60
Architectural and Urban Composition
REGGIO DI CALABRIA
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
In order to achieve the expected results of the course programme and the proposed experimentation, the didactic offer articulated in the different activities pursues the following
Qualifying educational objectives: the aim of the course is, also through exercises in composition and decomposition of architecture
provide students with the necessary tools for the study, understanding and elaboration of an architectural project, addressing the main disciplinary concepts inherent to the design of a building.
Specific training objectives (with reference to the theme of the course/workshop): in particular, the course specifically aims to transfer basic skills and knowledge of both the theoretical aspects and the tools for setting up and controlling an architectural project.
It is intended to enable the student to: acquire a "method", understood as an articulated succession of stages that allows an architectural project to be developed; know how to deal with a theme that has urban implications with a southern city, with its urban history, its economy, its social fabric: in general its context.
Course Prerequisites
It is obligatory for students, as per the 'Didactic Regulations', to have taken the Architectural Composition 1 examination.
To have already acquired basic drawing notions concerning the graphic representation of architecture in plan and elevation/section.
Teaching Methods
1. COURSE STRUCTURE AND TEACHING
Distributed for frontal teaching hours (10 hours=1 cfu) (as per register)
Lectures: (classroom hours/year): 30 hours
Exercises: (hours/year in the classroom): 20 hours
Practical activities: (hours/year in the classroom): 10 hours
Other: individual study
Calendar of training activities (also only indicating the week/semester with reference to the teaching calendar)
Classes will take place in the second semester of 2025/26, from February to May 2026, and will include one day a week of classroom lectures, with a very tight schedule alternating between lectures given by the lecturer on the one hand, and exercises to be carried out at home, every week, by the students, also in the "free hand" mode. These teaching moments are planned in a tight schedule in order to engage the student on a continuous basis. A great deal of importance is attached to the home exercise, which represents the fundamental moment of growth and in which the student must also draw "freehand" and with sketches.
2. AUTONOMOUS LEARNING OF THE STUDENT
The student is required to do individual work for a total of 90 hours:
1 cfu=25 hours (10 hours frontal/15 by the student*)
- In-depth study/study on bibliography (theoretical part): 20 hours
- Test preparation (experimentation): 35 hours
- Exam preparation: 35 hours
The Laboratory, as is in its nature and specificity, provides for an intense activity to be carried out in the classroom, on a weekly basis. In-depth studies to be carried out at home are also envisaged. Students will have to study essays and magazines, masters of twentieth-century architecture, they will have to learn how to make notes, they will have to make models/plastics and photos, they will finally have to redraw the projects they study and also draw freehand, in the form of sketches, what they will elaborate as a personal project
Assessment Methods
Modalities and stages of verification (intermediate and final) of learning
- **To be carried out in the week available in the calendar (Art. 18 paragraph 3)
ES (simulation)
0_ test to check basic knowledge (start in training activities)
1_ intermediate checks on the programme in lectures and seminars
2 _ final check - Final Review/ WORKSHOP (May 2026) **
(cf. art. 14 teaching regulations/ attendance obligation)
The topics dealt with during the lectures are also aimed at carrying out a series of preliminary assignments aimed at checking the student's level of attention, reception and performance in relation to what is being dealt with from time to time. All exercises/deliveries/examinations are subject to an assessment from time to time regularly recorded in a special register.
The final examination concerns the assessment of the final project/exercise compared with the results obtained during the course in the various preliminary assignments.
Examination procedure: Theory/Practice
The examination will be taken individually, by each student, as are all the exercises, both in the classroom and at home. The design solutions adopted will be returned through sketches, technical drawings, models and a short video presentation.
The examination may be taken following verification and certification of classroom attendance of no less than 70% of the hours set out in the lecture calendar. Course attendance is assigned individually on the basis of actual participation and is recorded by the lecturer.
The examination consists in the presentation and discussion of the final project boards, also taking into account the evaluation of the intermediate and accumulated papers during the classroom exercises and workshops, and in the interview on theoretical topics dealt with during the lessons and on the recommended bibliography.
Texts
- Cardullo, Francesco, “Giuseppe e Alberto Samonà e la Metropoli dello Stretto di Messina”, Roma, Officina Edizioni, 2006.
- Focillon, Henry, Vita delle forme, Einaudi, Torino, 1990.
- Ponti, Gio, “Amate l’Architettura. L’architettura è un cristallo”, (ed. originale Vitali e Ghianda, Genova, 1957), ed. recenti Rizzoli, Milano, 2008, Quodlibet, Macerata, 2022.
- Séstito, Marcello, “Alfabeti d’Architettura. Ricognizioni e precognizioni dell'operare nella progettazione”, Gangemi Editore, Roma, 1994.
- Vicari Aversa, Clara Stella, “Architettura nell’illimitato bordo terracqueo”, Le Penseur Edizioni, Brienza, 2025.
