This paper explains how the identity of buildings can be used as symbols to influence social iden... more This paper explains how the identity of buildings can be used as symbols to influence social identities, and thereby determine forms of believe and action. The identity of individuals, groups and their symbols, evolve trough reciprocal influences; people make symbols and symbols make people. This allegation, I argue, is a fundamental argument in favour of the democratisation of the processes that determine the aspect of the public space.
Assago has remained stagnated until the construction of second motorway that intersected the high... more Assago has remained stagnated until the construction of second motorway that intersected the highway on Assaghese ground. The intersection turned the village into a node of interchange, and a pole of attraction, and led to the rapid and unplanned settlement of an edge-town and a dormitory-town, each on one side of the highway. Each of the two urban typologies account for their own set of problematics, imbedded in the geometry and density of the urban tissues. In addition, the radical idiosyncrasy of their functions, the divergence of the austerity and opulence of the quarters, and the different provenance of its social milieus, left little the room for halfway bridges, that could lead to an harmonious, efficient and fully exploited urban system. However, the recent expansion of the edge-city, the arrival of alternatives to the individual means of transport, and investments that are enhancing the public space, are portraying a long-term picture of merger for the two hubs. The tertiary hub and the residential village, will have to integrate that vision into the planing of the future urbanisations and its public infrastructure. Index.
With the growing problems of human congestion and hygiene in the biggest European capitals during... more With the growing problems of human congestion and hygiene in the biggest European capitals during the early phases of the industrial revolution, new means of control had to be established, that allowed to handle big amounts of people for lucrative goals. Biopolitics, as Micheal Foucault designated the processes that related life and the individuals, would materialise in its most radical form in the Panopticon. The prison project by Jeremy Bentham followed a geometry, that was explicitly designed to exert control and induct any form morality by the few to the many, in analogy to the tayloristic factories. But with the transition from a sovereign nation-state society of production, to a society of consume of capitalist governance, environments of enclosure entered in crisis. The never built project by Rem Koolhaas at the Koepel Panopticon Prison, captures the transition of architecture and technology to the society of consume, in which the illusion of freedom and of choice, had grown along an omnipresent surveillance.
The urban tissue around train-stations is heightened in a relation of symbiosis, and the raise of... more The urban tissue around train-stations is heightened in a relation of symbiosis, and the raise of its value promotes the modernisation and requalification of the railway areas. The case of Stuttgart 21 is an outstanding example of how the the public administrations have invested in a brownfield from the former freight marshalling yard, to develop an economical pole on the state of art of other cities. The so called Europaviertel exploits the interconnecting potential of the train-station as a pole of attraction and as a node of interchange, to built a district related towards the rest of the world, and that enjoys the symbolic cultural value of the city. In this paper we will evaluate the ex ante motivation, the ex post facto consequences, and study its relations with the territory, the urban tissue and its buildings.
In this paper we will study the socio-economical effects that the PEPRI plan of 1990 had in the n... more In this paper we will study the socio-economical effects that the PEPRI plan of 1990 had in the neighbourhood of the Albayzin, which followed the local and international pressure driven by an unique case of gentrification. The thesis will place the plan at the tip of its historical context, and focus on its intention of rebuilding the historical heritage in its physical and symbolic form. Furthermore we will study a disrupting aftermath that continues until this days, and prove that the plan has to continue reforming itself, to correct its course towards a vision built by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
This paper explains how the identity of buildings can be used as symbols to influence social iden... more This paper explains how the identity of buildings can be used as symbols to influence social identities, and thereby determine forms of believe and action. The identity of individuals, groups and their symbols, evolve trough reciprocal influences; people make symbols and symbols make people. This allegation, I argue, is a fundamental argument in favour of the democratisation of the processes that determine the aspect of the public space.
Assago has remained stagnated until the construction of second motorway that intersected the high... more Assago has remained stagnated until the construction of second motorway that intersected the highway on Assaghese ground. The intersection turned the village into a node of interchange, and a pole of attraction, and led to the rapid and unplanned settlement of an edge-town and a dormitory-town, each on one side of the highway. Each of the two urban typologies account for their own set of problematics, imbedded in the geometry and density of the urban tissues. In addition, the radical idiosyncrasy of their functions, the divergence of the austerity and opulence of the quarters, and the different provenance of its social milieus, left little the room for halfway bridges, that could lead to an harmonious, efficient and fully exploited urban system. However, the recent expansion of the edge-city, the arrival of alternatives to the individual means of transport, and investments that are enhancing the public space, are portraying a long-term picture of merger for the two hubs. The tertiary hub and the residential village, will have to integrate that vision into the planing of the future urbanisations and its public infrastructure. Index.
With the growing problems of human congestion and hygiene in the biggest European capitals during... more With the growing problems of human congestion and hygiene in the biggest European capitals during the early phases of the industrial revolution, new means of control had to be established, that allowed to handle big amounts of people for lucrative goals. Biopolitics, as Micheal Foucault designated the processes that related life and the individuals, would materialise in its most radical form in the Panopticon. The prison project by Jeremy Bentham followed a geometry, that was explicitly designed to exert control and induct any form morality by the few to the many, in analogy to the tayloristic factories. But with the transition from a sovereign nation-state society of production, to a society of consume of capitalist governance, environments of enclosure entered in crisis. The never built project by Rem Koolhaas at the Koepel Panopticon Prison, captures the transition of architecture and technology to the society of consume, in which the illusion of freedom and of choice, had grown along an omnipresent surveillance.
The urban tissue around train-stations is heightened in a relation of symbiosis, and the raise of... more The urban tissue around train-stations is heightened in a relation of symbiosis, and the raise of its value promotes the modernisation and requalification of the railway areas. The case of Stuttgart 21 is an outstanding example of how the the public administrations have invested in a brownfield from the former freight marshalling yard, to develop an economical pole on the state of art of other cities. The so called Europaviertel exploits the interconnecting potential of the train-station as a pole of attraction and as a node of interchange, to built a district related towards the rest of the world, and that enjoys the symbolic cultural value of the city. In this paper we will evaluate the ex ante motivation, the ex post facto consequences, and study its relations with the territory, the urban tissue and its buildings.
In this paper we will study the socio-economical effects that the PEPRI plan of 1990 had in the n... more In this paper we will study the socio-economical effects that the PEPRI plan of 1990 had in the neighbourhood of the Albayzin, which followed the local and international pressure driven by an unique case of gentrification. The thesis will place the plan at the tip of its historical context, and focus on its intention of rebuilding the historical heritage in its physical and symbolic form. Furthermore we will study a disrupting aftermath that continues until this days, and prove that the plan has to continue reforming itself, to correct its course towards a vision built by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
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