21002005 - URBAN PLANNING STUDIO

Provide theoretical, critical and operational planning aimed towards the construction and transformation of urban space. The course includes lectures and exercises with analysis of urban planning, studies on urban territories and consolidated in transformation and design of parts of these territories.

Canali

teacher profile | teaching materials

Programme

The pervasive character of the urban condition has generated unprecedented and complex city-forms. Metropolitan city, city-territory, generic city, etc., a proliferation of definitions has followed all trying to catch the emergence of the urban condition, to mark its limits, at most denying their existence. A proliferation of images/figurations and counter images/figurations—Ecumenopolis, No-stop city, Stop-city, etc.—have been worked out by the urbanism culture all bringing to radical terms the effect of the logics underpinning nowadays urbanisation—and the modern urban condition.

At the same time, the notion of rural continues to navigate not only in common sense but also the administrative and political spheres. Still vast areas are de facto rather isolated or just do not offer the same conditions for the full realisation of an urban lifestyle and yet they are still subject to the forces of urbanisation and the proliferation of its multiple potential implications. These territories are often stimulated by the relentless global competition of attracting flows of investments and tourists if not merely to offer the basic living requirements for the active population to stay in place (a job, basic services, an active social life, etc.).
Over the last years, in Italy, a country historically characterised by strong polycentrism resulting in a smear of minor centres and hamlets, the attention towards those areas that are far from the main urban centres has been increasing. This has brought to the launch of the Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne—or inner areas—in 2012 (SNAI). Beyond the institutional definitions, the inner area can be regarded as the closest to a rural situation.

But where does the city end? Does it actually end and in what terms?
In the broader formal and political concept of city form, the definition—and concept—of spatial and political but also mental limit is at stake (see Aureli and Tattara, 2011).

The course gives the possibility to develop a critical view on today urbanisation, specifically on urban-rural dynamics and their implications on specific inner areas of the Italian territory.

A longitudinal section of the Italian territory—or transect—is the preferential situation investigated, the source of insights and the testing ground of hypothesis. The transect cuts through a given territory spanning from a specific, identifiable urban condition—and city form—to a rural situation that falls within a particular inner area of Italy as defined by the SNAI. Along this territorial section it will be possible to read the transition between what is commonly recognised as urban and, on the other side, what is commonly defined as rural.

Core Documentation

Lefebvre, Henri (1973) La rivoluzione urbana. Roma: Armando Editore.
Mitrašinović, Miodrag (ed.) (2016) Concurrent Urbanities: Designing Infrastructures of Inclusion. New York: Routledge.
Secchi, Bernanrdo (2008) La città del Ventesimo Secolo. Bari: Editori Laterza.


Reference Bibliography

Cruz, Teddy (2016) Where is our civic imagination? In: Mitrašinović, Miodrag (ed.) Concurrent Urbanities: Designing Infrastructures of Inclusion. New York: Routledge. Katsikis, Nikos (2014) Two Approaches to “World Management”: C. A. Doxiadis and R. B. Fuller. In: N. Brenner (ed.) Implosions/Explosions. Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization. Berlin: Jovis, pp. 480–504. Koolhaas, Rem (1995) What Ever Happened to Urbanism? In: Koolhaas, R. and Mau. B., S,M,L,XL. New York: The Monicelli Press, pp. 959–971. McHarg, Ian L. (1995) Design with Nature. John Wiley & Sons Inc Taut, Bruno (1976) La dissoluzione della città. Faenza editrice.

