Educational goals
The course aims to provide the conceptual and methodological tools necessary to address the themes of the urban project in different contexts of planning application.
Its presuppositions refer to a conception of the project understood as a strategy of transformation of the existing that assumes as determining values:
- the critical interpretation of the context, against the current propensity to emphasize it
eradication and de-contextualization;
- the sustainability of the planned changes, from an environmental point of view, but also of the technical, administrative, economic and social feasibility of the interventions, with the aim of ensuring an effective integration between intentions, actions and outcomes;
- the recognizability of a city idea taken as a reference to the project.
The program of the course moves from these assumptions, offering the methodological tools necessary to set up the project development process and proposing their concrete application on a specific intervention context in the city of Pescara.
Giving acquired the knowledge of the foundations of urbanism and the ability to analyze the contexts of intervention, gained through previous academic experience (Urbanistica 1), the urban planning course 2 takes in particular the following training objectives:
- know how to set up the urban project in its dual value as the organization of the settlement structure divided into parts and networks of connection, and of a framework of coherence for projects to transform existing spaces;
- knowing how to articulate the design scales, from the framing in the urban context to those that are more properly operative for the local project;
- be able to evaluate the quality of the project with particular reference to the consistency with the objectives assumed and in any case to the principles of compatibility with the context, environmental sustainability and the affirmation of a contemporary idea of the city.
To achieve the training objectives set out, the teaching offer is divided into modules of theoretical teaching and project exercises.
Modules of theoretical teaching: they are structured in didactic cycles, in which they are treated
respectively:
1. current ways of understanding urban planning and urban planning for the territory and cities;
2. the themes of the relationship between project and context, developed according to the Landscape Sensitive Design approach and with reference to the operations of understanding the sense of the place and assessing the urban and landscape transformability;
3. the relationship between project and structure, with reference to the operations of interpretation
of the existing, of anticipation of possible future, of configuration of the settlement structures and of the infrastructural networks and of the sustainability;
4. the relationship between project and conformation, related to the use of the different ways of
physical and functional organization of settlement forms.
Design exercise modules: they are intended for the elaboration of a proposal in which the individual operations of interpretation and conformation of the physical spaces reproduce the main stages of the design process and critical evaluation of the project.
In particular, the exercises deal with the following themes, which correspond to specific thematic maps:
1. Interpretation of the context: the sense of places; transformability conditions; projects in progress or planned.
2. Critical evaluation of the project of the sector implemented.
3. Formulation of the objectives to be achieved and the design concept.
4. Definition of the design alternative.
5. Critical self-evaluation of the project alternative.
Duration of the course, how to pass the exam
The course has a six-month duration. Lessons, exercises and reviews will take place
exclusively in the second semester of the A.A. 2018/2019.
Attendance to the teaching and laboratory activities of the Course constitutes a guarantee of admission to the examination of profit within the semester, moreover, at least 4 reviews are required to be admitted to the first exam session.
In general, the first day is dedicated to theoretical lessons, and the second to laboratory activities (operational communications, exercises and revisions)
Modality of verification of learning
Students are allowed to take the exam individually or in groups of up to 3 people.
Remember that in any case the evaluation is individual. Each student, even if part of a group, will have, during the examination, a personal evaluation, the result of a check both on the theoretical preparation and on the ability to discuss the choices made in the design application.
The exam consists of two parts (carried out at the same time); the first concerns the individual verification of theoretical preparation; the second one concerns the discussion of the elaborates of the application.
Work progress
Progressive phases of work are foreseen, according to the deadlines communicated during the lessons.
Students are required to respect deliveries according to the dates indicated during the course. The deliveries of the status of work progress constitute credits for the acquisition of the attendance certificate, which entitles students to pass the exam within the time frame set by the course program.
Design projects
The works produced during the exercises must be represented in A1 format, with graphic and communication techniques agreed with the teacher on the basis of the reference models that will be provided during the lessons. The communicative effectiveness and the quality of representation of the works will in any case be evaluated.
