Architectural Design and Construction of the City

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Good

In the research conducted by the work team, the city is considered one of the principal bases of architectural planning. Cities develop over time by superimposition and stratification, slowly redefining the hierarchies between the realities they are made of. The way cities relate to time and to the heritage changes constantly: and the past therefore surfaces and conditions them in different ways. These differences represent the basis of their identity. The layering of signs, geometries and routes therefore not only has a cognitive or documentary, but also constructive and aesthetic, value. Architectural design must take this into consideration: it manifests a desire for transformation that must be based on the profound structure of the city, and recover and interpret the long-term characters of the cityscape. Today the values and meanings of architecture are challenged by a collective removal of the historical and civil contents of the urban aggregate: the sense of its identity and the profundity of its culture has been lost. This is especially true for city outskirts, both historical and recent. They are too often described as a homogeneous and indistinct magma: an analysis reveals that their scenery is, on the contrary, characterized by changes and breaks, contaminations and contrasts, and rich in historical signs and influences. On this path, and considering both the territory and the urban aggregates, architecture may rediscover a largely lost relationship with archaeology. It may rediscover it on two different levels. In the first place on a level of research and methods. Being a study of remains and traces from a distant past, archaeology is essentially based on clues and specific techniques. They may be transposed and applied to a more general study of urban habitats, to an ampler target. But another problem tackled by archaeologists also concerns architecture, namely the deciphering and treatment of finds. The theme of their conservation cannot be separated from that of their possible urban and civil meaning, and from that of their formal arrangement, that should be scientifically rigorous yet aesthetically significant. Ancient and prolific synergies may therefore be re-established between architecture and archaeology. The dialectic between modernism and the various attempts to go beyond it registered over the years is another essential issue. The group has made an extensive critical reassessment on this topic, also considering other cultures than the Italian, and particular the Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and the Latin American world. This review has been accompanied by an intense design experimentation. 121 The research has centered on specific urban and territorial themes, comprising both rigorous analytical studies and the elaboration of projects linked to actual situations and cases. The themes are the result of university researches as well as work done for third parties, and interaction with external works and project, and may be summarized as follows. a) Studies and projects on Milan and the territory of Lombardy (in particular starting with : 1. «Archaeological areas and architectural design», co-funded MURST research of considerable national interests, 1998-2000; national coordinator Prof. Giorgio Grassi; leaders of the research team on the subject «The area of the Roman Forum in Milan», professors A. Torricelli and D. Vitale; 2. «Archaeological remains and forms of urban aggregates: the center of Milan and the surrounding centuriate territories», research by the Athenaeum, year of 2001; team leaders: professors A. Torricelli and D. Vitale; 3. convention between the Milan Polytechnic and the Archaeological Museum of Milan, coordinator Prof. Daniele Vitale; 4. research «Forms of habitats and construction of locations in the Ticino and Po valleys: studies and projects», research by the Athenaeum, 2002; responsible professors A. Torricelli and D. Vitale; 5. «researches, studies and projects on the north-west directrix and in the Municipality of Rho», developed both by the university and on the basis of external assignments, responsible professor D. Vitale); b) studies and projects in the Puglia region (based on researches developed by the Doctorate in Architectural Composition, that commenced with the assignment, to the Milan Polytechnic, of the town plan of the Municipality of Cerignola, responsible professor A. Torricelli); c) studies and projects on the territory and cities of Greece, in particular Athens and Salonica (on the basis of various exchange opportunities and backed by the Onassis Foundation and a research allowance from the Polytechnic); d) researches and archaeological project for the reconstruction of the Basilica of Mount Nebus in Palestine, Jordan (on the basis of an assignment by the Custody of the Holy Land); d) interpretations and reassessments of the modern tradition in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Latin America (on the basis of co-operations and exchanges with universities in those countries and activities of the Department and the Doctorate in Architectural Composition).

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Progettazione dell’Architettura

Docenti afferenti

Full Professors
Angelo Torricelli
Daniele Vitale