The studio didactic activity is characterized by the experimentation of the architectural design tools and techniques gained during the courses.

The Architectural design studio 1 aims to gradually introduce the student to the complexity of the project by focusing on the necessary foundations and theoretical, analytical and instrumental knowledge. The student undertakes basic exercises of design and architecture representation by realizing models in scales. During the year are carried out different exercises concerning initially the reading, interpretation and representation of significant architectures and, subsequently, the development of a project with simple functional contents. The project also intends to address the issue of relations established with the place, the question of use, of construction and materials.

The Architectural design studio 1 guarantees the student the acquisition of theoretical, analytical and basic design skills applied to preparatory exercises and to a final project. Attending lessons and studying bibliography is considered an important moment for the achievement of an ability to judge and control the architectural composition.

The expected results are: knowledge of the tools useful for reading and interpreting architecture (study, interpretative drawing and model building); knowledge and understanding of drawing as a tool for knowledge; knowledge and understanding of the rules of architectural composition; knowledge and understanding of the elements that characterize the relationship between architecture and place and space.

Introduction

In the search for solutions to the global housing crisis, more than ever housing design needs innovation. The Architectural Design Studio 1 shell introduce students to tools and strategies aimed at improving accessibility, health, flexibility and community building concepts in contemporary residential architecture.

In the course of the year, students will be asked to design two types of residential developments defining the internal layout, the composition of the façade and the relationship with the surrounding context especially for what concerns the feature of the communal spaces.

The first development will have touristic purpose and will be composed of multiple small-scale residential units, the second one will be a multi-storey collective house in Milan.

The students will get familiar with the fundamental topics of the housing design: the relationship with the place, the access, the layout arrangement, the relationship between construction and exterior form.

The teaching method includes lectures, seminars, practical design activities, discussion, brainstorming, study trips and site visits. The lectures as well the suggested bibliography will provide the theoretical input while the output will include drawings and the models of various scales that the students will make. Students will be motivated, encouraged and supported by the teaching staff by means of single or collective reviews..

The theoretical background:

The architectural project is set up on typological research: the latter associates, from a critical point of view, the definition of the new architectures with the experience, the memory, the heritage of knowledge represented both by contemporary and modernist architecture. The design decisions are thus developed along a process of critical knowledge, taking into consideration the balance between imagination and reason.

Architecture is made up by a visible and an invisible part; these two are linked by a relationship which is similar to the distinction, operated by semantics, between the denotative and the connotative significance. The visible concerns the shape, the space, and properties of building materials while the invisible concerns ideas, thoughts, emotions.

The third concept regards the identity: it is something singular and typical, but also a choice, in the sense that it reflects the intentions. A place is given an identity by the project, because it represents what survives the continuous changes of the spatial and functional arrangements of the city, and gives an indelible character to the sceneries where the existence of human beings, and that of forms, merge.

As concerns representation technique, drawing is not just the tool used to communicate the thought; is the tool that allows us to formulate the thought itself.

Similarly, the concept of space is a "cognitive artifact" that allows us to imagine and project new spaces and objects.

The course will provide to the students the necessary tools for understanding and manipulating the "space" and its communication and correct transmission. 

The learning process will be developed in theoretical lessons and practical exercises by hand and with computer. The theoretical part will explore aspects of thinking about the space both Cartesian mode and non-Cartesian mode. We will study the possibility of overcoming this concept using alternative space systems such as, for example, topological or fractal.

It will also study the possibilities of the world of parametrical modelling.

The Core  Topic: the Contemporary Dwelling

Living in a home is a first-hand experience for everybody. Designing correctly a house, making it a comfortable, flexible dwelling that reflects person’s individual world is a challenge architects often face. Housing design deals on one hand with the physical shape of the building and on the other hand with meaning that turns a house into home. In spite of the increasing needs for low cost housing and the attempt to modernize and make more efficient the housing construction, a house is not a machine for living but the place in which one can make his or her life meaningful. 
The concept of dwelling may have very different sense depending on the place, the age of a person, and a wide range of social factors. In Italian cities the welfare is getting worse due to financial global crisis and the housing deprivation is increasing as well.

How Does It Work?

The project work will be developed by the students in groups of two or individually.

Student’s work in the design studio is reviewed through critics..

The Studio should be understood as “a learning environment” (Opiyo Lueth, 2008) in which the individual skills increase through a mutual interaction with the instructors and classmates.

The assigned work  will be carried on both in the class and at home, and . discussed every week with the teaching staff. During individual reviews.

Three times  in each semester mid-term presentations will take place.: the in progress work (sketches, drawings, models) will be arranged in panels that will be pin up on the wall and the students will get an informal evaluation.

Fall/winter semester (October-December);

Students will be asked to design “mobile” multiple small-scale residential units, suitable for tourists. Relationship with surrounding landscape is of a key-importance in this project.  

A mobile small-scale residential unit  is a one storey house, usually built with light materials (wood, sandwich panels, dry construction systems) and off site fabrication, even if there are some example of traditional bricks and concrete buildings. Those houses are cost-effective and are often hybrids that blend cabins, advanced shelters, and exhibition houses. The single houses will be vertically stacked, and/or horizontally clustered in order to arrange a small settlement.

Spring/Summer semester (febraury -june);

The students will be work at the second and final project, a multi-storey collective house in Milan. The project site will be selected in an urban area of Milan according to “Rifomare Periferie Milano Metropolitana 2018” . The number of apartments for each floor can span between a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 6. This depends by the layout arrangement and will be planned with each group.The apartments must be sized as follow:.

1. Small size apartments: 50/60 sm: one master bed room, living room and kitchen, one bathroom.
2. Medium size apartment: 80/100 sm; two bedrooms (one master), living room kitchen, one or two bathroom.

3. Large size apartments: 120/130 sm; three bedrooms (one master), living room kitchen, two bathrooms.

   4. On the top floor a penthouse is required; this could be enlarged to 150 sqm

Final evaluation

The final exam will be performed at the end of the class in the official exam sessions. The students will take the exam in groups or individually.

The exam is based on public presentation of the projects.

The final grade will depend on:

1. Quality of the design presented:

• general concept behind the design,
• relationship with the context: scale of the building, arrangement of the volumes,
• architectural dimension: correct arrangement of layouts and façade composition,
• capability to control relationship loadbearing structure, expression, walls, sunshading.

2. Visual representation:

• drawings,
• models,
• composition of presentation panels

3. Awareness: the student must be able to justify the design choices quoting case studies from modern and contemporary architecture and references to bibliography and lectures.
4. Completeness of the final submission
5. Attendance and evaluation results in the six semester submissions

english edition