library, Seattle, US, OMA / LMN, 2004 - Structural and Organizational Systems.

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perception There are several ways of approaching public space, one profound way is to view it as a space characterised by the co-presence of strangers. Lyn Lofland (1998) describes public space as, “areas of urban settlements in which individuals in co-presence tend to be personally unknown or only categorically known one another”. The ‘publicness’ of a space can be described as a product of several territorial layers intermingling at a place, hence providing it with some kind of ‘territorial complexity’ (Kärrholm 2013) and this complexity has a strong relationship with architectural design. interiority The word ‘interiority’ denotes ‘inner character’, and connects to a state of inwardness and individual contemplation. The related vocabulary is containment, confinement, enclosure, privacy, security, shelter etc (Pimlott 2018). It is that abstract quality that enables the appreciation and description of an interior, a theoretical framework of variables that produce interior (McCarthy 2005). Interiority is the point at which the understanding of what an interior is, becomes elastic. Dating back to 1701, the word interiority was originally entwined with a moral notion of truth, and by 1803, it had acquired more explicitly spatial usage. Unlike interior, interiority is grounded in circumspection, rather than relative location,

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and it is “opposed in all sense and uses to exterior” (Simpson and Weiner 1989). However, a different approach was defined

by Richard Sennett (2016) that it is not necessarily linked to merely a private interior space, rather allocated to an exterior public space. The interior as an increasingly specialised realm at once offered a retreat from the world for the self, and a place in which ‘subjectivity’ could flourish. The company of one’s intimates allows the individual to feel free to express oneself. Sennett described interiority through the thoughts of Georg Simmel (1903), who suggested that it was the ‘street’ rather than the ‘home’ that produced subjectivity within the individual. Aside from the apparent similarities, an important refinement can be made when conceptualizing interiority as an expression of the qualities of an urban or interior space (Power, 2014). retail-isation In recent decades, changes in the global processes of mass production and collective consumption with the adoption of neoliberal economic ideology have altered how the cities are epitomised and perceived. The multiplication of spaces for collective consumption has set a new territorial dimension for the organisation of the urban under retail objectives. Retail spaces appear everywhere as iconic

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Metropol Parasol, Seville, Spain, Jürgen Mayer H Architects, (2011).

The iconic structures house an archaeological museum below ground, farmers market in the center, and elevated plaza, bars, restaurants and a panorama terrace on top of the “parasols” top. The structures are one of the largest and most innovative bonded timber constructions with a polyurethane coating. The structure consists of an extensive canopy of 150 by 70 m, 25 m above street level, supported by six gigantic columns.

The public space, Plaza Mayor, is located underneath the canopy on a raised platform. Its role as a unique urban space within the dense fabric `of the medieval inner city of Seville allows for a great variety of activities:memory, leisure and commerce. and commerce.

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elements of the city (at libraries, museums, airports, etc.) in which collective consumption creates new social interaction patterns, manifesting an integral part of the public domain.

The proliferation of new retail space brings about a re- and de-territorialisation of urban public space that also includes the transformation of urban design, and even of the logic and ways these design amenities meet the needs of retailers and consumers (Kärrholm 2016). The research spectrum of ‘retailisation’ lies in the public spaces, designed or used to any level for retail or shopping-related activities, and have become significant in the planning of cities. Shopping mall epitomises reproducing the city within its walls with a safer and cleaner experience in the climate-controlled and secure conditions than on the streets outside (Crawford 1992). research framework The works of Jacques Derrida (1976), Michel Foucault (1986), Bruno Latour (2005), and many others have paved new avenues for envisioning, interpreting, and conceptualising space in the multi-disciplinary research grounds. These perspectives nurtured new thematic spheres and reinterpretations of many concepts; novel ideas of the territories, boundaries, thresholds, the dialect of inside and outside, and the complex relationship of interiority

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and exteriority; raising debates about the embodiment of space. The process of marking out territory is the “cutting off the space of the earth through the fabrication of the frame is the very gesture that composes both the house and territory, inside and outside, interior and landscape at once” (Grosz 2005). This image of architecture provokes a specific understanding of interiors through “a reinforced geometric between inside and outside” (McCarthy 2005).

A continuous interplay exists between interior and urban, public and private, inclusion and exclusion within the realm of public interiors. The homogenisation of these dichotomies is well articulated within the architectural typology of retail spaces (arcades, shopping malls, popup stores, etc.). methodology The research method will encompass a set of lenses to research public space from an urban and interior perspective.

The lenses include: time, movement and transition.

Methods involve strategy analysis, theoretical discourse and perspectives from design practice, as well as incorporating user perspective, interviews and questionnaires and timelapse observation: use and movement of the space (actual as opposed to perceptions) through time-lapse photography.

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(TEK) Building, Technology, Entertainment and Knowledge, Taipei, Taiwan, Bjarke Ingels Group.

BIG recently designed the world’s first multimedia center, the 53,000 m2. The TEK Building will provide exhibition, conference, and showroom space for other media events and draw the public to visit its restaurants, retail stores, and hotel. The mixed-use public building will contain an entire pedestrian street’s worth of programming, which has been consolidated, stacked, and coiled to fit within the constraints of a perfect cube measuring 57 x 57 x 57 meters. In plan, a circle is hollowed from the center of the cube, and in section this courtyard spirals up toward the sky and punctures the facade in multiple locations, with only minimal planes of glass to serve as railings. It is possible to enter the building from street level and climb all the way to the roof without actually going inside.

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remains and antiquities: With an account of its modern institutions, inhabitants, their trade, customs, &c. Lahore: New Imperial Press.

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Markthal Rotterdam, Laurenskwartier - Rotterdam, Netherlands, MVRDV and INBO architects Provast Developer, (2014).

It is the first covered food market of the Netherlands. The roof of the market hall is an arch accommodating 228 apartments, underneath the hall are parking spaces and a supermarket. Markthal makes Rotterdam home of a new urban typology, a hybrid of market and housing.Tthe building is designed with an open character. The open sides had to be closed to prevent rain and cold from entering, but kept as transparent as possible by opting for a single glazed cable net façade. The large mural which covers the vaulted interior, ‘Cornucopia’ by artists Arno Coenen and Iris Roskam has a total surface of 11.000 m² making it one of the largest artwork of the Netherlands. ‘Cornucopia’ shows oversized images of market produce, which can be bought at the market, while the flowers and insects refer to the work of Dutch still life masters from the 17th century.

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Sajjad, Faisal, Neelum Naz and Ghulam. Abass Anjum. 2020.

“Evolving morphologies: Public squares of the Walled City of Lahore.” Pakistan Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences. 27, no. 2: 1-13.

Sennett, Richard. “Interiors and Interiority: Symposium on Architecture: Interior Matters”. Harvard GSD. 26 Apr. 2016. Youtube Video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVPjQhfJfKo. Sennett, Richard. 1992. The uses of disorder: Personal identity and city life. New York: WW Norton & Company.

Suvorova, Anna A. 2011. Lahore. Topophilia of Space and Place.

Karachi: Oxford University Press.

Walled City of Lahore Authority. WCLA, “The Walled City of Lahore”. Accessed 25 January 2021. https://walledcitylahore.gop.pk/.

References: Seattle Central Library as Interior Public Space.

Architects: OMA; Area: 38300 m²; Year: 2004.

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The Pavilion, Brookfield Place, New York, United States, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects The Pavilion at Brookfield Place (formerly the World Financial Center) through its expressive architectural and engineering form has become a new glowing landmark in Lower Manhattan. Measuring 110-feet wide, 68-feet deep, and 54-feet tall, the Pavilion is appropriately grand for the purpose it serves as the principal entrance to Brookfield Place, and through which 35,000 people travel daily. The Pavilion creates a new public sequence to the river and the esplanades through the great public space of Winter Garden, one of New York’s great public rooms. The iconic “basket” columns that support the roof and enclosure are the Pavilion’s most visually dynamic architecturally engineered features.

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Syllabus 02 Rose-Ann Mishio is a PhD candidate in the program of Architectural Urban Interior Design, Politecnico di Milano. She holds an MSc in Architecture design from Politecnico di Milano, BSc Architecture from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and an Advanced Diploma in Interior design and decoration. She has worked in architecture firms in Ghana, India and Netherlands and is the winner for the Fondazione Fratelli Confalonieri Scholarship competition for doctoral candidates 2021 in Italy.

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The role of architecture design on our wellbeing is one of great importance and my preoccupation. Our lives are spent mostly indoors; from work to home, from home to school, or even to the nearby cafe - our daily lives practically revolve around the built environment. However rarely as part of the design process do we ask ourselves “how does design contribute to well-being?”

This essay is a reflection on the complex relationship between design and well-being - of what architecture has offered in the past and what it can offer in the future.

Through a series of chapters, beginning from a personal project to those of pioneering architects, it tries to analyse how the theme has been approached. It intends to highlight the ‘power’ we have as designers of the built environment to make the world a better place to live in.

Rose-Ann Mishio Architecture for well-being

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Position Project: An architecture of emergency retracing design decisions through the lens of well-being In this chapter, a personal project of emergency housing for refugee crisis using adaptive reuse of an old building is described and reflected upon. It tries to retrace the design decisions made in the project and how it contributes to aspects of well-being. With health in mind, it continues by adopting an index relating to physical, mental and social wellbeing in analysing the interiors.

increment in number of refugees presented a major issue of concern. The task was therefore a design response to the issue.

