The “City and Territory” Studio introduces students to additional explorations of architectural design in relationships with the city, its different dimensions and meanings. Via coordinated disciplinary contributions of ‘Architectural and Urban Design’, ‘Urban Planning’ and ‘Probability and Statistics’, the studio intends to overcome the notion of spatial design as made of independent architectural objects. The studio’s aim is to unfold the relationships between design and its related context, as well as to establish linkages between theoretical, technical and practical spheres in the built space. The studio revolves around: ways of reading and interpreting space; potential of handling and using quantitative data, and their conventional visualization; tensions between prescriptive visions based on land uses and morphological codes.

Following on the first year experience, the City and Territory Studio enriches the student's personal toolbox with additional reasoning on design references, the basic competence in regulatory techniques, and skills in defining spatial layouts at different dimensions and in different scales. The expected learning outcomes concern specifically the ability to work, individually and in teams, developing: - an integrated approach to spatial design and programmes: how urban agglomerations may be critically analyzed and interpreted with reference to broader understanding of the contemporary city and urbanization processes; - multifaceted competences in the morphological analysis of settlements: how to critically understand settlement’s functioning and spatial models, instrumental to elaboration and discussion of design ideas; - skills in handling quantitative tools to understand design opportunities: how to use statistical-quantitative indicators and operate critically with any parameters incorporated in the existing regulations (such as density and conventional urban standards), instrumental to urban design; - skills in recognizing, by means of design, the relationships between topography and the constituent elements of landscape; - an attitude to synthesize critical reasoning through urban design, intended as a moment of reconfiguration of what exists.

The studio builds upon the skills that students gained in the first year "Instructions" programme. In particular, the studio assumes that students have acquired: the basic critical understanding and design knowledge of the first year Architecture Design Studio; the analytical tools to understand and elaborate on the contemporary city developed in the first year Urban Planning course, together with the knowledge of elements of urban planning technique. The studio also requires that students possess the fundamentals of linear algebra, differential and integral calculus acquired during the Calculus course.

The City and Territory Studio unfolds the relationships between designing specific spaces and building, conceptual frameworks that frame urbanisation processes and the creative potential of design-based approaches to complex issues and challenges. In the early 2000s, United Nations (UN) statisticians determined that more than 50 per cent of the world’s population was living within cities, and that was the basis for a number of initiatives, such as the Sustainable Development Goals that at n.11 include the proposition of making “cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Yet forms and layouts of such settlements can vary enormously. During the first 4 weeks, the studio examines the ubiquitous notion of an urbanising world in its own right, considering how it is actually described, measured, justified, programmed and sometimes questioned using quantitative tools, urban theorizations and design discourses. For instance, considering Architectural and Urban Design, Urban Planning and Probability and Statistics: what is the meaning of assigning average indexes of urban density, when our experience of space is that of a fragmented heterogeneity of forms? How are specific places and their design connected with general theories or global challenges? During the first phase students will work individually on assignments, coordinated by the supervisors, that provide technical and critical tools to approach site-specific reasoning in the second phase. Whether together in class or via remote communication, students will be encouraged to assess their progresses collaboratively, taking notes on individual “reflective journals” that will be discussed during the exam. Studio teaching, in the second phase, will combine team reasoning (each team includes 4 students, 10 weeks) and individual tasks targeting the designated site, with more intense teamwork in the final wrap-up of critically informed, as well as creative, proposals for the designated site, addressing important contemporary issues of design and urbanism. The site is an urbanized district which includes portions of pre-modern settlements and more recent urbanization in which conventional urban morphologies (such as attached houses, linear development along major infrastructures and isolated buildings) are mixed together in a multi-purposed built and urbanized space. While defining and confirming the needs for new constructions in this context, the studio work provides competences and critical tools to approach urban project proposals, interpreting the existing agglomerations of activities and inhabitants, handling and using quantitative data, visualizing and communicating coherent spatial layouts, exploring tensions between prescriptive visions based on land uses and morphological codes. The morphological and spatial analysis of the site are coordinated with the Laboratory of Geomatics for Architecture modeling.

