Abstract:

A teaching experience is presented which was carried out in a master class in Architectural Preservation at Politecnico di Milano, addressed to both Italian and international students.

Methodological issues will be discussed, highlighting the strong research character of the learning process, during which the students had the opportunity to deal with a tender launched by an institutional body. Attention was paid not only to multidisciplinary aspects but also to the enhancement of the multicultural composition of the class, favouring the presentation of case studies from the different student’s home countries, including local students, strictly related to the object of the laboratory.

The design theme was the reuse of a public complex situated in a historical park in centre Milano, close to prominent monuments like Castello Sforzesco, Triennale Palace, Littoria Tower. The opportunity was taken to propose the students to match the request of a Milano Municipality call, aimed to reuse an early XX century complex, previously intended as a service facility for the park. The call required to use the buildings in social, educational, recreational and cultural activities, having as their theme the sustainability and protection of environment and green, especially promoting botany, urban horticulture, natural farming, biodiversity and the enhancement of ecological oasis, recycle and reuse, soft mobility, self-production.

In the paper, the teaching process will be described, stressing the relationship between the analytical phase, during which a complex asset needs to be approached from different points of view (study of the urban context, historical archival research, direct photographical and geometrical survey, analysis of material and decay phenomena) and the reuse design process (collection of case studies, concept, meta-design, master plan, project).

Keywords:

Reuse design, Architecture.