If we recognize in the industrial buildings the roots of modern architecture, the mutation of the... more If we recognize in the industrial buildings the roots of modern architecture, the mutation of the meaning which the architectures for the energy go towards, the ones animated at the start of 900 by the fée électricité, can define the contemporary concept of fire. Considered as the revolution of 20th century, the discovery and the application of electricity triggered on a process which never stopped and that made energy the true key to enter into the contemporary age. Beyond the obsolescence and the use of traditional fuels, electricity is potential energy, still contained in the objects and able to produce new values; true energy, allowing devices to work, and including the metabolism, the heating, the air conditioning, the lighting; in the end, it becomes immaterial energy, of fluxes and ideas, information and goods. Former power stations become nowadays new interpreters of the relationship between city and landscape. Fire, as agent of transformation, is, still today, the most noble among the four elements of architecture.
In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is... more In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is hardly recognizable a real shape or order unless its description of “diffused city”, following the infrastructural network. This is the “typical” Belgian way of settle in the territory, along with the highly infrastructural land and the heavy industries spotting all along the Walloon axis, the industrial backbone running west-east from Mons to Verviers. Nevertheless, now that the traditional industrial exploitation is near to an end, we can find a strong identity core in this landscape, anchored to the history of these places and to the practices that there used to be acted. Belgium itself can be considered as a total industrial landscape, strongly characterized by extraction towers, smoking chimneys, ateliers, electric power stations, terrils, that nowadays remain as both waste and icons. Starting from the case-study of Belgium, and along with the comparison with some Italian examples (such as Bussi industrial areas and the Sicilian eastern coastline) this paper will investigate the role of contemporary architectural project in dealing with industrial archaeological memories outside the compact city, offering possible strategies for inhabiting even a 120 km long route (corresponding to the Walloon axis): the challenge is to turn the relationships governing the diffused city into a key to revitalize huge abandoned lands. Operating by fragments of a whole, punctual projects will help the nature coming back to highly artificial lands and will mix new sustainable ways of living. Thus the aim is to trigger off the transformations and trace different possible scenarios, that will take place almost automatically, with no soil consumption and enhancing the existing resources. The hypothesis is that one single transformation, if well guided, can affect the metamorphosis of very far places, as a wonderful butterfly effect.
The Restoration of the Modern: the Thermoelectric Power Station by Giuseppe Samonà, Augusta (SR).... more The Restoration of the Modern: the Thermoelectric Power Station by Giuseppe Samonà, Augusta (SR). In the 1960s, the electric power industry was the driving force for the industrialisation process in Sicily. The Augusta power station was the first wide work that launched the development process of the island, starting from its southeastern coast. In 1956, its design was submitted to Giuseppe Samonà, one of the most important Italian architects of the 20 th century, Dean of the IUAV at that time. The power station-no longer in use now-, which can be considered as a very good example of industrial architecture, is located in the petrochemical complex of Augusta, directly connected to the harbour and the city. This is a historically layered place, in which the ancient Greek town of Megara Hyblaea is the most prominent archaeological site. Enel Spa, the Italian electric utility company and owner of the power station, acknowledging its potential, has submitted its re-use and redesign to the Department of Architecture of Palermo. This action could trigger a deep changing in the industrial landscape in order to start up new housing, cultural and social opportunities.
In the Mediterranean basin, the archaeological presence is extremely relevant and diffuse. Togeth... more In the Mediterranean basin, the archaeological presence is extremely relevant and diffuse. Together with this is a difficult intertwining with contemporary urban settlements, which archaeology, by tradition, has to be protected from. If conservation is the goal of restoration, the problem of the cohabitation between past and present use is still an issue. This paper will focus on the project of enhancement of the archaeological park of the Greek colony of Naxos, near Messina, in Sicily, led by the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo in cooperation with the administrative head of the park. At the crossroads between the sea, the highway, a lemon orchard and the city of Giardini Naxos, the ancient Greek settlement could be an example of coexistence of the different layers composing the landscape, with the aim of making history and archaeology come to life as synchronous components of the contemporary fruition of the place.
