Gastprofessur Angelo Raffaele Lunati
The character of European cities has little to do with monumental presences, but is determined above all by the repetition of buildings along the street or within the block, by the fine grain of singular facts and by their subtle variations.
The city, especially the nineteenth-century metropolis, is an opus at different scales, as Hermann Czech writes: that of the block, that of the house and that of inner individual use. Mostly, architectural operations encompass the two last dimensions. But there are some special buildings that have instead the ability to hold together the two first scales: the urban dimension related to repetition, and that of the individual piece, forged by contingencies and adapted to specific circumstances. Such buildings can be the result of a construction of different elements over time, or can be the result of a synthetic design operation. But in both cases, each of them can be described as a building of buildings.
A building of buildings is the quintessence of urbanity as it stands at the intersection between the dimension of the single house and that of the collective construction; especially, because it has the capacity, due to its special articulation and good manners, to be formed by two or multiple elements, but at the same time to have a single figure, a unitary presence. Its complexity is the opposite of the iconic solitary object, indifferent to these diverse urban dimensions, being abstract compared to the morphological and expressive richness claimed by this special type of building.
A building of buildings reacts consistently to the different times of the city, combining formal specificity, together with functional genericity, providing a durable urban response and, at the same time, the utmost adaptability of uses.
We could try to recognize different types of such special buildings, in relation to how their inner parts subtly or radically differ: some of them are formed by a blurring tension between two pieces, producing a kind of symmetrical overall figure, such as the Monadnoch in Chicago; some others programmatically ecompass different roles and expressions, such as the Casa-Torre Rasini in Milan or Otto Wagner’s pieces in Linken Wienzeile; other cases they produce a multiple tonal sequence, such as Asnago Vender’s block in via Albricci in Milan, or, differently, they provide diverse articulations resembling the historical variety, such as Aldo Rossi’s Berlin block in Schutzentsraße.
In this taxonomy, we will analyze some Viennese pieces and others more distant cases. In particular, we will analyze some special buildings in Milan, a paradigmatic anti-monumental city in which modern and ancient architectures are able to coexist in a natural way within a great “environmental” unity.
These buildings are beautiful for many reasons, in the assemblage and subtle variation of their façades, in the relationship between the repetition of the single element and the typological variation, in the richness of uses and in the generousity of their interior spaces. Through their intrinsic variety, they already provide a sequence or an articulation, offering a continuous background to the vibrant life of the city but at the same time stating their singular expression and elegance.
Methoden
Teaching will be alternating 2-days intensive workshops scheduled every two weeks together with weekly online lessons and group revisions.
Learning moments will encompass specific lectures on the workshop theme and on the project site, group discussions on the common objectives and individual revisions focused on the improvement of each project.
Vortragende
Angelo Raffaele Lunati
Emilio Aldo Ellena
Wilfried Kuehn
Weitere Informationen
Kick-off: Einführung: Do + Fr, 03. + 04. März 2022, Ersatzraum Prechtlsaal 2