The research started off with a delve into literature on the subject matter and then continued with a field survey and interviews. After the analysis and interpretation of the field survey, it showed that even though the refugees welcomed the help of the Italian red-cross and other associations, about 80% felt like outcasts as though with one hand welcoming them into the community, at the same time the other hand holding them at bay.

introduction: life beyond the tent In July 2016, Italy, one of the refugee destination countries in Europe rescued over 46,500 refugees (UNHCR 2016). About 300 of these migrants travelled through Como, a border city between Italy and Switzerland in attempt to cross the border into Switzerland; the neighbouring country. Originally, Como was not a point of destination for the refugees, nonetheless since Switzerland closed their borders in July 2016, almost all transiting refugees had returned to Como after being denied entry into Switzerland and therefore lodged in a cluster of tents in a park outside the railway station and were later sheltered in a temporary built camp (Amighetti 2016). The spontaneity of this occurrence, the possible recurrence and

project aim and concept The project was to be a testbed that aimed to solve the core challenges by designing beyond the basic necessities of providing only basic shelter, but to use design to help them ‘find a place’. This was done by the use of the concept of ‘a new city’ with two principal functions; a housing centre (to help identify a sense of place) and a community centre (to give back to the community and a response to social inclusion).

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The Problem

Method used: State of the art

How can design help? (what if....)

1. A housing center for basic needs 2. Social inclusion through design Refugees

Refugee crisis

Refugee camp located on the outskirts Exclusion, segregation

The city of Como Design Response: shelter (tents) -Basic needs

Position project description.

???

People of como

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Method: Designing for well-being through siting, social inclusion and architectural poetics siting the project The choice of site for the project was an old abandoned barracks in Como (La Caserma di Cristoforis). Instead of siting the project on the outskirts as most refugee crisis projects, the proposed project was situated in the city to form a part of it. In unfolding the design through adaptive reuse, the large square of the barracks was opened up and connected to the streets as a continuous social space between the city of Como and the ‘new city’ of the refugees. In this way the ground floor became a public space with spatial quality connecting the ‘interior’ of the barracks (the piazza or square) and the rest of its environments. The existing barracks, made up of four blocks were repurposed with specific functions; 2 blocks for residential and working purposes, 1 for administration and a clinic and the last one as a community centre attached to a newly introduced building. The housing centre was fitted into the existing upper floors by introducing partition walls where necessary to form housing units for families, or communal living units for single people.

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social inclusion The function placed at the heart of the project was a community centre for Como. By purposing such a space in the midst of a refugee housing centre, it sought to break the barriers of segregation through design and used its occurrence as a catalytic tool for integration within the city.

Also, by opening up the ground floors of the community centre and the creating a connection between the refugee centre and the city, it tries to include the land of the ‘foreigners’ as a fabric and active part of the city. The use of ramps as an active part of the design and the introduction of elevators, catered for people with disability. architectural poetics The Architecture design was used to create an experience of senses by guiding users in the community centre through a path which conveyed the narrative of the life of the refugees: a journey from a place of uncertainty, hopelessness and despair to a place of hope. The spaces were designed to communicate with users through its elements; the place of despair was the entrance into the community centre characterised by a dark space in the basement of the existing block, the journey - a red ramp that guides users through the entire community centre manoeuvring through the existing building and the

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Siting the project

Social Inclusion

Architectural Poetics refugees

People of como

Refugees on the outskirts

Abandoned Barracks in the city

community center (public space)

Proposed project (housing+community center) Public piazza and open spaces

Connection to the city

Refugees sited in an abandoned building in the city Retracing design decisions through the lens of well-being.

views to the mountains, the city scape of Como and the piazza

mediator between the existing and the new entity. It ushers one through the entire project narrative.

Architectural Narrative: Story and senses The underground space signifies the beginning of the journey of the refugees. It gives the feeling of the unknown and uncertainty. A gloomy space

The columns are interruptions of space. It gives the feeling of unwanted unexpected occurences within the space

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new building, and place of hope - a voluminous parametric block full of natural light inserted into the courtyard (piazza) of the barracks that is accessible from the existing old building.

What more could have been done? reflecting on well-being with a parametric index Considering about 90% of our time is spent indoors (Centers for disease control and Prevention 2006, Chap. 5) and each space contributes to our well-being (Prussin 2015, 78), what could have been different if from the onset in the design process, these questions were reflected upon?

- How does the design contribute to health and well-being?

- How should we design or modify with respect to well-being?

As an initial elaboration on these questions, I developed an index by dividing the project into the sub sections of design; interior design (micro scale), the architecture design(building scale) and the urban design (neighbourhood scale).

In this excerpt, the index is described with respect to interior design parameters as done by Cetinkaya Cigdem(2018) but can be adapted to other scales. The goal of this index is to deliberate on the best solution possible.

The analysis is done in terms of vulnerability - how

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susceptible it is to hinder health, and potentiality - in what way design can be used to promote, avoid, prevent or reduce to a minimum poor health effects (see table 1).

A developed set of questions for making design considerations for well-being parameter 1 - ventilation -How is the space ventilated? (Natural or mechanical or both?)

-Is it a single sided ventilation or cross ventilation?

-How does the air flow through the space?

- Is the ventilation adequate?

-Does the air coming in get filtered?

-What happens during the winter, when its too cold to open windows?

-What happens during summer when the space is warm and how does the design respond? parameter 2 - layout -How is he design in relation to circulation from outside the house?

- What are the vulnerable areas of the house? (wet areas, entrances, etc.)

-Can design be used in the layout to help prevent the spread of diseases?

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Adopted index of analysis

Parameter 1

Parameter 2

Table 1

Ventilation

Layout Possible Ciculation routes. Does it buffer out diseases? Does it promote social interaction?

Single sided ventilation. Is the ventilation adequate?

-Does the air coming in get filtered?

Vulnerable areas of bacteria and viruses (presence of water indoors)

What is the main source of ventilation?

Natural or mechanical?

Reflecting on well-being through interior parameters.

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-Does the layout allow for privacy?

-Does it include spaces for interaction among people?

-Is the circulation and movement in the spaces comfortable or obstructed? parameter 3 & 4 - materials and color -Do the materials of the interior prevent noise?

-Do the finishes used have negative effects / pollute/ contain hazardous substances?

-What materials would be best suitable for the function of the space and why? (consider wet areas too) -Do the colours chosen promote mental health? Does it match the function of the space? parameter 5 - lighting -What is the preliminary source of lighting?

-Is there sufficient lighting?

-Does it follow the rule of thumb of lighting?

-Does the lighting promote health?

The proposed table of analysis and questions suggested for deliberation during design processes to reflect on health is by no means exhaustive, but it is intended as a possible guide that can be adapted as designers see fit in deliberately designing for

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health. It is an initial elaboration on the subject matter that opens up opportunities into further research.

A new building typology: The architecture that cures Architecture in the early 20th century was impacted by tuberculosis, and was an era of a new building typology; the sanatoriums. From its siting, building materials, organisation, architecture design, technology and interiors it encompassed an architecture of a collective dwelling type for a very specific group of people - a ‘home’ to tuberculosis invalids. It was developed by an active collaboration between architects and doctors, and was purposely designed as an architecture that cures a disease - tuberculosis. Many renowned architects in that century designed a sanatorium and it was a bench mark in their careers, very much akin to the Maggie’s centres of today.

In this chapter, the Paimio Sanatorium by Alvar Aalto which is widely known as a reflection of human empathy (Woodman 2016) and a great example for designing to care for ‘sick’ people as a cure is analysed from the perspective of a designer. It tries to draw out those characteristics of design that promoted health and well-being as a reference.

As one of the institutional buildings that greatly influenced modern architecture (Colomina 2019), the chapter continues by making an analysis between the design characteristics of

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Parameter 3

What finishing materials were used?

Do they promote pollution?

Parameter 4

What colors were chosen for the walls, ceilling and floors?

Do the colors chosen promote mental health?

Do the materials help prevent noise?

Reflecting on well-being through interior parameters.

Parameter 5

What is the main source of lighting?

Does it receive adequate daylight?

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some modern architecture and the sanatoria, and rounds off with a reflection on the design choices of the sanatoria in light of ‘new’ insights on designing for health.

Paimio sanatorium introduction The Paimio Sanatorium by Alvar and Aino Aalto was designed and built between 1926 and 1933 in Finland. It has been referred to by Sigfried Giedion as one of the three institutional buildings that gave rise to contemporary architecture (Colomina 2019), even though there’s a parody that it was designed for sick people. Alvar designed the sanatorium taking inspiration from the patients and therefore took design decisions to foster the comfort and well-being. In the following subsections, the design would be expounded on in terms of siting, the relationship between outdoor and indoor spaces and the design characteristics of how he promoted physical wellbeing, social well-being and mental well-being. siting : is isolation the cure?

The siting of the sanatoria was to be purposely isolated from the cities as though they were in a world of their own. On one hand this prevented the propagation of the disease and the susceptibility of ‘abled’ bodies catching the disease. But

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was isolation the cure? No. Instead, they were typically sited in areas in close proximity to nature since natural landscapes, sunlight and fresh air were the prime features of the sanatoria.

For instance, they were in mountainsides like the Queen Alexandria Sanatorium in the Swiss Alps (Davos, Switzerland 1906) by Otto Pflegard and Max Haefeli, or near lakes like Muskoka cottage sanatorium (Ontario’s first sanatorium, Canada 1910) or at the coast like the sanatorieul Bugaz. And sometimes the ‘natural landscape’ was literally brought into the building and formed part of the organisation of spaces like the artificial beach in Aix-le-bens in France. Therefore, for architecture design instead, the issue of siting was the context of natural landscapes and the therapeutic effects of it.

