During the design experience of the Design Unit 2, the student will continue to enhance his own skills, already trained during the design experience of Design Unit 1, in managing independently a complex architectural project, in particular as regards the constructive aspects. The topics of Design Unit 2 will be focused on a complex urban project and takes into account both the settlement components and the economic ones. It also includes the design of an architectural object, developed through techniques, methodologies and the specific abilities of the European architect. Through the knowledge and the in-depth analysis of the specific design theme, the student will acquire an understanding and interpretation of the complex phenomena that characterize the contemporary processes of urbanization and urban regeneration, both on the local scale and on the global one. The overall educational goal of the “Architecture and Urban Economics” Design Unit is to elaborate a complex urban project, starting from the knowledge and the specific skills provided by two specific and complementary subjects: the Architectural Design and the Economic Evaluation of the projects. The latter is the second characterizing discipline, focused on the economic dimension of Architecture in the urban context. To these two subjects are associated in the Design Unit the specific knowledge and skills provided by one or more related and integrative disciplines, selected in relation with the specific design topics of every Design Unit. The Design Unit dedicated to the topics Creative City & Urban Regeneration will adopt the knowledge and the expertise coming from the fields of urban management and digital sociology. Through the Design Unit experience the student will acquire not only the general design skills, but also the specific knowledge and skills in Economic Evaluation, mandatory in the Master’s degree, as alternative to the attendance of the 2nd Year Course in “Economic evaluation of projects”.

The Design Unit 2 deepens and develops the advanced knowledge and the design skills learned during the Design Unit 1: such a knowledge is acquired within the Design Unit and through a series of mono-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary lectures, and through studies and in-depth modules on theories, relevant to the design themes and issues. The advanced progresses in knowledge and understanding will be assessed through mid-term and final evaluations during the Design Unit, especially aimed at assessing the students’ capability to synthesise and to integrate the different disciplines contributing to the Unit. In the design experience of the Design Unit “Architecture and urban economics”, the understanding of the complex phenomena that govern urban and territorial transformations, both in its architectural and urban components, occurs through the knowledge and the in-depth analysis of the specific design theme. The instructors provide multi-disciplinary knowledge of all the aspects of the complex context within which the design has to be developed. The ability to understand and interpret the complex phenomena that characterize the practices of urbanization and urban regeneration, at both local and global levels, also occurs in the ability to work in un international context, understanding cultures and traditions not only national, also through the choice of topics and design sites in international context, in the capacity of a design and narrative synthesis, and in the ability to carry out individual research, aimed to connect architectural design, urban culture and economic evaluation. In the Design Unit experience the capability to apply knowledge and skills is primarily defined by the ability to independently manage a complex urban project in a given time, through the mastery of techniques, methods and skills specific to the job of the Architect. The capability to independently manage a project of urban and territorial transformation is expressed in the ability to analyze complex and non-univocal information, to interpret them into a shared decision-making process, but also in the ability to exert leadership in a necessarily multi-disciplinary design team, even toward languages and social and public practices. The experience of the Design Unit, characterized by an intense experimentation, is configured as a partial simulation of effective design practices in the real-world. As such, it ensures the acquisition of the ability of applying knowledge and understanding. This ability is assessed through intermediate and final evaluations within the Design Unit, with the contributions of guest experts from practice, with especial attention to the capability to integrate and synthetize the various disciplines involved in the Unit, as well as to meet the timetable of the activities, which requires the students to complete the project at the end of the semester. The ability to process a complex architectural project in a given time represents a specific ability of the work of the architect: this will be verified at the exam that will take place during the first week of exams, in the first examination session consecutive to the Design Unit.

Critical and design skills, along with the concepts and introductory tools in Economic Evaluation and Cost Planning of Buildings are considered already acquired during the Disciplinary Courses and the Design Ateliers of the Bachelor Degree in “Sciences of Architecture”. Knowledge and skills trained during the Design Unit 1, especially the ability to process autonomously a complex architectural project in a given time, are also required. A further prerequisite is represented by the knowledge and skills acquired during the Courses of First Semester “Digital parametric modeling” and “Energy systems in building design”.

