Who: The
Design Studio “Prototyping the city” is a workshop born from a collaboration
between Torino 2008 World Design Capital, the Architectural Association, the
NSU research Lab at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and
Preservation at Columbia University, and Denaldi Legnami. “Prototyping the
city” was conceived as a catalytic event in which 32 students from all over the
world drew up, proposed and built an installation.
What: The task
was to design and construct the information desk of the six summer school
workshops Designing Connected Places that will be held in Pollenzo.
theme
Prototypes: The
concept of a design prototype is traditionally linked to industrial design and
the related fields of manufacturing. Architecture has traditionally lacked
forms of serial production and mass production and, as a result, prototyping
sensibilities have evolved in related fields of design. In modern times, new
architectural ideas have frequently been developed and then tested in
relationship to an idea of an architectural type.
The idea of an
architectural type is today undergoing a radical redefinition owing to the
obsolescence of historical models which are being radically reconfigured by new
urban conditions, lifestyles, economic transformation.