Type of delivery of the course

A mix of active and passive learning allow the student to build his/her own knowledge. Accordingly, the design course proceeds following three main intertwined moves: 1. Theoretical background; 2. Territorial exploration; 3. Writing. 1. Theoretical background Lectures, seminars, and collective critics but also selected readings run parallel to the territorial exploration (see below) allowing students to develop a reflexive posture with regard to the notion of urbanity and related emergent socio-ecological processes. A group of frontal lessons is dedicated to the most relevant, provocative conceptualisations and description of the urban condition, its prefiguration—and counter-prefiguration: urbanisation, city-territory, Città Diffusa/Zwischenstadt/Nevelstad, etcetera but also Ecumenopolis, No-stop city, Stop-city, Generic City, Broadacre City, etcetera. Another group of lessons refers to conventional and less conventional methods of material and immaterial portrayals: territorial description by de-layering, micro-stories, architectural ethnography, power relations diagramming, etcetera. 2. Territorial exploration The longitudinal section of a territory—transect—and its transversal areas are the two main trajectories of the territorial exploration. The first 7-9 weeks, groups will conduct a diagnosis which will be combined with a design exploration in the weeks that follow. The territorial exploration is constellated by three collegial moments or composition. By bringing the materials together, the composition enables each group to critically look at their work against the one of the other groups, to understand interconnections, overlaps, inconsistencies, conflicts and synergies. By taking every time one of the three themes (societal, environmental and heritage) as vantage point, the composition moves across scales linking the transect (the territorial) with the transversals (the local) and vice versa. As such, the composition is a moment of negotiation of ideas and associated values and needs. In this move, students work in groups. Each group is associated to one or more of the following themes: societal, environmental and heritage. 3. Writing Each student is required to produce a A4 original essay of about 500 words. The essay is a reflection on a topic that will emerge during the course and should integrate inputs coming from the other two moves, theoretical background and territorial exploration.

Attendance

Attendance is compulsory according to the regulations. In the case of an extension of the health emergency by COVID-19 all the provisions that regulate the way in which teaching activities and student evaluation are carried out will be implemented. In particular, the following procedures will be applied: distance teaching and examination, while, as far as possible, several key moments of the laboratory work (e.g. introduction and workshops) will be carried out in attendance while ensuring that safety distances are respected.

Type of evaluation

The evaluation is carried out on the basis of the personal short essay and the results of the group territorial exploration. The essay will be delivered before the exam and the result will be considered during the examination together with the capacity to argue and the coherence of the analyses and projects produced (also in consideration of the proposed frontal lessons). In the case of an extension of the health emergency by COVID-19 all the provisions that regulate the way in which teaching activities and student evaluation are carried out will be implemented. In particular, the following procedures will be applied: distance teaching and examination, while, as far as possible, several key moments of the laboratory work (e.g. introduction and workshops) will be carried out in attendance while ensuring that safety distances are respected.

teacher profile | teaching materials

Programme

The Studio deepens and experiments some methodological theses on the construction of the urban project with particular attention to the formative reasoning of the design qualities and to the contents, holding counted of its economic-operational feasibility and of the attended spatial results.

The objective is to teach to produce a deduced interpretative reasoning and a scheme of territorial organization that allows, using the tools of plan, to direct the transformations, to choose and to put in coherence the different proposals, in reference to the character-value of the places and local demand.

In the preparation of the plan, particular attention is turned to territorial demand, to the evaluation of the objectives and the strategies of the change, to the configuration of the programmatic organizational model and the actions of plan.
Integrative lessons in the studio are:
A) the formative reasoning of the plan ( problems, values and local demand)
B) urban structure reading and evaluation methods, the plan construction and his technical and normative expression
C) typologies of intervention reference to: the form-structure, the graphics and normative expression …

Method:
The formulation of the problem, beginning from the survey of the local demand, to find the general objectives to assume for the plan: interpretation of the context and the place reading using the structural paradigm of the characters and the component systems (systems of environmental and historical values, green discontinuity and residual rural landscapes; urban typologies; uses;infrastructure); synthesis of the existing structure and selection of the trasformation dynamics; Plan operations of construction / transformation of the structure; formal and spatial results of the proposed solutions; evaluation of the compatibility and the effectiveness of the plan in comparison to the objectives and feasibility of some proposed operations.

Organization of the studio and examination
The work is developed in group. The studio is offering specific contributions and readings. The final examination is based on the discussion of the plan.

Core Documentation

- Catizzone, A. (2007), fondamenti di Cartografia, Gangemi ed. Roma.
- Gabellini, P., (2001), Tecniche urbanistiche, Carocci ed.
- Gabellini, P., (1998), La rappresentazione nel piano urbanistico, Nis ed.
- Nucci, L., (2012), Verde di prossimità e disegno urbano, Gangemi Editore, Roma.
- Nucci, L., (2004), Reti verdi e disegno della città contemporanea: la costruzione del nuovo piano di Londra, Gangemi Editore, Roma.
- Secchi, B., (2008), La città del Ventesimo Secolo, Laterza Ed., Bari.
- Campos Venuti G., Oliva F (a cura di), (2010), Città senza cultura. Intervista sull'urbanistica, Laterza Ed., Bari.
- AA.VV. (2018), Governo del territorio e pianificazione spaziale, città studi edizioni, Milano.

