D40005-3 - Temporary Design

Prof. Armato

Topic: The Space of Togetherness

Urban space is not just a place of transit, moving quickly from one point of the city to another in the shortest possible time, but a place to live and spend moments of serenity and relaxation with others.

A place of welcome, sharing different customs, habits, and cultures, where the culture of some does not prevail over that of others, a social act of pure exchange, mingling to give rise to the third level of encounter, a new way of conceiving and observing the world around us without neglecting the identity and recognizability of humans and the urban fabric that hosts them.

Promoting social engagement through new formal and material languages, fostering cultural exchanges and encounters. Recognizing places through signs and stratifications that arise from new uses and new functions.

The recognizability of space is an important ingredient for human life, as we move through urban space according to very specific rules; signs, shapes, and colors ensure that we do not create discomfort. "The illegibility of the metropolis and the intricacy of its spatial elements compromise the perception of the city," Kevin Lynch. An urban space that allows for the understanding of the cognitive processes of its inhabitants, making the city legible.

Recovering those characteristics of sharing and stylistic-spatial forms that the process of urban zoning (homogeneous areas) and the unbridled use of mechanical means, such as the automobile, have erased over time.

PROGRAM

The most important components for this study are co-design and co-creation. The primary objective is to design spatial solutions that place the user at the center of the design process, with strong interaction with the selected context. Therefore, a study characterized by active participatory design, citizens are the main protagonists in the various phases of the design process, involving co-design processes in the field, where expert design meets widespread design (Manzini, 2015).

Revitalized public spaces will reflect the cultural values, needs, and desires expressed by those who inhabit them, a way to foster a sense of belonging and a sense of belonging. Public space as an accessory to private space.

Method - Urban Acupuncture

Stimulate social space through small, targeted, and circumscribed interventions, a true urban acupuncture therapy that focuses on the human, time, and public space to enhance and "enhance" collective use in areas that no longer attract and provide social stimuli, dull and neglected areas. Small-scale interventions at key points generate new conditions of use and living, a design that ranges from the micro to the macro. Marco Casagrande, one of the leading exponents of this design process, sees the city as a living organism with multiple overlapping layers, with flows that determine the actions of citizens and, consequently, the development of the city itself. Jaime Lerner's experience with his Urban Acupuncture program in the city of Curitiba, Brazil, is interesting. These small interventions are spread throughout the urban fabric, with the active participation of residents.

Phase 1 - Research and Analysis

Get to know the place through visits, interviews, field research, and surveys. Desk.

Space study through functional diagrams and a list of typologies to define a map of spaces and services.

Phase 2 - Concept

Develop a concept to explore specific topics on Service Design and active participatory planning, a phase that will be addressed through ongoing dialogue with local stakeholders.

Phase 3 - Project and Model

Prof.ssa Carrà

The design of the space for socializing will be the result of the previous analyses, consisting of micro-interventions located/disseminated throughout the city.

(…) Detail does not exist, but God is in the details. (…)

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The phrase "Project of the Existing" expresses a captivating concept, developed in scientific circles in the 1980s, which promotes a profound and radical reversal of architectural practice: the project is no longer conceived in the unequivocal prediction of what does not yet exist, but in that of partial and progressive changes to what is already given: buildings, physical systems, and images, already in existence.

Quoting Valerio Di Battista (1990):

(…) In the Project of what is not there, the Existing is assumed only as a silent and interlocutory backdrop, the object of transformative actions, a victim of their impact. In the Project of the Existing, what already exists is, instead, the subject. It is the subject who, by declaring its own limits and potential; It reveals to the observer its specific opportunities for conservation and/or transformation.

The Existing is, in short, the bearer of its own code, which must be known to conceive any Project (…)".

The Project, therefore, must pursue an idea of specificity and recognizability, which can only be achieved through knowledge of the environment in which it operates… The Place… Of which the Pre-existence is a part.

The Pre-existence/Place connection, for some time now, and even more so today, has been understood as… Material for the Architectural Project.

In this assumption, the Project will metabolize its decisions and choices which, in equal terms, will look at and concern the spheres of Conservation and Transformation, defining the reinterpretation of an operation of Architectural Culture which, traditionally, has considered these fields… Separate and Antithetical.

Through their work, the students will therefore attempt to reconstruct situations of the design realities they will confront, grappling with the operational problems and constraints that normally characterize the Architectural Project. On a theoretical and methodological level, field The Laboratory's primary focus is on an activity intentionally oriented toward satisfying human needs, which can be met through the technical factors of their culture.

The Whole, in the awareness that construction activities sometimes decisively involve human life, resources, and the environment; looking at the construction/transformation as a whole and its individual organized parts, with an approach that allows for an operational response, banishing Brand, now of… Facade… Like… Sustainability.

A Condition, therefore, that will guide the paths that will be taken, towards understanding the relationships that, in the Construction of Architecture, are established between the social purposes of Transformation and the contents and Form, between the logic of Functions, the Quality of Spaces, and the choice of Materials… Monitoring the Role they assume and play in the Design of… Architecture.

Prof. Pastura

The Inclusive Design course explores the theme of inclusive design as a process capable of responding equitably, accessiblely, and consciously to the complexity of human needs, through an integrated reflection on materials, technologies, and context. The approach adopted begins with the recognition of the existing—intended not as a passive backdrop, but as an active subject of the project—and is based on a thorough understanding of the site and its pre-existing features, which are interpreted as true "materials" of the project.

From this perspective, the choice of materials and technological solutions plays a central role: not only in terms of performance and environmental sustainability, but above all in relation to the social, cultural, and symbolic values they convey. Students will be guided in the critical exploration of traditional and innovative materials, evaluating their accessibility, reversibility, maintenance, and their contribution to the quality of outdoor spaces. Material technology is thus put to the service of transforming the existing, oriented not toward resource consumption, but toward enhancing the latent potential of the built environment.

The goal is to develop products capable of establishing a dialogue between conservation and transformation, between functional needs and social inclusion, between architectural form and perceptual quality. The course is designed as a space for experimentation, where students will engage with real-world contexts, concrete constraints, and scenarios of social and spatial marginalization, developing design solutions geared toward equity and inclusion.

Moving beyond stereotypical or purely aesthetic visions of sustainability, the course proposes an approach grounded in responsibility and coherence between social goals, construction logic, and material quality. Materials thus become active mediators between design and reality, tools for inclusion and transformation, and essential elements for a new ethic of living.