Cultural, Theoretical, and Innovative Approaches to Contemporary Interior Design 1799828239, 9781799828235

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Cultural, Theoretical, and Innovative Approaches to Contemporary Interior Design Luciano Crespi Politecnico di Milano, Italy

A volume in the Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA) Book Series

Published in the United States of America by IGI Global Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global) 701 E. Chocolate Avenue Hershey PA, USA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.igi-global.com Copyright © 2020 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher. Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Crespi, Luciano, editor. Title: Cultural, theoretical, and innovative approaches to contemporary interior design / Luciano Crespi, editor. Description: Hershey, PA : Information Science Reference, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This book approaches contemporary project development through a cultural and theoretical lens, and aims to demonstrate that designing spaces, interiors, and the urban habitat is an activity that has independent cultural foundations”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019044091 (print) | LCCN 2019044092 (ebook) | ISBN 9781799828235 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781799828242 (paperback) | ISBN 9781799828259 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Interior architecture--Social aspects. | Interior decoration--Social aspects. | Space (Architecture)--Social aspects. Classification: LCC NA2850 .C85 2020 (print) | LCC NA2850 (ebook) | DDC 729--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044091 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044092 This book is published in the IGI Global book series Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA) (ISSN: 2475-6814; eISSN: 2475-6830) British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher. For electronic access to this publication, please contact: [email protected].

Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA) Book Series Giuseppe Amoruso Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ISSN:2475-6814 EISSN:2475-6830 Mission

Throughout time, technical and artistic cultures have integrated creative expression and innovation into industrial and craft processes. Art, entertainment and the media have provided means for societal selfexpression and for economic and technical growth through creative processes. The Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA) book series aims to explore current academic research in the field of artistic and design methodologies, applied arts, music, film, television, and news industries, as well as popular culture. Encompassing titles which focus on the latest research surrounding different design areas, services and strategies for communication and social innovation, cultural heritage, digital and print media, journalism, data visualization, gaming, design representation, television and film, as well as both the fine applied and performing arts, the AMEA book series is ideally suited for researchers, students, cultural theorists, and media professionals.

Coverage • Sports & Entertainment • Digital Heritage • Color Studies • Design Tools • Music & Performing Arts • Digital Media • Traditional Arts • Environmental Design • Blogging & Journalism • Drawing

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The Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA) Book Series (ISSN 2475-6814) is published by IGI Global, 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, PA 17033-1240, USA, www.igi-global.com. This series is composed of titles available for purchase individually; each title is edited to be contextually exclusive from any other title within the series. For pricing and ordering information please visit http://www. igi-global.com/book-series/advances-media-entertainment-arts/102257. Postmaster: Send all address changes to above address. Copyright © 2020 IGI Global. All rights, including translation in other languages reserved by the publisher. No part of this series may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphics, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information and retrieval systems – without written permission from the publisher, except for non commercial, educational use, including classroom teaching purposes. The views expressed in this series are those of the authors, but not necessarily of IGI Global.

Titles in this Series

For a list of additional titles in this series, please visit: https://www.igi-global.com/book-series/advances-media-entertainment-arts/102257

Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety Sadia Jamil (Khalifa University, UAE) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 408pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799812982) • US $265.00 Deconstructing Images of the Global South Through Media Representations and Communication Floribert Patrick C. Endong (University of Calabar, Nigeria) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 469pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781522598213) • US $195.00 Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media Jacquelyn Ford Morie (All These Worlds, LLC, USA) and Kate McCallum (Bridge Arts Media, USA & Vortex Immersion Media, USA) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 400pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799824336) • US $265.00 Handbook of Research on Multidisciplinary Approaches to Literacy in the Digital Age Nurdan Oncel Taskiran (Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 405pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799815341) • US $265.00 International Perspectives on Feminism and Sexism in the Film Industry Gülşah Sarı (University of Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal, Turkey) and Derya Çetin (University of Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal, Turkey) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 277pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799817741) • US $195.00 Handbook of Research on the Global Impact of Media on Migration Issues Nelson Okorie (Covenant University, Nigeria) Babatunde Raphael Ojebuyi (University of Ibadan, Nigeria) and Juliet Wambui Macharia (Karatina University, Kenya) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 392pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799802105) • US $280.00 Media and Its Role in Protecting the Rights of Children in Africa Olusola Oyero (Covenant University, Nigeria) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 368pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799803294) • US $195.00 Gender and Diversity Representation in Mass Media Gülşah Sarı (Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 338pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799801283) • US $195.00

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Editorial Advisory Board Giuseppe Amoruso, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Anna Anzani, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Suzie Attiwill, RMIT University, Australia Graeme Brooker, Royal College of Art, London, UK Manlio Brusatin, IUAV, Venezia, Italy Luisa Collina, Politecnico di Milano, Italy David Dernie, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Barbara Di Prete, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Peter Di Sabatino, Politecnico di Miano, Italy Davide Fassi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Belén Hermida, Universidad CEU San Pablo, Madrid, Spain Marco Mencacci, École Camondo, Paris, France Ico Migliore, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Francesca Murialdo, Middlesex University, London, UK Katelijn Quartier, Universiteit Hasselt, Belgium Agnese Rebaglio, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Susan Robertson, University of Brighton, UK Nilüfer Sağlar, ITU, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Isabella Vegni, SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland

List of Reviewers Carlo Berizzi, Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy Alessandro Biamonti, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Stefano Brusaporci, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Italy Dinah Casson, Casson Mann, London, UK Davide Crippa, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Daniela De Leo, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Italy David Fern, Middlesex University, London, UK Gianni Forcolini, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Laura Galluzzo, Politecnico di Milano, Italy 



Giulia Gerosa, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Elena Giunta, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Joaquin Angel Martinez Moya, Universitat Jaume I, Spain Anna Mazzanti, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Ada Piselli, Bra, Italy Maurizio Rossi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Luigi Trentin, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Raffaella Trocchianesi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Table of Contents

Foreword............................................................................................................................................. xvii Preface.................................................................................................................................................. xix Section 1 Paradigms, Scenarios, Télos Chapter 1 Designing Interiors: A Guide for Contemporary Interior Landscape Design......................................... 1 Luciano Crespi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chapter 2 Urban Interiors and Interiorities............................................................................................................ 58 Suzie Attiwill, RMIT University, Australia Chapter 3 Design and Restoration: An Ecological Approach................................................................................ 68 Anna Anzani, Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Claudia Caramel, Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chapter 4 Notes on the Spatiality of Colour........................................................................................................... 85 David J. Dernie, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Chapter 5 Public Space “Under Influence”: Rewriting in Progress in Africa...................................................... 104 Monica Coralli, Laboratoire Architecture, Anthropologie, CNRS-UMR LAVUE 7218, France Section 2 Old and New Territories of Interior Design Chapter 6 Urban Interior Design: A Relational Approach for Resilient and Experiential Cities......................... 130 Barbara Di Prete, Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy





Chapter 7 Practice of Consumption and Spaces for Goods/Retail Futures.......................................................... 154 Francesca Murialdo, Middlesex University, UK Chapter 8 Rethinking Retail Design in the Experience Economy........................................................................ 174 Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun, University of Portland, USA Chapter 9 Art and Space: New Boundaries of Intervention................................................................................. 191 Giulia Crespi, Archivio Emilio Isgrò, Italy Chapter 10 Art Staging the Civic: From Rhetoric to Spaciousness....................................................................... 208 Mário Caeiro, Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal Madalena Folgado, Universidades Lusíada, CITAD, Portugal Chapter 11 Interactive Spaces: What If Walls Could Talk?................................................................................... 237 Davide Crippa, Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chapter 12 New Narrative Spaces.......................................................................................................................... 259 Ico Migliore, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chapter 13 Re-Coding Homes as a Flexible Design Approach for Living Environments..................................... 284 S. Banu Garip, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Nilufer Saglar Onay, Independent Researcher, Italy Ervin Garip, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Section 3 Tools, Leads, and Experiments Chapter 14 Design Surrenders to Virtual Reality................................................................................................... 308 Manlio Brusatin, Istituto Universitario di Architettura Venezia, Italy Chapter 15 (more)SoftAssertions: A Progressive Paradigm for Urban Cultural Heritage, Interior Urbanism, and Contemporary Typologies............................................................................................................. 315 Peter Di Sabatino, Politecnico di Milano, Italy



Chapter 16 Any Colour You Like: Considerations on the Surface of Things – Color, Matter, and Architectural Space.................................................................................................................................................... 355 Luigi Trentin, Scuola del Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chapter 17 Figuring Out the Interiors Through the Representation of Experiential and Interactive Environments....................................................................................................................................... 367 Giuseppe Amoruso, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Polina Mironenko, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chapter 18 Improving Occupants Comfort Through Qualitative Indoor Environments: A Case Study................ 387 Dalia Hafiz, Al Ghurair University, UAE Chapter 19 Dwelling in the Leftovers: Investigation on Design Experience and a Glimpse Into Cyprus Buffer Zone..................................................................................................................................................... 405 Fiamma Colette Invernizzi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Compilation of References................................................................................................................ 422 About the Contributors..................................................................................................................... 452 Index.................................................................................................................................................... 457

Detailed Table of Contents

Foreword............................................................................................................................................. xvii Preface.................................................................................................................................................. xix Section 1 Paradigms, Scenarios, Télos Chapter 1 Designing Interiors: A Guide for Contemporary Interior Landscape Design......................................... 1 Luciano Crespi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy The following is a theoretical reflection about the re-development of existing spaces. First, various changes in the way we live worldwide are considered, especially in industrialised countries. Then a process that spans from research to design is proposed to identify those actions required to reach an innovative response to the problem at hand. The second part of chapter illustrates a series of possible design strategies collected from the interior design work of past masters and contemporary designers. The goal is to offer a possible reading of certain important examples, providing an inventory, by definition an incomplete one, of design approaches, ways of thinking, and practices. Sometimes there is a common thread, sometimes not. Chapter 2 Urban Interiors and Interiorities............................................................................................................ 58 Suzie Attiwill, RMIT University, Australia The question of the inhabitation of cities is becoming one of the key issues of the 21st century as the number of people living in cities exceeds those in rural areas for the first time in history. This chapter addresses the conjunction of urban and interior in relation to the potential of interior design as a discipline that is no longer adequately defined by an architectural context but rather as a practice that is relational and attends to the relationships between people and environments. Emerging trajectories of interior design practice will be presented with the aim of positioning the criticality of contemporary interior design practice as a laboratory for the production of new urban interiors and interiorities.

 



Chapter 3 Design and Restoration: An Ecological Approach................................................................................ 68 Anna Anzani, Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Claudia Caramel, Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy This study uses a design-based approach that is focused on the human dimension in all its complexity to give value not only to a functional or rational use of spaces, but also to an experiential one, gaining further significant inspiration from the memory layered in complex historical spaces. Interestingly, psychological studies highlight the collective base characterizing a number of disorders and suggest that changing the outside world can be just as therapeutic as changing the subject’s feelings, indicating that psychology merges with ecology. From an interdisciplinary approach, emphasizing a cultural inclination more than a technical attitude, opportunities seem to develop to promote beauty, identity, and memory as essential dimensions for collective and individual wellbeing. Design-oriented processes could bring out the potential of the built environment, promoting multiple functions and reuse methods, inspired by quality and capable of creating hospitable and welcoming physical and relational spaces. Chapter 4 Notes on the Spatiality of Colour........................................................................................................... 85 David J. Dernie, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong This chapter explores colour phenomena through the lens of an architect. It proposes that colour experience is best understood as only partially a visual experience that has three interrelated components: the visual, how colours describe the spaces around us; environments, how colours change with their social, historical, and cultural contexts; and non-visible, what colours represent. What role does the chromatic imagination play in contemporary interiors space? The chapter proposes that spatial experience of any singular colour has a multiplicity of possible readings and dimensions, that there is no absolute value to colours. Our chromatic experience is mobile and fleeting, as the three components of colour experience shift and overlap. Chapter 5 Public Space “Under Influence”: Rewriting in Progress in Africa...................................................... 104 Monica Coralli, Laboratoire Architecture, Anthropologie, CNRS-UMR LAVUE 7218, France This chapter explores the intersections between the notions of “urban interior design” and “public space” in West African cities. The artistic dynamics at work reshape the spaces by discussing their colonial imprint and the symbolism they have successively been charged with. As the nature of the projects is very diverse, both in terms of techniques and materials used and the objectives pursued, there is a clear desire to take greater account of the human dimension and to establish connections between local roots and the globalizing push. Through the analysis of some experiments carried out in Dakar, Cotonou, Porto-Novo, and Douala, the author identifies seven trends. The examples presented her relate to one or more of them. The projects combine the aesthetic approach with an ethical message: they translate into a citizen commitment to better, fairer, and more inclusive spaces.



Section 2 Old and New Territories of Interior Design Chapter 6 Urban Interior Design: A Relational Approach for Resilient and Experiential Cities......................... 130 Barbara Di Prete, Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Nowadays the city of the anonymity prevails over the city of sharing. We move in more and more dilated spaces and we expand our territories, but we consume the community life in impersonal places that, too often, are only for casual encounters. For this reason it becomes more and more crucial to design spaces with wide recognition, characterized by an “accumulation of belongings” that makes them feel like familiar to everyone: the city, avoiding the risk of self-celebration, can find the opportunity to become a representation of a collective imagination in the sum of individual stories. The challenge is to experience the city as a sequence of “interiors” that people can intensely inhabit and not just use, in which people can leave traces, share memories, and imprint daily gestures. Places that satisfy emotional as well as functional needs, bringing into play the symbolic and intangible components, maybe imperceptible, but which are so decisive in determining the identity structure of a city. It is the relational dimension that acquires also an aesthetic code. This chapter explores a relational approach for resilient and experiential cities. Chapter 7 Practice of Consumption and Spaces for Goods/Retail Futures.......................................................... 154 Francesca Murialdo, Middlesex University, UK The change in the significance of goods is a process that, ever since the end of the Industrial Revolution, has triggered far-reaching changes in society as the term has lost any meaning in relation to its purely functional character and increasingly come to represent symbolic and cultural contents. “Practice of Consumption and Spaces for Goods” has the aim to investigate contemporary retail spaces as complex places combining many aspects that go beyond the spatial and functional to include the physical, social, cultural, and economic. Chapter 8 Rethinking Retail Design in the Experience Economy........................................................................ 174 Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun, University of Portland, USA This chapter seeks to explore and discuss the way commercial companies and non-commercial companies have transformed the design and the delivering of products and services offered. This work aims to contribute to the discussion of the character of interiors by exploring empirical cases. These cases exhibit experiences comprised of emotional as well as functional interactions between customers and service providers. Their key attribute is to deliver a personal experience that stirs feelings, sensations, and emotions that are memorable and inclusive. The result of this research intends to enable professionals to have a series of instruments that are multidisciplinary in nature so that they can use them in their design practice.



Chapter 9 Art and Space: New Boundaries of Intervention................................................................................. 191 Giulia Crespi, Archivio Emilio Isgrò, Italy The duo “art and space” looks very easy to understand: art interacts with spaces, uses spaces, or simply fills spaces. However, starting from this simple consideration, what this chapter would like to propose is a reflection about a kind of art that creates spaces and places instead, expanding the discussion about the interdisciplinary approach of artists to creation. Considering the works of some artists that have made the intervention on spaces one of their prerogatives, the research focuses on the new connections that arise between the artist and the public through these creations. The imagery of Yayoi Kusama, Tomas Saraceno, Anish Kapoor, Cristina Iglesias, Carsten Nicolai, Rudolf Stingel, among others, allows a different perception, most of time asking to the spectator itself an active part in the work of art. The chapter offers a specific case study dedicated to the work of the Dutch artist Krijn de Koning. Chapter 10 Art Staging the Civic: From Rhetoric to Spaciousness....................................................................... 208 Mário Caeiro, Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal Madalena Folgado, Universidades Lusíada, CITAD, Portugal The chapter presents a conceptual and pragmatic mindset, concerning activities such as curating artistic projects in public space, programming cultural events, and designing habitats. Different experiments in art are fueling the emergence of a new sensibility, showing how ‘parts of the city’ can become possibilities, thus spaces with a great potential for change. In a peculiar rhetorical balance—an ethos of attention, a logos of ongoing urban-based research, and finally a pathos of witty sharing of information, knowledge, and experience—some artistic installations and urban projects are a valid laboratory for creative citizenship. Art is presented as a tekne sensitive to discrete elements of the city, leading these to become the building blocks of urban life. In the epilogue, the authors switch from analysis to a phenomenological approach in order to give to see the very moment wherein the work of art’s resoundingness brings awareness to urban space as theatre of apparitions. Chapter 11 Interactive Spaces: What If Walls Could Talk?................................................................................... 237 Davide Crippa, Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy The chapter focuses on the contemporary project, interpreted using the paradigm of interactivity as privileged reading key. Indeed, the changes (both social and technological) brought by the IT revolution and the information society force design to face new challenges, calling upon it to rethink the traditional categories of space and time. Today we are witnessing a more integrated fusion between physical products and digital images; the traditional boundaries between different environments are now dynamic and interactive communication interfaces; spaces become “perceivable” and the standard design of finished shapes seems to be replaced by the planning of reversible strategies. The project itself is what triggers different actions and is responsive towards its interlocutor, also thanks to a technological evolution now allowing a new osmosis between man, media, and space. The result of it is a sensory amplification defining immersive environments and setting new boundaries for the discipline that finds in exhibits its own privileged field of expression and research.



Chapter 12 New Narrative Spaces.......................................................................................................................... 259 Ico Migliore, Politecnico di Milano, Italy In exhibition design, and in the museum field in particular, the challenge of the designer consists of facing the complexity of reality by interweaving contents that they must reshape, giving them a narrative pace. The result of this recasting is a narrative museum. This is a concept that the author has developed through in-depth research and has implemented in actual museum projects in recent years. Conceived as a reaction against and opposition to the type of design used in the cases of the nail-in-the-wall museum and the funfair museum, the narrative museum makes the user the active protagonist of an interactive multimedia diorama. Presenting his perspective on this issue, the author argues the possibility of a polyphonic project, in which spaces are defined beyond forms with the aim of activating new usage patterns, placing an emphasis on the narrative quality of the place in directing the project. Chapter 13 Re-Coding Homes as a Flexible Design Approach for Living Environments..................................... 284 S. Banu Garip, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Nilufer Saglar Onay, Independent Researcher, Italy Ervin Garip, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey This chapter discusses the results of the “Recoding Homes Project,” which has been conducted as a TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) research project with the title “A User-Centered Model Research Towards a Flexible Interior Spatial Design for Mass Housing Units: Urban Renewal Housing.” The project aims to improve the interior spaces of mass housing projects in accordance with user needs and to provide solutions that will increase the flexibility of interior spaces. The design model outlined in this chapter has the potential to change the traditional ways of housing supply as it gives the possibility to produce complete living environments with all their necessary components. It investigates how an interior design model can transform existing spaces into more flexible and more functional housing units. This way of housing supply can eliminate the non-compatibility between the architectural features and interior components often chosen randomly without evaluating actual conditions and needs. Section 3 Tools, Leads, and Experiments Chapter 14 Design Surrenders to Virtual Reality................................................................................................... 308 Manlio Brusatin, Istituto Universitario di Architettura Venezia, Italy Before moving into a house, each of us consults a drawing of a plan. But what turns that plan into the interior of a house? The representation of the architectural design produces a drawing for the project: they may become the same thing or perhaps different things. We know that each interior space is only truly designed by living in it. The designer narrates (draws) a design to make it become reality. But what kind of gap is there between knowing how to draw and knowing how to build, that is, between the ability to render in a drawing and the ability to construct a building? Compared to classic systems of representation (plan, elevation, section, and perspective), rendering has become the simulation of constructed reality, which does not yet exist and won’t have exactly the form envisaged. If in the design VR (virtual reality) tends to dominate the RR (real reality), the RR will end up revealing VR to be a fake reality (FR).



Chapter 15 (more)SoftAssertions: A Progressive Paradigm for Urban Cultural Heritage, Interior Urbanism, and Contemporary Typologies............................................................................................................. 315 Peter Di Sabatino, Politecnico di Milano, Italy This chapter examines the shifting landscape of disciplines and professions, with particular focus towards “Spatial and Experience Design.” In spite of trends and increasing examples of the erosion and overlapping of disciplinary and professional boundaries, there is a need for some sort of disciplinary and professional definition. There needs to be a body of knowledge and skills defined and practiced and routes to circumvent them. This is especially relevant in a world of inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary work and comprehensive creative practices. The chapter examines core aspects of spatial/interior design and how this may intersect with other related disciplines and practices. An articulated interior urbanism creates clear areas of contribution from “interior” designers within the city. The chapter explores these cross-fertilizations through the curricular use of intensive design workshops (often of one-week duration) with a singular focus of the student’s attention; selected student works from two such workshops at Politecnico di Milano are included. Chapter 16 Any Colour You Like: Considerations on the Surface of Things – Color, Matter, and Architectural Space.................................................................................................................................................... 355 Luigi Trentin, Scuola del Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy The text starts from some observations on the role of color as an element of the language of cinema. In a particular way, two films are compared: Ran by Akira Kurosa and Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…and Spring by Kim-duk KIm. The two films show how color can take on a narrative character, but according to two different point of view. The modern idea of color is clearly expressed in the first: the white light is split through Newton’s prism and generates the primary colors: origin of the story and determination of the role of the characters. Pre-modern colors are expressed in the second film: they cannot be split because they belong to the physicality of things and cannot be mixed because their nature is chemically different. This difference exists even if we extend our observations to the world of materials. The prevalence of surface values brought into the project world has a perfect simulation situation of different materials that have a completely different nature inside. The text develops these considerations, showing how in a prevalence of the surface value of things. Chapter 17 Figuring Out the Interiors Through the Representation of Experiential and Interactive Environments....................................................................................................................................... 367 Giuseppe Amoruso, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Polina Mironenko, Politecnico di Milano, Italy In the learning society, knowledge is the new capital, and the role of the designer encompasses a visionary and imaginative force that must translate the cultural dimension of the project into formal expressions but also ensure a functional and environmental character that is nowadays enhanced by digital technologies. Design does not solely restrict itself to designing the experience of use, the “economy of experience,” but introduces an innovative vision of systems or innovative access to cultural heritage in all its forms. The chapter exploits methodologies to support the experiential design process where the tools of representation are critical to simulate, prototype, and build interiors but also arrange the right set to control and validate



the final perception of a space. A participatory application for the Cola Filotesio museum of Amatrice concludes the chapter: a prototype of a community center to replace by the means of a virtual environment the church of Saint Emidio, which was razed to the ground by the 2016 earthquake. Chapter 18 Improving Occupants Comfort Through Qualitative Indoor Environments: A Case Study................ 387 Dalia Hafiz, Al Ghurair University, UAE Daylight is one key aspect to enhance the sense of place and influence the personal interpretation and impression that last long after leaving the place. However, visual discomfort and glare can distract architects from achieving the most of daylighting. To better achieve visual comfort in daylit space time and space dynamics of the daylight condition, the representation and re-imagining of these dynamics need to be considered. This chapter explored a selected case study that was used for application: a daylit museum located in Washington DC Metropolitan was examined for visual discomfort problems. Since museums are typically carefully lit because of the sensitivity of exhibits, this case study evaluated the daylighting condition in a museum using a series of illuminance field measurements, simulations, and views experienced by occupants along a circulation path through the space. The case study also aimed at understanding how small design changes can affect visual comfort as a tactic for case studies. A collaborative design effort was used in different stages of the case study. Chapter 19 Dwelling in the Leftovers: Investigation on Design Experience and a Glimpse Into Cyprus Buffer Zone..................................................................................................................................................... 405 Fiamma Colette Invernizzi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy In a world studded with forgotten leftovers and abandoned buildings, there is a need to consider rethinking the traditional approach to design and architecture by imagining, instead of great new works, myriad precise interventions that bring all those spaces back to life appear forgotten and without value. Working on dismissed buildings is about multiple stories, forgotten beauties, and human absence. It’s about fighting over-production and over-consumption in a world in which it’s totally normal to buy and throw away things even if they are still new. Society needs to use what it’s already built because it’s enough. Society needs to use what it’s already built by thinking of it in a new, more flexible, sustainable, and ethical way. Cross-disciplinary approach, short-time interventions, and low-cost interventions are the clue solution to make those abandoned architectural leftovers live again. This chapter proposes ethically, flexibly, and sustainably considering the variety and complexity of these spaces as a starting point and value and an effective opportunity to study contemporary urban dynamics. Compilation of References................................................................................................................ 422 About the Contributors..................................................................................................................... 452 Index.................................................................................................................................................... 457

xvii

Foreword

These days, a new edition of a book is always good news that cannot pass unobserved insofar as it represents a positive sign of revival in the publishing world after many years of deep trouble. Although people have long thought that books now represent a medium that has been overtaken, and that young people view the printed word rather in the way we consider a Lettera 32 Olivetti typewriter, with a mixture of respect and nostalgia, we can now gladly report that this has not come to pass. But this is not the only issue. The very nature of the publication, here seeing the light of day for the second time, makes this event still more significant. Cultural, Theoretical, and Innovative Approaches to Contemporary Interior Design is, in fact, a compact volume whose aim is to pursue a detailed investigation of the current state of interior design. This is an objective that goes against the trend, but is ambitious and necessary. Against the trend, because the comprehensive work presented here seeks to affirm the fundamental importance of disciplines at a time when the value of competence is certainly underrated: disciplines are the mainstay of scientific communities, which strive to stimulate thinking and dialogue; to experiment and develop new knowledge; and to make this knowledge available to the community. Through disciplines, knowledge becomes embedded; it evolves and is passed on to future generations, enabling them to grow and progress. Investing in disciplines therefore means engaging with the future. Ambitious because the book seeks to investigate the sphere of interior design, a sensitive subject area with little theory behind it, and one which does not always receive full recognition. Among the disciplines embraced by the project, interior design is in fact a border area, somewhere between architecture and design, meaning that it may sometimes be considered peripheral to other central themes or areas of conflict – just an object of interest and possible intellectual curiosity. Despite this view, Cultural, Theoretical, and Innovative Approaches to Contemporary Interior Design contributes to affirming the independence of this field of study, one with its own history, its own identity, its own approaches and distinct tools in relation to its “neighbours”. Taking for granted the foundations of interior design and its origins, which are strongly rooted in the work of a few masters, among them Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, Umberto Riva and, more recently, Andrea Branzi and Michele De Lucchi, the ambition here is to look at both the contemporary situation and the future, to deal with the more fluctuating and less embedded elements of the discipline. The volume is divided into three sections. The first concentrates on the contemporary situations in which interior design is called upon to play a part. Among these are the emergencies that affect Western cities today. The second part explores the border areas of the discipline and those of cross-fertilization, together with the adjacent realms of public art, cultural heritage, new information and communication 

Foreword

technologies and urban interiors/exteriors. The last part presents the tools and experiments conducted in various contexts, both Italian and international. This exploration is extensive and detailed, collective and multifocal, restoring a rich, full picture of fertile ground from which a live, contemporary discipline emerges – one that is not limited to celebrating its own past splendours, but capable of evolving, of meeting current demands and offering potential responses; one that is able to contribute to our shared present and to the near future by developing new tools and new ways of acting. Finally, it is about necessary exploration. Today more than ever, post-industrial Western cities need projects that will reconvert large enclosed areas to make them functional again – industrial spaces but also spaces for services and infrastructures, and constricted, “improbable” spaces that are rejected by the greedy vendors of real estate; ones capable of hosting pop-up and occasional unplanned events, to combat the solitude, poverty, exclusion and insecurity experienced by many individuals living in cities who currently have no adequate solutions to their needs. Faced with these urgent demands, interior design can demonstrate its ability to act within given contexts, by means of timely, light-handed interventions, sometimes only temporary, but based on consistent, long-term design; to enter into dialogue with people, both individually and collectively; to listen to their needs and, together, turn them into possible experiments and future solutions. It can identify and outline new types of hybrid, flexible and welcoming spaces – perhaps often small, but also large, welcoming and multifunctional public spaces, where people can meet and share in events and performances. Interior design can play a part in many of these contexts through installations, a term once used only for exhibitions or temporary events, but which has now become a procedure able to adapt non-functional spaces for multiple and changing uses. In a word, interior design intervenes in the innermost fabric of Western cities, acting with sensitivity and without arrogance, using a light touch and with a concern for aesthetic quality, giving form and content to the surroundings in which we live and exercising a profound influence on our quality of life. Luisa Collina Politecnico di Milano, Italy

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Cultural, Theoretical, and Innovative Approaches to Contemporary Interior Design intends to recapture the overview, begun with Design Innovation for Contemporary Interiors and Civic Art, of the current state of the art of interior design and all that lies on the edges of its disciplinary field. An overview centred on a dialogue between scholars from across the globe and sources of different forms of knowledge, united by a common interest. In fact, in the post-industrial city, the role of interior design, featuring an autonomous cultural foundation as a discipline, has become strategic. It is becoming increasingly common to see transformation processes with regards to the territory, founded on the reconversion and repurposing of existing spaces, otherwise incapable of satisfying a demand for functions required by a rapidly transforming society. Spaces including not just large abandoned industrial facilities but also a multitude of places lying in the interstitial areas of the urban fabric, waiting to find a new role, a new identity. However, equally common is the need to constantly reimagine the nature of the city’s environments, whether interior or exterior, about the changes taking place in their uses, to the rituals, that is, at the heart of identifying a space’s character. In the introduction to Design Innovation for Contemporary Interiors and Civic Art, I underlined how these uses are increasingly influenced by the irruption into daily life of all that is temporary and ephemeral. Spaces used to be of stable and easily identifiable character now seem increasingly less destined to provide specialised functions. They are standing out because of the high degree of flexibility and hybridisation of the functions they perform. This is certainly an aspect that characterises our time. One need only think of how the rituals concerning domestic living have changed. They appear to shift along “space’s slow desecration” (Pasquinelli, 2009), that is, its secularisation, with its subsequent effect of disorienting, of losing its centre or, rather, of “polysemous multiplication” to which the concept of home, or what is left of it, in a way attempts to oppose, through strategies of various kinds that its inhabitants try to enact. This is especially what happens to those who live in a state of involuntary solitude, ever more common after the profound changes in the family structure that have taken place over the past few years. Numerous studies have demonstrated how the traditional family has given way to new ways to co-existing (Zanatta, 2003). Ways that range from the common family, to single-parent families, to extended families and one-person households. These last configurations have increased dramatically over the past thirty years in the more industrialised countries and especially in large metropolitan areas. In Milan, single-family nuclei represent around half of the city’s families. In Berlin, for every three households, one is made up of people who live on their own. It is a trend that concerns all major urban centres in Europe, led by Hannover, where they reach 33%. Germany has become the second country in Europe for the number of people living alone, beaten only by Sweden. New York, from this point of view, presents an emblematic case. Its population continues to be on the rise and it has been predicted 

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that over the next twenty years it could increase by another 600,000 units. Searching for a home, now already an exceedingly difficult task for many social classes, risks becoming an explosive problem. Many live in inadequate communal situations or even illegal and unsafe conditions. In addition to this is the fact that less than 20% of residences are inhabited by “traditional” families, that is nuclear families, made up of two parents with children. Once again, here most units are occupied by single residents, childless couples, single-parent families or family nuclei with very different living needs, far from those that the real estate market can satisfy. A clear divide has formed between the emerging residential demands and the current supply, both private and public. To study this, the Museum of the City of New York held the initiative “Making Room”, launched with the promotion, in 2011, of the tender for design as an attempt to give innovative answers to the current questions regarding dwelling, including reviewing the regulatory devices that often constitute an unsurmountable obstacle. In this scenario, living often becomes an intermittent activity, alternating hourly, weekly or monthly phases. A space designed for this kind of unstable living should use tools and forms of customisation and flexibility that make it different from a more traditional architectural type of dwelling and encourage it to welcome within the design itself a dose of unpredictability, open to the final user. We can now “camp out” in former factories and closed shops, thanks to a continuous space repurposing process concerning urban areas; we work in the room where we live, thanks to our digital connection, in a geography with blurred and ever-shifting borders, occupying urban spaces without interruptions. The fragility at the heart of family and community relations determines new design paradigms for the co-living space. If on the one hand we are witnessing an increase in the condition of living alone, in an atomistic structure, on the other more and more experiences, entirely contrary to such a condition, are instead attempting to satisfy new needs concerning social interaction and neighbourly contexts, and to guarantee the advantages that can derive from these. The spaces become smaller, conceived for single individuals, or are aggregated and shared in view of new forms of communal living, which seem to be moving in the direction of what Richard Sennet calls the “art” of collaboration. We have looked at the example of domestic living. Yet in the same way the changes affecting those rituals that identify the activities involved in working, studying, having fun, are having an impact on the character of the environments in which they are carried out. Thus, every consideration on interior design concerned with moving beyond the more technical aspects, those of the textbooks, needs the involvement of those specialist skills that work with the environment, whether it be interior or exterior: like retail design, office design, urban interior design or exhibition design. While, at the same time, it also needs those, like arts, that contribute to the formation of the framework within which the act of designing is called into play. Four years have passed since the publication of Design Innovation for Contemporary Interiors and Civic Art and the phenomena therein identified as the foundation for changes in the scenario in which interior design is called to operate, needing the discipline itself to be redefined, have now fully revealed themselves for what they are. These phenomena characterise above all one part of the planet, the part which following its industrialisation has now reached a new phase, referred to by some as post-industrial and by others, such as Marc Augé, as supermodernity. They are radically changing how we inhabit a space, how we see things, how we relate to others in the present, how we build our future, how we perceive time, how we understand space. The first phenomenon, as mentioned above, is represented by the dominance of a temporary use of spaces. We are living in an age characterised by what Gilles Finchelstein defines as Dictatorship of the Urgent (Finchelstein, 2011), where the cult of speed and of the instant prevails over all other aspects of xx

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our private lives, affecting the very way in which we use public and private spaces of the contemporary city. We live in the city, where the spectacle becomes the principle that structures our lives and the public space becomes a link in the value chain, through the promotion of daily events that encourage us to consume and inspire new desires. And in which everything needs to appear extraordinarily appealing because it is enveloped in atmospheres, common experiences, gaseous art forms (Michaud, 2003), deprived of their aura and seduced by trends. With its open-air spaces, the city appears capable of putting into action mechanisms of spatial self-consumption, such to allow each and every one of us to “build our own proximity”, to resort to a kind of personal layout through which new forms of identity are redefined, founded less on shared values and more on multiple and temporary ways to approach and consume one’s territory. The consequence of all of this is that the city seems to have become a “scattered totality”, a “no man’s land in which the inside blends with the outside, the here with the elsewhere, what is yours with what is mine, in which everything becomes undiscernible” (Nancy, 2011). Events preparation adds new pieces to the city, in some cases replacing it temporarily, making a new form of urban metabolism possible, represented by the constant formations of short-lived organisms, which quickly vanish, leaving behind them only their echo and the forms of which seem to belong more to the world of design than to that of architecture. The second phenomenon takes the form of the increasingly common questioning of the lines that separate the inside from the outside, the private from the public. Following its temporary death due, according to Richard Sennet (1974), to the irruption of intimism into daily life, the effect of which was to drive people to look to the private sphere for that which they are denied in public, we are now facing a rediscovery of the role played by urban space. This rediscovery is tied to the need of those who live in cities, that is 55% of the planet’s population, to find occasions, however momentary, even superficial, for sharing space. This has favoured a different kind of behaviour on behalf of design culture, focusing on giving public space a character that is less that of “civil magnificence”, always at the core of large urban interventions, such as those throughout the Nineteenth Century, and more that of a friendly environment, a welcoming one designed to be experienced better. This approach is mostly thanks to the contribution made by Jan Ghel (Gehl, 2010), the architect who turned Copenhagen into a pedestrian city, an approach aimed at transforming contemporary cities into meeting places, through bringing out the value of a number of aspects, such as sustainability, safety, street furniture quality and the liveliness of their environments. Examples are becoming more and more common of urban spaces that have been redeveloped and transformed into welcoming, hospitable places, to such a point that they appear similar to interiors, through a kind of intervention we could define as staging, since what takes centre stage is the space itself. In fact, we could call them urban interiors. A key example is that of Blue Carpet, a 2001 design by British architect Thomas Heatherwick for the area facing the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle. The flooring, composed of slabs made from discarded glass and resin which, in certain points, bend upwards to climb up the walls and in others form seating areas, gives the impression of being a carpet. In 2005 came a redevelopment design for a court in Boston, enclosed by the austere brick facades of buildings built in the 1900s as the location for a print house on the fringes of the Fort Point Channel neighbourhood. Today, Court Square is a southern reference point for the Fort Point Channel Activation Plan, a master plan to revamp open-air spaces. The project introduced a variably shaped path, benches and greenery, a fragmented design capable of creating a unique scenery from every window. The wooden flooring, the lit benches aligned to form meeting areas, the way in which the greenery and lights are used, give the space a temporary, undefined character. The Frederiksberg area, realised in a suburban xxi

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section of Copenhagen in 2005, designed by the studio SLA, is one of the best known and most eloquent examples of transforming an urban space into a place characterised by the presence of special effects, light and water, vapour, sounds, such that it becomes a territory of experiences. Day and night become conditions for an ever-changing scenery, telling a story that attracts 30,000 visitors every day, who are interested not just in shopping but also in enjoying new forms of sensory experiences. The “red square” in St. Gallen, Switzerland, designed by the artist Pipilotti Rist and by Carlos Martinez, has become something of an icon for this new kind of approach, aimed at turning open-air spaces into urban rooms. These years mark the beginning of a series of many examples of redeveloping interventions with regards to public spaces, revolving around a different idea of what a public space is, one that is more focused on intercepting new forms, however contradictory, of sociality (Rebaglio, 2017). This matter is analysed extensively in the chapter by Barbara Di Prete. In 2013, the Politecnico di Milano’s Department of Design was assigned by Ferrovie Nord Milano the task of redeveloping Via Lambruschini in view of Expo 2015, connecting Bovisa station, where trains from Malpensa stop, to Villapizzone station, located only a short distance away from the Expo. The design, referred to as Green Street and which, due to a lack of resources, did not come to fruition, is an example of urban development in which the need to assign a narrative and communicative content, relating to the temporary yet universal nature of the event, walks hand in hand with a search for a welcoming property of the place itself, for a new environmental quality of the space, based also on the use of strongly symbolic devices. In the tender to redevelop Bergamo’s Centro Piacentiniano in 2017, an overwhelming and joyous invasion of red chairs filled and made hospitable the public squares,, the design of which, conceived by Marcello Piacentini, an Italian architect who operated under the Fascist regime, was well known. The idea of the 2017 design was to allow everyone to “decorate” the city’s open-air space and become a key player in the infinite possible forms in which the area could be redesigned, following a model that had already been implemented in other contexts, such as for the Prags Boulevard in Copenhagen or the Tuileries in Paris. The reversible and temporary aspect of this solution is thus expressed in its more radical form. Its history, represented by the Piacentinian architecture, gives way to événementiel. The space becomes de-specialised and multifaceted, an open work of art in which everyone can become the artist. At the same time, we can also see the spreading across the world, albeit in so far contradicting terms, of instances of interior design attempting to go beyond the boundaries that separate the inside from the outside, through an introjection of exterior spaces. This can take the form of introducing landscape fragments in an attempt to re-establish a dialogue between mankind and nature. An example of this approach can be found in Junya Ishigami’s architecture submerged in vegetation or in the design by Rafael Moneo in 1992 for Atocha station in Madrid which transformed the station into a vast tropical garden able to hold 7,000 plants. Another interesting instance is the Carlo Ratti studio’s office spaces designed around a tree. In all of these examples, what prevails is the educational and almost decorative dimension of their landscape influences. Even more interesting are those cases in which the research behind the design experiments with solutions based on allegory, rather than with the transfer of pieces from the outside into interiors. This can be seen in the design by the Brooklyn studio Snarkitecture, focused on operating between art and design, which aimed to cover 10,000 square metres of the National Building Museum in Washington DC with a million plastic balls, creating the interactive installation entitled “The Beach”: loungers, white parasols, a summery atmosphere and an entirely monochrome palette, introducing a powerful disorienting effect into the environment.