Reference sitography:
- https://www.and-architettura.it/index.php/and/article/view/616/569
(Vicari Aversa, Clara Stella, “Il-limitato dinamismo sui bordi: Lo spazio “from the spoon to the moon?”, in: AND Rivista di Architetture, Città e Architetti, Spazio > Connessioni, v. 44, n. 2, 2023)
(AA. VV., Le sfide dell’architettura 26. Edilizia sociale, Corriere della Sera n. 26 del 13/10/2018, RCS MediaGroup S.p.A., Milano)
- https://casabellaweb.eu
- https://www.domusweb.it/it.html
- https://geoportale.comune.messina.it/gfmaplet/ (cartografia/ortofoto Comune di Messina)
The texts indicated constitute both the theoretical knowledge base and the basis for the elaborations to be articulated and reported in the "Notebook of Composition Exercises 2".
More articulate and specific bibliographies and other indications will also be given in class on the basis of the assigned exercises.
Consultation of monthly architecture magazines, such as Casabella and Domus, is recommended, as well as whenever possible, visiting art and architecture exhibitions, going to the theatre, concerts, debates, the cinema, listening to music, etc., with the conviction that the road to the recognition and appreciation of beauty, passes through knowledge, appreciation and often even the intersection of multiple artistic forms.
Everyone has an innate disposition to excel in some field, and it is also and above all through study that it is possible to discover one's talent to be expressed, and then to cultivate it with dedication, exercise, training and passion.
Contents
1_DESCRIPTION
The aim of the course is to advance students' design skills towards optimisation in tackling themes of increasing complexity in order to acquire a generalisable methodology suitable for the resolution of any design theme. The compositional aspects tackled, which aim at the articulation of geometric and formal relationships taking on different aspects according to the languages adopted, always also have the inevitable objective of activating an important relationship between the components of the object to be defined and, at the same time, between this and the context to which it is destined.
Training objectives:
The scientific-disciplinary contents refer to the architectural project, in its extension from detail to the urban dimension, as a process and moment of synthesis. They are divided into methodological aspects, concerning the theories of contemporary design; analytical-instrumental aspects, for the study of the distributive, typological, morphological and linguistic characteristics of architecture and the city; compositional aspects, concerning the aggregative and formal logic with which the organism is defined in its elements and parts and relates to its context; design aspects, for the solution of specific themes related to interventions from scratch or on the built environment.
For Architectural Composition 2, in particular, the objectives are:
- to acquire the tools for the analysis of an urban context of medium complexity in order to identify the themes for the transformation and the conditions for the insertion of architectural artefacts.
- to acquire the ability to give coherent form to the functional architectural programme for a building, preferably a collective residence, in its technical and formal characteristics and in its relations with public spaces.
2_COURSE PROGRAMME
The theme of the course is the elaboration of a "Social Housing" project, i.e. the design of a residential building, with its exterior and interior spaces.
The frame of reference of the course programme, social housing is therefore an expression of contemporary evolution of the social housing typology. Contemporary social housing takes on a broader declination than in the past, fitting into today's architectural culture, which seeks more complex, diversified and plural forms of living. One of the main objectives of Social Housing is to improve the conditions of its users, for whom it becomes important not only to have their own accommodation but also to develop a neighbourhood reality in a decent housing context with adequate use of collective spaces.
The theme is therefore also an opportunity to reflect on the contemporary city, since it is a question of combining smart city, housing needs and energy saving, aware that unfortunately the three parameters have, so to speak, a differentiated obsolescence.
The place to design, building for housing and outdoor spaces, is in Messina, near the sea front. The course will focus on the project of urban reconnection of a central area near the sea front of the Strait of Messina, but at the moment marginal, while conceiving new public spaces. The project as a tool for inclusion that allows for the development of interpersonal relations within the urbanised public space and in the scheme of the courtyard block present in the city plot, suitably updated. Creating a 'new urbanity' could be the project's claim.
3_EXPECTED RESULTS
Knowledge and understanding.
Through lectures, exercises, including on the concept of space and autonomous work activities, students will acquire knowledge of the main principles and problems of architectural composition and design.
Applying knowledge and understanding.
The student will apply the acquired knowledge to the coordination of the aesthetic aspects, construction requirements and economic aspects of architectural design.
Autonomy of judgement (making judgements).
Through study and personal research, the student will develop critical skills, to formulate his/her own evaluation and/or judgement, to autonomously find, select and use data and information, to be able to take initiatives and make decisions (e.g. identify problems and find solutions).
Communication skills.
The student should be able to present his/her design choices correctly and efficiently, using appropriate terminology, demonstrating the theoretical system, the scientific process and the feasibility of the construction of the architectural project.
Learning skills.
The student will have to demonstrate the ability to continue studying independently, even after the teaching has ended, and the ability to keep up to date with the content covered.