To design a project. Part 1. When teaching—at least where I stand today in my academic career—I think of countless blogs that I should write about architectural education. This is particularly true given that year after year, I see students struggle with similar topics.
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Giuseppe Terragni, Casa Rustici. After visiting the Casa Lavezzari, followed by a delectable apricot-filled croissant and Italian espresso at a local Bar-Tabacchi (coffee bar that sells tobacco and stamps in addition to drinks of all sorts), I located a nearby metro entrance and rode to the Domodossola station in the western part of Milan.
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Giuseppe Terragni, Casa Lavezzari. I feel conversant with key projects of Italian architect Giuseppe Terragni (1904-1943), particularly those built in Como; a provincial city on Lake Como just an hour north by train from Milan. The Casa del Fascio (1932), Sant’Elia nursery (1937), Novocomum (1929), and the Casa Giuliani-Frigerio (1939)—the latter two being apartment projects—are emblematic of Terragni’s oeuvre and continue to be observed, researched, and used since his early death at the age of thirty-nine.
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An Architecture travel abroad program (i.e., field trips), historically coined the Grand Tour, were established in the 17th century and tailored to British aristocrats in pursuit of refining their liberal arts education through a visit to continental Europe. For students tutored under a mentor, favored destinations such as Italy and Greece introduced the Classical world of antiquity to those who were expected to be leaders of their country, especially in that time of the beginning of “greater political or economic cooperation among states and nations.”
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Segovia, Spain. I remember arriving on a sunny mid-November morning at the outskirts of the town of Segovia, Spain, and seeing for the first time the magnificent Roman aqueduct there. The warm winter light bathed the imposing arches, accentuating the majestic masculine stone features (Image 1 below). The structure serves as a symbolic gateway to the old medieval city to the north, and the gridded Roman encampment to the south, with the Cardo and Decumanus arteries that define any Roman military settlement.
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Final architecture presentation drawings. In past blogs, I have emphasized the importance of sketching as integrative design process. While these learned skills never fail to assist a student’s ability to investigative their project, this blog emphasizes the other end of the spectrum; namely the need to create a successful final presentation.
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The need for disciplinary integration: Part 2. Design topics related to urban preservation have become one of my favorite themes when teaching second year architecture students. In my program briefs, I also tend to incorporate that projects be determined—to a certain extent—by a client’s functional needs, preoccupations, and desires, all the while having student projects reflect their creative ambitions.
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The need for disciplinary integration: Part 1. I have always considered teaching architecture, and perhaps more importantly the practice of architecture, an all-encompassing endeavor. And this, despite observing year after year, endless jargon among my colleagues promoting the discipline of architecture as autonomous and self-referential.
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Blind sketching. If you’ve read some of my past blogs, you may be familiar with my belief that sections are key to any successful design. Two of the blogs (blogs 1 and 2) presented basic concepts about the importance of architecture students working in section, especially since they typically do not think this way—at least in their early years when plans seem to predominate their design. As students gain confidence in the investigation of space through sections, little marvels unfold. Projects become architectural, as they successfully develop spatial experiences that anticipate how users will encounter them in a haptic way.
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Some thoughts on sketching by hand. Regardless of the nature of an architectural project, students need to produce sketches, diagrams, plans, sections, axonometrics, perspectives, collages, and text in addition to physical models, in order to document their process, as Ilse Crawford defines, as the thoughtful sequence of decision making.
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