Università degli Studi dell’Adriatico “G. D’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara
Dipartimento di Architettura di Pescara
Corso di laurea in Architettura
Corso del 4° anno – A.A. 2019-2020
COMPOSIZIONE ARCHITETTONICA QUATTRO
Prof. Carlo Pozzi
Arch. Giovanni Rasetti
Premise
The Composition 4 course of this academic year addresses the theme of the planetary dimension of the Informal City, analyzing and carrying out project proposals in two completely different contexts but with analogies on the theme of the spontaneous realization of the slum and the construction of new centralities.
The contexts are those of the Borgo Mezzanone, on which the September 2019 workshop will take place, and of the Dharavi slum in Mumbai, on which the course design exercises will be held in the second semester (2020).
Design themes
September 2019 Workshop _borgo Mezzanone
The project starts from the major problem of the Municipality of Manfredonia, a problem that is not local but national, with the abusive settlement of thousands of non-EU citizens in the hamlet of Borgo Mezzanone, on the border with the municipality of Foggia (45 km from Manfredonia and 15 km km from Foggia). The abusive settlement is totally devoid of minimum hygienic conditions, located near the CARA, a reception center for migrants, the third largest in Europe, which hosts 1,500 refugees.
The hamlet of Borgo Mezzanone is home to "the runway", a former reception center, now a shanty town, a real city without rules, with residents for over ten years, many of whom are farm laborers exploited in the Capitanata fields. Bars, refreshment points, car shops, water and electricity "stolen", but no medical assistance. Inside of course there are strong problems also linked to widespread crime, prostitution and various types of abuse, in addition to the total absence of the state, which is no longer even able to enter the area, now no man's land.
The innovation proposed for European funding involves working with the territory and with people, trying to find shared solutions that can be inclusive. The presence of immigrants is evidently excessive for the settlement, and if we could somehow "lighten" the settlement, we could think of accompanying a transformation process to an urban dimension of what is now informal.
In the sub-Apennines dauno, territory bordering Campania, many villages are at risk of survival due to unstoppable depopulation, caused also by the scarce local economy. The loss of the garrisons of the territory has incalculable damages, not only on a cultural level, but above all because the lack of "care" and constant maintenance, can cause consequences also due to the escalation of the problems linked to climate change.
The project idea on which you will work in the September workshop is to work in synergy on the one hand on the villages of Dauni and on the other on the informal settlement of Borgo Mezzanone, defining contact spaces of the "community building" type that manage a path of training / information able to relocate part of the families that today live in conditions of extreme insecurity and total degradation, in the Apennine territories now abandoned, to help repopulate them.4_Dharavi Composition Course in Mumbai
The course will deal with the theme of the informal city, built by slums.
Dharavi is an extensive informal settlement in Mumbai, a city that today has more than 18 million people and where 15% of the total inhabitants of the Indian "slums" live.
The history of the city and its evolution up to the current form bring out two fundamental questions: on the one hand the phenomenon of informality, the result of continuous immigration, stratification and expansion, in its social and economic relationship with a metropolis in continuous growth.
On the other hand, the ecological problem of a city built on land taken from the sea, weak in the face of violent monsoon floods that most affect the informal settlements.
The first part of the work will consist of an analysis of the project area, trying to highlight not only technical-structural, but also social and cultural aspects, which can support the ideas of intervention. The main elements of analysis will be the different road flows (pedestrian, neighborhood and high-speed), the flow destined for public parks and the differentiation of commercial and pedestrian areas; the most consolidated areas will then be identified, which present pre-existing areas to be maintained.
The masterplan will keep all this information together as different pieces of a mosaic, adding buildings designed to make them as suitable as possible for the project area, intended for residences and the market.
Buildings will be designed that can adapt to self-construction methods: the programmatic hypothesis is that the inhabitants would be provided with a basic structure with steel beams and pillars and a corrugated sheet floor, while for the plugging part a solution with bricks would be suggested, from realize at the discretion of the individual inhabitant.
We will reason by organizing the thought starting from some key words and from the most significant projects that can be a reference:
Complexity, Hybridization, Iconicity, Formal-Informal, Prefabrication, Reversibility, Reuse and Recycling, Vacuum-Fluidity-Porosity, collective space, infrastructural space, natural space.
Type of teaching
The mode is mixed:
- video projections on contemporary architecture related to social housing and discussion of issues related to the informal city;
- ex-cathedra lessons on the themes of the program;
- discussion tables around the themes of the project.
The revisions are collective in the first part, around the tables, then intermediate seminars, finally individual revisions.
Attendance is mandatory: the verification is done through frequent deliveries and collective seminars on the progress of the project.
A synthetic A1 table and a 1: 200 scale model will be produced for the workshop.
The tables required to take the exam will be 3 in A1 format and will include:
-reversion of the 1/1000 scale masterplan - 1/500 planovolumination
(with functional diagrams, cross section, study model)
identification of critical issues, mobility system and connections, system of public spaces, trainsedia relations and nature
_ project on an urban scale
Layout of the 1/200 scale area - even in depth 1/50
(general plan, plans, elevations, sections, 3d views, construction details, study model)
Series of lessons
The cycle of lessons will be articulated according to different contributions aimed at widening the pool of awareness in relation to the complexity of the planning process:
- 1st. Conferences and invitations
On the theme of the informal city, on issues of urban eco-compatibility, on infrastructures and new centralities;
- 2nd. Architecture video
Architectures realized in modernity and contemporaneity on which to graft a reflection linked to the specificity of the project within the slums;
- 3rd. Ex-cathedra lessons
The contemporary physical and cultural scenario in which the project is placed. The methods for identifying the context and the criteria for interpretation are suggested: the urban history and the current features of the area (transformation tools - plans and projects - methods of use).
BIBLIOGRAPHY general
1. AA.VV., The Other City, in Boundaries n. 4, Roma 2012
2. Secchi B., La città dei ricchi e la città dei poveri, Laterza, Bari 2013
3. Moroni S., La città responsabile, Carocci, Roma 2013
4. Pozzi C., Il clima come materiale da costruzione e altri scritti su Le Corbusier, Libria, Melfi 2015
5. Manigrasso M. (a cura di), Brasile. Imparando dalle favelas, Quaderno n. 4 di PPC, LIst, Rovereto 2015
6. AA.VV., The inevitable specificity of cities, Lars Müller Publishers, Zurigo 2015
7. Manigrasso M. (a cura di), Regenerating Kibera, LetteraVentidue, Siracusa 2018
8. Fabietti V., Pozzi C., From Sprawl to Slum, LetteraVentidue, Siracusa 2018
9. Rasetti G., Tensioni. Architetture nei paesaggi, LetteraVentidue, Siracusa 2018
10. Biraghi M., L’architetto come intellettuale, Einaudi, Torino 2019
Monographs on the architects of the Modern Movement.
Electa editions volumes on contemporary architects.
Monographic issues of El Croquis magazine and Boundaries magazine.
Numbers of the magazines Casabella, Domus, Lotus International.
SITOGRAPHY
In progress, to be built with the research work of the students
Pescara, 23 May 2019
