The International Master of Architecture, organized by Sint-Lucas Ghent KU Leuven
(Belgium), has organized for the past three years its first masters design
studio around the topic of "Space for Economy in the City". The studio explores productive
‘volumes’ can be re-integrated into the city centre instead of sending them to
the outskirts. Aiming towards a productive city, sustainable in many
perspectives and a force to drive cities away from gentrification and
segregation. Although starting from a socially and politically heavily
loaded topic, the general objective of the studio is primarily to explore the
relationship between the autonomy of built form and the influence it has on the
city and its inhabitants. Studio tags
would be: precise, buildable, informed, tectonic, integrated and resilient.
The studio management is divided into 3 segments; DISCOVER, REWORK &
RE-DISCOVER.
The studio understands that architecture is a discipline with a rich history. Every new project makes a contribution to that lineage. In the DISCOVER phase the studio documents several unique examples of buildings economy has generated within the city. The objective is to discover the different nature of these economy driven realisations, create a frame of references and learn to make high-end and precise documents. Case studies are places like Turn & Taxis, Van Nelle, Felixpakhuizen, showing that the economy often generates highly specific but also highly sustainable/resilient buildings/spaces. Although their economic origin today no longer exists, they are still of great value being used in new ways, unthinkable at the time of their creation. The economy of today can also generate new spaces, equally resilient and sustainable.
In REWORK phase students start designing their own contribution, enriched by the
case studies of the discover faze. The overall theme “Spaces for economy in the
city” is tested starting from a specific set of programs. A selection
of relevant economic activities has been made: sheltered workshops, stacked industries and food factories. Each theme is complemented
with ‘housing’. Hence the program is hybrid.
At the RE-DISCOVER phase the made designs are presented in a similar way the case
studies of the discover faze where communicated. To be able to build upon the knowledge of each other’s work, the
studio will archive and spread the work that has been done in multiple
ways: an online archive of all the documented buildings, video coverage of the lectures and a publication of the student output.
Contributed by: Kasper Denayer
NETwork is the result of a Town Planning Design Workshop investigating the role of Milano as a metropolitan City.
The strategy focuses on the theme of the productive landscape, which has always characterized Milano as a leading city in Italian economy and which at the moment is deeply involved in the economic crisis. The aim is to recover and enhance the role of innovative industries and production, trough the activation of poles which are located in a synergetic system with their context.
The analysis started with the study of the main infrastructures, visible as highways and public transportation and invisible as optic fiber and energy production in correspondence to the main productive clusters. Considering all this themes overlapped, it has been possible to identify a corridor, in the North of Milan along Pedemontana highway, which could be the place of innovation on the Horizontal connection between Malpensa airport and Orio Alserio.
Firstly it has been conducted a research of all the functions inside and around the industrial poles. This allowed the identification of the innovative places for work that are already present along Pedemontana highway. This analysis showed the inefficiency of those spread areas in this vast land at the North of Milan, disconnected and unable to create a system of competitive poles. To proceed with the creation of a system we have identified two main possible actions: acting on built spaces, adding innovative working spaces and acting on the open ones in order to create a synergy in between built environment and city through public areas. Of course the introduction of new functions has to be as fast as possible, in line with the technological evolution, and for this reason the proposal was to reuse existing abandoned spaces to revitalize the area. These main new activities are related to the presence of start ups, innovative businesses, data centres, research companies and logistic working with sustainable transports. Create a synergy in those production clusters doesn't mean only shearing of ideas and projects but also sharing of energy, invisible fluxes as internet, and public spaces, for the creation of very strong relations among single working space.
For this reason the approach started from the analysis of the existing situation and the analysis of each cluster’s margin, in order to investigate the relation on the cluster itself and with its context.
Desio case study is located in a strategic position, exactly in the middle of Pedemontana system, intersecting with the public transportation railway line. This cluster contains already some innovative functions as pharmaceutical and design industries and moreover it presents an high number of open vacant spaces due to the creation of the highway. The analysis of cluster’s edges describe the relation of the working space with the city: in particular we have identified different kind of borders and then we have tried to propose a possible solution for each interaction. The relation cluster-city has been simplified in four big categories: interaction cluster-built city, cluster-fields, cluster-fast mobility, cluster-mobility intersection. For each of them we have proposed an abacus of design actions.
In built front edge the actions are related to cluster’s front enhancement through a graphic cover on the facades, the addition of a new public function, some open spaces or the presence of detached productive buildings more integrated with the city.
In the case of agricultural edge the proposal is the creation of spaces of mitigation or energy production through the addition of trees or devices for the production of green energy.
In the case of fast mobility edge the proposal focuses on the enhancement of the role of the productive landscape in the context of fast movements. The actions are related to the continuity of the front and the creation of horizontal landmarks for connection (as walkable bridges) and vertical ones for visibility.
The fourth case deals with the theme of transportations and interchanges, with the reinforcement of nodes through the addition of sustainable means of transportation according to the system of slow mobility and walkability around the neighbourhood.
Contributed by: Laura Grandis, Niccolò Meroni, Sebastián Valenzuela
