Project BSc2-II: Housing - Atelier Bearth

The second semester is dedicated to the study and analysis of collective housing in its exclusive and specific problematic. The relationship to the existing situation, the relationship to conventions and the local housing culture are juxtaposed with the systematic repetition of specific architectural elements, the dimensional standards of the dwellings, the coherence of the structure and the economy of construction. An apartment building is therefore a collection of individual dwellings, in which individual and collective space coexist in a multiplicity of possible declinations. It is a complex spatial system, which bases its richness on the relationships between the variables and constants that make up the individual housing program and the strict system of constraints provided by the collective dwelling.

The second-year atelier offers the opportunity to consolidate the knowledge acquired in the first year, familiarise students with the fundamental issues of architecture and finally introduce them to the methods of professional practice.
The course is structured around a project theme, from which each student builds a personalised design path following his or her own interests and intuitions. Particular care is given to the study of the relationship with the place, understood as a synthesis between the natural landscape and the cultural context in which one works; the precision in the dimensioning and materialisation of the individual parts that make up the body of the architecture are constantly cultivated, within a design proposal that is taken care of from its insertion in the territory down to the scale of the construction detail.

• Affordable and clean energy
• Sustainable cities and communities
• Responsible consumption and production

In presence

To enter the exam, one must attend the atelier consistently, working weekly on the project development at the table and taking part in the three midterm critiques of the semester, where the project is presented to the teachers and the entire class. The student will have the opportunity to work with all three assistants, changing referent following each midterm critique. At the final discussion he or she will present a series of documents capable of succinctly summarizing the ideas and significant aspects of the project in a complete and coherent form.

A presentation that includes large-scale and detailed architectural drawings, three-dimensional images and photographs, as well as models and other materials that help presenting both the design process and the final proposal, make up the body of documents needed for the final critique.