co+labo Radović @ Keio University

co+labo radović Urban Design Studio Radović @ MIAW-Milano International Architecture Week 

Politecnico di Milano  invited Darko to hold an Urban Design Studio within MIAW, Milano International Architecture week. His Urban Palimpsest Studio was one of nine, along with architectural and interior design studios led by Suzie Attiwill, Jesus Donaire, Donatella Fioretti, Go Hasegawa, Luis Antonio Jorge, Yichen Lu, Jo Van Den Berghe and Bin Zhang.
The studio was conducted in an intensive format, in the period 25.2-5.3.2016, by co+labo's Darko Radović and Davisi Boontharm, with technical and teaching assistance of PoliMi's Mina Akhavan. 

 
MIAW Studio Radović produced a project entitled

dreaming a smarter, smart Città Studi

This project records the dreams and discussions of another, better Città Studi, thought and conceived as a smarter, smart city within the old, vibrant city of Milano.

The project was conducted at the MIAW Urban Design Studio Radović, 25.2-5.3 2016. Conceptually, it was based on the New World City Hypothesis, which seeks:

- “to redefine urbanity, so that it embraces environmental responsibility. If good manners, which are central to the original meaning of the term urbanity, get extended beyond interpersonal relations towards the whole of the city – then we can speak about decidedly urbane environments. If the same attitude is extended further, towards the whole of our environment –we can speak about truly sustainable environment, an eco-urbanity;

- to reinforce Lefebvre’s powerful requests for the droit à la ville, the renewed right to the city, and for le droit à la difference, the right to difference – the rights to be empowered and to be different (against forces which he called homogenisation, fragmentation, and hierarchically organized power, and which we are experiencing as globalisation); and

- to reclaim our rights to (each particular) city and to (each particular) urbanity, as fully-developed local cultures. Each city need to have its own rights, the right of and the right to (its own, particular) urbanity. We need to reclaim an ability to live multiple worlds and for that we need multiple practices that generate, and multiply the rules which define excellence – parallel worlds of class and excellence. Radović (2008)

Our MIAW 2016 Urban Design Project started by tapping into the perceptions of the existing Città Studi, by seeking, sensing, finding, exploring and mapping both current and promised, but never realized qualities. It sought to dialecticise the objective criteria for assessment of urban quality with subjective, bodily experiences in and of those spaces, as continuously and variously conceived, perceived and lived.

Fueled by strong desire for alternative, radically different and better futures, our team questioned who has the right to tell the citizens (students) what is, and what is not realistic in and for their own city (UniverCity). A truly smart Città Studi could be only the one which empowers its resident to become makers, to seek, to find and to liberate the “beaches” which lie imprisoned under the concrete and asphalt of present realities.

Seeing the city

 “… as a projection of society on the ground, that is, not only on the actual site, but at a specific level, perceived and conceived by thought, which determines the city and the urban” Lefebvre (1996)

the resulting vision of a smarter, smart Città Studi emerged as palimpsest of diverse spatial projections of existing and potential, (im)possible and (im)probable, ideal and of not-so-ideal worlds (of learning) on the ground.

That palimpsest of ideas reflects the new reality of Politecnico di Milano, which is, gradually, steadily and beautifully, becoming true Polietnico di Milano. The dreamers who produced this palimpsest, all students of Politecnico di Milano, came from a number countries, creating the rich tapestry of cultural and educational backgrounds.

That fascinating multicultural environment possesses the unseen, complex and untameable potential of an intellectual beehive, the best thet globalisation can offer. That potential needs to be embraced, nurtured, cherished - and empowered.

  “Cities are units of human accountability to the planet.” Sorkin (1993) (1993)                       

Urbanity and environmental responsibility are two aspects of a single sensibility, which departs from the narrow anthropocentric views that still shape our ways of dealing with the environment. Based on those values, smarter, smart Città Studi explored diverse spatial and programmatic, in some instances irreverent and provocative “what-if” scenarios for the future. The sole unifying thread of those explorations was an imperative of environmental and cultural responsiveness and responsibility.

The imagined smarter, smart Città Studi would be an incubator of urbanity for 21^st century, simultaneously rooted and open to future, able to think critically. Such smartness would include (but should never be limited to) the latest knowledge. The key to wise sustainable communities is in establishing the capacity and responsibility to continuously evaluate own performance and to make informed decisions. That is why

“instead of definite general project, as was the practice at beginning of this century, city development needs elastic “general programme” capable of taking into account changes over  time.” Giedion (1967)                             

Our palimpsest illustrates the urban patterns of Città Studi flexible and loose enough to remain responsive to unpredictable, to the unknown, able to generate and support cultural, spatial and functional diversity and continuity.

“The quality and the character of everyday life, together with spatial expressions of ordinary activities are going to be the measure of success or failure on the road towards sustainable development.” Radović (2012)                 

For any university, to succeed in becoming a smart, sustainable community, the highest standards of education and research related to environmental and cultural responsibility need to be(come) part of everyday life. 

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DR

Milano 4.3.2016 (Vuku)

Giedion, S. (1967), Space, Time, Architecture, Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press; Lefebvre, H. (1996), Writings on Cities, Oxford: Blackwell.; Radović, D (2008), “The World City Hypothesis Revisited: Export and import of urbanity is a dangerous business”, in World Cities and Urban Form, Jenks, M., Kozak, D., Takkanon, P. (eds), Oxford: Routledge; Radović, D (2012), “The greatness of small”, in Future-Asian-Space: Projecting the urban space of new East Asia (eds. Hee, Viray, Boontharm), Singapore: NUS Press; Sorkin, M. (1993) Local Code - The Construction of the City at 42. N Latitude, Princeton: Architectural Press

MIAW Studio Radović members: Kevork Aragelian, Britta Arends, Martina Atanasovska, Gizem Aydin, Martina Brambilla, Ceren Cagli, Priscilla Maame Kweiba Cann, Hakan Erdin, Veronica Garbaccini, Minoo Javareshkian, Ivona Kovacević, Ksenija Krsmanović, Mengsha Ma, Natalija Marinković, Kamal Naseri, Rahul Vijay Kumar Parmar, Maryam Qayyoomi Bidhendi, Dušana Sakotić, Lana Salameh, Iliriana Sejdullahu, Mengqi Shao, Lei Sun, Cristina Trevia, Sara Vaccari, Amirhossein Vaseghi, Mesfin Alemu Wondimu, Sichen Zhang, Zhen Kai Zhang + Mina Akhavan (tutor) + Davisi Boontharm (Studio associate) + Darko Radović (Studio leader)

MIAW Studio Radović guest critics were Politecnico di Milano professors Antonella Bruzzese, Manuela Grecchi, Bertrando Bonfantini, Antonio Longo, Gabriele Masera and Gabriele Pasqui.

Fragments from the MIAW Studio Radović palimpsest..