The City and Territory Studio is organised in two complementary phases, which will be illustrated in detail to students in our first day of work and regularly updated via the course’s webpage. A range of teaching and learning methods are adopted, with a focus on theory and design-based learning in the first part of the Design Studio (4 weeks, reflective journal, flipping classes, thematic groups for self-assessment) and studio work based on individual and teamwork, with applied tutorials and collective revisions in the second phase (10 weeks). If numbers and conditions allow the teaching staff may consider to group students according to their preferred way of attending the studio work, in person or via BBB virtual classes, in order to adopt the best way of delivering contents and organise time. Supervisors and tutors of the three integrated disciplines that characterize the City and Territory Studio (i.e. Architectural and Urban Design, Urban Planning and Probability and Statistics) coordinate the individual exercises, the site visits if conditions allow, the programme of guest lectures, and the assignments of the second phase, including individual tasks and teamwork (4 students per team). In all individual exercises and teamwork, written texts and graphic representation are fundamental parts of the coursework. There is a strong emphasis on continuous assessment of coursework throughout the studio by the teaching staff and by students (reflective journal and thematic group assessment). Intermediate deliverables include short contributions to the studio webpage, posters, oral presentations and maquettes. The studio-work is organised as a series of deliverables of increasing complexity, each one contributing to the final mark. Students will produce in the first phase 1 individual exercise (asessed in different stages) that is immediately commented in public and later discussed during the final oral exam, also in relation to students’ readings and studio experience. In the second phase there will be 2 individual and 2 team assignments.

The following list includes fundamental texts published in English. Further readings will be recommended during the studio. Materials that regard the selected site are mostly published in Italian. • Ben-Joseph, E. 2005. The Code of the City. Standards and the Hidden Language of Place Making, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. • Brenner, N. 2016. “The Hinterland, Urbanized?,” AD / Architectural Design, July/August, 118-127. • Burdett, R. & Rhode, P. 2011. “Living in the Urban Age” in: Burdett, R. & Sudjic, D. 2011. Living in the Endless City. The urban Age Project by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society. New York: Phaidon. • Hall, T. 2007. Turning a town around. A proactive approach to Urban Design. • Lenherer, A. 2009. Grand Urban Rules. Rotterdam: nai010. • Marshall, S. 2011. Urban Coding and Planning, London-New York: Routledge. • Panerai, P., Castex, J., Depaule, J.C., Samuels, I. 2012. Urban Forms, Routledge. • Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2018). The revenge of the places that don’t matter (and what to do about it), Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 11(1), 189–209. • Waldhenim, C. 2016. Landscape as Urbanism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria; Elaborato grafico prodotto in gruppo; Elaborato progettuale individuale; Elaborato progettuale in gruppo;

Exam: Compulsory oral exam; Group graphic design project; Individual project; Group project;

... Students’ progresses will be continuously monitored: exercises (i.e. drawings, maquettes, etc.) will be discussed and corrected individually and/or in public during classes by the studio supervisors; external critics will attend a midterm review of the works. Students’ capacity to explain their ideas and proposals, even in verbal form, matters to the overall evaluation. The final evaluation of the Studio is one mark to which all the three disciplines (Architectural and Urban Design, Urban Planning and Probability and Statistics) contribute proportionally. The evaluation of each student combines: - individual exercises; - outputs of the work completed in team; - individual reflective journal; - oral discussion (during the final exam) to assess the competence of each student in bridging the issues addressed in the Studio. In case a student is not adequately prepared, the supervisors may address supplementary questions regarding the contents of one or more of the disciplines’ coursework during the oral discussion. Insufficient performances in just one of the three disciplines preclude the possibility to pass the entire exam. The evaluation will take into account the following aspects, assessed on the basis of individual outputs, intermediate and final outputs, weighed in the final evaluation as follows: - critical analysis and interpretation of urban agglomerations with reference to broader understanding of the contemporary city and urbanization processes (30%); - multifaceted competences in the morphological analysis of settlements (20%); - skills in handling quantitative tools to understand design opportunities (20%); - skills in establishing relationships, by means of design, between project proposals and their contexts (10%); - attitude to synthesize critical reasoning through urban design, intended as a moment of reconfiguration of what exists (10%); - clarity and quality of deliverables, with emphasis on correct representation and correct choice of technical terms (10%).

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.