The City in the Architectural Project

Research focus

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The research focuses on the city of Milan and its territory as a context of study for analysing and experimenting with the role of “City in the Architectural Project”. The study of the city and its elements constitutes an essential part of the architectural research. This study represents the vital condition for defining the reasons behind the place and the architectural project. «Real space» represents the basic reference for developing the architectural concept and begins from the way in which the concept has been constructed, as a result of one or more projects. By analysing the city we attempt to distinguish the elements and logics of organisation that have accumulated in the course of time and to interpret them as an expression of multiple architectural approaches. The architectural concept is, therefore, taken as a privileged object of study in the knowledge of the city. Consequently, we shall attempt an analysis of the city of Milan and its territory as the reconstruction of a group of projects. These are considered in the context of their complex historical and special relationships and taken as a reference for defining new ideas of transformation. The results of the projects relating to the areas studied enables the definition of their current role and the consideration of their potential future. This town-planning project is presented, therefore, as the development of the different concepts that are historically expressed within them. The research is conducted with the contribution of different disciples: Architectural and Urban Composition, History of Architecture, Town-planning and Analysis of Urban Morphology and Building Types. This research activity pursues the long tradition of the work of the research team, which is broken down into the following themes: a.1 The knowledge of city architecture in defining project aims and themes. The analysis and the project research take as a reference specific areas of the Milan and Lombardy context, tackling with the same methods both built-up areas and open spaces; the activity previously carried out is documented by the research reports compiled by G.Cislaghi and M.Prusicki on various Milanese areas. a.2 The knowledge of building architecture in defining project aims and themes. This is mainly concentrated on the architecture of public buildings, taking as a knowledge base the systematic use of the most relevant national and international building projects, divided according to market and in relation to the various historical periods. 21 b.1 The study of historical cartographic and cadastral sources to further knowledge of city architecture. The study concentrates on several products of Milanese and Lombard cartographic researches on the basis of previously conducted activities documented by various publications, including: CISLAGHI, G., Descriptif de la ville et de la région dans les cadastres milanais, in “Morphologie urbaine et parcellaire” , Saint-Denis 1988. b.2 The study of the architectural culture to further knowledge of the city. This activity is carried out in continuation of the results of previous years (see: GRANDI, M., PRACCHI, A., Milano. Guida all'architettura moderna, Zanichelli, Bologna 1980; DE BENEDETTI, M., PRACCHI, A., Antologia dell'architettura moderna. Testi, manifesti, utopie, Zanichelli, Bologna 1988), with the specific analysis of three basic stages in the process of the formation of the city of Milan: b.2.1 The study of the contribution of architects and engineers in the construction of medieval Milan, previously covered in: PRACCHI, A., La cattedrale antica di Milano, Laterza, Rome-Bari 1996. b.2.2 The study of the contribution of Leonardo da Vinci in the construction of Renaissance Milan, following the activity of the interpretation of many of his sketches and designs that had not yet been correctly deciphered. The work led to an extensive knowledge of 15th-Century Milan and enabled several important city projects and creations to be attributing to Leonardo for the first time: see in particular: CISLAGHI, G., Leonardo urbanista e cartografo a Milano, Porta Vercellina, in «Raccolta Vinciana», fasc. XXIX, a. MMI [ma 2002], pp. 143-189; CISLAGHI, G., Leonardo da Vinci. Le misure del borgo di Porta Vercellina a Milano, in «Il disegno di architettura», 25-26 (Oct. 2002), pp. 11-17. b.2.3 The study of the contribution of Giuseppe de Finetti in the construction of contemporary Milan, an expression of an alternative modernity that has its roots in the period of Enlightenment in Lombardy and Loosian functionality, developing what has previously been published on his works; see in particular : CISLAGHI, G.,DE BENEDETTI, M., MARABELLI, P.,(edited by) Giuseppe de Finetti, progetti 1920-1951, Milano, 1981; CISLAGHI, G.,DE BENEDETTI, M., MARABELLI, P.,(edited by) Giuseppe de Finetti, Milan. Costruzione di una città, Hoepli, Milan 2002, pp. XV-XVLI + 728, with XX plates f.t)].

Departments

Dipartimento di Progettazione dell’Architettura

Professors

Full Professors
Cislaghi Giovanni
Associate Professors
De Benedetti Giuseppina Mara
Pellegrini Cesare
Pracchi Attilio
Prusicki Marco Stanislao