The Paimio Sanatorium wasn’t any different. It was situated in a pine forest in Turku, 90 minutes away from Helsinki (Quito 2020). The relationship between the inside and outside were paramount. The roof terrace where they would take their ‘cure’ (heliotherapy - exposure to sunlight) was oriented towards the natural landscape so that they could experience the outside from the inside. The furniture arrangement was designed so that the chairs in the patients rooms were located near the windows with a view toward the pine forest. In a nutshell siting was strategic in such a way that it could frame the natural landscape both at the building scale and the interior scale.

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Paimio Sanatorium (1933)

B - wing Reception, operating theatre, phototherapy treatment, dining hall, library, work-

Junior Physicians’ and Administrative Director’s terraced house

Parmio Sanatorium site.

N

connection between A and B wing A -wing (patients wing) and nurses apartmentts

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design characteristics and approach In this section, the core design characteristics with the lens of health and well-being are discussed in parts; relating to physical well-being, mental well-being and social well-being. paimio and physical well-being How did Alvar Aalto design for physical well-being? Starting from the building scale, he oriented the building to receive maximum daylight. With a narrow plan and large windows, sunlight could be experienced directly from the interiors. The roof terrace at the top floor, seven stories high was designed as a space for regular doses of fresh air and sunlight. From the interiors, the layout of the room was designed not for a vertical man (standing upright) but to be experienced also from the horizontal (from the perspective of a man laying down). The furniture layout of the patient room was designed in a way that the beds were positioned to keep the feet warm while laying down and the head cool. There was also panel heating in the ceiling for an appropriate heat environment.

The detail of the intersection of the floor and wall beneath the window were curved to prevent dust build up, and the walls were clean without any ornaments. The introduction of hand wash basins encouraged regular washing of hands and personal hygiene. The furniture and fittings were designed

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by the architect with special attention to physical well-being.

For instance the handbasin was designed to prevent noise from splashing water by positioning the basin at 45 degrees and spittoons were also designed to minimise sound. The famous paimio chairs were designed to incline the back of the sitting patient to help him breathe comfortably and facilitate expectoration (the act of bringing up and spitting out sputum) with ergonomics that kept him comfortably seated for long periods (Anderson 2010). paimio and mental well-being In tackling mental well being in the design from the interiors, the choice of colour for the patient rooms were not merely for aesthetics but also for the psychological and therapeutic reasons, opposed to the expansive use of white and grey for hygienic purposes of that era. The walls and ceilings were not of the same colour; dark and quiet hues were used for the ceilings and lighter shades were used for the walls. The furniture layout positioned chairs next to the windows framing the pine forest, so that the calming and relaxing views of the natural landscape could promote well-being. The size and level of windows were calculated such that a laying person could also benefit from the beautiful views. Each floor although quite identical was distinctive due to the assigned colours which prevented anxieties,

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Physical Well-being

ximum use of sunlight for A-wing

Heat environment in patients room

Section through A wing (Patients wing)

Daylight and heating in patients room Axonometric view of Paimio Sanatorium

Paimio Chair Noiseless handwash basin

Paimio and physical well-being.

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and the paths, lobbies and access routes were in yellow to guide the user and to incite sunny optimisms even on gloomy days. paimio and social well-being The organisation of the spaces were done to promote social well-being among the patients as well as medical personnel.

The infamous roof terrace was not sectioned by walls but instead was a barrier free space where patients could lay next to each other, chatting and interacting with one another.

Even the short partitions which were placed after every 10 or so beds were thin and transparent so that visual connection was still possible to an extent. The dining areas and lounge recreation rooms that were included in the design served as spaces for social life and communal living as well. The efforts of the architecture design to promote social well-being was a confirmation to Roselyn Lindheim’s theory that social contact was a relevant paradigm in designing for health (Lindheim 1985).

Reflection on design for well-being the paimio sanitorium and modern architecture Looking at the modern architecture and the Paimio sanatorium, there are many similarities that could be drawn.

For instance the clean-lined bedrooms void of ornament in the Paimio sanatorium and the modernist architecture as a

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kind of ‘visual hygiene’ as in Villa Tugendhat by Mies van der Rohe. The use of the roof terrace for heliotherapy in the Paimio sanatorium and the roof tops of the modernist house for sun bathing and views to nature like Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye or the large glass windows and simplicity of facades that brought in maximum daylight could also be likened. As Alvar Aalto designed for the sick with health in mind, soon it became the norm. The Paimio chairs that was designed for the sick were soon used in design in modern architecture by ‘normal’ people. Thus modern architecture was born out of illness as ‘a protective cocoon’ no longer only as shelter from the threats of the environment but also as a way of actively promoting health and well-being through design (Colomina 2019). In effect, the Paimio sanatarium was the research lab where the design for modern architecture was tested (ibid). the paimio sanitorium and therapeutic architecture The therapeutic buildings and homes of today have very similar design features as those of the Paimio sanatorium. To begin with, nature and natural landscapes play an active role in the composition of the therapeutic buildings just as in the Sanatoria. Examples include the Casa Biblioteca by Atelier Branco Arquitetura in Brazil that is located in the ‘mata Atlantica’ in the Atlantic forest and Hog Pen Creek Retreat;

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Mental well-being

Social well-being

View of landscape of patient laying down

View of landscape from window Relation between user and space.

Roof terrace as a social space

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Austin, Texas by Flato Architects which both are sited in the the natural landscape with a great emphasis on experiencing the outdoors from inside the building. Another feature of the Paimio sanatorium that is evident in therapeutic buildings is the inclusion of social spaces in the building so that social well-being is fostered by designing to encourage interaction between people. An example is the Ostra hospital designed

by Stefan Lundin and White Arkitektr that replaced corridors with communal spaces for interaction with people. Although the approaches used differ, the principles of what contributes to well-being remain.

Homes, Well-being, Healing architecture, Designing with nature In this chapter, three key words of designing for health are chosen and described. They form an entry way of designing for health with respect to housing. It tries to frame in a comprehensive way why we need to design with well-being in mind, its relevance and benefits and most importantly how we can do so by introducing a hypothesis as a test bed. It unfolds with a perspective that architecture design doesn’t only ‘really’ matter for the ‘unhealthy’ but for all. Therefore through a series of sub essays, it tries to draw out how different aspects of well-being are supported through architecture design.

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homes and well-being The home of today is faced with concurrent problems like not being ageing friendly (Chmielewski 2018; Healthy ageing project 2016; Byles 2012; Forsyth 2019), associated with poor well-being (Rainer 2016; Amelia 2020), pollution (Von der Leyen 2020), poor effects of the environment, poor accessibility and safety. For an elderly who spends about 72% or more of his time at home (Spalt 2017), with declining physical abilities and frailties, the negative impacts of the home are even more important. On the other hand, Europe’s population is rapidly ageing (UN 2017), and even more so in shrinking cities like Taranto in the south of Italy. Although some solutions are underway, such as multigenerational co- housing, retirement facilities and care homes, they have already proven not to be enough in quantity to support an exponentially increasing ageing population (Byles 2012) and some of these solutions present the idea of segregating the older population with purpose-built facilities which do not go hand in hand with the ageing in place concept. Here a hypothesis is born by asking how design can help? The position taken in this essay is that perhaps we should design homes centred on an all-round well-being that also protects the environment; one that is suitable for ageing in place and healthy living, so that it takes into consideration the suitability

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Paimio Sanatorium and Modern Architecture Villa Savoye roof terrace

Paimio Sanatorium and therapeutic buildings Paimio Sanitorium aerial view

similar floor finishes for easy cleaning heliotherapy and sun bathing on roof terrace Siting in natural lanscapes (forests) away from the city

Paimio Sanitorium patient room

Villa Tugendhat Bedroom

positioning of windows with a view of landscape

Casa Biblioteca, Brasil

Reflecting on space and nature.

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for everyone irrespective of health status and age.

In searching for possible solutions, it poses these dire questions: How do we design buildings that foster holistic well-being? How do we design buildings that protect the environment? How can these be replicated in the design of the future home? healing architecture = super architecture?

Healing architecture may have paved a way for how architects can design buildings in present-day. Although the architecture itself does not heal, the design of these spaces creates ambiences that put the mind, body and spirit into cohesion and influences the behaviour of the occupant such that he is able to have an interrelationship with his built environment, nature and people. What’s more, they are sustainable and protect the environment. It appears to be the very definition of what Terri Peters refers to as “super architecture” - one that offers positive benefits for both human well-being and his environment.

However, they have a trend of being designed for the frail, the sick and the ‘unhealthy’. It is almost as though these designs are deliberately considered when health fails, just as Charles Jencks mentions in an interview, “[…] The lower down the scale you feel […] If you are deprived [...] in a hospital […]

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then the more architecture really matters” (Jencks 2015).

Although the very connotation of the word ‘healing’ coincides with the imagination of a healthcare facility or something of its sort, for designers and architects instead, it leaves in its wake the possibility of a building to be super: To be able to integrate all aspects of well-being: physical, mental and social and be sustainable at the same time. This kind of architecture in itself becomes evidence that indeed the built environment could aim higher to be better for all people - irrespective of health status, age or gender.

So then, the subsequent arguments would be “what is healing architecture and how are they realised?”.

Healing architecture is an integrated approach of designing that uses theoretical concept of evidence based design to evoke senses of cohesion of mind, body and spirit, promote physical, mental and social well-being and support the health of the planet (Sabar 2020; Sakallaris 2015; Schaller 2012; Zakariah 2018).

As shown by international healing architecture case studies of different periods, at the heart of these projects are always elements of nature, social and inclusive spaces and some form of technology. Each of these elements are replicated in different forms and ways by various architects, based on evidence, intuition or both. The co-benefit of being sustainable

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Framing the problem of housing and well-being

A research path.