Reference Bibliography

- Catizzone, A. (2007), fondamenti di Cartografia, Gangemi ed. Roma. - Gabellini, P., (2001), Tecniche urbanistiche, Carocci ed. - Gabellini, P., (1998), La rappresentazione nel piano urbanistico, Nis ed. - Nucci, L., (2012), Verde di prossimità e disegno urbano, Gangemi Editore, Roma. - Nucci, L., (2004), Reti verdi e disegno della città contemporanea: la costruzione del nuovo piano di Londra, Gangemi Editore, Roma. - Secchi, B., (2008), La città del Ventesimo Secolo, Laterza Ed., Bari. - Campos Venuti G., Oliva F (a cura di), (2010), Città senza cultura. Intervista sull'urbanistica, Laterza Ed., Bari. - AA.VV. (2018), Governo del territorio e pianificazione spaziale, città studi edizioni, Milano.

Type of delivery of the course

Organization of the studio and examination The work is developed in group. The studio is offering specific contributions and readings. The final examination is based on the discussion of the plan.

Attendance

The attendance is mandatory

Type of evaluation

The final examination is based on the discussion of the plan.

teacher profile | teaching materials

Programme

In the last fifty years of the last century, cities have more than doubled their physical size and, in general, land use, for urbanization purposes, has grown exponentially. It is an urbanized area that, in some cases, has also become a metropolis but without passing through the city. A territory whose structure is not stable but where everything still needs to be rethought, modified.
An increasingly diverse and fragmented population crosses this territory, inhabits it, uses it and transforms it. The city is crossed less and less by the inhabitants and increasingly by individuals who use it. A floating population crosses the places of the city, uses them, demands that the city works but does not care for it: the city as a product, not as a social construction.
In this scenario, traditional urban planning tools risk being reduced to mere knowledge of techniques without understanding, or without being aware of, the effects and implications of doing.

The course brings students closer to the main approaches inherent in the problems of contemporary urban conditions. Lessons and laboratory activities, with the active participation of students, will explore the main theoretical evolutions of urban studies. Students will be offered the twofold theoretical matrix of urban planning: the theories of why, in the sense of the reasons for urban planning, and the theories of how in the sense of the formation of the city and the structuring of the territory produced by different anthropic activities.
The course has the following objectives:
1. give students a representation as comprehensive as possible of the theoretical conceptualizations of urban problems;
2. to help students develop their creative skills and critical sense in the perspective of an operational practice that concerns the transformation processes of the built city;
3. enable students to read an urban context through urban exploration and the collection of indirect data;
4. enable students to formulate an urban project that contains appropriate intervention proposals for urban restructuring processes.
In addition, students will be called upon to argue the proposals for intervention, to support and defend them through public communications.

Core Documentation

Rieducazione alla speranza
Patrick Geddes Planner in India, 1914-1924
Capitolo secondo, L’arte di guardare la Città, pag. 75-114
Un Mondo di città
Giorgio Piccinato
Prefazione e Capitolo primo
a scelta uno degli altri capitoli
Patrizia Gabellini
Fare urbanistica
Parte Prima
Esperienze: la riflessione nella pratica, pp.13-72


Type of delivery of the course

The course includes lectures, exercises, and design documents that will be collected in a single "Notebook" to be delivered one week before the exam. Deliveries are expected during the course. In the case of an extension of the health emergency from COVID-19, all the provisions that regulate the methods of carrying out the teaching activities and student assessment will be implemented.

Attendance

The attendance of the course, even if remote, is mandatory for 75% of the hours

Type of evaluation

The exam is oral and takes place by discussing the contents of the Notebook, answering the design choices, and answering questions on the reference texts and lessons. In the case of an extension of the health emergency from COVID-19, all the provisions that regulate the methods of carrying out the teaching activities and student assessment will be implemented.