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In other words, one could support the idea that, as stated by Andrea Branzi, the city “has become an experiential space, changing not in its external form but in its interior spaces; a shapeshifting organism that coincides with the marketplace, made up of poorly specialised spaces and the perimeter of which becomes less and less defined” (Branzi, 2007). The third phenomenon is represented by the non-temporary shift of millions of human beings from one geographic area to another, albeit some for very different reasons than others. Before the issues concerning refugees and migrants exploded onto the European and American scenes, keeping in mind the current scope and gravity of the matter, there were many signals that heralded the first forms of mass migration throughout the planet. The UN report on international migrations, dated 2017, estimated that around 258 million people have left their countries of origin and now live in different countries, showing a 49% increase compared to the figures of the year 2000. Even though the phenomena are themselves very different from one another, they indicate the same undeniable tendency: the sudden addition of a new social player on the contemporary scene, defined by some as the contemporary traveller, by others as the neo-nomad. The issue has been amply studied by philosophers (Maffesoli, 1997; Galimberti, 2000), sociologists (Dagnino, 1996, 2012, 2016), art critics (Bourriaud, 2014). According to Bourriaud in particular, the immigrant, the exiled, the tourist, the urban traveller all make up the dominant figures of contemporary culture. For this reason, he believes that, if we wish to operate within a reality dominated by migratory flows, from planetary nomadism to the globalisation of financial exchanges, not being merely subjected to it, it is necessary “to develop a nomadic thought, organized in terms of circuits and experiments, and not permanent, perennial or built installation. To the casualization of experience we oppose a resolutely precarious thought that could be inserted and inoculated in the same networks that suffocate us” (Bourriaud, 2014). The final phenomenon is the presence in the world of territories in which there has been a multiplication of spaces that US economist Saskia Sassen (Sassen, 2006) defines as “improbable”, due to the difficulty to foresee future options, as a consequence of the speed with which we currently change our “utility logics”. Among such spaces, we are able to place the vast category of spaces I have defined as leftovers. These are locations which, having given up the function for which they were created, are deprived of citizenship, as if in a state of suspension and waiting. This category no longer includes solely abandoned industrial areas, they can be found worldwide and their variety is such that it is comparable with that of the world of living things. The leftovers can represent an extraordinary resource, not just as places available to carry out new functions and host, even temporarily, cultural, residential, social activities, capable of responding to unplanned requirements of use, determined by occasional situations of need, without producing any further soil consumption. But also by carrying out a highly symbolic role, as keepers of human memories and stories otherwise destined to be inevitably lost or assigned simply to that sense of melancholy we feel when presented with signs and happenings of the past, no longer capable of exercising any form of influence in the present. The leftovers are ideal for recovery operations aimed at offering a variety of forms of hospitality to contemporary travellers, to the “border crossers”, to the neo-nomads, to the migrants, in a sort of passing of the torch, from the previous stories those places were the theatres of, to those new tales waiting to find their beginning. If the great challenge of these years, probably of this century, first and foremost from a political standpoint but also with regards to design, generally and specifically that of interiors, is to give credible

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and practical answers to the issue of dwelling created by the neo-nomadic phenomenon, it seems obvious that those solutions proposed by the design culture of the Twentieth Century are no longer suitable. We need to think of the city’s interiors, and the urban interiors, as a laboratory in which to experiment with new ways of living in spaces liberated from their own boundaries, constantly adopted and in which public and private are intermingled and deconstructed. The leftovers can be assigned new potential uses, resorting to decorative devices that are temporary and reversible, provided they be in line with the nature and soul of the place, in order to encourage its reinsertion into the living social fabric and the recognition of the value lying in its symbolic content. Through a transdisciplinary approach, this means to welcome into the project, as if a “gift”, the elements of decay, the “wounds”, the wrinkles and the creases that already exist in what was there already and translate them into a syntax aimed at giving a shape and meaning to the interior and exterior environment through the insertion of “additional components”. The leftovers design thus takes on the more general value of experimenting within a borderline discipline, balanced between design, interior design, art, restoration, exhibition design, scenography, cinema, photography, with the aim to formulate a leftovers aesthetic. Even better, one could refer to a design of the unfinished (Crespi, 2017, 2018, 2019) as a way in which to attribute to these abandoned environments, through the use of a specific code of aesthetics, a character that can represent the conditions of impermanence, precariousness and trans-culturalism, all aspects that define the newly begun century. There are recent events that are indicative of a new style of thought, becoming increasingly common in a variety of places worldwide. Antivilla is a project designed by the Berlin-based studio Brandlhuber+ Emde, Burlon, in 2104, aimed at redeveloping a former lingerie establishment from the days of the Democratic German Republic, south-west of Berlin. The choice to preserve the outer layer, apart from the widening of the windows by means of “hammering them out”, was met with the reorganisation of the interior spaces using PVC curtains to circumscribe a number of functions developed within a single open space. The friche referred to as La Belle de Mai, in Marseille, is a former tobacco factory that has been recovered with particular thanks to the contribution made by designer and French scenographer Patrick Bouchain. Due to the way in which its transformation into a multipurpose space was carried out, fitted for artist collectives, independent artists, service organisation and learning, this could fall under the set-up category of approaches. Paulo Moreira is a young Portuguese architect and creator of a café in Porto, A Sandeira, 2013, and of a pub in Lisbon, Musa, 2017, both demonstrating an intelligent balance between the newly introduced decor and those preserved. In the first case, this was achieved by making use of elements and materials recovered from other buildings in the city and extending the outer granite-slab flooring into the interior, in order to allow for spatial continuity. In the second case, created from a former warehouse of uncertain fate due to a probable real estate intervention that could wipe it away for good, the effect was obtained by adopting a measured use of interventions, a design with an accurate decor based on a sensible use of resources, including the entirely exposed plant engineering. These are but a few examples among many. And it is only the beginning, these are events that took place almost parallel to one another in different geographical contexts, before there was any conscious adherence to a line of thought that might legitimise them, that is, to a new paradigm. These were instead born from an undeniable need to deal with some of the core aspects of the main issues concerning today’s world.

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This is an area that still offers many unexplored areas and where, over recent years within the interior design degree programme at the Politecnico di Milano, I have conducted an intense learning experiment, from which a need was formed to carry out parallel design research activities in different contexts. In this framework we find the redevelopment design, 2018, for a former warehouse in Varese (Lombardy) dating back to the end of the Nineteenth Century and belonging to Ferrovie dello Stato, a task assigned by the local Municipality, interested in taking part in a funding tender for interventions concerning the reuse of spaces in view of social and cultural functions. The interior seems a “directional space” measuring roughly 70 metres by 8, with wooden double-king post trusses, in addition to a colonnaded section measuring 23 metres by 9, occupied by an office block created recently using a prefabricated system. The design will see the removal of this block as to allow the city to once again make the most of the colonnade, and the attributing of a “covered alley” vibe to the interior, where the environments for new purposes follow one another without interrupting its sensation of continuity, thus creating a new landscape. The series of spaces shifts from the public, with its colonnade intended as a covered square, to the semi-public, where the layout includes a café and spaces for associations and for co-working environments and, in the final section, spaces for artistic and design-related activities. The inserted volumes, reserved for certain special activities, are conceived as small reversible pavilions, to be created with techniques that are usually used when setting up trade fairs. The overall image obtained is one of unstable harmony, in a difficult equilibrium between the place’s unfinished aspect, with its wrinkles, its markings left by the passing of time, and its finished look, appearing measured and balanced. The second example relates to a tender in 2019 to redevelop the former slaughterhouse in Montichiari, located in the province of Brescia. The request stated by the tender was to assign a new role of “renewed urban centrality that acts as a public square, meaning a place for social interactions”, a request which Figure 1.

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Figure 2.

Figure 3.

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had the potential for its design to experiment with an approach founded on the leftovers aesthetic. The five pre-existing buildings that made up the former slaughterhouse, some of which date back to the early Twentieth Century, were preserved, to be used, as requested, for new exhibitive, cultural and social purposes, by means of a design approach that saw the insertion of additional decor elements within environments that were able to maintain their original character. The open space was treated as a sequence of episodes that together could offer a story, the theme of which is represented by the look of the new flooring, achieved by reusing reclaimed railway sleepers. The project earns a mention “because of the strongly conservative approach, marked by a narrative and evocative characterisation of the open spaces which adds to the creation within the neighbourhood of an environment that is flexible and recreational yet also recognisable and suggestive”. We are currently only at the beginning of a process that will bring about an entirely new vocabulary of words with which to face the challenges of a new world. This, of course, is no easy matter. The design of the unfinished shocks instead of attracting. It is its duty to propose a new code of aesthetics. It is a style of thought, a new design philosophy aimed at creating shelters for the nomads of the third millennium. It abandons a polished look to give way to the uncompleted, the unheard of, the unthought-of. In this book, various contributions discuss the same theme from different angles, based on professional skills and experiences from a variety of backgrounds, both geographic and disciplinary. The book is divided into three sections. The first section (from Chapter 1 to Chapter 5) focuses on the cultural and social changes of the discipline scenarios and their effects on the discipline statute. The second section (from Chapter 6 to Chapter 13) gathers the reflections on border territories and on those still little explored to which the researches are pointing. The last section (from Chapter 14 to Chapter 19) is dedicated to illustrate the instruments necessary to transmit the project idea and describes some study cases related to specific research areas. In particular, Chapter 1 aims to provide a theoretical reflection about the re-development of existing spaces, especially in industrialised countries. It was deemed necessary to present an approach that recognises interior design as an autonomous discipline, while also establishing a new hierarchy of activities to be carried out during the design process. The very culture in which interior design operates has to be redefined; this new approach is demonstrated by examining the most relevant examples of authoritative interior design strategies. Chapter 2 analyzes the question of urban inhabitation, which is becoming one of the key issues of the twenty-first century since for the first time in history the number of people living in cities exceeds that living in rural areas. This chapter addresses the conjunction of urban and interior concerning the potential of interior design as a practice that is relational and deals with the relationships between people and environments. Chapter 3 proposes the basis for a possible new relationship between restoration and design, as much as between psychology and design. Interestingly, psychological studies suggest that psychology merges with ecology, promoting beauty, identity and memory as essential dimensions for collective and individual well-being. Chapter 4 argues that to think about colour is to think about space as a relative phenomenon: by better understanding the spatiality of colour, we have the opportunity to develop perceived spatial richness in a simple physical environment. In this age of resource depletion and environmental stress, there is an urgent need to design interiors that reduce the environmental impact. Chapter 5 proposes a research about the influence of colonial tutelage on the models of spatial organization in the old European colonial empires of African cities: since Independences, the progressive xxvii

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Figure 4.

questioning of this heritage has taken several forms. The chapter examines the spatial translations of this post-colonial (or de-colonial) desire to rethink public spaces as places for the expression of contradictory narratives. Chapter 6 deals with the issue of urban spaces i.e., the transformation of urban open spaces for a drastically different use than that of the industrial city. The challenge is to experience the city as a sequence

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Figure 5.

of “interiors” that people can intensely inhabit and not just use, in which people can leave traces, share memories and imprint daily gestures. It is the relational dimension that acquires also an aesthetic code. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with retail design as an experimental segment of interior design where there is a collaboration of “art, design, and science to create memorable brand experiences”. The former chapter aims to investigate contemporary retail spaces as complex places combining many aspects that go beyond the spatial and functional dimension to include the physical, social, cultural and economic one. The latter seeks to explore and discuss the way commercial companies and non-commercial companies have transformed the design and delivering of offered products and services. Chapter 9 proposes a reflection about a kind of art that creates new spaces and places, expanding the discussion about the interdisciplinary approach of artists to creation. Considering the works of some artists that have made the intervention on spaces one of their prerogatives, the research would like to focus on the new connections that arise between the artist and the public through these creations, most of time asking to the spectator itself to be an active part in the work of art. Chapter 10 presents a conceptual and pragmatic mind-set, framing a critical positioning concerning activities such as curating artistic projects in public space, programming cultural events and designing habitats. Here the authors switch from analysis to a phenomenological approach, in order to give evidence to the very moment wherein the work of art’s resoundingness brings awareness to urban space as a theatre of apparitions. xxix

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Figure 6.

Chapter 11 focuses on the contemporary project, interpreted using the paradigm of interactivity as a privileged reading key. Indeed, the changes (both social and technological) brought by the IT Revolution and the Information society force design to face new challenges, calling it upon to rethink the traditional categories of space and time. The result is a sensory amplification defining immersive environments and setting new boundaries for the discipline, that finds in exhibits its privileged expression. In Chapter 12 this topic is further investigated: in exhibition design, and in the museum field in particular, the designer challenge consists of facing the complexity of reality by interweaving contents that they must reshape, giving them a narrative pace. The result of this recasting is a “narrative museum”. The aim of Chapter 13 is to discuss the role of interior design in creating design solutions that can increase the flexibility of interiors spaces of mass housing projects according to the changing needs of different families with different cultural backgrounds. This issue is conducted taking as starting point the “User-Centered Model Research Towards a Flexible Interior Spatial Design for Mass Housing Units: Urban Renewal Housing”. Chapter 14 investigates the relationship between drawing and building construction: the representation of the architectural project produces a drawing, but the project and the building may become the same or perhaps different things. The designer narrates (draws) a project to make it become reality, but we know that each interior space is only truly designed by living in it. If in the design VR (virtual reality) tends to dominate the RR (real reality), the RR will end up revealing VR to be a fake reality (FR). xxx

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Chapter 15 glances at the shifting landscape of disciplines and professions, with particular focus towards Environment and Experience Design. In spite of trends and increasing examples of the erosion and overlapping of disciplinary and professional boundaries, still remains the need for some sort of disciplinary definition. This is especially relevant in a world of inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary work and comprehensive creative practices. Chapters 16 and 17 have the task of addressing methods of transmitting and communicating the design idea through combined tools of the general design discipline. Since these tools are the medium through which interior designers can assign a specific meaning to their own work, they play a major role not only in terms of technical but also of cultural design value. In particular, Chapter 16 analyzes the role of color as an element of the cinema language, extending the observations to the world of materials, while in Chapter 17 representation tools are considered critical to simulate, prototype and build interiors but also to arrange the right set, control and validate the final perception of a space. Daylight is a key aspect to enhance the sense of place and influence personal interpretations and impressions that last long after leaving the place. To this respect, Chapter 18 explores a selected case study, i.e. a daylit museum located in Washington DC Metropolitan, in order to examine visual discomfort problems. The case study also aims at understanding how small design changes can affect visual comfort. Here, the special complexity of the topic makes it impossible to address just its cultural meaning, so the technical aspects are also investigated. Finally, Chapter 19 focuses on abandoned buildings (“forgotten leftovers”) and suggests a strategy to imagine, instead of great new works, a myriad of precise interventions that bring all those spaces back to life. A cross-disciplinary approach, short-time and low-cost interventions are considered the clue solution to make those abandoned architectural leftovers live again. Luciano Crespi Politecnico di Milano, Italy

REFERENCES Bourriaud, N. (2014). Il radicante. Milano: Postmedia Books. Branzi, A. (2007). Capire il design. Firenze: Giunti. Crespi, L. (2017). The role of interior design in the transformation of abandoned industrial areas. In Pensar y actuar sobre el patrimonio industrial en el territorio. Gijòn: Incuna. Crespi, L. (2017). Estetica dell’avanzo. In Memoria, bellezza e transidisciplinarità. Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna. Maggioli. Crespi, L. (2017). Designing Remains. In G. Amoruso (Ed.), Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. Crespi, L. (2018). Leftovers. In G. Brooker, H. Harriss, & K. Walker (Eds.), Interior Futures. Crucible, CA: Yountville. Crespi, L. (2018). Manifesto del design del non-finito. Milano: Postmedia Books.

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Crespi, L. (2018). Da spazio nasce spazio. L’interior design nella trasformazione contemporanea. Milano: Postmedia Books. Crespi, L. (2019). Design del non-finito. In A. Anzani (Ed.), Mente e luoghi. Corpo e cognizione nel design della città contemporanea. Berlin: Springer. Crespi, L., & Invernizzi, F. C. (2017). Unfinished design as a new trans-disciplinary prospective. In M. Vaudetti, V. Minucciani, S. Canepa, & N. Saglar Onay (Eds.), Suspended Living in Temporay Space. Siracusa: Lettera Ventidue. Dagnino, A. (1997). I nuovi nomadi. Pionieri della mutazione, culture evolutive, nuove professioni. Roma: Castelvecchi. Dagnino, A. (2012). Neonomadism and the transcultural turn in the literature of mobility. In Digital Crossroads Conference. University of Utrecht. Dagnino, A. (2016). Nomadi transculturali, caravanserragli urbani e spazi pubblici di quartiere. In A. Barbara, J. Ceresoli, & S. Chiodo (Eds.), Interni inclusivi. Dialoghi trasversali. Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna: Politecnica. Finchelstein, G. (2011). La dictature de l’urgence. Paris: Fayard. Galimberti, U. (2000). Orme del sacro. Milano: Feltrinelli. Ghel, J. (2010). Cities for People. Washington, DC: Island Pr. Maffesoli, M. (1997). Du nomadisme. Vagabondage initiatique. Paris: Le Livre de Poche. Micaud, Y. (2003). L’art à l’état gazeusx. Essai sur le triomphe de l’esthétique. Paris: Stock. Nancy, J.-L. (2011). La ville au loin. Paris: Èdition de la Phocide. Pasquinelli, C. (2009). La vertigine dell’ordine, Il rapporto tra Sé e la casa. Milano: Baldini Castoldi Dalai. Rebaglio, A. (2017). Interior(C)ity. Santarcangelo di Romagna: Politecnica. Sassen, S. (2006). Perché le città sono importanti. In Città. Architettura e società. Venezia: Marsilio/ Biennale di Venezia. Sennet, R. (1974). The Fall of Public Man. New York: Knopf. Sennet, R. (2012). Together. The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation. London: Penguin Books. Zanatta, A. L. (2003). Le nuove famiglie. Bologna: Il Mulino.

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Section 1

Paradigms, Scenarios, Télos

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Designing Interiors: A Guide for Contemporary Interior Landscape Design Luciano Crespi Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT The following is a theoretical reflection about the re-development of existing spaces. First, various changes in the way we live worldwide are considered, especially in industrialised countries. Then a process that spans from research to design is proposed to identify those actions required to reach an innovative response to the problem at hand. The second part of chapter illustrates a series of possible design strategies collected from the interior design work of past masters and contemporary designers. The goal is to offer a possible reading of certain important examples, providing an inventory, by definition an incomplete one, of design approaches, ways of thinking, and practices. Sometimes there is a common thread, sometimes not.

INTRODUCTION There are many different ways that a space can be designed to meet the living needs of contemporary life. Here, “living” is used in the most general and fullest sense i.e., the activity based on the relationship between humans and their built environment, be it residence, work, study, or culture, etc. The following is a theoretical reflection about the re-development of existing spaces. First, various changes in the way we live worldwide are considered, especially in industrialised countries. Then a process that spans from research to design is proposed, to identify those actions required to reach an innovative response to the problem at hand (without being naive). The second part of chapter illustrates a series of possible design strategies collected from the interior design work of past masters and contemporary designers. The goal is to offer a possible reading of certain important examples, providing an inventory, by definition an incomplete one, of design approaches, ways of thinking, and practices. Sometimes there is a common thread, sometimes not. A few belong to DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch001

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the more distant past of architectural and design history, yet nonetheless remain masterful and of great use to the present day. The intent is to focus on examples that share certain ideas and that can therefore contribute innovative solutions to the practice of interior design in the contemporary world, providing some coordinates by which to navigate.

BACKGROUND Studies that deal with interior design generally treat the topic in one of the following ways: from a historical perspective (Sparke, 2008; Ottolini, 2015, Irace, 2015), by documenting interior projects and examples (Brooker, Stone, 2010) and through the history of certain types of environments (Forino). There are also manuals (Canepa, Vaudetti, 2010; Vaudetti, Canepa, Musso, 2014) that are intended to provide interior designers or exhibition designers with guidance regarding the sizing of spaces, use of materials and technology, and the relevant codes and regulations. A recent book (Brooker, Harris, Walker, 2019) explore the prospects and the future of interiors from a different angle: responding to a framework of questions and scenarios, the consequences of pervasive, emergent, and often disruptive behaviours, technologies, materials, and actors are followed through to imaginative conclusions, forcing a departure from the comfort of any one disciplinary position. The ideas covered in this chapter serve an entirely different purpose. They outline the underlying approaches to the interior design process, including research, needs analysis, innovative responses, and verification through their application to actual sites. The possible outcome of this exercise is the adoption of an installation-like approach that does not sacrifice in-depth research, meaning and identity, but rather embraces them as a priority.

FROM THEME TO DESIGN CONCEPT In principle, there is always a theme that exists even before the site. A theme refers to one of the infinite interior design issues so frequently found when working on residential, work-related, cultural, free-time, and micro-urban spaces, as well as on more rarefied spaces. Each theme presents its own uniqueness and complexity. In each case, the theme is not limited to a single function or functions. It always has a broader quality that has to be cultivated and interpreted. Designing a home, for example, does not just mean organising the rooms for each activity (eating, sleeping, meeting, socialising, bathing, etc.). It also means providing a response to a remote and deeply rooted need (and one that changes over time) related to the fundamental rituals and practices of human life. So, when addressing a theme, the first step has to be trying to understand its deeper meaning and then translate it into an initial idea that has a programmatic value. It is important to understand the underlying nature of an issue and attempt a preliminary speculation prior to forming a physical response. Translating a theme into a programmatic idea that can lead to a telos has the purpose to make the preliminary work become crucial, and requires research; research has to be carried out like scientists or detectives do, gathering evidence, examples, stories that either validate the initial speculation/programmatic idea or reveal its inadequacy and therefore lead to other ideas. Case study research, that is already an integral part of the design process, is fundamental. As Bruno Munari emphasised in his book, Da cosa nasce cosa (One Thing leads to Another) (Munari, 1981), others have certainly worked on the same 2

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theme and sought a suitable solution. For this reason, knowing art and history is indispensable. The solution to a problem often lies in something that has already been done by others; a solution that often remains valid, usually more for what it represents - the concept – than for how it is represented - the form. In this sense, case studies, both historical and contemporary, have to be handled in a way that makes their underlying logic legible. Namely, it is not enough to study the functions (which ones and how many), or the formal aspects (shape, colour, materials, and sizes). While this information is crucial for understanding the case study, it is not enough. Something deeper is needed i.e., the understanding of the rule or rules on which the system being studied was designed. This can be gleaned from different sources including the writings of the designers themselves, interpretations of authoritative critics, as well as the more difficult but also more thrilling attempt to decipher the case study first hand. Of course, as for the latter it is always possible to blunder about and attempt an interpretation that has no basis in reality. Even so, it is an incredibly useful design exercise. This is why the work of “systems understanding” can be considered an integral part of the design process. And it has to be done at different scales, a more limited one by examining a system of spaces that make up a building in terms of the hierarchies, relationships, and meaning, as well as a broader one, such as exploring a complex system of both interior and exterior spaces. Here are a few examples. Stretto House, by Steven Holl in Dallas, 1991, comes from the US architect’s research into the potential reciprocal influences between music and architecture to create a “phenomenal” architecture based on the presence of “rock and feather”. In music, the contrast between heavy and light relies on different musical instruments: percussion, base and tuba for heavy; flute, violin and clarinet for light. The idea for the Stretto House comes from the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta by Béla Bartók, a composition in four movements that alternates between heavy and light. The house is made of four zones “with the composition in four movements alternating between the heavy “spatial dams” of concrete and the light and expansive structures of the roof supported by tubular steel. The house flows like the nearby stream and connects laterally with the landscape. The centre of the composition is a “flooded room” where the watery landscape merges with the building. It is a tectonic principle that combines the concepts of heavy and light to create a new environment where the landscape joins the architecture (Holl, 2004, p.105). In this case, we are talking about a system borrowed from the world of music that becomes the generator of space. The forms merely surrender to the system and the spatial idea on which they incardinate. House NA or “the tree”, designed in Tokyo by Sou Fujimoto in 2011, has a tiny lot - measuring just 6 metres by 9 metres - which became the key design element. The limited dimensions led the designer to gain a sense of vertical space by visualising the site as a kind of imaginary wall-free tower, a kind of tree, from which spreading some branches-rooms, and connecting them with stairs and open views. The idea of a room was replaced with a system of 21 platforms placed at different heights and connected by stairs, like branches in a tree. The design plays with the contrast between different individual “branches” of the tree, i.e. its rotating levels, and the utter uniqueness of a space where each room participates in the experience of the others, creating original and striking kaleidoscopic imageries. The design idea, a tree-like structure, is translated into an innovative spatial system, one that also in some way is connected to traditional Japanese culture (Figure 1). There are many possible examples to show how research can be used to collect information - not in a superficial or hasty way to represent flashier or obvious aspects - but rather to reveal a work’s underlying concepts, almost a reading of its very structure (Motsch, 1987). Research also has to draw from other design-related sources, often those focused on visual communication, including: cinema, visual arts, communications, theatre, and television. As Steven Holl 3

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Figure 1. Sou Fujimoto, House NA, Tokyo, Japan, diagram © Sou Fujimoto

writes, “Architecture is no longer required to start from architecture: it can be inspired by music, poetry, sculpture, or science: there are hundreds, thousands of possible beginnings” (Holl, 2004, p.67). And of course, this is true for interior design as well. Often the inspiration that comes from these sources can trigger a research breakthrough, switch on a light, or cause a mental leap. These days, the world of visual art offers to design - especially interior design - an incredibly rich repertoire of ideas and examples relating precisely to the relationship between humans and space. The goals of art may differ from interior design; art does not really focus on the functional needs of spaces themselves, the latter being ultimately the heart of the interior design research. However, having different goals is actually precisely, what makes research in art so valuable. It provides design with non-functional, metaphorical, allegorical, and narrative information that proves indispensable for the conceptual programmatic phase. Ideas with an allegorical meaning provide a metaphor that can accompany the design through its entire journey, preventing it from backsliding into purely functional territory.

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DIAGRAMS AND METAPHORS One should not think that there is one moment for research and another for design. The initial research, as preliminary as it may be, represents a kind of design horizon and, as such, it already has an innate design value. Research and design are in a relationship where research feeds design, and as the design develops it generates new questions requiring additional research. So, it is an iterative cycle where each subsequent design development requires increasingly focused and sophisticated research, While developing a layout constitutes an important design milestone, at the same time it also needs to be seen as temporary and open. What happens during this phase is very important. It has to do with transforming the research on a theme into a kind of complex “totality”, akin to a mathematical expression, designed to contain the variables (hopefully) that will provide satisfying and innovative responses to the questions posed by the theme. This is achieved by assigning each design variable a different value and role, constructing hierarchies, imagining relationships, identifying their respective “weight” and giving the spaces a certain character: big/little, high/low, introverted/extroverted, bright/dark, colourful/opaque, serious/joyful, inclusive/non-inclusive, and so on. Understood in this way, the layout requires specific graphic methods. It is not a simple two-dimensional exercise, it also includes sketches, three-dimensional models, and even ideograms. Its aim is to anticipate the nature of the system being designed; it is not just a matter of functions, relationships, hierarchies, and sizes, but also of initial concepts of the spatial configuration, even before they are related to a specific physical site (Figure 2, 3) Steven Holl’s use of this conceptual tool – which in his opinion should not even be called a diagram - is a foreshadowing of the actual forthcoming space, according to a “phenomenological” approach. Experience is glimpsed as an element that can seduce, to be understood not as “a place of events, things and activities, but as a more intangible condition that emerges from the continual opening up of overlapping spaces, materials, and details” (Holl, 2012). Therefore, his “diagrams”, drawings and sketches already contain everything that can be said and are themselves the metaphor that inspires the design, or the nature of the skin that contains the space, or the richness of the relationships that the project wants to activate. “The thinking during the initial design process always springs from shapes, space, and light,” asserts Steven Holl in an interview. An example of this can be found in his preparatory design work for the Bellevue Art Museum in Washington State, USA. In that project, as soon as the idea emerged of creating an intersection between art, science, and technology, this triggered an initial spatial concept based on Fleming’s “right-hand rule, the three-pointed diagram that describes the direction induced current takes when a conductor moves in a magnetic field. This led to the first design ideas inspired by this notion of three-ness and “non-dialectic ways of seeing and thinking” (Holl, 2004, p.114). This was then translated into some “definitive conceptual designs” that were already evocative of the initial volumes within the specific spatial system. Subsequently, this developed into a project where the circulation was articulated in “actual and virtual multiplicities”, with the space organised on three levels, three exhibition galleries, three different light conditions over time, and three circulation paths (Figure 4, 5) Another example are his drawings of the Knut Hamsun Center in Hamaroy, Norway. These depict the “architecture as a body”, a theatre of invisible forces fighting each other, whose presence is glimpsed in a section where the inner workings of the museum are made visible (Figure 6, 7, 8, 9) This can be considered a crucial phase of the design process for different reasons: its capacity to introduce innovative elements, to dismantle the conventional character of some solutions, even to question the reference models used during the development. At this stage, working without referring directly

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to the actual physical location is useful precisely because the solutions have to be as “free” as possible from the requirements imposed by the site.

Figure 2. Sou Fujimoto, Primitive Future House © Sou Foujimoto

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Figure 3. Sou Fujimoto, Louisiana Cloud Museum © SFA Photo

SPACE RECOGNITION Once a “conceptual diagram” has been formulated, it has to be applied to the actual site. Dealing with interior design, this is assumed to be a pre-existing interior or urban space. To intervene in an existing space, first it has to be recognized. This is not a technical operation. Certainly, the first step is reading through the relevant documents: plans, sections, interior and exterior facades, and photographs. But the real act of recognition of a space comes from being present on site, staying inside the spaces that are to be transformed. Here, being present means something more intense than stopping there or being present by chance. Being present implies the desire to understand, to listen to the place, to recognize its “soul”. Photography is an indispensable tool for this. It provides a special “eye” that captures sensations and intuitions that would otherwise risk to be lost in time. A video-camera

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Figure 4. Steven Holl, Bellevue Art Museum, Washington, USA, tripleness © Steven Holl

is also useful because it provides a dynamic reading of the space and can record how the space is actually being used (if it is indeed still in use). Being able to recognize a space means being sensitive to the qualities of the existing architecture that sometimes are hidden, especially in buildings without an official historic value, like an abandoned factory, recent constructions, or a manufact created for a technical purpose such as a former tram depot, an electrical station, etc. In situations like these interior designers are frequently called upon to act since specific restoration expertise are not required and there are no legal restrictions on the work; so, theoretically anything is possible as long as it creates a “new image” of the spaces. However, this is never actually the case. The interior designer has to be able to identify which elements in a building are valuable and which ones are not, as well as to know how to glean valuable elements to inspire the new design. Often the solution is already right under our noses, but we just don’t realise it. This is often the

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Figure 5. Steven Holl, Bellevue Art Museum, Washington, USA, tripleness © Steven Holl

case, as Bruno Munari explained in his book Da cosa nasce cosa (One Thing leads to another). In this case, “One space leads to another”, certain environments that have outgrown their original functions or need a new organisation or way of representing the same function constitute a kind of interrupted architecture. They are spaces waiting for a new life that already contain some of the prerequisites for their new design; the same can be said of enclosed exterior spaces i.e., urban spaces.

FROM LAYOUT TO MASTERPLAN The sequence of actions described so far promises to bring about a significant change in the design process.

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Figure 6. Steven Holl, Knut Hamsun Museum, Hamarøy, Norway

© Steven Holl

The concept of genius loci looks at the design process in a completely different way. The seminal book on this topic for generations of architects, Genius loci, by Christian Norberg-Schulz (NorbergSchulz, 1979), professor of architecture at the Oslo School of Architecture (also the city of his birth), analyses the relationships between humans and the environment. It deals with the concept of “existential space” through the use of complementary terms, “space” and “character”. The book defines the notion of place as something that is related not so much to its physical qualities as to a series of complex, interrelated phenomenological factors, “So then, what do we mean when we talk about ‘place’? Obviously, something more than an abstract location. We mean a totality of concrete things including their material substance, form, texture, and colour. The totality of these things defines the ‘environmental character’, and this is the essence of a place. In general, a place is defined by its character or ‘atmosphere.’ A place is a qualitative ‘totality’ that cannot be reduced to its characteristics, such as its spatial relationships, without loosing sight of its concrete nature” (Norberg-Schulz, 1979). Norberg-Schulz’s work relies on

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Figure 7. Steven Holl, Knut Hamsun Museum, Hamarøy, Norway, section © Steven Holl

a series of powerful historical examples. His work addresses the issue in such a depth that it has left an indelible mark on the design world for the last forty years. He makes an important distinction between “space” as an organisation of elements that make up a place and “character” as the general atmosphere that “represents the most comprehensive property of any place” which remains unquestionable valid to this day. A look back at the previously described case studies demonstrates how different these two design processes are. One starts with a theme and its expression in innovative forms and arrives to the organisation of complex systems. Only then are these systems applied to a site, be it abandoned, urban, or in need of adaptive re-use. The layout of the existing space becomes a verification, a demonstration, a kind of mathematical theorem, which indicates the capacity of the model to generate multiple solutions. This process disregards genius loci for several reasons. First, because the sites are not “investigated” until the design process is not down the road; and second, because while architecture may have assigned certain

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Figure 8. Steven Holl, Nanjing Sifang Art Museum, Jiangsu, China © Steven Holl

spaces a permanent character, in our contemporary world things have become more complicated and require a more sophisticated response. The character of a place has to be seen as a non-permanent quality and something that is subject to frequent change based on the different ways the spaces themselves are used today. The notion of specialised space is giving way to more complex, multiple, changeable forms of space. Jaques Herzog asserts that he never believed in genius loci, and that these days information Figure 9. Steven Holl, Reid Building Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom, circuit © Steven Holl

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sharing is happening so fast that we cannot help but be influenced by everything that is happening in the world. It is another way of seeing the problem, and one that risks legitimising the idea that a local identity no longer exists. Indeed, it does exist; it just presents itself in a different way from the past (Figure 10,11,12). In his book L’anima dei luoghi (The Soul of Places), one of the most renowned contemporary philosophers, James Hillman (d. 2011), examines how in comparison with the old tradition, places are progressively losing their “soul”. In its place there is a kind of uniform “empty” space, devoid of identity. We are invited to rediscover the hidden qualities that cities still possess by reassessing the importance of aesthetics. “We don’t know how to recognise the soul of a place. This is because of the culture in which we live. We have stopped responding to aesthetics. Un-aesthetics is anesthetising us. Sounds are so loud that our ears have become numb. It is a phenomenon called ‘psychological noise’...which means

Figure 10. Gualtiero Oberti, Attilio Stocchi, Vortice, Vaprio d’Adda, Italy © Studio Stocchi

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Figure 11. Attilio Stocchi, Cuorebosco, Installation, Milano, Italy © Studio Stocchi

Figure 12. Attilio Stocchi, Viridis, Place, Almé, Italy © Studio Stocchi

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being without sensitivity, including aesthetic awareness. It means being aesthetically incompetent: in a stupor, stupid” (Hillman, 2004, p.103-104). His work represents an important contribution at a time when interior design needs to incorporate profound changes in its method and therefore in what it produces. However, though interior designers should adopt a kind of reversible installation-like approach, still it is not less necessary that these installations should have a character, a tone and an identity. Essentially, they too should have a soul. On this point, a fundamental support can derive from anthropology and the social studies. So far we have discussed the research and preliminary ideas necessary to create a conceptual and diagrammatic layout, one that is essentially non-spatial even though it contains certain qualitative features. All this is developed without taking into account the specific character of a site (the actual size and orientation of spaces) precisely because this is the most effective way to represent an idea at its initial stages. So, this preliminary work is conducted before what could be called a masterplan phase i.e., the application of the conceptual layout to the actual physical system, be it for an interior or a urban space. Clearly, this is not about a mechanical “transference”. The act of verifying the system - applying it to an existing context to test and demonstrate its effectiveness - constitutes a delicate but important step in the design process a Northwest Passage, the opening of a new route that has the power to overturn existing stereotypes. In this transition from layout to masterplan, something inevitably gets lost along the way, or alternatively something new gets added. The moment you are working on a real situation, it is important to take into account the general, environmental, and cultural conditions, basically everything that makes up the “context”. The choice of activities introduced in the conceptual layout phase now has to be verified through a careful survey of the site. It is important to bear in mind that statistical data, questionnaires, sociological and ethnographic studies do not always reflect all facets of reality; sometimes good designs can trigger virtuous and unexpected dynamics that belie the data. In addition, the layout has to be carefully transferred to the physical location, without erasing the underlying dynamics of the site. This process should yield innovative yet feasible (certainly not utopian) systems that can operate at a smaller scale than a neighbourhood. Architecture has tried to provide more or less convincing responses at the neighbourhood scale and often met with resounding failure. Instead, working at a more limited scale of individual space containers or the micro-urban environment, the interior designer can conduct experiments focused on various themes, including: a new civility of living, a different idea of the relationship between public and private, spaces for living and spaces for other activities, inside and outside. Le Corbusier had something similar in mind with his Unité d’abitations, a sort of modern phalanstery (a utopian co-housing/co-working building type). His version was predominantly for housing. However, it also included social and cultural functions, though ultimately his buildings were unable to break down the barrier between public and private. Rethinking this idea today means going in a more radical - yet at the same time less utopian - direction. It is a bit like contemporary art which explores “more correct social relationships, more dense ways of living, multiple and fertile combinations of existence”. Where “art no longer seeks to depict utopias, but rather to build concrete spaces” (Bourriaud, 2010, p. 47). It is a matter of trying to build an area of totalities, each equipped with its own multiple functions; by combining them, it could be possible to achieve new micro-diverse environments, each with high symbolic and aesthetic standards. I have called these new systems neotopias. They are innovative spatial systems that free up areas from their otherwise inevitably a-topical destiny; they transplant new tissues that, because of the services offered and the quality of their design, can have a positive impact not only on the immediate vicinity but also across a larger area. Neotopias are therefore like urban fertilizers. They

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are designed to restore a new role and identity to urban spaces; however, they start by recognizing the site and understanding its inner workings.

