DISEGNARECON

Town Files. Between desire and need, the representation of the urban landscape in the era of digital thinking

Francesca Fatta — 2014-04-30

The representation of the city is read through the desire, the need, the celebration. "Place complex" par excellence: aggregation, concrete, planned and at the same time dissociating, fickle, disintegrated. The urban sites are an ever actual and stimulating theme for the representation and the generated "files" sometimes can assume unusual sizes and drawings can be compared on very different levels.

In this issue of DISEGNARECON are intertwined readings of utopian and heterotopic cities according to the city's dichotomy between heaven and hell; stratified cities able to show its thickness through historical documents and old maps; possible cities determinated by certain projects and ideas for the their development; perceived cities through signs, suggestions, landscapes, real cities animated by the concreteness of programs, the executions, the chronicles

The body and the pencil. Ten questions to Claudio Patané

Sebastiano Nucifora — 2014-04-30

The relevance of matter in drawing. The body weight of the designer and his/her tools, the color stains in his/her fingers after s/he uses them. The sound of footsteps all over the place. The need to know, the desire to remember and cherish, but also to forget. The freedom to get lost while wandering around, notebook in hand and no street sign to rely on. Life drawing not meant as an ancient ritual, but as a necessary practice connecting people with the third dimension. Ten questions to urban sketcher Claudio Patane share with the reader the experiences and point of view of a true wandering inquirer - among other things - of the urban scene. An artist working with paper and pencil in the digital age, in search of a different approach to digital technology: critical but not hostile, open to the social values of sharing and yet aware of the dangers concealed in its possible self-referential drift.

Visions and heterotopias: the Iconografy of the ruins in the definitio of contemporary urban landscapes

Gregorio Froio — 2014-04-30

The purpose of this essay is to describe the thin red line that connects the multiple meanings of the term archeology with the visual representation of the contemporary city. The iconography of urban views especially from a reading decentralized and alienating: the archaelogical character of the post-metropolis becomes the kay scenes in the balance between urban utopias and heterotopias.

Urban files from Literature, Utopia, Ideology.

Salvatore Santuccio — 2014-04-30

During the end of the last century there were many interesting analysis in the history of art, before, and in architecture later, by means of the virtual models. Walking into the world of painting or architecture we felt progress could open new important knowledge in different fields like utopia in architecture. All started from scientific studies: new interests in geometrical rules in drawing reconstruction and the big growth of 3d modelling softwares. But the experiences here presented tell us drawing is not only made by technical knowledge and often it is like a translation in an other language, with results that could be very far from the feeling we had observing the original painting or project we had to translate.

Digital landscapes of imagination

Starlight Vattano — 2014-04-30

Urban landscapes that exist in the expression of an imaginative sequence define their shape through the digital representation. These hyperreal dimensions, combine imagination and representation as constituents a new reality, which follows the utopian, suprematist and constructivist theories, where the two-dimensional dynamics is transformed into an infinite space in which the imagination creates new forms. Although interpretations of the urban landscape film, put in place a correspondence between reality and virtuality, into the modeling of spatial movements, from which do not arise contraries, but only interdependencies. It is a particular type of representation that takes shape via the digital in motion and provides new tools for urban representation.

‘Other’ cities. The mines as a metaphor of the representation.

Fabrizio Agnello — 2014-04-30

The study is focused on the representation of a sulphur mine located in the heart of Sicily. The link between the outside plants and the underground network of galleries is intended as a symbol of the overlayed structure of the cities and as a metaphor of the representation. The dualism between apollynian and dyonisiac environments, that is open spaces under the light and underground worlds, where obscurity is permanent, forces the search of proper representation techniques, capable of conveying the peculiarities of each realm. Three plates, drawn in an obsolete way, pencil on art board, try to explicit the complex relations underlying the structure of the mine and the role of the ‘technique’ of representation as an expressive mean, according to Heidegger’s definition. Finally, an analogy between the labyrinth and some trends in contemporary architecture, is proposed.