(sITA) studii de Istoria și Teoria Arhitecturii / studies in History and Theory of Architecture, 2020
In many European languages the word “decoration” is frequently used as a synonym of ornament, and... more In many European languages the word “decoration” is frequently used as a synonym of ornament, and often perceived as something superfluous and unnecessary which can be “added on.” However, the original sense of the Latin verb decēre, where the noun decor comes from, points out that every situation requires a convenient, or decent, behavior. Decoration is something “appropriate and decent,” specifically required for the occasion. Concerning decoration, this means a shift from the concept of superfluous ornament to necessary ornament, because it is appropriate.
Developing from the reflections of the Gothic Revival, this hybrid nature of decoration, which is both decor (decent/appropriate appearance or behavior) and ornamentum (added on adornment), can be the key to reading all subsequent architecture, that of the bare solids and the white and smooth surfaces, for which ornament was, as it is well-known, a “crime.”
This paper aims to trace back in contemporary architecture the origins of its search for decoration as “necessary ornament.” The main idea is to read architecture in the light of its relationship between convenience and aesthetics, so that, to quote a famous sentence by Auguste Perret, it can be really considered architecture and not a mere work of engineering. Especially nowadays, when advanced technological means allow architects to think what once was simply not-drawable, so also unthinkable, one should ask themselves not if it is licit but if it is “decent.”
InFolio RIVISTA DEL DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN ARCHITETTURA, ARTI E PIANIFICAZIONE DELL’UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PALERMO - DIPARTIMENTO DI ARCHITETTURA, 2020
Using the oxymoron “virtual architecture”, this paper investigates some issues related to three l... more Using the oxymoron “virtual architecture”, this paper investigates some issues related to three levels of the contemporary projects: first, it refers to the design and conception of architecture in the age of digital data–The Third Machine Age–where the digital control makes possible multiple solutions otherwise almost unconceivable; then, it addresses to the new meaning of the image of the project, which in the last decades has become an element autonomous from the project itself; finally, it points out the risks and the possibilities in the use of virtualization to imagine future worlds.
Rileggere Samonà /Re-Reading Samonà (a cura di Laura Pujia), 2020
In 1961, Giuseppe Samonà has his office in Rome with his son Alberto along with Giuseppina Marcia... more In 1961, Giuseppe Samonà has his office in Rome with his son Alberto along with Giuseppina Marcialis and he is chief of the electric development program forecasted by SGES (later on absorbed by Enel) in Sicily. After the first power plant, in Augusta (SR), the design of the plant in Termini Imerese (PA) is starting. It was be considered as the most powerful plant in Sicily, able to cover the electric supply of all the western part of the Region. Emblematic of Samonà’s design, always in between the peace of forms and the light-and-shadow tendency, its demolition, in 2012, arises one more time the issue of the monuments of modern architecture, especially the industrial one.
Next Places, Next Spaces Proceedings Book Forthcoming approaches in architectural and urban designing, 2020
In case of emergency due to natural or artificial causes, one of the most compelling issues is th... more In case of emergency due to natural or artificial causes, one of the most compelling issues is the real-time response. In this field, urban contexts are often extremely fragile. The more connected the world is the more interconnection couples with interdependency. Electric grids, water supply, transportation networks, ICT networks and so on are all interdependent: a breakdown in one of them can generate a cascade failure and the collapse of the overall infrastructure that makes the emergency and disaster management harder and unprecise. Dealing with an emergency means dealing with unpredicted events, even in the framework of already predictable disasters. Most of the Italian cities are exemplary cases: the compresence of an ancient urban tissue made up by an intricate streets system, with an unsustainable traffic loads condition and, sometimes, a role of strategic commercial node, they are always at the emergency threshold. On top of that, cities like Messina, Palermo, Naples, are constantly expecting a terrible earthquake or a volcanic eruption. What could be the consequences and real-time disaster management in such an unmanageable context? This paper is an early-stage study based on the hypothesis that a possible way to prevent the infrastructure breakdown in case of disaster can be thinking the urban networks made up of nodes, both physical and virtual, that can be defined “islands”, with a particular grade of independence one to the other. In a sort of a new Mathias Ungers’ archipelago, where interconnection must overcome interdependency, the architectural point of view can add a fruitful contribution to the ICT field for emergency management.
