A Herbarium for the Corviale
Artistic design workshop in relation to and in collaboration with the architectural project of the Kilometro Verde for some shared spaces of the Corviale.
Chair of Design Methodology (Anna Muskardin)
In collaboration with the Chair of Painting (Sergio Sarra)
Architectural and urban planning studio TSTUDIO
Architect Guendalina Salimei and Architect PhD Anna Riciputo
The reference professors and the heads of the architectural firm responsible for the redevelopment of the Corviale will be present.
The architects will present the work for the Corviale, and the dates of the site visits and the internal organisation of the work will be established here.
For all those who are unable to attend, a recording will be produced and, if possible, a direct link on the platform. We will provide the connection code as soon as possible.
For all those who wish to participate from other courses and subjects, the workshop is worth 2 credits and is open to all students of the Academy.
Objectives and methods
The aim of the workshop is to involve students in a design hypothesis that has as its concrete reference an ongoing dialogue between art and architecture. The simulation of a contest and the involvement of a jury and a quality award could be accompanied by the possibility (currently to be confirmed) of organising an exhibition with the best sketches.
The specific aim is to expose students to the social function of contemporary artistic work as a vehicle for ethical and aesthetic values capable of enhancing an architectural project. The choice of the naturalistic and territorial theme is deeply in line with the aims of the complex building and cultural redevelopment project of the Kilometro Verde in Corviale and should serve as an opportunity to stimulate students to address and explore in depth the specific aspects of involvement in the problems and intentions of the architectural project, with the common aim of contributing to the improvement of a concrete and urbanistically very complex housing situation.
The Kilometro Verde project in Corviale – Tstudio
The large building designed by Mario Fiorentino and built between 1975 and 1984 was part of the search for a new dimension of the habitat, intended as a radical alternative to the dispersion of settlements in the suburbs. The original project, conceived as a large “contemporary aqueduct” set in the Roman countryside to accommodate about 6,300 inhabitants, is a true integrated system combining the needs of living and public services for the neighbourhood. Composed of overlapping levels, the 4th floor was designed to accommodate services of common interest but, having remained incomplete, over the years it has been occupied by the inhabitants who have appropriated the available space according to the rules of a parasitic architecture of
illegality and degradation. Within these self-constructed buildings, “shared private spaces” have been left free, in which the distributive function has been joined by that of family socialisation, a place for children to play, areas equipped for spending time together and sharing something, supporting that sense of “vicinidad” that has redefined the sense of “community” in Corviale. These spaces are one of the most important typological innovations produced by self-organisation, to be recovered and developed as a positive element for the new project.
The project for the redevelopment of the free floor, the 4th floor, includes, in addition to the construction of a series of dwellings created within the existing structural mesh (designed according to an experimental programme linked to the shared, eco-sustainable and economically responsible use of the spaces), a certain number of common areas for socialisation designed as places of mediation between the private and the collective, capable of producing a new energy that can spread throughout the entire building. Just as the aqueduct has integrated with the surrounding nature over the centuries, forming a unique landscape, the Corviale, in its new image, includes a “green touch” on the 4th floor, characterised both by the colour of the plaster and the protective grids in different shades of green, and by the planting of climbing plant species that create a vertical natural curtain, strongly contributing to the collective recognisability of the complex.
Within this new housing system, a composite of nature and construction, to give even more meaning to the reflections of the architectural project and enrich the space with imaginative content, this small student contest proposes imagining artistic proposals for some of these new shared spaces, accessible to all the inhabitants of the Corviale and relevant to the existing project.
The function of art is to give meaning, to give life, to give dreams and reflection, emotion, beauty, awareness and knowledge.
The theme of the contest, The herbs and trees of Rome “A Herbarium for the Corviale”, represents the desire and the opportunity to stimulate awareness and thought about the nature that surrounds us and that belongs to this city.
Each student will be asked to reflect on the architectural project, go and see the spaces that could host artistic interventions and create a sketch for a work to be proposed inspired by 1 botanical species (of their choice) present in the city or in the surrounding countryside. This work must be designed and accompanied by a presentation of the process of study and analysis of the spaces and the chosen theme; the student must in fact accompany the design and possibly include in the work the scientific references of the chosen plant species (agreed with the professors), also attaching photographs and botanical references of the chosen botanical subject, concluding with the creation of the sketch specifically designed for a
specific environment (of the student’s choice) of the common areas that will be proposed by the architectural firm that is carrying out the Kilometro Verde project in the Corviale, and the work must interact with the architecture, enrich the space and contribute to improving the daily life of the inhabitants, as well as interact with and stimulate reflection on the relationship with nature.