The Design Unit will elaborate a smart high-quality design and sustainable urban development project, starting from specific knowledge and competence in four complementary fields: the architectural composition, the economic evaluation of development projects, the management of urban processes and the social awareness. A major objective of the Design Unit is the critical reflection on the idea of ‘heritage’ as a key component of a "smart city" strategy, one of the most important sides of the so-called "creative city". Another specific objective is to provide a toolkit of methods for supporting decisions of managers and policymakers toward smart urban strategies economy in the face of conflicting demands of economic development, social progress, and environmental sustainability, also using new digital technologies and understanding their multiple impacts on society. The designer, dealing with heritage assets, has to undertake a relevant task, which is correlated to design, evaluation, management and social sciences. By designing, a process of revaluating the objects is undertaken and every aspect of the design process (formal, material, constructive etc.) supports the social importance of the heritage asset itself. Such as the design is complex activity that requires multidisciplinary capacities and the cooperation of various policy-makers, the topic of the design process concerns various objectives and purposes: the choice of alternative propositions, the definition of priorities when dealing with conflicts among stakeholders or in situation with limited resources, the determination of appropriate use of cultural and environmental assets that should be preserved, taxonomy of total economic values, considering monetary together with cultural values, the analysis of major impacts and effects of the urban transformation project. The core of interest is the morphological, environmental, social and economical asset of an area in the south part of Nanjing (Popular Republic of China), located at the interior side of the ancient city-walls. The Hehua Tang area (area of the Lotus Pond) has been occupied by a workers’ houses slum and it is waiting today for a regeneration project, that could be different from the ordinary settlement made by tall anonymous buildings and also from the “fake” restorations in Chinese Traditional style.

The work in the Design Unit will be organized by weekly collective discussions about design development and DU topics. The design process will be defined as an incremental step-based process which involved different stages, such as: diagnosis of the context, envisioning exercise and development of a number of design options, selection of a design alternative and implementation. Through exchange and collaboration also with Nanjing Southeast University (SEU), the DU will give to the students the possibility to access studies, analyses and projects regarding the present and the future of an important Chinese City, former capital of the Empire and of the Republic. Shared activities and lectures with the other Design Unit held in English and with a Chinese focus will be provided.

Nanjing and Chinese Architecture and Urbanism: McGEE T.G., LIN G.C.S., MARTON A.M., WANG M.Y.L., WU J., China’s Urban Space. Development under market socialism, Routledge, London and New York 2007 WU F., XU J., GAR-ON YEH A., Urban Development in Post Reform China. State, market, and space, Routledge, London and New York 2006 LI X. and YEO K.S., Chinese Conception of Space, China Architecture and Building Press, Beijing 2007 LEDDEROSE L., Ten Thousands Things. Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art, Princeton University Press, Princeton 2000 CHEN W. and GAZZOLA L., Comparative Study on the City Walls of Nanjing and Rome, Edilstampa, Roma, SEU Press, Nanjing 2013 s.a., Vision in China. Chinese Contemporary Architecture, Liaoning Science and Technology Pub., Shenyang 2015 Disciplines’ References: BALMER J. and SWISHER M.T., Diagramming the Big Idea. Methods for Architectural Composition, Routledge, London and New York 2012 SALAT S., Cities and Forms: On Sustainable Urbanism, Editions Hermann, Paris, 2011. PETRUCCIOLI A., After Amnesia. Learning from the Islamic Mediterranean Urban Fabric, ICAR, Bari 2007 ROSSI, A., The Architecture of the City, (P.Eisenman ed.), MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. And London 1982 (or.it.ed. 1966) * BRANDON P.S., LOMBARDI P., Evaluating Sustainable Development in the Built Environment, II Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken (USA) 2005, pp. 272, (II edition 2011) COOP AFRICA, Project Design Manual. A Step-by-Step Tool to Support the Development of Cooperatives and Other Forms of Self-Help Organization, International Labour Organization, I.L.O., Genève, 2010, (web pdf) FIGUERIA J., GRECO S., EHRGOTT M. (eds), Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis. State of the Art, Springer, Berlin 2010 PEARCE, D., G. ATKINSON, MOURATO S., Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment: recent developments, OECD, Paris 2006 VREEKER R., DEAKIN M., CURWELL S., Sustainable Urban Development Volume 3: The Toolkit for Assessment, Routledge, London and New York 2009 * R.A. BREALEY R.A., MYERS S.C., MARCUS A.J., Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, McGraw-Hill, New York 2001 CHUNLING Y., CHUANJIANG M., Ziroom: creating quality rental living, China Business Case Center, Case TU-088, 05-10, 2014 EUROPEAN COMMISSION/Directorate General Regional Policy, Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis of investment projects, 2008 PAINE L.S., MACOMBER J., WONG K.C.H., China Vanke, Harvard Business School, Case 9-314-104, 2015 RETSINAS R.P., HU J., XU R. (2013) Sino-Ocean Land: responding to change, Harvard Business School, Case 9-211-107, 2013 * DE WAAL M., The City as Interface: How Digital Media Are Changing the City, nai010 publishers, Rotterdam 2014 * Teachers and Assistants will give further references and notes during the semester.