Montepulciano 3D virtual models for urban planning and development of the urban environment

Stefano Bertocci — 2014-04-30

The research work carried out by the Department of Architecture of Florence and the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture of Pavia for the administration of Montepulciano (SI) was aimed to study new methods of analysis and promotion of the city.
The representation of the street fronts of the historic center, realized in a decade of analysis in which it is carried out the study for the planning, has formed a corpus of documents useful for the realization of a three-dimensional model of the city itself. The model, which allows a dynamic interaction with the urban structure, has been designed to develop tools for valuation of the activities and the historical and cultural heritage. It is possible through the determination of a structure of a visual interface and interactive multimedia which would transform the model in a real emotional space.

Tools and graphics devices for the understanding and the interpretation of urban areas The Pianta Grande di Roma by Giovanni Battista Nolli

Aldo De Sanctis — 2014-04-30

The techniques of representation and measurement always lead changes, both in the survey and the design activities, but especially induce changes in the way of thinking at the disciplines of survey and design and the educational choices that will knead the action. In the mid-eighteenth century, the updating and the diffusion of the "plane table" - with the orthogonal representation that follows - it promotes a radical change in the way of seeing the city, analyze and tell its wonder. The operational capabilities of the new instrument and the abstraction of orthogonal figuration promote, in other words, entirely new graphics devices and interpretative cares and, with these, a remarkable change in how to detect and read the determinants of urban areas.

Truth and beauty in contemporary urban photography

Daniele Colistra — 2014-04-30

Does city still need photography? Or does it show itself more effectively through other forms of communication? The question brings us back almost two hundred years ago, at the time of the spread of the first daguerreotypes, when the query was: Does city still need painting? The question raises several other issues - truth and beauty, analogical and digital, truth and photo editing - that this essay examines by comparing some images. We are convinced that “the more we can speak of a picture, the more unlikely it is to speak of photography” (R. Barthes). The essay describes the work of some artists/photographers who have addressed the issue of urban photography. Works in which the figurative and visionary component is based on the interaction of traditional shooting techniques and processes of digital post-production.

Travels with Herodotus. Before the sands

Gaetano Ginex — 2014-04-30

The work relates to the theme of the city "archetypal" starting from the moment when all the capital cities of antiquity conform themselves becoming true city, in the sense that through their elements and the subsequent aggregation of many cities they are configured with an archaic morphology of urban type. We thus propose reconstructions of ruins, fragments of which will allow us, through virtual representations of the ancient cities of speaking with some accuracy (with particular reference to the Mesopotamian) investigating the original principle of settlement through reading and the representation of some of the most major urban and cultural archetypes (the tower, the fence). A journey then in the ancient city, a city full of symbolism and universality.

Albedo decreasing trend. White cars proposal and new urban scenarios

Niccolò Casiddu — 2014-04-30

Global warming caused the decrease of the albedo. Emission reduction is the most widely proposed response to this problem. However simple ideas such as cool roofs and cool pavements seem successful remedies to counter the threat. However in Italy another strategy appears more effective. By changing from dark to pastel bright automotive colours a considerable increase of the albedo can be hypothesized: the effect should be from 32% to 50% of the results obtained with an extensive application of the “cool roofs” strategy. Such a proposal involves the creation of new, unexpected cityscapes. The city is a place where the perception of space changes. The car, by definition is an object in motion, but still present, sometimes redundant in the urban landscape. What will be the perceived relationship with buildings, streets, squares where the cars are all white or pastel colour?

Visualizing the Crowd Web-based Participatory Practices as Innovative Tools in drawing and mapping Milano Città Metropolitana

Daniele Villa — 2014-04-30

Many new questions arise with regard to Web3.0- based technologies, which are more and more frequently used by non-experts to generate and share geographic information, new collective urban visions and place-based knowledge. This paper discusses the role of participatory planning and mapping practices in the context of Milan metropolitan region. In particular taking into account the collaborative use of new technologies (such as the use of microblogging and geo-social networks) within the processes of social sharing of the great urban transformations. Specific attention is given to the problems of perception and definition of shared landscape quality. In this context, the role of expert knowledge in the analysis and definition of the social perception of the urban landscape is now changing rapidly and radically.