TAW2018 International Scientific Conference [CO]HABITATION TACTICS Imagining future spaces in architecture, city and landscape, 2018
In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is... more In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is hardly recognizable a real shape or order unless its description of “diffused city”, following the infrastructural network. This is the “typical” Belgian way of settle in the territory, along with the highly infrastructural land and the heavy industries spotting all along the Walloon axis, the industrial backbone running west-east from Mons to Verviers. Nevertheless, now that the traditional industrial exploitation is near to an end, we can find a strong identity core in this landscape, anchored to the history of these places and to the practices that there used to be acted. Belgium itself can be considered as a total industrial landscape, strongly characterized by extraction towers, smoking chimneys, ateliers, electric power stations, terrils, that nowadays remain as both waste and icons. Starting from the case-study of Belgium, and along with the comparison with some Italian examples (such as Bussi industrial areas and the Sicilian eastern coastline) this paper will investigate the role of contemporary architectural project in dealing with industrial archaeological memories outside the compact city, offering possible strategies for inhabiting even a 120 km long route (corresponding to the Walloon axis): the challenge is to turn the relationships governing the diffused city into a key to revitalize huge abandoned lands. Operating by fragments of a whole, punctual projects will help the nature coming back to highly artificial lands and will mix new sustainable ways of living. Thus the aim is to trigger off the transformations and trace different possible scenarios, that will take place almost automatically, with no soil consumption and enhancing the existing resources. The hypothesis is that one single transformation, if well guided, can affect the metamorphosis of very far places, as a wonderful butterfly effect.
If we recognize in the industrial buildings the roots of modern architecture, the mutation of the... more If we recognize in the industrial buildings the roots of modern architecture, the mutation of the meaning which the architectures for the energy go towards, the ones animated at the start of 900 by the fée électricité, can define the contemporary concept of fire. Considered as the revolution of 20th century, the discovery and the application of electricity triggered on a process which never stopped and that made energy the true key to enter into the contemporary age. Beyond the obsolescence and the use of traditional fuels, electricity is potential energy, still contained in the objects and able to produce new values; true energy, allowing devices to work, and including the metabolism, the heating, the air conditioning, the lighting; in the end, it becomes immaterial energy, of fluxes and ideas, information and goods. Former power stations become nowadays new interpreters of the relationship between city and landscape. Fire, as agent of transformation, is, still today, the most noble among the four elements of architecture.
If we recognize in the industrial buildings the roots of modern architecture, the mutation of the... more If we recognize in the industrial buildings the roots of modern architecture, the mutation of the meaning which the architectures for the energy go towards, the ones animated at the start of 900 by the fée électricité, can define the contemporary concept of fire. Considered as the revolution of 20th century, the discovery and the application of electricity triggered on a process which never stopped and that made energy the true key to enter into the contemporary age. Beyond the obsolescence and the use of traditional fuels, electricity is potential energy, still contained in the objects and able to produce new values; true energy, allowing devices to work, and including the metabolism, the heating, the air conditioning, the lighting; in the end, it becomes immaterial energy, of fluxes and ideas, information and goods. Former power stations become nowadays new interpreters of the relationship between city and landscape. Fire, as agent of transformation, is, still today, the most noble among the four elements of architecture.
In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is... more In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is hardly recognizable a real shape or order unless its description of “diffused city”, following the infrastructural network. This is the “typical” Belgian way of settle in the territory, along with the highly infrastructural land and the heavy industries spotting all along the Walloon axis, the industrial backbone running west-east from Mons to Verviers. Nevertheless, now that the traditional industrial exploitation is near to an end, we can find a strong identity core in this landscape, anchored to the history of these places and to the practices that there used to be acted. Belgium itself can be considered as a total industrial landscape, strongly characterized by extraction towers, smoking chimneys, ateliers, electric power stations, terrils, that nowadays remain as both waste and icons. Starting from the case-study of Belgium, and along with the comparison with some Italian examples (such as Bussi industrial areas and the Sicilian eastern coastline) this paper will investigate the role of contemporary architectural project in dealing with industrial archaeological memories outside the compact city, offering possible strategies for inhabiting even a 120 km long route (corresponding to the Walloon axis): the challenge is to turn the relationships governing the diffused city into a key to revitalize huge abandoned lands. Operating by fragments of a whole, punctual projects will help the nature coming back to highly artificial lands and will mix new sustainable ways of living. Thus the aim is to trigger off the transformations and trace different possible scenarios, that will take place almost automatically, with no soil consumption and enhancing the existing resources. The hypothesis is that one single transformation, if well guided, can affect the metamorphosis of very far places, as a wonderful butterfly effect.
