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 small-scale architectural project.
- Specific educational objectives (with reference to the course topic)
Course Prerequisites
The necessary prerequisites required are to have already acquired the graphic and non-graphic tools necessary for developing an architectural project.
Teaching Methods
1. TYPE OF TRAINING ACTIVITIES:
The program includes theoretical lectures, laboratory exercises, and study seminars, structured as follows:
- lectures, generally in the first four weeks, aimed at acquiring skills related to architectural project design.
- Project exercises aimed at acquiring design methods
- The last three weeks will be dedicated to reviewing the design 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 bibliography (theoretical part): 20 hours
- Test preparation (experimentation): 35 hours
- Exam preparation: 35 hours
Assessment Methods
- Initial graphic 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 project's graphic design, one or more explanatory tables illustrating the project at various scales, and the creation of a 1:100 scale model made of nylon powder and laser-printed. An oral exam will focus specifically on the texts recommended in the bibliography.
Exam format: Theory and Practice
Texts
Bibliography
Marcello Sèstito, Architectural Alphabets, Gangemi, Rome, 1994;
Marcello Sèstito, Global Architectures, Fluid Solids, or Composing Straight and Curved Structures, Gangemi, Rome 2002;
Franco Purini, Composing Architecture, Laterza, Bari 2009.
Gio Ponti, Love Architecture, Rizzoli, Milan 2008.
Other Teaching Materials
Basic information and cartographic materials, as well as some technical data sheets, will also be provided.
Contents
1_DESCRIPTION
The course aims to develop the construction of an architectural project, relating it to the places where it is located, and to construct a fragment of the city in which to find a location that, albeit hypothetical, can spark all the relationships that the site, in its various components, establishes between the compositional process and the resulting outcomes. The teaching, based primarily on the construction of compositional processes, also in relation to other complementary disciplines, attempts an unusual journey through the history of architectural design, delving into the origins of the compositional act, its emotional and formative origins. It essentially involves bringing together the sums of compositional alphabets produced in the past, as essential components of the architect's work, relating them to a more specific context, aimed at the student's education. This counter-history of architecture, or rather, this permanent history, will be based on the intimate components of the design process, compared with masterpieces of the past, and capable of interacting with current architectural events, in which the legacy of the modern movement and the events of deconstruction intertwine to generate updated tensions for contemporary composition. Since typological components, while essential to architectural knowledge, have demonstrated their weaknesses over time, they will be studied in an attempt to conceptually overcome them, arriving at the meaning of dwelling and building, circumventing this interpretative obstacle.
2_COURSE SYLLABUS
The Architectural Design 1 course will focus on the exploration and architectural design of elements constituting contemporary composition, using compositional strategies in which individual study typologies will be subjected to consequent revisions. It will address implicit design themes starting from the definition of space, light, and form. These are all components useful for understanding the project as it evolves and takes shape in the contemporary forms we know. This will be done with the aid of previous models, understood as significant examples capable of suggesting new tools for the art of composition, which is increasingly dominated by the use of IT tools and artificial intelligence, which is transforming its results into a form of DIY where the meaning and integrity of the form is lost, which, for architecture, remains a form that signifies. Students will be required to produce an architectural "page" that will highlight the compositional strategies, the underlying developments, and the strategies that have governed several significant projects.
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:
Theoretical and practical acquisition of the notion of landscape and the different scales of architectural design
Acquisition of various invention devices
Acquisition of the values of architectural literacy
Acquisition of the concept of scale, from sketching to three-dimensional drawing
Acquisition of various project development methodologies
The value of form, function, and fetish
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 elaboration.
Knowledge and understanding;
- Knowledge and understanding will be exercised through in-class assessment of lectures, with brainstorming activities on key themes 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.