Drawing the Memory. The image of the city through the integrated representation

Michele Calvano — 2014-04-30

Today, the concept of urban regeneration as a guide in the early stages of urban planning is increasingly affirming. for this reason, the study of urban transformation through the critical reading of the drawings of the project, it is a very topical issue. Modern techniques of integrated digital modeling allows to define new and interesting research methodologies capable to gather a multitude of documentary information. The research carried out by the House of Architecture in Latina started planing to represent some important examples of the imagined city that have found place in the real city, but have undergone profound changes that only the design is able to narrate. This narrative is presented as static and dynamic images capable to represent the imagined city by bringing together current architectures (surveyed) with other non-tangible (imagined or scrapped).

Small towns files. Lina Bo Bardi Unbuilt

Francesco Maggio — 2014-04-30

Lina Bo Bardi designed three rural settlings in Brazil; they was unbuilt but defined with clear geometric shapes: the circle and the square. The first project, in 1951, was an urban plant constituted by the same type of low-cost houses and by two ‘undefined’ buildings; the second project, in 1965, had a morphological system formed by circular lots in which, in the “astroidi” curves, were smaller circular lots; the third project is based on the principle of circular lots on which insist square shape houses. The representation, into relationship between drawing and design, offers the history and the criticism new images of cities with digital models building episodes of the architectural history.

True, false, fake. Digital representations of urban landscapes subject to transformation between communication and seduction

Roberta Spallone — 2014-04-30

The representation of transformation of urban landscapes, thanks to the tools offered by the digital convergence, more and more uses of multimedia outputs where the mix between real and virtual is done seamlessly. In the simulations created, true, false, and fake overlap and merge, exerting an undeniable seductive power. Through the analysis of case studies referred to recent intervention of urban regeneration in Europe and experiences personally conducted I will discuss about the limits, the drifts and the potential of these systems of representation and communication.

Landscapes without board. Routes of signs and drawings in the ionic territory in Calabria

Manuela Bassetta — 2014-04-30

The guidelines for the understanding and appreciation of the Park of Aspromonte in Calabria have implemented a route signs in Calabria to promote the image of city centers, they have created a system of communication to this territory. This process has converged drawing and description of the place in an experience in which the perspective drawing and the new instruments to the character (GIS) transform in a decisive manner the viewer's gaze. They cast him in a landscape between cities, smaller towns and territorial morphology, they create a link between the observed reality and what is possible to build and producing a visual structure of a new ecosystem-relational space.

Spaces of Hypercity or the figure of complexity

Gabriele Pierluisi — 2014-04-30

This paper attempts to define an approach to the topic of urban design from the representation of the city.The representation of the urban landscape is made from zenithal views of the city. In particular, using as a basis the database of Google maps. we can define the "figures" which have the role of introduction to the project. These representations that tend to define a new aesthetic context and signs giving priority to urban complexity and hierarchies. Concretely, we work here on some areas of Paris, by executing a densification of the built and re-design of the empty urban spaces. The work is done with a technique that hybrid traditional and digital drawing which we have called " hot-digital."

City and comics. The sequential design as a key to understanding the contemporary city

Agostino Urso — 2014-04-30

Ninth of nine arts comic is a typical case of an underestimation of a cultural phenomenon of worldwide importance that binds intimately to popular culture. To understand the absolute value of this form of artistic expression, it is enough to approach the vast production of graphic novels available today on the market. We decided, then, to propose three different keys to deal with the issue. The first is related to the point of view of the artist, who has the task of representing the sets necessary to define the space of action of the characters. The second concerns the relationship that develops between the artist and the urban image to be conveyed. Finally we will try to tell the city with its intrinsic structure that is from the neighborhood to the vast urban stratification of the megalopolis.

