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The Covid-19 pandemic triggered governments and designers to revalue and redesign public spaces. This paper focuses on the various design responses to Covid-19 proposed and implemented in public spaces. In particular, we identify the kinds of challenges that such design responses address and the strategies that they use. We selected 56 design examples, largely collected from internet sources. By analyzing the design examples we identified five Covid-related challenges that were addressed in public space: sustaining amenities, keeping a distance, feeling connected, staying mentally healthy, and expanding health infrastructures. For each challenge, we articulated 2 to 6 design strategies. The challenges highlight the potential of public space to contribute to more resilient cities during times of pandemic, also in the future. The design strategies show the possible ways in which this potential can be fulfilled. In our next steps, we will use our findings to develop a program of possibilities; this program will contain a wide range of design strategies for responding to future pandemics and will be made publically accessible in an online database. The program contributes to more resilient post-Covid cities, by offering a variety of possibilities for coping with, and adapting to, pandemic-related shocks and stressors.

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The Adaptive Characters of Resilience Designing adaptive and resilient architecture could constitute an opportunity to re-think the immovable architectural characters, above all the firmitas, and to define a new paradigm of resilient adaptivity. Defining an adaptive methodology means being able to go beyond the actual strategies, which focus on technological solutions or social policies. Aim of this paper is to illustrate a different scenario for the near future design by introducing the vision-based design approach of the Tangible Media Group, and specifically three of their latest prototypes, which merge the physicality of real world with the flexibility of the natural and digital environment.

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The widespread and the ease of use of data in contemporary society represent a fundamental element for its growth and the main link between architecture and different disciplines. Seeking the origin of this trend that joins architecture and digital information means to firstly research on the epistemological field, to understand why it is important to implement architecture with new technological yet digital features and with new social values this process can bring (van den Hoven et al., 2015). This paper aims to describe this phenomenon through two emblematic and pioneering case studies that represent an important moment for the physical and virtual interaction between buildings, data and environment. In two different ways, the Saltwater pavilion and the Blur Building put in practice the theorized intention to let users interact with architectural matter and environmental elements through data sharing, and by doing so, they reshape the space according to personal behaviours.

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Keywords: interactivity, adaptivity, digital architecture, data, it revolution in architecture

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The complexity of reality, both physical and virtual, in which we are immersed requires a reflection on how to achieve integration between the digital world and contemporary architecture. In particular, the article intends to explore the way in which virtual information can become design material, also intervening on the spatial and formal characteristics of the built environment. Therefore, two different approaches in interactive architectures will be discussed, one scenario-based and the other generative, capable of establishing the physical boundaries of the relationship between architecture and information. Jade Eco Park, Translated Geometries and One Ocean Pavilion offer a different key to interpreting the relationship between man, building and surrounding environment, in a meta-textual relationship between the physical and the virtual that calls contemporary architecture to reflect on the potential of this phenomenon.

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The human desire to connect man and nature, architecture and environment seems to result in the imaginary brought by the concept of the bridge, often conceived as a new space of the city, a different soil and a public space. Considering the actual environmental situation that our contemporary cities are nowadays facing, it is possible to recognise in the architectural model of the living bridge a valid approach to confront the needs of the city and of its inhabitants. Despite its old origins, this type of architecture shows a strong flexibility, adding to the infrastructural features also new characters. Starting from the Thames Water Habitable Bridge Competition, this article aims to underline how architectural features such as multi-scalarity, multi-temporality and multi-functionality are needed to design new urbanities and which type of re-generation recent projects can produce.

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How digital transition affects social, environmental benefit 

Martijn de Waal, Frank Suurenbroek, Bianca Andaloro

Abstract [900 ch]

The social and environmental emergencies that we are facing in the last years, from the climate change to the pandemic, had shown the necessity of rethinking the way of approaching the city, and of designing for it. They have offered a speculative occasion to DEEPEN the importance of the digital approach, in its different facettes, so for it to be considered the engine of a new transition through Europe. The paper aims to point out the possibility for adaptive architecture with responsive technologies to address social questions in public spaces and constitute an environmental piece of conversation. In this frame, this approach offers a moment of reflection between different fields, from architecture, to civic interaction design and urban transformation, through a design case developed in the frame of a broader research at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science in collaboration with the Master Digital Design. 

Keywords

Responsive architecture, Design process, Innovability, Resilience, Public space.