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and its degree of sustainability differs based on how the architects translated these elements in design. The core design elements foster the parameters of well-being interchangeably; nature is used to foster physical and mental well-being, technology to foster physical and social well being and social spaces to foster social and mental well-being. Although the aspects overlap, the presence of all three elements in a building is able to foster all the parameters of well-being; thus holistic well-being. designing with nature As Esther Sternborg describes in her book healing spaces, man was not created to live indoors (Sternberg 2009), and the human being finds comfort in elements of nature (Salingaros 2015).

Over the years, research has proven the therapeutic values in nature; from the theories of healing gardens, to greening cities and even the choice of siting of therapeutic facilities and buildings in natural landscapes. For the early 20th century sanatoria, for instance, “Nature was the cure!” and even looking at the most famous architecture designs by the fore fathers of architecture like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Richard Neutra’s Lovell Health House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, the element of nature is always very present and prominent. Fast forward to the 21st century, the first glance of

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most buildings referred to as ‘good’ for the environment and for man or environmentally conscious is an element of nature, thus the importance of designing with nature cannot be over emphasised.

Designing with nature has been approached differently by many architects. For some it has meant mimicking nature in construction (biomimetic architecture) like the Bamboo playhouse in Malaysia by Eleena Jamil Architects, for others it has been an entire construction out of wood like the Ogamichi house in Japan by Tomoaki Uno or Biophilic design which has been translated as weaving nature into the built environment for a strong human nature connection.

The concept of Biophilia, developed by the biologist Edward O. Wilson, states that human needs to connect with living things in his environment. This theory goes beyond just placing the living things in man’s environment and includes taking inspiration from nature as well as man’s place in nature, and nature’s place in human society (Salingaros 2015).

An example of such architecture is seen in The award-winning Sky House in Saigon -Vietnam by MIA studios built in 2019.

It was constructed with the concept of architecture as a ‘living body’. The project uses the interiors to create connections between the spaces such that natural elements resonate through the entire house. Its entire interior is designed such that there

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Healing Architecture and its design characteristics

Case study research.

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are both human to human and human to nature connections both horizontally and vertically. It is inspired by nature and manages to bring those elements (water, sun, wind and trees) into the interior such that its ambience relays the perception of a healing space. The sky house doesn’t depend on its context which is embedded in the heart of the city but rather creates its own landscape from within. It manages to connect each layer with the other such that there are windows of connections that keeps an eye out on every level of the interior, creating the feeling of ‘safety’. Its ‘empty’ space connects directly to the sky so that the ‘outside’ can be experienced from the ‘inside’.

The interiors harmonize with nature, not only by bringing the nature into the internal space but also using wood on the ceilings and walls to create a continuity.

Epilogue: A personal perspective. The future house must be super architecture: A Healing Home Today, other building types other than healthcare facilities adopt the concept of healing spaces in their design. Debates on the design of the future house and what it must be are very apt considering the many challenges such as climate change, an ageing population, pollution and so on. Many built environment scholars have hinted that Biophilia design may be the solution to the future home, which is mainly translated

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into architecture as designing with nature. For others, it is technology or what John Ruskin refers to as the internet of things or better still the co-housing and intergenerational housing highlighting the need for social spaces. Indeed all these aspects highlighted that man is an ecological being and therefore thrives in nature, ascertained by medical sciences, cultural geography and other fields is true, or that man is a social animal and requires the presence of other humans and to interact with them also stands, or the culture of technology especially of the 21st century who are constantly glued to technological equipments, cell phones etc. and even rely on their mini robots to clean their houses etc. may have also proven that smart homes are the future. However, I take another standpoint in view of the future home. Each of these perspectives of man though may individually thrive, it contributes only to one aspect of well-being. Physically well but not mentally well retranslates into poor well-being and interchangeably with all the other aspects. Therefore what should the future house be like? It perhaps should be a healing home; it should have elements of relating to all the multi-faceted nature of man in order to thrive. And how can this happen? Perhaps by posing the question during every design phase: How does this affect or contribute to health and well-being?

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Designing with Nature

Sky light that brings in daylight.

Sky House, Mia studios, 2018.

Greenery in and outside the house

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Bibliography Anderson Diana. 2010.“Humanizing the hospital: Design lessons from a Finnish sanatorium Alvar Aalto Foundation”. CMJ 182. / https://doi: 10.1503/cmaj.090075 Amighetti, Emanuele. 2016. “Back out of sight on the Italian border”. https://www.politico.eu/interactive/ back-out-of-sight-on-the-italian-border/ Amelio Andrea, Brambilla Andrea, Alessandro Morganti et al 2020. “ COVID-19 Lockdown: Housing Built Environment’s Effects on Mental Health”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17. /https://doi: 10.3390/ijerph17165973 Byles Julie, Mckenzie Lynette, Redman et al 2012. “Supporting housing and neighbourhoods for healthy ageing: Findings from the Housing and Independent Living Study (HAIL)”: Australasian journal on Ageing. https:// doi: 10.1111/j.1741-6612.2012.00646.x.

Centers for Disease control and Prevention. 2006. “Indoor Air Pollutants and Toxic Materials”. In Healthy housing reference manual. US Department of Health and Human Services Cetinkaya Cigdem, Ultav Zeynep and Ballice Gulnur, 2018. “The effects of interior design parameters on the design quality of nursing stations” Athens Journal of Architecture 4, no. 2: 149-170 Charles Jencks. 2015. “pile of hope-20 years of Maggie’s centres” interview by Cate St. Hill, Design Curial. January 6, 2015. http:// www.designcurial.com/news/pile-of-hope-4481924/ Chmielewski Emily and Hoglund 2018. “Design for ageing”. In Healthy environments, healing spaces: University of Viginia press.

Dian Sabar and Michael Djimantoro. 2020. “ The application of healing space concept in holistic care facilities: a brief guideline for design”. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science /https:// DOI: 10.1088/1755-1315/426/1/012068

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Forsyth Ann, Molinsky Jeniffer and Har Ye Kan 2019.

“Improving housing and neighbourhoods for the vulnerable: older people, small households, urban design, and planning”.

Urban Design International 24, 171–186 https://doi.org/10.1057/ s41289-019-00081-x Healthy ageing project 2006. Healthy ageing: A challenge for Europe: The Swedish National Institute of Public Health Heikinheimo Marianna. Architecture and technology: Aalvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanitorium. Translated by Tytti Laine. Helsinki: Aalto University publication series Jackson Richard, 2003. “The impact of the built environment on health: An Emerging field.” American Journal of Public Health 93(9): 1382–1384. /https://doi: 10.2105/ajph.93.9.1382 Lawson Bryan.2010. “ Healing Architecture”.Arts and Health 2(2).

Lindheim Roselyn. 1985. “New Deseign Parameters for Healtthy places”. Places 2 Lundin Stefan. 2015. “ Healing Architecture: Evidence, Intuition, Dialogue”. Thesis for the degree of Licentiate of Architecture, Chalmers University.

Prussin, A.J., Marr, L.C. 2015. “Sources of airborne microorganisms in the built environment”. Microbiome 3, 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/ s40168-015-0144-z Quito Anne. 2020. “Healthcare would be better if we learned from this old tuberculosis sanatorium in Finland”. Quartz. January 4, 2020.

Colomina Beatriz. 2019. X-ray Architecture. Zurich: Lars Muller Publishers Rainer Fehr and Capolongo Stefano 2016. “Healing environment and urban health”. Epidemiologia e Prevenzione editoriale Sakallaris Bonnie, Macallister Lorrister, Megan Voss et al.2015.

“Optimal healing environments. Global Advances in health and medicine”. Global advanced health4(3) /https://doi: 10.7453/

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Designing with Nature

Aquaponic garden

Backyard garden

Greenery inside the apartment

Mimicking fractals in nature

Facade opens up to form a semi outdoor space as though outside

Open House, Framlab, 2020.

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gahmj.2015.043 Salingaros Nikkos.2015. “ Biophilia and healing environments”. New York: Terrapin Bright Green, LLC. Schaller Brian (2012). “Architectural Healing Environments”.

Architeecture Senior Thesis, Syracuse University.

Spalt Elizabeth, Curl Cynthia and Allen Ryan. 2015. “Time-Location Patterns of a Diverse Population of Older Adults: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air)”. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 26. /https:// DOI: 10.1038/jes.2015.29 Sternberg Esther. 2009. “ Healing spaces:The science of place and well-being”. London: The Belknap press of Havard University press Terri Peters. 2017. “Super Architecture”. Architectural Design:p.24-31 UNCHR. 2016. “Global trends: Forced displacement”. https://www. unhcr.org/globaltrends2016/ United Nations. 2017. “World Population prospects: 2017 revision”.

Van Hoof Joost, Demiris George and Wouters Eveline. 2017.

“Handbook of Smart Homes, Health Care and Well-Being”.

Switzerland: Springer nature.

Von Der Leyen Ursula 2020. “A New European Bauhaus: oped article by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, European Commission” October 15,2020. https:// ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/AC_20_1916 Woodman Ellis. 2016. “Revisit: Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium continues to radiate a profound sense of human empathy”. The Architectural Review. November 17,2016.

World Health Organization 2015. “ World report on ageing and health”. Geneva Switzerland Zardini Mirko and Giovanna Borasi. 2012 “Imperfect health: Demedicalisation of Architecture”. Montreal: Lars Muller Publishers and CCA

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Zakaria Muhammed, Hassan Ahmad, Hassan Ku Et al.2018. ”Architecture for healing: Phenomenology of spatial awareness to evoke healing environment in urban realm.” International Transaction Journal of Engineering Management, & Applied Sciences & Technologies.

