ORGANIZATION

The Design Studio 2015 aims at understanding the complex urban processes of the vast territory of Saint Petersburg. The course unites the knowledge and the methodology of two important European schools: The Università Iuav di Venezia of Italy and The Fontys University of Applied Sciences of Eindhoven, Netherlands. 

One of the first Architecture Schools in Italy (established in 1926), the Università Iuav di Venezia is a ‘themed’ university totally focusing on design. Between innovation and tradition, the School of Venice has a long history of urban studies. Iuav invests a lot in research concerning issues related to the city and region, environment and landscape, infrastructure and mobility, protection and conservation. Iuav has successfully devised a unique learning mode that is especially suitable to transmitting project knowledge: workshops are in fact a real workshop for experiencing and learning under the direct guidance of high-calibre professionals and professors in the practice and design teaching fields. The analysis and comprehension of the conditions for the transformation of the territory have been one of its main contribution. Design as knowledge producer stresses the analytical and conceptual dimension as a frame for a technically sustainable project. This means a relevant importance of the design for  the contemporary city that has a potential to produce knowledge and the role of the architects  that have to face the hybrid complex urban situations and to explore the territory with  the support of different disciplines (Viganò, 2010)

The Fontys University of Applied Sciences is a well-known name in education, not only in Holland, but also in many other parts of the world and Fontys is the second largest institute of higher education in Holland. Fontys invests in intensive, challenging, fascinating and well-organised education. The education provided at Fontys is based upon three core competencies of knowledge, skills and professional attitude. In this way, students are thoroughly prepared for professional practice or self-employment. Fontys has set itself the task of contributing to the development and nurturing of talent, encouraging personal performance and developing an awareness of values among its students.  The specific collaboration is with the Academy of Architecture and Urbanism (1936) of Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts. The Academy offers international master degree programs in Architecture and Urbanism.  The MA+U Master of Architecture // Master of Urbanism degree programs are collaborative, topical, creative and practice based. The design studio is the heart of the Master program. In the studio students are trained to apply all kinds of skills and methods towards ever more convincing synthetic design proposal or complex spatial problems. A unique aspect of the programs that they are taught in a concurrent way, combining studio work and courses with a relevant professional practice during the Master program. Concurrent education offers students experience and education beyond the school curriculum.

In order to optimize the design process, the course is divided in two blocks:

Block 1: 5 months including 10 weeks  (February- June 2015) of the common studio followed by Marc Glaudemans (Fontys MA+U) and Paola Viganò (IUAV)

        The union of the methods of two European schools is a think tank strategy that aims at the deeper understanding of the complex urban structures of  contemporary Saint Petersburg. The official social economic strategy of St.Petersburg 2030 underlines the importance of the ecological welfare of the city that is directly connected with  economical benefits. The efforts of this winter-spring academic term are directed to the general research of  the territory analyzing its environment, landscape, natural and water resources. This term is focused on understanding of the environmental risks, such as the climate change and the flooding. By the recognition of the new qualities in the natural environment and territorial potential enable us to take the urban settlements more dynamically, as part of a more general ecological system and see a city in its coherent wholeness ; as a consequence the view of the natural landscape external to the urban planning  is open to revision and will help us to propose us new strategies and scenarios for the future development. The research material, analysis, graphic elaborations by the students will be collected into a unique document and exhibited for  open discussions.  The Design studio agenda will include field trips, workshops, lectures and discussions where students together with experts from Italy, the Netherlands and Russia will face the conflicts and opportunities for the development of the metropolis of Saint Petersburg.

Block 2: 5 months including 10 weeks (September- December 2015) of  Design studio1_ MG and  Design studio2_ PV

 The research material of the first semester will give the guidelines to the themes of the next stage when the Design Studio will be split into  two: one followed by Marc Glaudemans, the other by Paola Viganò. The students may choose one of the  two laboratories  that will concentrate on the more detailed scale of the territory of Saint Petersburg. Supported by the workshops, field trips, opened discussions and presentations, the work of this semester is oriented to more concrete application of the theory and methodology learned in the previous academic fall.  The scenarios developed in the first block will be tested and translated on a site specific location in the form of various physical expression.