81925 - History of Contemporary City

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide knowledge about the history of the contemporary city and the actors involved in its transformation. The course explains design actions conceived outside the specialist disciplines of the project - economic, technological, social, cultural ones - and circumstantial events in which non-specialist actors, acting, transform the physical space. At the end of the course the students: know the discussion of the history of the image of the city; use knowledge focused on reality; exploit and consolidate their knowledge and references to the figurative arts, cinema, literature, as a means of understanding the reality of the territory and of living in it; read and critically analyze complex urban places.

Course contents

The course on the contemporary city consists of two parts, a first one devoted to its aesthetic dimension (professor: Andrea Borsari) and a second one more strictly historical (professor: Giovanni Leoni).

FIRST PART

Prof. Andrea Borsari

Aesthetics for the city: images, cultures and forms of urban life.

As scenery and sedimentation of complex social and cultural interactions, the urban dimension goes beyond the physical limits of the city, and permeates the whole sphere of the imaginary and the contemporary forms of perception. Phenomena such as the "aestheticization of everyday life", the "widespread aesthetics", the use of forms of expression derived from artistic practices in fashion, design and advertising, the "aesthetics of goods" and their places, "industrial arts", the interweaving of word and image in digital media and the role of cultural-aesthetic component in the analysis and urban transformation demonstrate the pervasiveness of the aesthetic production and its ability to shape the urban cultures and life forms. They also require an analysis that reconstructs the ways of this production and conceptual frameworks capable of understanding it, as well as a reflection that highlights the ethical dimension, often interwoven with the aesthetic choices.

The course aims, through a series of lessons, to survey the major philosophical and social elaboration on the contemporary city and the images, cultures and forms of urban life. In particular, after an initial introduction on the contemporary city, the course will explore the philosophical reflection on the city focusing on a contemporary city and one or more thinkers who have worked on it, in each session. The lessons will deal with great European and American cities, such as Berlin, Paris, Rome, New York, Los Angeles, but they also will refer to the metropolis of other continents and emerging countries, such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai or São Paulo, as well as to the local reality (Bologna and Emilian cities). Also through workshops and seminars insights, lectures will paid particular attention to the contribution that the different forms of expression - photography, film, literature, visual arts, TV and web series, music, graphic novels, street art etc. - have provided to shape the experience of the places and to the understanding of urban phenomena. Exercises and guided tours will develop reading skills and critical analysis of the urban landscape and complex places inside it.

SECOND PART

Prof. Giovanni Leoni

City Form City Action

I Forms and circumstances in Post War Italian cities

II Anti-modern Venice

John Ruskin: the commandment written within things
Carlo Scarpa: Venice vs Florence
Italo Calvino: Invisible cities
Manfredo Tafuri: Sansovino facing Venetian “consuetudo”

III The coordinates of the Anonymous

Fernando Tàvora: organizing spaces
Ernesto N. Rogers: confessions of an Anonymous
Leonardo Ricci: Anonymous 20th Century
Aldo Rossi: forgetting architecture

IV Exercise
The exercise, mandatory at the end of the course, is an individual analysis on site of “Zamboni District” in Bologna. The analysis will be based on methodologies discussed in class and students may use any expressive medium.

Readings/Bibliography

Aesthetics

G. Simmel, Le metropoli e la vita dello spirito (1903), Roma, Armando, 1995 e Roma, Firenze, Venezia (1898, 1906,1907), in M. Cacciari, Metropolis. Saggi sulla grande città, Roma, Officina, 1973.
W. Benjamin, Parigi capitale del XIX secolo (1935), in Id., I «passages» di Parigi, Torino, Einaudi, 2002.
S. Kracauer, Strade di Berlino e altrove (1964), Bologna, Pendragon, 2004.
G. Debord, Teoria della deriva (1956), in Internazionale situazionista, Torino, Nautilus, 1994.
R. Barthes, La tour Eiffel (1964), Milano, Abscondita, 2009.
G. Perec, Specie di spazi (1974), Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1989.
M. Berman, Tutto ciò che è solido svanisce nell'aria. L'esperienza della modernità (1982), Bologna, Il mulino, 2012.
M. Davis, Città di quarzo. Indagando sul futuro a Los Angeles (1990), Roma, Manifestolibri, 2008.
J. Rykwert, Manhattan: cuore di New York e capitale di un mondo, in Id., La seduzione del luogo. Storia e futuro della città (2000), Torino, Einaudi, 2003
Ch. Bailly, La frase urbana (2013), Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2016.
S. Metha, La vita segreta delle città (2016), Torino, Einaudi, 2016.

V. Trione, Effetto città. Arte, cinema, modernità, Milano, Bompiani, 2014.
M. Vegetti (ed.), Filosofie della metropoli. Spazio, potere, architettura nel pensiero del Novecento, Roma, Carocci, 2009.
B. Secchi, Città moderna e città contemporanea e Progetto della città contemporanea, in Id., Prima lezione di urbanistica, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2000.

History

S. Bettini, Venezia, nascita di una città (1978), Neri Pozza, Vicenza 2006
J. Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, 1851-53 (a digital version open source - Library Edition will be available)
J. Ruskin, Opere, a cura di G. Leoni, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1987 (some pages will be focused)
G. Leoni, Il comandamento scritto nelle cose: sul problema del restauro in John Ruskin / The commandment written within things: John Ruskin and the issue of restoration, in: J. Ruskin, Il Riposo di San Marco / St. Mark's Rest, a cura di M. Pretelli, Maggioli Editore / Politecnico di Milano, Santarcangelo di Romagna 2010, pp. 17-36
F. Dal Co, G. Mazzariol, Carlo Scarpa. Opera completa, Mondadori Electa, Milano 2013 (first edition 1984) *
I. Calvino, Le città invisibili (1972) – all available edition
M. Tafuri, Ricerca del Rinascimento. Principi, città, architetti, Einaudi, Torino1992 (some pages will be focused)

A. Esposito, G. Leoni, Fernando Tavora. Opera completa, Mondadori Electa, Milano 2005 (some pages will be focused)
E. N. Rogers, Confessioni di un Anonimo del XX secolo, “DOMUS”, 158, p. 45; 159, p. 67; 160, p.59; 161, p. 69; 162, p. 69; 164, p. 31; 167, p. 17; 170, p. 94; 176, p. 333
L. Ricci, Anonimo del XX secolo, Il Saggiatore, Milano 1965
G. Leoni, Villaggio Monte degli Ulivi a Riesi di Leonardo Ricci, in “AREA”, n, 56, 2000, pp. 76-89
G.Leoni. L’Anonimo come tema di discontinuità nella cultura architettonica italiana tra Primo e Secondo Novecento in C. Togliani, a cura, Un palazzo in forma di parole. Scritti in onore di Polo Carpeggiani, Franco Angeli, Milano 2016, pp. 463-72
A. Rossi, L’architettura della città (1966), Quodlibet, Macerata 2011
A. Rossi, Autobiografia scientifica (1990), Il Saggiatore, Milano 2009
G. Leoni, Il pensiero antiarchitettonico di Aldo Rossi, “AREA”, 51, 2000, pp. 18-23
G. Leoni, Il futuro di Aldo Rossi, “d’Architettura”, 2004, 23, pp. 44-45

* March 24th students can take part in a journey to visit some works by Carlo Scarpa.

Teaching methods

The course comprises 50 hours, the part of Aesthetics takes 30 hours, the part of History takes 20 hours.

Assessment methods

Oral examination. Short texts written or discussed by students are welcome.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Borsari

See the website of Giovanni Leoni