60
Architectural and Urban Composition
REGGIO DI CALABRIA
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
In order to achieve the expected outcomes of the course program and the proposed experimentation, the educational offering, structured into various activities, pursues the following objectives:
- Qualifying educational objectives: The aim of the course is to provide students with the tools necessary to understand and develop a conceptual and theoretical analysis of individual projects.
- Specific educational objectives: In particular, the course specifically focuses on the study and understanding of AI and its implications for architecture and design.
Course Prerequisites
The necessary prerequisites are having already learned the theoretical and non-theoretical tools necessary to write a thesis on the proposed topics.
Teaching Methods
1. TYPE OF TRAINING ACTIVITIES:
The program includes theoretical lectures, classroom exercises, and study seminars, structured as follows:
- lectures, generally in the first four weeks, aimed at acquiring skills related to understanding AI in architecture.
- Project exercises aimed at acquiring theoretical methods
- The last three weeks will be dedicated to reviewing the theoretical topics assigned by the instructor.
Attendance is mandatory.
Lectures: (hours/year in class): 10
Exercises: (hours/year in class): 15
Practical activities: (hours/year in class): 27
Other: seminars: 8
Training activities will take place in the second semester and according to the academic calendar.
STUDENT INDEPENDENT WORK
Students are required to complete individual work for a total of 90 hours:
1 credit = 25 hours (10 hours in class/15 hours of student work*)
- In-depth study of the literature (theoretical part): 20 hours
- Test preparation (experimentation): 35 hours
- Exam preparation: 35 hours
Assessment Methods
- Initial theoretical test to assess basic knowledge at the beginning of the course (February 2024)
- Midterm exam on the program through lectures and seminars (March/April 2024): Exercises will be developed according to the thematic guidelines indicated by the instructor.
- Final exam - (May 2024 during the WORKSHOP week): Exercises will be developed according to the thematic guidelines indicated by the instructor.
The final exam, which requires a minimum attendance (70%), will include a discussion and evaluation of the theoretical paper, and an oral part focusing specifically on the recommended readings.
Exam format: Theory and Practice
Texts
Bibliography
Nello Cristianini, Superhuman, Beyond the Limits of Our Intelligence, Il Mulino, Turin 2025.
Marcello Sèstito, Global Architectures, Fluid Solids, or Composing Straight and Curved, Gangemi, Rome 2002.
Franco Purini, Composing Architecture, Laterza, Bari 2009.
Gio Ponti, Love Architecture, Rizzoli, Milan 2008.
Jianwei Xun, Hypnocracy: Trump, Musk, and the New Architecture of Reality, TLON, Rome 2024.
David Eagleman, Dynamic Intelligence, Corbaccio, Milan 2021
Other Educational Materials
Informational materials and technical data sheets on historical architectural theories will also be provided.
Contents
1_DESCRIPTION
The Architectural Research Theory course will focus on the relationship between artificial intelligence and architecture. For a decade now, we have been witnessing a paradigm shift in architecture, with the increasingly widespread use of new technologies that threaten to overturn a millennia-long process on which the discipline or art of architecture has embarked, a process that has sometimes yielded astonishing results. It is unnecessary to retrace the history of architecture and its masterpieces here. Artificial intelligence (AI), in its recent developments, exploits globalized memories in increasingly chaotic forms, often based on hyperrealism or architectural surrealism. While the construction of the image of architecture has achieved excellent results, this has not always been the case for architecture in the strict sense, which draws on its millennia-long history, where the relationship between norm and form, typology and morphology, was evident. The theory course will focus on these gaps, to which students will be asked to respond by developing relevant themes. In his debut book, Jianwei Xun exposes the mechanisms that govern our age of "hypnotic narratives," revealing how power operates not through oppression but through the stories we consume, share, and believe. Introducing original concepts such as "algorithmic edging" and "dark resistance," Hypnocracy is a map for navigating the confusing and fascinating territory of contemporary life, discovering new ways to desert it, inhabit it, and sabotage it.
2_COURSE SYLLABUS
The Architectural Research Theories course aims to analyze the theoretical components that have guided design, especially in the contemporary context. This course aims to guide students toward the acquisition of a method of study and conceptual development that will subsequently enable them to develop specific forms of analysis across the entire design process, unraveling its significant components. Students will be asked to write individual theses on the topics covered in the course, specifically the influence of current AI developments and results on the design process. The course will analyze the various forms that artificial intelligence takes on architectural design and its potential future implications.
More information
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
The course aims to acquire basic skills and knowledge on both the theoretical aspects and the tools for designing and controlling architectural composition:
Acquisition of various invention tools
Acquisition of the values of architectural literacy
Acquisition of the concept of scale, from sketching to three-dimensional drawing
Acquisition of various conceptual development methodologies
The value of form and function in the theoretical field
The value of humanity at the center of our formal acquisitions, and therefore, the body at the center of architectural space as an anthropogeometric and emotional development.
Knowledge and understanding;
- Knowledge and understanding will be exercised through in-class assessment of lectures, with brainstorming activities on key topics and with class involvement.
Applied knowledge and understanding;
- Applied knowledge and understanding will be assessed through proposed experiments, writing, and classroom presentations during the course.
Making judgments;
- Making judgments through engagement and interaction during seminar activities, with the request to formulate critical observations and elaborate further in a shared discussion.
Communication skills;
- Communication skills through classroom discussions for midterms and the final exam.
Learning skills.
- Learning skills will be fostered through various teaching activities and assessed through the bibliography of assigned texts and through research for in-depth study in order to complete the practical activities undertaken by each student.