The course has as its aim that of transmitting students a synthetic vision of a number of horizons of theoretical debate that are part of the discipline of architectural design but that also intersect philosophy, semiotics and sociology. The ability to manage the multidisciplinary coordinates within which theoretical discourses around the project of architecture are consistent to the contemporary debate on the project, on its symbolic legitimations and on its operative strategies, is a fundamental skill for architectural designers. Within this context it is argued that students will take advantage of the literature, of the lectures and of call discussions in order to deliver a proposal for the description and deconstruction of a public design project, in its documental and processual anatomy, following the methods and tools that will be developed along the course.

Participation to the course does not require a propaedeutic scientific formation. Still, the issues that will be discussed and the type of exercises proposed require a good disposition towards the reading and understanding of theoretical texts, together with minimum skills in producing a critical text, graphical work oriented toward the representation of projects and processes, and general knowledge of the functionings of a process of urban transformation – at least in the Italian context.

I. Phenomenology of committment (15 hrs) This part consists in an attempt at building a pars destruens of certain theoretical positions and rhetorical strategies that have crossed the second half of the 20th Century in Italy. In attempting a critique and generalization of certain stances, the intention is that of highlighting a number of issues that regard the problem of knowledge through design in the present moment. II. Architecture of recomposition (25 hrs) The second part of the course will be dedicated to proposing an interpretation of the project of architecture as documental product that is able to produce effects, that are objectifiable in some way. We will attempt to read the theory of documentality through an architectural lens, proposing certain collateral reflections on the subject of drawing and writing, on the role of the project as a tool for mediation and translation throughout the various stages of decision-making and building construction. The documental functioning of the project of architecture will then be the object of a more general theory, that will take its cue from Latour’s reflections on the logic of decision-making – and of scientific truths – and will then venture a description of the way in which a project acts (and it could act efficiently) in a complex context as is that of a decisional cycle, crossed by conflicts and negotiations, openings and closings of rules and executive actions (the “collective”). The arrival point of such a hypothesis of study shoudl be a description of a city undergoing transformations: a collective that is crossed by a moltitude of agents that produce effects, among which the documental products that are the project of architecture – specific objects of our disciplinary field, and of our scientific attention. III. Excercises around a case study (20 hrs) The definition of the relationship between architectural design project and urban transformations – from decisions to execution – should allow students to choose a case study that is sufficiently traceable through documents. Through an excercise in writing and diagrammatic representations students will be asked to specifically reconstruct the chains and series of effects that bind the production of architectural design projects to a more general system of formalized processes, within which a city builds its own rules, procedures, decisions and material productions. The outcomes of the work will be the object of successive collective discussions and will allow to make concrete the most abstract questions by framing them within operative excercises. At the end of the course, students and teachers will perhaps clear some fundamental questions around the generalizability of processes, the adequacy of forms in which the project is produced, on the relationship between written procedural mechanisms and discursive representations within a project of architecture that has a collective nature.

The educational training of the course "Teoria del progetto" can be considered as a preparatory element for participating to the Thesis Seminar "Architettura degli effetti" https://sintesi2017.wordpress.com/

Students will be asked to carry out investigations on recent projects, by relying on various sources among which technical municipal offices, public archives, newspaper articles, etc. The work of reconstructing the forks within which a decision and an act of public transformation take place will feature a description of the ways in which the project of architecture acts (as rhetorical vector, as registration of negotiations, as accumulator of given conditions, as arbitrary incident…). Investigations will be divided into phases, in order to periodically share the outcomes of each student’s work. Aside from documental collection, the excercise will solicit a conceptual elaboration and graphical rendition of the concatenations built around the project.

Texts and bibliographies will be provided during class. Nonetheless, it is possible to give a preliminary list of basic texts. R. GABETTI (1983), Progettazione architettonica e ricerca tecnico-scientifica nella costruzione delle città, in R. GABETTI, Imparare l’architettura, Allemandi, Torino 1997. J. R. SEARLE (1996), La costruzione della realtà sociale, Einaudi, Torino. M. FERRARIS (2009), Documentalità. Perché è necessario lasciar tracce. Laterza, Roma-Bari. B. LATOUR (2013), Cogitamus. Sei lettere sull’umanesimo scientifico, Il Mulino, Bologna. B. LATOUR (2000), Politiche della natura. Per una democrazia delle scienze, Raffaello Cortina, Milano. A. Yaneva (2012), Mapping Controversies in Architecture, Ashgate, Farnham. A.ARMANDO, G.DURBIANO (2017), Teoria del progetto architettonico. Dai disegni agli effetti, Carocci, Roma.

None; Lecture slides; Lecture notes; Exercises; Multimedia materials;

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

The evaluation of the students' work will assess both the various steps of exercise and the final inteview. This exam will be individual and will focus also on the bibliography shared during the lectures. Compulsory interview: each student, individually, will face an interview to pass the exam. The topics will focus on the bibliography, on the exercises made during the semester, and on the notes about the various lectures, provided by the same student. Group graphic project: during the final exam the students will provide the collection of exercises made during the semester by the groups (couples) of students. The content of the exercises will be considered as a starting point for the colloquium. Individual written notes: during the interview every student will provide also a collection of written and diagrammatic notes about the lectures. The way the student will have organized and arranged her/his book of notes will be object of discussion and critical considerations during the exam.

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.