The optional courses allow the student to complete his/her own study program and to characterize his/her own training profile choosing, according to his/her own personal interests, the themes of deepening among a wide range of alternatives.

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

DdD 1 (knowledge and understanding), 3 (autonomy of judgment), 4 (communication skills) and 5 (learning ability)

- ability to acquire, process independently and communicate knowledge not strictly related to the subjects characterizing the Master Program (DdD 1, 3, 4 and 5)

COURSE MAIN TOPICS

The Course aims to teach the tools and the method to develop a Landscape Project, from the territorial strategy to the design detail.

The students are going to design for the exam a project that they can present as a group.

The focus is on the process they develop during the semester and in the design aspects that they presents.

Starting from the disciplinary debate regarding the binomial “city-nature”, seen as a possible route towards sustainability, the course examines in depth strategies of intervention at different scales: from the urban scale to the scale of the territory.

Living in an era of total transformation, the city of Milan needs new forms of representation as well as a new form of participation. A Milan green city needs a wide and systemic green, with the capabilities to become an ecological, economic and social service for the citizens’ health.

The workshop gave the start to a complex process that must go deep to the character "genetically" more authentic of this city, reformulating the relationship between a balanced urban textile, a measurable permeability of public spaces and a wide range of ecosystem services within the overall ecological-environmental context of the entire metropolitan area.

Converting Milan course start from this primary step and wants to explore deeper themes with the purpose of design a completely new and innovative project for the city.

The aim is to engage and explore different scales and different typologies within the designing process of public green spaces: ranging from the garden to the woodlands and paying special attention to the theme of the green infrastructures, the European instrument to promote biodiversity both in the urban and the agroforestry systems.

The eight “polarities of development” which intersect the “Raggi Verdi” will be the case studies for the design of open green spaces.

working class methodology

The course presents the Landscape architecture theoretical criteria and explores the concept of site and place. The teaching approach is structured on perceptive and traditional analysis instruments as the basis of landscape understanding.

At the same time, the fundamental elements of the landscape such as soil, water, air, and ecosystems are deeply described.

During the semester students will work as a group in a laboratory of landscape design. The course will focalize on creative and personal projects. Experience of workshop and survey are part of the course philosophy.

Student works will be discussed and developed by each group in order to encourage a discussion of their own personal ideas.

The course will be divided into three main modules:

1_understanding of three case studies by research and drawing

2_methodology and guidelines, to a theory definition

3_application of the theory and design process

The project will be developed in three main phases:

1_perceptive and site analysis

2_concept and project

3_presentation and communication of the students own projects

working class ACTIVITIES

The course activity encourages public critics of the projects, critical analysis of such spaces and improves the creative imagination process in connection with a new vision of living in the urban and peri-urban space.

-          Theoretical Lessons on contemporary Landscape Architecture and Urban Transformation with the presentation of many case studies;

-          Open Lectures with Visiting professors and professionals discussing significant topics for the workshop;

-          Milestone Seminars with a public discussion on the project stages;

-          Weekly review of sketches, draws, collages, pictures, diagrams, map etc;

course web platform

https://beep.metid.polimi.it/

EXAM EVALUATION CONTENTS

-          Milestone Seminars/public discussion with the class: Digital presentation (min 5/max 10 slides)

-          A3 booklet, collecting working process and mile-stone seminar contents;

-          Project Boards (Analysis / General masterplan explaining the strategy and the functional program for the whole area / Project Focus 1: 200-1:100 / Details 1: 50-20);

-          CD of the project contents

CASE STUDIES AND METHODOLOGICAL GUIDELINES / FiRST MILESTONE SEMINAR

1. Learning by:

-          analysis of three specific case studies with a topic in line with the design project to be develop in the second phase

-          the cases presented are meant to be analyze throw drawings and bibliographic research

(min 4 A3)

2. Methodological guidelines:

-          from the analyzed cases the students are meant to develop a series of guidelines of ‘good design’ that can be resume in those main categories: spatial dimensions and relations, functions and recreational activities, connective tissue like bike and pedestrian lines, green and blue structures. (min 2 A3

PROJECT / SECOND MILESTONE SEMINAR

1. Concept and Topics:

-          3 images of reference ( projects, photos, paintings ... etc ) as suggestion for the strategy and as interpretation of general theme chosen by the student

-          3 reference books. Choosing for each book one significant extract ( max 10 lines )

2. Analysis and Diagrams:

-          mobility: flows and connections

-          functions: focus on public buildings, cultural institutions, informal situations of the context

-          open spaces/spaces of relation: gardens, squares, gathering places, rural spaces.

3. Vision and Strategy: interpretation of the Concept applied on the project area (diagrams, plans, sections, collages, maquette….)

4. Milestone Seminar : digital presentation: minimum 5, maximum 10 slides

-          SLIDE 1 ( Concept and Topics)

-          SLIDE 2 ( Analysis and Diagrams )

-          SLIDE 3 (Vision and Strategy)

-          SLIDE 4 Masterplan 1: 2000-1000

-          SLIDES 5 …………….

-          other more slides depending on the definition level of the work.