The Pandemic and later its recovery had shown all over Europe the necessity of rethinking the way we approach the city, and the way we design for it. In this frame, the role of the digital tools (digital platforms, collaborative software etc) has been certainly impactful in quickly defining an alternative for transmitting information. However, this circumstance has shown the potential role of digital transition, covering several aspects in various field of application, from economy, to society to the environment. Moreover, the Eurpean Agenda, varyly adopted by the members states, has introduced the target of the Europe Digital Decade, in order to promote digital solutions that would put people first and open up new opportunities. These would engage data, technology, and infrastructure, with the scope of promoting an open and democratic society, enabling a dynamic and sustainable economy and helping facing climate change through the green transition (European Commision, 2021). In this frame of change, architecture is continuously confronting with the cultural changes of society, appropriating them as they transform, in order to better fulfil people’s needs. However, the impact of the digital transition had already shown in the past several possibilities and directions for the discipline, concerning a new design language (new aesthetics and affordances) and new tools (from sensors, IoT to interactive installations, screens and media facades). The rapid transformation of these tools, and their small -or even mini configuration-, helped embedding them in outdoor and indoor spaces, creating interactive and responsive installations and landscapes (Cantrell, 2015). Thus, also design process has been influenced by these new tools, quickly envisioning the possibility for architecture to establish a dialogue between the built space, men and the environment, thus between ethical and aesthetic aspects. 

From the spactacularisation of fun to the act of raise awareness of cultural issues, architecture has adopted in many different ways the digital tools, defining news ways of interaction that could be used nowadays to contribute to a more resilient approach to the city.

Adaptiveness and responsiveness in public spaces | The relationship between the built environment, the city, and human practices has been crucial in several literature pieces from, not to be exhaustive, Allison and Peter Smithson (1967) to Jane Jacobs (1961) and in more recent times from William Whyte (1988) to Jan Gehl (2011). In this relationship the outdoor space, intended sometimes as collective or public, plays an important role in defining a sense of identity, belonging or repulsion for its community: it constitute the blueprint of society, a place to linger, to express themselves or just to pass-by. The relationship between the human social practices (especially non-standard) and the spatial configuration of the places are strongly intertwined and influenced by each other (Willis, 2011). This includes, among others, the design of the horizontal street space, as well as the vertical and three-dimensional, meaning the street facades and the coherence between them, the layout and programming of the plinths, and the tactile qualities and rhythm of the buildings (Suurenbroek et al., 2019). In more recent times, the layout of public space has been varyly approached and interpreted. For example, among the criteria developed by the Denmark-based architecture firm Gehl Institute for designing and assess the urban space liveability they individuate the three macro-categories of ‘protection, comfort and enjoyment’ (Gehl Institute, 2018). This distinction is useful to understand the most common way to approach public spaces in matter of design. Furthermore, it is worth to add the category added by Luke Hespanhol in regard to public spaces’ “potential to become meaningful” (2018, p.110). In his opinion, thus, public spaces host three kind of interactions: embodied, political participation and artistic expression, contributing to the definition of the identity of the community involved. Thus, digital approaches, implementing public spaces with information or, more commonly, with art, are able to define a sense of identity and belonging. In this frame, the recent literature and the researches on public spaces consider as part of the urban matters also the proliferation of urban media (often associated to, but not only, urban displays) which allow for a real-time interactivity when integrated with the built environment (Hespanhol, 2018). It is nowadays more common to apply responsive technologies also in spatial design, especially sensors, smartphone-related technologies, IoT,, because of the new set of instruments they provide to designers. Thus, interactive media in the built environment collaborate to economic, social and cultural purposes (Houben et al., 2017), embracing the complex hybrid nature of urban spaces. Adopted mostly from the art world, especially that of temporary exhibition, responsive technologies, designed with an adaptive approach can result in an interactive space where the users and passers-by can engage a dialogue (physical and virtual) with the environment around. This feature offers to architects and designers the occasion to question whether architecture can intervene, by using technology, to address environmental issues, making them present, imaginable and actionable to people. A research occasion that saw the collaboration between different units of the Amsterdam University of Applied sciences, tested out the possibility of integrating an adaptive design for a public space with the double scope to deal with the Covid-19 prescriptions and one of the difficult weather conditions typical of the Dutch environment.