The Restoration of the Modern: the Thermoelectric Power Station by Giuseppe Samonà, Augusta (SR).... more The Restoration of the Modern: the Thermoelectric Power Station by Giuseppe Samonà, Augusta (SR). In the 1960s, the electric power industry was the driving force for the industrialisation process in Sicily. The Augusta power station was the first wide work that launched the development process of the island, starting from its southeastern coast. In 1956, its design was submitted to Giuseppe Samonà, one of the most important Italian architects of the 20 th century, Dean of the IUAV at that time. The power station-no longer in use now-, which can be considered as a very good example of industrial architecture, is located in the petrochemical complex of Augusta, directly connected to the harbour and the city. This is a historically layered place, in which the ancient Greek town of Megara Hyblaea is the most prominent archaeological site. Enel Spa, the Italian electric utility company and owner of the power station, acknowledging its potential, has submitted its re-use and redesign to the Department of Architecture of Palermo. This action could trigger a deep changing in the industrial landscape in order to start up new housing, cultural and social opportunities.
In the Mediterranean basin, the archaeological presence is extremely relevant and diffuse. Togeth... more In the Mediterranean basin, the archaeological presence is extremely relevant and diffuse. Together with this is a difficult intertwining with contemporary urban settlements, which archaeology, by tradition, has to be protected from. If conservation is the goal of restoration, the problem of the cohabitation between past and present use is still an issue. This paper will focus on the project of enhancement of the archaeological park of the Greek colony of Naxos, near Messina, in Sicily, led by the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo in cooperation with the administrative head of the park. At the crossroads between the sea, the highway, a lemon orchard and the city of Giardini Naxos, the ancient Greek settlement could be an example of coexistence of the different layers composing the landscape, with the aim of making history and archaeology come to life as synchronous components of the contemporary fruition of the place.
(sITA) studii de Istoria și Teoria Arhitecturii / studies in History and Theory of Architecture, 2020
In many European languages the word “decoration” is frequently used as a synonym of ornament, and... more In many European languages the word “decoration” is frequently used as a synonym of ornament, and often perceived as something superfluous and unnecessary which can be “added on.” However, the original sense of the Latin verb decēre, where the noun decor comes from, points out that every situation requires a convenient, or decent, behavior. Decoration is something “appropriate and decent,” specifically required for the occasion. Concerning decoration, this means a shift from the concept of superfluous ornament to necessary ornament, because it is appropriate.
Developing from the reflections of the Gothic Revival, this hybrid nature of decoration, which is both decor (decent/appropriate appearance or behavior) and ornamentum (added on adornment), can be the key to reading all subsequent architecture, that of the bare solids and the white and smooth surfaces, for which ornament was, as it is well-known, a “crime.”
This paper aims to trace back in contemporary architecture the origins of its search for decoration as “necessary ornament.” The main idea is to read architecture in the light of its relationship between convenience and aesthetics, so that, to quote a famous sentence by Auguste Perret, it can be really considered architecture and not a mere work of engineering. Especially nowadays, when advanced technological means allow architects to think what once was simply not-drawable, so also unthinkable, one should ask themselves not if it is licit but if it is “decent.”
InFolio RIVISTA DEL DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN ARCHITETTURA, ARTI E PIANIFICAZIONE DELL’UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PALERMO - DIPARTIMENTO DI ARCHITETTURA, 2020
Using the oxymoron “virtual architecture”, this paper investigates some issues related to three l... more Using the oxymoron “virtual architecture”, this paper investigates some issues related to three levels of the contemporary projects: first, it refers to the design and conception of architecture in the age of digital data–The Third Machine Age–where the digital control makes possible multiple solutions otherwise almost unconceivable; then, it addresses to the new meaning of the image of the project, which in the last decades has become an element autonomous from the project itself; finally, it points out the risks and the possibilities in the use of virtualization to imagine future worlds.