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Syllabus 02 Carla Bulone’s academic education was born on a classical basis, around books on Latin, Greek, and Art History. In 2015, she obtained her Master’s Degree in Architecture at the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, with a thesis in Technology for Architecture. In the same department, she also obtained the professional license. In 2016, she moved to Tuscany for work, and she continued to increase my professional skills with training courses. In 2017, she specialized in marketing and digital tools for business by completing a “Digitization for companies” course. Today, she works for Branding S.r.l. as a marketing manager, with whom she started a Ph.D. Executive at the Politecnico of Milan.

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The research topic revolves around the experimentation of a newly discovered material, graphene, which promises to revolutionize the scientific world, passing between different sciences and disciplines.

From a global perspective, the research focuses on the descriptive and critical study of graphene as a highly technological, performing, versatile material with interesting potential to deepen its scientific knowledge at an academic level. In detail, the study of the neo-material investigates its implications in the building construction and the plausible effects on architectural design. The theoretical context in which the research moves addresses the complex debate of the relationship between materiality and technology in the current everevolving architectural panorama, in which technological-digital progress emerges with more preponderance every day.

Carla Bulone Graphene in building construction

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Position Project For elaborating the first assignment, titled Position Project, I selected my Master’s Thesis as the reference project that best embodies the spirit of doctoral research to frame and set the conditions necessary for carrying out the research topic.

The master’s thesis, entitled “Innovative technologies for a housing module of Solar Decathlon Europe”, operates in the discipline of technologies for architecture with a strong vocation for sustainability, energy efficiency, prefabrication, temporariness, and architectural flexibility. The idea of ​​the thesis project arises from the competition rules and then develops independently as a model of essential, adaptable, and temporary architecture.

The research project reworks the theoretical framework outlined by the master’s thesis project, drawing inspiration from the topics covered in technological innovation for architecture. Therefore, theoretical speculation on innovation and technologies in architecture was crucial in the introductory phase of the research topic.

Working on the first assignment allowed me to develop a first reference framework for the preliminary phase of doctoral research, clearly establishing the underlying disciplinary area to set up the research activity and the generic boundaries of the topic. Thanks to the Position Project, I affirmed the

Syllabus 02

research object, the motivations behind the theme and the causes, the fundamental objectives to be achieved, and finally expressed the method in summary.

In practical terms, in parallel with the writing of the thesis, I began to collect and select the most relevant texts and articles on the subject to configure an adequate state of the art through a literature review.

Architecture Research Agenda

“Innovative technologies for a housing module of Solar Decathlon Europe”.

Master’s Thesis, a.y. 2014-15, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria.

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Position Project

From a global perspective, the research focuses on the descriptive and critical study of graphene as a highly technological, performing, versatile material WHAT with interesting potential. In detail, the study of the new material investigates its implications in the building construction sector and the plausible effects on architectural design.

WHY

HOW

The study of graphene could be an interesting challenge for scientific research regarding new materials, new design solutions, and innovative approaches in contemporary architecture, joining the current international research on graphene in Europe and worldwide.

The research will be improved through a scientific investigation on a theoretical level, made of literature review, case studies, interviews and data collection, and by means of experimental research consisting of drawings and an architectural design approach, with the help of partners’s company.

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graphene substrate

Interpretation of the research topic. Sketch by the author.

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Graphene Flakes. Graphene flakes, one of the most popular forms of graphene, can be used for many applications such as conductive inks, nanofluids, supercapacitors, composites, etc. Photo by Branding S.r.l.

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graphene

Materic surface, such as concrete, wood, cork, glass, ceramic, polymers, composite materials, etc.

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References In order to draw up the second assignment, References, I chose an experimental project by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia called Synapse as a case study because I guess it represents an interesting integration between graphene and architectural design. The new material is not only used for its properties but, above all, it is integrated into the materiality of the architectural elements.

Synapse is an interactive medium for spatiotemporal behavioural data collection and analysis. It can be a constitutional part of a variety of architecture interfaces like floors, walls, facade systems, furniture and even warped on a curved surface. Graphene is being used as a key constituent for its extreme conductive properties. As a system, this material together with its application is without precedence in architecture and related industries. Regarding the prediction of architectural application, Synapse can be used for indoor spaces to predict spatial performance through diverse behavioural data of similar spaces; for dynamic space configuration to map occupancy and behavioural patterns of inhabitants in a space; finally, in the matter of urban vision to provide accurate, anonymous, large-scale spatiotemporal information.

This interesting experimentation aim to provide designers and decision-makers with an information-gathering tool for users’

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spatial behavioural patterns towards a better evidence-based, contextual, data-driven process and behavioural research.

Instead, concerning the choice of twelve references, I selected texts, books, and articles to map a wide-ranging state of the art on the research subject and then go down in scale in the next steps. The twelve references concern some texts that frame the topic from a general theoretical perspective on technologies for architecture, for instance, the book by Guido Nardi “Tecnologie dell’architettura. Teorie e storia”, and on nanotechnologies in building construction. Besides, articles dealing with topics such as “smart materials”, “reactive solutions”, “responsive facades”, etc., to evaluate plausible graphene application scenarios in the current architectural context. Then again, among the twelve references, there are the most recent texts on this new material, such as the book

by Kostya Novoselov and Albena Yaneva “New Architecture of Science, The: Learning From Graphene”, the annual reports by the Graphene Flagship project and, finally, the articles of the scholars of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IaaC), which are more focused on the practical aspect of experimenting with graphene in an architectural design application.

Thanks to the elaboration of the second assignment, I defined the boundaries of the search, placing the topic

Architecture Research Agenda

SYNAPSE (2018). An interactive medium for spatiotemporal behavioural data collection and analysis. Images by the official project webpage on the IaaC website. Available at: http:// www.iaacblog.com/programs/synapse/.

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within a well-defined context. Through this first process of literature review, the research activity lays the foundations for a temporal and theoretical positioning in the reference architectural scenario.

Key Words — Key Projects By identifying keywords and key projects, the research activity matures and develops in its theoretical structure.

The four keywords - graphene, technological innovation, performance of materials, nanotechnology - summarize the core research, which in turn give life to an archipelago or a constellation of inspirational keywords. The selection of key projects that opened the comparison with the research topic was fundamental. Therefore, the research further reelaborated the theoretical framework of reference, placing itself more specifically.

In particular, two key projects have been chosen for the comparison: one represents an architectural project of the past, figuring itself as a theoretical model from which to draw, the other symbolizes contemporaneity and the progress of architectural design nowadays. The comparison served as a link between a very recent theme such as graphene research and the historicized experience of the past, as a fundamental guide for looking to the future of architectural design.

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Jean Prouvé’s work was chosen because he contributes enormously to spreading the concept of accessibility of art and creating links between art and industry, as well as between art and social consciousness. Jean Prouvé combines craftsmanship and entrepreneurship, design and architecture, creating a new style. A style in which the purely formal aspect of design takes on a secondary role, giving way to the usefulness of objects, their cost-effectiveness, and the conscious use of materials. His main theoretical contribution and design result was transferring the production technique from industry to architecture without compromising the aesthetic quality. J. Prouvé embodies the best theoretical reference for this doctoral work in executive mode between academia and the corporate world for all these aspects.

On the other hand, the second key project concerns architectural experimentation by the IaaC Institute, called Clayphene. Finding a common thread with Prouvé’s pragmatism, the Spanish institute’s studies look to the future of architectural design, such as digital parametric architecture and computational design. The project (on the right) concerns the creation of a composite material by mixing graphene with clay that can replace existing heating systems. By combining graphene with clay, it possible to transform clay into an electrically conductive material and heat-generating material.

This composite is capable of converting electricity into heat with

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J. Prouvè. The Aluminium Pavilion. 1952

Clayphene (2019). Images by the official project webpage on the IaaC website.

Available at: http://www.iaacblog.com/programs/clayphene-3/.

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a low resistance value. Thus, such a design system can replace existing heating systems by combining electrical conductivity and the heat generation properties of these composites. In addition, graphene and clay composite can transfer electronic data to replace the existing cable system for data transfer.

Bibliography Banham, Reyner. 1969. The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment. Architectural Press. London.

Bogusława Konarzewska. 2017. Smart Materials in Architecture: Useful Tools with Practical Applications or Fascinating Inventions for Experimental Design? IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 245 052098.

Brugnaro, Giulio, Figliola Angelo, and Dubor Alexandre. 2019.

Negotiated Materialization: Design Approaches Integrating Wood Heterogeneity Through Advanced Robotic Fabrication. In: Bianconi F., Filippucci M. (eds) Digital Wood Design. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-03676-8_4.

Daniil Koshelyuk, Ardeshir Talaei, Soroush Garivani, Areti Markopoulou, Angelos Chronis, David Andres Leon, and Raimund Krenmuller. 2019. Alive: A Multi-Layered, Flexible and Elastic ShapeAware Graphene-Based Interface. Conference: ACADIA19: Ubiquity and Autonomy. At: The University of Texas at Austin: School of Architecture. Project: Alive: multi-material smart membrane.

Dubor, Alexandre. 2019. Experimentation, Prototyping and Digital Technologies towards 1:1 in architectural education. JIDA’19. VII Jornadas sobre Innovación Docente en Arquitectura Madrid, ETSAMUPM, 14-15 noviembre, 2019 DOI: 10.5821/jida.2019.8381.

Graphene Flagship. 2019. Graphene Flagship Annual Report 2019.

