Samuel Iuri / Portfolio.
Who am I?
Samuel Iuri.
What I do.
Skills.
I am an architectural student, born in Italy in 1991. I concluded my Bachelor in Architectural Studies with highest honours in 2013, with a thesis titled «The biggest splash: a retroactive manifesto for Giglio.» which aimed to explore different scenarios for the Costa Concordia shipwreck. I am currently enrolled in a Master programme in Architecture at University of Trieste. I have chosen Architecture almost randomly, but now I must admit it could not have gone any better, any other path I could have taken would unlikely offer me the chance to match and delve deeper into many aspects and fields of knowledge, no matter which, no matter if scientific, technical, artistic or creative. Too often, unfortunately, it is hard to find such occasions, so I try to create them by myself; for instance, as I did by founding AUT71, association of architectural students, with which I’ve carried out research projects, exhibitions, installations and so on. I am always open to the most weird, strange, bold and daring proposals.
I am always happy to produce architectural and directly related works, but I do also create in fields like graphic design [both digital and print], visual art, photography, physical and virtual modelling, exhibitions planning and management, cross media projects, as well as audio, lighting and video system setting for entertainment and installation purposes.
I am comfortable working on different platforms; no matter if it’s Adobe’s or open source or whatever, I believe that software is just a means and not a real meter of one’s capabilities. Anyway I feel confident using: Windows, Linux, OS X, *Office [as far as it counts...], Illustrator, InDesign, AfterEffects, Photoshop, XPress, AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Revit, Rhinoceros, Blender, Draftsight, Processing and many more and even many free! I am not at the same level on all of these actually, but I’d be really eager to learn more. I also know a bit about programming and web design, particularly in Python, Java, HTML, CSS. I gained experience in printing standard processes thanks to much fieldwork. I am experienced in handling complex media workflows.
Language. I am an Italian native speaker with an approximately C1 level [IELTS 7.5/9] knowledge of English language. Working experience. I’ve worked with architect Giovanni Damiani from January to Sptember 2014, being involved in large and small scale projects, competitions as well as research projects and exhibitions.
STUDIO WORKS
01. Poles Apart. Second Year. Architectural Design 2. Group project: contributions in concepts, architectural design, modelling, drafting, graphic design.
The city council is willing to develop a housing project in a disused area in the city centre. According to present regulation, the maximum FAR assigned to the si te allows new construction of up to 8400m², the 10% and 5% of which respectively reserved to retail and office surface and the remaining to residence for about 150 people. In addition, a parking lot proportionally sized to newly defined building must be inserted, even if possibly underground [the solution adopted in the project]. The challenge in this project was being able to match the requirements with the restrictions imposed by the town plan [such as height limits, distances from site borders and/or nearby buildings...]. This conditions naturally lead us to a “dychotomicâ€? approach [hence the title]: on the North side a set of modular apartments were organically distributed, facing the South, instead, found its place everything that did not follow the rule defined [terraces, warehouses, studio flats, co-housing spaces] in three kinds of cantilevering boxes.
Main steps of the design process. [left to right, top to bottom] Axis and influence of surroundings and nearby buildings. Internal voids and courts. A dychotomic approach discards the initial concepts and defines the main rule: apartments on the northern side, the rest on the southern. A set of three kind of “boxes� is then distributed on the south to host all other function. Colour is applied coherently on both sides.
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50m
02. Gradisca2025: [de]central park. Second year. Urban planning 1. Group project: contributions in urban analysis, concepts, plan development, graphic design.
Probably, one of the leading activities in an average 6’000-people town in the italian countryside is agriculture. In imagining the urban morphology of this town in ten, fifteen years time the role of this activity should be not only taken in account, but also considered as a resource able to foster and lead the shaping of the town in its future. As a result of the analysis and study of the history, the past and present development of Gradisca, we found that, starting from the 1980s, it has undergone a sprawl process, mainly made up of detached and terraced houses, that – despite the great number of vacant dwellings – hasn’t stopped yet, consuming large amounts of farmland. To control this expansion, we focused on an area that previous regulations have defended from the massive house-building activity: the «[de]central-park», which, along with the farmaland north of the motorway, the riverside and the «green links» – a system of linear parks – is the main target of a set of rules and policies we’ve defined to guide the development of the town towards a self-promoting use of its natural heritage.
