The Studio explores the fields of action of the urban planning within the current contexts, characterized by a socio-economic transition that raises new questions about technical knowledge and its tradition. In the Studio, therefore: are experienced new forms of urban planning, useful in addressing the emerging problems of contemporary territories; are constructed problematic frameworks of design alternatives; are tested the relations between the spatial transformation of landscapes and the regulatory dimension of the urban design.

Finally, the Studio focuses on the crucial issues of the identity of places in a time in which new life cycles for existing housing structures need to be imagined in a perspective of prudent and sustainable development.

Students:

- acquire knowledge and understanding of the techniques and tools of urban design;

- acquire knowledge and understanding of a critical approach to urban and landscape design on the various scales, correlated to work planning, economic and feasibility assessment, and accessibility design;

- are capable of doing historical and critical analysis and interpretation of locations and contexts;

- are capable of developing design solutions coherent with the location and context, even in highly complex urban environments.

BERGAMO BRESCIA 2024

Strategies and guidelines for post event sustainable living and development

“Bergamo and Brescia, Italian capitals of culture 2023: the cities affected by Covid united in the sign of beauty”,Bolognini, La Repubblica, 3.03.2022

“We could not imagine that 2023 would come after the pandemic and after a war, now there will be even more need to show that we are restarting and culture can make a huge contribution to this restart. The country truly believes in the potential of culture, we have put almost 7 billion of PNRR into culture”. Franceschini, Minister of Culture, 4.03.2022

Bergamo and Brescia will share the title of Italian Capital of Culture in 2023. The candidacy dossier Bergamo Brescia Italian capital of the Culture 2023 “The illuminated city”, indicates the reasons, the strategic themes and the project areas.

The violence and speed with which the Covid-19 pandemic broke into the territories of the two cities, shocked the world. At the end of April 2020, accounted for half of the deaths from Coronavirus in the whole of Lombardy, which in turn had half the deaths of the whole of Italy. This pushed the Italian government to respond positively to the proposal made by the two cities, deciding to support their candidacy with the appointment as Italian Capital of Culture 2023.

The dossier is divided into four areas on which projects, initiatives and events will be carried out: “Culture as a cure” aims to help build a shared memory; "The city of nature" which will aim to stimulate reflection on the relationship between urban spaces and natural spaces, one of the great challenges of this century to make the two cities greener and more sustainable; "The city of hidden treasures" to rethink, reinterpret and redesign the relationship with the cultural heritage of both territories and finally "The city that invents", a set of projects that sees companies and their representative associations as protagonists. artistic and cultural institutions will talk about the great inventive, planning and realization capacity of the manufacturing characteristic of these places.

The 2023 Bergamo-Brescia Italian Capital of Culture will pose challenges from all points of view: with an expected investment of about 158.848.707 euros between the two municipalities from 2021-2023, it is essential that sustainability economic, environmental and social development of the project extends beyond the period of the cultural event itself (scheduled throughout 2023), offering concrete prospects for growth and well-being of the area in the long term.

The course will attempt to answer the following town planning design question: what are the visions, tools, strategies and guidelines to adopt to ensure post-event sustainable living and development in Bergamo-Brescia 2024?

An event of this magnitude raises several questions to explore. What legacy of territorial regeneration do we want to be left behind? Design attention will be paid to the city of Brescia, starting to ask ourselves a series of questions. Following the event, will Brescia become more accessible to different income groups and communities? Has the covid period produced effects on the use of public spaces and open spaces in our cities? How will the landscape of Brescia and its hinterland change? Is it possible to think of environmental compensation and ensure the event benefits the cultural, heritage and territorial landscapes? How are cultural venues important to the urban space and what are the ways culture reactivate overlooked spaces? More broadly, will Brescia become a city with increasing public use or instead more privatized and exclusive? Which policies and strategies can help to manage and regulate mass tourism and avoid negative impacts such as skyrocketing costs of living and gentrification? What will be the legacies for the many areas planned as event venues and what will be the effects of the induced demand for housing and touristic facilities before, during, and after the events? Can we hypothesize a new widespread system of housing and socio-economic infrastructure that enhances the existing heritage while regenerating urban suburbs and bringing back habitability and necessary infrastructure to shrinking cities?