Rileggere Samonà /Re-Reading Samonà (a cura di Laura Pujia), 2020
In 1961, Giuseppe Samonà has his office in Rome with his son Alberto along with Giuseppina Marcia... more In 1961, Giuseppe Samonà has his office in Rome with his son Alberto along with Giuseppina Marcialis and he is chief of the electric development program forecasted by SGES (later on absorbed by Enel) in Sicily. After the first power plant, in Augusta (SR), the design of the plant in Termini Imerese (PA) is starting. It was be considered as the most powerful plant in Sicily, able to cover the electric supply of all the western part of the Region. Emblematic of Samonà’s design, always in between the peace of forms and the light-and-shadow tendency, its demolition, in 2012, arises one more time the issue of the monuments of modern architecture, especially the industrial one.
Next Places, Next Spaces Proceedings Book Forthcoming approaches in architectural and urban designing, 2020
In case of emergency due to natural or artificial causes, one of the most compelling issues is th... more In case of emergency due to natural or artificial causes, one of the most compelling issues is the real-time response. In this field, urban contexts are often extremely fragile. The more connected the world is the more interconnection couples with interdependency. Electric grids, water supply, transportation networks, ICT networks and so on are all interdependent: a breakdown in one of them can generate a cascade failure and the collapse of the overall infrastructure that makes the emergency and disaster management harder and unprecise. Dealing with an emergency means dealing with unpredicted events, even in the framework of already predictable disasters. Most of the Italian cities are exemplary cases: the compresence of an ancient urban tissue made up by an intricate streets system, with an unsustainable traffic loads condition and, sometimes, a role of strategic commercial node, they are always at the emergency threshold. On top of that, cities like Messina, Palermo, Naples, are constantly expecting a terrible earthquake or a volcanic eruption. What could be the consequences and real-time disaster management in such an unmanageable context? This paper is an early-stage study based on the hypothesis that a possible way to prevent the infrastructure breakdown in case of disaster can be thinking the urban networks made up of nodes, both physical and virtual, that can be defined “islands”, with a particular grade of independence one to the other. In a sort of a new Mathias Ungers’ archipelago, where interconnection must overcome interdependency, the architectural point of view can add a fruitful contribution to the ICT field for emergency management.
TAW2018 International Scientific Conference [CO]HABITATION TACTICS Imagining future spaces in architecture, city and landscape, 2018
In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is... more In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is hardly recognizable a real shape or order unless its description of “diffused city”, following the infrastructural network. This is the “typical” Belgian way of settle in the territory, along with the highly infrastructural land and the heavy industries spotting all along the Walloon axis, the industrial backbone running west-east from Mons to Verviers. Nevertheless, now that the traditional industrial exploitation is near to an end, we can find a strong identity core in this landscape, anchored to the history of these places and to the practices that there used to be acted. Belgium itself can be considered as a total industrial landscape, strongly characterized by extraction towers, smoking chimneys, ateliers, electric power stations, terrils, that nowadays remain as both waste and icons. Starting from the case-study of Belgium, and along with the comparison with some Italian examples (such as Bussi industrial areas and the Sicilian eastern coastline) this paper will investigate the role of contemporary architectural project in dealing with industrial archaeological memories outside the compact city, offering possible strategies for inhabiting even a 120 km long route (corresponding to the Walloon axis): the challenge is to turn the relationships governing the diffused city into a key to revitalize huge abandoned lands. Operating by fragments of a whole, punctual projects will help the nature coming back to highly artificial lands and will mix new sustainable ways of living. Thus the aim is to trigger off the transformations and trace different possible scenarios, that will take place almost automatically, with no soil consumption and enhancing the existing resources. The hypothesis is that one single transformation, if well guided, can affect the metamorphosis of very far places, as a wonderful butterfly effect.
If we recognize in the industrial buildings the roots of modern architecture, the mutation of the... more If we recognize in the industrial buildings the roots of modern architecture, the mutation of the meaning which the architectures for the energy go towards, the ones animated at the start of 900 by the fée électricité, can define the contemporary concept of fire. Considered as the revolution of 20th century, the discovery and the application of electricity triggered on a process which never stopped and that made energy the true key to enter into the contemporary age. Beyond the obsolescence and the use of traditional fuels, electricity is potential energy, still contained in the objects and able to produce new values; true energy, allowing devices to work, and including the metabolism, the heating, the air conditioning, the lighting; in the end, it becomes immaterial energy, of fluxes and ideas, information and goods. Former power stations become nowadays new interpreters of the relationship between city and landscape. Fire, as agent of transformation, is, still today, the most noble among the four elements of architecture.
