itopia

Building the Public City.Theory and Practice in contemporary Italian Architecture

A desire to construct the public realm permeates the visions and the concrete experiences of contemporary Italian architecture. This desire, deeply rooted in the past, from the roman basilicas to the piano sistino, has generated various attempts to design and build the idea of a truly public city: since the beginning of the XX century architecture has been the tool to shape not only the space of the contemporary city, but also the identities of the communities inhabiting it.
As a mean to build the public city, architecture has been therefore a public activity in itself, closely connected to the political and cultural context, in which it has found unique conditions to make real some visions and theories about the contemporary city.
Rooted in the specificity of Italian situation, since modernity this idea of a public city has generated all over Italy several powerful - as much as controversial - experiments. Rome, in particular, due to its peculiar political and social situation, has been an exceptional ground for some of the most radical ones: not only new buildings but visions of a different society in the form of concrete and specific architectural and urban projects.
The Architecture Theory course at Cornell will therefore focus on this main issue of Italian modern and contemporary architecture, opening the theory field to the dialogue with concrete experiences, and with the multiple relationships that this kind of public architecture establishes with the cultural context. “Getting out” could be the keyword of this program structured in three main sections of exchanges between theory and reality, practice and society.


on site : four “open-air” lessons will give the opportunity to explore the city of Rome following some major issues, and visiting some outstanding examples of the modern city - from the garden city model of the Garbatella, to the neorealismo of the Tuscolano, to the radical piece of Laurentino 38 – compared with some of the most recent, celebrated projects.

at work: four meetings in some significant architecture offices in Rome will actualize these issues concerning the construction of the public city in the actual practices and dynamics of transformation on the city field.

in context: four speakers will be invited to trace a profile of Italian architecture seen from the intense relationships established with the modern and contemporary culture, each time focusing on the peculiar dialectics between architecture and history, literature, urbanism and politics.

These series of lectures will be preceded by a joint lecture to introduce the program and to put in perspective all the following themes and subjects .
As an optional integration to this program there could be some on site and at work sessions to be held during the field trips all over Italy, in order to explore some contemporary architectures and to meet some interesting architectural practices outside of Rome.

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Program

fri 29 aug - Intro
Italy/Rome: the Public realm between Architecture and the City (Alberto Iacovoni and Gabriele Mastrigli - Palazzo Lazzaroni)

ven 5 sep - On site
The Green City - Circo Massimo/Park of Caracalla Baths, Garbatella (the collective housing by Sabbatini and the garden city by Giovannoni), S.Paolo/Ostiense (the new university and the renewal of the industrial district of Rome, with the ongoing new Koolhaas’ project for the City of Youth)

mon 15 sep - At work
11th Venice Architecture Biennale

mon 22 sep - In context
Pippo Ciorra: Ludovico Quaroni and the Roman School

fri 26 sep - On Site
The City as a Model - EUR (Palazzo dei Congressi by Libera, Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana by La Padula, Congress Center By Massimiliano Fuksas, Centralità Catellaccio and Eurosky Tower by Franco Purini), Decima, Laurentino 38.

fri 3 oct - At work
Garofalo/Miura Architects

fri 10 oct - In context
Emanuele Trevi: The Real City. Writing about Rome from War to Boom

fri 31 oct - On site
The Neorealist City - Quartiere Tuscolano (Libera, De Renzi and others), Tiburtino (Quaroni, Ridolfi, Aymonino).

fri 7 nov - At work
Stalker / On

fri 14 nov - In context
International Conference: Architecture and Politics (Academia Belgica, Rome)

fri 21 nov - On site
The City of Culture - Foro Italico, Villaggio Olimpico, Parco della Musica By Renzo Piano, Maxxi by Zaha Hadid.

mon 24 nov - At work
Carlo Aymonino

fri 28 nov - In context
Pier Vittorio Aureli: The Project of Autonomy. Italian Architecture in ’60 and ‘70

fri 5 dec - Reviews and open discussion

mon 15 dec - Final Presentation (14.00 – 17.00)

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Guest lecturers

Pippo Ciorra

Architect, critic and professor of design and theory at the School of Architecture of Ascoli Piceno, University of Camerino. Coordinator of the "Villard d'Honnecourt" international PhD program. Adviser for the MVDR prize and for the "Medaglia dell'architettura italiana". Since 1981 contributor to the cultural pages of "Il Manifesto" and other national newspapers and radio stations. Member of the editorial board of "Casabella", "Gomorra", "Parametro". Author of a number of books, texts, publications: among them Ludovico Quaroni, Peter Eisenman, (for Electa) Young Italian Architects (Birkhauser), Nuova architettuta italiana, (Skirà). He has curated and designed important exhibitions and installations in Italy and elsewhere, including the Biennale in Venice, the MAXXI museum and "Palazzo delle Esposizioni" in Rome, the "Casa dell'architettura" in Rome, the Mole Vanvitelliana and Palazzo degli Anziani in Ancona. Most recently he curated the show and catalogue: Next Generation_ Il futuro dei musei (Electa 2006).

Emanuele Trevi
Writer and journalist, born in Rome, 1964. Contributor to the "Manifesto" and "La Repubblica". He has published various collections of essays and narratives including: "Istruzioni per l'uso del lupo" (1994), "Musica distante" (1997), "I cani del nulla" (2003), "Senza verso" (2004), "L'onda del porto" (2005). Co-author with Marco Lodoli pf a text book entitled "Storie della vita"

Pier Vittorio Aureli
Pier Vittorio Aureli is an architect and educator. After graduating cum laude from the Istituto di Architettura di Venezia, Aureli obtained a doctorate in urban planning, a master’s degree at the Berlage Institute, and a PhD at the Berlage Institute/TU Delft. His theoretical studies focus on the relationship between architectural form, political thinking, and urban history. Aureli teaches at the Berlage Institute – where he is Unit Professor and responsible for the “research on the city” program. Currently he is visiting Professor at the Architectural Association in London, Columbia University in New York, and Delft University of Technology. Aureli has lectured and published worldwide and he is currently working on a book entitled “The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, a Study on the Representation of the City through Architectural Form, from Bramante to Mies”. Together with Martino Tattara is the cofounder of Dogma, and architectural collective centered on the project of the city. Recently Dogma won the first prize in the international competition for the new Administrative City for 500.000 inhabitants in the Republic of South Korea, and in 2006 received the Iakov Chernikhov Prize for the best emerging architectural practice.