Layered analysis. [ top to bottom] Farmlands. Building typologies. Town growth. Present structure.
Survey of green networks. [top to bottom] The town is located at the meeting point of three main green systems: the farmland landscape on the North, the vineyards on the East and the riverside protected zone on the South. Some inner clusters can also be found.
Moraro
Borgnano
S. Lorenzo Isontino
Corona
a
Mariano del Friuli Fratta
Farra d'Isonzo
Versa
Romans d'Isonzo
Gradisca d'Isonzo
S. Martino del Carso
Sagrado
Villesse
Fogliano
Redipuglia S. Pier d'Isonzo
Link verdi Parco dell'IsonzoDoberdò del Lago
Regulated development. As part of the plan some new building interventions were defined: according to their position and surroundings some areas were kept back for future development of two possible kinds: the first one aims to fill the gaps in existing urban fabric, the other one allows the creation of high-density housing to face a possible growth in dwelling demand.
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A.R.I.A. Parco dell'Isonzo Zone H Alberghi Zone HC-HCV Commerciale Zone P Caserme Zone P Servizi e strutture collettive Zone E6 Area agricola per eccellenza Zone E4 Aree agricole di pregio paesaggistico Zone C3 Trasformazione - Nuova edificazione Zone C2 Trasformazione - Ristrutturazione Zone B1-2-3 Borghi antichi Zone B Abitato Zone A Centro storico
Proposed infrastructure network. The plan aim to involve and develop the existing road network as a main component of its strategy.
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Edi cato Rete ferroviaria Viabilità autostradale Viabilità di rilevanza regionale Viabilità di rilevanza locale Viabilità comunale
Plan structure. [left to right, top to bottom] The elements on which the plan is based are: The main farmland area. The streets network. The “Green links” [a system of linear parks departing from the agricultural park and connecting the different parts of the town]. The “Decentral Park” [what should become a new central pole]. The riverside park [subject to frequent floods, thus an area in permanent transofrmation]. Rete stradale
Green link
Parco dell'Isonzo
Edi cato Rete ferroviaria ViabilitĂ Aree agricole per eccellenza
03. Walk this way. Third year. Urban planning 2. Group project: contributions in urban analysis, concepts, masterplan design, graphic design.
Gorizia is a small city on the north-eastern Italian border. Whilst focusing on this edge to plan a development could be really challenging, we’ve decided to concentrate on what we’ve defined the «internal border» existing between the histrorical city centre and the twentieth-century-expasion area north of it, and south of the river. The road, virtually being the common edge of these two fluid masses, collects in its proximity a number of different objects which were the basis of our project of urban renovation and development. Disused sites, small parks, abandoned buildings, all become opportunities to think of this «border» as new linear attractor that could serve both parts of the city while acting as an osmotic interface able to foster a balance between the higher-density core and the rarefied cluster.
Main steps of the design process. [left to right, top to bottom] Axis and influence of surroundings and nearby buildings. Internal voids and courts. A dychotomic approach discards the initial concepts and defines the main rule: apartments on the Northern side, the rest on the Southern. A set of three kind of “boxes� is then distributed on the South to host all other function. Colour is applied coherently on both sides.
sport
giardino giardino
giardino
nodo passeggeri scuola
parcheggio
giardino sport orti urbani
sport
auditorium
sport
museo
sport spazi manifestazioni camping
residenza turistica museo orti urbani
giardino orti urbani
parcheggio
auditorium
area sport chioschi
museo
residenza a basso costo parcheggio
alloggi studenti
giardino
giardino
parcheggio
scuola
sport
temporary housing
sport
giardino
giardino
giardino
parcheggio
area gioco
area gioco nodo passeggeri sport orti urbani
scuola
sport
scuola scuola polo passeggeri
stazione
servizi viaggiatori
mercato strutture pubbliche
04. Villa Louise: a wine centre. Third year. Architectural restoration. Group project: contributions in building survey, functional and development planning, interventions and material definitions, drafting.