THE CHARACTER OF SPACES The design activities described so far produce solutions that can anticipate the character of a specific site; however, we still cannot call this a design per se. The proposal still has to undergo a new series of detailed tests, a kind of CT scan, to assess its qualities in terms of appropriateness and effectiveness (relationships between spaces, circulation, code compliance, sizes of rooms, etc.). In addition, its character and responsiveness to the original design concept and its formal qualities also need to be evaluated. This could be achieved by adopting the most important and symbolic strategies of design and then applying them to interior design. Adopting a strategy includes being aware that the design world includes a plurality of perspectives or “analysis styles”. The search for intelligent solutions has to take this into account by looking inward for the logic upon which to build a design response that can give the space a distinctive character. There are certain seminal studies about the underlying mechanics of our perception of space, including those on Gestalt by Rudolf Arnheim (Arnheim, 2004) and those on perspective by Erwin Panofsky (Panofsky, 1991). Norberg-Schulz’s work is also of key importance in defining the notion of character, “A phenomenology of character has to include both a review of the characters that have manifested and an investigation of their concrete determinants. It is said that different functions correspond to different characters: a house has to be ‘protective’, a work place ‘efficient’, a ball room ‘festive’, a church ‘solemn’...The character of a place also has a temporal function: it changes through the seasons, over the course of a day, and in different weather, all of which most importantly lead to different light conditions” (Norberg-Schulz, 1979, p.13-14). (Figure 13, 14) Design has now has to take a specific position - in relation to all the possible. Figure 13. Krijn de Koning, Installation, Beaufort 03, Koksijde, Belgium © Krijn de Koning

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Figure 14. Krijn de Koning, Installation, Hasselt, Belgium © Krijn de Koning

The transition from the project’s theme to the final elaboration requires numerous actions. These actions are linked together and essentials to reach a convincing result that is pertinent and able to propose innovative and coherent answers. The described order of actions can also be modified, however, for the approach proposed, it is essential to place the research on the theme at the beginning of the designing path, before the research on the place. Moreover it should be added the capacity to constantly connect between them the results accomplished during the designing path and compare them with the most eminent interior design experiences both from the past and the contemporary era. The aim will be to adopt an intellectual behavior able to move consciously among that experiences to reclaim them, transform them or even deny them.

MICROHISTORIES There are countless works covering the most distinguished architects and designers from the twentieth century avant-garde. These tend to be chronological histories, monographs on a particular designer, and series for laypeople, all written by architecture and design historians. However, this chapter relays these experiences in a completely different way: through the eye of a designer. These are not biographies, since they don’t explore the lives of the authors. In a certain sense they could be considered anti-biographies in as much as each example starts with an interpretation based on both factual elements as well as circumstantial paradigms. The defining element of their work is “isolated” to define what could be considered as their peculiar way of operating. Each strategy by a designer or architect engaged in interior design has been matched with that of one or more artists as a kind of inspirational “soundtrack”. A bit like Herman Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game, we are provided with only vague and indecipherable instructions. It is an attempt - both difficult and questionable - to grasp the author’s poetics, signature style, the way they relate to their own time,

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and how they measure against other schools of thought. These are all aspects that have been amply covered in books on the history of architecture and design. However, this is also an attempt to unearth the hidden, almost secret, inner folds that sometimes evade the more meticulous and sometimes pedantic historical texts; the aspects that are more readily visible to those familiar with the impatient aspects of design, to its inevitable calculated risk, the qualities that are not found through traditional research or by studying documents. The goal is to trigger a kind of mental short-circuit, however risky, to demonstrate how important it is for the interior designer to go beyond professional boundaries during the design phase, employing all available means, that is, material, colour, light, dimensions, form, relationships, and hierarchies. However necessary, the manuals, technical and code knowledge, attention to the behavioural aspects of the users, and social research are not enough. There needs to be an approach to design acquired through time and experience, developed day after day through studying good examples, a process facilitated by the interpretation techniques described herein. The boundaries between the different potential strategies described here are in certain cases exaggerated to make a point; however, they can also be interpreted in different and contradictory ways, like shuffling a deck of cards and dealing out another hand.

Surrealist Naturalism: Franco Albini In 1936, Albini - together with Camus, Clausetti, Gardella, Mazzoleni, Minoletti, Mucchi, Palanti, and Romano - was asked to organise the Mostra dell”Abitazione (Housing Exhibition) at the VI Triennale di Milano. “In particular, Albini was in charge of the design of an installation Stanza per un uomo (Room for a Man), a unique space of about 20 m2 that included a place for sleeping, studying, reading, and exercising. It was a modular system, using the bed as the primary unit of measure, with a shower and desk (2 × 1 metre), and furniture. More than a room, it was an installation. The widespread use of square steel tubing to structure the frame, support the curtains, enclose spaces and ‘closets’, and ‘create’ stairs certainly owes much to the style that Albini usually reserves for exhibition spaces” (Crespi, 2005, p.15). Albini performs a sophisticated operation. Amidst the early and contradictory signs of modernisation beginning to appear in Italy - which was lagging behind the more advanced countries - rather than design an actual room for a man, he engaged in an exercise in the concept of the intérieur that was being explored in those years. He designed a room that, while containing certain living functions, operated allegorically, through a clearly surrealist matrix. The exercise area, hanging jacket, towel spread out to dry, hat resting on the shelf, shoes taken off: it all tells a story of absence. It establishes a certain spirit, and alludes to something that could exist, but which is not visible. It is like certain Magritte paintings, where we do not immediately grasp the missing detail, something that makes the image simultaneously so real and yet so improbable that it almost makes us uncomfortable and gives us a sudden start. Four years later in 1940, Albini was once again invited to the Triennale di Milano (VII) with a domestic theme Stanza di soggiorno in una villa (Living Room of a Villa) (Figure 15). According to Marcello Fagiolo, his design “creates an atmosphere of such playful naturalism that is almost surreal” (Fagiolo, 1979). Here Albini stages a sublime scene. He essentially reuses the ingredients from his previous experiment, as if they belonged to a kind of lexicon or family, exporting them into this different setting. It was as if he was demonstrating that all you had to do was take the elements from “stanza per un uomo” and insert them into a place filled with blooming trees, glass-covered lawns, wood walkways, and add an armchair with striped upholstery to create the dreamiest, most nostalgic, and intimate space that some 18

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had ever seen. His sister Carla shed some light on this installation, “The quality of the composition immediately grabs your attention, pushing any rational and practical considerations to the background; it provokes an essentially aesthetic response like a painting or a statue” (Zanini, 1941). In a book about Albini’s designs for museums and installations, Federico Bucci describes the atmosphere of this project. “The inhabitants of the ‘room’ spend their time around this tree, they climb the stair suspended by wires, and sit on white and blue striped chairs with their backs to the painted blue sky; they walk on grey beola granite and larch flooring, on a red carpet, or directly on a lawn protected by tempered glass panels, all the while contemplating works of art (including a mosaic table by Giuseppe Del Bon, pink cement sculpture by Jenny Wiegmann Mucchi, painting by Gabriele Mucchi) and a birdcage. These elements all have an inner spirituality that Albini sets amidst the rationality of domestic space. The objects dematerialise, their constructed characters dissolve in light and colour” (Bucci, 2005). Both installations clearly demonstrate what Andrea Branzi calls Albini’s “capacity to surprise the observer, who wavers uncertain between admiration for the rigorous logic and the surprise at the unforeseen, at the nonsensical that only the intelligence can contemplate” (Branzi, 2010, p.38). It is a surprise that also comes from the use of unusual juxtapositions, one of the fundamental principles of surrealism, and especially the work of René Magritte. Surrealism is essentially based on two principles: unusual juxtapositions and imaginary transformations. Max Ernst interprets the first as a juxtaposition of two realities that appear irreconcilable to such a degree that they appear uncomfortable. They are placed amidst objects and spaces that apparently have nothing in common. This creates unexpected beauty and absurdity; it is balanced on the edge of the conceivable and is designed to destabilise and shatter our certainty. The second comes from the use of transformation. Bodies, objects, and shapes reveal the nature of things through their transformation into something else. This creates a transitory state that inspires a feeling in the viewer of being suspended between reality as a world of appearances and its deeper meaning, and in so doing triggers thoughts about what belongs to dreams, mysteries, and the obscure. Entering the Satie House and Museum in Honfleur, France, one feels the same atmosphere. The white piano inside the white room continuously playing the composer’s songs has the same crazy and destabilising effect as Albini”s room. Satie gained notoriety in 1917 with his music for two ballets, Parade, by Jean Cocteau and Ballets Russes, in collaboration with Picasso. Here for the first time and at the suggestion of Cocteau, Satie introduced the sounds of typewriters and factory sirens. This was met with much enthusiasm by Apollinaire, who glimpsed elements of surrealism in that type of music and won himself entry to the Zurich Dadaist movement. In 1888, when he was just twenty-two years old, he composed the three Gymnopédies. Inspired by the poems of his friend Contamine de Latour, their hypnotic fascination comes from their inspiration from an ancient Greek ceremony. The first piece contains the notation, “Lente et douloureux” (slow and painful); the sound is surprising and made up of ambiguous harmonies with non-sound, pauses, and unexpected juxtapositions playing a key role. It would be a real experience to listen to one of Satie”s pieces while gazing at one of Albini’s interiors, especially La stanza di soggiorno, and it would definitely help to understand the character of the space.

Archetypal Places: Ettore Sottsass Among the Sottsass designs in the book published by Skira (Carboni, 2015) is a treasure that provides a response to whether an interior designer knows how to solve the problem of how to live in our contemporary world. “Living” here is used in its very broadest and deepest sense, as it relates to the very nature 19

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Figure 15. Stanza di soggiorno per una villa (Living Room of a Villa), VII Triennale di Milano, 1940 © Fondazione Franco Albini

of humankind, its needs, and its dreams. The Library of Babel by José Louis Borges (Borges, 2000) describes an infinite, unlimited, and cyclical library containing all possible 410 page books, which are in turn made up of every possible sequence of characters. So too the book of the Sottsass designs contains an infinite number of characters or “ideograms” with which to compose a language with highly relevant and universal value. Alessandro Mendini called them “Variazioni” (Variations). It is the most insightful book ever written about Sottsass the designer, “His research begins with data and existential intuition. Sometimes all it takes is his pleasure in using pencils, colour, paper, and some new exotic sketchbook found in a far off shop. Then his variations begin, an exasperating deductive process, a methodical and analytical drafting of preliminary marks. It is an infinite assembly of many things which in isolation are not very complex. However, by the end of the process they are in a state of energised tension, like some immovable movement in some Eastern dirge” (Mendini, 1983, p.22). It is a process that takes shape via a repertoire of “basic marks”, similar to “a child’s drawing: circles, cylinders, lines and points” that have value as archetypal concepts. “This is why his architecture and objects are symmetrical, clear, totemic, and anthropomorphic. This is why they borrow so much from the culture of hippies, Hinduism, and astronauts, as well as from some far off civilisation, one that has condensed the secular essence of problems and given up on complexity. It is a metaphoric language rather than a style” (Mendini, 1983, p.22). Much has been written about Sottsass’s intellectual approach, his capacity to place side by side “without contradictions, the views of pop culture (personified by the Beat generation) with the spirit of the objective universal (personified by the Far East). He does this not through blending languages, but rather through his capacity to see contemporary life as a contrasting universe, one where human vitality dissolves the knots that ideologies bind” (Branzi, p.102). However, less has been written about his “work”, by which is meant not just the built work and the architecture, but also the drawings, the photographs, and the “installations”. In particular, the “constructions” he created and photographed during trips to Spain in the 1970s and then continued in Italy, Greece, and the Middle East. They came to be

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called Metafore (Metaphors), now also a book by Barbara Radice, “They were studies of the language of architecture, reflections on the environment, notes on anthropology, analyses of what could be the profound meaning - I would say the primordial meaning - of building around and within life” (Carboni, Radice, 2002, p.11). These are small fragile works of architecture created in ordinary locations. They are places with a clear sense of landscape, certainly, but with few exceptions, they have a kind of reassuring everydayness: a small clearing, a pond, a rock, piles of stones deposited by nearby mountains, and a Tuscan hill. Often the photographs are accompanied by notated drawings that may even have preceded them. These drawings are made with decisive thick strokes of a pen. In some cases, there is a trace of colour, a fast gesture to reinforce a detail. In Architettura Virtuale (Virtual Architecture) from 1973, four thin, 2.5 metre-high poles are driven into the ground; these support four horizontal poles to define a place. There is a plywood window hanging from one of the poles. In the background of the photograph you can see a rugged landscape. Against the slopes of the Pyrenees, a mountain carved out by time contrasts with the slender and precarious nature of the virtual architecture. Sottsassìs reflections on the relationship between humans and the environment becomes an opportunity to explore a “language of architecture” that attains a kind of writing degree zero. His compulsion to visit deserted locations and mountainscapes - landscapes that cannot really be measured or understood - comes from the need to establish “a physical relationship with the cosmos”. This work touches on something about the roots of living and its anthropological foundations. His expression does not lack irony, allusion, nonsense, or play, as in for example Disegno di una porta per entrare nell”ombra (Door to step in from the Shade). A surprising synthesis of design, this is an elementary archetypal system designed to mark the transition from one space to another, and a philosophical concept (at the risk of being esoteric) about entering the “kingdom of shadows”. Returning to his designs, what is surprising is their capacity to span different worlds; in the sense that there is no difference in “genre” between the object and the architecture, between the formal exercise and the design, between inside and outside; not even in terms of “time”. Indeed, there is substantial consistency between his early designs, including the stunning boards for the interior architecture exam in 1938, and his last, such as the drawings from 2004 entitled Ambiente (Environment). Here the language is so simple and blunt; a white page with minuscule marks floating across it, it is almost abstract with its only connection to the world of objects being an outlet in the wall beyond and the ground it rests on. There is also no allusion to historical time, that is, some event in the history of design or architecture to which his designs relate. His is a “timeless” design, as are his interiors and his architecture. Certainly, the world of art has had a strong influence on Sottsass. He recalls this in his book Scritto di notte (Written at Night) where he describes his relationship with the painter Luigi Spazzapan, “Of the basic information that Spazzapan gave me, what has really stuck has mostly to do with colour and the structure that it supports... Spazzapan told me these things. He also told me that colours can be fat or thin, flat or shiny, opaque or transparent, sandy or smooth, thick or thin, resistant or ephemeral” (Sottsass, 2010, p.161). Colour that “could liberate itself from the old task of being a metaphor for a so-called reality” (Sottsass, 2010, p.201). In as much as colour “spreads out like stains and lengthens into stripes, diverging or merging, speaking or not speaking, hating, loving, the heavy colours or the light ones, shouting or silent... colour can trigger and erase memories” (Sottsass, 2010, p.227). This is why, even though in the period when he was making frequent trips to Paris, where he recalls Brancusi, Max Ernst, and Sebastian Matta as his teachers, one cannot help but relate some of his designs to futurism and in particular Fortunato Depero. If we take Barbaric Interior (1985), we find, as in Depero, that “geometric primitivism and elementariness of form, which is always redundant from a compositional 21

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point of view, where there is a kind of vacuous horror that transforms the space and the painting into a glittering continuum of shapes and colours” (Belli, 2004, p.5). Was the same not also true of Sottsass? Colour, light, and sound; the sound that seems to accompany his travels, but also his drawings and architecture; sound which has its roots in the music of the 1960s represented by groups such as Pink Floyd, who, more than others, interpreted the spirit of the times and the Beat Generation that Sottsass felt so connected to. Especially the song The Wall from 1979. None of this seems to have lost any of its relevance. On the contrary, it feels like an interrupted story, waiting to be completed.

Ready-made: Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni “I had to handle the layout and installation of my work all on my own, so I had to try to avoid editing myself and defending my work. The only solution was to make fun of it. For example, valuable objects like sinks for sheiks or the Brionvega hi-fi system were displayed like these gold icons. I put the reclining armchairs together and they spun around like a windmill. It was a kind of equestrian circus, a big cage with a bathroom inside, a seat. Like a bird cage, but bigger. For example, the way I placed the saw horses didn’t make any sense... I had these seating prototypes that I had placed like they were in a tram, and I wanted people to walk on top and try them”. The person talking is Achille Castiglioni in a 1997 interview with Paolo Tuminelli about the exhibition “Achille Castiglioni Designer”, which took place in Vienna in 1984 and is now included in a monograph about Castiglioni (Polano, 2002, p.357). It is Castiglioni being his usual brilliant and easy-going self. Like when he was talking with Dino Gavina about the armchair Sanluca and he apparently said: “It looks like Art Nouveau: so we can rip off the lady who is buying a new piece but thinks it is an antique”. For Alessandro Mendini, the exhibition seems like a work of theatre, truly the art of the circus: “The objects are exhibited like models of circus art figures. It’s like the inside of a cage, with the lion tamer and the ferocious beasts; except here there are these bathroom fixtures, perhaps it’s some oblique reference to the long process of ‘taming’ ideas in order to reach the final result. The reclining armchairs were assembled in a kind of carousel formation. Another grouping of small plastic tables and chairs formed a kind of kinetic sequence like trapeze artists in flight” (Mendini, 1984). To this were added three metre-tall playing cards depicting certain objects like the Mezzadro chair together with the profile of their possible users: a very sophisticated theatrical move, but at the same time full of self-irony. Support for this idea comes in the form of an installation from 1957 at the Villa Olmo in Como for the exhibition Colori e forme della casa d”oggi (Colours and Forms in Today”s Home) (Figure 16). It consisted of a small domestic environment “where the found and designed objects created a confusing repertoire, without a coordinated style or ambition of elegance, an example of great cultural and life freedom” (Branzi, 2010, p.88). Achille Castiglioni explains what it all meant: “The environment where one lives, the living room, has to be made up of things you need and has to focus on the way things are used without any pre-conceived design ideas” (Vercelloni, 2011, p.46). So, a kind of DIY design. But even more, it is a kind of ready-made, with various possible derivations of the same process leading to his design of the Mezzadro (Sharecropper) and Sella (Saddle) in 1957, and the Tolo in 1962. It matches up with his “re-design” work, that is, taking objects that already belong to our everyday habitat and reissuing them in a more “contemporary” form, like the Cumano table from 1977. Mezzadro, Sella, and Tolo are, however, much more than mere adaptations of commonly used objects. They shift the very meaning of the object through a technique similar to that used in the art world by Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp is 22

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the originator of the ready-made, that is, works created by taking an “un-aesthetic” and “ready-to-use” object and placing it in a different context from where it was originally intended, and in so doing elevating it to a work of art. It is in this recurring oscillation between DIY and ready-made that the work of Castiglioni finds a surprising relevance to the worlds of interior design and installation design. Take the design of the Splügen Bräu brew pub in Milan on Corso Europa in 1960, which in those years was considered a real Milan design icon. In this bar, between the pavement and walnut walls, tables with polished brass legs and green cloth cushions, slate strips and trachyte slab flooring, black enamel stools, shiny dark brown ductwork, white horn-shaped speakers, and traditional light fixtures, there, standing out on its own, unchallenged, as seductive as a silver piece of jewellery, is the Splügen light fixture. Achille Castiglioni discusses it casually in a 1988 interview with Silvia Giacomoni: “We designed the Splügen pub to be a very Milan place. People from Milan are good humoured and like to be seen, so we put them in a store front window.” In reality, the atmosphere is a mix of genres, with technology, allusions to a new Art Nouveau, assembly, and references which Vittorio Gregotti saw in the chair Sanluc (Gregotti, 1986) to futurism and especially Umberto Boccioni. But there is also a minimising of technology which at the Splügen Bräu brew pub manifests in a funny, ironic way, all the while acknowledging the impossibility of resisting the intrusion of universal technology. It is something that also appears in an extraordinary way in the light fixture design for Flos, Parentesi from 1971, an ingenious, very technical device based on minimal technological resources. Like certain precious devices that we appreciate just for the beauty of their mechanics and for which any kind of enclosure would just be distracting, so too Parentesi hits you like a bolt of lightning: short like the poetry of Ungaretti, fundamental like the work of Lucio Fontana, original like one of Leonardo’s machines, and silent as an Ozu film. Writing degree zero. We find the same sensibility in other objects such as Luminator from 1955. Pure symbol, it is similar to the long and thick candle planted in the middle of the room; or Cumano, the brilliant reworking of an old bistrot table, also designed to be hung from the wall and become a mysterious fire-red figure against a white page. With this work, Castiglioni makes known his interest in ready-made and the analogies between his way of working and that of a figure like Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp was the originator of this technique and the extraordinary author of a radical break from the previous art world through a transition from “painting-painting” to “painting-idea. It is interesting to see how, in an interview with Corriere della Sera in December 1997, Achille Castiglioni maintained that, “the design object should never be fashionable. Fashion is made precisely to go out of fashion. Good design should last until it has been used up. I hate the way everything today has become about the spectacle. I think of design as a team effort. I do not design to leave a mark”. It is as if for him what mattered most was “the apparent reduction of the expressive importance of the object” (Gregotti, 1984), something that in a certain sense is revealed more eloquently in his installations and interiors. One could also say that Castiglioni’s relationship with product design should be seen as an extension of his interior design work, especially exhibition design. For example, in his installation design for the 1963 show Vie d”acqua da Milano al mare (Waterways from Milan to the Sea), the objects are not present and the exhibit is about an idea, not a product. Resorting to any possible means of communicating to initiate a “dynamic conversation” with the public, the use of sound appears here as well, and is considered one of the key components of the installation. It is a sound that also seems to listen and accompany the interpretation of the images of the works. It could be that little piece by Marcel Duchamp, great friend and chess partner to John Cage, written in 1913, Erratum Musical, and performed by Stéphane Ginsburgh on 8 February 2001. However, at the moment interior design is asked to reconcile the radical changes

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in the ways of inhabiting spaces and the need to employ an installation approach, Castiglioni provides a difficult model. This is because his work is not tied to any style. He is inimitable, yet irreplaceable.

Rooms-Rooms: Gio Ponti To understand the ongoing relevance of Gio Ponti’s teachings, it is important to go beyond these descriptions and set our sights on the vanishing point of his thinking; we have to follow the trajectory of his work to wherever it leads, at whatever scale that may be. It was Ponti himself who pointed this out: What is the moral of the story? In the inventive frenzy of our time, in the creative restlessness, in the anxiety to express ourselves through the shape of a nail, we have gotten so far away from spontaneity, from truth, from naturalness, and from the simplicity of things, that the appearance of something right, spontaneous, true, natural, and simple is seen as astounding and triggers total and unexpected success. What is the moral of this moral? We need to return to chair-chairs and house-houses. We need to return to work without labels, without adjectives, to the right, real, natural, simple, and spontaneous nature of things... I will make house-houses and not organic, rational, or some other label kind of houses, I will make bed-beds, wardrobe-wardrobes, and office-offices etc. In the field of furniture design, I announce a great novelty: a lightweight strong wood table, one that is efficient and composed simply of a rectangular surface and four vertical legs at the corners. Just wait and see! I will unveil it and photograph it from up above, below, the side, in perspective, etc. They will challenge it, exhibit it, and ask for my permission to make a table like this, to make a simple, original, the first table, for all time. The world is a funny place! (Ponti, 1952)

Figure 16. Colori e forme della casa d”oggi, (Colours and Forms in Today”s Home, Como 1957) For courtesy Fondazione Achille Castiglioni

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By a chair-chair he means the Superleggera (Superlight), “which designed itself, this modest chair, virginal, innocent”, the true “chair for all time”, the chair that “already was”. And this design occurred twenty years after his office furniture for the company Parma Antonio & Figli in Saronno and fifteen years before the Gabriela and the Apta series for Walter Ponti. So, the Superleggera design was virtually at the epicentre of Ponti’s career. Let’s look at Ponti’s interior design for Una casa al mare (House by the Sea) from 1939. Here we can see everything, De Chirico together with Malevich and Goncharova. Especially the spaces that, according to Ponti, express “my ideas about houses by the sea, which I wish everyone loved like this: simple walls, light-filled, and shady porches where necessary” (Ponti, 1939). Above all, it is the design and nature of the surfaces which define the space that deserve special attention, “The villa owners wanted a floor in Neapolitan majolica tiles and that led me to develop a simple white and blue diagonal design. This floor generated this serene sense of light and a fresh elegance throughout the entire house amidst the completely white walls and ceilings. Because of the success of this floor, I became a convert to this type of finish; it got me thinking about the lively effects that could be achieved with this kind of majolica which is shiny yet not slippery, perfect for the seaside. I finished the walls with semi-rough plaster and gave the ceilings a rough finish. I love detaching the ceiling and giving it a sculptural feel (the ceiling is a cover, it is the sky)” (Ponti, 1939). In another design for a small model house, the same flooring was combined with an orange ceiling. Here the “sky” was tinged with the colour of the sun as it set below the horizon. Another room was designed with sophisticated and abstract super graphics made up of letters, numbers, and symbols. Perhaps it was inspired by the Bauhaus, especially Josef Albers, yet it also anticipated the work of Alighiero Boetti. However, it is not really these ingredients that add character to a space or a room; “Room is a beautiful word. It is not a compartment, a place, an environment, a chamber, or a hall (a bourgeois term), or parlour (a petit-bourgeois term). In a room, the white ceiling is “empty”. It needs coloured walls to “enclose” the room, and an intense colourful floor to accentuate it. (An all white room is a coffin, not architecture). The ceiling is the cover of the room; it is its sky. It works well dark, intense, and ornate; it covers and closes, and when it is ornate it is also a page to read and re-read, fantasising and counting and recounting elements. The sky encloses with its dark blue colour. It is a reassuring face. The fog and snow that erase the sky and open distances are disconcerting to humans because they no longer sense their boundaries, nature’s walls. They lose the ceiling of the sky. They feel lost” (Ponti, 1957, p.141-142). All of this can feel a bit dogmatic? Like when Ponti says, the “floor is a theorem” and “it must be a play of materials. You must establish the ‘sequencing’ of materials as they unfold through their colour, size, and form. Travelling across them should be an adventure (not just something ordinary). The floor is a fantastical and precise ‘finish’. It is a progression and a sequence within its own limits”; or, “since we walk on the floor, our movements are generated by the floor. This movement is a performance. The (spatial) performance of architecture” (Ponti, 1957, pp.122-123). One might think that all these rules have to do with taste. But that is not the case. On the contrary, Ponti recommends that when an architect designs a home, they should not look for “praise about its formal, aesthetic, or taste qualities” in as much as “these types of value become ‘outdated’ over the years”. They should only aspire to praise for having provided its inhabitants with a place about which they can say: “Architect, we have lived happily in this house that you have made for us: it is dear to us. It has been a happy time in our lives” (Ponti, 1957, p.113). There is a difference with Una abitazione dimostrativa (A Demonstration House) (Figure 17): this is a teaching tool. Here, the main goal is to demonstrate “how to think about a house in a new way”. This requires forgetting the “eternal and constant” aspects of this problem because, if the ways of liv25

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ing change, then so does the relationship between humanity and its increasingly pervasive technology. However, what does not change is the aspiration for house-houses, room-rooms, and wardrobe-wardrobes that “serve our lives”. Here though, the ingredients are different. It becomes a priority to show that everything in the house serves the active and cultured life of a contemporary man and not “social vanity, that typical bourgeois weakness”. For this reason, not just the furnishings but also the layout have to be as transformable as possible. This was achieved by outfitting the home with that special equipment that “represents” the idea of how a cultivated man was supposed to live, that is, bookshelves, as well as those indispensable furnishings such as wardrobes and a kitchen. Outfitted in this way, the house knows how to reduce our “baggage” to the absolute minimum that is, “entirely custom furniture”. But the furniture also has to be able to adapt, to become not a “fixed thing but a living one” (Ponti, 1936). So the table can be folded, the window is also a showcase, the couch can be divided, the chair can be lifted with one finger, and the lighting is diffuse. When Ponti was asked to design a villa for Anala and Arnaldo Planchart in Caracas in 1954, these ideas had to be adjusted to reflect the new context and unique site. However, the approach to designing a house “for the life of those who live there” (Ponti, 1955) remained the same. This kind of home has to be looked at not from the outside but “from the inside, entering and walking around: it is made to be viewed by a constantly roving eye”. Freed from working with a given container like the Lucano apartment, here the space emerged from researching the ordering principles that established the relationship between inside and outside, iterative studies of the visual continuity between one space and another, and the development of a double-height wall in some of the rooms. The spatial fulcrum is the patio around which the other rooms are arranged in a series of spaces, functions, and glimpsed views, celebrated through the use of materials (some of them imported from Italy), colours, and details that make the inside of the villa a “happy” place. Like the rooms at the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Sorrento. All blue. Each room with a different floor design, but always in blue tile. Covers, headboards, and doors: all blue. Everything in the interior—the fabric, walls, glasses, tablecloths—are white and blue, “like the sky, the shadows, distant horizons, and the sea” (Ponti, 1964). The columns are covered with “cloudy, blue and white Melotti ceramic plates... so that every shape that enters the room loses its form, dematerialised by the reflections”. Because, according to Ponti, one “of my preferences is to make everything one colour”. Because in Sorrento, even your thoughts are tinged with blue. In 2018 Paris’ Museé des Art Décoratifs dedicated a large retrospective to his work entitled Tutto Ponti. Gio Ponti Archi-Designer, curated by Dominique Forest, Sophie Bouilhet-Dumas and Salvatore Licitra, furnished brilliantly by the Parisian studio Wilmotte & Associés and accompanied by the graphic design of Italian architect Italo Lupi. The show, through over 500 works, some of which had never been put on display, from the period that runs from 1921 to 1978, reproduced not just the artist’s genius and versatility, but also his undeniable importance today as much as in his own time in history. As Andrea Branzi writes, “The paradox of Gio Ponti is exactly this: he is a great modern architect, without being either a reformist or a reactionary” (Branzi, 2008, pp.117-118). And this is why his modernity will always be “incomplete and discontinuous, in that it proceeds apparently without method, like some Puccini aria, based on intuition and creativity; elements that while they do not constitute a method, at least constitute a path that allows him to continually expand and grow as a designer” (Branzi, 2008, p.119). But it is also true that his idea of “modern living” - which can be traced back to very different periods in his career - is a powerful line of thinking that keeps returning to its original starting point. For Pier Francesco Forlenza, talented Italian pianist and teacher at Conservatorio di Como, the Prelude and Fugue in D Major from the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian 26

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Bach is an eloquent example of how Bach embodies all the music that would come after. The author of a book on the relationships between Bach, Escher, and Gödel, Hofstadter (Hofstadter, 1984) considers that the canons and fugues of Bach—especially The Musical Offering presented to the King of Prussia in 1747—have much in common with the phenomenon of the “Strange Loop”. This is a phenomenon that consists “in finding oneself unexpectedly climbing and descending steps in a hierarchical system, returning to your original starting point” (Hofstadter, 1984, p.11), which seems reminiscent of the Incompleteness Theorems by Gödel as well as works by Escher and Ponti.

Soft Design: Alessandro Mendini In 1983 in a text entitled Sopravvivenza sottile (Subtle Survival), Alessandro Mendini lucidly and prophetically introduces the concept of the “private house” as a place capable of containing “all the aspects of living” (Mendini, 1983). For him, the private home constitutes the ultimate “symbol of one’s own decision making capacity”. It is therefore a non-homogeneous universe to be created through the accumulation of objects, “like a forest, a tangle of adventure and of anti-design related passion. It features the allure of so-called “soft” design rather than the obstinate security of “hard” design (of the ominous and demagogue variety)”. Furnishing a space is a “natural act”, one that—unlike designing architecture—requires relying on the host’s movements, “in a hermaphroditic way”. It requires using different materials than those used for classic construction such as stone, iron, cement, metal, and glass, materials capable of representing the idea of “soft design” both physically as well as metaphorically, “the fabric, colour, climate, memory, and light that touch the body without doing it any harm”. All the functional oversimplification wrought by the typological tradition - especially in the environment of domestic space - has to be dismantled for this way of inhabiting to truly enter into the fragile existence of men and women. Like those that reduce the house to a collection of spaces for cooking, eating, sleeping, and

Figure 17. Abitazione dimostrativa (A Demonstration House), VI Triennale di Milano, 1936 © Gio Ponti Archive

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bathing. It is a theme that Mendini had already addressed a year before in Domus, in an article titled “Il nuovo soggiorno” (The New Living Room) (Mendini, 1982a). In it, he highlights the contradiction between people’s new types of relationships and new domestic rituals with the rigidity of the same old continually recycled housing models. Now, there is also a new way of using space with, “the bedroom as a social space, the bathroom as a spa and a place for family socialising, and the kitchen as a place for eating” (Mendini, 1982a). Why then, don’t we try to imagine new housing typologies? Ideally we would see, “apartments that, instead of a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, would have rooms for swimming, for growing plants, for talking, for reading books... one could eat in the swimming room, cook in the talking room, and sleep in the library” (Mendini, 1982a). In this home filled with new and re-combined functions, the living room could be seen as a “control point for long-distance communication” rather than performing its former function. All the spaces that define the domestic environment are mercilessly studied and identified as the by-products of efficiency logic and the use of “standard series” imposed by contemporary society through a simplistic attempt to respond to the basic needs of human survival, “But humans have urgent needs for other kinds of survival, a subtler survival. Instead of the living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, everyone needs new types of rooms and compartments, perhaps rooms for swimming, for growing flowers, for telecommunicating, and for reading books” (Mendini, 1982a). Nothing should remain like it was before. The bed could become a key part of our existence, where the bedroom is designed to transform into a “meditative, intimate, and protected” fulcrum of the entire house, “The place of dreams, folly, rest, love, tears, joy, semi-darkness, instinct, premonition, and imagination: the bedroom of the future will replace the traditional living room with a mythical one, designed to embrace the subconscious. Soon you will offer tea to friends stretched out on a floor-level bed, a new type of meditative, intimate, and protected space” (Mendini 1982b). The kitchen is a laboratory for processing increasingly standardised food. The bathroom, a “room for the body”, has become a new star among the domestic rituals. And all of this is to take place in a metropolis that increasingly will be “a new physically indeterminate city, open, available, fluid, and galactic. Created for the tangle of the tiniest actors, not by the decisions of institutions with the biggest programmes”. As a result, the city will be better able to enter into a “non-design” dimension, just as soft design intends. In some of his drawings you see the multitude of black cars on the streets replaced by a variegated landscape swarming with multi-coloured cars creating a “pointillist effect”. Mendini’s reflection on the meaning of objects and new design as a way to transform space into something that is intimately built around the individual leads to a discussion of ornament. It is an issue that is the subject of ferocious debate in architectural circles, especially following the release of Adolf Loos”s book Ornament and Crime. Andrea Branzi dedicates a chapter to this argument in his book La casa calda (The Hot House) describing how ornament has been interpreted in an extremely reductive way: “Today, ornament has to be understood as a veritable information system. It provides us with cultural, functional, linguistic, and visual information about a product. Ornament relates to the design of an almost infinite system of signs that can be homogeneously generated across the unlimited field that supports it. The ornamented surface is none other than a segment of the universe that it resembles” (Branzi, 1984, p.117). Mendini leans in this direction as well, attributing not only a semantic value to these surfaces but also a semiotic-informational one (Restany, 1989). In his research in collaboration with companies such as Abet Laminati, “The crucial issue of ‘Cosmesi Universale’ (Universal Cosmetics) introduced from the armchair of Proust and his numerous imitators and variants finds an application in mass production... This same topic assumes an independent status in the design of laminate surfaces, with the development of a specified sampling of ornament, symbols, stylistic features, and colours that can 28

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be used at different scales of the design: object, furnishing, architecture” (Ciagà, 2011, p.30). His first “fixation” is the idea of change; his second is how ornament can prevail over architecture, “And this is why I try to think of architecture in this way, as a stylist thinks of a garment. I consider a garment to be the smallest unit of architecture, the smallest and most virtuous space built around a person, intimately fitting their body... Here then is my second fixation: that today ornament could prevail over design” (Mendini, 1981). Even though for Mendini, humans remain essentially intimately solitary creatures who do not succeed in communicating with one another in depth, “what works well in their circles is the skin, the surface of things” (Mendini, 1981). These experiments seem to find their most natural application in interiors. Indeed, Beppe Finessi Mendini acquired a special sensitivity to architectural interiors, “understood as a discipline where ideas about living, ornament, and painting combine and blend. And perhaps this level of architecture—the room—is the privileged scale for his practice. For him, rooms are always different, with an extreme variety of possible details and solutions. He has a visceral love of colour and an exceptional understanding of visual art. His has a predilection for the contrasts of diversity, but also simultaneously a capacity to assemble different pieces with control and balance” (Finessi, 2009, p.128). Often during interviews, Mendini emphasises how much he owes to Gio Ponti, who he considers to be the most important Italian architect of the twentieth century. He appreciates Ponti”s ability to design houses in a thousand different ways and make them “as beautiful as butterflies or like embroidered cosmic stage sets” (Mendini, 1981). This becomes research into the idea of replacing the uniform/unitary house with “collage” houses where the parts that make up the space are fragmented to such a degree that rooms present not only different characters but also different styles. It is “like having many different houses in one home, just like there are many different houses found throughout one city” (Mendini, 1982c). This appears in the interiors of the house of Guido Antonello in Milano from 1991; it also shows up in installations that could be considered a kind of staging of a concept to recover meaning, like in Stanza banale (Banal Room) from 1979. In all these examples, the goal is to transform the house through its furnishings into a “theatre of the private life, a setting where each room allows a change in dynamics and behaviour: a theatrical house” (Mendini, 1982c); even when the goal is to demonstrate contemporary humanity’s disenchantment that has led to the “the house as a souvenir of itself”. Here the style is necessarily “cynically chaotic, exuberant, iconic, psychological, helpless, and pessimist. But, it is also the non-violent style of the ‘unhappy consciousness’, typical of the man of the masses who knows he can no longer pursue the proletarian mirage” (Mendini, 1979). Another example is the home of an art collector, “the fact remains that in a house like this, its occupants play the lead roles” (Mendini, 1982c). The beautiful analytical and “atmospheric” drawings of the interiors such as Interno di un interno (Interior of an Interior), Piccola stanza con scarabeo (Little Room with Scarab), and Stanza decorativa (Ornamental Room) often adopt a central point of view, representing a scene where the objects themselves come to life and become the lead characters in this drama, completely devoid of rhetoric or allusions to a frozen representation of reality. In a piece from 1981 titled Architettura ermafrodita (Hermaphrodite Architecture), Mendini reaches his intellectual peak. He also manages to explain his work better than anyone else. He describes his search for an “architecture that is not piercing, monumental, or rhetorical; nor is it conceived of as a series of stylistic or compositional instances”, but rather it is “tied to doubtful, introverted, poetic hypotheses” (Mendini, 1981b). This takes us right back to where we started and the idea of “soft” design, while adding an extraordinarily relevant element. It points to a disciplinary knot that has become critical today, the conflict between the increasingly provisional, indecipherable, “hybrid” character of contemporary spaces and the job of interior design to give them an identity and meaning, however multiple. The question that 29

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Mendini asks himself is, “What do we do with all the finer details of architecture that are getting lost in the mists of time, those sensations we used to need so desperately—muffled sounds, shadows, smells, memories, fabric, flourishes, tenderness, the colour pink, little things, and bell jars—the stuff of minienvironments? Hasn’t this often been hermaphrodite work?” (Mendini, 1981b). Some music - like the experiments of Massimo Caiazzo and the Collective Intelligence Tavolozza del collezionista (Palette Collector) from 2005 - has the same sound as these kinds of places and explores the boundaries between art, music, and colour to trace their infinite expressive qualities, just as Alessandro Mendini has been doing with design. The office website, which is managed by his brother Francesco, is accessed through a reading of fragments: “The works are freely intertwined with visual alphabets and different disciplines. More than documents, we want to give sensations. Our work is an ongoing system whose overall image is the same as the subject of our work. The individual projects are presented like fixed fragments in a mobile system, tangible and partial materials in an abstract flow of ideas. The projects are the linguistic components of a puzzle in a constant state of development but never completed. Meaning can be found in the progressive utopian hypothesis of reaching an impossible synthesis. Meaning is found in this centrifugal dynamic, endless and expanding. The message of our work is in this atmospheric dust, in this polyphonic rhythm. A crowd of figures full of contrasts”. Atmospheric dust like this can also be found in certain works of art from the early twentieth century that radically changed the way of seeing and representing the world (Figure 18, 19). Before his passing in February 2019, Mendini, having read this text, wrote to me with these words: “Dear Crespi, I have read the chapter concerning my work, and I am pleased and rather touched by the attention you have given to my wandering studies on dwelling. You have my deepest thanks, your analysis of my “play on rooms” has helped me better understand what I am struggling to do myself”.