Research-through design – the case study | The case study “Adaptive architecture for resilience” offered the chance to reflect about the possibility of adopt responsive/adaptive architecture in public space to cope with some external social and environmental stressor. It can be considered as a spin-off of the broader and still ongoing research project ‘From prevention to Resilience’, funded by the Dutch organization for health research and care innovation, and developed as a collaboration between the chairs of Spatial Urban Transformation and Civic Interaction Design (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, AUAS) and an international partner consortium. It explores how a design approach integrated to public space, could contribute to social and ecological resilience for human and other-than-humans residents of the neighborhood. The case study “Adaptive architecture for resilience” constituted a moment of reflection between different fields, from architecture, to civic interaction design and urban transformation: furthermore, thanks to the collaboration with the Master of Digital Design (AUAS)  it was also possible to simulate through interactive programming the actual functioning of the system. 

The speculative project is developed for a fictional square, ideally located in the city of Amsterdam and made up by squared tiles that serve as actuator of a series of input, which the designers would define. In this frame, the students were called to design two different scenarios for the same square: the first one would respond to the actual pandemic situation, where social distancing had to be guaranteed in order to avoid social contact; the second one, instead, had to cope with the presence of high winds, a very common and often risky weather condition in the Netherlands. Thanks to the multidisciplinarity of the group, it has been possible to address the given brief from different perspective, considering technology not only as a means of the design process (that, in fact, has been developed through physical maquettes, drawings and surveys) but also as a design tool able to influence human behaviour in public space. 

Despite the compressed time of the project, from the 3^rd November to the 22^nd December 2021, a Research-through-design approach (RtD) has been applied in order to explore the design question through the three phases of design, test and reflection. This approach allows to address problems and practices that are new or not fully developed (Stappers et al., 2017) by intertwining research phases with designs in a constant feedback loop. In this way, it was possible to combine the actual spatial design of the public square with the technology required and, at the same time, to test the entire system through a software that simulates the physical interaction between the users and the built space. 

Figure 1: Prototying phase for defining the interaction between people and the public space.(Source: https://www.masterdigitaldesign.com/case/adaptive-architecture-and-resilience)

Pandemic resilience in public space | The first scenario, the pandemic one, was about designing a spatial solution for the public space with two intertwined purposes: the first one was to allow people to enjoy the public square by being safe and keeping the recommended distance; the second one, was to visually share with users and passers-by the information about the pandemic in the Netherlands in real time. The final design is the result of a series of attempts and research about which form and which type of interaction would be the most suitable for such a complex space. Although the final project was a virtual interactive simulation, at the beginning the team worked with many 3D printed models of the site, deconstructed in 2400 50cm sized cubes, and of the people involved, in order to simulate and experiment on the possibilities of interaction. It appeared clear since the beginning the difficulty of dealing with the unpredictability of people in movement, despite the possibility of the technology involved. The final design includes presence and motion sensors, combined together to provide a safe experience for users when interfacing with the mobile cubes. They are in fact used as to urban furniture with different spatial configuration, which vary varying as pandemic conditions change. The movable tile-furnitures, augmented with the sensors, constitute a large border of the square, whilst in the middle they would move differently. Having a double system allow to experiment and prototype with different spatial configuration. The central part of the square reacts to the amount of hospitalizations registered by The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and modifies its shape according to it. In fact, in the middle of the square, the tiles constitute a basement which would increase in high, based on the numbers of cases registered and transmitted. Lower is the number, brighter and less high are the tiles. On the rest of the square instead, the tiles are programmed to raise in high. The other tiles that don’t serve as seating would signal people walking on them when the recommended distance of 1.5 meter is not provided, through a variation in the colours. The three steps of RtD, design, test and reflection, allowed for experimenting with different configuration and reflecting on the way architecture can influence social practices in a public space. The core of the project is then that the square, thanks to the complexity of the matters involved (physical, analogical, digital and virtual) could provide its users a different experience all the time and be perceived differently at each visit.

