The Final Design Studio "Design within the limits of scarcity" will explore the concept of scarcity and its relationship with creativity and design. Questions of availability of (not only financial) resources and their distribution have shifted towards the centre of current debates. Today managing scarcity (of resources, i.e. space, raw materials, energy, income, knowledge, accessibility, environmental control, etc.) is extremely common, especially, but not exclusively, in the Global South. This condition is extremely interesting because it pushes the designer's ability to respond to a variety of needs and constraints, optimizing the use of available resources to actually get appropriate solutions. The relationship between scarcity, creativity, and design, as presented in the Design Studio, reveal new modes of working that elevate (resource) constraints from limitations to design opportunities.
This Final Design Studio benefits from the contribution of three disciplines: Architectural Design, Architectural Technology and Environmental Control Systems.
While the specific theoretical topics and methodological approach will be defined by each discipline, the general framework of the Design Studio activities is characterised by the following steps: a) Selection of design theme and location; b) Building scale and detailing – The design experience will be carried out starting from a preliminary design scheme through all the design development phases up to architectural and technological details, excluding structural calculation; c) Energy design, focusing on sustainability through the exploitation of bioclimatic technics and of local and renewable energy resources.

The expected learning outcomes concern:
- To strengthen the fundamentals, theories and techniques of architectural and urban design and related disciplines, in the specific challenge of working with less (resources, space and time);
- To adopt sustainability as an approach to the design process and the project, starting from the context understanding and assessment (environmental, social, economic) to the selection of appropriate building typologies, technologies and materials;
- To use scarcity as a catalyst for design;
- To become more skilled in sustainable design (low tech/low cost/high performance) and potentially in the self-help building techniques;
- To learn how to deal with complex and multiple issues through an integrated and interdisciplinary approach.
The Environmental Control Systems pursues these learning objectives:
• to develop an intuitive, thou rigorous, comprehension of basic physical concepts, with the aim of providing a life-long fundamental knowledge;
• to briefly review the available technologies for climate control in buildings, basing on their operative functions;
• to learn simplified mathematical tools for the preliminary needs assessment and the sizing of systems;
• to carry one of the two following projects: A bioclimatic control design and comfort analysis or B energy system design, exploiting local and renewable energy sources

The basics of each teaching course are required and given for acquired, such as the codes, methods and tools for the project representation.
During the Environmental Control Systems course some basics will be reviewed. Nonetheless, the knowledge of math, physics of bachelor level, the building physics taught during the 1st year Studio and the use of software Autocad and Excel are considered as prerequisites to fulfil the objectives.

DESIGN WITHIN THE LIMITS OF SCARCITY

The research topics and the design case-study project will refer to one of the following issues:
1. Urbanization-Infrastructure; community services; housing;
2. Low tech/ high performance buildings;
3. Assisted/self-help construction;
4. Design for/in emergencies (temporary/transitional/permanent)
5. Sustainability and bioclimatic design.
In particular, as far as concerns the Environmental Control Systems discipline:
Module 1 – 2 lessons. From theory to practice: recall of theoretical concepts and their application in a design perspective, using examples taken from professional cases.
Module 2 – 4 lessons. Overview of the available tools. System/plants typology. Bioclimatic control. Comfort analysis. Renewable energy sources. Local sources exploitation.
Module 3 – till the end. Design exercise. Two groups: A bioclimatic control design and comfort analysis; B energy system design, exploiting local and renewable energy sources.

Teaching is delivered by oral presentations, brief collective exercises, project tutoring. Meetings with professionals and external experts, as well as visits to built works, complement the studio activity. The program may incorporate some hands-on experience, during which the students will build scale model(s) to explore constructional issues.
Students will be working mainly in groups of (maximum) three and are expected to develop their projects out of the lesson scheduling, team working. The design experience will incorporate different scales. Students will be asked to submit the products of their work at given stages, as specified in the studio schedule.

Literature references, publications and software tools are recommended by each teaching course. The professors will provide learning auxiliary materials, in the form of presentations and papers, during the course.

Final exams as well as intermediate deliveries will consist in the presentation and discussion of the requested materials. Two parts compose the Design Studio evaluation: first, the results of in itinere evaluations, expected by the end of the preliminary phases (assessment, planning and design strategy), and the final exam. For what concerns in itinere evaluations, two specific steps are scheduled, in which students will deliver their presentations individually and/or group based with individual responsibilities. The evaluation for the intermediate deliveries (40%) will be taken into account in the final evaluation (60%).
A final delivery by each student’s team will include a complete series of drawings related to the developed design solution at various scales and detail levels. During the final interview, some questions - related to lectures delivered, literature references, exercises - will be addressed.
For what concerns the Technical Environmental Control discipline, the final exam includes a written test true / false of the theoretical basis filming occurs in the course and a discussion of the project.
Marks will be individual and based on the students’ understanding of the issues involved, and their contribution to the development of the project.
Assessment criteria will include the capacity of comply with scheduled deliveries and to finalize the project by the end of the semester.