The laboratory deals with the architectural project from the point of view of the internal space. As a founding phenomenon, independent of the scale to which it is applied, it is characterized by particular attention to its users and their gestures of relationship and openness to others and to the world; it is captured and determined as a concrete body built, in dynamics, verified down to the scale of detail, between its built-in margins, the light that animates it, the furnishings that equip it, the materials and the decorative elements that qualify it; aims to define a precise identity of each place, in the dialectic between space plant, figuration, sizing, structural aspects, environmental control, energy performance. The Studio pays particular attention to the recovery of the existing and often fragile building and architectural heritage, interpreting the themes of contemporary living, from those of the residence to those of complex and multifunctional organisms for culture, museum systems and social life, up to those of the redevelopment and equipment of the open spaces.

The disciplinary integrations that characterize each section (Architectural design, Architectural technology, Landscape architecture, Restoration, Urban design) allow, in the intertwining of the theoretical contents of each discipline, different thematic angles and design variations explained in the individual programs.

According to the Dublin Descriptors (DD), passing the exam certifies the acquisition of the following results:

DD 1, knowledge and understanding:

- knowledge of the fundamental elements of interior architecture and its methods of application in the design process for the purpose of transforming inhabited places and spaces.

DD 2, ability to apply knowledge and understanding:

- ability to control the compositional aspects of the project and its typological and functional features, which regulate the qualitative relationships of the architectural forms of the space.

DD 3 (autonomy of judgment), 4 (communication skills) and 5 (learning ability):

- ability to operate and communicate independently the design choices made (DD 3, 4 and 5).

StaMe* – Stay at Home!

Reflections and proposals for Homeless and Homelessness.

prof. Gennaro Postiglione (ICAR/16) – Interior Architecture

prof. Paola Briata (ICAR/20) – Urban Analysis and Policy

The Design Studio is carried out in a strictly integrated manner by an expert of interior architecture and an expert of urban analysis and policies having a common interest in ethnographical approaches to architecture, dwelling, and the city.

Objectives

The Studio recognizes that architecture has the task of moving people, and at the same time of interpreting the needs that make it necessary to be built. This requires the articulation of a structure that inevitably involves the use of materials and generates space. Always bearing in mind that while elaborating answers, architecture (and the architect) reflects on its own principles and statutes. Architecture is impossible without this fundamental dialogue within the discipline because any architecture, as history teaches, always goes beyond its functional dimensions.

The centrality of ethnographic approaches relies on the generative value, for knowledge and for the project, of ‘ethnographic representation,’ as a key moment of ethnography for designers occurs in the transcription phase (graphic, photographic, textual).

We are interested in investigating how the ethnographic posture can be translated into a form of representation able to give value to the intertwining between social and material culture in everyday spatial practices, providing information for design, and testing design. A posture gives a core role to people and their practices of everyday life in a spatial context.

Theme

The Studio will work on implementing the qualitative offer of housing for the homeless people in Milan. An offer which increasingly intercepts the needs of a wide range of people, not necessarily marginal from the social point of view. Thinking about homelessness, we have not in mind only the extreme condition of roofless, but also middle-class families where parents lost their job, young, well-educated people who did not have access to the job market, immigrants who did not have access to a decent home.

If possible, this situation has been amplified and made more evident by the pandemic crisis: how ‘staying at home’ for those people who do not have a home or live in an inadequate situation? What are the requirements of living space to ‘feel at home’? This last question is for us also a key issue for thinking about home-less.

Studio arrangements

The Studio is based on an ethnographical approach to the project where fieldwork has a core role: ‘direct participant observation,’ as well as activities such as mapping and doing interviews. All the activities will be ‘translated’ to be shared using text, photographs, and drawings.

Work in class will take place with the critical contribution of tutors and teachers, who will help each group of students to develop and represent their own project.In addition, there will be revisions for the groups and instant exhibitions within the class to share the development of the works. 

A series of meetings with experts of social and housing policies, stakeholders who deal daily with the reality of homelessness, researchers and teachers who have addressed this issue and, obviously, designers engaged in the implementation of the housing offer for homeless, will constitute the reference background to developing observation in the field, as well as the most appropriate design approach.

Scheduled tutorials, graphic elaboration, and production of maquettes will characterize the meetings in class.

The final work will be on show at the end of the course in an compact and inspiring exhibition. The exercise and practice of drawing (analogic and digital), in class and at home, are not intended as mere tools through which the project is presented and represented, but as an indispensable and irreplaceable tool for the elaboration, research and development of the architectural thought that finds its epiphany in construction.

* stame s. m. [lat. stamen -mĭnis,]. In partic., lo stame della vita, quello a cui è legato il destino di ogni uomo, e che le Parche filano e recidono [Encyclopedia Treccani, on-line].

References

Briata, G. Postiglione (2020). “Gratosoglio Ground Zero: persone, luoghi, pratiche”. In (a cura di): G. Cafiero, N. Flora, P. Giardiello, Costruire l'abitare contemporaneo. Nuovi temi e metodi del progetto. p. 337-341, Il Poligrafo, Padova.
Cranz (2016), Ethnography for Designers, Routledge, London & New York.
Sigler, M. Hayes, L. Whitman-Salkin (2020), Architectural Ethnography, Harvard School of Design, Harvard.
Postiglione G. (2019) “Elogio della quotidianità”. In N. Flora, J. Mera, Lettere dall’architettura, LetteraVentidue, Siracusa.

More bibliographic references will be provided at the beginning of the course, and during the semester.

Students will be evaluated based on both group and individual work. There will be tutoring, extempore, midterm reviews and a final presentation accompanied by the final Exhibition, which will experiment and test the tools and knowledge acquired.

The course will be strongly based on an open interaction between the teaching staff and the students. Active participation and interaction of students in class will be welcomed, encouraged and evaluated.

Students’ work should comply with The New European Bauhaus framework: to create a design movement integrating three dimensions: Sustainability (including circularity), Quality of experience (including aesthetics) and Social inclusion (including affordability). Showing that creativity is in finding affordable, inclusive and attractive solutions for our climate challenges. 

A detailed list of documents to be delivered and their format will be supplied in due course. As example, we invite you to consult the archive of previous years' works: http://www.lablog.org.uk/category/02_year-books/