Uncanny Interiors: Philippe Starck The book curated by Valérie Guillaume titled Ecrits sur Starck (Writings on Starck) (Guillaume, 2004) uses the angles of different disciplines to help us better understand the work of Starck, not only as a designer of objects but also as a designer of spaces. Stéphane Laurent reminds us that Starck actually started out in the world of architectural interiors. His first projects include an inflatable house from 1967 at the Salon de l”enfance, as well as furniture and furnishings for Pierre Cardin, and the furnishings for the apartment of President François Mitterand in Eliseo in 1984; an experience that led him to “abolish the division between decorative art and design” and to maintain a surprising capacity for finding a balance between “magic and classicism” (Laurent, 2004, p.11). But most of all it was Christopher Mount, design historian at Parsons School of Design in New York, who traced the most interesting profile of Starck’s work in the USA. He attributed Starck’s success to his application of the principles of interior design: “It was with hotels that his most spectacular side became evident. Not unlike the American Barnum & Bailey Circus, Starck hotels are full of surprise, winks, and sophisticated exaggerations” (Mount, 2004, p.55). In this, his partnership with Ian Schrager, the brilliant American entrepreneur and inventor of the “boutique hotel”, would play a defining role: “Once again, like design objects, Starck hotels are not just luxurious places; in fact, the Paramount and Hudson are reasonably priced and on par with New York standards, especially if we consider the added value of the interiors. The designer is well aware of the fact that the experience of going to a luxury hotel is different from staying at home or staying with friends. These interiors have a kind of theatricality that begins at the entrance; for example, the white curtains fluttering on the Delano veranda, or the green 30

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Figure 18. Alessandro e Francesco Mendini, Showroom Fragile, Milano, 2013 © Atelier Mendini

elevator in the Hudson reception area, or the long purple carpet that leads guests through the Royalton lobby. All these welcoming elements suggest the beginning of a theatrical experience” (Mount, 2004, p.56). Starck himself affirms the need for a hotel to provide an experience that is other than the one of home. For him, living at the Mondrian would mean “living with the angels inside a cloud illuminated by the sun” and the game room of the Hudson is a “castle where every door reveals an extraordinary image”. Hotels are therapeutic places for making “journeys within... mental voyages” (Starck, 2001). So obscured is the separation between museum and daily life that “with him, and thanks to him, that you can feel like you are in a museum in your own home” (Onfray, 2004, p.61). There is a “blending of genres” that combines “serious theatre and the fantastical circus” (Onfray, 2004, p.61). The thread that links his works at any scale is what Sophie Trelcat has discovered in his architecture, where “with the creation of architecture, Starck aims to privilege the romantic, the almost ghostly, privileging emotion over the subject” (Trelcat, 2004, p.26). To achieve this, he resorts to a vocabulary “that relies on recognition and

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Figure 19. Alessandro e Francesco Mendini, Showroom Fragile, Milano, 2013 © Atelier Mendini

discourse” and that “projects the user into the role of author and forces them to have a dynamic relationship with the buildings... According to Starck, architecture is a formal and sensory equation that should be lived as a physical and emotional adventure. This latter quality is designed to give the user a sense of the uncanny” (Trelcat, 2004, p.30). Here, then, appears the idea of the uncanny, a concept Anthony Vidler (1992) - one of the most distinguished historians of contemporary architecture and president of the Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York -wrote about in a very important work from 1992. The uncanny is more complex than the idea of seduction which Donald A. Norman addresses in his work Emotional Design (Norman, 2004) as a technique that Starck uses to ensure the success of his design, at least when dealing with environments and places that safeguard collective rituals. In this case, the notion of the uncanny harkens back to a famous essay with the same title by Freud, Unheimlich, which is the antithesis of Heimlich, that is, the familiar, domestic, trustworthy, and which comes from the root Heim meaning home. In this sense, the uncanny hearkens back to our domestic environment as a place that in reality is hiding something different and unknown; it reminds us of something other, something that delights us and can transform a detail into a myth. Most of all, it places the truth “inside the untruth”, employs meanings that are inside, not outside the syntax of the design, like a “supple line, curved volume, playful ashlar, voluptuous section, joyful shape, extravagant diagonal, mysterious fold, and an unexpected construction” (Onfry, 2004, p.64).

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And so it is with the Mama Shelter Hotel, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, a popular and expanding neighbourhood where anyone, rich or poor, acquaintance or stranger, man or woman, can live their own exalting adventure, among plastic carnival mask table lamps, graffiti ceilings, and an eight-player billiard table. Mama Shelter is a place where guests are warmly welcomed and at the same time a bit taken aback, faced with something that is both familiar and other, like the “table d’hote” (high table) at the restaurant which seats 30, a place where you can find yourself sitting alongside total strangers while enjoying dishes prepared by Chef Alain Senderens. As Starck himself says, “There is no design without something strong behind it, some human, social, or love motivation. A vision. Otherwise, there is no validation. We cannot separate Mama Shelter from the simple application of a vision and story. A human story, a meeting, compatibility, a profound friendship, people who love each other. This is the starting point for everything”. This is what happens in Mama Shelter in Marseilles, inaugurated in 2012, where the ingredients are the same as in the Paris location, but reinterpreted in a more surreal and pop art key. The playful component becomes dominant with the introduction of the ping pong table and the extralarge billiard table, where Starck resorts to the technique of oversizing to achieve uncanny effects. The restaurant furnishings are somewhere between vintage and a Tarantino version of an American motel. In Le Meurice, the historic Paris hotel between Place de la Concorde and the Louvre, Starck plays with memory. He operates at the edge of design, art, and French tradition, placing a 145-metre tapestry by his daughter Ara under the glass dome in the restaurant, a metaphorical bridge between past and future. In the SLS Hotel, the first real luxury hotel Starck designed in North America, he plays on the doubling of the lobby, one for the hotel guests and the other for the public called “the bazaar”. The idea is to introduce a lively area and encourage unexpected forms of socialising, a kind of contemporary day caravanserai (roadside inn for caravans). In Ramses, the restaurant in Madrid, the pleasure of haute cuisine, idleness, and luxury blend inside a historic building facing the Puerta de Alcalá. It is an environment halfway between courtesan baroque and New York chic. It plays on hyperbole and the use of graffiti on the walls for a kaleidoscopic set of emotions from which there is no escape. The whole thing makes you think of the music of Lenny Kravitz, his friend and author of a reinterpretation of Starck’s Mademoiselle for Kartell. Especially the album It Is Time for a Love Revolution, with the song I’ll be Waiting considered by Rolling Stone Magazine to be a “visceral mix, a combination of experiences of 1960s and 1970s classic rock”. But there are also the accumulations of Arman, to whom Starck seems to pay homage in his Mama Shelter in Marseilles.

Homeopathic Design: Ronan and Erwin Bouroullec Speaking of their Algues for Vitra, in 2004 the Bouroullec brothers clarify how their goal was to achieve non-rigid dividing elements that could interact with the spaces through non-linear and non-Euclidean geometries, introducing artefacts in artificial places that allude to natural forms. This does not mean, however, that nature is a direct inspiration for their designs and that their Algues design is an attempt to translate something from the natural world into a plastic artefact. They employed injection moulding to produce identical pieces within one-tenth-of-a-millimetre tolerances. The result is a highly precise object, yet one that behaves like a tree leaf. The light enters the space in different ways based on their density, more or less direct, more or less intense, almost like a light caress. Each leaf joins in with the others by instinct, following the direction of light and breeze. If there has to be a name for it, it might be fuzzy logic, as in an open system of variable geometry, without horizontals or verticals, and without

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breadth or depth. Their reversible character means they can follow the rhythm of life, migrating, adapting, with the sensitivity of a leaf. The idea of creating transparent, almost immaterial, and discrete artefacts emerges with great clarity in their early work, to the point where some have suggested they may have been influenced by Japanese culture. It is an influence that the Bouroullec acknowledge as only partial and indirect and attribute more to sensibility towards things in the world than any specific language. This is the case, for example, with The Square Vase, whose configuration makes one think of the ikebana technique. This idea really begins to take shape in two of their early devices: Lit clos (Closed Bed) and Disintegrated Kitchen. Bigger than a bed, but smaller than a room, Lit Clos is a box that is small enough to accept a bed but at the same time open enough to avoid a sense of claustrophobia. Their Disintegrated Kitchen, exhibited at MEUBLE Paris 1997 is like a mental explosion of the idea of the kitchen, a series of fragmented components like the last frames of the film Zabriskie Point. This launched their research into elements that divide and structure space based on the idea of “indistinct” design. That is to say, the presence of artefacts that introduce sensory limits and define the topological relationships with the space. For example, suggesting a single direction to the user—as in staying on the side, above, and below—nothing more. This idea evolved through studies and in collaboration with the Danish company Kvadrat on The Clouds, “tiles” of fabric that can be freely composed throughout a space to break down the uniformity of the enclosure elements, that is, the walls, ceilings, and floors. It is the beginning of their research on the “fluttering house”, whose construction requires first-hand involvement by the user and is made possible by the ease of assembly and simplicity. This personal involvement leads to the discovery of an elementary ritualism based on simple and natural gestures, skills that everyone should have. For example, Zip Rug from 2004 allows the user to be part of “the work”, with its infinite variety of possible size, shape, and colour variations. Brick, from 2000, is a kind of laser-cut polystyrene brick that is easy to assemble and therefore lends itself to infinite variations of flexible partition elements. Their idea of design embodied in their work from the 2000s is influenced by a “gentle” and “homeopathic” view of the world, founded on a non-radical critique of the present state of things that confronts the contradictions of the contemporary world. This can be seen in the installation Textile Field (Figure 20) for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2011, which is an attempt to make visiting a museum, usually an intimidating experience, an informal and liberating one instead. The installation was created inside the “Raphael Gallery” and consists of a platform composed of many textile elements in padded synthetic foam anchored to a wood structure with Velcro strips. In this case, the idea was to introduce something like a Flexiscape—a direction their work always seems to head—into a museum. The design was a mobile landscape/ecosystem made up of non-standardised objects and environments that users can find multiple uses for. In this case, overcoming the discomfort that museum spaces cause due to their being seen as “dead places” removed from life and design led the Bouroullec brothers to embrace the commission as a challenge: “The challenge was to invent or define something that would put people into a different frame of mind. We approached it like a design or furnishing: if it is successful ergonomically, if it is comfortable, it puts the user at ease, also mentally. We started by imaging a pool in this huge room, then a sandy beach where you could stretch out and admire the landscape”. The installation took on the shape of a large coloured “tray” designed to gently welcome visitors and make the viewing of the Raphael cartoons a pleasurable experience. At the same time, the installation plays on ambiguity, apparent both in the seating - whose unusual dimension appears to go beyond the realm of the familiar - as well as the soil which you can delicately walk and stretch out. It is an ambiguity that also applies to its fate. What will happen to an installation like this? Anders Byriel, client of the instal34

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lation and owner of the Kvadrat Company, hypothesises that perhaps it will be taken to a forest, like certain other pieces of contemporary art. Or perhaps to the Sistine Chapel so you can admire The Last Judgement from a comfortable position. With the design of the restaurant Dos Palillos in Berlin, inaugurated in 2010 and located on the ground floor of the Hotel Casa Camper, the Bouroullec brothers set themselves the goal of creating a space to celebrate food, especially through the rituals of its preparation. The space is organised around a long monastic wood table and a stainless steel kitchen. The guests find themselves face-to-face with the cooks. The act of cooking is transformed into an artistic performance in which the guest is no longer a passive viewer but a key participant. The culinary experience is elevated to art. The stage is set with very few elements and materials, among them elegant golden curtains; this is to emphasise the decision to focus on the role of the interaction between guests and kitchen. With the Tuiles du Nord (North Tiles), the Bouroullec brothers continue their collaboration with Kvadrat, creating two company showrooms, the first in Stockholm in 2006 and the second in Copenhagen in 2009. The project represents the culmination of the Flexiscape research, with artefacts designed to organise the space through light, flexible, flowing textile walls. In between these two projects, and not by chance, there is a 2008 exhibition at the Galerie Kreo in Paris with screens made of pieces of different coloured wool detailed with saddle-inspired stitching. These are suspended and overlapped on top of one other until they unintentionally become a room separation device. The Tuiles were designed specifically for the first Kvadrat showroom, as a system that would not only define the space but also give the walls sensuality and warmth. The infinite array of possible solutions makes the environment constantly available to change and the surfaces themselves unpredictable, like water ruffled by wind. The use of fabric instead of traditional surfaces also makes for silent spaces, where colour becomes a fundamental component, together with the lack of fixed reference points. As Maddalena D’Alfonso has written, “Their creations provide enclosures rather than compartments for stuffing things, they are objects to be read in combination and in juxtaposition, rather than fixed arrangements. In this way, the environments open up a surprising and unexpected aesthetic dimension that takes advantage of the movement and actions of the human body as an authentic activator of the space. They define the interior passages where one moves, generating a subversion of the sense of the object that in this way acquires a hermeneutic capacity” (D’Alfonso, 2007, p.249). Designed to be used in the Stockholm showroom, the Tuiles du Nord became part of the design collection at a New York design museum and re-shown, three years later, in an installation at the Kvadrat showroom in Copenhagen in an old de-commissioned industrial building down by the port. In this case, the design decisions were also driven by the special environmental conditions of the site: the view of the sea and the windows on both sides of a long corridor. The underlying idea was to not touch the walls, but leave them white so they could better reflect the natural light from the windows, exactly as nomadic settlers might have done when arriving at this place. There is something in all of this—and not just because of the use of textiles—that is reminiscent of the work of an important figure in contemporary art: Michelangelo Pistoletto. Not just that of the Arte Povera and Venere degli stracci (Venus of the Rags) of 1967, where the artist explored the expressive potential, formal freedom, and aesthetics of a material like a rag, achieving alienating effects able to demonstrate “the concrete exuberance of the real”, but also the current one of Terzo Paradiso, a testament to the need to act “according to the uniqueness of each moment”. The Terzo Paradiso is “the new world. The symbol of the Terzo Paradiso unites humanity. It is an evolutionary step in which human intelligence finds ways of living with natural intelligence” (Pistoletto, 2011). Italian singer Gianna Nannini has articulated this in a performance: “In my encounters with Michelangelo Pistoletto I have realised 35

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that in addition to our shared “love for differences”, we also both question “the singleness of creativity” and call upon the viewer to take their share of responsibility. For me, the Terzo Paradiso is the power to “create” an expansion of this work, to continually seek a transformation in which the spectator is responsible, conscious, and active... The development of this artistic understanding has led me to write a song I call “Paradiso Mama”. A piano plays a seemingly infinite loop and the lyrics are almost like a liturgical call and response. It is a lullaby that, unlike traditional ones, is sung by the child to the mother. At the end, there is also a quote from the “Alabama Song” that Kurt Weill wrote for Bertolt Brecht. Overall, I would say that it is difficult to define, but it is something that tends towards black music, the blues, R&B, and Arabic music”. Since 2016 the Vitra Museum has promoted the traveling show Rêveries Urbaines, with which the Bouroullec aim to bring a new magic to public spaces. This is a significant experiment. The Bouroullec world is one of design, of the object, of reality and of comfort. Thus, as supported by Ronan, far from the symbolic world of architecture. However, for them it is also possible to define a correlation that exists between the way in which objects are created and their rêveries throughout the city. The twenty models on display are proposed as modules for a public space of “variable geometry”, made up of simple elements, to be assembled in order to achieve new visions of the city. It is an evolution of their design-based thought process, capable of transferring to the urban space their own research on the scale of an object of confined space, without losing sight of their peculiar worldview focused on lightness and immateriality.

Destabilising Environments: Ugo La Pietra Spanning from the early 1960s up to today, Ugo La Pietra’s extensive theoretical and professional career means he has been present at many of the most interesting artistic and cultural events of the last fifty years. His most distinguished critics, including Gillo Dorfles, Vittorio Fagone, Eugenio Battisti, and Pierre Restany to name just a few, have insisted that the diversity of his interests make him a sort of “multi-artist”. It was Dorfles who highlighted how “La Pietra the architect, film maker, designer, decorator, would be Figure 20. Installation, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2011 © Studio Bouroullec

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inconceivable without La Pietra the painter” (Dorfles, 2001, p.6). It is a critical observation that enables his work to be read in a way that shines a light on its content, laying it completely bare, making it possible for such seemingly disparate ways of thinking and working to fall within a single coherent style. He has a single, unique, unmistakeable, and transgressive aesthetic conception of the world that embraces aesthetic research into a sinestesia delle arti (synesthesia of the arts) which goes beyond a mere intégrations des arts (integration of the arts) or “research into the meaning of the objects” (Fagone, 2011, p.5). It also goes beyond some of the “high quotient of randomness and chance” in some of his methacrylate works (Dorfles, 1965), and beyond the experiments on sistema disequilibrante (destabilising systems) or riconversioni progettuali (design reconversions) or proposals on nuova territorialità (new local-ness) and so on. The key role the mark plays—both as a tool that represents ideas as well as an independent component di per sé, that is, the bearer of meaning—can already be clearly seen in the first works of the 1960s, some of them in collaboration with Alberto Seassaro. His experiments on deformation in a programmed field use acrylic-based elementi tissurali (tissue elements) and deformations to address the same issues as programmed art. The graphic language he uses is artistic in its sensibility. His studies on emergenze urbane (urban emergencies) employ a form of representation - drawings and models - that exceeds the pure communication of the design idea and take on a special quality. This is the same Ugo La Pietra whose aesthetic systems date back to the spatialism of Lucio Fontana and the sculpture of Milani. This is why it is interesting to observe his work through the filter of his artistic vision, starting with the early years, his furnishing objects, and installations. It is what makes his work so unmistakeable, and in a certain sense incomparable to that of almost any other artist, and in this way, especially valuable. Take for example his design for a bookshelf Uno sull”altro (One on Top of the Other) created in 1968 by the company Poggi di Pavia. It is an “open” system based on modular elements that can be configured in an infinite number of ways depending on the horizontal and vertical orientation. It can be used from both sides and is designed to hold not only books but also - thanks to certain “double height” areas - objects of a certain dimension. So it is a bookshelf, but it is also a piece of micro-architecture. The process is based on introducing a kind of “precipitation” within a clearly defined structure, resulting in altered states that lead to an unpredictable result, generating a “destabilising” effect. Gillo Dorfles dedicated a chapter of his work Dal significato alle scelte (From Meaning to Choices) to the destabilising work of Ugo La Pietra. He saw it as a harbinger of potential new elements of demystification about the “aberrant situation in which our standardised civilisation finds itself today” (Dorfles, 1973, p.229). He recognised that these operations have a value not just on the level of aesthetics and symbolic meaning, but also socially and culturally. In 1972, when Ugo La Pietra was asked to design the Mila Schön showroom on Via Condotti in Rome, the concept behind the bookshelf design was put to the test in a charged space. It had already undergone a kind of dress rehearsal in 1969 with an installation in the streets of Como titled Campo urbano (Urban Field). However, there the intent had been different, almost the opposite really, since it had to do with demonstrating the possibility of liberating the street from the all-powerful commercial system. Instead, here we are at the heart of the commercial system. Yet, the design does not give up the power of the idea; it employs it in an irreverent way, with extreme consequences. The wall is nullified and the spatial symmetry cut as the inclined planes destabilise the space, playing with the winking and seductive light to create an innovative “magic box” within which the merchandise finds consecration (albeit non-ritualistic). In 1973 La Pietra replicates this model - in a clearer almost abstract way - at the Edizioni Jabik & Colophon showroom in Milan. A few years prior, in 1968, he had designed one of his most visionary and innovative works at the boutique Altre Cose, also in Milan (Figure 21). The 37

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boutique is made up of a large empty space with thirty transparent acrylic cylinders filled with merchandise suspended from the ceiling. Customers can access the merchandise by lowering the cylinders via a remote control. It is an almost literal application of the randomness principle applied to space; it generates “multiple progressions, and unexpected and unforeseen accidents” (La Pietra, 2006, p.24) to which another central theme of his work is grafted: immersions. 1979 saw the inauguration of the 16th Triennale which hoped, according to the intentions of the new Council heading the event, to break away from previous editions and pave the way for social topics, topics concerning the territory and cultural in a broader sense. This was an attempt to supply answers to new questions arising from the social and cultural fabric of the city, and not only that. The Triennale was centred around five themes: city knowledge; architecture design; design organisation; the meaning of fashion; audio-visual space. Ugo La Pietra took part in both the “Art in the Social sphere” with his installation “Un pezzo di strada nella stanza, un pezzo di stanza nella strada” (“A piece of street in the room, a piece of room on the street”) and in the “Audio-visual” section. He also curated the show L’immagine della città (The city’s image). His intention was to “theorise for the urbanised individual a new area of accessibility and creativity, based not on interventions on physical structures (an opportunity we are gradually losing day by day), as much as on the potential for a creative attitude with regards to behavioural and mental areas” (La Pietra, 1979 a). An original approach to intervening on collective use processes in urban environments, which already two years before had been described by Enrico Crispolti as capable of “indicating alternative angles, either through break-away interventions or designs, or through identifying and recording truly alternative, transgressive, decoding habits and practices” (Crispolti, 2001). This was a crucial point in his line of thought, which we can see throughout his work, even in his later experiments. His designs, his installations, his works are “in a region located on the fringes of reality, their value, I am referring also to the recently-exhibited ‘cassette’, is in their containing a reflexion on mankind and its way of inhabiting, on the evolution of domestic rituals and on the role a number of archetypical elements could continue to carry out so that each of us may feeling at home wherever we are” (Crespi, 2014, p.197). In the same year he publishes Istruzioni per l’uso della città (How to use the city - La Pietra, 1979 b), a booklet containing studies carried out on the issue of re-appropriation of the environment through raising the awareness of users and “cultural operators”. A true manifesto for an idea of public urban space that point towards the involvement of users, towards the re-invention of places “according to a logic that is free from predetermined structures”, towards the recovery of creative faculties made atrophic by a society founded on the standardisation of work and which includes a ferocious critique aimed at the academic establishment in all of its disciplinary areas: from that of urban planning, the core purpose of which is to “isolate people within the family-focused residential cell, reduce their possibilities to a choice between a limited number of predetermined actions” (La Pietra, 1979 b). To that of “composition”, of which “Rational Fascism” is the latest successful trend, destined to give rise to “a form of architecture that is conceived to be drawn: with central perspective lines, deep 45° shadows, sterile designs, axonometric projections broken at various levels without the human figure”. This of course does nothing to ease its relationships with that area of academic culture that occupies the dominant roles of the various Milanese contexts: universities, the Triennale, research centres. It is for these reasons that the booklet and its theories’ impact on design culture was so little compared to what it deserved, and especially when compared to the impact it would have over the following years. Its roots reach back into the work carried out over the previous century, specifically through the magazines “IN” and “inpiù”. Particularly issue n. 1 from 1973 of the latter, of which he was the editor, 38

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focusing on “The use of an object” and which came out only a few months after the foundation of “Global Tools”, offered a selection of around 500 filled-out forms based on a survey aimed at the same number of people belonging to different social classes. Each respondent was asked to indicate an object they felt was particularly missing within their home. The objective was to demonstrate how much people’s desires and imagination were conditioned by the communication system created by the “consumer society”. The result was a very original “report on the cultural sentiments of the nation”, which inspires Eugenio Battisti to state: “Personally, this is the most extraordinary and inventive experience of active socialism and critique to be carried out since that famous surrealist movement concerning the meaning and use of symbols, in figurative arts, and which in the same way inspires a large number of reactions” Battisti, E.(2001). Each form included, other than the picture of the respondent and the interior of their home, a drawing made by the respondent, representing the object they desired. The world that emerges appears populated by multiple meanings regarding the conditioning enacted by the market’s mystification and by our consumer society with regards not only to what one buys but to what one desires. Throughout these years, Ugo La Pietra’s worked continued to follow stubbornly entirely autonomous lines of research, far from those dominating society in general or dominating the world of design and architecture. In an attempt to “reconcile the conceptual with the spectacular”, he took part in the Biennale di Venezia and in Abitare il tempo (Inhabiting time) as part of the Fiera di Verona designing set-ups capable of provoking a critical reaction from the viewer with regards to the topic at hand. Whether it be that of Memoria (Memory), of which he attempts to emphasise the shift from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional state, or that of the Casa telematica (Telecom house), as presented at the Fiera di Milano in 1982, with which he represents in a light-hearted yet sarcastic tone possible future scenarios of the domestic environment and the profound transformations of rituals that find their place in that very environment, other constants of his line of thought were brought into the light. Specifically, the idea that tradition and new rituals in continuous evolution might co-exist, a concept that finds its consecration in the film “Classico contemporaneo” “A contemporary classic”, created for Federlegno in 1985. It is within this research trajectory that one must interpret the “Laboratorio di cultura balneare” (“Beach culture workshop”) experience, carried out in partnership with the Cattolica Cultural Centre at the end of the decade. His nose for all things outside the official ceremonies within which the world of architecture is caged allowed him to glimpse a potential context for design experimentation in the holiday industry. His interest focused on “Beach culture”, as a unique and underestimated crucible of very different phenomena, all however representative of a reality characterised by a high level of “social, economic and territorial complexity”, the expression of a culture “made up of the sea and swimmers, along with shopping and discos” (La Pietra, 2011). The outcome is a series of small installations, some made for the open-air spaces of Cattolica, almost all of it ceramic: the “Monumento alla balneabilità” (“Monument to Swimming”), a light-hearted and Felliniesque tribute to Romagnola femininity; the “Quattro passi di danza” (“Four dance moves”) fountain, as coquettish and titillating as a film starring Edwige Fenech; the “Great wave” created by the Spilimbergo Mosaicists, all works set in a difficult balance between the light, playful, almost pop-art, bagatelle tone and the more sophisticated tone of references that act as a prelude to the following experiments on the theme of demolishing the border between public and private, between outside and inside, in view of the core characteristics of the domestic environment’s shift into the open space. Experiments that began, as noted by Marie-Ange Brayer, director of the FRAC Centre, with identifying urban morphology as an outcome of behavioural parameters, while also continuously aiming to oppose purely theoretical approaches, primarily practiced by the rest of the radical movement, with an operative practice carried out as if by an anthropologist (Brayer, 2009). 39

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Over the following years his work explored a riskier territory and his designs from that time reveal a clearer linguistic identity. Not that the objects created back in 1979, through the process of “design reconversion” lacked such an identity. Every piece there also enclosed an “aesthetic” content, which makes it fall under the family of works of both art and design. Something of Duchamp and something of Castiglioni. However, while the work of Duchamp was destined for museums and that of Castiglioni for production, the tipi fantastici (fantastical types) by La Pietra make up the letters of an alphabet on which he continued to work, often swimming against the current and demonstrating the value, as was noticed first by Gillo Dorfles (Dorfles, 1973), of his quality first and foremost as a ‘painter’, whose markings add other meanings to operations that are apparently without iconic value. Yet, at this point in his work, we can see a greater degree of imbalance, favouring a more sophisticated figurative repertoire, which give rise to a number of considerations carried out with regards to the theme of urban decor. At the centre of this is the idea that to make “an urban space habitable means to introduce a series of design elements and an amount of intervention energies of the same kind as those that are used to make a domestic space habitable” (La Pietra, 2011). Thus, not a catalogue of ready-to-use objects and equipment for every kind of place, but “decor” designs capable of being applied in a case-by-case manner with the specifics of each territory, starting with an effort on behalf of the designer who, by using the same tools as an anthropologist would, is capable of sounding the behaviour of individuals and who is always open to transforming the levels of freedom introduced within furnished spaces. Many designs have been inspired by these considerations and by the intention to reassign meaning to decor as an area capable of making environments, whether they be interior or exterior, comfortable and hospitable, that is, capable of keeping in mind the expectations and relational needs of those who “inhabit” them. The “Giardino all’italiana” (“Italian garden”), created in 1990 within Bologna’s Cersaie, represents a strikingly coloured reinterpretation of the Eighteenth-Century “garden of delight”, as a place to stop and look, featuring “optical chambers” coloured in green, although here the colour green is purely a reference while the ceramic material takes centre stage, to which is assigned the duty of reproducing a kind of artificial landscape in which to rediscover the “virtues” of both the Italian garden and the Italian public square. Two years prior to this work, the Cersaie also saw him propose his “Casa aperta” (“Open house”) design, where the use of the Bisazza mosaic becomes a means with which to give life to a fragment of architecture capable of including the notions of the “conceptual” and the “spectacular” in order to demonstrate the need to transfer the qualities that belong to private living to the realm of living in a public space, even by resorting to a particular tradition, such as that which is enclosed within the concept of the “Italian home”, as supported by Gio Ponti. More so than in the set-up itself, it is in the smaller pennedout details preceding it that we can see the vividness of his line of thought: images of house torn open, represented as if they were archaeological finds, cathedrals once entrusted with liturgies which now appear obsolete, demolished by an invisible force that dilates interior space, forcing those who inhabit them to become citizens of an endless universe between what is private and what is public. Along the same lines is the work “Frammento di architettura” (“Fragment of architecture”), created for the Italian Pavilion at the 1996Triennale di Milano, where the task of demonstrating the need to question the barrier separating the inside from the outside is assigned to the introduction of a complex figurative repertoire, which does not borrow, as in other works, objects belonging to any kind of common consciousness, in order to leave room for a landscape made up of “architecture fragments”, which move along a thread of dimensional ambiguity, of “changes in scale”, of a dialogue between the object,

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conceived as a ceramic box, and habitable space. And which in decor find a way to refer to the possibility of recovering, even if only symbolically, artisanal know-how. 1989 is the date of a design on Via Sant’Andrea in Milan which features decor elements aimed at evoking “domestic rituals” and transferring into the public space the same character “brimming with values”, of an interior space: a sofa, a few seats, a bookshelf, all created in the form of prefabricated modules according to a design one would expect to find instead in wooden furniture and which, for this reason, is so staggering. The following year he proposed a similar experience in Cursi, under the province of Lecce, using as his material the Leccese stone. Here, due to the material used, “tender and soft to work with, heavy to carry”, the presence of the columns united to form a place that seems almost sacred and of the “monument” to the cactus, the tone becomes almost metaphysical, to such a point that it makes the environments appear fixed in suspended time. Two shows, the first in 2005 at the Palazzo Boncompagni in Arpino, entitled “Territori” (“Territories”), the second in 2009 at the Palazzo Botton in Castellamonte, entitled “Terre e territori” (“Lands and territories”), appear to represent the direction in which he shifted his research in more recent years. That concerning the recovery of the artisanal “crafts” dimension, of the production of unique objects, particularly ceramic objects, “which somehow tend to not only bring value to more formal aspects, but also tend to recover a number of aspects (roots) of a mythical, symbolic or simply representative past, which has always characterised the production of objects in art and decorative arts” (La Pietra, 2009). Which does not mean he has gone back on his word with regards to the ways in which in previous years he had denounced, as Enrico Crispolti wrote, the “daily conditioning imposed by those in power”, rather it is an end point of his research on means of expression, which he has always been able to manipulate in all of their vast availability in being based on the idea of a “synaesthesia of the arts”, and which here he seems to want to limit to those closest to the world of applied arts. To these he entrusted the unprecedented task of saving from their fate the “erased territories, emptied territories, territories without identity” (La Pietra, 2005), starting with a reflection on the importance of safeguarding diversity, whatever its nature. This is referenced by the installation “Itinerari siciliani” (“Sicilian itineraries”), produced in 2007, which picks up on the motif of the open book as an allegory for a world incapable of reuniting its divisions and of recovering a connection with the memory contained in the territories of which it is made, to demonstrate the value of diversity as a right and not as a form of marginalisation. As in the case of the “vasi mediterranei” (“Mediterranean vases”) or the “giare di Biot” (“Jars of Biot”) or the “souvenir di Vietri sul mare” (“Souvenirs from Vietri on the sea”) or the “vasi antropomorfi” (“Anthropomorphic vases”) which reference the archetype of the “vase-carrying head” belonging to the Caltagirone tradition, the value of the objects goes beyond their artistic value: their purpose was to “remind us that with our own hands we can change the world, to use the object as a vehicle for our thoughts and emotions”. This is the theme of his drawings collected under the title “Viaggio nel Mediterraneo” (“Journey on the Mediterranean) and “La mia territorialità” (“My territoriality”), beautiful and evocative of different worlds, of skies, of lands, of seas, of deserts, of landscapes, of paths. It is as if that core of ideas cultivated over the initial years of his career had continued to update itself, even if in new forms. “Few people remember that in the interventions in which I applied synesthetic concepts, in the conceptual tools for the individual recovery of the environment, all the way up to the unbalancing interventions, the environmental decoding, the radical objects, the meta-designs, all of my work has always begun with the day-to-day only to become a phenomenon of exception, a topic for research and experimentation”, he wrote in one of his most recent books. And when the designer makes way for

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the artist his work method seems to proceed as if in an improvised manner, similarly to jazz, in which they maintain an executive role, yet through more modulated tones, closer to those of Benny Goodman.

Conceptual Design: Marti Guixé Marti Guixé shares his design thinking and the reason he calls himself an ex-designer in a conversation reported in the book Food Design with Octavi Rofes, anthropologist and professor of art and design in Barcelona. He explains that his equidistant position between art and design is intended to remove the boundaries that have been forced on certain disciplines. It is an approach that stems from a decision to “work with ideas, avoiding form and materials” and engage more with ideas and concepts during the design phase rather than prototypes and models. For him, trying to resolve technical problems in an ex- and post-industrial society is pointless. Building and making things no longer has any value. The Figure 21. Shop Altre cose, Milano, 1968 © Archivio Ugo La Pietra

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value is not in the object, but in what it represents, and what its author wants to say. So, when he says he cannot cook and has no desire to learn, he is not just playing around. He is stating his artistic agenda. He is interested in instructions as a paradigm of his design agenda: “In general, designers give instructions about how to make something. However, in my case, instructions no longer refer to the materials and how to building something (which would require technical drawings). Instead, the actions and directions are given by text, drawing, perspectives, and generic details” (Guixé, 2010, p.119). This is the origin of his instruction tables, which in many cases are dedicated to Food Design. This is because more than any other object, food is destined to disappear and transform into energy. Therefore, it has no need of extraneous form-making or to be an “instruction-object” able to produce interference. HiBYE is an extreme version of the sublimation of the idea of a functional object (Figure 22). Here, the form and way of presenting the instruction “tables” is reminiscent of A New System of Chemical Philosophy by John Dalton from 1808. They are designed for contemporary workers to create new forms of society in generic spaces, to discover the aura hidden in each of us, and to become seeds for nomadic work at the very moment their content is, quite literally, being consumed. Another is MPtree from 2002, where the instruction table establishes the general guidelines for the installation, which is to be repeated in several locations, including the Centre Pompidou and the MACBA in Barcelona. It starts with the general philosophy and goes on to describe spatial characteristics, variations on the actual design—a table with a tree growing out of it to represent the materialisation of sound—and instructions related to the screens, as well as the way food and beverages are to be consumed. Here one finds an eloquent expression of his idea about the loss of importance of form in contemporary life. In its place, he prefers to predict a process which is based on the capacity of every local context to create its own instructions, prefiguring what he calls “a way of producing locally according to global instructions”. This enables Marti Guixé to adopt a design strategy that allows for the unexpected and chance as key components of the final result. For example, as part of his design for the Desigual stores, there were parties held in the unfinished spaces where participants were invited to draw on the walls. This meant the spaces contained fragments of the stories of everyone who had been there, a kind of authenticity that, according to Guixé, clothing stores lack. Instead they tend to resort to “fake spontaneous” graphics for purely marketing purposes which ultimately represent only one style. Guixé has been collaborating with Camper since 1997. During this time, he has explored a large number of languages. For Temporary Camper Shop in Milan from 1999, despite the client’s initial reluctance, he engaged in a successful experiment (also from a business point of view). The idea was to invite the customers to leave a mark, a piece of graffiti on the walls to create a kind of collective narrative in which everyone could participate and discover a small part of themselves. The Camper FoodBALL in Barcelona is a disorienting and surreal place with different functions, a little bit restaurant, a little bit bar, a little bit meeting spot. Here, Guixé played with the theme of erasing the boundaries between inside and outside, representing—though not literally—the idea of street food as a casual way of dining. The most recent project is Camper Postcard, which are scattered around the world. At the time of purchase, customers are invited to pick a postcard, which cover the walls like a lightweight vibrant skin, and send it to a loved one. It is a subtle way of linking shopping with a practice that is slowly disappearing. It is precisely this lack of a singular style that gives the work of Guixé its unbearable lightness. In its place there is an unmistakeable way of playing with objects and the words that refer to them to restore meaning to what we are doing, to the places where we live, far from the easy, winking provocations of fashion. Hidden below apparent innocence, his designs and ways of expressing them open up new 43

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worlds. One of his invented expressions Aura comes, is meant to represent the type of “illumination” one experiences in front of his work, something similar to what in marketing is called the aha! effect. Except he also plays with us, like the futurists would, or turns the meaning around like Wittgenstein. Because comes in Spanish means “eat”, the meaning could therefore also be “eat the aura”, which for a food designer would represent a real challenge. But it is also an example of the attempt at multiple meanings in his work and the value attributed to the linguistic play. In the 2007 exhibition “Designing Critical Design” in Hasselt, Belgium, Guixé exhibited four works: Car Mirror, Urban Post-it, Food Bank, and Respect Cheap Furniture. The first was made up of a series of mirrors which drivers could see while passing by. The car is seen as a kind of prosthetic for the body if not its very substitution or sublimation. While in the myth, Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection, in Guixé’s version man’s image is replaced with the reflection of his own car. Urban-post it is a curtain hung between city walls to offer its inhabitants a temporary shelter. It is as fragile as a piece of paper but also gentle in its welcoming gesture, a gift in the fullest anthropological sense. Food bank is a seat that “founds” a place, like a pile of rocks used to demarcate a sacred spot. It was inspired by a Barcelona restaurant that leading up to the 1992 Olympics could only offer its customers outdoor seating. Here, a bench - covered with information that allows the customers to order lunch by cell phone - also establishes a relationship with the space, one that goes beyond its simple status as a place to sit, becoming a space in and of itself, and part of the whole. Respect Cheap Furniture is based on the redesign of the most current and inexpensive monobloc plastic seating. Re-coloured and covered with writing “stop discrimination of cheap furniture” they became the medium for the message that Guixé wants to send about objects whose value lies exactly in their “not having any value”. In 2003, Guixé exhibited the surprising, irreverent, and ironic design Park Life (Guixé, 2010) in various cities including Milan, Italy, Lausanne, Switzerland, and Lleida, Spain. The project consisted of 14 elements for a park where everyday life returns to having a relationship with the kind of physical activity once necessary for humanity’s survival, now re-visited as an opportunity for entertainment, sports, and fun. It is a response to the chronic inability of post-industrial society to engage in any of the ancient practices like building a fire, cultivating a field, fishing, and working in a factory; practices that could connote new abilities in terms of games, fun, and sports. To do this, he invented a series of 14 objects, products, or devices designed to bring about this quasi-anthropological change. Park Life is a real Kitchen-City were big architecture transforms the activity of cooking into a kind of hobby or sport, animating a situation that already exists but that people continue to ignore. For Guixé, the traditionalists are those who continue to design and experience the usual (at this point obsolete) food while the “park livers” are the ones truly in synch with contemporary life as they happily feed themselves by fishing in the tanks and cooking in solar ovens in the park. In addition to different scale models, the work includes 14 instruction sheets, once again combining his passion for instructions with numbering. All these works point to a way of thinking that goes beyond the notion of Critical Design, the theme of the exhibition. In a certain sense once could speak of Conceptual Design as a way to better approximate the style of thinking that some conceptual artists employ, where their research generates work in its purest form, capable of liberating itself from the tyranny of materiality to become the conceptualisation of an idea. Artists such as the controversial Piero Manzoni and, closer to our day and age, the work of Alberto Garutti, who uses conceptual devices—not like Manzoni did to provoke or dismantle the system of art—but instead to create a dialogue between the author and the public, where the art rather than the artist has centre stage. This is because for him “a work embodied in a form creates a theory, a method that produces a second work that in turn creates a new theory for the creation of a third work, and so on, in 44

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a never ending cycle that is therefore ever elusive. What matters the most in art is the mysteriousness of the experienced event such that I expect to discover something that I don’t know, that I have never seen. And, I expect that among these works, at least one will show me the way: it will, or maybe it won’t”. Stefan Betke, with the artistic name Pole, is one of electronic music’s most interesting artists. He made a name for himself with “Trilogia” written between 1998 and 2000. His most recent works explore a complex universe of sounds and genres. Although one can speak of his work as a form of musical reductionism, it is neither repetitive nor deterministic. Instead, one could say that each of his pieces seems like a movement that is constantly turning around a perfect core, and that his work, such as “Berlin” from 1988, is based on exploring the maximum intensity of sound that can be achieved through the minimum amount of musical material. The same could be said for Marti Guixé. Particularly for a work of his from 2014, the MUTA bar of Madrid, where the need to humour the request by chef and entrepreneur Javier Bonet to have access to a “changing” bar, capable, that is, of changing its food and drink offer constantly, pushed him to introduce a series of mobile devices, characterised by a bitter, unfriendly design, inspired by the wooden cases used to carry art works. An unfinished space, a “warehouse” able to take on different appearances depending on the food prepared by the chef, while still maintaining in its changing the symbolic strength of the elements of which it is composed.