Between Classical and Modern. Giuseppe Samonà Power Plants, 2018
Between the end of the Fifties and the first years of Sixties, Giuseppe Samonà designed and buil... more Between the end of the Fifties and the first years of Sixties, Giuseppe Samonà designed and built three power plants for SGES, General Electric Society of Sicily, annexed to Enel (the Italian Electric Supply Company) after the nationalization in 1961: the first in Augusta, north-side Syracuse, in the south-east of the Island; the second in the territory of Termini Imerese, on the Tyrrhenian coast, nearby Palermo; the third in Trapani, on the western coast. By the three plants, SGES started the electric and industrial development of the Region, taking advantage of one of the most important Italian architects of the 20th century. After only sixty years from their realizations, the demolition of Termini Imerese Power Plant and the dismissal of Trapani’s, have pointed out the difficult issue of the value of contemporary architecture in Italy. This volume wants to deepen this specific production of the Sicilian designer, seeing in it an opportunity to add new points of reflection about the architectural theory and to save the memory of these works. The text is made up of three parts. The first frames the issue of the power plants within Giuseppe Samonà’s architecture, trying to understand the reasoning about the language linked to the structure. Here one tries to the define Samonà’s “imperfect belonging” to modernity, his ability to be modern with no need to break up with tradition, as already in 1927 his master Enrico Calandra had suggested. Notably, this issue is investigated starting from the relationship between cladding and skeleton, seen also as a key to read the entire production of the Sicilian architect, where the influences of the Masters of the Modern Movement gather in. In the second part the power plants are investigated, defining a typology: it deals with the birth of the architecture of electric plants in the wider context of the industrial architecture as a generator of the modern one. The project on Trapani Power Plant meets the field of the recovery of the industrial heritage and the identification of this building as a monument of technique. In this third part, the project lays into the contemporary debate about the abandoned areas, the landscape architecture and the interpretation of the specific elements making it important from a monumental point of view. The project, tool of constant verification of the hypotheses of the first part, is loaded with the will to define a new life-cycle for an emblematic object in Samonà’s production and relating to the values expressed by the contemporary urban fabric. Through the project, a result as well as an instrument of research, the book studies three of the most relevant and less studied works by Giuseppe Samonà, trying to provide a new key to read the architecture by one of the most important Italian and European architects of the 20th century.
New Places/New Spaces. Third International Conference on Architecture and Urban Design, 2019
In case of emergency due to natural or artificial causes, one of the most compelling issues is th... more In case of emergency due to natural or artificial causes, one of the most compelling issues is the real-time response. In this field, urban contexts are often extremely fragile. The more connected the world is, the more interconnection couples with interdependency. Electric grids, water supply, transportation networks, ICT networks and so on are all interdependent: a breakdown in one of them can generate a cascade failure and the collapse of the overall infrastructure that makes the emergency and disaster management harder and unprecise.
Dealing with an emergency means dealing with unpredicted events, even in the framework of already predictable disasters. Most of Italian cities are exemplary cases: the co-presence of an ancient urban tissue made up by an intricate streets system, with an unsustainable traffic loads condition and, sometimes, a role of strategic commercial node, they are always at the emergency threshold. On top of that, cities like Messina, Palermo, Naples, are constantly expecting a terrible earthquake or a vulcan eruption. What could be the consequences and real-time disaster management in such an unmanageable context?
This paper is an early-stage study based on the hypothesis that a possible way to prevent the infrastructure breakdown in case of disaster can be thinking the urban networks made up of nodes, both physical and virtual, that can be defined “islands”, with a certain grade of independence one to the other. In a sort of a new Mathias Ungers’ archipelago, where interconnection must overcome interdependency, the architectural point of view can add a fruitful contribution to the ICT field for emergency management.