Official website of the institution. https://graphene-flagship.eu/

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research/annual-report/.

Gronostajska, Barbara Ewa, and Anna Maria Berbesz. 2018. Responsive solutions in shaping innovative architectural structures. E3S Web of Conferences 49, 00039. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184900039.

Kirova, Nikol, Areti Markopoulou, Hayder Mahdi, and Shruti Jalodia. 2020. A Smart Material System for Real-Time Urban Flow Data Collection Toward Responsive Environments and Informed Decision Making in Urban Spaces. In: Gengnagel C., Baverel O., Burry J., Ramsgaard Thomsen M., Weinzierl S. (eds) Impact: Design With All Senses. DMSB 2019. Springer, Cham. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-29829-6_54.

Krietemeyer, Bess, and Rogler, Kurt. 2015. Real-Time Multi-Zone Building Performance Impacts of Occupant Interaction with Dynamic Façade Systems. Martens, B, Wurzer, G, Grasl T, Lorenz, WE and Schaffranek, R (eds.), Real Time - Proceedings of the 33rd eCAADe Conference - Volume 2, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria, 16-18 September 2015, pp. 669-678.

Negroponte, Nicholas. 1975. Soft Architecture Machines. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Novoselov, Kostya S. and Albena Yaneva. 2020. The new architecture of science: learning from Graphene. World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd, Singapore, NJ and London.

Pask, Gordon. 1969. The architectural relevance of cybernetics.

Architectural Design, September issue No 7/6, John Wiley & Sons Ltd (London).

Raj, Baldev, Marcel Van de Voorde, and Yashwant Mahajan. 2017.

Nanotechnology for Energy Sustainability. Volume 1. Editor: John Wiley & Sons.

Wypych, George. 2019. Graphene: Important Results and Applications.

(1st Edition). Elsevier Science, ChemTec Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-927885-51-2.

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Syllabus 02 Liheng Zhu EDUCATION: Northeast Forestry University (NEFU, Project 211) 09/2013-06/2017, Bachelor of Engineering, Major: Landscape; Architecture Tianjin University (TJU, 985 Engineering) 09/2017-01/2020, Master of Engineering | Major: Landscape Architecture.

PUBLICATION TOPICS: Urban Park defensive space design analysis based on “territoriality” - Cases Studies of Phoenix Mountain Park and South Lake Park in Tangshan City; Research on Environmental Security Evaluation of Urban Park Based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method; Research on Investigation and Analysis of Physical Environment Vulnerable to Crime of Urban Parks Based on Interpolation Analysis Method; Research on Environmental Safety Evaluation of Urban Parks Space Based on Tourists’ Sense of Security.

EXPERIENCES: Participant, Cooperative Design Project Workshop between Tianjin and Kobe University; Volunteer, 2017 Cross-strait College Student “Tradition and Modernity” Garden Culture Workshop; Executive chairman, Student Union of Graduate School of TJUsupport services.

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Urban green space (UGS) plays a vital role in contemporary society, and it is an indispensable part of people’s lives. In recent years, human well-being research has become a very important issue due to the need to improve air quality, release stress and meet the needs of people’s activities demand. This article contains three different projects, discussing how to apply the concept of the healthy landscape to urban green space (UGS) design from the perspective of epidemic era, social justice and participatory design. The main purpose is to combine relevant theories with actual construction through the design-driven research method to further illustrate the feasibility of this approach.

Liheng Zhu Healthy landscape design

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Position Project Urban Welfare: Humanistic care from the perspective of the epidemic (Fig. 1) background Urban Green Space (UGS) is an important part of the urban ecosystem and a platform for urban residents to entertain, interact and organize various collective cultural activities (Liu and Xu 2018, 160). In recent years, people’s demand for outdoor recreation has increased. Under this circumstance, the demand for public places such as UGS has gradually diversified. But under the influence of Covid-19, it is necessary to maintain social distance between people. Then, in this context, how to create a healthy and safe urban green space has become a question worth considering. site situation and existing problem In this case, I chose Huilongguan, a green square which is located in the downtown area of Beijing as design object (Fig. 2). It is also a transportation hub in this area. The surrounding venues mainly include residential areas, schools, workplaces, and hospitals, which are places with large demand for takeaways. The existing problem is: In this public place with dense traffic and diverse functions of surrounding buildings, (1)

Syllabus 02

How to ensure a safe distance between people? (2) How to cut off the route of infection to the maximum? (3) How to reduce the risk of food delivery staff affecting the virus and avoid becoming a route of transmission of the virus, since ordering food online has become an indispensable part of people’s lives? method To solve this problem, on the one hand, install setup device (a kind of indoor space) in this green square which can achieve zero-contact by using online service, increase social distance and reduce the risk of epidemic spread (Fig. 3). Specifically, first, people order food takeaways through the online app.

Then, after taking the order, the food delivery staff will put the food in the designed setup device and contact the customer to take the food. During the whole process, the delivery staff has zero contact with customers and can also cut off the infection route. At the same time, the device can heat the food while storing it. The solar energy is the main energy source during the heating process (Fig. 4).

On the other hand, to establish a human-centered public green space, while satisfying the physical health of users, is also a need to ensure its versatility. For example: communicating, socializing and recreation. The figure on the right details the design framework and process (Fig. 5).

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Fig. 2. Site location.

Fig 1. Overview Plan.

Fig. 4. Framework.

Urban Welfare: Humanistic care from the perspective of the epidemic.

Fig. 3. Facilities analysis.

Recreation

Social

Exercise

Residential

Commercial

Transpotation

Fig. 5. Activity analysis.

Square

Pedestrian Lane

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References Breaking Barriers: A case study on how to construct a healthy urban green space (Xiao 2020) site situation Franklin Park has a long life that stretches back to the 19th century. Today, the Park sits at the intersection of large yet socially divided neighborhoods - Jamaica Plain on the West side is a community with largely well-off and educated Caucasian residents; on the East side there are racial, social and economic disparities with a large population of socially vulnerable groups, such as people of color, disabilities, low income and education.

The physical boundaries aligning the Franklin Park edges, the East and West social-demographic disparities, along with unequal programmatic interests on site, resulted in both tangible and intangible barriers to the park, with little to no accessibility and use of the Park along its Eastern edges (Fig. 6). purpose In this case, the author tries to re-establish a healthier relationship between the park and adjacent neighborhood through three processional strategies (Fig. 7): A. Invitation: by breaking physical barriers to the site and

Syllabus 02

choreographing welcoming entry experiences as the first gesture to encourage Park access.

B. Participation: by breaking the social barriers and provide spatial opportunities for participation in the public realm to maximize encountering, foster interactions, and sparkle conversations that engages in the process of exchange and understanding.

C. Reciprocity: by breaking psychological barriers that lends to embracement and acceptance of the Park through establishing resonance.

DDR method and results The design features a series of stepping benches with varying levels and configurations, transforming the previously unwelcoming retaining wall edge into public spaces with maximum flexibility and versatility of use. The section perspective shows an instance of invitation: the Blue Hill Avenue stepping benches become habitual public spaces along the Park edge for respite, city-viewing, and small size gatherings, while soothing the transition into the Park (Fig. 8).

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Fig. 7. Design strategies — Framework level.

Fig 6. Four Distinct Edges.

Breaking Barriers: A case study on how to construct a healthy urban green space.

Fig. 8. Focus area site design — Experience of the body.

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Key Words — Key Projects Keywords: Physical Health; Mental Health; Social Health. related theories The promotion of public health by the green space system is concentrated in the three aspects of physical health, psychological health and social health, and it has an effect through three paths of eliminating or reducing health risks, promoting healthy living behaviors, and providing health support services (Dong et al. 2020, 10). Mainly include: (1) Absorbing air pollutants such as SO 2 and PM2.5, improve air quality, and reduce the risk of respiratory diseases (Ming Chen et al. 2019, 36). (2) With the help of the cooling effect of green plants and water bodies, the heat island effect is alleviated, and the impact of high temperature weather on the human body is reduced (Bowler et al. 2010, 150; De Morais et al. 2016, 110). (3) The greening barrier can reduce noise pollution through absorption, diffraction, etc. (4) Safe, convenient and attractive green space can promote residents to carry out physical activities. (5) Building better social relationships by enhancing social contact. (6) Enrich the human microbial community (Xiang et al. 2021) (7) Relieving stress, improving mood, restoring attention and cognitive functions, regulating mental illness (Wolch et al. 2014, 240).

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key project: urban life laboratory This is a piece of green space located in the area of affordable housing in Vancouver. In order to improve people’s accessibility and meet their physical needs, it is divided into several functions and to be used for agricultural and recreational purposes, as well as for sporting or cultural events, or simply for relaxation. In this way, each participant can contribute to greening and producing diverse foods through collaboration (Fig. 9). Also, the people will be volunteers for maintaining the farmland and organizing events for users to participate in. The aim of this project is to maintain their health in three aspects (mental, social and physical) (Fig. 10).

In terms of design method, using the concept of sponge city to store and release rainwater during rainy and dry season (Fig. 11). The fertilizer for plant growth mainly comes from the kitchen waste of the surrounding residents, help reduce pollutants and increase the biodiversity (Fig. 12). In the process of participatory design and social interaction, people’s pressure will be released. This will help create a healthy green space environment.

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Fig. 10. Benefits of UGS.

Fig 9. Human Activity and social interaction.

Fig 11. Structure of water recycling.

Urban life laboratory.

Fig. 12. Eco value and biodiversity.