Casual City: informal visions of designed architectures

Paola Raffa — 2014-04-30

Read the architecture means address issues of structure, type, homogeneous categories. It means to give connotation to the signs, highlight significant and symbols, measures and relationships. The construction of an architecture is the result of a design. Each design is completely in order with standards and regulations. Places of city, which are subject to the rules, order and govern the space. In residential areas there is, however, an unusual form of mutation of the architecture. The residential architecture, built according to the design is, over time, assaulted by unconventional elements. Elements are attributable to random processes that generate unexpected transformations. The architecture is transformed from processes uncontrolled. The architecture of the project is converted into informal architecture.

Urban semantic and paths design. The case study of Parma

Maria Linda Falcidieno — 2014-04-30

The study focuses on the relationship that links the city to the prescriptive-guidance signal system and the bond that is created between the "form" of the city and the design configuration of these signals.
The study of urban structure was essential to the detection of a communicative register developed with a logic of "rapprochement". The research identified key points for effective use of road signs. These macro-behavioral criteria are: selection criteria, visibility and readability. From the determination of the behavioral criteria, emerged the need to standardize all types of signals to the prescriptive, redefining an iconic design of the city that is able to tell the story, the routes and the functioning of the city itself.

Representing the environment 3.0. Maps, models, networks.

Letizia Bollini — 2014-04-30

Web 3.0 is changing the world we live and perceive the environment anthropomorphized, making a stratifation of levels of experience and mediated by the devices. If the urban landscape is designed, shaped and planned space, there is a social landscape that overwrite the territory of values, representations shared images, narratives of personal and collective history. Mobile technology introduces an additional parameter, a kind of non-place, which allows the coexistence of the here and elsewhere in an sort of digital landscape. The maps, mental models, the system of social networks become, then, the way to present, represented and represent themselves in a kind of ideal coring of the co-presence of levels of physical, cognitive and collective space.

Landscape concept in photography: from Luigi Ghirri to Antonio Ottomanelli

Teodora Malavenda — 2014-04-30

In the 80s of the last century the Italian photography, like other art forms, reflected the political, economic and cultural changes of the Nation. It was the time of a new documentary photography that investigated the transformation of the urban areas. Within this process the landscape was the subject of a new interpretation. In 2013 this process of documentation was worked out again, but in a modern way, by Antonio Ottomanelli. In his project "Collateral Landscape", he took pictures in different cities of the world such as Kabul, Baghdad, Sadr City, Herat, Dokan, New York, Gaza City. Distant places and only apparently different from each other. In fact, all of them have been destroyed by war or, in the case of New York, have been target of a terrorist attack.

From disorientation to narrative. The city in Filippo Romano’s photography

Chiara Scali — 2014-04-30

Photography is a form of writing.
Like other forms of representation, describs and reveals: drawing traces, writing uses signs, photography uses pictures. All of them contribute to the staging of reality. The work of Filippo Romano is based on the belief that photography is an investigative tool of the social, physical and immaterial reality. Showing and doubting, wondering and asking why. Filippo Romano goes through the places, the cities, the landscape, studies history, architecture, the way of life of those who live in it, trying to fully understand and represent them, through his eyes, more open and readable. The photographer remains in fact a "tuned person" for which it is very difficult to representing the complexity. What matters, in the end, is to represent. An idea of city, more than a real city, and places where identities often blend together.

Editorial

Roberto Mingucci — 2014-04-30

Eight years after our digital journal was created, a little examination is not anything strange: it is a check-up of the present conditions of the group that started the experience. Nor it is redundant to mention the perspective that the disciplinary group the magazine has always been dedicated to, is nowadays examining. The wish, the choice we pursued during these years in the different issues – broadening as much as possible the research’ horizon outlined by the selected contributions – and the opening to an increasingly wider and more international group of researcher, give today the impression they reached an important goal. But the challenge for a further growth is still on, in the circulation and in the quality of the works to be published. It is not an impossible challenge, being that the advent of digital technologies has not yet exhausted its potentiality to innovate and develop procedures and tools.