The Atelier develops the project of renovation and enhancement of the architectural heritage at the urban scale integrating the disciplines of architectural design, city planning, and economic evaluation of the project. City, landscapes, urban or rural environments, cultural sites, monuments, or widespread ordinary sites are the objectives of the specific observations carried out from each discipline, that the project of enhancement puts in relation. The Atelier encourages the student to investigate the complexity and the stratification of the cultural heritage adopting representation tools to communicate the observations developed at the different scales. In particular, the aspects related to the social construction of heritage, and the environmental frameworks that describe it, are understood as directly referring to the social stakeholders, past and present, and to the necessary resources for the enhancement projects. At the end of the Atelier, the student acquires an increased awareness of the multiple dimensions that are necessary to understand the potentialities of a site, its context, and its project of renovation and enhancement. The spatial synthesis of the architectural and urban project constitutes the main purpose of the Atelier.

Knowledge of the theoretical aspects of architecture, of the theories and techniques of architectural and urban design; ability to set with methodological rigor the preliminary phase of an intervention and to understand and interpret the relationship between heritage and its context; knowledge and skills in managing the interdisciplinary aspects of the architectural project (geometrical and formal, functional, urban, social, economic). Students acquire: - Ability to interpret and solve problems related to the transformation of the built environment and the quality of architecture, in relation to the architectural heritage and the potentialities related to its reactivation. - Ability to collect, process, and interpret data and direct and indirect or instrumental sources and carry out social context analysis. - Ability to identify and predict real, potential, and future demands, identify stakeholders through the application of mapping tools and models. - Ability to apply strategic assessment tools to carry out synthetic pre-feasibility evaluations, preparing a general framework of public, public-private partnerships, and related agreements, focusing on compatibility, proportionality, and sustainability of the enhancement strategy. - Ability to develop ex-ante analysis of the expected impacts on contexts that can integrate pre-feasibility evaluations. - Ability to understand urban planning tools, indices, and constraints that influence urban and territorial transformations. The evaluation of knowledge takes place through intermediate and final reviews, in which particular attention is paid to the ability to integrate the acquired knowledge into the proposed solutions. The student has to show the ability to relate to the different rationalities and uses of language expressed by the stakeholders involved in the design theme and to argue this awareness in the final art boards and in oral presentations. In the evaluation of the knowledge acquired, particular attention is paid to the ability to face the project issues at different scales, to develop logical argumentations on their solution, and to finalize formal and technical considerations through the spatial synthesis of the renewal of the architectural project.

The curricular requirements are constituted by the bachelor's degree obtained in the classes indicating the skills and knowledge that the student must have acquired in the previous educational path. In particular, the student must have adequate personal knowledge deriving from passing the exams in the areas of architectural design, urban planning, valuation provided in the bachelor degree program of Architecture (Class L-17). Skills in geography and urban sociology are integrative elements of knowledge.