I LUOGHI DELLA CIVILTÀ DEL LAVORO NEL XX SECOLO CANTIERI, PRODUZIONE E SERVIZI NELLA CULTURA DEL PROGETTO E NELLA DOCUMENTAZIONE D’ARCHIVIO DELL’ARCHITETTURA IN SICILIA D’ETÀ CONTEMPORANEA, 2019
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Papers by Flavia Zaffora
Developing from the reflections of the Gothic Revival, this hybrid nature of decoration, which is both decor (decent/appropriate appearance or behavior) and ornamentum (added on adornment), can be the key to reading all subsequent architecture, that of the bare solids and the white and smooth surfaces, for which ornament was, as it is well-known, a “crime.”
This paper aims to trace back in contemporary architecture the origins of its search for decoration as “necessary ornament.” The main idea is to read architecture in the light of its relationship between convenience and aesthetics, so that, to quote a famous sentence by Auguste Perret, it can be really considered architecture and not a mere work of engineering. Especially nowadays, when advanced technological means allow architects to think what once was simply not-drawable, so also unthinkable, one should ask themselves not if it is licit but if it is “decent.”
imagine future worlds.
failure and the collapse of the overall infrastructure that makes the emergency and disaster management harder and unprecise.
Dealing with an emergency means dealing with unpredicted events, even in the framework of already predictable disasters. Most of the Italian cities are exemplary cases: the compresence of an ancient urban tissue made up by an intricate streets system, with an unsustainable traffic loads condition and, sometimes, a role of strategic commercial node, they are always at the emergency threshold. On top
of that, cities like Messina, Palermo, Naples, are constantly expecting a terrible earthquake or a volcanic eruption. What could be the consequences and real-time disaster management in such an unmanageable context?
This paper is an early-stage study based on the hypothesis that a possible way to prevent the infrastructure breakdown in case of disaster can be thinking the urban networks made up of nodes, both physical and virtual, that can be defined “islands”, with a particular grade of independence one to the other. In a sort of a new Mathias Ungers’ archipelago, where interconnection must overcome interdependency, the architectural point of view can add a fruitful contribution to the ICT field for emergency management.
Nevertheless, now that the traditional industrial exploitation is near to an end, we can find a strong identity core in this landscape, anchored to the history of these places and to the practices that there used to be acted. Belgium itself can be considered as a total industrial landscape, strongly characterized by extraction towers, smoking chimneys, ateliers, electric power stations, terrils, that nowadays remain as both waste and icons.
Starting from the case-study of Belgium, and along with the comparison with some Italian examples (such as Bussi industrial areas and the Sicilian eastern coastline) this paper will investigate the role of contemporary architectural project in dealing with industrial archaeological memories outside the compact city, offering possible strategies for inhabiting even a 120 km long route (corresponding to the Walloon axis): the challenge is to turn the relationships governing the diffused city into a key to revitalize huge abandoned lands.
Operating by fragments of a whole, punctual projects will help the nature coming back to highly artificial lands and will mix new sustainable ways of living. Thus the aim is to trigger off the transformations and trace different possible scenarios, that will take place almost automatically, with no soil consumption and enhancing the existing resources. The hypothesis is that one single transformation, if well guided, can affect the metamorphosis of very far places, as a wonderful butterfly effect.
Developing from the reflections of the Gothic Revival, this hybrid nature of decoration, which is both decor (decent/appropriate appearance or behavior) and ornamentum (added on adornment), can be the key to reading all subsequent architecture, that of the bare solids and the white and smooth surfaces, for which ornament was, as it is well-known, a “crime.”
This paper aims to trace back in contemporary architecture the origins of its search for decoration as “necessary ornament.” The main idea is to read architecture in the light of its relationship between convenience and aesthetics, so that, to quote a famous sentence by Auguste Perret, it can be really considered architecture and not a mere work of engineering. Especially nowadays, when advanced technological means allow architects to think what once was simply not-drawable, so also unthinkable, one should ask themselves not if it is licit but if it is “decent.”
imagine future worlds.
failure and the collapse of the overall infrastructure that makes the emergency and disaster management harder and unprecise.
Dealing with an emergency means dealing with unpredicted events, even in the framework of already predictable disasters. Most of the Italian cities are exemplary cases: the compresence of an ancient urban tissue made up by an intricate streets system, with an unsustainable traffic loads condition and, sometimes, a role of strategic commercial node, they are always at the emergency threshold. On top
of that, cities like Messina, Palermo, Naples, are constantly expecting a terrible earthquake or a volcanic eruption. What could be the consequences and real-time disaster management in such an unmanageable context?