Figure 2: Adaptive architecture for resilience, MDD, 2021. Axonometry of the site as given and in the pandemic scenario with the highest number of hospitalizations. (Image of the author)

Figure 3: Adaptive architecture for resilience, MDD, 2021. Sections showing the difference between the three pandemic scenarios. The firs one show the lowest number of hospitalization, which allow more people to walk and sit on the square. The installation is brighter and more tiles rise to be a sitting furniture; the intermediate level has a lower brightness and less seats; finally, the highest number of hospitalization requires less seats and a less bright but higher installation. (Image of the author)

Adaptivity for environmental stressors | With a similar approach the second scenario introduces the possibility for the public square to be adaptive in case of high winds, a common condition in the Dutch environment. Also in this case the spatial configuration of the tiles, able to move vertically, would help people to find repair and at the same time offer them a playful experience during their staying. Therefore, the sensors involved in this scenario would, on a hand, consider the presence and the motion of people walking in the space in order to guarantee a safe experience; on the other, they would collect the weather data from The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in order to responsively respond to it. The square is designed by blocks of tiles that create comfortable and private spots where people can sit and other blocks of tiles that also contains small greenery, placed in a way to create a playful path all along the space. When the wind blows over a certain speed, the tiles raise, warning people in the circumstances with a light signal, thus ensuring their safety. Also this scenario offers different spatial configurations of the public square at different times and this would engage ad-hoc relations with the people around. 

Figure 4: Adaptive architecture for resilience, MDD, 2021. The two pictures show the design of the square (below) in a 3D model and the scripting of the interaction between the element, elaborated on Unreal Engine (above). (Source: https://www.masterdigitaldesign.com/case/adaptive-architecture-and-resilience)

Limits and possibilities | The collaboration between the Master Digital Design and the Civic Interaction Design Lectoraat, that resulted in the project “Adaptive architecture for resilience”, offered the possibility to digitally prototype, test and evaluate an architectural approach as a case study. From it, they recognize limits and possibilities of applying adaptive architecture in public space through responsive technologies. Although adaptivity is nowadays largely used as an effective design method to approach resilience also in public spaces, the use of responsive technologies is not largely diffused yet, unless for temporary installation. Despite this, the multidisciplinarity of the team allowed to explore different aspects of applying such technology, exploring both the spatial solutions involved and the computing aspects. 

From a design point of view, the choice to design a modular system introduces the possibility of scaling up and defining variation of different spatial configuration, based on an original aggregative model. Then, using movable tiles that are intended as an ‘augmented pavement’ help to minimize the maintenance processes and costs. The technique that can be adopted is quite simple and consist of a system of pistons and wiring connected to a series of Arduino control boards that would manage the movement. The sensors then would be placed on the surface of the tile so to be in the proximity of people. The use of system as Arduino, makes the access to the technology open, so that it is easier for clients and designers to manage and update it. Moreover, from a design process point of view, the mixture of these different and heterogeneous elements, so different in the scale, denotes a tension towards an intentionally inter-scalar design. In fact, each component is designed for a specific position and role within a larger framework that defines its functioning. The relationship between different scales is, in fact, one of the characters of adaptive architecture, whether it is applied to the territorial, public space or building scale. In this way, in order to stimulate the interactivity, physical and virtual matters are combined in a way that allows people to experience different spaces at different times, in a complex balance of micro and macro elements. 

Surely, the system shown in this project is not intended to be applicable everywhere and under every circumstance or to substitute the general idea of the square as a public space: nonetheless it can be applied in cases of specific requirements or environmental conditions. For example, the recent Covid Pandemic had shown how public spaces have been adapted in several different ways in order to offer people the opportunity of taking full advantage of their time in the open air. In opposition to the accessibility of the programing and of its making process, it is important to consider that people often act in unpredictable way. Although during the hardest Covid lockdowns and restriction, as well as in critics moments, people were more incline and used to follow precise rules, it is also true that generally and, specifically in public space, it is not easy to foresee each movement. 

This constitute a crucial point of the project that could be addressed by nourishing the Arduino control board with pattern of information about people’s behaviour, so to trigger a prediction mechanism. What architects’ role is then, it is to shape the public space in order to suggest and allow non-standard practices. In addition, responsive technologies would contribute to human needs at public space level (Suurenbroek et al., 2019) and, at certain conditions, can also encourage human interaction. 

Moreover, the theme of data visualization is here developed through a spatial configuration in order to state its role not just in communicating a piece of information, but also in influencing human practices and urban shapes. Once more, architecture is not only about the tangible and visible, but it is enriched by digital, intangible, matters that create a layer of complexity at the service of social, environmental benefit.