What has happened to the legacy of previous European Capitals of Culture cities in light of the recent global recession?  Did the European Capitals of Culture event contribute to changes in city planning priorities, or was it a byproduct of other trends in globalization?

The 2023 Bergamo-Brescia Italian Capital of Culture follows a long tradition of other cities facing similar issues. The Italian Capital of Culture has been hosted by various Italian cities since 2015, but for the last several decades cities have been turning to culture and events as part of strategies to reactivate and regenerate themselves following drawn out periods of deindustrialization. Cities have aimed to harness the potential social and economic capital of culture to promote themselves, attract new investments and compete globally. Large-scale events, flagship structures and branded districts have made up key elements in these strategies – with varying results. While large-scale and mega-events were once fiercely competed over, recent years have seen a significant reduction in competition between cities to host events like the Olympics or Expo due to rising costs and challenges of long-term use of sites. Smaller scale and less tangible cultural events represent an interesting alternative capable of still attracting significant attention and interest in cities while avoiding the cumbersome legacy of massive infrastructural investments. This wealth of experiences from around the world, both positive and negative, provide key resources to learn from and activate in the case of Bergamo and Brescia Italian Capital of Cultural in 2023.

Through the Urban design studio, students will explore in depth the interaction between the themes of socio-economic transition, permanence and temporality, sustainability, resilience/recovery, fragility/anti-fragility, and the challenging memory of the covid-19 pandemic. The students will reflect on the role that urban planning and design can play in this delicate balance and address these issues by working in groups operating across three modules within the course.

METHOD

The course will be organized as follows: 

Part 1_In the first part “Capital of culture event in my country”, students will start by comparing Bergamo-Brescia cultural cities areas, with the focus on Brescia, to other cultural capitals or large-scale cultural event sites and international case studies. The 1^st exercise will investigate what are the elements that determine the success of an event, and which are those that affect its success under four macro themes: economic, environmental, social and future inheritance. The aim of this first investigation is to grow on specific knowledge and to build a first cultural and strategic reading of the topic, and greater understanding about successful (or not) strategies and visions developed in other places. Students will start with an individual exercise and will be divided in several groups by the beginning of October, before the fieldtrip to Brescia event site.  

Part 2_In the second part students, divided in several groups, will progressively develop an operative material and a broad analytical investigation and critical reading of Brescia cultural capital cities area and its territory with a bottom-up approach, that is by selecting one specific theme and working at multiple scales simultaneously. The production of this stratified system of knowledge will be interpreted and will drive the design phase. This module will end in mid-November and will provide the basis for developing masterplan strategies.

Part 3_In the final part students will be asked to develop site-specific urban planning projects, with a multi-scale and time-based programmatic strategy and a formal proposal. We expect from students to react to the ambitious course program with a project capable of interpreting the multiple contemporary approaches to urban design, that is to build-up a consistent narrative in which landscape urbanism, open planning guidelines, scenarios, cultural and architectural features may clearly emerge. By the end of December the class will establish a common date for the final exam at the end of January.

• SDG8 - DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
• SDG11 - SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
• SDG17 - PARTNERSHIP FOR THE GOALS

EVALUATION MODE

Students will be evaluated according to the 5 Dublin criteria, adopted by the Politecnico di Milano: 
1 knowledge and understanding
2 applying knowledge and understanding
3 making judgements
4 communication skills
5 learning skills

Evaluation mode in detail:

Evaluation report First exercise | “Capital of culture event in my country” = 8

Evaluation report Second exercise | Investigation and site visit = 7

Final exam evaluation| town planning project = 12

Oral presentation | project presentation and oral questions on the topics of the lectures (of your choice) = 3