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Conclusion Over half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, and this proportion is expected to increase. In this context, the primary task of design is to put people first, construct humancentered design. In terms of research methods, it mainly includes: (1) Literature Review, the study of related theories and cases study; (2) Comparative methods, by comparing different design concepts, to further strengthen our understanding of the theme. At the same time, we have a deeper cognition of the relationship between urban green space (UGS) and human subjective well-being; (3) Design Driven Research (DDR: Combining the above two research methods, relying on the actual site design, use landscape intervention to improve people’s subjective well-being. The findings may assist urban managers, organizations, and communities in their efforts to increase new or to preserve existing green spaces.

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Bibliography Liu, Ruixue, and Xiaoxue Xu. 2018. “Research on the Spatial Vigor of Plant Landscape and the Influence of Environmental Factors in Urban Parks.” Journal of Chinese Landscape Architecture 34(S2): 160-164.

“Breaking Barriers | ASLA 2020 Student Awards”. 2021. Asla.Org. https://www.asla.org/2020studentawards/1668.html.

Dong, Yuping, Helin Liu, and Jun Qi. 2020. “Research progress on the relationship between urban green space and residents’ health.”

Journal of International City Planning (5): 1-16.

Chen, Ming, Fei Dai, and Fan Fu. 2019. “Urban block health planning strategy from the perspective of atmospheric particulate pollution.” Journal of Chinese Garden (6): 34-38.

Bowler, Diana E., Lisette Buyung-Ali, Teri M. Knight, and Andrew S. Pullin. 2010. “Urban Greening To Cool Towns And Cities: A Systematic Review Of The Empirical Evidence”. Landscape And Urban Planning 97 (3): 147-155. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2010.05.006.

Morais, Marcos Vinícius Bueno de, Edmilson Dias de Freitas, Viviana Vanesa Urbina Guerrero, and Leila Droprinchinski Martins.

2016. “A Modeling Analysis Of Urban Canopy Parameterization Representing The Vegetation Effects In The Megacity Of São Paulo”.

Urban Climate 17: 102-115. doi:10.1016/j.uclim.2016.04.004.

Wolch, Jennifer R., Jason Byrne, and Joshua P. Newell. 2014. “Urban Green Space, Public Health, And Environmental Justice: The Challenge Of Making Cities ‘Just Green Enough’”. Landscape And Urban Planning 125: 234-244. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.01.017.

Maas, Jolanda, Sonja M.E. van Dillen, Robert A. Verheij, and Peter P. Groenewegen. 2009. “Social Contacts As A Possible Mechanism

Architecture Research Agenda

Behind The Relation Between Green Space And Health”. Health & Place 15 (2): 586-595. doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2008.09.006.

Xiang, Yi, Huiyi Liang, Xingyue Fang, Yuxuan Chen, Naisheng Xu, Mengyao Hu, and Qujing Chen et al. 2021. “The Comparisons Of On-Site And Off-Site Applications In Surveys On Perception Of And Preference For Urban Green Spaces: Which Approach Is More Reliable?”. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 58: 126961. doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126961.

Van Renterghem, Timothy, Jens Forssén, Keith Attenborough, Philippe Jean, Jérôme Defrance, Maarten Hornikx, and Jian Kang.

2015. “Using Natural Means To Reduce Surface Transport Noise During Propagation Outdoors”. Applied Acoustics 92: 86-101. doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2015.01.004.

Wang, Yiming, Li Xue, Zhou Yu, Yuan Xin. 2016. “Landscape design based on the concept of health”. Journal of Environmental Protection and Circular Economy 36(06): 30-35.

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Syllabus 02 Adrian is currently pursuing a Ph.D. -H2020-MSCA-ITN- degree in Solutions for Outdoor Climate Adaptation (SOLOCLIM).

He holds a MSc degree specialized in Urban Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change, and a Bachelor in Architecture. He has authored and co-authored publications in the sectors of housing, nexus theories, climate change, and the United Nations – Sustainable Development Goals (SDG´s). During his career, he worked with international organizations, academic institutions, foundations, and the public and private sectors.

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The focus of this research is to understand the urban heat islands effect (UHI) causes, its characteristics and impacts on the health and the thermal comfort of citizens. The study analyses the state of art in urban cooling techniques, prioritizing the use of water and evaporative cooling, but not limited to other passive techniques, design strategies and technologies to maximize the cooling effect at the local scale. The research uses a design-driven approach to develop innovative water-based cooling prototypes adequate to specific urban areas and microclimate conditions. Meanwhile, applying research through design approach to optimize and document the results of each of the prototype´s performance in a series of iterative design-optimization process.

Adrian Moredia Valek Cooling Cities: Innovative urban waterbased cooling systems

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Research Topic - What?

The research initiates by understanding the various causes originating the urban heat islands effect (UHI), it’s characteristics and the impacts on human health and thermal comfort. Performing the “state of the art” in urban cooling techniques and principles, prioritizing the use of water, but not limited to other passive principles, techniques, design strategies and technologies to maximize the cooling effect at the local scale.

The aim of the research is to innovate in the field of climatesensitive urban design, focusing on the use of evaporative cooling strategies and techniques to reduce the impacts caused by the “urban heat-island effect “on citizens health and thermal comfort. Distinguishing different “solutions” in relation to variable climate conditions and a comparison between various cities with different climate conditions.

The objectives of this research is to develop innovative (new) prototypes in the shape of physical or digital models for cooling outdoor spaces and to provide insights in the variety of scenarios that can be anticipated under the influence of the heat island effect. The research is applied to outdoor elements, spaces, and surfaces, focusing on the analysis and use of water to lower the air and surfaces temperatures, both, in vertical and horizontal elements in the urban environment.

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Focusing on enhancing the capacity of the selected areas to withstand the impacts related to heatwaves, and simultaneously to heavy precipitations according to the period of the year, working as a bridge to tackle the dichotomy between seasonal droughts and floods in localized urban areas, improving its overall resilience and the quality of life of citizens. Such an approach promotes further research on the integration among resilient public space, urban design practices, academic research, and climate policies.

Background, Context and Problem Statement - Why? The Climate Change phenomenon affects human health, both directly and indirectly (McGregor 2007). The direct impacts have physical effects, such as exposure to high temperatures during heatwaves (dehydration, cardiovascular diseases, and heatstroke’s) or diseases, injuries, and fatalities from extreme weather events (flash floods, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires).

The indirect effects include changes to systems that support life, such as natural ecosystems and the services they provide to humanity (regulatory, provisory, supportive, and cultural), or may also induce a societal response to climate impacts, such as displacements of population and international migration.

The so-called urban heat island (UHI) effect refers to the difference in temperature between surrounding rural and urban

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areas, mostly due to the absorption, creation, and retention of heat in the cities. It mainly occurs due to the substitution of the natural landscape with an urban layout (ex.-built assets such as buildings, streets, and public areas), that usually retains heat during the day and release it back to the atmosphere above the city during the night (Santamouris 2002). Heatwaves can impact both natural systems and humans’ comfort and health. The first is related to extreme heat, stressing the general climate conditions for animals and plants, for example, the average temperature, humidity, and availability of freshwater.

Meanwhile, the second relates to the effects on humans, which can range from poor thermal comfort to dehydration and poor thermoregulation; that may cause skin rashes, cramps, headaches, heat stroke and even death.

Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics in a population may also determine an individual’s level of risk.

These include age groups -affecting children under five years and senior citizens the most-, and people with pre-existing diseases, depression, isolation, mental illness or lack of information and awareness of the potential risks posed by heatwaves. People having one or multiple conditions are at higher risk of heat-related illness and death (WHO 2018).

Heatwaves are also related to excessive use of electricity and increasing pollution impacts, thus, further increasing the risk

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of heat-related illnesses to the population.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated on its fifth Assessment Report (2013) that over the last 50 years heatwaves had become more frequent, and that the frequency and intensity will continue to increase globally in the next century. There are many documented cases in which urban areas were impacted by an abnormal rise in the environment’s temperature, leading to heat-related fatalities (ex. heat strokes), senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to heatwaves and UHI effect (WHO 2015).

Methodology – How? The study incorporates research through design approach while developing innovative water-based cooling systems, able to intervene in the public space and respond to peek temperatures in summertime, improving the overall microclimate conditions of the selected urban areas. Such an approach entails a mixed strategy to explore by quantitative methods the relation between the variables, and test them in two different scenarios, comparing and analysing the effects to human thermal comfort.

The method selected implies organising a series of round tables with different groups of experts to co-develop, analyse and evaluate the prototypes criteria (design, efficiency, costs,

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scalability). This is considered as a triangulation between relevant stakeholders, the validation of the prototype; designed in an iterative and participatory approach to maximize its overall feasibility. The previous, requires a qualitative methodology, which data is collected from a pool of multidisciplinary experts to have at least one participant of the municipality, private sector, academic institutions and/ or international organizations. The importance of such an approach is to design solutions based on multi-stakeholder knowledge, collected in different stages when designing the prototypes. Each round serves as starting point for the next round and all the rounds are constitute an iterative approach to co-designing the prototypes.

Literature Review and Case Study Analysis Research on cooling outdoor microclimates has gained much attention in the last decades due to the continuous increase in global temperature and the intensity of heatwaves striking cities worldwide (Levermore et al. 2018), including the principles, techniques, and systems to lower the temperature of urban areas and their microclimates.

Spatial planning techniques are typically used for cooling outdoor urban environments, some of the essential include induced ventilation, blocking solar radiation, improving

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heat absorption and albedo properties of materials, earth pipe systems, inducing water evaporation and increasing evapotranspiration from nature and green areas.

