This course aims at introducing students to the main concepts of urban design, acquirng skills related to both the exploration and the management of the relationship between the spatial, ecological and social characteristics of the city. Through the identification, elaboration and design of coherent spatial structures as well as networks based on punctual interventions, students are required to develop urban strategies capable of enhancing public life in the city in an organic dialogue with the existing tissue. Great attention is given to the perceptual approach of existing spatial structures as well as to the integration between existing urban tissues and new interventions.
The learning outcomes are the analysis, categorization and intervention within the urban tissue through small-scale, highly focused interventions (urban acupuncture) aimed at activating the urban dynamics of the study area. These interventions will include public spaces networks, residential complexes and public buildings. In particular, the relationship between the structured «solid», the organized «void» and the landscape, the organizational structures and the networks, the boundaries and filters, the ecological parameters of urban design as well as the correlation with both spatial and social conditions, are issues explored during the course. At the design stage, the interactions between different scales (1:2000, 1: 1000 and 1: 500 as basic design scales and 1: 200 as detail scale) will be studied.