ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION II AND LAB

Module ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION II

After establishing that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions in architecture today, the course aims to provide students with the tools—including analytical skills, critical and creative thinking, and the ability to develop and guide lines of reasoning and processes—needed to construct an approach to architectural design capable of examining the reality to be designed by questioning its own limits and those of contemporary society. This approach is grounded in care as a commitment of the designer’s spirit and practice. Design is thus experienced through the observation of all those aspects of life in the 21st century that require design with the attention and care for the needs of today’s society that are essential for the effectiveness of design outcomes.

The course consists of two modules (Architecture and architectural composition II and Laboratory Architecture and architectural composition II) that are completed in a single program that is being described here and that is therefore reported without variations in both modules.

Attendance at the course lectures is mandatory and essential for developing the topics and completing the design assignments. During the lectures, the topics covered are discussed with the students, who thus actively participate by offering insights for discussion and suggesting topics of particular interest to them for further exploration. During lab sessions, students carry out design exercises under the guidance of the faculty. In this context, attendance also serves to establish clear and direct communication regarding the topics to be developed and the guidelines for approaching them most effectively.

The course deals with the theme of the sense of contemporary dwelling in the Heideggerian meaning. Dwelling therefore studied through the observation of all aspects of contemporary life related to the new needs of society in economic, environmental, social, technological, anthropological, cultural, aesthetic and ethical terms. Issues that are declined in the following contents of the course: the sense of dwelling (from home to objects); ethics and architecture; aesthetics and architecture; ethics and aesthetics; hints of industrial design; public space.

The complexity of the architectural project is the theme that, consequently, is faced during the theoretical lessons, which are structured and argued as follows:

• For the understanding of architecture and in particular of contemporary architecture (the topics addressed are of an instrumental and theoretical nature;
• Monographs on the work of the masters of contemporary architecture;
• Movies;
• Interventions by external guests (the contribution of designers or other professional figures and / or testimonies that can enrich students' cultural baggage is hosted in the seminars of the course);
• External visits and conferences;
• In-depth themes chosen by the students of the course (at the beginning of the course, immediately after the presentation of the program and contents, students are asked to suggest a topic of their particular interest, not included in the program, which they want to be addressed with a specific lesson)

Essential bibliography:

1. D’Urso S., Le forme della memoria. Artifici mnemotecnici nella progettazione dello spazio pubblico, Malcor D’, Catania 2018.
2. D’Urso S. (a cura di), I confini del progettare. Seminari sull’architettura l’uomo e la bellezza, LetteredaQALAT, Caltagirone 2015.
3. Cassarà L., D’Urso S., Goodbye Topolinia. Su architettura e fumetto, Malcor D’, Catania 2013.
4. D’Urso S., Il senso dell’abitare contemporaneo. La casa unifamiliare, Maggioli, Rimini 2009.

Complementary reading:

To dream

1. Abbott Edwin A., Flatlandia. Racconto fantastico a più dimensioni, Adelphi, Milano 1993;
2. Calvino I., Le città invisibili, Mondadori, Milano 1996;
3. Tanizaki J., Libro d'ombra, Bompiani, Milano 2000;
4. Mazzucchelli D., Asterios Polyp, Coconino press, Bologna 2009;

To deepen

1. Celeschi I., Sull’architettura spontanea nell’hinterland etneo, LetteredaQALAT, Caltagirone 2017.
2. D’Urso S., Miccione D. (a cura di), Singolarità e formularità. Saggi per una teoria generale dello stile, Ipocpress, Milano 2011;
3. Piñón H., Teoria del progetto, Maggioli, Rimini 2009;
4. Zanini P., Significati del confine. I limiti naturali, storici, mentali, Mondadori, Milano 1997;
5. Clément G., Il giardiniere planetario, 22 publishing, Milano 2008;
6. Clément G., Manifesto del Terzo paesaggio, Quodlibet, Macerata 2005;
7. Dell’Osso R., Spazi pubblici contemporanei, Maggioli, Rimini 2015;
8. Forzese E., Architettura terza. Forme e visioni del paesaggio tecnologico, Malcor D’, Catania 2014.

To avoid making mistakes

1. La Cecla F., Contro l’architettura, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2008;
2. Wolfe T., Maledetti architetti. Dal Bauhaus a casa nostra, Bompiani, Milano 1988;
3. Clemente M., Gli architetti ... Dovrebbero ammazzarli da piccoli! Guida pratica alla ristrutturazione della casa senza prendersi l’ulcera, Robin, Roma 2006;
4. Silber J., Architetture dell’assurdo. Come il «genio» ha tradito un’arte al servizio della comunità, Lindau, Torino 2009;
5. Ross A., Celebration. La città perfetta. L’utopia urbanistica finanziata dalla Disney, Arcana, Roma 2001;
6. Chamoiseau P., Texaco, Einaudi, Torino 1994.

To refer

1. Koolhaas R., Mau B., S,M,L,XL, The Monacelli Press, New York 1995;
2. Holl S., Parallax. Architettura e percezione, Postmedia, Milano 2004;
3. Piano R., La responsabilità dell’architetto, Passigli, Firenze 2007;
4. Tschumi B., Red is not a color. Architecture concepts, Rizzoli, New York 2012;
5. Zumthor P., Pensare architettura, Mondadori Electa, Milano 2003;
6. Zumthor P., Atmosfere. Ambienti architettonici. Le cose che ci circondano, Mondadori Electa, Milano 2007;
7. Ingels B., Yes is more. Un archifumetto sull’evoluzione dell’architettura, Taschen, Köln 2011.