Until now most of the research performed on this topic is focused on green and blue infrastructures, and in the use of reflective colours and materials (cool materials) on buildings and outdoor pavements (cool pavements) to reduce the heat absorption from their exposure to the sun (Alexandri and Jones 2006; Coutts et al. 2012; Hongyu et al. 2016; Wu et al. 2018). Meanwhile, the availability of evaporative cooling research is mostly limited to indoor cooling and on reducing the energy consumption of buildings (Tominaga et al. 2015; Joanna 2016). Some academics (Nakayama and Fujita 2010; Steeneveld et al. 2014; Domínguez, and Sánchez 2016; Gunawardena et al. 2017) have established in their research that the presence of water in urban areas constitute a natural cooling technique, especially in hot/dry summer conditions.

Their study reflects the relevance of water systems, and their applicability to reduce the air temperature due to the cooling potential of water evaporation.

Three main principles steer the evaporative cooling effect; the first is the evapotranspiration from vegetation; the second is the evaporation of exposed water sources, the third related to the percentage of humidity in the soil and air. The absence

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Table 1 and 2.

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of such principles in urban areas has been identified as determinant reasons causing the UHI effect and are directly related to urbanization processes and regional climate.

Some of the most important principles to consider for successfully using water evaporation as a cooling technique are within the principles of surface-area to volume-ratio, and heat transfer from air to water or vice versa. The energy necessary to evaporate water is taken from the surrounding air, which ideal conditions are dry/hot, resulting in an exchange of energy between them in the evaporation process (heat transfer), cooling the non-evaporated water and the surrounding air, as well as increasing the relative humidity.

For this process to occur, water requires high amounts of energy to evaporate. Thus, the higher the exposure of the surface area is, the higher the energy transfer due to evaporation may occur. The total energy used to arrive at an evaporation point is known as latent heat (λwater=2453 KJ/ kg). The minimum reachable temperature output from this process is called the air wet-bulb temperature (Domínguez and Sánchez 2016).

To better understand evaporative cooling, it is of most importance to have a quick dive to the past and analyse ancient cooling techniques. For instance, architects and builders have used the cooling effect of water evaporation

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since the origins of urbanisation (Joanna 2016). Although most of them were designed for cooling indoor areas, it’s interesting to review the cooling principle behind them.

Traditional architecture from Mediterranean cultures, design vast water sources inside urban areas as a sign of development, power, and wealth. Designed as public spaces and areas for citizens to convene around, they are the first forms of public services. They created entire underground systems and aquifers to supply freshwater into fountains and water basins.

The Romans included into the list of functions the cooling effect of water, outdoors with great fountains splashing and evaporating microdroplets. Meanwhile, indoors by using water inside clay jars to induce evapotranspiration to increase the thermal comfort of closed spaces. The Persians used wind catchers (badgir) and qanats, a combined system based on towers able to capture predominant winds from as high as 34m, connected to underground basins that used geothermal cooling and running water to naturally refresh and ventilate building spaces.

Many water-based cooling technologies and techniques have been explored in the last two decades, mainly focusing on cooling the air by the principle of heat transfer and the evaporation of water. Architects and urban planners are

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more frequently including in their designs, the use of waternebulisation, water-curtains, and water bodies. What mostly hinders their comprehensive implementation is their reliance on specific microclimate conditions (relative humidity and global temperature) and their capacity to self-adjust to changes in the climate (Ulpiani 2019).

A well-known example of water-based cooling systems was showcased at the CIEMAT, EXPO 92-Seville. The Seville Expo in the year 1992 was an event created by the Spanish government to commemorate important events in their history. The event was initially planned to adequate a bioclimatic approach to propitiate outdoor thermal comfort to the visitors, implementing a series of principles to achieve it. The main design techniques were building shading structures, water and vegetation features for cooling, and induced ventilation. The climate of Seville is well known for its extreme hot/dry temperatures during summer. The months of June, July, August, and September are usually the highest in the year. The Expo took place between April 20th and October 12th .

This meant a significant challenge to the designers intending to provide comfortable conditions to the exhibitors using outdoor spaces for leisure activities. However, a group of designers, academics and students conceived a new typology

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of gardens, parks and urban areas applying advanced cooling strategies.

Some of the most important strategies where (Domínguez, S. and Sánchez, F., 2016) solar radiation control, introducing elements that create shadows such as pergolas, trees, canvas, and retractable covers. The (Gunawardena et al. 2017) prevention of overheating and (Levermore et al. 2018) reduction of thermal gains focused on supressing heat creation and transmission by a/c units.

However, water was one of the essential elements in the exhibition, both for its (McGregor et al. 2007) evaporative cooling effect and its aesthetic contributions to the spatial design. Some of the most representative features where fountains, ponds, cooling towers, water cascades, water curtains, water cooled pavements and underground cool air ducts. Such innovative design features were conveniently located in the areas of pedestrian’s itineraries.

The exhibition focused on the cooling potential of evaporating water to refresh visitors under hot/dry summer conditions. One of the central cooling systems was developed by installing water spraying systems (nebulisers) in several towers of about 30m high, spraying micro-droplets of water to the air and inducing down-draft currents of cooled air.

As showcased in the CIEMAT, EXPO 92-Seville, designing

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solutions for outdoor thermal comfort requires creative design, new and innovative approaches to tackle the UHI effect and heatwaves striking cities worldwide. Understanding the origin of the problem can facilitate design-oriented practices (Berglund et al. 2015); meanwhile, an iterative design process may lead to more efficient solutions (research through design approach) (Cortesão et al. 2019). The creation of new generations of physical and digital prototypes are essential to increase the thermal comfort of citizens.

Applicability and Best Design Practices of Evaporative Cooling in Europe.

Research Aim and Objective My research reviews and test evaporative cooling principles and techniques applied to outdoor elements, spaces and surfaces. Focusing on DESIGNING INNOVATIVE COOLING PROTOTYPES USING WATER to reduce peek temperatures during extreme events (heatwaves) in urban areas, improving the thermal comfort of citizens.

Hypothesis Evaporative cooling is a natural process to reduce air and surface temperature. The applicability of evaporative cooling in Europe may reduce greatly the urban heat island effect by

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introducing spatial design strategies and techniques to urban spaces. In this research, I design and test different water-based cooling prototypes for their cooling potential, expecting to improve air and surface temperature in outdoor spaces.

Method Until this moment, my research has revealed different possibilities for improving existing evaporative cooling techniques. Inspired from past principles and analysing best cooling practices used today. I present a methodology based on three steps to design and test the prototypes, to regenerate public spaces, improve thermal comfort of urban dwellers and to enhance the climate resilience of selected urban areas.

The drawings and methodology presented are the first round and do not constitute the final design. However, if proceeding with this drafts, they will constitute the baseline of the research, which will be analysed in further stages and summited to evaluation in the roundtables (as the research through design approach) for later optimising and documenting the results in a series of iterative designoptimization processes.

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Data driven spatial analysis: Autocad, Sketch-up and ENVI-met.

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Step 1 – Data Driven Spatial Analysis (Identifying the Hot Spots) Providing useful data to decision makers is a common technique to understand where solutions may have the most impact. The methodology for selecting the urban hot spots considers crossing relevant data from regional environmental conditions, different aspects of the urban morphology and the population.

In this case, I cross city level maps pointing heat stress areas and vulnerable age groups (younger than 5 years and older than 65 years). The hot spots are the result of a combination of factors that show priority areas to assess regarding the urban heat island effect.

To create this analysis, the use of multiple software is needed.

Starting by crossing the maps with a GIS analysis as explained above. Once the hot spots are clear, other software like AutoCAD and sketch-Up support the 2D and 3D modelling of the spaces before making a proposal, creating a detailed understanding of the scale, building heights, materials used, total green areas and general dimensions and morphology of the selected urban space.

The previous data are then exported to the ENVI-met software, where the combination of the previous urban characteristics is analysed with climatic variables, such as

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air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, soil typology, materials albedo among many other parameters. The result of such complex analysis results in a comprehensible data driven spatial analysis.

Step 2- Prototyping Water-Based Solutions (Design Proposal) After understanding the current conditions of the urban morphology (Business as Usual Scenario) it is time to design and retrofit the water-based Cooling prototype. Such prototypes are intended to reduce the temperature of the urban area and provide additional thermal comfort to urban dwellers. All prototypes are inspired from past practices from different cultures around the world. The prototypes are later analysed for their cooling potential with the ENVI-met software in a before and after proposal (Proposal Scenario).

Example: Prototype Niche’s - Downwash Cooling System Inspired by the Persian wind catchers, taking advantage of wind flows in cities is possible. The downwash phenomenon is normally mitigated by certain barriers installed to lower facades of buildings to reduce the air speed from urban wind flows. Innovation on this technique is possible, by designing new barriers that instead of mitigating the downwash effect would take advantage of the air currents generated

Architecture Research Agenda

Cooling Cities: Innovative water-based cooling systems.

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by such phenomenon. In combination with materials such as wet-pads, hot air is forced throe the wet-pads, which by heat transfer principles will hypothetically reduce the air temperature coming out on the other side of the system by 2 to 5 degrees cooler.

Step 3 – Analyse, Compare and Retrofit (ITERATIVE DESIGN) The final stage of the proposal starts in the first iteration of the prototype, where different experts carefully selected by the researcher contribute on the improvement of the prototypes. Such research through design approach constitutes the validation and optimization of the prototype in different design and optimization rounds. After the different parameters are evaluated, the final prototype will be analysed and conclusions will be drawn to understand if the prototypes have succeeded in reducing the air and surface temperature of the selected urban spaces and if they have increased the thermal comfort of urban dwellers.

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