The reactivation of non-performing legacies is the subject of the Atelier. Non-performing legacies share their acronym with Non-performing loans (NPL). If NPLoans refer to impaired loans that no longer fulfil their original investment function, NPLegacies refer to heritage assets recognized as being of cultural interest that, in the face of investment required for their preservation, do not produce sufficient value to sustain them and repay the investment. If, in a consolidated way, the terms heritage and patrimoine are an umbrella term for assets that have been attributed a value of cultural interest that gives them a higher degree of preference over other assets, the term legacy is more inclusive because it introduces within the umbrella both “minor” heritage (real estate that, when analyzed individually, has a more defined cultural interest) and cultural heritage with “weak” economic value, for which the allocation of resources for maintenance therefore becomes problematic. The family of Non-performing legacy describes and identifies cultural heritage that is nowadays a debt for its owners and in particular that (1) has lost its original vocation, (2) is abandoned or lives a condition of risk linked to abandonment and (3), because of its original vocation, its renovation to new uses is complex. Non-performing legacy includes (1) some exceptional categories of cultural heritage, such as military barracks, minor ecclesiastical patrimony or industrial sites, characterized by a specific architectonical typology; (2) oversized architectures, often related to the previous category but characterized by being out of scale in relation to the context. Over time, the belief that for preserving an artefact was sufficient to identify it as cultural heritage to be transmitted to future generations has proved to be naïve, the conservation always passes through the ordinary use and the artefacts capacity/availability to be updated. Without actualization, without use, any legacy is destined to oblivion. In order to reactivate the non-performing legacy, it is necessary to redefine the economic mechanism that nowadays cannot be anymore the simple cyclical injection of public money and the concept of preservation has to substitute the concept of conservation, not sufficient anymore for describing the conceptual actualization that have to characterize the contemporary project of adaptive reuse. The Atelier deals with the urban dimension of the plan, integrating the contribution of architectural design, urban planning and economic evaluation of the project, in order to represent a possible redefinition background of urban shape of same parts of the city. The Atelier considers the development of a planning hypothesis in a settled context that carries – the conditions of use of territory have changed - possible traces of architectural and town planning stratifications susceptible of a second reading, of reclamation and functional integration. All the disciplines will work autonomously, but in synergy, especially on the necessary aspects of the plan. The Atelier is organized in frontal lessons and operative moments composed of an inspection of the area of intervention, some meeting with stakeholders and a group revision/tutorship for the elaboration of the final plan tables. The period of atelier is divided into three parts. The first one focuses on the themes of urban reclamation of the settled city (to the urban and micro urban scale – that of the district), the knowledge of the place and its description useful to underline the existing problems (physical, social, economic decay), the valuable elements (environmental, functional, cultural) and the first planning intuitions. During this phase, a tour will be organized in order to visit the area of intervention and to meet the useful subjects to lay out the plan; this phase ends with a common moment of presentation and discussion about the works. The second phase concerns the general organization of the urban plan: from the determination of the users/promoters, to the compatible functions, the type of intervention and the formal definition of new public spaces. Also in this phase, there will be a moment of final presentation valued by the professors. The students will have to work on a master plan on a scale of 1:1500 to 1:2000. The third phase focuses entirely on the writing of the final plan, made a scale of 1.500 (total) – 1.200 (per parts). The themes of the lessons of architectural design are focused on: Phase 1 – How to read and describe an urban structure, as well as the architectural space; determining the elements of potentiality in order to instruct an intervention of reclamation/reworking of an urban section. Phase 2 – Explanation of interventions of transformation and integration of pre-existing manufactured products, placed into urban circles historically settled for compositional and functional themes. The lessons of city planning aim at provide the students with the expertise to understand and realize the urban transformation, so to pass from the indication of the field files to the effective hypothesis of books. The teaching includes two non-consequential, but correlated phases, which follow an introductory part about the relation between city and public spaces and about the role of masterplan as an instrument for transformation. Phase 1 – Looking around: Analysis of European cases of transformation of a broad area. Determination of the elements of quality of the space and of the valuable elements of process. During these phase, the participation of external professors is expected. Phase 2 – From parameters to transformation: introduction to index, files and planning regulation. The quality of urban space and the application of indications of the urban instruments. The contribution of the economic evaluation of the project is focused on the identification of a strategy for the economic enhancement of the case study at the different scales. It is aimed at developing skills and competences regarding the strategic dimension of the tools for assessing economic, financial and social feasibility. The evaluation approach simulates the Feasibility Study. Phase 1 – Analysis of the vocations of the investigated territory (identification of the potential and future users, prediction of real, potential and future questions, identification of the interlocutors also through stakeholder mapping tools and models). Phase 2 – Economic-financial pre-feasibility (parametric costs of the investment, qualitative impacts at the scale of the context, synthesis of the necessary resources, public-private partnerships and the relative advantages). The study and project area will be located in an international context.

The exercises will be elaborated in small groups of 2/3 people, where every participant will be autonomously responsible for the whole elaboration. Among the activities of the atelier, there will be some common moments of comparison and debate about some specific themes, where everyone will have to intervene actively or to present in itinere the progress of the project. All the lessons, public presentations and discussions will be in English.