Conclusions | “Adaptive architecture for resilience” represents a pretext to evaluate the opportunities and possibilities of an adaptive approach in a public space through responsive technologies. Nevertheless, thanks to the mixing of different disciplinary fields, it constitutes a possible way to explore the role of digital transition in architecture, to improve social and environmental benefit. Furthermore, in addition to the possibilities and limitations shown in the previous section, it is worth noting the role of IT and digital tools throughout the design project, from its conception phase, through prototyping, to the interactive dissemination of the results. The power of this tool lays in fact on its main character of multiscalarity. As stated by Mikael Wiberg (2015) “Driven by the ultimate aim to seamlessly and ubiquitously integrate technology in space, architecture and computing, two disciplines that seemingly deal with fundamentally different matters – the physical and the digital – seem thus destined to grow towards each other”: the complexity of the built worls is nowadays deeply intertwined with sensing technologies which collaborate to all the design phases. Furthermore, the adaptive design approach, which develops itself the characters of multi-scalarity, multi-materiality and multi temporality (Andaloro, 2021), provides the opportunity to address the social and environmental needs by intervening through the transformation of the built environment. The design of such a complex public space constitutes a challenge for architects and designers, who are confronted with a strongly explored theme that makes digital instruments a stimulus for research, mainly outside of places. To be more specific, in the case study presented, digital tools have been used first to make the physical 3D model of the site, through 3D-printed process, then to prototype the spatial configurations on a 3D model and iterate them. At the end, the team elaborate an interactive simulation of the public place through VR to test and evaluate their choice and later disseminate the project. Furthermore, adaptive approaches and responsive technologies contribute to implement the design of our public space by creating a visual interaction between people and information, in order to raise their awareness of crucial topics –in this case related to the pandemic- and act consequently. 

Acknoledgements

If the contribution is written by two or more Authors, you can report as follow. The contribution is the result of a common reflection of the Authors. However, the introductive paragraph and ‘Conclusions’ one are to be attributed to J. Black, the paragraph ‘Description and results of the themes’ to M. White. Times New Roman, regular, body 9.

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AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Martijn de Waal, is Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences Professor of the research group Civic Interaction Design. He has a background in journalism, media studies and practical philosophy. His research focus is on the relation between digital media and public space, with specific interest in civic media and digital placemaking. In 2009 he was a visiting scholar at the MIT Centre for Civic Media.

Tel. +31 (0)6 21157660

E-mail: b.g.m.de.waal@hva.nl

Frank Suurenbroek is Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences Professor of Spatial Urban Transformation at the faculty of Technology. His Chair is affiliated with two Centers of Expertise: Urban Technology and Urban Governance & Social Innovation and conducts practice-oriented research into spatial projects and how they shape and contribute to liveable and future-proof cities. The research projects focusses on: physical-social linkage in urban renewal, resilient public space and urban densification. 
Tel. +31 (0)621157563
E-mail: f.suurenbroek@hva.nl

Bianca Andaloro, Architect and PhD candidate (UniPa) in Architectural design. She researches on the topic of architectural characters, exploring how their role and their meaning in the design process is changing within adaptive responsive architecture. She is part of InFra lab research group (UniPa) and is currently a Visiting researcher at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, at Civic Interaction Design Lectoraat.

Tel. +39 (0)91/48.92.43

Mob. +39 347/57.15.617

E-mail: bianca.andaloro@unipa.it

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Dealing with the multiscalar approach of contemporary architectural design raises the question of which architecture today is willing to accommodate a constant comparison between different scales, materials, and practices. It is believed that the processes that best show this purpose are related to resilient architecture, which elaborates innovative features through adaptive processes. With the introduction of external factors to the building as design materials, adaptive architecture can be considered as a transformative condition for some invariants of the discipline. The resilient and adaptive approach, therefore, uses technological elements, whose scale is Micro, embedded in the building and operating at the medium scale, to capture information from an external basin and return an improved response to environmental and human conditions.

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The study of rural burgs founded during the totalitarian regimes in Spain and Italy, proposes a comparative study of urban realities characterised by peculiar elements, which show a design volition to decline the project on the territory on which it was intended to be realised, starting from an abstraction of the project up to the modifications dictated by social and logistical needs. In this paper, the case of the Spanish city Conquista del Guadiana from 1964, and the Italian Aprilia from 1936, will be deepened. Both of them are characterised by the tangential relationship with the main road axis of reference and connection with the neighbouring cities. This study aims to show that beyond the apparent divergences between the cities, there exists a common basis represented by the designer’s intention of developing a language capable of stylistic representation of the ideology and providing physical proof of the regime’s efficiency.

