RISULTATI RICERCA

This research explores Southern Russian architecture from the mid-1920s to 1930s considering issues of continuity, tradition, and innovation. The scope of the research comprises both well-known architectural monuments commissioned to Soviet leading professionals as well as a group of little-known architectural structures. In the paper, it is concluded that despite the fact that this period is usually associated with the widespread Soviet Avant-Garde style of architecture, the influence of other stylistic movements, such as Traditionalism and Art Deco, was also very strong. The research specifically focuses on the problem of heritage preservation. The heritage protection status does not guarantee the preservation of a building. Paradoxically, the smaller a township and the poorer the local economy, the better the state of historical architectural objects.

This study focuses on analysing the impact of industrialisation and deindustrialisation processes on the architectural heritage of a small industrial town from Romania, Fieni. The aim is to identify different layers in the architectural landscape in Fieni, a town that was known during communist times at national and international level by its two representative productive activities, the cement and light bulb industries, but touched by the deindustrialisation process after 1990. Nowadays, in the post-industrial period, the town of Fieni faces not only socio-economic consequences, but also architectural ones, with different degrees of conservation and renovation of buildings that question its industrial legacy.

This article focuses on the case of the synagogue of Subotica, a Serbian city burdened by the rising socioeconomic challenges and emigration. The building was constructed at the peak of industrialization in 1902 by the formerly powerful Jewish minority, when the city was incorporated in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After nearly four decades of neglect and sporadic restoration works, the synagogue in Subotica was finally fully restored in 2018 with the significant external support. Nevertheless, the declining urban context remains a serious threat to the sustainable management of this monument of international significance.

In this section, the authors present their research on urban shrinkage and twentieth-century architectural heritage relationships. The twentieth-century architectural heritage is often unrecognized, underevaluated, neglected or destroyed in growing cities that tend to correct or mask their past. But what does this heritage mean in shrinking cities that have far fewer opportunities for heritage preservation, adaptation, reuse or even demolition? What is the real existing value of this heritage for them? What role does it play in their identity and future? Is it possible to preserve the ‘architecture of growth’ within a shrinking city? This collective work aims to highlight different aspects in the relationship between urban shrinkage and heritage, and to encourage further research into the mutual influence of urban shrinkage and built legacy.

La fragilità territoriale si può forse riconoscere e intendere in modi diversi. Esplorare un suo possibile lessico è una legittima operazione che tenta, più che definirne il centro concettuale, di metterne a fuoco i presupposti, le implicazioni e le associazioni possibili. Esplorare un tema a partire da una ipotesi sulla sua periferia è un modo prudente per circoscriverlo e anche un modo per intendere l’attività di ricerca come una lenta approssimazione alla definizione del suo oggetto. L’autore propone una schematica ed astratta declinazione della ‘fragilità’ e ne espone le conseguenze per l’azione progettuale. Lo scopo consiste nella costruzione di una cornice, non prescrittiva ma provvisoria e fragile, entro la quale mettere al lavoro i lemmi che costituiscono il lessico.

Fragility is perhaps the concept that best represents the many uncertainties of our time related to different issues such as political and economic instability, energy and ecological transition, climate change, demographic and migratory dynamics. The article aims at conceptually clarifying the notion of fragility so as to try to differentiate it from other related notions such as that of vulnerability. It is pointed out that vulnerability is a notion that, unlike fragility, can be understood (in line of principle) entirely by means of risk analysis tools; and secondly, although both fragility and vulnerability can be regarded as ‘dispositions’, they belong to two different types.

This lexicon aims at interpreting the concept of ‘Territorial Fragilities’ toward different approaches. Abandonment, Accessibility, Adaptation, Connection, Housing, Landscape, Narrative, Peripheries, Policies, Prototyping, Regeneration, Segregation, Shrinkage and Welfare, are different points of view that open to design directions and strategies to work on territorial fragilities. Material and immaterial fragilities are linked to: lack, poorness or obsolescence of existing building and infrastructure, changes in social structure, emerging individual needs. After a theoretical introduction, the headwords will present different tactics that may lead to the construction of ‘thick description’ as well as furnish guidelines for more effective design and policies to manage territorial fragilities.

Il Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani del Politecnico di Milano è tra i dipartimenti italiani finanziati dal Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca per il periodo 2018-2022 nell’ambito dell’iniziativa ‘Dipartimenti di Eccellenza’. Per il quinquennio, il dastu si è impegnato a esplorare i processi articolati e plurali di fragilizzazione del rapporto tra spazio e società. Un primo lavoro, presentato in questo servizio, è una descrizione di alcune declinazioni della fragilità territoriali a partire dalle diverse angolazioni dalle quali il tema è affrontato in 16 diverse linee di ricerca. L’obiettivo di questo lavoro è stato quello di aprire un dialogo sulle definizioni che consentisse di costruire una prima base - un lessico comune - per lo sviluppo di questo complesso programma di ricerca.

Le feste rivoluzionarie, una serie di celebrazioni che hanno segnato il corso dell’ultimo decennio del Settecento, traducono gli ideali della Rivoluzione francese in qualcosa di concreto, tangibile e accessibile a tutti, tanto da materializzare nella città di Parigi una vera e propria utopia. Questo contributo intende mettere in luce come la trasformazione fisica delle vie cittadine, nonostante abbia prodotto un allestimento temporaneo ed effimero, senza alcun effetto duraturo sulle condizioni di vita delle persone, si sia in realtà rivelata uno strumento indispensabile per la creazione di consenso e di conseguenza per la legittimazione del potere. Si intende dunque evidenziare il ruolo della costruzione ‘virtuale’ dello spazio urbano nel plasmare l’immaginazione sociale, rivelando al contempo gli strumenti impiegati dall’élite intellettuale incaricata di progettare le cerimonie.

This essay takes into account a cohort of interviewed who graduated in the ’70s in two different local societies, Firenze and Prato. It is a study on a specific generation which in that specific historical moment seems to have used education as a real instrument of social mobility. In the paper we’ll consider the individuals and their main life events such as the socialisation experiences and the planning of their careers. Which were the educational choices of these individuals? Which were the role and the impact of education on their professional and social positions? In this analysis a particular attention will be dedicated to the gender differences and therefore to the motivation and educational success achieved. Furthermore we’ll consider how the local cultures influenced the individuals in the two different places. Several variables seem to have played an important role in planning their educational careers. If the social origins and the familiar context played a clear role as a fundamental place for the socialization, other elements have been taken into account. First of all the individual motivations for the choice and attendance of the educational institutions and university. Social relations developed in different places and significant events, especially the collective and political ones, have been examined as well, in order to understand their role in determining the educational paths.

The article summarizes the methodological key-issues and the salient learning features of a training path designed to support special needs preservice teachers in their professional learning (Kennedy, Billett, Gherardi & Grealish, 2015). A qualitative case study was conducted to identify the collaborative intervention frames that contributed to fostering critical reflections that are considered transformational. The experience was conducted in an Italian university and involved the big classes of preservice teachers that, in the academic year 2016-2017, were engaged into mandatory laboratories within the Training Path for Qualifications as Special Needs Teachers. One hundred and forty preservice teachers participated in the laboratories. They were divided in groups and each laboratory included approximately forty-five participants. The laboratories aimed to leverage collaborative methodologies through the use of practice-based learning methods (Billett, 2015). Data were collected through in-depth interviews, questionnaire, informal observations and content analysis of narrative journals produced by participants during and at the end of the laboratories. Findings describe the preservice teachers-perceived transformations in their attitudes and beliefs about being inclusive teachers and change agents in schools, as well as collaborative methods they identified as key for development of inclusive mindsets.