Mise en scène: Michele De Lucchi Michele De Lucchi’s interiors take the form of a mise en scène, whether it is a matter of living, working, or exhibiting spaces. For this reason too, the images chosen by designers to tell a story revolve around the use of central perspective representation as a way of better communicating a mise en scène. There is always a close relationship between the way in which an author represents the images of their work and the sense they give to these. De Lucchi gives the impression of wanting to make use of the film camera to transmit something else, to highlight the illusory, infinite nature of many of the spaces created capable of telling much more than would appear at first sight, including when the project limits itself to following existing architecture and introducing just a few, carefully calibrated elements made necessary by the place’s change of function. And this is both when he explores the theme of the expressive potential of the mirror device in relation to its axis explicitly and without ever resorting to the sometimes impressive stratagems with which architectural history is so packed, and attempting, on the other hand, to work as if it were buried, bending all elements present to a harmonious vision of reality, with the exception of a few cases in which his radical past seems to come to the surface in ways which remain in any case very different from his early work, to breathe life into subtle visual paradoxes and provocations like those of a calémbour. The Moschino and Camper shops in Milano and the Il Tronco offices in Pforzheim in Germany fall into this group. A dual register is at play in the Moschino shop. It transforms the space into a Milanese gallery with expanses of cupboards, glass cases, and display cases made of oak and covered with ultraclear mirrors to expand space and make the shop into a stage on which everything is performance under the artistic direction of Moschino’s Rossella Jardini. To this De Lucchi adds the role changing game destined to introduce an alienating, quasi détournement effect like that in a theatre, made of natural oak and grey oxidised oak slats and a ceiling in plaster panels smooth lacquered in black and white check. In the Milan Camper! shop dating to 2009, a square at the entranceway enclosed by walls is overlooked by a great many “balconies” from which shoes are visible and a cupboard with echoes of Memphis, a 45

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Figure 22. HiBYE Complete Catalogue Foto: KnölkeImagekontainer

sophisticated object of quasi suprematist inspiration, midway between Malevich and El Lissitzky. The Il Tronco offices built in 2012 in Germany have a mountain-shaped stainless steel fountain in the spiral staircase with water running in jets and springs scattered over the slopes keeping the mountain’s surfaces wet at all times. The trunk which gives shape to the building is a metaphor for the Black Forest which surrounds Pforzheim and its springs symbolise the fertility and creativity of the company which was responsible for the building it is housed in. Its way of operating in contexts in which existing space has historic connotations and an incontrovertible artistic relevance is of another kind. In the 2011 Gallerie d”Italia project in Milan, De Lucchi took on the transformation of a series of late eighteenth to early twentieth century spaces built as middle class houses and later used as banks into a museum. These are interiors which make use of precious materi-

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als typical of the era, such as marble and stucco, and a showy richness of architectural elements such as columns, cornices, and pilasters, some of which have been restored. His work takes on the theme of respect for places with lucid precision and unmoving rigour. Where the decorative framework both on the walls and the ceiling represents the specific symbol of the space, he adopts a procedure à la Carlo Scarpa, founded on the use of an exhibition space which is independent of the architecture made up of elegant bronze trestles supporting paintings and plasterwork. The mise en scène here is a matter of control over the relationships between object and space. In what were once the bank’s offices and where the nineteenth century Italian collections are kept, a baritone register, brightly hued work aiming to breathe life, as the project report sets out, into “nineteenth century domestic spaces building a theatre stage and placing the work at the centre of contemplation is employed. The rooms give pace to exhibition themes underlined also by changes in wall colour with play-like tones emphasising the precious gilt or silver cornices worked by hand in careful restoration work. Flooring made of antique effect oak in narrow planks which echo those of the nineteenth century buildings lastly acts as the overall linking element in the exhibition”. It is an exhibition which takes the form of an enfilade which seems to unravel between the wings of a theatre of memory. The 2015 Mercato del Duomo (figure 23) project in Milan relates to the creation of a restaurant within the walls of the memorable space of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II designed by Giuseppe Mengoni and completed in 1877. De Lucchi resolves the issue of access to the various floors by incorporating a steel staircase into the building, a cold and technologically “alien” element which acts as a backdrop in the depth of field of the first entranceway and is seen via two imposing sloping roof furnaces behind which an olive tree in bronze by artist Adam Lowe is visible, suspended and surreal in a seductive set in which just a few new elements added to the existing architecture seem to have always belonged to this place. In this case what is generally said on the subject of the sequence shot in the background seems to have been transposed into the interior design. It was in the Manica Lunga project on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore in 2005 that De Lucchi”s research around the theme of the expressive power of a spatial device hinging on a symmetry axis is at its most convincing. On the subject of this project he wrote, “The most visible feature of the Manica Lunga project is certainly perspective and the thrilling effect of the long visual salon seen above all in the direction of the three mullioned window overlooking the San Marco basin. It is a powerful, silent, ascetic and totally unexpected space in our culture of standardisation and crude practicality. It is also disorienting because its dimensions are difficult to grasp as a result of the visual trick generated by the cell doors which interplay with the space’s real proportions, a delicate and highly sophisticated game which must never be cancelled out”. The heart of the space is made up of the long salon transformed into art history library with open shelving and consultation tables in the middle. The doors giving access to the cells are carved out of the shelving and highlighted by a wooden frame which emphasises the perspective effect including by resorting to the small-element-inserted-into-a-larger-element technique. The result is breathtaking. Concealed beneath the apparent linearity of the library is a visually complex organism containing a multiplicity of aspects to be discovered gradually and composed into a synthetic vision capable of bringing its many meanings together. “The symbols making up the scene define the imaginary lines in a building in which the vanishing point is identified as real objects with powerful symbolic value… A way of doing things which could be defined Renaissance style in which powerfully symbolic elements constitute the perspective vanishing point” (Bontempo, 2011, pp.195 -197). Many directors have used the central perspective as an expedient for concentrating vision on one point in the scene, such as in the images in Stanley Kubric”s The Shining filmed in the corridors of Overlook 47

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Hotel, the effect of which is to heighten the dramatic quality of the story and focus attention on the child escaping on a tricycle. Others who have used it include Wes Anderson, above all in The Grand Budapest Hotel, giving each photogram the elegance of a Renaissance painting. De Lucchi makes use of mise en scène in the depth of field, in heightening the central vision to explore the inherently expressive nature of space in interiors as the raw material from which the imprisoned figure is carved out, almost as if he were transferring the way he works his wooden objects to architecture. It is singular that this strategy has been adopted by one of the most respected and most popular furniture designers, but it is almost as if his intention were to demonstrate that space and the way we live in and perceive it counts for more than the things we are in the habit of filling it up with. At Museo della Musica in Bologna in 2012, De Lucchi, together with music designer Lorenzo Palmeri, experimented with a Concerto di Gocce d”Acqua (water drop concert). The aim of the installation was to transform a falling drop into a sound or, as De Lucchi has written, into “a vibration, within the body and within the soul, which sends a shiver down our spines. We made seven plates with seven different materials (copper, iron, glass, pottery, wood, plastic and aluminium), like the seven musical notes, and each plate made a different sound”. It was a water concert transformed into a matter concert, a concert of tactile and visual sensations, of images and emotions often undistinguishable from one another. Just like De Lucchi’s interiors.

Magic and Enchantment: Attilio Stocchi In Attilio Stocchi’s work his enchantment, as in the work of artists back in the Fifteenth Century, derives from a form of precise realism, albeit enveloped in an atmosphere of lucid wonder. The allegorical content of most of his projects represents the outcome of a process gradually moving towards its end result, not too far from that sought by scientists: meaning he is constantly supported by a line of thought we could define as mathematical, a line of thought that is put to the test with the result of what he calls “listening” to a place, carried out through the search for peculiar characteristics, sometimes underground, often hidden, of the place itself. In his method, there is no room for improvisation: the enchantment that springs from his work is there because in his installations, in his interiors, including urban interiors, lies hidden something more, something intangible waiting to be discovered, which does not immediately come to the surface and which, therefore, finds itself in a sphere we could define as magic. Vortice (Vortex), completed in 2013 in Vaprio d’Adda on the shore of the canal that connects Milan with the river Adda, acts as a bridge between the town square and the tow path, the street that runs along the river, on a much lower level. The presence of Villa Melzi, where Leonardo was a guest for many years and where, while overlooking the canal from his balcony, he drew “vortices like woven hair and flying birds”, inspires Stocchi to design a vortex-shaped path, the geometric structure of which references a logarithmic spiral rotating on itself by a rotation and a half, inscribed within one of the platonic solids drawn by Leonardo for the work “De Divina Proporzione”, by Luca Pacioli, an Italian mathematician who belonged to the Order of the Franciscans. A place which, after having enchanted Leonardo, enchanted Stocchi as well and from the “song” of which he let himself be transported. The outcome is enough to catch viewers off guard in so much as there are many interpretations that could be given to it: it could be a tribute to the surrounding landscape, even though the size is such that its most dramatic side stands out; or an allegory for the world of Leonardo’s shapes; or even a homage to a number of experiences of Russia’s artistic vant-garde art.

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Figure 23. Mercato del Duomo (Duomo Market), Milan, 2015

(Photo courtesy of Tom Vack)

In putting together Favilla. Ogni luce è una voce (Glimmer. Every light has its voice), created for the 2015 Salone del mobile, the theme of light, representing one of the main topics around which his design research orbits, is used as an opportunity to bring out its rational and scientific component through the telling of a story. Inside a black box placed in Piazza San Fedele in Milan, a conference on the nature of light, as both a wave and a particle at the same time, is constantly repeated, regarding its four ways of propagation – directe, diffracte, reflexe and refracte – and with regards to how it is capable of influencing a number of daily natural phenomena, such as chlorophyll photosynthesis, sun rays, rainbows. This is presented to the public through a tale inspired by the structure of the Greek tragedy, in which light is the unquestionable protagonist, in the form of fibre optics and luminous swarms that twirl within a geode. The location manages to cause the visitor, here also a spectator, to experience an unending series of mental short circuits, aimed at bringing to the surface literary memories, a smattering of past knowledge from the world of science, as if it were a special kind of Wunderkammer where the mirabilia made up of real objects and oddities are replaced by images, merely evoked, deriving from the scientific universe. Woodlandheart is an installation designed for Euroluce 2011, the international lighting exhibition. In a surreal atmosphere, suspended between the past and the future, where stylised trees, enveloped by mist and birdsong, recreate the sacred woodland once worshipped by the Celts, located where you can

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now see Piazza San Fedele in Milan, the statue of Alessandro Manzoni comes to life and speaks to us, declaring his love for nature and for the city of Milan. Stocchi describes the meaning of this installation as follows: “Thanks to a sophisticated synchronisation of images, lights and sounds, I have attempted to create an environment the observer will be able to experience directly through six episodes throughout the day, from sunrise to night time, taking part in dialogues between the redstart and the white wagtail, in the drumming of the woodpecker followed by the jay, watching the race between the family of thrush and that of finches, listening to the calls of the owl as the lizards pass by. A game of transforming light into sound, and vice versa, in which the voices of animals interact with the chromatic scales of all the greens in the forest”. Each tree is associated with a species of bird, of which it provides the scientific Latin name and reproduces its song. The result is a surreal environment, in which from the coloured fog, pierced by sounds, emerges, solemn and hieratic, the statue of Manzoni, almost as if recreating the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog: truly both enchanting and magical. In 2015 came Galaverna (Soft rime), a redevelopment plan for Piazza Castello in Castel Rozzone, under the province of Bergamo. Here, in 1386, the Rozzone were defeated by the Visconti in an epic battle of which, even today, the inhabitants preserve vivid memory, almost as if it happened only recently and not seven hundred years ago. Of this Stocchi the story teller takes note when writing his scenography. The noise of that battle and the images of spears and halberds clashing come back to life, as if in a painting by Paolo Uccello, in a new landscape made up of forty-two spears, eight metres tall, planted in the ground. Where the tenacious scientist Stocchi introduces, through a process founded on the study of bounce geometry, generated by the presence of posts, fifty-five watersheds made by assembling two-thousand-seven-hundred stone slabs, destined to not only collect rainwater but also those members of humanity who still recognise public spaces as their own, capable of influencing their daily rituals. In 2002 he was assigned the task of making a house out of a former industrial space, in the province of Bergamo, the peculiarity of which is represented not only by its spatial character but its “atmosphere” as well: perhaps more of a sensation, a state of consciousness than an actually physical quality. Thus was conceived the idea that its future residents needed to live there suspended, detached from the ground, as if in an imaginary and unprecedented pile-dwelling landscape. And in order to give it its shape, he introduced a series of steel posts which carry and suspend all elements that make up this interior landscape: not just the various rooms, floating within the void of the vast pre-existing volume, but also the furniture, at times hanging, at other times pierced by the posts themselves, which grow out of the ground at an angle and which seem to act as anchors to compensate for the temptation of the spaces and objects to escape, like stars in an expanding universe. Vladimir Jankélévitc, one of the more original philosophers of the Twentieth Century, wrote with regards to Claude Debussy: “The privileged objects of mystery are for him the most light and enchanting: aromas in the evening air, fleeting colours, mirages more volatile and inconsistent than the veil of Iris (…) The mystery is the specificity of music (…) no musician has ever delved as deep as Claude-Achille in suggesting and transcribing things of mystery. The inexpressible that Debussy expresses is similar to that insoluble entity that, as we mentioned before, is made to be worshipped, not solved (…) Debussy is explicit, since his mysteries are obvious! Debussy is mysterious, yet clear” (Jankélévitc, 2012). Do Attilio Stocchi’s works not hide some mystery, albeit in their own clarity? The inexpressible represented by the music of Debussy reminds us of the unportrayable to which the paintings of Giorgio Morandi tend. For whom the duty of art is to “make visible what escapes our sight, to paint the invisible, to portray the unportrayable”. For this reason one needs to be able to look beyond the image of the objects populating his canvases: “The bottle represents not the bottle itself but is proposed as an icon of what is visible that 50

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refers to an otherness without any possible figure of its own” (Recalcati,2016). And for the same reason, when we look at Umbracula, designed by Stocchi for the 21st Milan Triennale, in 2016, if we dare look up we can see something that is more than an elegant pavilion inspired by the mulberry trees of the Sala dell’Asse in the Castello Sforzesco, destined to host the two sages of Melotti: we can recognise a place, as the outcome of a founding act (Fig. 24).

CONCLUSION The transition from the project’s theme to the final elaboration requires numerous actions. These actions are linked together and essentials to reach a convincing result that is pertinent and able to propose innovative and coherent answers. The described order of actions can also be modified, however, for the approach proposed, it is essential to place the research on the theme at the beginning of the designing path, before the research on the place. Moreover it should be added the capacity to constantly connect between them the results accomplished during the designing path and compare them with the most eminent interior design experiences both from the past and the contemporary era. The aim will be to adopt an intellectual behavior able to move consciously among that experiences to reclaim them, transform them or even deny them. Those illustrated are only a few examples in a much wider panorama of strategies, attributed to different approach procedures to interior design. They have been selected as the ones that, from the point of view of this author, better explain the idea of interior design as an activity founded on research which is focused on constant innovation and constituted by the combination of contributions from other disciplines, especially from the visual arts, cinema, and music.

Figure 24. Installation Muse, Sala delle Cariatidi e “Fine di Dio” di Lucio Fontana, Milan 2017

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The goal should be to give answers to living questions, which will be not only functional, but also able to attribute to spaces a symbolic value, somehow iconic, as well as essential qualities to answer to space using systems that have deeply changed from the past. It will be possible to understand the present essay as a work addressed to open up new research perspectives. They are different from those developed by professional historians, and instead they hinge on the view of the one whom, being a designer, looks at the events of the most influential authors not to retrace stories, but to experiment with new design grammars.

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Guixè, M. (2010). Food Designing. Mantova: Corraini. Guixé, M. (2010). Park Life. Lleida: Centre d”Art la Panera. Guixé, M. (2010). Food Design. Milan: Corraini. Hillman, J. (2004). L’anima dei luoghi. Milan: Rizzoli. Hofstadter, D. R. (1984). Gödel, Escher, Bach: un”Eterna Ghirlanda Brillante. Milan: Adelphi. Holl, S. (2004). Parallax. Architettura e percezione. Milan: Postmedia books. Irace, F. (2009). Gio Ponti. Milan: Gruppo Editoriale l”Espresso. Irace, F. (2011). Gio Ponti. Milan: Il Sole 24 Ore. Jankélévitc, V. (2012). Debussy e il mistero. Milano: SE. Johnson, P. C. (1947). Mies van der Rohe. New York: Museum of Modern Art. Károly, O. (2000). La grammatica della musica. Torino: Einaudi. La Pietra. (1979a). Arte nel sociale. La sinestesia delle arti. La Pietra. (1979 b). Istruzioni per l’uso della città, note informative e suggerimenti pratici. Milano: Edizioni Associazione Culturale Plana. La Pietra, U. (1995). Gio Ponti. Milan: Rizzoli. La Pietra, U. (Ed.). (2001). La sinestesia delle arti. Milan: Mazzotta. La Pietra, U. (2005). I nuovi territori. Pulizia etnica. In Ugo La Pietra. Territori. Arpino: Fondazione Umberto Mastroianni. La Pietra, U. (2006). Libreria uno sull’altro, 1967-2007. Florence: Alinea. La Pietra, U. (2009). Ceramica fatta ad Arte. In Terre e Territori, ceramiche d’arte di Ugo La Pietra. Verona: Academic Press. La Pietra, U. (2011). Abitare la città. Torino: Allemandi. Laurent, S. (2004). L’opera e il percorso di Philippe Starck. Scritti su Starck. Loos, A. (1982). Parole nel vuoto. Milan: Adelphi. Mendini, A. (1976). Sottsass’s scrap book. Casabella. Mendini, A. (1981a). Cosmesi universale. Domus Moda, 1. Mendini, A. (1981b). Architettura ermafrodita. Modo, 45. Mendini, A. (1981c). Gio Ponti. Space Design, 8015. Mendini, A. (1982a). Il nuovo soggiorno. Domus, 630. Mendini, A. (1982b). La camera da letto. Domus, 629.

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Mendini, A. (1982c). Uno stile per ogni stanza. Domus, 627. Mendini, A. (1983). Sopravvivenza sottile. In R. Rinaldi (Ed.), Alessandro Mendini. Progetto infelice. Milan: Ricerche Design Editrice. Mendini, A. (1984). Vienna: Achille Castiglioni Designer. Domus, 651. Motsch, W. (1987). Satz, Text, sprachliche Handlung. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. Mount, C. (2004). Starck in America. Scritti su Starck. Munari, B. (1981). Da cosa nasce cosa. Rome, Bari: Laterza. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1979). Genius loci. Milan: Electa. Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design. Milan: Apogeo. doi:10.1145/985600.966013 Onfray, M. (2004). Anatomia di alcuni sortilegi. Scritti su Starck. Panofsky, E. (1991). Perspective as Symbolic Form. New York: Zone Books. Pasquinelli, C. (2009). La vertigine dell’ordine. Il rapporto tra Sé e la casa. Milan: Baldini Castoldi Dalai. Perec, G. (1980). La vie mode d’emploi. Paris: Achette. Pistoletto, M. (2011). Il Terzo Paradiso. Venice: Marsilio. Polano, S. (2002). Achille Castiglioni. Milan: Electa. Ponti, G. (1936). Una abitazione dimostrativa alla VI Triennale. Domus, 103. Ponti, G, (1939). Una casa al mare. Domus, 138. Ponti, G. (1952). Casa di fantasia. Domus, .270. Ponti, G. (1952). Senza aggettivi. Domus, 268. Ponti. G. (1955). Una villa fiorentina. Domus, 303. Ponti, G. (1957). Amate l”architettura. Genoa: Vitali e Ghianda. Ponti, G. (1964). Cielo azzurro, mare azzurro, isole azzurre, maioliche azzurre, piante verdi, rose ai piedi della principessa, orna di danzatrice. Domus, 415. Quaranta, D. (2004). La vita e l”arte. In Magritte. Milan: Rizzoli/Skira. Ranzo, P. (2011). Ettore Sottsass. Milan: Il sole 24 ore. Recalcati, M. (2016). Giorgio Morandi. Dipingere l’invisibile. In Il mistero delle cose. Milano: Feltrinelli. Restany, P. (1989). Les Objects-plus. Paris: La Difference. Roccella, G. (2009). Gio Ponti. Köln: Taschen. Rosselli, A. (1973). I metodi del design. Milan: Clup. Sottsass, E. (2010). Scritto di notte. Milan: Adelphi.

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Sparke, P. (2008). The Modern Interior. London: Reaktion Books. Starck, P. (2001, June). Le Starck System (Interview of Claude Deloffre). Marie Claire Maison. Trelcat, S. (2004). L’architettura secondo Philippe Starck. Guillaume, 5. Trini, T. (1968). Divertimentifici. Domus, 458. Truzzi, M. (1983). Sherlock Holmes: psicologo sociale applicato. In U. Umberto Eco & T. A. Thomas Sebeok (Eds.), Il segno dei tre. Holmes, Dupin, Peirce. Milan: Bompiani. Vaudetti, M., Canepa, S., & Musso, S. (2014). Esporre, allestire, vendere. Milan: Wolters Kluver Italia. Vercelloni, M. (2011). Achille e Piergiacomo Castiglioni. Milan: Il sole 24 ore. Vidler, A. (1992). The Architectural Uncanny. Essay in the Modern Unhomely. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Zanini, C. (1941). A proposito di un arredamento esposto alla VII Triennale. Costruzioni-Casabella, 157. Zevi, B. (1961). Storia dell”architettura moderna. Torino: Einaudi.

ADDITIONAL READING Abalos, L. (2009). Il buon abitare. Milano: Christian Marinotti. Amendola, G. (2010). Tra Dedalo e Icaro. La nuova domanda di città. Roma, Bari: Laterza. Annichiarico, S. (2005). Alessandro Mendini: Pulviscoli. Milano: Charta/Triennale di Milano. Ardener, S. (1993). Women and Space. Oxford, Providence: Berg. Branzi, A. (2006). Modernità debole e diffusa: il mondo del progetto all’inizio del XXI secolo. Milano: Skyra. Bucci, F., & Bosoni, G. (2009). Il design e gli interni di Franco Albini. Milano: Electa. Crespi, L. (2013), Da spazio nasce spazio. L’interior design nella trasformazione degli ambienti contemporanei, Milano: Postmedia books De Certeau, M. (1990). L’invention du quotidian. Paris: Gallimard. Giunta, E., & Rebaglio, A. (2014, ed.), Design Research on Temporary Homes, Baunach: Spurbuchverlag Irace, F. (2015). Storie d’interni. L’architettura dello spazio domestico moderno. Roma: Carrocci. Kaivu, A. (2012). Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. London: Phaidon. Licitra Ponti, L., & Celant, G. (1990). Gio Ponti: The Complete Work 1923-1978. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Ottolini, G. (2010, ed.). La stanza, Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale

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Perrot, M. (2009). Histoire de chambres. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. Pimlott, M. (2007). Without and Within. Essays onTerritory and the Interior. Rotterdam: Episode publishers. Piva, A., & Prina, V. (1998). Franco Albini. 1905-1977. Milano: Electa. Polano, S. (2006). Achille Castiglioni. 1918 – 2002. Milano: Electa. Polano, S., & Bulegato, F. (2004). Michele De Lucchi. Comincia qui e finisce là. Milano: Electa. Prigogine, I., & Stengers, I. (1999). La nuova alleanza. Torino: Einaudi. Rui, A. (2014, ed.). Ugo La Pietra. Progetto disequilibrante, Milano: Corraini/Triennale di Milano Schulze, F., Windhorst, E. (2102). Mies van der Rohe. A critical Biography, new and revised edition, Chicago: The Univesity of Chicago Press Books Teyssot, G. (2013). A Topology of Everyday Constellations. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Thomé, P. (2014). Ettore Sottsass. London: Phaidon.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Character: The character of a space represents the set of physical, sensorial, and symbolic qualities that distinguish a place from another, in the same way that, in music, the timbre is the quality that allows us to recognize the sound of an instrument from another. Layout: Graphical representation of the design idea that overlooks the physical nature of the designated space, because it aims to conceptually define hierarchies, roles, and relationships between the elements of the project. Master Plan: Graphical representation of the organization of the functions of a spatial organism, through which the choices made during the layout definition phase are verified. Metaphor: Rhetorical figure founded on the analogical relationship, where a term is used to express a different concept from the one it originally has. Within the project it indicates the use of concepts whose meaning goes beyond the one purely functional, to assign to space a narrative and symbolic role. Project Theme: It is the preliminary matter that every space project has to take into consideration. It defines the field where the project is set in and finds his modernity reasons in comparing himself with previous interpretations of the theme over the years. Research: The research meant as a premise to a designing thought uses all disciplinary contributions, close to design culture. It uses the “study case” method and has a cyclical trend, meaning that it continues for the entire duration of the project, through consequential phases of theme’s improvement.

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Chapter 2

Urban Interiors and Interiorities Suzie Attiwill https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8238-6784 RMIT University, Australia

ABSTRACT The question of the inhabitation of cities is becoming one of the key issues of the 21st century as the number of people living in cities exceeds those in rural areas for the first time in history. This chapter addresses the conjunction of urban and interior in relation to the potential of interior design as a discipline that is no longer adequately defined by an architectural context but rather as a practice that is relational and attends to the relationships between people and environments. Emerging trajectories of interior design practice will be presented with the aim of positioning the criticality of contemporary interior design practice as a laboratory for the production of new urban interiors and interiorities.

INTRODUCTION Significant shifts in the movement of people – physically and in terms of population – are transforming cities and the urban environment. This is the first time in history that there are more people living in urban environments than rural contexts; currently, it is 55% with a projected increase to 68% by 2050. The number of people is also increasing – in 1950, the total urban population was 751 million people and in 2018, this was 4.2 billion. By 2030, there will be forty-three megacities with more than ten million inhabitants (UN, 2018). All of this is accompanied with the highest level of displacement on record with 68.5 million people forcibly displaced (UNHCR, 2019). Another significant transformation of the urban environment is that produced by tourism. Tourism is the fastest growing economic sector in the world and the impact on cities is massive as tidal-like flows of tourists come and go. For example, Venice has a local population of 60,000 people and experiences twenty million tourists annually; in Amsterdam there are ten tourists for every Amsterdam resident (Boztas, 2018); in Manhattan the number of tourists has doubled since 1998 to 60 million per year (González-Rivera, 2018, p. 3). There are also significant demographic movements in urban populations. Tokyo, one of the largest cities in the world, has an ageing population which will require the city to dramatically change in the way it functions. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch002

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This growth and shift in urban populations challenge current infrastructure, services and the resources of governments. This in turn has presented opportunities for corporations to invest and develop large sections of the urban environment. “Will the role of city-makers fall entirely to corporations?” asks Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory (Sanderson, 2019). Sociologist Saskia Sassen addresses a similar concern with the corporatization of cities. Identifying a shift in the nature of cities from one which is defined as a physical built environment composed of buildings as objects in space to a context that is produced by the invisible flow of high finance where buildings are assets as distinct from places to occupy (Sassen, 2015). These challenges have led to an increased focus on the urban environment within the design disciplines. In architecture, an example is urbanNext – a website established to “generate a global network to produce content focused on rethinking architecture through the contemporary urban milieu – urbanity that is conditioned by the specificities of the information society, sustainable awareness, globalized knowledge and leisure” (Actar, 2018). The practice and advocacy of architect Liam Young is another example of this shift to the urban. His lecture-film performance City Everywhere: A storytelling tour through the landscapes of technology presents a quasi-fictional city in the near future where the built environment is dissolved by technologies and automation to become a digital infrastructure. Referring to himself as a “speculative architect”, he challenges architects to think more broadly than architecture. His website tomorrowsthoughtstoday.com is a platform from which he advocates a new kind of architectural practice (Young, n.d.). Architect, theorist and interior design professor, Andrea Branzi invented the phrase “weak urbanism” to describe what he sees as the transformation of the contemporary city into a continuous system of relational forces and flows “where the material reality of computer networks have already created a de facto, dynamic, invisible and abstract metropolis that is progressively substituting (or moving to the background) the physical and figurative metropolis” (Branzi, 2006, pp. 10-11). It is also interesting to observe an increasing interest in concepts of “interior” and “interiority” in urban and architectural discourse addressing the contemporary situation of cities. A seminar Interiority and the City initiated at Yale’s School of Architecture in 2017 addresses “interiority [as] a concept of increasing importance to architects in urban centers today” (Erdman, 2017). In his keynote lecture for the Harvard Architecture Symposium Inside Matters, urbanist and sociologist Richard Sennett introduced “interiority” as a critical factor in the urban environment and a necessary consideration for architects in the design of public space (Sennett, 2017). Academic and artist Mark Pimlott’s book The Public Interior as Idea and Project develops ideas presented as part of a lecture series for The Architecture of the Interior course at Delft University of Technology based on what he perceives as the critical need for architects to understand the effect of public interior space on society and culture, people’s behavior and sense of identity (Pimlott, 2016). An attention to concepts of interior and interiority as an urban condition is not just a recent concern. The 1748 Map of Rome by Giambattista Nolli is frequently cited as a precedent for thinking the city through the lens of public/private and exterior/interior spaces. Camillo Sitte’s theories presented in his book City Planning According to Artistic Principles (1889) reframed the built fabric of the city as a spatial assemblage of enclosures and openings where the square, forum and agora as enclosed space are re-programmed as interior spaces (Sitte, 1965). Urbanist and academic Jacopo Leveratto has written extensively on this topic and identified historical precedents that align urban planning practices with interior concerns that expand from the focus on enclosure to include “the uses, the relationships, and the ways of being in public that challenge the classic biunivocal correspondence between spatial spheres 59

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and dimensions of inhabiting” (Leveratto, 2019, p. 9). He also makes a direct connection with interior architecture and argues that the “interior disciplines could provide both a solid theoretical perspective and an effective philosophy of action to identify innovative strategies for building and activating hospitable urban spaces through a specific focus on their habitability” (Leveratto, 2019, p. 8). With the twenty-first century labelled by the United Nations as “the century of the city” (Tibaijuka, 2010) and conditions of livability and inhabitation directly confronted in the urban environment, it seems critical to open up the potential of interior design practice as a laboratory to experiment with new ways of living. However, in doing so, one confronts the necessity to not only expand accepted and expected ideas of interior design and the practice of design but also the need to engage with philosophical underpinnings that frame “interior” and “interiority” as concepts and open these containers as well as the architectural. This essay explores this potential manifested in the discipline’s emergence from a modernist architectural discourse into an expanded discipline addressing the production of urban interior and interiorities.

INTERIOR DESIGN AS AN EMERGING URBAN PRACTICE Interior Design has evolved from a profession situated within an architectural context where “interiors are [defined as] an integral part of the structures that contain them – usually buildings. This means that interior design is inextricably linked to architecture and can only be studied within an architectural context” (Pile, 2009, p. 11) into one which articulates a distinctiveness in its concern with relations between people and environment. In 2011, the international professional body – The International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI) – held a global workshop to develop a definition of the profession, its value, relevance and identity. The IFI Interiors Declaration was formulated and has subsequently received endorsement by local governments and city councils around the world. In this document, the identity of the interior design practitioner has been defined as someone who “determines the relationship of people to spaces based on psychological and physical parameters, to improve the quality of life” (IFI INTERIORS DECLARATION, 2011). With an emphasis on the relational, interior design is no longer necessarily defined in advance by the condition of enclosure. This invites other possibilities for thinking and designing interiors – and the practice of interior design – and enables the sensibility and techniques of interior design to extend into the urban environment as a practice of designing ‘interior’. Experimentation in the urban environment is an emerging trajectory of interior design practice particularly in universities where education and research recognizes the criticality of addressing and transforming current social, cultural, political situations in cities and urban conditions. This emergence is not specific to particular cultures nor regions. One encounters urban interior design briefs, workshops and conferences as part of interior design/interior architecture design studios located in cities around the world including Bangkok, Budapest, Istanbul, Jakarta, Knoxville, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Manhattan and Stockholm. The Interior Design program at RMIT University has engaged with the city of Melbourne as an urban laboratory since the early 1990s asking students to address the city’s laneways and in-between spaces through situationist-like interventions to invent and design new ways of inhabiting the city (McLeod, 1999). In 2007, a research group called Urban Interior – {UI} – was set-up across disciplines at RMIT University to interrogate the contribution of design disciplines to new modes of urban inhabitation. {UI} held exhibitions, colloquia and design studios to foster dialogue, debate, design speculation and projects. Urban Interior. Informal explorations, interventions and occupations was a publication outcome 60

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of this research group that includes a specific articulation regarding the contribution of interior design – “Urban and Interior: Techniques for an urban interiorist” (Attiwill, 2011). Rochus Hinkel – one of the founding members of {UI} – continues his research-led explorative practice as an academic in Stuttgart and Stockholm with an emphasis on the intersection between art, architecture and urban environments. Through activist interventions with students, he explores the potential of interior design as a practice of small gestures that can have a significant impact at an urban scale in changing people’s ways of occupying and perceiving space. In Milan, a Master of Urban Interior Design was initiated by Politecnico di Milano based on the assertion that urban interior design is “a new discipline, for which the reference to interior represents both the need to work in the wake of a culture that focuses on the relationship between people and environment, and the search for a new culture of living” (Attiwill, Crespi, Fassi, Giunta, & Hermida, 2015). A special issue of the Interior Design/Interior Architecture Educators Association’s IDEA Journal was dedicated to the conjunction “urban + interior” (Attiwill et al., 2015). Papers and projects were invited that explored the contribution of interior design to the transforming conditions of the urban environment and the twenty-first century city. Questions posed in the call for submissions included: What is the contribution of interior design to cities and live-ability? What might interior design sensibility bring to urban inhabitation? What of an expanded idea of interior design practice as a way of working and thinking which addresses spatial and temporal urban conditions? What of the emergence of new forms of practices to engage in the condition of the urban environment and the social, political and cultural forces of the twenty-first century? The titles of the published submissions give an indication of the range of research that became evident through the response: “‘E-urbanism’: Strategies to develop a new urban interior design”; “Densifying Lilong: Micro-scale design strategy of S.O.F.T. redevelopment of the shikumen housing in urban Shanghai”; “The Public Interior: The meeting place for the urban and the interior”; “The Transfigured Phenomena of Domesticity in the Urban Interior”; “Outside Interior: Traversed boundaries in a Jakarta urban neighborhood”; “Inside Out: When objects inhabit the streets”; “Agency in Appropriation: The informal territory of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong”; and “Reloading Spaces: How design makes urban spaces more liveable” (Attiwill et al., 2015). Similar concerns were posed in the 2016 International Master of Interior Architectural Design (IMIAD) Workshop which was titled “Inhabiting Nicosia: Interior Strategies for the Public Realm”. Hosted by the Istanbul Technical University, the conveners Bahadir Numan and Özge Cordon outlined the aim of the workshop in the briefing notes as “a significant lab to understand what is interior and [from this] urban interior in all its complexities”. Taking place in the city of Nicosia – a divided walled city with a UN buffer zone that runs through its center to divide north (Turkish Republic) and south (Greece) Cyprus – the workshop invited Master students and academics from India, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Turkey, Belgium and Cyprus, as well as local Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Questions posed in the workshop brief included: “How do we inhabit the city and its public realm? Where does the interior architect/ designer stand in this respect? How can we address the role of interiors in relation to the neighborhood and city scale? What are the potentials of the various tools and intervention palettes of the discipline – in regard to the revitalization of existing values, community-empowerment, and place-making? How can urban texture be approached not just as a complex system of architectural form but also as (a) realm(s) of public inhabitations?” Over an intensive week, groups addressed and designed scenarios in response to Urban Interiorities (addressing issues of interiority, temporality, domesticity, rituals and routines in the public realm) (Attiwill, Cordan, & Günçe, 2017; Attiwill, 2018); Interiors as Tactical Urbanism (working with economically disadvantaged axes/areas in terms of economic, historical, social, cultural 61

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aspects); Urban Corridors as Interiors (considering the new crossings being proposed across the UN Buffer Zone and their role in the reunification of the city); Interiorizing Urban Volumes (brainstorming the role of the Buffer Zone as both threshold at city-scale and as an interior through the potentials of volumetric definitions that have dissolved within the past forty years of vacancy); (Dis)Continuous Interiors: Synesthesia of the Street (recording soundscapes as well as other sensorial issues to experiment with different modes of representation, mapping and diagramming Nicosia).