The texts required supplement the lessons contents, the elaboration of an architectural plan to propose research methodologies, in addition to stimulate the individual study. About architectural design: Vigliocco E. (edited by), (2021). Riuso del patrimonio oversize. Un progetto adattivo per la Cittadella di Alessandria // Oversized heritage reuse. An adaptive project for the Citadel of Alessandria, Politecnico di Torino, Torino; Vigliocco E. (edited by), (2020). Riattivazione di beni culturali non performanti // Non-performing cultural heritage reactivation, Politecnico di Torino, Torino; ICOMOS, (2019). European Quality Principles for EU-funded Interventions with Potential Impact upon Cultural Heritage. Boltanski L., Esquerre A., (2017). Enrichissement. Une critique de la marchandise, Gallimard, Paris; Ceccarelli P., (2017). Past is not a frozen concept: considerations about heritage conservation in a fast changing world, in “Built heritage”, 1 (3), pp. 1-12; Holtorf C., (2018). Embracing Change: how cultural resilience is increased through cultural heritage, in “World archaeology”; Cecchi R., (2015). Abecedario. Come proteggere e valorizzare il patrimonio culturale italiano, Skira, Ginevra-Milano; CHCfE Consortium, (2015). Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe, Krakow; Camasso M., Gron S., Vigliocco E., (2013). Gli spazi della costruzione nella ricomposizione urbana, Celid, Torino; Andriani C. (edited by), (2010). Il patrimonio e l’abitare, Donzelli, Rome; Pendlebury J., Conservation in the Age of Consensus, Routledge, London 2008. About urban planning: Camillo A., Minucci F., (2009). Le nuove leggi urbanistiche regionali: esperienze a confronto, CittàStudi, Torino. About economic evaluation: Bollo A, Coscia C., (2009). Gli strumenti economico-estimativi nel decision making e nella verifica di sostenibilità dei progetti di riuso, in: Ientile R., Romeo E. (a cura di), La conservazione dell’architettura e del suo contesto. Protocollo per una valutazione integrata del patrimonio di Pinerolo, Celid, Torino; Canella G, Coscia C., Mellano P., (2017). Idee per la riqualificazione delle aree militari. In Military Landscapes. Scenari per il futuro del patrimonio militare. A future for military heritage, pp.1-11; Coscia C., Curto R., Gadaleta V., Pena Diaz J., Rolando D., (2018). Enjoyment of the Cuban Modern Heritage: an innovative cultural visitors route to connect the UNESCO site of Old Havana to the National Schools of Art. pp.535-544. In ARCHITECTURE HERITAGE and DESIGN. WORLD HERITAGE and KNOWLEDGE Representation | Restoration | Redesign | Resilience (Carmine Gambardella editor), XVI INTERNATIONAL FORUM Mercanti - ISBN:978-88-492-3633-0 vol. Le Vie dei Mercanti XVI International Forum di Studi - free download: http://www.leviedeimercanti.it/proceedings-xvi-forum/ 14-16 giugno 2018; Coscia C., Lazzari G., Rubino I., (2018). Values, Memory, and the Role of Exploratory Methods for Policy-Design Processes and the Sustainable Redevelopment of Waterfront Contexts: The Case of Officine Piaggio (Italy). In: Sustainability - Special Issue "Real Estate Economics, Management and Investments" (10(9), 2989; Coscia C., Curto R., (2017). Valorising in the Absence of Public Resources and Weak Markets: the Case of "Ivrea, the 20th Century Industrial City", in: Green Energy and Technology, pp. 79-99. The bibliography will be integrated during the lessons for close examinations or by the student request. Furthermore, the professors will use the portal of didactics in order to give the students the graphic materials and the necessary documentation for the development of the plan; besides, they will publish the lessons in specific presentations.

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

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

... The student will be evaluated individually, for the group planning exercises too. During the atelier, each phase of the project development will be evaluated and to each phase will be assigned a mark. Nonetheless, even if the in itinere presentations of the project are mandatory, the related marks will be not included into the final evaluation (no mathematical average). Only the discussion at the exam (discussion on the project and on the disciplinary elements of the three learnings) will define the final mark. Various elements contribute to the final mark: the methodological coherence, which is the quality and the organization of the materials and the application of the knowledges and the instruments acquired during the formative process, namely the capacity of elaboration, the synthesis and the exposition of the materials presented. The exam is oral and it consists of an exposition by the student of the planning tables made according to the professors’ directions; during the oral exam, the students will have to respond to two or three questions concerning the course contents (lessons, bibliography, exercises results), especially about the planning strategies adopted. The elements that contribute to the mark are: - The choices made into the plan (introduction of new activities in the existing built-up areas, urban and architectural composition, strategies for the realization and the direction); - The capability to interpret and solve complex problems; - The capability of organization and elaboration verified on the quality of tables and on technical contents of the relation, especially on the capability to analyze the social and cultural context (communication and precision of information on the urban and architectural scale); - The exposition of the plan, namely the theoretic and applied contents; - The capability of critical analysis of the planning process and the results obtained.

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.