Modalità di esame: Progetto individuale; Progetto di gruppo;

Exam: Individual project; Group project;

... Fully attendance and engagement in lectures, seminars, and further activities of the Design Unit is a required precondition for the positive participation in the planned activities. The final exam will take place in the first week of the examination session consecutive to the Design Unit. In case the final design work is not completed on time or is judged inadequate or incomplete, the student may submit the final project in the second examination session consecutive to the Design Unit. The final grade will consider the student inability to develop a complex architectural design in a given time. The final evaluation will be individual and will use throughout the whole of the votes available. It is carried out through group discussion of DU professors, taking strictly into account the weight of each discipline (in terms of credits) and considering carefully the following criteria. Criteria regard the DU central experience, that the project activities: left to itself the assessment of other specific activities, according to the needs of lecturers (eg, written tests or theoretical checks). They consider a background value the student's ability to bring together in the project, as the experience of synthesis, what acquired from the different disciplines of the DU. 1. INVESTIGATION OF THE PROJECT Evaluating the ability to analyze and to return the context of the project, physical and social, through original elaborations. Evaluating the ability to manage the complexity of the information, provided by the teacher or found themselves, and to interpret the architectural context. Criteria guiding: - Reading and synthesis - Interpretation and critical processing - Return results 2. CONCEPTUALIZATION Evaluating the ability to conceptualize an argued proposal, as a strategic answer to the identified problems from the inquiry. Evaluating the ability to describe the general aspects (repeatable) of the project and its feasibility in relation to the ordinary practices. Criteria guiding: - Clarity of argument - Vision - Autonomy in the elaboration of the proposal 3. ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECT AND RESULTS Evaluating the ability to develop, within an available time, a coherent project in the individual joints compared to a unitary interpretation, through a circular process (development / discussion / feedback). Evaluating the quality of the final result, as the last maturation of this process. Criteria guiding: - Critical capacity and self-criticism in the early stages of development - Adaptation to the feedback of the mid-term reviews - Completeness and quality of the final papers 4. COMMUNICATION Evaluating the ability to represent and transmit the project, at all stages of the learning experience. It also evaluates the ability to communicate, in an integrated manner to the project and also in innovative ways, the specific aspects of different disciplines. Criteria guiding: - Compliance with the agreed rules of communication - Conscious use of presentation tools - Effectiveness of public presentation and discussion 5. DISCIPLINARY CONTRIBUTIONS Evaluating the ability to identify disciplinary problems in a relevant way of the proposed project case. Evaluating the ability to intercept a complex design theme using cross-fertilization of knowledge. Criteria guiding: - Maturation of sufficient knowledge in all disciplines - Disciplinary relevance of individual contributions in the project - Integration of disciplines at different scales

Gli studenti e le studentesse con disabilità o con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (DSA), oltre alla segnalazione tramite procedura informatizzata, sono invitati a comunicare anche direttamente al/la docente titolare dell'insegnamento, con un preavviso non inferiore ad una settimana dall'avvio della sessione d'esame, gli strumenti compensativi concordati con l'Unità Special Needs, al fine di permettere al/la docente la declinazione più idonea in riferimento alla specifica tipologia di esame.