URBAN INTERIORITY While the move to a focus on the relational has incited a rethinking of concepts of space, the ‘people’ aspect of the relation has remained as a given where a subject at the centre as the producer of this experience has been assumed. However, as with the opening up of the architectural container as enclosed space, there is also value in opening the container of the subject. Both “interior” and “interiority” are concepts that are composed of theoretical and philosophical ideas as distinct from being natural states. The current assumption and dominant idea that inheres in the discipline of interior design regarding the subject is the subject as psychological; this is evident in the IFI definition of the identity of the interior designer as a practitioner who determines the relation between people and space based on “physical and psychological parameters” (IFI INTERIORS DECLARATION, 2011). Interior designer and president of IFI at the time of the Interiors Declaration workshop, Shashi Caan says that “interior design must create a science of human experience in the built environment. … just as psychology now informs our perception of human behaviour, a science of interior design will influence our view of all human interactions in the built environment” (Caan, 2011, p. 97). Examples of this positioning of the subject as psychological in interior design practice include cognitive psychology and behaviorism. The poetics of phenomenology is posed as an alternative and the writings of architectural phenomenologist Juhani Pallasmaa (Pallasmaa, 2005) are frequently cited. Michael Benedikt, a professor in architecture and urbanism, offers the distinction as one between exteriorists and interiorists: “In psychology, behaviourists and functionalists are exteriorists; existentialists and phenomenologists are interiorists” (Benedikt, 2002, p. 3). The latter, he associates with interior design where “the interiorist world view and all its sensitivities – sensitivities to texture, pattern, colour, style, touch, nearness, arrangement, personality, and domesticity, to ‘charged’ objects (the life in inanimate things), to class, and to the power of people themselves – of their clothed, warm, breathing bodies – to transform any environment by their presence” (Benedikt, 2002, p. 4). Yet while the psychological and phenomenology are different kinds of subjects, they nevertheless maintain a subject-centric position. This subject-centric interiority can be mapped from the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century in the dialogue addressing cities, people and interior. A key reference is the writing of philosopher Walter Benjamin who famously wrote that the Collector is the true resident of the interior in his withdrawal from the urban public realm to seek refuge within the domestic where this interiorization of the external world enabled the production of “a fictional framework for the individual’s life” (Benjamin, 2002, p. 20). Another figure he also wrote about is the Flâneur. In contrast to the Collector, the Flâneur promenaded through the city as though it were his living room and where “the world only appears to him reflected by pure inwardness” (Quoting Theodore Adorno Fuss, 2004, p. 13). More recent propositions and emerging discourse regarding interiority in the urban realm include the concept of “personal cities” and “personal urbanities” posed by Leveratto. He writes of “a new 62

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idea of urbanity” where “its formal quality seems to lie not so much in the geometric construction of its perimeter, but in its articulation in fields and objects that can be recognized, employed, and personally modified – in a word, ‘inhabited’ in a direct and non-mediated way. … urban space develops, as a domestic interior, around the ‘gestures’ of the subjects who inhabit it … a subjective identity that is not imposed or inherited, but can be imagined, built, and modified in the most absolute autonomy” (Leveratto, 2016, p. 429, p. 430). In contrast, urbanist and sociologist Richard Sennett writes of an “urban account of interiority” that opens up an opportunity to be freed from the constraints of domesticity; a freedom from the familiar and familial. Yet this is still a subjectivity of the personal: “an interior life, a life where they can practice an observational cruising and reflexivity in which the work of memory can occur, because they are alone. … The issue for us, then, is to understand what kinds of space we can make so that somebody can sit at a table, in a café, drink a glass of absinthe, smoke a cigarette, and reflect. That is really the relationship between interiority and the exterior” (Sennett, 2017, p. 18). Academic and artist Mark Pimlott’s research has focused on the role of the public interior in the production of “individualized-interiorized territory” (Pimlott, 2007, p. 10) with the power to manipulate and control users as consumers “in atemporal states within infrastructures and their technologies, effects, and products” (Pimlott, 2010, p. 55). Pimlott is referring to large public spaces such as shopping malls that are often connected with offices and corporate foyers; he cites airports as another contemporary example. In his teaching and writing, his intent is to make “the interior visible … as a realm beyond the domestic, apparently centered on the self” and show its critical role that “is tied to the story of the city, the development of the modern state, the organization of society, the status of the individual and the enfranchisement of the citizen – vivid as a condition within which ideas had been and could be proposed; a field of thought” (Pimlott, 2018). It is through the design of these large architectural interiors, that Pimlott identifies the potential to address and resist the forces of capitalism. In doing so, this opens an opportunity to produce different urban interiorities than the individual as consumer; and for architecture, to provide a significant space for encountering the other and to be “among others and in the world, and so about the possibility of freedom” (Pimlott, 2018; see also Pimlott, 2016). The affects and effects of a personal urban interiority is the focus of a collection of essays on the modern city titled Intimate Metropolis. Urban subjects in the Modern City. The term “intimate metropolis” is used by the editors to highlight “the extent to which the modern city is predicated on the concept of the private individual, and on the sanctity of the individual’s inner most thoughts and feelings” (di Palma, Periton, & Lathouri, 2009, p. 1). Travelling on the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) in Hong Kong highlights this change in contemporary cities where one no longer encounters people as mass but instead negotiates individuals. Paul Priestman, a designer, co-founder and chairman of global design consultancy PriestmanGoode which specializes in large scale projects in infrastructure, aviation, transport, hospitality and product design discussed this in a presentation talking about his design work with the MRT and how the design strategies he employed in an earlier project have had to change as people catching trains do not act like crowds anymore, instead everyone is on their phone and the pace has slowed down; the mass is composed of individuals (Priestman, 2018). Experimentation with ideas of commoning in relation to the urban environment is a developing field of research in response to these challenges. Interior design academic Olivia Hamilton’s doctoral thesis titled A commoning creative practice: tending to mutuality in spaces of engagement posed “interior experience” as something that is in “constant co-production with our psychologies and personal cultures and so the spaces we inhabit are intimately connected to the subjectivities of any individual, and therefore 63

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the wider community we exist within. … As commercial forces promote interiors that encourage greater self-consciousness, conformity and consumerism, a commoning interior is entangled with other things, struggling to bring to the surface different relations to our world and to each other” (Hamilton, 2018, p. 144). The City as a Commons – a conference in Pavia, Italy, 2019 – addressed “the notion of Urban Commons and their spatial unfolding in relationship to the City”. The research conducted under the title “E-urbanism” picks up similar concerns and experiments with place-making through a participatory planning process of “effective and emotionally involved participation” via a “geo-social” network that begins with the urban experience of local people to achieve a new urban sensibility that supports people to extend their “habitability range” (Di Prete, Crippa, & Lonardo, 2015, p. 19). Interior design academic Elena Enrica Giunta’s research addresses the “changed paradigm of living” and the need she perceives to transform “personhood” from acts of possession to ones of sharing and a “collective sense-making practice [through] use” (Attiwill et al., 2015, p. 5). Employing a practice of scriptwriting, Giunta makes relations between bodies (users, inhabitants, citizens, travelers), objects and spaces (temporary and permanent) and environment (Giunta, 2009). She defines the contemporary role of an interior designer as “a socio-technical professional who can support change-making and activism with his/her own tools and nurture a deep cross-cultural approach” (Attiwill et al., 2015, p.5).

AN INVITATION TO EXPERIMENT It would seem that “globalization has evicted us from the world we thought we knew” (Buchanan & Lambert, 2005, p. 7). Relations between environments and people have changed significantly. A sense of remoteness and vastness couples with technological immediacy and produces a loss of human scale and proportion; binaries of public and private, outside and inside, far and near have become dynamic and paradoxical. What kinds of interventions are possible and needed? The experiments of the Situationists are often cited as precedents by disciplines and practices seeking to transform the urban environment. Their project was to disrupt given and dominant relations between people and space. They claimed “there is no longer room for either interior or interiority: henceforth subjectivity is lived or expresses itself externally, it is collective or it is nothing, it is detached from all individual representation” (Kauffman, 2002, p. 287). Techniques such as the dérive, psychogeography and détournement were invented as experiments to see and engage the urban environment in new ways through constructing situations to stimulate “new sorts of behavior” and create “an improved future social life based upon human encounter and play” (Sadler, 1998, p. 105). According to the Situationist Guy Debord, this new urban environment should be based on “the atmospheric effects of rooms, hallways, streets, atmospheres linked to the gestures they contain. Architecture must advance by taking emotionally moving situations, rather than emotionally moving forms, as the material it works with” (Sadler, 1998, p. 107). As a practice engaging relational conditions, interior design transforms the relation between people and their environment. The subject centric position is problematic in the twenty-first postindustrial century where people, infrastructure, capitalist flows compose the urban environment. The invitation posed here is to experiment in the production of not only urban interiors but also urban interiorities. While Caan calls for “a science of human experience”, the urban environment and dynamism of the twenty-first century city require a “remodeling of urban life”, “new styles of living” and experiments with new ways of dwelling (Guattari, 2015, p. 111). One approach could be to reframe the relation between 64

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people and space in terms of ethology which would involve a shift from a subject-centric position that foregrounds the personal and psychological to one where interiority is posed ecologically and involves “first of all the study of relations of speed and slowness, of the capacities for affecting and being affected that characterizes each thing. … [where] an animal, a thing, is never separable from its relations with the world. The interior is only a selected exterior, and the exterior, a projected interior. The speed or slowness of metabolisms, perceptions, actions and reactions link together to constitute a particular individual in the world” (Deleuze, 1992, p. 627). Experimentation with our selves through the practice of interior designing (Attiwill, 2013) opens up concepts of “interior” and “interiority” and in the situation of the twenty-first century, presents an opportunity to produce new urban interiors and interiorities.

REFERENCES Actar. (2018). UrbanNext | expanding architecture to rethink cities. Retrieved 28 January 2019, from https://urbannext.net/about Attiwill, S. (2011). Urban and Interior: Techniques for an urban interiorist. In R. U. Hinkel (Ed.), Urban Interior. Informal explorations, interventions and occupations (pp. 11–24). Spurbuchverlag. Attiwill, S. (2013). Interiorizt. In G. Brooker & L. Weinthal (Eds.), The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design. London: Berg. doi:10.5040/9781474294096.ch-008 Attiwill, S. (2018). Urban Interiority as Collective Individuation. The Stories of Interior: Multiple Perspectives on Interiority. Presented at the [in]arch Conference, Jakarta, Indonesia. Attiwill, S., Cordan, Ö., & Günçe, K. (2017). Urban + Interiority: A Proposition For Nicosia, Cyprus. LIVENARCH V-2017: Rejecting / Reversing Architecture. Presented at the 5th International Congress, Liveable Environments & Architecture, Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Architecture, Trabzon, Turkey. Attiwill, S., Crespi, L., Fassi, D., Giunta, E. E., & Hermida, B. (2015). Urban + Interior. IDEA Journal. Retrieved 12 November 2019 from https://idea-edu.com/journal/index.php/home/issue/view/2 Benedikt, M. (2002). Environmental Stoicism and Place Machismo. Harvard Design Magazine, (16), 1–8. Benjamin, W. (2002). Arcades Project (E. Howard & K. McLaughlin, Trans.). Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1939) Boztas, S. (2018, June 4). Ten tourists for every Amsterdammer: New report. Retrieved 18 January 2019 from https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/04/ten-tourists-for-every-amsterdammer-new-report/ Branzi, A. (2006). Weak and Diffuse Modernity. The World of Projects at the beginning of the 21st Century. Milan, Italy: Skira. Buchanan, I., & Lambert, G. (2005). Introduction. In Deleuze and Space (pp. 1–15). Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748618743.003.0001 Caan, S. (2011). Rethinking Design and Interiors. Human Beings in the Built Environment. London: Laurence King Publishing.

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Deleuze, G. (1992). Ethology: Spinoza and Us (R. Hurley, Trans.). In J. Crary & S. Kwinter (Eds.), Incorporations (pp. 625–633). New York: Zone Books. di Palma, V., Periton, D., & Lathouri, M. (2009). Introduction. In D. Periton & M. Lathouri (Eds.), Intimate Metropolis. Urban subjects in the Modern City (Vol. di). Palma: Routledge. Di Prete, B., Crippa, D., & Lonardo, E. (2015). E-urbanism: Strategies to develop a new urban interior design. The IDEA Journal, 14–27. Retrieved 12 November 2019 from https://idea-edu.com/journal/ index.php/home/article/view/46 Erdman, D. (2017). Interiority and the City. Retrieved 25 June 2018, from www.architecture.yale.edu/ courses/24273-interiority-and-the-city Fuss, D. (2004). The Sense of an Interior. Four Writers and the Rooms that Shaped Them. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203642214 Giunta, E. E. (2009). Urban interiors. Artificial territories: Designing ‘spatial script’ for relational field. IDEA Journal. Interior Territories. Exposing the Critical Interior, 52–61. Retrieved 13 November 2019 from https://idea-edu.com/journal/index.php/home/article/view/141 González-Rivera, C. (2018). Destination New York. Retrieved 6 November 2019 from Centre for an Urban Future website: https://nycfuture.org/research/destination-new-york Guattari, F. (2015). Ecosophical Practices and the Restoration of the ‘Subjective City’ (1989). In G. Genosko & J. Hetrick (Eds.), Machinic Eros: Writings on Japan (pp. 97–115). Minneapolis, MN: Univocal Publishing. doi:10.5749/j.ctt17xr4wb.13 Hamilton, O. (2018). A commoning creative practice: Tending to mutuality in spaces of engagement. RMIT University. Retrieved 6 November 2019 from http://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/view/rmit:162564 IFI Interiors Declaration. (2011, February). Retrieved 13 November 2019 from ifiworld.org/programsevents/interiors-declaration-adoptions/ Kauffman, V. (2002). Angels of Purity (J. Goodman, Trans.). In T. McDonough (Ed.), Guy Debord and the Situationist International. Text and Documents. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Leveratto, J. (2016). Personal Urbanities: Domesticating the Public Domain. Philosophical Studies, 6(7), 424–431. Leveratto, J. (2019). Urban Interiors: A Retroactive Investigation. The Journal of Interior Design, 1–11. McLeod, R. (Ed.). (1999). Interior Cities. Melbourne: RMIT University. Pallasmaa, J. (2005). The Eyes of the Skin. Architecture and the Senses. Wiley-Academy. Pile, J. (2009). A History of Interior Design (3rd ed.). London: Laurence King Publishing. Pimlott, M. (2007). Without and within. Essays on territory and the interior. Rotterdam: Episode Publishers. Pimlott, M. (2010). Notes on the very extensive or continuous interior. In L. B. Peressut, I. Forino, G. Postiglione, & R. Rizzi (Eds.), Interior Wor(l)ds* (pp. 45–54). Torino, Italy: Umberto Allemandi & Co.

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Pimlott, M. (2016). The Public Interior as Idea and Project. Jap Sam Books. Pimlott, M. (2018, February). Provocation. Presented at the Public Interior Public Discussion, Melbourne, Australia. Priestman, P. (2018, December). Creating Better Cities Conference. Presented at Hong Kong Business of Design Week, Hong Kong. Sadler, S. (1998). The Situationist City. London: The MIT Press. Sanderson, C. (2019, February). Branded Cities: Can we avoid an urban dystopia? Retrieved from http:// mpavilion.org/program/branded-cities-can-we-avoid-an-urban-dystopia-with-chris-sanderson/ Sassen, S. (2015, November 24). Who owns our cities – and why this urban takeover should concern us all. The Guardian. Retrieved 13 January 2019 from www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/nov/24/whoowns-our-cities-and-why-this-urban-takeover-should-concern-us-all Sennett, R. (2017). Interiors and Interiority. a+t. Independent Magazine of Architecture+Technology, (47), 10–19. Sitte, C. (1965). City Planning According to Artistic Principles (G. R. Collins & C. C. Collins, Trans.). London: Phaidon Press. (Original work published 1889) Tibaijuka, A. K. (2010). Inaugural Address UN Pavilion Lecture Series, Shanghai World Expo 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2019, from http://mirror.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=8273&catid=649&typeid=8 UN. (2018, May 16). World Urbanization Prospects. Retrieved 11 May 2019, from United Nations News website: https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanizationprospects.html UNHCR. (2019). Figures at a glance. Retrieved 11 May 2019, from The UN Refugee Agency website: www.unhcr.org/en-au/figures-at-a-glance.html Young, L. (n.d.). Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today. Retrieved 28 January 2018, from Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today website: http://www.tomorrowsthoughtstoday.com/

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Chapter 3

Design and Restoration: An Ecological Approach Anna Anzani Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Claudia Caramel Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT This study uses a design-based approach that is focused on the human dimension in all its complexity to give value not only to a functional or rational use of spaces, but also to an experiential one, gaining further significant inspiration from the memory layered in complex historical spaces. Interestingly, psychological studies highlight the collective base characterizing a number of disorders and suggest that changing the outside world can be just as therapeutic as changing the subject’s feelings, indicating that psychology merges with ecology. From an interdisciplinary approach, emphasizing a cultural inclination more than a technical attitude, opportunities seem to develop to promote beauty, identity, and memory as essential dimensions for collective and individual wellbeing. Design-oriented processes could bring out the potential of the built environment, promoting multiple functions and reuse methods, inspired by quality and capable of creating hospitable and welcoming physical and relational spaces.

INTRODUCTION The use of places and the abuse of nature have produced unprecedented historical and natural transformations, requiring an incisive rethinking of the human dwelling conditions. The most conscious sectors of the population have understood that only a global perspective can allow to face the two main problems of human migration and the planet survival, since they are destined to find a common solution. The urgent need to stop the systematic consumption of land, energy, built and natural heritage, calls for increased attention being given to the potential of existing assets for both housing and experience. This puts interior design ahead of the key challenge of reusing existing urban spaces, often characterized by relevant historical architectural features, as providing hospitable interior atmospheres. Preserving hisDOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch003

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torical buildings has been traditionally the purpose of restoration, the object of which has progressively expanded from monumental buildings to a diffusely built patrimony and eventually to the landscape, thus basically covering the world where people live every day. Besides, in the sixties of the twentieth century, the relationship between architecture, memory and psychology was dealt with for the first time (Pane, 1987) in addition to the aesthetic and historical duality which Brandi had put forward as the base of architectural preservation (Brandi, 1963). On the other hand, psychology seems to have widened its scope, going beyond its traditional confines which correspond to the limits of the subject, and moving towards the urban space. In the chapter, reciprocity and mutual influences between restoration, psychology and interior design will be discussed, by analyzing some concepts such as perception, place and memory which seem relevant to all the disciplines considered. An innovative attempt will be made to integrate different fields of knowledge that have commonly been held separate, with the aim of creating connections and meeting places rather than lines of exclusion. Assuming that unusual points of view may be useful for each discipline to step outside its own boundaries - to “get lost”- in order to find its reasons also in adjacent areas, to promote a greater sensitivity toward urban and environmental spaces and to open wider design possibilities.

PERCEPTION During the sixties of the twentieth century, new interdisciplinary approaches were promoted and the first researches of the neo-discipline of Environmental Psychology and Architectural Psychology started to spread, aimed at recovering intangible values of the common heritage and pursuing the community well-being. An inclusive debate involved sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, economists, architects, planners, philosophers, politicians, supporting a growing trend towards a participatory social planning. Within this framework, a fruitful encounter between analytical psychology and architectural restoration was certainly to be attributed to R. Pane as well as other intellectuals (Giannattasio, 2017). Starting from Jung’s works, Pane deepened the relationship between human beings and their physical environment and posed general psychoanalytic and anthropological considerations as a foundation for natural and built environment preservation (Morezzi, 2010). According to Pane, the environmental stratification is a precious inheritance because it constitutes an irreplaceable memory heritage. In his opinion, ecological conditions and peoples’ psychic lives are reciprocally subordinate, every external modification implying an inner reflex. Ancient patrimony is not only a document to be admired, but the testimony of a history of which people are a live stratification. The reason why that object is still necessary is that it is part of peoples’ psyche (Pane, 1987). It is worth mentioning Kevin Lynch (Lynch, 1960) who, criticizing contemporary urbanism for not being able to result into concrete operational solutions, outlined ways to define a new image of the city. Inspired by Gestalt psychology, American pragmatism and psychology, it is based on perceptive experience and, beyond the rational threshold, is able to draw also from the knowledge acquired in the field of Biology, Physics, Sociology and Psychology (Giannattasio, 2017). As pointed out by Gian Carlo Guarda in his Introduction to the Italian version of the book, Lynch captures “an existential meaning for the shape of the city” (Lynch, 1960, p. 13) and thus seeks to give to the urban space forms able to satisfy the human life.

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Besides, Christian Norberg-Schulz in 1971 highlighted the relationship between human beings and their “existential space”, the latter consisting of many elements - physical, psychic, social and cultural which are reified in things, in the home, in the city, in the landscape (Norberg - Schulz, 1971). More recently, cognitive neurosciences are carrying out interesting experiments in the architectural field as widely recounted by Mallgrave in his volume Architecture and Embodiment (Mallgrave, 2013). Starting from the concepts of Zeitgeist and Einfühlung, which spread between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, here the author retraces the contributions that dealt with the relationship between senses and art/architecture. According to the use of the most innovative technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this relationship turns out to ground primarily through an emotional and multisensory experience. Starting from these assumptions, according to the US researcher, design should place at its center the people who live in places, overcoming a formal and purely visual principles on which still today architectural projects are inappropriately founded. Since architecture generates multisensory impressions, it seems to involve “mirror neurons” more than other arts (Figure 1). Therefore, it becomes the very mean through which our body’s neuronal mechanisms explore and appraise the emotional value and affordability of our surrounding environment, the embodied simulation of materials, patterns, spatial relationships, sounds, smells, tactile qualities, scales, textures, pattern and atmosphere (Mallgrave, 2013, p. 181). A similar idea of architecture is proposed by Pallasmaa (Pallasmaa, 2014) who considers the judgement of environmental character as a “complex multi-sensory fusion of countless factors which are immediately and synthetically grasped as an overall atmosphere, ambience, feeling or mood. This experience is multi-sensory in its very essence”. According to Pallasmaa, the system we use to experience our surroundings can be defined as a simultaneous perception which is, however, the way we normally Figure 1. Al di fuori (del sé)#1.

(© 2013, Donatella D’Angelo. Used with permission).

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observe, with all the senses at once. “As we enter a space, the space enters us, and the experience is essentially an exchange and fusion of the object and the subject (…) In the fusion of place and soul, the soul is as much of a container of place as place is a container of soul, both are susceptible to the same forces of destruction”. As expressed by Mallgrave, art and especially architecture are much appreciated and considered capable to strengthen our sense of self, allowing us to fully engage in the mental dimensions of dream, imagination and desire. Buildings and cities, instead of creating mere objects of visual seduction, relate, mediate through the senses and project meanings (Pallasmaa, 2014). There is evidence that peripheral and unconscious perception is more important for our perceptual and mental system than focused perception. This assumption suggests that one reason why contemporary spaces often alienate us – compared with historical and natural settings that elicit powerful emotional engagement – has to do with the poverty of their impact on our peripheral vision, and the consequent weakness of the atmospheric quality. Focused vision makes us mere outside observers, whereas peripheral perception transforms retinal images into a spatial and bodily involvement and gives rise to the sense of an engaging atmosphere and personal participation. Peripheral perception is the perceptive mode through which we grasp atmospheres. The importance of the senses of hearing, smell, and touch (temperature, moisture, air movement) for the atmospheric perception arises from their essence as non-directional and embracing experiences. The role of peripheral and unconscious perception explains why a photographic image is usually an unreliable witness of true architectural quality; what is outside of the focused frame, and even behind the observer, has as much significance as what is consciously viewed. Indeed, architects would do better if they were less concerned with the photogenic qualities of their works. As neurological understanding suggests, meaning is always contextually grounded (Pallasmaa, 2014).

PLACE “Place”, which is the core concept in environmental psychology, differs from the related concept of space and indicates space endowed with meaning. The majority of authors agree that the development of emotional bonds with places is a prerequisite of psychological balance, gives people the sense of stability they need in the ever-changing world, and that no matter how mobile a person may be, some form of attachment to places is always present in our life. Place is a means to distinguish oneself from others, to preserve a sense of continuity, to build positive self-esteem, and to create a sense of self-efficacy. Place exerts its influence on place attachment through physical features and symbolic meanings, particularly those physical features of places that are cues to the place’s history (Lewicka, 2008). According to Korpela, place attachment has been defined as an integrating concept, incorporating several interrelated and inseparable aspects of people-place bonding. Affects, emotions, and feelings - both positive and negative - are central to the concept, although often accompanied by cognition and action (or behavioural intention). Thus, more specific definitions of place attachment include “affective relationship between people and the landscape that goes beyond cognition, preference or judgment”, or “a state of psychological well-being experienced by a person as a result of the mere presence, vicinity, or accessibility of the place”. The place aspect of attachment includes not only tangible places of different scale but also symbolic or imagined places or objects. In addition to individual attachments, collective, shared group, and cultural place attachments may exist. On the other hand, the object of attachment may be not only the physical environment but also the social relations that a place signifies (Korpela, 2012). 71

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Along with place attachment, place identity is an important concept that refers to people’s bonds with places. The word identity means two things: sameness (continuity) and distinctiveness (uniqueness), and therefore the term place identity should incorporate both aspects. The concept of genius loci, used to describe the impalpable but generally agreed upon unique character of a place, reflects this meaning of “place identity” (Lewicka, 2008). Focusing on the individual and community well-being as one of the most crucial purposes of architecture and interior design, it is particularly interesting here bringing up indications from a psychological point of view, which seem to highlight the need to take account of an ecological dimension as a convenient approach to an individual’s discomfort. In the Pragmatics of Human Communication (Waztlawick et al. 1967), the authors present the very radical idea that individual and social difficulties are caused by communication and relationship issues, which are actually a function of their contexts, rather than being caused by deep psychological disorders. Their book was dedicated to Gregory Bateson, a British anthropologist, sociologist and psychologist, whose very complex point of view gave a particularly original definition of ecology and aesthetics. His ecological interpretation is related to the loss of an idea of neutrality which, after Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, is perhaps one of the major scientific revolutions of the twentieth century. According to Bateson, every boundary, traced when observing something, is subjective and relative since any observer is part of the regarded scene, which changes when it is looked at (Figure 2). Embracing a cybernetic model, which considers a circular rather than a lineal vision of the events, he identifies an irreducible intertwining between thought and evolution. In his opinion, many epistemologies in the world, even diverse and contrasting, support the idea of an underlying unity consisting of a fundamental unifying beauty, which he calls the “pattern of patterns”. His view of an aesthetic position implies a respect to “the pattern which connects” everything which is the contextual frame of action. In his Mind and Nature. A Necessary Unity, Bateson (1979) suggests that human beings share this sensibility with every living creature in this world. According to American psychologist James Hillman (1999), the exaggeration of a subjective dimension favored by psychology is backfiring, because the symptoms which are brought to the psychotherapists’ clinics are those produced by the theory itself. Borderline disorders, in which the personality does not comply with the limits given it by psychology; concern for the subjective feelings called “dependencies”; inability to let the world get into one’s own field of perception, called “attention deficit disorder” or “narcissism”. In short, if psychology is the study of the subject, and if the limits of the subject cannot be defined, then psychology merges with ecology. If the most radical deconstruction of subjectivity would be a relocation of the subject in the world, then this means that the city becomes a palimpsest of multiple meanings. People find themselves entering into the crowd - which is the meaning of the root of the word polis, “many”. The way cities are imagined, the way their goals are designed, and the way their beauty is increased, defines each person’s self in that city, because the city is a tangible expression of the community’s soul. The city, which is the greatest of human arts, belongs to the imagination. It was founded on a participant imagination which could be rediscovered by new perceptions. Erotic imagination pervades big cities. They are loved because they keep people within their bodies, excite, exhaust them, do not let people go away. Kahn’s metaphor of the city considers it the place where a child feels what he is going to be as an adult (Hillman & Truppi, 2004). A so-called invisible city lies within the visible one, and can only be grasped through a profound investigation. If the unconscious could be used, the city would appear different and certainly richer. The 72

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Figure 2. Whatami, stARTT, YAP MAXXI 2011, Rome. (© 2011, Claudia Caramel).

unconscious cannot be touched, or shaped into defined forms, yet it upholds every building. It seems reasonable that people are practical and organize the environment effectively, according to their needs. Actually, what is important is to include the psychological needs also and to find a way to activate the psychic reality, by looking both at the past and the future. Walking through the city, people need to meet their past and to recognize themselves in it. In the city, tradition and progress are opposite and interrelated poles, both essential (Pignatelli, 1978). The way to improve people is to improve their city (Hillman, 1999). If the psyche is removed from the city, then people are unconscious about it: the city is the unconscious. Cities are full of hyperconscious patients and analysts, very aware individuals, and very unconscious citizens. If the definition of psychopathology lies in culture, then the psyche is also resident there. When the analysis is able to recognize that citizens have priority over patients, then it can focus on that area on which base Jung and Freud described individuality: the collective, the herd instinct, the primary horde, the need of the agora. Not cogito ergo sum, but convivo ergo sum (Hillman, 1999, p. 43). For the psychology of depth, this fusion means that changing the outside world can be just as therapeutic as changing the subject’s feelings. The care of the interior requires an attention to the exterior: “most of the soul is outside the body” (Hillman & Truppi, 2004).

PROTECTION One of the central issues in contemporary cities is the compatible and sustainable reuse of historical heritage, in which complex relationships between collective memory, attachment to the place, personal/ collective identity and behavior undoubtedly emerge. The reuse, as we know, currently concerns examples of industrial archeology, military districts, penitentiary structures, former psychiatric hospitals, churches and religious complexes, in continuous and progressive dismantling, linked to the socio-economic, functional and spiritual changes of our society. The history of such architectures is often related

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to conditions of fatigue (factories, mines), suffering (hospitals), constriction (prisons) or refer to very strong symbolic-spiritual values (churches, convents). In most cases, adhering to the common practice of adaptive reuse subjected to global economy rules, they are transformed into “new places”, often denying their underlying materials (typological, architectural, constructive) and immaterial values (related to memory or spirit). These renewed places very frequently become spaces of enjoyment (luxury hotels, shopping centers, amusement parks), completely disregarding the emotional impact that such functions can unleash in new users (Giannattasio, 2017). One of the disciplines which are involved in the reuse and protection of historical heritage is restoration, which originated in the Western intellectual tradition of writing about fine arts, their appreciation and their study through connoisseurship and scholarly research. In a globalized world, from a multicultural, “ecological” perspective, the care of places is perhaps the most delicate and powerful meaning that can be attributed to restoration. Care involves an affective component, a benevolent predisposition to someone or something, a sense of respect and an awareness of the intrinsic value of the object. Therefore, the act of caring can become emblematic of a positive mode to address places. If the concept is almost obvious when referring to the private sphere of dwelling, it is rather difficult to implement when extending it to spaces of common living. Quite frequent changes of residence, which are more common than in the past, often tend to make places hardly recognizable to people as “of their own” (Figure 3). If too short a permanence makes it difficult to establish a deep relationship with places and with the locals, at the same time, spaces that have been “domesticated” would require constant attention involving long stays, thereby generating contradictory and disturbing situations, and in many cases, conditions of human and environmental degradation. Only an awareness of the role played on mental and physical equilibrium by places where they can meet and relate with others, can motivate people to give the same care and attention, regardless of the duration of the residence. According to Carmassi (Turrini, 2009) ancient architectures are the result of an infinite number of interventions carried out by generations of clients, residents, and architects, and therefore ensue from many authors, often unknown. All this has generated a great value in these buildings, a rare beauty which is difficult to categorize and is often dictated by chance or contingency. Our ultimate goal is to preserve and restore this wealth, not only in terms of documentary heritage but also in terms of aesthetic combination. Historically, human beings need to find ties and solidarity. A strong appeal to civic responsibility seems even more necessary today, as there is an urgent need to protect against situations of abandonment and degradation, generated by administrative negligence and financial constraints, and in response to the sense of alienation that pervades contemporary society. Present culture induces people to lose their response to aesthetics; due to a psychic uproar, people become aesthetically incompetent or anaesthetized (Hillman & Truppi, 2004), and therefore unable to recognize the soul of places. In order to restore the soul of a place, conditions should be favourable for people to gather, form groups, and experience multiplicity. Giving back to the places their meaning through their responsible use or redefinition in light of ongoing social changes is the most urgent preservation work to be carried out, even before intervention on the materials, in order for the places to maintain again their value, consciously or not. Participation, implicit in the action, then becomes the guardian and promoter of the spirit of places (Latouche, 2009). Therefore, citizens’ awareness is a major goal in the process of preservation of all those goods that have a common value. A significant example comes from the Japanese practice according to which a landscape constraint can only be established by the law, provided the majority of the population

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Figure 3. Ex Restaurant by architect G. Sommaruga at Campo dei Fiori, Varese. (© 2016, Davide Niglia.Used with permission).

who occupies the site agree, thus recognizing peoples’ awareness of the value of what they possess as the sole constraint which actually works (Gianighian, 2010).

ENVIRONMENT The environment is what surrounds people; in a broad sense, it can be intended as everything that is around. The concept of environment should be expanded in the sense of an “ecology of depth”, because everything around people can nourish the imagination. Basic choices do not depend exclusively on conceptual abstraction, but on what people love, how they see, and the image they preserve. Taking care of the immediate context does not only result in a form of respect for a common past, but is strictly in line with the effort to deal with the ecological crisis that characterizes our era. “The coming oil shortage and climate change promise us a very different future: not so far, less often, slower and ever more expensive. […] We have to relearn the wisdom of past ages: enjoy slowness and appreciate our own territory” (Latouche, 2009, p. 39). A sensibility toward environmental questions can also be found in Pope Francesco’s encyclical: “Inner peace is closely related to care for ecology and for the common good because, lived out authentically, it is reflected in a balanced lifestyle together with a capacity for wonder which takes us to a deeper understanding of life” (Francesco, 2015, 225). Of course, regardless of its pressing topicality, natural and urban environmental protection is not a new concept. For instance, The Venice Charter 1964 (International Council on Monuments and Sites, 1965), thanks to the intervention of Roberto Pane who made the notion of environment one of the cornerstones of his thought (Picone, 2005), stated that “The concept of a historic monument embraces not only the single architectural work but also the urban or rural setting in which is found the evidence of a particular civilization, a significant development or a historic event. This applies not only to great works of art but also to more modest works of the past which have acquired cultural significance with the passing of time” (International Council on Monuments and Sites [ICOMOS], 1965, Art. 1).

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Therefore, environment is recognized as a holder of cultural value, as an organism whose beauty exceeds that of the exceptional nature of a single element. This concept, in light of the number of everyday unscrupulous and superficial interventions, needs more than ever to be taken up and developed. In order to create a hospitable environment, primarily consisting of a balanced relationship between nature and people, all the relevant economic, social and cultural factors must be orchestrated in an attempt to reach an “integral ecology” (Francesco, 2015, 137). Recognizing the authentic vocations of a place and protecting its aesthetic values involves people’s inner life and its relations with fantasy, history, stratification and memory. The preservation of beauty and quality requires a complex design process and is also strictly subject to environmental ecological conditions (Figure 4). The desire for beauty leads people to discover the world, luring them to see and to enter a sphere of knowledge where transformations are possible (Hillman & Truppi, 2004). According to Settis, always being committed to defend the “common good”, the beauty of the countryside and cities will not save people without direct involvement. Indeed, beauty will save nothing or nobody, if it cannot be saved itself (Settis, 2015). The value attributed to objects or places is the true factor that can dictate their survival or not; at the same time, the way spaces are inhabited makes them more or less suited to welcome human life and to influence it. Although there is no doubt that the aesthetic component of the environment affects peoples’ emotions and can significantly contribute to improving them, it is equally clear that not even the most beautiful urban setting, or home, can sway people if they are reluctant to be influenced.

MEMORY Research in interior design at different scales of intervention spans over a broad field, including internal and external spaces, places and anthropic landscapes populated by bodies, thoughts and things. The starting point of this design vision is the human dimension, both physical and cultural, and especially Figure 4. Palermo.

(© 2010, Claudia Caramel).