A sixteenth-century villa, located in the city centre has remained vacant for about fifteen years. Its present conditions are very poor, due to the wet and rainy climate of this area. The first step in the restoration process of this building was finding a new set of function to host: as a result of the analysis of factors such as history of the building and urban enviroment, natural and cultural context, public facilities in the surroundings, we found out that a wine centre consisting of exhibition spaces, meeting rooms, wine bars and shops, offices, could perfectly suit both the needs that emerged from the analysis and the shape of the villa, avoiding heavy or destructive trasfromations, considering the restrictions imposed on an heritage listed building. Moreover, the joint presence of public- and private-management functions enables to partially fund the restoration and mantaining costs of the project. In the first phase we carried out a complete building survey consisting of structural integrity analysis and general inspection regarding systems and cosmetic conditions. On the results of this survey we’ve based the second phase – the restoration planning – defining all the needed actions of demolition, new construction and trasformation according to both the general development project and the regulation.
Transformation plans. [left first and second floors, right ground floor] In red are shown additions and new elements, in yellow demolished and removed ones. The leading concept in defining these interventions was trying to adapt the building to newly defind functions it should host, while trying torestore the original villa plan and avoiding the useless fragmentation of space occured during the last sixty years.
05. Winery. Third year. Architectural design 3.
Wine is one of the most important products in our area: consequently wineries are a really common typology. Despite this, the architectural side of this buildings is too frequently a mere result of the functional requirements coloured accordingly a supposed vernacular tradition. The key to successfully solve this task was in finding the right balance among a thoroughly defined programme, the landscape relations with a context subject to strict restrictions, handiness in wine production workflow and last – but not least – a peculiar experience to guests of the facility, that could perfectly match the tasting of a unique wine. Since the first steps a kind of dichotomy between a simplyshaped, compact, solid exterior volume and a structured, complex content has emerged as a main theme. This aspect has proven to be really helpful in solving some problems [internal distribution, stacking of steps of the prduction workflow] on one hand, but has caused some issues on the other. The principal of these issues has been with no doubt the relationship to establish with sorroundings: how can a perfect solid fit in such a remarkable natural context? This and other questions alike raised the occasion to start a research on different combinations of materials and textures that has ended up in the design here shown.
Gravity. The best wine production process is only based on gravity, at least in the first steps—the most delicate. This is the reason for the complex stacking of rooms of the main “core”.
Light. The picture clearly shows the big skylights that provide with natural lighting both the main room and surrounding ambiences. The blades visibile constitute the system that helps diffusing light and avoiding direct sunlight to hit the wine beneath.
FINAL WORK
The biggest splash.* A retroactive manifesto for Giglio.
«The unconscious, i.e. the ‘repressed’ material, offers no resistance whatever to the curative efforts; indeed it has no other aim than to force its way through the pressure weighing on it, either to consciousness or to discharge by means of some real action.» S. Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 1920.
* Orignally: “Un buco nell’acqua. Mainfesto retroattivo per l’Isola del Giglio.“
Manifesto. In verità, si commette un grossolano errore di valutazione nel voler indicare con il generico termine «crisi» un’altrettanto generica carenza, mancanza, scarsità [di denaro? di mezzi? di possibilità?] che sembra inevitabilmente perseguitare il presente; pare invece il contemporaneo sia ricco di frangenti critici che trascendono gli oramai consunti ritornelli delle «crisi economico-politico-socialdemografic-occupazionali» e sono piuttosto configurati in quegli eventi che al grido di «disastro», «catastrofe» e simili sottraggono per qualche istante le prime pagine alle crisi già citate, siano essi di natura idro-geologica, vulcanica, bellica, nucleare, trasportistica oppure, come in questo caso, navale. Contemporaneo denso di «criticità» dunque, ma ancor più popolato dai detriti che questi eventi lasciano sul campo, e che nel tentativo di ristabilire un ipotetico ordine sono fatti oggetto dei più macchinosi piani per la loro rimozione ed il loro smaltimento, indipendentemente da quali e quante siano le risorse necessarie per la loro attuazione, indipendentemente da quale sia la loro efficacia in rapporto al problema iniziale. Ed è così che si sancisce l’avvio di un circolo vizioso che prende la forma di un’incessante corsa alla riparazione, il più delle volte venduta sotto le spoglie della
