Intimacy, Interface, Infrastructure in Contemporary Urban Design

The seminar will focus on the research on housing and urban design in contemporary
urban dimension.

* Is what we call “urban design” a specifi c discipline, or just the overlapping between
different competences?
* Are the “classical” instruments of master planning – such as building massing, profi le
rules, functional zoning – the most effi cient ones to determine new urban environments?
* Does the term “landscape urbanism” indicate a viewpoint or describe a process?
* How can the debate on sustainability enhance urban design practices and what
scientifi c support we need to shape “ecological settlements”?
* What do we learn from existing city structures and from a critical review of the Modernist
tradition?
* Does globalization raise unseen problems of method and conduct?
* Can new lifestyles adapt well to existing urban environments or do they require original
solutions?
* Do we still believe in a correspondence between physical communities and social ones
or do we have to accept a relative independence between them?
* Is there any way to model or “test” an urban design project before its implementation?
* Are the evolving relations between the public sector and private actors changing the
way we approach the design of new urban settlements?

These general questions will be observed not through the eyes of theoretical speculation
but rather through the narration of concrete examples by two leading fi gures of European
practice, Johannes Tovatt and Frits Van Dongen; Cino Zucchi will present the ongoing
research on Milano by the students of GSD-Harvard University and submit it to the panel
of discussants.

2:30 pm
Cino Zucchi
Cino Zucchi Architetti, Milano
Urban Grafting: the Legacy of Milan’s post WWII reconstruction and contemporary housing
design

3:00 pm
Johannes Tovatt
Tovatt Architects and Planners, Stockholm
The Challenge of the Artifi cial

4:00 pm
Frits van Dongen
Van Dongen-Koschuch Architects and Planners, Amsterdam
Transformation

5:00 pm
Remo Dorigati, Corinna Morandi, Alessandra Segantini
Panel