This paper is an early-stage study based on the hypothesis that a possible way to prevent the infrastructure breakdown in case of disaster can be thinking the urban networks made up of nodes, both physical and virtual, that can be defined “islands”, with a particular grade of independence one to the other. In a sort of a new Mathias Ungers’ archipelago, where interconnection must overcome interdependency, the architectural point of view can add a fruitful contribution to the ICT field for emergency management.
Nevertheless, now that the traditional industrial exploitation is near to an end, we can find a strong identity core in this landscape, anchored to the history of these places and to the practices that there used to be acted. Belgium itself can be considered as a total industrial landscape, strongly characterized by extraction towers, smoking chimneys, ateliers, electric power stations, terrils, that nowadays remain as both waste and icons.
Starting from the case-study of Belgium, and along with the comparison with some Italian examples (such as Bussi industrial areas and the Sicilian eastern coastline) this paper will investigate the role of contemporary architectural project in dealing with industrial archaeological memories outside the compact city, offering possible strategies for inhabiting even a 120 km long route (corresponding to the Walloon axis): the challenge is to turn the relationships governing the diffused city into a key to revitalize huge abandoned lands.
Operating by fragments of a whole, punctual projects will help the nature coming back to highly artificial lands and will mix new sustainable ways of living. Thus the aim is to trigger off the transformations and trace different possible scenarios, that will take place almost automatically, with no soil consumption and enhancing the existing resources. The hypothesis is that one single transformation, if well guided, can affect the metamorphosis of very far places, as a wonderful butterfly effect.
After only sixty years from their realizations, the demolition of Termini Imerese Power Plant and the dismissal of Trapani’s, have pointed out the difficult issue of the value of contemporary architecture in Italy. This volume wants to deepen this specific production of the Sicilian designer, seeing in it an opportunity to add new points of reflection about the architectural theory and to save the memory of these works. The text is made up of three parts.
The first frames the issue of the power plants within Giuseppe Samonà’s
architecture, trying to understand the reasoning about the language linked to the structure. Here one tries to the define Samonà’s “imperfect belonging” to modernity, his ability to be modern with no need to break up with tradition, as already in 1927 his master Enrico Calandra had suggested. Notably, this issue is investigated starting from the relationship between cladding and skeleton, seen also as a key to read the entire production of the Sicilian architect, where the influences of the Masters of the Modern Movement gather in.
In the second part the power plants are investigated, defining a typology: it deals with the birth of the architecture of electric plants in the wider context of the industrial architecture as a generator of the modern one.
The project on Trapani Power Plant meets the field of the recovery of the industrial heritage and the identification of this building as a monument of technique. In this third part, the project lays into the contemporary debate about the abandoned areas, the landscape architecture and the interpretation of the specific elements making it important from a monumental point of view. The project, tool of constant verification of the hypotheses of the first part, is loaded with the will to define a new life-cycle for an emblematic object in Samonà’s production and relating to the values expressed by the contemporary urban fabric. Through the project, a result as well as an instrument of research, the book studies three of the most relevant and less studied works by Giuseppe Samonà, trying to provide a new key to read the architecture by one of the most important Italian and European architects of the 20th century.
Dealing with an emergency means dealing with unpredicted events, even in the framework of already predictable disasters. Most of Italian cities are exemplary cases: the co-presence of an ancient urban tissue made up by an intricate streets system, with an unsustainable traffic loads condition and, sometimes, a role of strategic commercial node, they are always at the emergency threshold. On top of that, cities like Messina, Palermo, Naples, are constantly expecting a terrible earthquake or a vulcan eruption. What could be the consequences and real-time disaster management in such an unmanageable context?
This paper is an early-stage study based on the hypothesis that a possible way to prevent the infrastructure breakdown in case of disaster can be thinking the urban networks made up of nodes, both physical and virtual, that can be defined “islands”, with a certain grade of independence one to the other. In a sort of a new Mathias Ungers’ archipelago, where interconnection must overcome interdependency, the architectural point of view can add a fruitful contribution to the ICT field for emergency management.