18547 - Architecture and Architectural Composition 3

Learning outcomes

There is a complementary relationship between building and context? What constraints and "incentives" derive from structural challenge? These questions will guide us in a process of analysis and design around the theme of architecture as a synthesis of different subjects: history of architecture, architectural design and structural engineering. The three urban models are related to the object of three cities: Bologna as radial-city, Berlin as archipelago-city and the Manhattan's urban grid, will be analyzed, compared and will provide three case study for urban projects related to the theme of cities in city. The study of some specimens that clearly summarize issues related to the composition, the relationship between building and context and structural choices will be one of the central topics of the workshop. In particular will be analyzed the theoretical research of Oswald Mathias Ungers related to the megastructural theme of "Berlin 1995", the ​​ Rupenhorn area in Berlin and the work of Pier Luigi Nervi, with a particular attention to the structural design of buildings as the "Manifattura Tabacchi " in Bologna and the "Port Authority bus terminal" in New York who, in their diversity, represent an initial sampling of compositional and structural issues that well summarize the current research of Nervi. These case studies will provide a "role model" for the subsequent development of the project. This analysis will be developed through an archive-research and through a redrawing that will highlight the critical issues mentioned above and which will be an element of the debate on the topic of structural design, sizing and relationship with the context. The relation between the choice of the structural system and its reflexes, on the iconography and on the architectural composition, will be the subject of an extensive study.

The three cities will be deeply surveyed on the different contexts of urban, suburban or natural interest; each student will study a different possibility for the development of the thesis, summed up with an historical research, urban design, and a project to the architectural scale.

Course contents

The workshop will begin September 19, 2011, the end  will be in February 2012. The workshop will continue with weekly meetings for the discussion of the thesis, presumably in the autumn session of the academic year 2011-2012. The laboratory will develop through different stages:

The ANALYSIS. Research on urban form and Megaform, (from September 19 to October 9) Each student will produce some cards containing data on different urban contexts The three different urban models, will be studied through an iconography to compare the impact generated by the three large projects of Nervi (Tobacco Factory in Bologna, the Port Authority Bus Terminal New York) and Ungers (Residential Area to Rupenhorn , Berlin).

Educational trip to New York.

ANALYSIS ON THE STRUCTURAL DESIGN, (from October 10 to October 30). Investigation on the structural design of case studies buildings of Nervi and Ungers. This investigation will guide the structural, compositional, historical, theoretical process  through a search of archival materials and thorough a study of three-dimensional models. This will be an important phase of knowledge for the development of the project.

PROJECT, Choice of the case study area and identification of structural issue; (from 31 October to 11 December).

Presentation of the three topics:

BOLOGNA - the city's ring road;

NEW YORK - The city infrastructure;

BERLIN - the city of nature.

STRUCTURAL STUDIES (from 12 December to 27 January). This phase will end with the eligibility, where you will find: historical documents, maps and environment appropriate for the intervention, models and plans. The building project will be developed with text, tables, drawings to different scales, plastic, to illustrate the basic design intentions. To meet the eligibility the student must present a model of the project and the elaborate tables prepared always UNI format A1/A0.

Office hours

See the website of Annalisa Trentin