IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY: a Landmark

Big Bambù installation, Mike and Doug Starn, MACRO museum, Rome, 2012

SOURCE: http://museomacro.org/sites/default/files/styles/article/public/Big%20Bambu_ph%20Mike%2BDoug%20Starn_7590_hr%20-%20Copia.jpg?itok=E_FSJ1vx

This project is located at the entrance of the MACRO museum in Rome. This museum was born by the refurbishment of a part of a big slaughterhouse where there is also the school of Architecture of Roma Tre University. 

As it is possible to see from the picture, the Big Bambù stands out like a real landmark in this part of Rome and, due to my personal experience, I can also say that since it is there the museum has become really important and like a benchmark for tourists. You can also go up and appreciate a really nice view of Rome. 

Keeping in mind the huge different between this urban context and the one I’m going to design on, I think that my project should represent a kind of Landmark for people that are going to use and live it, so that it becomes a real meeting point, with the same strenght of a public square.

SOURCE: http://www.giardininviaggio.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/big-bamboo-001-allingresso-del-Macro-Testaccio.jpeg

SOURCE: http://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/big_bambu04.jpg

SOURCE:http://media.06blog.it/6/67c/IMG_7686-586x785.jpg

Introduction to the research: Take back the City

The intention is working on:

IDENTITY and COMMUNITY

A Landmark
- designing a meeting and focus point that peolple can recognize and identify with;
Investing in the local economy
- making people understand where they live and what surrounds the area, valuing local traditions and investing in the local economy;
Community activities
- making people take part to community activities, considering the possibility to use old and existing structures/spaces to support the knowledge of sustainability among people;
Linking the City
- what kinds of links/connections (fisical or not) between the design area and the big main city and/or the surrounding it’s possible to use;

AGE

Complementary spaces
- playing areas for childs and spaces for old people where they can spend time together socializing; also, spaces where parents can meet in appropriate meeting spaces;
Job centre
- job organisations/centres for young people and training spaces;
Meeting spaces
- giving people spaces to discuss both communal issues and private ones (e.g., parents wanting to organize a show for their childern);
Community services
- what identify this neighbourhood, what interests people have in common and services they need here;

CULTURAL IMPROVEMENT
Art
- art research and diffusion are an important factor to bring interest to people of all ages and so give cultural services to the city;
Complementary education
- e.g. museums and cultural activities are a possible solution to the demand of cultural spaces and may be also agood way to create interest in people living outside the city considered for the project;
Sport education
- sport facilities;
Cultural diffusion
- newspaper and periodical libraries /local libraries

Introduction to the research: Take back the City

My research starts from a personal experience I had when me and my family moved in a new suburban area, fifteen years ago.

The city in which I moved, was born as an only residential area with no commercial and transportation services at all. Afterwards it has kept this characteristic and just recently two supermarkets have been built.

What this area really lacks in, is a series of services that make people enjoy and live it. As this neighbourhood is located in a suburban area, usually people get the car to go to work in the city centre and this contributes to make it like a dormitory.

As a typical sprawl, the residential area is built in a non intensive way. So the mojority of the houses are terraced houses, villas or semi-detached houses with gardens.

But the most important fact is that there isn’t a urban design concerning services and community activities. People live in their own houses without taking part to any activity in the neighbourhood and their childs don’t have a play area. There is any kind of communal space, like a square, in which people can meet.

Since this issue is very important and personal for me, I would like to investigate and research on a possible solution to make people feel part of a community and I’m considering the idea of choosing exactly my city as the location of my project.

THE DESIGN PROPOSAL: from the first proposal to the starting exploration

First Starting Prosal:

DESIGN PROPOSAL OF MSP

My Design Proposal for the Major Study Project consists in a research about educational spaces like schools, museums, cultural centres or libraries that may help me to focus my attention on the didactic aspect of the space. Living in a big city like  Rome, I have seen different ways to face the problem of lack of a cultural link in a small neighbourhood in a big urban area and I would like to investigate on a possible approach to it.

AREA OF SPECIALISATION

For this project, I would like to focus on the sustainable aspects of the design.
So my area of specialisation could be Detailing or Spatial Design.

SOURCE:http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS1813386-02A-BIG.jpg

Following considerations:

The first idea was about investigating on education, in general and then more in detail, to find a possible solution to lack of a good cultural level and a sense of community identity in neighbourhoods located in suburban areas. In this way, working with a series of public services like museums, schools and libraries it is possible to add those missing services that may change the community perception of where people live. I thought about important services of this kind because I live in what I could call a sprawl, that is typically just a residential area and that forces you to get the car even to buy a bottle of milk. So the perception that people have is living in an abandoned place with no services.

After these first riflections I’ve focus more on why I thought about researching on this issue and I have realized that this interest comes exactly from my personal experience. So I have decided to think more deeply about my main interests for this research (community, sense of identity and cultural improvement) and to investigate them analysing the city where I live. By doing so I understood that it is not just about cultural improvement and education but there are a lot of important issues to consider, dealing with community.

Also I have considered the experience in Copenhagen and all my impressions about the city that I have recorded in a video called Take Back the City. This video was about people and how they interact with the city, how the different architectures try to give the City back to its people, dealing with problems/issues like the water and people needs. The title “Take Back the CIty” comes from the name of a song by Snow Patrol in the album “A Hundred Million Suns” (2008) and I have decided to use it again as a subtitle of my research and as a continuum of my research trip.