However, this shouldn’t be limited to simple analysis and crystallisation of the city at its foundation, but should try to go further. Seeking to identify the strengths and vulnerabilities of its development in space and time, it comes with one suitable intervention as a solution for future development. It starts from the analysis by phases organised during the workshop, in which there are identified limits, spaces and buildings that have most characterised the villages, and then it continues with a comparison between the burg in time of its foundation and the city/village presented in its actual state. Finally, from the deductions developed during the first part, and from the comparison between two cities, Aprilia and Conquista del Guadiana, we finally elaborate diversified project proposals, uniform in intent, at the same time. Even if proposed solutions are based on non-invasive interventions, the aim is to reflect future urban development. Regarding the city of “Conquista del Guadiana” the proposed intervention concentrates on possible strategies to undertake for the future development of the village. Instead, regarding the city of “Aprilia”, the project focuses on the strategies which enhance those aspects that defined the features of the village, today incorporated in uncontrolled urban development.

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In the broader context of an ongoing doctoral research, it is possible to consider adaptive architecture as a possible solution for designing

resilience. Despite the large use of technology, it is possible in fact to recognise different design approaches that involve Nature in the

whole process, form the initial conceptual phase toward the effective construction stage. Among these different ways, which underline a

biomorphic common perspective, this paper would focus on two of them, underlying the role of nature in the design approach. The first is

referred to the consideration of Nature as design material and is shown through the projects of the American architectural firm SCAPE, ‘Living

breakwaters’ and ‘Oystertecture’. The second approach instead will introduce the use of natural pattern as a way to conceive architecture

through geometries, as shown in ‘Hygroscope’ and ‘Pad Hygroskin’, two projects conceived within the Institute for Computational Design,

University of Stuttgart. The aim of the paper is to show different vision of the More-than-human approach in architecture, envisioning a more

responsible way to think of the built environment through Nature to design resilience.

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This paper investigates the introduction of the cybernetic approach in architecture, through the key-role of N.

Wiener, G. Pask and their influence on the projects of Cedric Price in the Sixties. The analysis of two of his most

representative projects, such as the Fun Palace and the Generator, aims to individuate the informatics influence

brought to the spatial composition. Furthermore, the article will clarify the visionary though of the British architect

concerning the impact of digital infrastructures on the prefiguration of the most recent responsive and interactive

approaches in architecture.

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In the frame of the international winter school organized by Campus Asia, the Valley of Bolognetta has been chosen by the LabCity Architecture group as the official site for an architectural competition. On the 30th anniversary of the Academy Award to Maestro Giuseppe Tornatore, Campus Asia promoted “Cinema Paradise” as main theme to design an architectural project that is envisioned as strictly connected to the people and to the environment. The project “Above the cloud”, presented by LabCity Architecture Team from the University of Palermo, joins nature and architecture through the design of a performative event.

The health emergency due to the spread of COVID-19 has required a methodological and technological adaptation to the entire world of teaching and researching, in order to define in a brief time new methods for designing and teaching. In consideration of this, Campus Asia decided to organize one of the key events of its educational offer in a distance learning form, an international winter school with overn eighty participants and five international guest universities. Together with Kyushu University (China), Tongji University (Japan) and Pusan National University (South Korea), the edition held between 15 and 26 February 2021 saw the participation of two European partner universities, the Università degli Studi di Palermo and the Vienna University of Technology (Austria).

The Winter Workshop “Cinema Paradise CAMPUS_Asia: SUAE_Asia 2021” brought to the attention of 14 teams and 5 Universities the challenge of contemporary architectural design in relation a site of great naturalistic importance. In fact, the Bolognetta Valley, and in particular the location of the cave and the San Nicola waterfall, are located in the Sicilian hinterland, not far from the city of Palermo, in a context free from the human presence. Here it is strong the necessity to find a design approach that can constitute a mediation between the built and the natural elements. The presence of the Milicia river then is also central to the whole understanding of the site, due to the restriction caused by the presence of the two promontories of Monte Torretta and Pizzo Cicero that allow the formation of natural waterfalls. The project presented by the LabCity Architecture Team aims to find a definition of this place, starting from its potentialities and proposing fun and experiential activities for enhancing and enjoying the site.

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