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relational, with all its sensitivity and perceptive qualities. A widespread demand for hospitable and accessible liveable spaces, fitting different and mutable user modes, calls the design culture to consider large and small places, both internal and external, diffuse and interstitial, central and marginal within a process of use transformation, which is increasingly addressed not only with respect to contemporary, but also to historical spaces. When acting in ancient contexts, the research of new values of character and atmosphere inevitably finds itself involved in the exploration of the authentic vocation of places, in a dynamic interaction between past and future. In present time, an excess of building destruction is the equivalent of a loss of memories and images. Places that have memory likely possess the quality to make people feel intimate with them. A challenge for newly designed spaces to be really audacious can be grafting in the old, thus engaging in a continuity and dialogue with it (Truppi, 2011). Both preservation and interior design deeply involve an inner human dimension. In fact, they deal with the intimacy of living, with places that host individuals’ identities and relationships, as well as private values and emotional states that tie people to them. Existing buildings, landscapes and cities are palimpsests of memories, theatres of private and collective lives that have developed over time, and they enshrine messages from civilizations lying below them. Just these messages, which then become myths and fables, led Jung to speak of the collective unconscious (Pignatelli, 1978). Research in environmental aesthetics shows that people generally prefer historical places to modern architecture since they create a sense of continuity with the past, embody the group traditions, and facilitate place attachment, intensified by awareness of the place history (Lewicka, 2008). Human memories are basically social memories. What we remember is often less a product of direct personal experiences and more of our embedding in social structures. Social memories may concern events that happened during our life or that took place before we were born and therefore belong to the history of the family, ethnic group, state, or the world. Like “place identity” is a term with two meanings, so is “place memory”. The term refers to the contents of people’s memories but is also descriptive of a place. Places remember and they do it through their monuments, the architectural style of their buildings, inscriptions on walls, etc. (Lewicka, 2008). For people who reside there, the traces play the function of “urban reminders”, the “mnemonic aids” to collective memory (Figure 5). “Urban reminders”, the leftovers from previous inhabitants of a place, may influence memory of places either directly, by conveying historical information, or indirectly— by arousing curiosity and increasing motivation to discover the place’s forgotten past (Lewicka, 2008). Nowadays, collective and historical memory seem to be neglected. Vulnerable and ephemeral personal memories combine with stronger and more defined collective ones, assigning to places a particular character that Hillman defines as soul. Memory is not in peoples’ minds; it is in the world. In fact, Hillman imagines that places are populated by different gods and assume thoughts and traditions of the people who inhabited them for centuries or millennia. The intimate quality of a place is due to the perception of its climate and geography, as well as to imagination. Restoring an ancient village is like recovering from amnesia (Hillman & Truppi, 2004). Then, the recognition of the soul becomes crucial to developing a project which is respectful of places and capable of satisfying practical and spiritual needs. Memory and imagination make people live in a tangible as well as in an intangible dimension, both contemporarily necessary: in fact, they are in relation with their past or projected into the future. Today this condition is accompanied by a lifestyle often based on a superficial and fleeting relationship with the territory. Whereas in the past, most people used to spend their lives in the same place and weave close ties with each element of the context, today different needs increasingly drive people to move. The available technologies intensify this condition, by allowing people to be here and elsewhere at the same time and 77

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Figure 5. Ex Restaurant by architect G. Sommaruga at Campo dei Fiori, Varese. (© 2016, Davide Niglia. Used with permission).

to establish relationships with people who live at a great distance. Also, memories happen to be built on dilated, various, random spaces and relate to events and encounters that go more and more beyond the places of everyday existence (Turri, 1998). A dilation of the experience space offers new possibilities for knowledge, but losing contact with the material reality may induce a state of alienation and malaise. In this dimension, physical reality and the narrative capacity of places are even more important. The materials, properly made “visible” through the project, can then serve as a Proustian madeleine. All this shows that the memory landscape cannot be disregarded; it is part of the way people relate to things. This applies not only to personal landscapes, but also to collective ones in which entire societies identify themselves (Turri, 1998). Existing buildings then take on a strong civic value, allowing people to keep their common memory alive: “there are but two strong conquerors of the forgetfulness of men, Poetry and Architecture; and the latter in some sort includes the former, and is mightier in its reality” wrote John Ruskin in The Lamp of Memory (Ruskin, 1849, p. 178). The evocative power of architecture is indirectly proved by the fact that in the past and still today, the built heritage has been destroyed in an attempt to erase the thought that produced it and its memories. In fact, the denial of the past, in a Freudian sense, is the most elementary defence mechanism. The cathartic illusion to get rid of all waste and trappings, to cut the tangle of constraints and faults, to wake up different tomorrow having destroyed yesterday’s house full of intolerable memories, actually corresponds with projecting the inner conflict onto a magic act, being impotent to process it (Pignatelli, 1978). Can memories be removed completely? According to Sigmund Freud, repressed things always return, often as symptoms. Any destruction always brings with it mixed feelings, despair and a desire for rebirth and new questions (Hillman & Truppi, 2004). Collective memory, like the individual, is made

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of shadows and sinister images but can at the same time reflect the noblest human thought, giving the places a new value. In this respect, it is worth mentioning that Japanese regulations concerning cultural heritage have introduced the category of “places of scenic beauty” to protect those places that not only have a special natural beauty, but have also been described in poetry, art and literature, and have thus become part of everyday life and common memory. The emotion aroused both by sense perception and by memory creates in these cases an image of great intensity recognized as a heritage for future generations (Saito, 2010). In psychological studies related to memory and in psychotherapy, which has to do with autobiographical narrative, the question of “rebuilding things as they were” is enormously important, where “as they were” may have different meanings. It may indicate “as they were historically” and on a demonstrable basis, or it may refer to a question of meanings. In the latter case, the meaning is significant if it relies on a specific context. A question may then rise as to what extent an “exact” reconstruction can be faithful in a context that is no longer the same. Therefore, it is preferable to talk of “shared” meanings, which indicates (with a postmodern tinge) that the past is also a multi-voice narration and its meanings emerge from a polyphony: the narrative truth - things as they are narrated, but also as they could have been - joins the paradigmatic truth - things as it has been demonstrated that things are1. When people experience dramatic situations involving severe lacerations to the life of a community and great losses of cultural heritage, from war to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods or other, the role of psychological aspects looks more relevant than historical or aesthetic requisites. Their relevance has been highlighted in particularly sensitive contexts, such as for instance the areas affected by the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake. The local population, by means of information technology, played an important role in terms of historical memory and documentation and allowed the image of the city before the earthquake to be rebuilt, thereby contributing to the reconstruction of destroyed places, or at least to preserving their memory (Giuliani, 2012). In the experience of many users, the social network, besides constituting a connecting element and a possibility for self-narration, was experienced as a “place”: virtual, but in no way less “real”. However insufficient a virtual space may be in comparison to lost meeting places and sociability, the network has allowed people to experience continuity through the possibility of proximity. For many, the network has allowed for the possibility of preserving a relationship with a containing-place, while waiting to return to familiar home places (Piselli, 2015). Welcoming the importance of psychological aspects, as suggested by Pane some decades ago, means making an anthropological choice and deciding that the interest of restoration tends to be addressed not only to monuments, which transmit historical and artistic messages, but also to the receivers of these messages, i.e., the human beings. Though being almost partially accounted for by the mainstream preservation theories, this promising far-sighted vision anticipated what nowadays can be considered as a key common field among restoration, psychology and design. Whatever the scale of intervention, design in existing contexts has therefore to deal with the fascinating and difficult persistence of memory and with the meaning that people have given to places over time. Marconi, introducing the work of architects Carmassi and Ioli, refers to architecture as a continuity, attributing to the project the task not to keep, but to transform existing buildings as best as possible, without compromising their ancient charm but, on the contrary, improving their readability, while ensuring their use according to the current needs (Marconi, 1998). Design in existing contexts requires a special sensitivity and a deep critical capacity in calibrating the intervention such that, at the same time, the materials are respected as well as the values associated with them and the practical needs of living. Therefore, the project is required to accompany the inevitable changes affecting every living thing and 79

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enhancing their peculiarities, but at the same time, allowing the spaces to resemble the people who dwell in them, even taking their form and being marked by traces of their passage. Only on this condition can the materials be memories and narratives of human experience.

CONCLUSION The reflections proposed in the present chapter invite one to think about what the expected outcome of a preservation or a design intervention in a historical context could be. The most convincing answer seems to be the possibility of returning to places their cosy dimension, making them suitable again to host human life and promote its full realization. When is a place hospitable? Probably when people perceive a natural fulfilment of their expectations in emotional, as well as in functional, terms. There is a subtle difference between what people unconsciously expect from a new designed space and from a restored one. If, in the former case, certain levels of comfort and safety are sought, as well as an aesthetic satisfaction, in the latter case, peoples’ expectations also refer to the possibility of perceiving the experience of those who lived in the past, although this implies giving up some comfort. Too often, however, preservation interventions are carried out without sufficient attention to this need, resulting in a material deprivation of its narrative potential. Artificial and aseptic colours and materials suddenly cancel the action of time making spaces devoid of a particular character and creating indifference and dissatisfaction in people. What is disappointing? Perhaps it is the feeling of having been deprived of the opportunity to establish a dialogue with those who came before, or perhaps the feeling of being orphans of one’s own past. On the contrary, the intervention should be a bridge to history, favouring this relationship as greatly as possible. Buildings and environments forcibly refurbished often appear unsettling and a little embarrassing, as much as a facelift does on a human face, from which the passage of time as a value cannot be recognized and an illusory beauty appears to be pursued. These issues have been long debated by the Western theory of restoration and are continuously questioned by other cultures. In particular, Japanese thinking offers interesting insights into the relationship between materials and time, which stems from the capacity to accept and enhance the impermanence and transience of existence itself. This concept, which is the expression of a philosophical even before an aesthetic ideal, can be compared with the Western appreciation of the traces left on materials by passing events: “the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor in its gold. Its glory is in its Age [...] in that golden stain of time, that we are to look for the real light, and color, and preciousness of architecture” wrote John Ruskin in The Seven Lamps of Architecture in the late nineteenth century (Ruskin, 1849, pp. 186-187). A recognition of the value of “patina” has been progressively diffused into Western culture, so as to involve, in recent years, even the design of objects, such that the passage of time is artificially simulated on certain materials and garments2. Indeed, ruins have a dazzling charm. Peregalli (2010) mentions for instance simple ruins, not necessarily noble, that lie in cities, towns, and in the countryside. They are fascinating because there are like human beings. In these places, a metaphysical proximity can be noticed to things of love, sex, and to the transience of each type of bonding. They allow a broader view of the world, where everything is not yet decided, and fate can play its part. Physical places continue to be the scenario of most significant human relationships; they require that the profound nature of things and their character be seized, which depends upon how things are made. To this end, should not only well-built architectures be considered, but particularly neglected or removed aspects should be explored, possibilities, as well as denied realities, unconventional things, 80

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fractures, wounds, and folds. Fractures are passages that introduce a sense of history through vulnerable points, from which there is a going beyond. They allow one to see what has happened, to realize its consequences and what still can take place. A design process inspired by history should not pursue persistence, or a nostalgic return to the origin, but it should try to discover the unexpected which is open to transformation and change. There is no need to read architecture in its chronological order, but rather to draw what remains from breakages. Relations between the anomalies trace a perspective of changes (Hillman & Truppi, 2004). Boundaries between interior and exterior spaces appear increasingly indistinct, such that the urban dimension in its complexity needs to be reconsidered by accepting contributions from different disciplinary approaches. From a combination of restoration, psychology and design, possibilities seem to be being developed to promote beauty, memory and ecology, thereby bringing out the potential of the built environment, as a historically complex and layered space that is worth being not only physically preserved, but also reused, as it allows to create welcoming places for significant human relationships. Analogical thinking as a knowledge process based on metaphors, symbols, allusions, similarities and connections that open up to new understandings, can offer the project multiple sources of inspiration and a repertoire of narrations in the world of visual arts and literature. While Neurosciences are observing the individual’s cerebral reactions to new architectures, it would be equally interesting to carry out parallel investigations focused on built assets, exploring their relationship with the concepts of identity, attachment to places and memory. Specifically, it would be important to promote a multidisciplinary intersection between Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Semiology, in search of design solutions focused on the psychological, spiritual and existential aspects of contemporary living (Giannattasio, 2017). Today’s urgent call for an ecologically sustainable architecture suggests that the potentials of atmosphere, weak and adaptive fragility should be explored in the search of an architecture that will acknowledge the conditions and principles of the ecological reality as well as of our own bio-historical nature. Pallasmaa suggests that we may become more interested in atmospheres than in individually expressive forms. Understanding atmospheres will most likely teach us about the secret power of architecture and its influence on societies. Our capacity to grasp qualitative atmospheric entities of complex environmental situations is likely to be our most important sense in terms of our existence, survival and emotional lives (Pallasmaa, 2014).

REFERENCES Anzani, A., & Caramel, C. (2019). The Liberty network in Varese province: strategies for its knowledge and enhancement. In G. Amoruso & R. Salerno (Eds.), Cultural Landscape in Practice. Conservation vs. Emergencies, Springer International Publishing (pp. 89–100). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. Anzani, A., Caramel, C., & Lonardo, E. (2019). Hybridization and reuse of existing buildings. In F. Scullica & E. Elgani (Eds.), Living, Working and Travelling: New Processes of Hybridization for the Spaces of Hospitality and Work (pp. 139–148). Milano, Italy: Franco Angeli. Anzani, A., & Guglielmi, E. (2017). Memoria, bellezza e transdisciplinarità. Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy: Maggioli Editore.

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Augé, M., & Colleyn, J. P. (2006). L’antropologia del mondo contemporaneo (G. Lagomarsino, Trans.). Milano, Italy: Elèuthera. Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and Nature. A Necessary Unity. New York, NY: E.P. Dutton. Brandi, C. (2005). Theory of Restoration [Teoria del restauro]. (C. Rockwell, Trans.). Firenze, Italy: Nardini Editore. (Original work published 1963) Carbonara, G. (1996). The integration of the Image: problems in the restoration of monuments. In N. Stanley Price, M. Kirby Talley, & A. Melucco Vaccaro (Eds.), Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (pp. 236–243). Los Angeles, CA: The Getty Conservation Institute. Crespi, L. (2018). Da spazio nasce spazio. L’interior design nella trasformazione degli ambienti contemporanei. Milano, Italy: Postmedia books. Crespi, L., Anzani, A., Caramel, C., Crippa, D., Di Prete, B., & Lonardo, E. (2017). Designing remains. In G. Amoruso (Ed.), Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design (pp. 1473–1482). Berlin, Germany: Springer. Francesco. (2015). Laudato si’. Encyclical Letter on care for our common home. Retrieved from http:// w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudatosi.html Giannattasio, C. (2017). Memoria e psiche. I valori invisibili dell’architettura storica e lo sguardo avanguardista di Roberto Pane. In A. Anzani & E. Guglielmi (Eds.), Memoria, bellezza e transdisciplinarità (pp. 139–163). Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy: Maggioli Editore. Giuliani, M. (2012). Il primo terremoto di Internet. L’Aquila: blog, social network, narrazioni del trauma nello show della “ricostruzione”. Available from http://www.amazon.it/primo-terremoto-Internetnarrazioni-ricostruzione/dp/1478113987 Hillman, J. (1999). Politica della bellezza (F. Donfrancesco, Ed.). Bergamo, Italy: Moretti & Vitali. Hillman, J., & Truppi, C. (2004). L’anima dei luoghi. Conversazione con Carlo Truppi. Milano, Italy: Rizzoli. International Council on Monuments and Sites. (1965). The Venice Charter 1964. Retrieved from http:// www.icomos.org/charters/venice_e.pdf Korpela, K. (2012). Place Attachment. In S. D. Clayton (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology (pp. 148–163). Oxford, UK: Oxford Handbooks. Latouche, S. (2009). Farewell to Growth [Petit traité de la décroissance sereine] (D. Macey, Trans.). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. (Original work published 2007) Lewicka, M. (2008). Place attachment, place identity, and place memory: Restoring the forgotten city past. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28(3), 209–231. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.02.001 Lingiardi, V. (2017). Mindscapes. Psiche nel paesaggio. Milano, Italy: Raffaello Cortina Editore. Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City. The M.I.T. Press.

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Mallgrave, H. F. (2013). Architecture and Embodiment: The Implications of the New Sciences and Humanities for Design. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203071144 Marconi, P. (1998). Gabriella e Massimo Carmassi, opere. In G. Carmassi & M. Carmassi (Eds.), Del restauro: quattordici case (pp. 7–13). Milano, Italy: Electa. Marconi, P. (2005). Il recupero della bellezza. Milano, Italy: Skira. Masiero, R. (2005). Nel definire il restauro. In B. P. Torsello (Ed.), Che cos’è il restauro? Nove studiosi a confronto (pp. 149–159). Venezia, Italy: Marsilio. Morezzi, E. (2010). Roberto Pane e l’istanza psicologica: sviluppi di un concetto nel caso-studio di Hiroshima. In S. Casiello, A. Pane, & V. Russo (Eds.), Roberto Pane tra storia e restauro. Architettura, città, paesaggio (pp. 277–282). Venezia, Italy: Marsilio. Muñoz Viñas, S. (2011). Contemporary theory of conservation. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. Pallasmaa, J. (2014). Space, place and atmosphere. Emotion and peripheral perception in architectural experience. Lebenswelt: Aesthetics and Philosophy of Experience. doi:10.13130/2240-9599/4202 Pane, R. (1978). Urbanistica, architettura e restauro nell’attuale istanza psicologica. Rivista di Psicologia Analitica, 18, 13–25. Pane, R. (1987). C.G. Jung e i due poli della psiche. In M. Civita (Ed.), Roberto Pane. Attualità e dialettica del Restauro. Educazione all’arte, teoria della conservazione e del restauro dei monumenti (pp. 299–306). Chieti, Italy: Marino Solfanelli Editore. Peregalli, R. (2010). I luoghi e la polvere. Sulla bellezza dell’imperfezione. Milano, Italy: Bompiani. Picone, R. (2005). Roberto Pane (1897-1987). In B. P. Torsello (Ed.), Che cos’è il restauro? Nove studiosi a confronto (pp. 81–84). Venezia, Italy: Marsilio. Pignatelli, M. (1978). La città invisibile. Rivista di Psicologia Analitica, 18, 77–87. Piselli, A. (Ed.). (2015). Alteridentità. Available from http://www.durangoedizioni.it/alteridentita/ Rogers, E. N. (1997). Esperienza dell’architettura (L. Molinari, Ed.). Ginevra, Switzerland: Skira. (Original work published 1958) Ruskin, J. (1925). The seven lamps of architecture. London, UK: Allen & Unwin. (Original work published 1849) Saito, H. (2010). La tutela dei beni culturali. In G. Gianighian & M. D. Paolucci (Eds.), Il restauro in Giappone: architetture, città, paesaggi (p. 1-26). Firenze, Italy: Alinea Editrice. Settis, S. (2015, September 16). Da Venezia al martirio di Palmira, la bellezza non salverà il mondo. Repubblica. Retrieved from http://temi.repubblica.it/micromega-online/da-venezia-al-martirio-di-palmirala-bellezza-non-salvera-il-mondo/ Truppi, C. (2011). In difesa del paesaggio. Per una politica della bellezza. Milano, Italy: Electa.

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Turri, E. (1998). Il paesaggio come teatro. Dal territorio vissuto al territorio rappresentato. Venezia, Italy: Marsilio. Turrini, D. (2009). Il restauro secondo Massimo Carmassi. Costruire in laterizio, 127, 40-43. Waztlawick, P., Beavin Bavelas, J., Jackson, D. D., & O’Hanlon, B. (1967). Pragmatics of Human Communication. A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

ENDNOTES 1 2



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From a conversation with M. Giuliani, psychologist and psychotherapist. See in this regard the work recently carried out by the Conservation and Restoration Centre “La Venaria Reale” in Turin (Italy) on the historical collection of the Prize Compasso d’Oro.

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Notes on the Spatiality of Colour David J. Dernie The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT This chapter explores colour phenomena through the lens of an architect. It proposes that colour experience is best understood as only partially a visual experience that has three interrelated components: the visual, how colours describe the spaces around us; environments, how colours change with their social, historical, and cultural contexts; and non-visible, what colours represent. What role does the chromatic imagination play in contemporary interiors space? The chapter proposes that spatial experience of any singular colour has a multiplicity of possible readings and dimensions, that there is no absolute value to colours. Our chromatic experience is mobile and fleeting, as the three components of colour experience shift and overlap.

INTRODUCTION The use of colour in interior space is intricate (Murata, 2004). It’s a field that has been dominated by taste and fashion on the one hand and by colour science on the other. As a consequence, we overlook colour’s subtle interrelationships with its environments and its inhabitants, assuming that colour values are somehow fixed, absolute. The inescapable evidence is rather the opposite; the colours we see in space are like fleeting moments in networks of relationships that make up a spatial and social context. Hues shift in light and in time, and according to material contexts and the even language we use to describe them. Colours also depend on who sees them, how and where. To understand colours is to explore a situational understanding of space, and colour as a vital component in contemporary spatial practice. Making-with-colour reaches back to earliest forms of spatial expression. Starting with mark making, drawing and later painting and craft, earths, pigments, red and yellow ochres the hues of crushed bones, whites of kaolin and shells, blacks of charred sticks, were among the ancient colours of drawing, painting and making. Early forms of making were making-with-colour, and these colours were the tones of the things of the natural world. Nowadays designers tend to use colour as standardised, chemical prodDOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch004

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ucts. Colours are branded: super white, brilliant white, decorators white, simply white, marble white, snowfall white, white dove, paper white (to name but a few) are all shades of white, variously described as warm, cool, neutral, traditional or modern. The language of artificial colouring attempts to market shades of whites, but does not acknowledge that colour perception is both subjective and dependent on the scale the setting, colour context, orientation, material surface, lighting and time: it is as though a room of ‘snowfall white’ in say, Alaska will be experienced in the same way as the same colour in an interior of say, Sydney – and that it will not change differentially according to the time of the day, the seasons, and that it will not age. Even if the rooms were identical, we can assume that in a land of snow-covered landscapes, a ‘snowfall white’ wall will appear artificial compared to the experience of the same wall in a place where snow never falls. And in each case the experience of ‘snowfall white’ depends on a network of interdependencies that are as subtle as they are fundamental to the social and spatial understanding of colour. With the momentum of our dependency on screen-based colour, digital renders the commercialisation of interior products and the science of colour this craft has been levelled almost to the point of invisibility. Colour science has a long tradition that emerges in the eighteenth century when colour starts to be ordered and aligned to geometric form. Some of the colour circles, colour triangles, globes and pyramids form these early theories reflect Newton’s seven colours, others add more, but all of them order colour according to the differentiated relationship between the three primaries, red, yellow and blue. The theories that followed Newton’s colour circle (Newton, 1704) such as Boutet (1708), Schiffermüller (1772), Müller (1803), Goethe (1810) and Chevreul (1839), through to Munsell’s Colour Atlas (1905) - later to be refined by Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald’s Colour Primer (1916) – all use form to represent an encompassing colour system (Loske, 2019). Others bring colour studies into the natural sciences and develop a formal classification of colour derived from a study of the natural world: Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours (1814) was Charles Darwin’s companion text on his voyage on the Beagle (1833) (Baty, 2017). A convergence of colour theory with science and art is supported by later colour theories of Hay and Field, among others, in the nineteenth century that culminated in the influential theories of Charles Henry (1889) among others, for whom the particle of colour became absolute, each colour understood independently of the other. Henry published a colour circle and aesthetic protractor in an attempt to systematically evaluate colour and influenced the development of post-impressionist technique. For artists such as Seurat and Signac the influence of Henry and the development of colour technique propelled their painterly experiments. It brought the traditions of painting, aesthetic theory and colour science together as the means of thinking of colour as an emotional or musical experience. At the dawn of Modernism, the spatiality of colour was further reduced to the aesthetics of colour or subjective experience and subjugated to form and space-as-geometry: The idea of form precedes that of colour. The form is preeminent, colour is but one of its accessories. Colour depends entirely of the material shape: the concept of a sphere, for instance, precedes the concept of colour; it is conceived as a colourless sphere, a colourless plane, colour is not conceived independently of some support. Colour is coordinated with form, but the reciprocal is not true. We believe, thus, that a theme should be selected for its forms and not for its colours. (Jeanneret and Ozenfant, 1918; Kane 2015) There was another significant development: the industrialisation of colour. New kinds of paints, and techniques brought consistency into mass production of garment dyes and paints. New paint types 86

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Figure 1. Goethe’s Colour Cirlce. Farbenkreis, aquarellierte Federzeichnung von Goethe, 1809, Original: Freies Deutsches Hochstift – Frankfurter Goethe-Museum Credit Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

move from water-based distempers to more robust, flat oil, enamels and varnishes, products that become allied to interior styles and the production of style guides in the form of house-painting manuals such as Pinchin and Johnson & Co’s New Rooms for Old. Some helpful designs and details for transforming the ordinary interior into the Ultra Modern (1935) or Noel Carrington’s Colour and Pattern in the Home (1954) (Loske, 2019). These describe colour compositions for typical rooms (hall, morning room, lounge, living room, dining room, the study bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, nursery) as more durable coloured surfaces in interior space reflect a broader preoccupation with colour co-ordination not only in the visual arts, but in clothing and life-style fashion. Such guides address an important aspect of space and colour, its irrevocable dialogue with the styles of the day: colour in the space of the interior is to replicate the flatness of the fashion magazine. This transfers into colour standards applied to modern offices and schools where the environment of colour becomes a question of ‘decoration’, often underpinned by some basic principles that acknowledge the rudimentary spatial effects of receding and advancing colours. (Baty, 2017) Alongside the science and industry of colours, fashion and official guidelines for colour, colour has also long been the subject of philosophical and theoretical debate: is colour mind-independent or are colours simply qualities of objects? Are colours to be relegated to sensations (visual experiences) and thereby abstracted from questions of embodiment in space? Can the scientific tradition, the development of a consistent colour theory, acknowledge the difference between physical properties and the psychology of visual experience? Acknowledging the limitations of absolute space, of space-as-geometry, these notes on the spatiality of colour necessarily take a relativist position: colour studies that are connected to spatial thinking, and

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making places: colour has a social context, an ‘environment’ or ‘situational’ condition that binds visual experience to a field of relationships that are both visible and invisible. In distinction to the scientists’ colour charts and the manufacturers’ style guides we will propose that colour experience is best understood as only partially, a visual experience that has three interrelated components: Visible - how do colours describe the spaces around us? What are the relationships between colour and light and what is the effect of colours in relation to each other, and to the illuminated materialcolour field of the interior as a whole; Environments - how do colours change with their social, historical and cultural contexts? Can we identify a sociology of colour and Non-visible - what do colours re-present? What role does the chromatic imagination play in the metaphoric structure of contemporary space? We will propose that spatial experience of any singular colour has a multiplicity of possible readings and dimensions, that there is no absolute value to colours. Our chromatic experience is mobile and fleeting, as the three components of colour experience shift and overlap.

Visible Colour is fundamental to the visual experience of spatial environments; interiors are seen in colour. The colours we see are material colours and their visibility is contingent on the structure of light: “all nature manifests itself by means of colours.... we now assert ……that the eye sees no form, inasmuch as light, shade, and colour together constitute that which to our vision distinguishes object from object, and the parts of an object from each other.” declared Goethe, challenging the scientists of colours (Eastlake transl., 2015, p.24). For Goethe the visible world is fundamentally constituted of light, shade and colour. In contradiction to Newton, who a hundred years earlier had established the colour spectrum, Goethe set about exploring colour by looking, and put together a varied range of observations of the effects of colour in the natural world and in spatial settings from an experiential stand point: If when the sky is grey, we approach a window, so that the dark of the window bars be relieved on the sky; if after fixing the eyes on the horizontal bar we bend the head a little forward; on half closing the eyes as we look up, we shall presently perceive a bright yellow-red border under the bar, and a bright light-blue one above it. The duller and more monotonous the grey sky of the sky, the more dusky the room, and consequently, the more previously unexcited the eye, the livelier the appearance will be; but it may be seen by an attentive observer even in bright daylight. If we move the head backwards while half closing the eyes so that the horizontal bar be seen below, the phenomenon will appear reversed. The upper edge will appear yellow, the under-edge blue…. (Eastlake transl., 2015, p.129) Goethe’s ‘theory of colour’ was not so much a theory as observations of nature. He understood shadow as interacting with light, not its absence, and seeing as experience: Goethe was fundamentally concerned with the human experience of seeing colour. Light and colour are one: colour is revealed by light, and light is revealed as colour. That colour and light combine together in space differently at different distances and at in different spatial relationships to the viewer is not lost makers, people who craft materials and whose craft is spatial. Richard Serra’s Walking is Measuring, 2000 for example, illustrates the shift of visual experience of colour between ‘distant’ and ‘far’. The two giant Corten steel plates (of different heights) are carefully located in the grounds of the Serralves Museum in Porto to activate a historic path. From afar the two plates appear as ‘steel-orange’ as foreboding boundaries, marking a length along the existing granite boundary wall. 88

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The scale and intensity of these rust-orange plates compliments the density and weight of the granite boundary wall. Their muteness also draws the walker, whose path the two plates are designed to measure. From closer-up the colour field starts to differentiate, between a matrix of rust-orange marks and a seemingly distant background of natural steel, a blue-grey. The colours of the plates remain the same but the experience and reading of the colours is quite different according to measure Our spatial experience of a given colour field changes, according to the distance of seeing, and according to light conditions: it is like a single moment is a flux of changing circumstances. Walking is Measuring illustrates the fundamental importance of movement to experience of colour, and how our recognition of colours changes. At the same time, our experience and memories of the world of colours and materials that we bring to design informs a sense of a constancy or groundedness to colours: the orange of the distant object was always recognised as rust orange, so the colour differentiation close up was not a surprise. (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p.313) This phenomenon is commonplace: when the light levels are low in a room and to the colour is all but washed out, we do not perceive a grey field, not entirely: we don’t look at the red wall in the day and acknowledge it as grey in the evening - our memory of the redness of the wall persists. Similarly, if we see blue hillsides in the distance we don’t think the landscape has actually turned blue. The constancy to colour experience augments visual perception and allows us to fill in ‘missing’ pieces of information in the chromatic environment because of what we already know about colour and light. If for instance we enter a light-filled room whose glare on the floor washed out its visible colour, we fill in the missing information, assuming a continuity of colour and surface across the room. At the same time our ability to see is affected by glare - intense colour and light has a capacity to render the boundaries of space genuinely ambiguous, transforming material to immaterial, and questioning spatial norms. From Dan Flavin’s arrays of coloured fluorescent tubes in the 1960’s to James Turrel’s LED’s, coloured electric lights can create bodies of strong colour that alter the experience of a given interior. The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson (2003), combined electric light with mist to shift the spatial reading of the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The colour-scape became a kind of live-in artwork. Eliasson’s stated intention was to take the subject of the weather as the basis for exploring ideas about ‘experience, mediation and representation’. At one end of the hall he fixed a vast, semi-circular disc made up of hundreds of mono-frequency lamps – yellow and black were the only colours visible. This form was reflected upwards in hundreds of small mirrors that were hung from the ceiling to give the impression of an entire sphere of extraordinary luminance. Each mirror was fractionally offset so that the upper edges of the form appeared blurred, tricking the eye into thinking that the effect was related to the light or to heat but, either way, reinforcing the illusion of the elemental sphere that was the experiFigure 2. Richard Serra, Walking is Measuring, 2000, Museu Serralves, Porto

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ence of the installation. The boundary between real and fictive space was further eroded by means of a fine mist that permeated the space. As visitors paused in this dream-like landscape of colour relaxed conversations began, people wandered through the space, sat or lay down on the floor Colour can fuse the visible and imaginary boundaries of space. That intense colour and light can engage the modern imagination and emotions in this way is evident from the performance of crowds of visitors to the Weather Project. The same condition connects the visible to the invisible in scared sacred interiors, illuminated colours that embodied philosophies according to which light and colour were the very presence of the sacred on earth. The great gothic cathedrals for example, startle the visitor with colour and light - immaterial thresholds that fuse sacred and profane or real and imagined space. Formed from great slabs of stone, layered and vaulted to create diaphanous walls of light, shadow and coloured glass, colour articulated sacred narratives and projected, coloured light from all quarters of the earth, miraculously transformed the otherwise immutable stone into a gentle, almost immaterial veil: these great halls of petrified colour and shimmering light were heaven on earth. There is no convincing narrative arc that links The Weather Project to the gothic cathedral. At the same time, they are connected through spatial practice and a use of light and colour that draws on experience of making, and of craft: we can speak of the crafting of colour in space and the crafting of space with colour.

ENVIRONMENTS The visual experience of colour in a given setting is never an isolated, or abstract phenomenon. We have noted the inter-dependence of colour and light, but at the same time the perception of an illuminated colour will also depend on its spatial, material, cultural and personal contexts: the environments of colour, for short. Of these, the most immediate is the context of colours in which the individual colour are situated: a colour also depends the field of colours (and materials) that surround it. This relational character of colour was the basis of Josef Albers’ Interaction of Colour (1963), a study of the relative values of colour (that grew out of his influential teaching in the Bauhaus and later at the Black Mountain College). Albers Figure 3. Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project 2003, Tate Modern, London and Nave Detail, Ely Cathedral, UK, Shop Window, Milan

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challenges the notion of universality of colour theory and changed the way people looked at colour: “in visual perception a colour is almost never seen as it really is – as it physically is. This fact makes colour the most relative medium in art” (Albers, 1963, p.1). Like Goethe, he explores the visual experience of colour vision and identifies the optical effects of interactions between colours: ….in much the same way as haptic sensations deceive us, so optical illusions deceive. They lead us to ‘see’ and to ‘read’ colours other than those with which we are confronted physically.(Albers, 1963 p.8) Though Albers’ work to some extent revolutionised the teaching of fine art colour theory, its limitation lies in its singular focus on the optics of colour relationships and the materiality of the paper colours. Although Albers rightly challenges universal colour, his work only concerned planar relationships and optical effects. This direction is characteristic of several movements through the middle of last century, most obviously starting with Piet Mondrian and the De Stijl group of non-representational painters. Influenced by theosophy, there was a quasi-mystical emphasis on primary colours. Here Mondrian refers to Goethe: reduction to primary colours leads to the visual internalization of the material, to a purer manifestation of light. The material, the corporeal (through its surfaces) causes us to see colourless sunlight as natural colour. Colour then arises from light as well as from the surface, the material. (Gage, 1993, p.257) Primary colours – with the addition of black and white, were as tied to the plane of the painting as they were to the vertical and horizontal surfaces of interiors of early modernist interiors, augmenting the diagrammatic reading of interiors such as Rietveld’s radical Schröder house (1924). Here colour is like an orthographic projection of a De Stijl canvas, with primary colour scattered as fragments to define surfaces that frame patterns of use. These colourful interiors tend to abstract colour from material. By foregrounding architectural form with striking, often tensional colour relationships it reduces the experience of colour as material-colour and as colour connected to its deeper environment of material, visual and social relationships. Instead materials are an essential component to the environment of colour: “There is in fact no such thing as pure colour” the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre argued in Imaginaire: “If Matisse chose a rug rather than a sheet of dry and glossy paper it is because the voluptuous mixture of the colour, the density and tactile quality of the wool. Consequently, the red can be truly enjoyed only in grasping it as the red of the rug, and therefore unreal” (Sartre 1972, p.221). The ‘unreal’ wool-red is an image in our imaginations, not red as an isolated colour value. Developing a similar approach to the perception of colour, the philosopher Merleau-Ponty argues that the abstract value of any colour is only one part of a deeper ‘constancy of things’ that belongs to the world and our experiences: The color is yet another variant in another dimension of variation, that of its relations with the surroundings: this red is what it is only by connecting up from its place with other reds about it, with which it forms a constellation, or with other colors it dominates or that dominate it, that it attracts or that attracts it, that it repels or that repel it. In short, it is a certain node in the woof of the simultaneous and the successive. It is a concretion of visibility, it is not an atom.

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Illustrating his argument with a field of invisible references of the red of a single red dress, ‘a punctuation in the field of red things’, he proposes that a ‘naked colour’ is rather a sort of straits between exterior horizons and interior horizons ever gaping open, something that comes to touch lightly and makes diverse regions of the colored or visible world resound at the distances, a certain differentiation, an ephemeral modulation of this world—less a color or a thing, therefore, than a difference between things and colors, a momentary crystallization of colored being or of visibility. (Merleau-Ponty, 1968, p.132-33) Merleau-Ponty describes a part of the rich texture of associations, ‘relations with the surroundings’ or colour environments of red. Like Sartre’s description of Matisse’s red rug, the simultaneous relationships exist at least in part in the mind of the observer and are imaginary. In part they are part of the collective life of colours that a place or culture might share. Merleau-Ponty describes colour as a ‘momentary crystallization’ and so to the brief life of colour in time. Colours are seen in time, they change with the intensity and orientation of natural light, as shadows are cast and as reflections change. Their momentary nature depends on who sees them, where and when: a verdant landscape will appear blue towards the horizon and as the day lengthens; colours will fade in twilight and emerge again, differently, at dawn. Colours also belong to the broader environment of places, and the continuities of the colours through the traditions of making, local materials and craft techniques. Generations of crafts people in cities such as Venice have handed down ways of making and remaking the city with the reds and ochre pigments and coloured marbles set against Istrian limestone, that eventually come identify the city in its watery light and crumbling walls. From the colours of Murano glass, the traditions of mosaic or the light-filled colours of Bellini or Caneletto the chromatic traditions of a place become a collective language. The architect Carlo Scarpa for example would develop material details and colours with a close community of local craftsmen. Eugenio de Luigi recalls that Scarpa rarely issued a working drawing. Rather, details evolved from a series of creative discussions between architect and maker. Each of Scarpa’s intricate details bears testament to his close collaboration with this company of craftsmen in whom the Venetian culture, its colours and its junctions, were deeply ingrained: each material detail recalls the spirit of the ancient city. On the other hand, the chromatic consistency of the Venetian landscape is rare, and more often than not the development of a local colour palette is fragmented, disrupted by changing tastes and technologies. As a consequence, the key element of an environment of colours is in part the individual’s imagination but also the emotional response to a chromatic experience. In an age increasingly influenced by the science of colour and eclectic interiors few paintings anticipate the association of colour and emotion than Caspar David Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea (1809). The colours of the canvas and its spatial structure is charged by a highly personal experience. The monk stands for the artist, isolated amid the changing values of the enlightenment, his isolated, fragile body set against a vast and menacing nature. He gazes into a blackened sea and a horizon full of shadows. From it rises the darkest of skies that merges the distant horizon into a veil of dark clouds that seem to consume the monk in a field of soft blacks, Payne’s greys and Verditer blues. A corona of light breaks through above but the far distance is the darker, upper region of the canvas, edged in Prussian blue. The viewer is engaged in the painting’s powerfully dark dramatic space, as it shrouds the monk, plunges into the

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Figure 4. Carlo Sacrpa, glazed tile details, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice (1961-63) and Brion Tomb and Sanctuary, San Vito d’Altivole (1969-78)

mystery of the ocean’s depths, and rises into the skies. Though the landscape stretches into the distance, the space of the painting folds back and forth as a pattern of light and dark towards the upper canvas. Eventually, in the absence of a traditional symbolic language, the space of such emotional expression was reduced to colour and line: the figurative landscape flattened on the canvas to articulate almost mystical correlation between emotions, colours and forms. The transition drew much of its inspiration from Baudelaire, and of particular importance for interpreting colour in this period is the poet’s ‘Correspondances’ from the collection Fleurs du Mal, which set out afresh the notion of synaesthesia, or a correspondence of sensations: “As far-off echoes from a distance sound/ In unity profound and recondite/ Boundless is night itself and as the light/Sounds, fragrances and colours correspond. In Paris at the time, the early Symbolist movement inspired by Baudelaire was marked by a deep dissatisfaction with the rapid industrialization and physical change that took place in the city under Haussmann. Already by the mid-18th century royal domestic symbolism had devolved into the interiors of the Parisian hôtels, and in their house in Arteuil, on the outskirts of Paris, the brothers Goncourts took it up as an aesthetic style, creating nostalgic ensembles as laboratories for their refined tastes.

