THE REASONS OF THE VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE FOR THE REGULATION OF CONTEMPORARY INTERVENTIONS. TWO EXAMPLES OF RURAL ARCHITECTURE ON DANUBE DELTA AND THE VESUVIUS

The development and growth of the territory has for centuries been conditioned by the availability of resources on site. The minor architecture which is presented as a vast and varied repertoire of unique architectural forms, perfected over time to meet the needs of living places, is the repository of the formal and cultural testimonies that represent the integration between man and environment, which took place in a constant process of adaptation and enhancement of limits and resources in terms of climate, materials, soil morphology and geology. The “not only formal” result of this growth process is a consolidated iconography that summarizes the profound reasons for building through techniques developed according to the characteristics of the available materials and the needs of life and daily work, an absolute synthesis between form and function that gives rise to the repertoire of the lexicon of the architecture of a place and of the landscape. Starting from these reflections, the proposed study seeks to investigate the reasons for the constructive lexicon of some examples of vernacular architecture related to different contexts, identifying the reasons for the constructive choices in terms of relationships between the function of technical elements and construction characteristics; the purpose of this approach is to regulate constructive interventions in consolidated settlements of vernacular architecture by proposing a study methodology that highlights the rules and reasons for those constructive choices so that purely formal distortions and misunderstandings do not occur in current practices. The selected case studies are the rural settlements of Terzigno, a municipality in the province of Naples (Italy) on the slopes of Vesuvius and some of the rural settlements in the Danube Delta, in Romania.

THE UNESCO SITE “VENICE AND ITS LAGOON”: CULTURAL HERITAGE PROTECTION POLICIES

The paper focuses on cultural heritage protection policies for the Unesco site of Venice and in particular on recent actions and guidelines carried out and elaborated by the Superintendence for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the City of Venice and Lagoon, one of the leading stakeholders in the protection of the site. The paper also highlights the negative impact of social and anthropological factors on the cultural heritage and identity of Venice, especially in areas with minor architecture, outside major tourist routes. It illustrates the social and technical transformations in construction, trade, housing, historical and their impact on the cultural heritage and landscape and considers potential strategies that address these concerns. It further examines the specific problems and obstacles that hinder these policies, evidencing how they can only be addressed through targeted actions by the municipal administration and other stakeholders.

Seismic Vulnerability of Historic Centers

A methodology of investigation and diagnosis on the built patrimony of historic centres in seismic areas is presented with the aim of collecting an extensive knowledge on the structural typologies and behaviour of historic masonry buildings. This investigation is also the base for the prevention and/or repair of damages caused by earthquakes. Small historic centres or residential buildings in larger centres have been considered for long time as “minor architecture”, but they are meaningful testimonies of the local cultural heritage and express the evolution of a society and of its cultural identity. The results of the investigation carried out on different Italian historic centers, allowed also a critical review of the reliability of the analytical models and of the effectiveness of the repair techniques applied in the past decades. The guidelines emerging from the research results are here presented. A “minimal” diagnostic investigation program is also suggested, in order to support the designers in their projects and to set up appropriate mathematical models to study the vulnerability of the structures.

Liquid Surfaces

Exploring the interactions between liquid surfaces and their relationship to the figure of the fille fatale in dark genres of film and television, this paper suggests that the liquid surface not only disrupts our understanding of architecture as a static structural envelope, but also acts to destabilise the image of the innocent girl in science fiction and horror films and television. The discussion focuses on three relatively recent depictions of young girls who confront (or are forced to confront) the liquid surface: Mitsuko’s submersion in the water vessels of an apartment building in Dark Water (2002), Ofelia and the muddy interior of the tree in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and the watery floor of Eleven’s psychic state in Stranger Things (2016). Working with Jill Stoner’s understanding of minor architectures and their ability to deterritorialise both physical structures and structures of power, the paper asks to what extent the liquid surface encounters of Ofelia, Mitsuko and Eleven exist as reflections of each character’s experiences, or as currents of agency through which the fille fatale reshapes her world. In doing so the research considers the ways in which fictional liquid surfaces operate as a visual minor architecture that elicits a questioning of social and physical norms.

Investigating Baroque Creativity of Minor Examples in Southern Sicily

This study takes advantage of digital surveying to investigate in reverse the complexity and creativity of architectural composition in religious Baroque buildings while studying a so-called minor architecture, the church of Santa Maria dell'Odigitria in Acireale (CT), whose interior is modeled with geometric rigor, through a design process that is based on the use of simple geometric figures but articulated differently, such as to structure a complex structural and proportional order. The three-dimensional space of a computer instead becomes the core of the unveiling process, the place where the scholar has the opportunity to interact and communicate with millions of points gained, to reason on the geometric and spatial qualities of the object; where the geometric intuition about the genesis of the shape can be verified in real time through a simple query / overlap, in which one can move from measurement to representation, from the spatiality of the real to its discretization and viceversa.

Seismic Vulnerability of Historic Centers

A methodology of investigation and diagnosis on the built patrimony of historic centres in seismic areas is presented with the aim of collecting an extensive knowledge on the structural typologies and behaviour of historic masonry buildings. This investigation is also the base for the prevention and/or repair of damages caused by earthquakes. Small historic centres or residential buildings in larger centres have been considered for long time as “minor architecture”, but they are meaningful testimonies of the local cultural heritage and express the evolution of a society and of its cultural identity. The results of the investigation carried out on different Italian historic centers, allowed also a critical review of the reliability of the analytical models and of the effectiveness of the repair techniques applied in the past decades. The guidelines emerging from the research results are here presented. A “minimal” diagnostic investigation program is also suggested, in order to support the designers in their projects and to set up appropriate mathematical models to study the vulnerability of the structures.