ARCH 477 – Architecture in Context: City, Spaces and Urban Design

The course explores today’s Florence, seen as a living city rather than as an open-air museum for tourists. This approach helps students read and understand the city beyond its monumental highlights. We investigate the various meanings of “context”. We explore the multifaceted, sometimes conflicting, co-existence of modern/global needs & practices and traditional/local spaces. We address the contemporary urban fabric, its environment, its historic process, and its stratified layers; we consider the cityscape, the skyline, the surrounding landscape, the geography of Florence, and its terrain. Starting from the “finished” urban fabric, the course focuses on processes, ideas, and programs behind the contemporary city.

This course provides students with an approach and the basic tools which enable them to recognize these hidden connections. We explore how contemporary architects and masters of the past used the context as a rich, active source of inspiration, rather than as a limit to their creativity.

Professional Communication Skills

• Ability to write and speak effectively and use representational media appropriate for both within the profession and with the general public.

Use of Precedents

•  Ability to examine and comprehend the fundamental principles present in relevant precedents and to make informed choices about the incorporation of such principles into architecture and urban design projects.

History and Global Culture

• Understanding of the parallel and divergent histories of architecture and the cultural norms of a variety of indigenous, vernacular, local, and regional settings in terms of their political, economic, social, ecological, and technological factors.

Cultural Diversity and Social Equity

• Understanding of the diverse needs, values, behavioral norms, physical abilities, and social and spatial patterns that characterize different cultures and individuals and the responsibility of the architect to ensure equity of access to sites, buildings, and structures. 

Pre-Design

• Ability to prepare a comprehensive program for an architectural project that includes an assessment of client and user needs; an inventory of spaces and their requirements; an analysis of site conditions (including existing buildings); a review of the relevant building codes and standards, including relevant sustainability requirements, and an assessment of their implications for the project; and a definition of site selection and design assessment criteria.