«messa in sicurezza», come ad implicare altrimenti il rischio di minare una presunta normalità. Appare evidente come questa fatica di sisifo alla continua ricerca dell’«equilibrio» [appartenente ad un mondo più onirico che umano] sia l’alibi perfetto per una prova di forza della pratica ingegneristica che vorrebbe dimostrare d’essere in grado di sovvertire la sovversione, ma che ben presto rivela la sua vera identità, del tutto incapace di abbandonare il set di schemi comportamentali e procedurali su cui, dogmaticamente, essa stessa si fonda. E se è vero che «l’Architettura ha inizio dove termina l’ingegneria» una possibile via d’uscita si prospetta non appena si prende coscienza del fallimento ingegneristico. Lo spostamento dell’obbiettivo dalla risoluzione di un problema per cancellazione, allo sviluppo, costruzione [come implicito nel nome stesso della nostra disciplina] soprattutto in virtù dei residui rimasti sul campo, apre inevitabilmente a delle possibilità di trasformazione se possibile del tutto estranee ad esperienze passate proprio a causa dell’unicità dell’input del processo. È necessario considerare però come ciò debba dichiarare una radicale indipendenza dalle pratiche perbeniste che si attuano sotto l’egida del «ri-»: il rischio insito nel passare per riuso o riciclo che siano è inevitabilmente quello di
creare l’aspettativa di un risultato necessariamente «migliore» delle condizioni di partenza, ovvero che tutto il processo abbia sempre funzionato con un rendimento più alto possibile. Dal momento però che stabilire dei criteri universalmente riconosciuti per un’imparziale valutazione di questo dato non è possibile, a meno di non voler scivolare in banali [e ahinoi diffusissime] demagogie, si porrebbe la sindacabilità a priori degli esiti dei processi di trasformazione e di conseguenza se ne limiterebbe irrimediabilmente l’evoluzione. Ed è probabilmente la componente di elevata imprevedibilità dello sviluppo di queste trasformazioni a suscitare maggiore interesse [o preoccupazione?] in un’epoca che più che da crisi sembra essere affetta da una irriducibile stasi.
Problem? Is repression [removal, cancellation] of the ruins of disaster the only relevant solution? Couldn’t then the event emerge from the unconscious where it has been confined? Is it possible to adopt strategies able to face with no worry the Costa Concordia wreck?
A [possible] solution. Among all hypotetical projects, it has been chosen a strategy that would avoid the crystallization of the shipwreck – enabling its natural assimilation by the context in which it is inserted –, while making possible to keep a mark of the event, a perfect metaphor of nowadays society.
Content. Once selected the main strategy, it has been chosen to bring to light and to solidify the set of volumes and spaces, normally hidden to guests, that form the veritable structure of the vessel.
Result. After determining the structure, a defined set of orizontal planes intersects the output of the previous action.
Result. At this stage, the hypotesis states its calling: if the cruise liner is in itself a great metaphor of contemporary society, which better place to meditate on its fai lure?
Capital. ÂŤYet the whole history of modern industry shows that capital, if not checked, will recklessly and ruthlessly work to cast down the whole working class to this utmost state of degradation.Âť K. Marx, Value, Price, Profit, 1865.
MORE
01. Banned? Independent project carried out with AUT71, association of Architectural students. April-May 2013.
Banned was born as an independent research project on great housing buildings and complexes from the 60s and 70s. The out come of this projects was then presented as an open exhibition during the International History Festival in Gorizia. Due to lacking funding, the exhibit was totally set up with simple and low-cost materials along the streets of the city centre. This resulted in “visitors� to be directly confronted with the true meanings hidden behind this buildings, generally misconceived and improperly portrayed.
02. N.E. Mapping. Independent project.
Born almost randomly as a side project, it is permanently in progress. The idea is to capture some images and visualise the products and traces of human action as well as natural and environmental ### in a 200Ă—200km area around the northern part of Adriatic Sea. There is no particular aim in this work, but even at a first glance observations rise spontaneuosly about how three, four, different countries act on their territories, how historical, economical, social events often shaped the built environment on a large scale.
Left: map of the main powerlines.
Buildings.
Terrain morphology and main infrastructures.
R1.2014