Varsavia. Paesaggi e transizioni energetiche

Il seminario abbina l’approccio teorico e storico ai paesaggi energetici e alla transizione energetica con le ricerche architettoniche e territoriali degli studenti. Dal punto di vista metodologico faremo affidamento su studi urbani empirici, comprese varie tecniche di mappatura, al fine di riconoscere lo stato attuale e la trasformazione dei paesaggi energetici di Varsavia.

Il seminario pone in primo piano la comprensione spaziale di ciò che costituisce il paesaggio energetico della città contemporanea e futura, affrontando l’interazione sinergica di infrastrutture, natura urbana e architettura.

The seminar brings together theoretical and historical approaches to energy landscapes and energy transition with the students’ own architectural and territoral inquiries. Methodologically we will rely on an empirical urban studies, including various mapping techniques, in order to recognize the current state and the transformation of energy landscapes of Warsaw. The seminar foregrounds a spatial understanding of what constitutes the energy landscape of the contemporary and future city, addressing the synergistic interplay of infrastructure, urban nature, and architecture.

In presenza

In an excursion to Warsaw before the start of the semester we will conduct urban ethnographic fieldwork to collect empirical data on the current quality of the city’s urban energy landscape. By visiting distinct neighborhoods, we will investigate the influence of different urban typologies on energy generation, consumption and saving potentials. Going beyond the purely technological, we will interrogate Warsaw in terms of its ambient energy potentials, its thermal practices, and the cultural implications of the energy exchanges of the everyday in order to visualize the energy landscape of the city. Accounting for the temporal and ephemeral nature of energy, we will rely on filming, drawing and writing as the main forms of inquiry.

The subsequent seminar in Mendrisio will take the collected data in Warsaw as a starting point for creating a video essay on the (future) energy landscape of Warsaw, with a focus of each student group on a different form of ambient energy. This process is accompanied by historical and theoretical inputs as well as by guest lectures from external speakers.

Oral and written during the semester.