Figure 5. Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea, 1809

KwEv_TMiJhn5kA at Google Cultural Institute, zoom level maximum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ index.php?curid=13266070

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The Goncourts’ interior is historicist and deliberately attempts to create a modern image through its furnishings in the Rococo style of Louis XV. In this respect the Goncourts link what was known as ‘le style moderne’ after 1720 with the avant-garde aesthetics of the late 19th century. However, what made the Goncourts’ rooms so modern for their time was not so much the eclecticism of their taste, but the development of the interior as a highly personalized ensemble or as a visualization of their psychological condition. The passage from Edmond’s La Mason d’un Artiste (describing the house) relates to his bedroom and describes how, especially at night, “under the trembling dance” of the light of a low fire, the silk and wool wall coverings took on strange forms: “a supernatural existence”, while: traces of human life … seem to run over and animate the immobility of these flat creatures of silk and wool”. Suddenly the light goes out and the room drowns in a sea of transparent shadow, “where the blue and red of the tapestries in the middle of the golden paleness of the background begin to resemble, after a short while, the poppies and cornflowers in a field of ripe wheat, buried in the thickness of fog, in the livid depths of the obscure mirror, in its shine of black pearl, above the white baldaquin and the bouquet of the day, the portrait of Jules is reflected far awa (Goncourt, 1881, pp.202-203). Such passages anticipate the sense of removal from real experience. The dim light makes distinctions between colours ambiguous: rich texture and glistening surfaces imply fresh figurations built out of relationships not perceived in daylight. The shadowy room takes on a dreamlike character that enables Edmond to find a moment to contemplate the image of his dead brother emancipated, as it were, into the shadows of the room. The traditional understanding of nature as the ‘ground’ of order is first converted into a tableau of its phenomena (in the painting by Caspar David Friedrich, for example) and, second, made the counter form of the newly discovered inner life (as psychology). At an early stage the Goncourts confirmed this outlook in their development of the interior as a product of a refined inner vision. This idea was central to fin-de-siècle concept of an ideal world of universal analogy behind colour and material appearance – ‘a forest of symbols’, as Baudelaire described it – placed the role of the imagination foremost when it comes to perceiving a work of art. This correspondence between colour, line and human sensation is for instance also the key to unity in Synthetist painting: in his Notes Synthétique (1888) Gauguin “Like music, painting acts on the soul through the intermediary of the senses: harmonious colours correspond to the harmonies of sounds”. The association of colour with music (a tradition that dates to the eighteenth century) was to establish a narrative that apportioned emotional value to colour and line and the avant-garde interiors of the period reflected these tendencies in the visual arts. Rhythmic lines, intimate material surfaces were the equivalent of a musical score, where correlations between lines, colours and light are the embodiment of emotions. One can justifiably speak of the musicality of certain compositions and understand complex material junctions and colour combinations as vehicles to produce sensations outside of the purely visual field. These interiors are penumbrous settings, places of melancholic retreat, of fleeting ideas, indeterminate colours and swirling lines. From the richly colourful world of the symbolist interiors of the turn of the last century spatial thinking with respect to colour takes several diverse paths. Kandinsky: “the effect of colours is deeper and intensely moving….. They produce a corresponding spiritual vibration…..” (Kandinsky, 1911, p.24) Sensations associated with different colours, ‘rough or sticky, smooth uniform (dark ultramarine, chrome oxide green, rose madder) soft (rose madder), hard (cobalt green, blue green oxide). Scented colours, 94

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Figure 6. Victor Horta, Interior and detail of the Hôtel Tassel, Brussels (1893), Photograph by Alastair Carew-Cox

the sounds of colours – painting in counterpoint – so that colour could be heard and sound seen. – Kandinsky recalls Mallarmé and Rene Ghil, acknowledging the symbolist background. For the most part these converge in the further abstraction of colour, but wrapped up in spiritual references, expressionist’ architects hailed transparency, reflections, shimmering coloured light were to embody the spirit of a new generation, a hope for a social order analogous to the open spatiality of light and glass. The materiality of these live-in crystals was anticipated by language of Symbolism, but the scale and orientation had shifted: no longer were the disorienting reflections and continuity of material details designed as a vehicle for self-reflection; rather the euphoria of coloured light was to a symbolize a new, ideal and crystalline world. The interiors of the Art Nouveau were to be replaced with colour-filled geometries of the new age of factory production and mechanized transport. The internal world of the crystal, both literal and analogical, are the foundations of the expressionist imagination that first appear in Wenzel Hablik’s drawings Shaffende Kräfte Creative Forces (1907– 1909) where crystals are the focus of a thematic sequence of architectural images. Referring explicitly to religious and mystical traditions, Hablik explains how his crystal images embodied creative forces governed by a higher radiant body. His crystal landscapes were images of vast earthly paradises, that pre-dated Paul Scheerbart’s well-known call for a revolutionary architecture of coloured glass in order to transform society. Scheerbart met the architect Bruno Taut in 1912 and their friendship resulted in Scheerbart’s Glassarchitektur (1914). Taut sets out the utopian vision for luminous coloured glass and iron architecture to receive the light and create a ‘paradise on earth’. Taut calls for an effective dissolution of the materiality of the city as we know it, which is a shift in scale, but not orientation from the organic, crystal interiors of Art Nouveau. Like the late romantic artists before him, Taut does not emphasize the transparency of glass, but rather stresses the importance of coloured glass and the history and effect of coloured light on human ‘psyche’: “No more light! – ‘more coloured light!’ must be the watchword” (Boyd White Ed and transl., 1985, p.88). The promise of such a dream-like and immaterial world gained renewed potency in the dark aftermath of the First World War. At this point in history, the romantic dream of a crystalline future overlaps with the aesthetics of modernism and in particular the explicit allure of transparency: Mies van der Rohe’s project for an office building in Friedrichstrasse, Berlin (1921) marks the turning point, transforming an inward-looking mystical world of coloured light into a monumental urban-scale crystal which is all about transparency – and whiteness. The overriding emphasis in the architectural language of Modern-

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ism was on the abstraction of space and colour to its constructed form and primary chromatic values and is close to the more radical abstractions of the group of painters around Kazmir Malevich. The socalled Suprematists identified connections between human spirituality and abstract form, extending an empathetic, almost mystical, relationship with colour, shape and surface towards monochrome paintings, continuous flat canvas spaces. In the infinite space of say, White on White (1918) the reading hinges on subtle shifts of hue, transparency and effects of light on an otherwise unchanging surface. Malevich’s white-on-white paintings are fields of weightlessness, cosmic landscapes. They suggest immaterial worlds that are like the contiguous planes of light-filled white concrete and expanses of see-through glazed openings of early modernism. In 1919 Malevich wrote “I conquered the lining of the coloured sky and tore it off, put colour into the resulting bag, and tied a knot. Fly! A white, free, endless – infinity – is before you!” (Douglas, 1994). Like the endless spatial field of White on White, the illuminated white concrete surface is an analogy to the large expanses of glass it frames: both materials were to be optically immaterial, and analogies of the ‘infinite space’ of a crystal’s interior.

NON-VISIBLE At this point embodied colour experience is sublimated for an epiphany of endless see-through spaceas-geometry: the vagaries of spatial experience relegated to accidental sensation. Colour, light and geometric form are delaminated and spatial experience is reduced to emotional response to visual effect. In the decades that immediately followed the colour mysticism of Expressionism (and for that matter De Stijl) a sense of colour was rediscovered in paintings by De Chirico, or Magritte that explored for instance the colour of enigmatic transitions between night and day, the disturbing tones to reflect conflict of nature and artifact, or the uneasy warm ochre of fragmentary landscapes and industrialized towns. In interior architecture, richly coloured stone surfaces (Roman travertine, green Alpine marble, ancient green marble from Greece and golden African onyx) are protagonists in the spatial reading of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion (1929). Mies (himself the son of a master mason) locates the precisely selected, coloured stones to create a dialogue of imaginary spaces. Caught in the depths of the metamorphic stone, the reflections of the pool, glass screen and polished surfaces, an open and closed spatial sequence has imaginary space as its counterpoint. In this section we look at work that similarly connects colour, light and material form at the latent spaces of opacity, the imaginary and invisible worlds of coloured surfaces. This capacity of colour and surface to draw in the observer, to participate in its imaginary spaces has a long history. It is a tradition that crafts space as real and fictive, of actual enclosure and painted space, or space painted in coloured materials. Colour and light are central to this architecture of real and imaginary space, of primary and secondary spaces that are in part crafted and in part discoveries of the individual imagination. In the sophisticated paintings of Roman houses we can still gaze into the spaces of opaque walls of red earths or rooms whose walls are painted as gardens - our modern minds still travel into allure of the coloured opacity and into luminous landscapes and gardens of wonder: in golden apse mosaics of the Middle Ages shimmering in candlelight, we sense the other-worldly. Spatial practice takes a turn with the development of mathematical perspective in the early fifteenth century. Perspective allows painters to ‘see’ differently, to articulate space according to precise geometrical rules. At the same time the traditions of colouring - which, as Cennino Cennini (1360-1427) outlines, are largely pragmatic – continue: artisanal knowledge of how to prepare colours, how to paint 96

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space with clear colour combinations, persists. Perspective opens a new form of geometric scaffold, but colour remained the key to re-imagining the opacity of the wall. Take for example the relatively early work of Masolino (and others) on the external wall of the Capella Castiglione (St Catherine’s Chapel) in San Clemente, Rome (1425-31). The high wall is above an arched opening frame the small chapel that broadly narrates scenes from the Saint’s life and crucifixion. Its surface is broken up as a painted frame that reads as light. The perspective of the upper cornice recedes into the ‘depth’ of the wall and frames a blue background (also to be read as luminous). The space between the columnar architecture and the background is primarily articulated in the spatial recession between light ochre painted columns and the blue ‘sky’. Our eyes are guided by the diagonal lines of the cornices, but these only frame the implied space: its body is established in light and colour. The relationship between the warm tones of the architecture and the receding sky, whose blue is replicated in the vault of the chapel itself and the sky behind the crucifixion of the rear wall, create an ambiguous space caught between heaven and earth. A few years later Fra Angelico’s Annunciation (1438-47) in San Marco, Florence depicts an angel, feathered wings the colours of minerals, appearing to the seated Virgin. Set against a shadow-filled, wooded background, and enclosed garden to one side, light appears to emanate from the miraculous scene. The loggia is wonderfully luminous and the heavenly bodies are enveloped in a gentle light whose source is invisible, but which has a locus in their circular gilded aureole. In contrast to the exquisitely gilding, the background of the woods is a black pigment, still visible through the translucent glazes of terra verde, zinc white and ochres. The angel appears to float, a body only part material, a receiver and radiator of light. Only the natural world appears to retain the deep shadows that bind them to the earth. We gaze on the miraculous coloured surface, a transformation of a solid wall into light: the opaque wall is effectively rendered into a field of transparent colour. This early colouring of perspectival recession – the articulation of the near and the far – culminates in Andrea Pozzo’s virtuoso vault painting for the S. Ignazio in Rome (completed 1694), where the actual form of the shallow nave vault is painted to convey a seemingly infinite space, depicting the apotheosis

Figure 7. Capella Castiglione (St Catherine’s Chapel) in San Clemente, Rome (1425-31)

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Figure 8. Fra Angelico, Annunciation (1438-47) in San Marco, Florence

of S. Ignazi. Coloured space has shifted from a delicate, static object of coloured, floating geometry to be ‘viewed’, to a dramatic and complex shifting space for participation. The theatrical event is narrated in part through perspective (the final cartoon or preparatory drawing was done at ¼ scale was transferred to the vault by candle light through gridded strings set at cornice height) but at the same time, the visual experience is quite distinct from earlier forms of perspectival painting, where colour ‘balance’ were subject to strict geometric recession. In contrast, as in the later Baroque of northern Europe, the spatial experience is derived from the spatiality of colour. First is the direct, perspectival ‘extension’ of space visually through painted architecture that is projected onto the slightly curved vault so as to appear to soar into the sky. So deftly is the painting and stuccowork overlapped with the physical material of the clerestory windows that it blurs the boundaries between real and fictive space, and the viewer is called to participate in the sacred drama it frames. The second level Figure 9. Andrea Pozzo, Apotheosis of S. Ignazio, Rome (completed 1694)

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of spatial reading is that formed by the undulating cornice of this monochrome architecture and the far distance, the ultramarine of the sky/heaven. This heavenly blue, and its accompanying luminosity flickers between flesh, cloth and fictive architecture, creating a theatre of colour inhabited by groups of figures (angels, cherubs and messengers of the Jesuit doctrine to the four continents). In the middle ground is a sea of rose madder clouds whose warm tones contrast with the seemingly distant ultramarine sky. It seems to miraculously part to reveal a golden light that surrounds the Saint’s apotheosis. The iconography of the image is explicit in texts by Pozzo himself but what is less emphasized is the central role of colour in the participation in the miracle. The spatial reading of this sea of colours is almost independent of the linear definition and the geometry of the forms that they depict. And the critical element of spatial legibility is the relation of one colour to another. These two historical examples illustrate the shift in the use of perspective from measured recessions that frame colour and light to a theatrical drama that calls for a participation in the colour field (as a means to participate in the divine event). Both paintings also use colour to represent the ‘near’ and ‘far’. In both cases the traditional association of ultramarine with heaven (and heavenly figures) creates the sense of ‘far’ distance. The early perspective mediates that distance - into the infinite, the transparent wall, with the use of light tones and framing devices and geometry. Later the emphasis is on theatricality of the event and engagement with a ‘participant’. At this time colour was the protagonist in space making and in a way that connected with the imagination to personalise the experience of and participation in colour. The visual impact of floating fields of colour that capture the imagination depended on artisanal knowledge, centuries of transmission of the craft from the gilding of icons, encaustic, of gums, glues and mediums, the best eggs for tempera, the mix for the whitest gesso, and most of all, the transparency of pigments. In early tempera paintings for example the process would typically start with the preparation of the ground, a gesso surface ritually laid onto a sized and canvas covered oak board. Mixing the gesso with an equal quantity of transparent zinc white pigment gave it a translucent whiteness. The base, built up of more than a dozen layers of the mix, each finely sanded before the next was applied, brushed in the opposite direction, has a extraordinary depth as light penetrates deep into its layered, translucent surface. It is this deep whiteness that gives a tempera painting its sense of light-filled colour, that itself is built up out of layers of ‘glazes’, finely ground pigment in a suspension of egg yolk and water. Painting techniques have subsequently experimented with the science of chromatic arrangements, tonal compositions and new artificial colours and mediums but the crafting of the actual material qualities of the coloured surface is inescapable and remains fundamental to the relationship of the coloured surface to the space of the painting or wall. In the carefully crafted ‘Matter Paintings’ of Antoni Tapies for example, of Europe’s Art Informel movement of the 1950’s reletively restrained colours are integral to a exposed board surface, often scored with marks and signs. This emphasizes a sense of a ‘floating space’ (that is also reminiscent of some of Paul Klee’s drawings). It is a spatial relationship, between the formed lines, subtle colour shifts and the seemingly partially formed matter that captures the imagination, and promotes a creative involvement in work. This is as far from the symbolic colour fields of the Middle Ages, as it is from the late nineteenth aesthetics of intimacy: both are supplanted by a fascination with the Primitive: “I …felt like following some of my early intuitions ‘towards magic’ with their confusion between reality and unreality, objects with beings, and wanted to give my paintings an air of primitivism.” Here, the exploration of materialism - and its colours - was to be free from the trappings of cultural associations, liberated ‘from all ontological prisons’, as Yve-Alain Bois has recently suggested. 99

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His interpretation of Base Materialism is derived from a reading of Bataille, whose Materialism anticipated much of the theoretical background to a wide range of artworks that followed during the twentieth century: “The time has come,’ declares Bataille, ‘when employing the word materialism, to assign to it the meaning of a direct interpretation, excluding all idealism, of raw phenomena, and not of a system founded on the fragmentary elements of an ideological analysis” (Bataille 1929; Blois, Krauss, 1977, p.53). At the core of Bataille’s ‘raw phenomena’ lie the nexus of colour-matter. In the context of post-war Spain, “logically enough” writes Borja-Villel “artists, writers and philosophers gradually began turning their attention away from everything that involved fantasy, moving increasingly closer to existential or phenomenological reality”. This raw materiality of a coloured surface is the dominant feature of interior of Peter Zumthor’s Saint Benedict Chapel (1988) that depends on colour shift between the warm tones of the exposed timber structure and the cool painted silver plywood of the lining to the outer structure of the double wall. This forms a deep clerestory articulated with slender fins, also painted silver. The inner structure is set off from the plywood lining and supports the timber roof. Stepping into the small chapel, the vast granite landscape seems to re-presented as gentle patterns of natural light from the clerestory reflected on the silver painted walls. Footsteps echo as the mountains floor falls way under the timber deck. The body and the mountains both seem powerfully brought together present despite the lack of transparency. Zumthor integrates colour and light with making and the formal concept of the building. The windowless interior, the deep clerestory, designed to create a gentle landscape of light and shadow, and the flatness of the silver walls open the horizons of the space to the vast landscape beyond. At the nearby Vals Thermal Baths, Zumthor’s palette is similarly restrained. The green grey colour of the gneiss stone that lines most walls creates a mid tone, a background representing the external material landscape. Its

Figure 10. Peter Zumthor, Saint Benedict Chapel, Sumvitg (1988)

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colour darkens as the day progresses, as water creates small pools on its surface. Some stones areas are honed, others polished to create reflective surfaces in a visual exchange with the water’s surface with areas of glass, and with lacquered woods of seats and changing rooms. Warm oranges of tungsten hanging ceiling lights flicker on the green-grey, wet stone, or shine through mist-filled treatment rooms. Zumthor crafts colour-material relationships in light and space. His palette is grounded in material and the processes of making and at times, the total absence of applied colour: Zumthor is not a colourist, but integrates colour, light - and sound -within the framing of the design and crafting of the whole project: colour is integral to the spatial environment as a whole. The shift in scale from the dramatic halls of carefully crafted coloured light to the wall of silver shadows of the single room, to the details of barely perceptible flickering colours on water illustrate the relationship of colour to spatial experience. From an envelopment in a sea of colour to a focus on detail, the experience of colour is an integral part of the experience of the space. It also illustrates the capacity of a given arrangement of colour to engage the user of the space in an imaginative exchange, opening the confines of the room to horizons that lie outside its walls: in a sense colour offers us the space to dream.

THE CHROMATIC IMAGINATION Ultimately these notes on colour are about places, human situations, framed by colours near and far, and material-colours that comprise the boundaries of the space. We have explored colour phenomena through the lens of an architect. In so doing we have naturally aligned with the philosophies of colour that take a relational, or an ‘ecological view’, that challenge the separation of the abstract qualities of colours from the perceiver, and the circumstances of viewing. This is not philosophical discourse, but an approach to crafting colour in space. For the question of colour is integral to spatial practice. Philosophies of colour and the science of colour inform our thinking about colour perception and measure, of the nature of our chromatic environments, but at the same time they fail to describe colour synthetically, as the dominant field in spatial experience and cognition. In spatial practice we can speak of the chromatic imagination and the latent poetic capacity of the lightcolour-materials in a given situation. Fundamental to our experience of the colour field in a spatial setting is its context, both physical and cultural, or social – its environments, both visible and unseen. Colour experience is in part what we see, Figure 11. Painted Garden, Villa of Livia, (30-20 B.C.E.) Museo Nazionale, Rome, and Peter Zumthor, detail, Terme Vals (1996)

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Figure 12. Colour relationships, Time and Place; House, Hongcun, China (c.1800) and David Chipperfield Architects, restoration of the Altes Museum, Berlin (2009)

on light, on colour relationships in the space and the material textures of the coloured surfaces. How a particular colour is experienced has also to do with the less visible, the cultural and social context, and the individual perceiver. And perhaps most powerfully, in a world where contexts and identities are constantly changing, the individual imagination is key to colour experience and to the careful crafting of colour in space. The ability to judge imaginative colour relationships as designers is a question of visual intelligence: at a certain point it in the design process the colour relationships just appear right.

REFERENCES Albers, J. (2013). Interaction of Colour. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. (Original work published 1963) Bataille, G. (1997). Materialism. In Formless: A User’s Guide. Zone Books. Baty, P. (2017). The Anatomy of Colour. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.

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Douglas, C. (1994). Kazmir Malevich. London: Thames and Hudson. Gage, J. (1993). Colour and Culture Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction. London: Thames and Hudson. Goethe, J. W. (2015). Theory of Colours (C. L. Eastlake, Trans.). CreateSpace. Goncourt, E. de. (n.d.). La Maison d’un Artiste (vol. 2). Charpentier. Henry, C. (1889). Cercle chromatique présentant tous les compléments et toutes les harmonies de couleurs avec une introduction sur la théorie générale de la dynamogénie autrement dit du contrate, du rythme et de la mesure. Paris: Charles Verdin. Kandinsky, W. (1977). Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Dover Publications. Kane, C. (2015). Broken Colour in a Modern World: Chromatic Failures in Purist Art and Architecture. Journal of the International Colour Association, 14, 1–3. Loske, A. (2019). Colour, A visual History. London: ILEX. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Perception (C. Smith, Trans.). New York: Routeldge and Kegan Paul. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968). The visible and the Invisible. Northwestern University Press. Murata, J. (n.d.). The multi-dimensionality of Colors. Retrieved from http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/rih/phs/ events/200405_PEACE/papers/JunichiMURATA.pdf Newton, I. (1704). Optiks: A treatise of the Reflections. Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. Sartre, J. P. (1940). The Psychology of the Imagination. Routledge. (1985). The Crystal Chain Letters: Architectural Fantasies by Bruno Taut and His Circle (IBoyd White, Trans. & Ed.). MIT Press. Werner, A. G. (2018). Nomenclature of Colours, Adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Anatomy and the Arts. London: Natural History Museum. (Original work published 1814)

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Chapter 5

Public Space “Under Influence”: Rewriting in Progress in Africa

Monica Coralli Laboratoire Architecture, Anthropologie, CNRS-UMR LAVUE 7218, France

ABSTRACT This chapter explores the intersections between the notions of “urban interior design” and “public space” in West African cities. The artistic dynamics at work reshape the spaces by discussing their colonial imprint and the symbolism they have successively been charged with. As the nature of the projects is very diverse, both in terms of techniques and materials used and the objectives pursued, there is a clear desire to take greater account of the human dimension and to establish connections between local roots and the globalizing push. Through the analysis of some experiments carried out in Dakar, Cotonou, Porto-Novo, and Douala, the author identifies seven trends. The examples presented her relate to one or more of them. The projects combine the aesthetic approach with an ethical message: they translate into a citizen commitment to better, fairer, and more inclusive spaces.

INTRODUCTION The common denominator of a large number of African cities in the old European colonial empires is the influence of colonial tutelage on models of spatial organization. It has continued to structure cities well after Independences and continue till this day to influence their expansion and densification. However, since Independences, the progressive questioning of this heritage has taken several forms. The spatial translations of this post-colonial (or de-colonial) desire to rethink so-called public spaces as places for the expression of contradictory narratives will be examined. The art of celebration and propaganda from central powers has given way to an art of denunciation and contestation at the heart of new struggles of the post-colonial era. In the background of these are the theories developed by several authors who call on Africa to wake up, to leave the colonial model and its derivations and declinations at all levels. Among them is Achille Mbembe’s book, an activist essay with a very evocative title, Sortir de la grande nuit. Essai sur l’Afrique décolonisée (tr.: Getting out of the long night. Essay on decolonized Africa) which was published in 2010 during the ceremonies of the fiftieth anniversary of Independence. This title is DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch005

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taken from the metaphor used by Frantz Fanon in his book “Les damnés de la terre” (tr: The damned of the earth) (1961). Wakanda never existed but this imaginary Kingdom of futuristic and high tech cities, born of the imagination of scriptwriter Stan Lee and modeled by director of “Black Panther” (2018), Ryan Coogler, in the 2018 Marvel Studios production, could be one of possible answers to a question to which we might never have an answer: what would the African continent and its agglomerations and (urban) spaces look like without colonial intervention? If it proves difficult to recognize oneself in a univocal formal response and a common identity advocated by certain currents of thought referring to the precept of reinventing Black Experience by merging science fiction, fantasy and real history, such as Afrofuturism and of which the Kingdom of Wakanda would be an illustration, what would other possible responses be like? The set of “Black Panther” is not only interesting for its aesthetics, but also for the approach it implies, in particular the fact of ignoring the colonial contribution. Such an approach, without erasing colonial history, can undoubtedly make it possible to rewrite the inherited space by redefining it, to give shape, volume and even voice to spaces that fit more closely the populations that inhabit them. Thus, occupation by contestation can be transformed into a positive approach of reinvention, both of expression tools and paradigms. Outside the field of science fiction, the movements advocating decolonization (and decolonialization) of thought have not yet found a real spatial anchor. Nevertheless, some projects use a related symbolic symbolism and can undoubtedly be considered as witnesses of this questioning of the city resulting from colonial planning, structured by the desire for domination. One of the most fruitful reflections on the “reinvention of the African city” is undoubtedly the one led for almost ten years by the Togolese anthropologist architect Sénamè Koffi Agbodjinou who, in response to the “civilization approach” applied by the colonists in Africa, in reference to the classical model of Western society, proposes a Hubcity in Lomé (Fig.1). He revisits the traditional village, while using digital technology, “Low Hight Tech”, to create a new model of city. With the support of modest technologies that “everyone could appropriate” and with the exploitation of locally available resources, more responsible city dwellers could jointly launch projects developed in community to positively impact their living environment. Technology, not replacing the social but sublimating it, could produce a more ethical Smart city: everyone, depending on their investment, could earn “social points”, digital credits that would be collected on a platform, and would be part of a parallel economy, following a system of donations and counter-donations that would educate people to take care of their city. The inhabitants would thus be rich in the benefits that the city derives from their involvement. The products of the reflections carried out by some artists in this direction, which will serve as an example in this chapter, illustrate in our opinion this shift of perspective. Rethinking the city, redesigning urban public space in Africa, appears as the necessary and inevitable passage for the production not (or not only) of new cities inspired by non-indigenous models, but rather for a different assimilation of the memory of the colonial past and its consequences. Its progressive erasure (which involves abandonment and then demolition) is certainly less useful than its integration and reinterpretation in the context of processes of reconfiguration of existing spaces, making it play its role as a trace, even in spaces that have been re-appropriated and invested for new uses. This text is the result of the reworking of an article that should have appeared in the catalogue of the Biennale Regard Bénin 2012 devoted to the civic engagement of artists (“Inventing World: The Artist as Citizen”). For many reasons, the catalogue was never published. This new version is based on the unpublished text from 2012 combined with additional examples and annotations. The trends identified 105

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Figure 1. Lomé Hubcité, S. K. Agbodjinou © Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou 2019

in 2012 were confirmed by cross-checking the opinions gathered during our successive interviews and observations. The study sheds special attention on this approach, which induces the occupation of neglected spaces, abandoned plazas and squares, roads and passages of various sizes in slums, and peripheral neighborhoods with irregular outlines specific to under equipped habitat. Based on interviews with several architects, designers, performers… (Sénamè Koffi Agbodjinou, Alioune Be, Docta, Oulimata Gueye, Didier Houénoudé, Franck Houndégla, Andréya Ouamba, Jean-Christophe Lanquetin, Delphine Lopez, Tiziana Manfredi, Fiona Meadows, Mauro Petroni, Bibi Seck and Francis Sessou) and previous observations, carried out over the past twenty years with particular focus on public spaces, this chapter will explore the ever-present interweaving connections between tradition and modernity in a few projects that we believe illustrate some current trends at the intersection of local logics and the dynamics of globalization underway in an increasingly urban Africa. A city’s existence depends on the public space that gives it meaning. A logic of cause-and-effect connects them. As a Western term that has been imported and imposed with its own codes, is the concept of public space relevant in Africa? Although hard to define in a single way, this non-native term nevertheless speaks of known spaces that play a fundamental social role. Without using this concept or naming it explicitly, many authors studied these spaces dedicated to collective life, considering them as the necessary backdrop to observing individual and collective practices in Africa. Among others, see Ela

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(1983), Pourtier (1999), Balandier (1985), Vennetier (1991), Leimdorder (1999), de Maximy (2000). It is important to distinguish between the two categories that the concept contains. Its dimensions, both material and immaterial, are often similar and sometimes coincide, although not necessarily. Indeed, their simultaneous presence is not indispensable. Rather, the two words that comprise the phrase “public space(s)” are polysemous and relate to a multiform group of spaces with multiple functions and uses, with varied symbolism. The use of singular or plural results from the fields of reflection and intervention. Generally speaking, the former indicates the phrase’s abstract value while the latter implies physical, concrete space, including plazas and squares, public gardens and parks… Theories developed by Hannah Arendt and Jürgen Habermas remain the primary frame of reference for analyzing public space. As Ferry (1989, p.15) remarked, it seems impossible to escape the Greek (agora) and bourgeois (space of expression) models generated by these two authors (Coralli 2005; Coralli & De Biase 2009). In architectural practices and urban theories, the attention and treatment reserved for “public space(s)” change according to the actors and historical period. Its form and its appropriation contribute to marking ruptures; social, religious, and artistic expressions (or all of them at once) accompany politics by appearing in this space, which in turn allows for, or even encourages, their visibility. This support welcomes and frames them and it is with these expressions that it is connoted. In the light of debates public space sparks in the development of politics in European cities and, indirectly, in Africa, public space today maintains its reputation as indispensable to a city’s management. During the last two decades, it has become the preoccupation, if not the pillar, of democracy especially for many African countries for whom the 1990s were marked by national conferences that opted for a democratizing process that is still ongoing. Over time, artistic projects have modeled and animated public space. Sponsors and their objectives, and the public’s “social reception” (Semmoud 2007) as simple observers or active protagonists, tend to modify the concept’s meaning. Indeed, these sites for exchange and for the representation of power (and the forces that oppose it) simultaneously play a mediating role in the immaterial sphere. They constitute the material support and clarify the relationship between the State and its citizens; they adapt to the politico-historical events that they go through and reflect. Here, urban public spaces are considered in their materiality in relationship to the artistic expressions, broadly defined, that invest in them and which allow them to become privileged sites for transmitting “top down” messages or for the manifestation of a certain kind of “bottom up” citizen engagement or, even, both at the same time.

Urban Design and Politics: Between Continuity and Rupture, a Dual Evolution The structuring of modern cities from the colonial period in West Africa presents similarities and identifiable ruptures in space and time. Except for a few ones, most of these cities share the same pattern. Growth and increase in population density are governed by similar principles. As such, the resulting urban fabric has been subject to a progressive erasing of the pleasurable public places or open, green spaces that were previously set up by and for the colonists. In each period, art and public spaces materialized and clarified the issues. We will focus on the period that began in the 1990s and which continues unabated today. Monuments erected during the Independence period bear the mark of a nationalist sentiment that was growing deep within states that were still defining themselves and seeking to affirm their power. Monuments and statues standing tall at the center of Independence squares and plazas built during the 1960s highlight this phase of identity formation and often echoed the personality cult of tutelary and 107

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fatherly figure of charismatic presidents. If, in certain countries, this habit of glorification continued until the 1980s and even after, in others, social and revolutionary movements led to significant changes and mutations. In this regard, Place de l’Etoile Rouge in Cotonou (Benin) is a very interesting case. It’s a crossroads in the middle of which is a monument with the form of a five-pointed star painted red. Above the Star is a column surmounted by the statue of a man, called Jacob. The weapon he carries on his shoulder recalls compulsory military service, the wooden bundle in his left hand represents the one that was the primary source of energy for 90% of the Beninese population and a hoe, in his right hand, is a sign that the country’s economy is based on agriculture. This large roundabout was built by the Revolutionary regime with the support of Soviet Union in 1975, under the Marxist-Leninist ruling of the country. Access to the center of the roundabout and its gardens and alleys with the central elevated statue was strictly forbidden, except on two yearly celebrations: October 26th, commemorating Popular Armed Forces day, and November 30th, for the official Programming Speech reading. Nowadays, the socio-political context resulting from the 1990 National Conference of the Nation’s Living Forces has given way to a different form of appropriation of the place. With the fall of the Marxist-Leninist regime in 1990, the commemorative function and readings on Place de l’Etoile Rouge have disappeared and given way to new urban practices. The radio centric areas located in the centre are used for art exhibitions, in particular during Boulev’art event, which brought together international artists annually from 1999 to 2015. The non-vegetalized areas of the Square are regularly used as exhibition spaces for rent at trade fairs; the vegetalized areas and concentric paths are now used for sports activities or relaxation for residents, especially during weekends. All these activities have overshadowed and trivialized the commemorative function of the monument, which was once evocative of a strong political ideology. Place de l’Etoile Rouge is now for everyone, being reduced to its sole functional dimension as a multifunctional urban public space. (Fig. 2 & 3) Several architects and artists thus monopolized public sites. This “exclusivity” was made possible because of particularly favorable circumstances that allowed them to sign their names on works that structured the capital cities while leaving other equally valuable figures in the shadows. This was the case in Togo for Paul Ahyi and Messan Hilaire Locoh-Donou and in Senegal for Pierre Goudiaby Atepa. The revolutionary politics that began during the 1970s, albeit with different foundations and modalities, in various West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Conakry…) called on the same tools in order to express itself. The model used by the nationalist process – massive and imposing statuary – remains. If the represented subjects have changed, the monumental objects that have been produced are of the same ilk. The artworks, produced as abstract expressions of central power and intended to be timeless, are detached from their context, even when they represent those who have marked the ideology of Marxist-Leninist thought. For instance, Place Lénine in Cotonou (Benin) had a statue of Lenin in its middle that was dismantled at the fall of the Marxist Leninist Regime. We are faced with spaces specifically designed for the purpose of displaying key principles and figures of ruling power that, diffused throughout the city, now serve as a “blackboard for political power which metaphorically writes the talking points of its program on it” (Biehler 2010, p.97). Serving socialist ideology, artists designed monuments at the center of geometric spaces that were meant to serve as gathering points on major intersections crossing and fueling the city like arteries within the human body. In the same way, totalitarian power is diffused across these urban conglomerations. This logic of control impeded the generation of free public space. On the other hand, it produced spaces that would become the objects of a re-appropriation at the time of the deconstruction and reworking of revolutionary thought.

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Figure 2. Place de l’Etoile Rouge, Cotonou (Benin), 2012 (photograph by Francis Sessou)

Citizen Initiatives and Spatial Impact At the end of the 1980s, structural adjustment and the advent of democracy produced a fracture that led to changes whose benefits have not yet been contradicted and whose principles remain operative. Investment in public space, both material and immaterial, was radically different: on the one hand, neighborhood streets and plazas comprised the physical support through which the needs of inhabitants were made manifest and, on the other hand, the youth committed themselves to politics. With the new possibility of free expression, initiatives coming from citizens were not only simply tolerated: they became necessary to compensate for the failures of a powerless State that, faced with a demographic boom and the resulting uncontrolled urban sprawl, is disengaging. The population immediately recuperates the part of the “vacant” state power and artists are standing by their sites, inscribing their activities in the movements that call for change and jointly initiate actions for development. A well-known example of a protest movement, “Y en a marre” in Senegal, created in 2011 by rappers and journalists. Faced with insufficient development and a lack of supplies, the territorial scale, previously used by the State as developer, has been replaced by that of the neighborhood which, for both organizations and individuals, appears as the best field for action because its transformations are measurable on a day-today basis in a time-space that is more easily controllable. For example, faced with ecological concerns, collectives of residents and NGOs have taken on new initiatives, accompanied by artists who adopt the cause. Since 1988 in Dakar and surrounding areas, questions of health and sanitation “speak” in the language of graffiti and hip-hop. Thus, the youth are no longer excluded from politics and they actively contribute to freeing themselves from the logic of waiting for State services. (Fig.4) As Benga (2013, p.357) points out, this phenomenon of the creation of mural paintings, which is specific to Dakar more than to other capitals, at least in its early stages, “beyond aesthetic needs and the “restoration” of political mores by young people”, is also “a form of public art constituting a space where graffiti culture, understood here as a form of devalued, “popular” artistic expression, is expressed, which

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Figure 3. Place de l’Indépendance, Lomé (Togo), 2019 (photograph by the author)

is integrated into the different aspects of daily life in Dakar (or at least reflects them)”. Graffiti indeed reflects “an innovative urban inscription specific to a group that seeks to affirm elements of social and cultural distinction” (idem, p.362), and they respond to “urban and civic revitalization” (idem, p.363). A fragile and ephemeral artistic form, yet it is omnipresent. Graffiti has a limited and uncertain time of visibility: it is exposed to bad weather but it is also and above all subject (or likely to be) to the erasure that state institutions may request. The decoration of all the available surfaces of the capital and its periphery, from major arteries to bridges, schools, car parks and squares, in front of these “talking walls” (Benga), pedestrians as well as motorists and public transport users are constantly solicited: words and slogans that evoke themes for reflection and, in turn, become amplifiers of ongoing political debates, whistleblowers of problems, signs of the involvement of youth groups but also and above all the reflection of opinions often expressed by people of all ages. Ndiouga Benga’s pun in her title, “The walls on our walls”, sums up well the interaction between urban culture and the quest for citizenship in Dakar in the decade 1990-2000. Today, the murmurs of the walls have become deafening cries, which formulate exaggerated complaints, linked to any type of dysfunction and

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Figure 4. From the Book ENDA, Set Setal, « des murs qui parlent », 1991 © ENDA

claim, among other things, the right to the city, the right to services, the inadequacy or even absence of which are not to be demonstrated, and the firm will to resolve colonial domination. Protest, which bears an aesthetic form, a visible and audible artistic expression, concerns several points, two of which are of particular interest to us here: on the one hand, the ties that African States still maintain today with the former colonial power and other economic powers that are trying to (and, indeed, succeeding in) reproducing, by bringing it up to date, the same dominant-dominated link and, on the other hand, the construction of a national identity “bottom-up”, the aim being to make it cohabit with that manufactured from “top-down” to promote a national consciousness (Diop 2016). These messages, conveyed by the young population, highlight “the need for a more just, equitable and inclusive society” (idem, p. 322). The message that they express is conveyed by artworks produced with recuperated objects and materials that seek to invert or simply displace and reinterpret the function and symbolic value of certain spaces through a method of “redress”, or rhabillage. A city’s “strong” sites – public spaces – have become “privileged sites for fabricating a new urban identity or for the (re)invention of tradition and memory that adjust to the social and economic crisis” (Diouf 1991, p.53). In addition, the forms of art developing their return in a field broadened by the notion that art distinguishes itself through singular interventions that, on the one hand, take place in completely ordinary spaces and, on the other hand, occur in those spaces for representation set up by the State and officially recognized as such. There, these actions disrupt the meaning of departure in order to contest, for example, those in power. As a governing tool, as an effective and attractive means of building awareness, and as a site for making claims and resisting, the coupling

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of art and public space serves the democratic cause by focusing on its capacity to create links, to make “communities.” The participation of inhabitants as interlocutors, as much in the artwork’s generation as in its execution, produces forms of shared territoriality (Bourriaud 1998, cited by Bargna 2012). Such experiments are numerous and represent one of the most current trends. Pushing the reflection further, one could say that the inhabitants themselves “are” the intervention. The project of video artist Tiziana Manfredi and choreographer Andréya Ouamba, “Utopias and urban materials” is an example that, in popular district of Ouakam in Dakar, has had without doubt its most successful expression. This heterogeneous urban space, in perpetual transformation, becomes total artistic expression. Young persons are omnipresent (they represent on average and almost everywhere in Africa large cities and metropolises, around 70% of the population), therefore becoming the main actors of the urban public scene. (Fig. 5) The “unfinished city”, never finished, always under construction, “impermanent” (Adichie 2019), a characteristic that many African cities share, is a lever for all possibilities because “the city exists beyond its architecture” (de Boeck & Plissart 2005, p.233). In this context, “mock infrastructures” (idem) become objects of inspiration, likely to generate new spaces of sociability... Space belongs to whoever uses it and the users or occupants are themselves structuring infrastructures in the same way as those, material, which should make it accessible... Thus, activities of all kinds that take place there “generate a minimal infrastructure, characterized both by its material absence and by its presence” (idem). AbdouMaliq Simone (2004) summarized the realities observed in Johannesburg and Abidjan... in this expression: “people as infrastructure”. This notion has inspired and fuelled much research in all fields on Africa such as Play-Urban program and one of its initiators, F. Duconseille, who admits that “people as infrastructure” has never ceased to nourish their urban “reveries”, like a talisman, a magic formula that stimulated thoughts and actions (...) People as infrastructure, useful man, structure man, road man, canalization, electric pole... man palliative to the lack of facilities, to the absence of public organization of society (…) (Duconseille 2016, p.130).

Figure 5. Tiziana Manfredi and Andréya Ouamba, “Matières urbaines”, Dak’Art 2016, Ouakam, Dakar (Senegal) © Tiziana Manfredi 2016

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According to different degrees, it must be recognized that it is just as valid in many other dense African urban contexts where occupation by people creates spatiality, to the point of making unrecognizable the geometry and volume of the original spaces invested by the people who use them. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would refer to this as “human architecture”. Thus, it is especially in sub-Saharan Africa that lefebvrian statements are more relevant than ever: the body, with its capacities for action, its energies, makes space, it produces it (Lefebvre 1974). “Bodies are the public space” (de Boeck & Plissart 2005, p. 238). This link or combination, which could be defined as fusional, between body and space undoubtedly defines and explains the number of manifestations of the body (performances) rather than the number of installations of a more or less definitive nature.

In Search of Identity: Design Put to the Test by West African Public Space The time when art was the exclusive result of official commissions and was almost entirely produced in interventions designed as celebrations of, or propaganda for, State power is over. Art in Africa is now exhibited in outdoor spaces and it solicits audience participation. Artists currently use the language of “crisis”, which translates the concerns of everyone. They act as denouncers and motors of the struggle for humanitarian causes. They initiate projects with the inhabitants to launch new dynamics likely to improve their living environment. Their position is that of active and committed inhabitants among the inhabitants. This art suggests new, unusual, and temporary interpretations of this common good, which are neither appropriated nor, on the contrary, over-appropriated. Thus, sites transformed by creations, installations, happenings (the terms used to describe these new forms of representation with their mixed origins abound) attempt to offer a response to the quest for identity by mobilizing a feeling, a belonging to and an identifying with the neighborhood (the projects, the ghetto…) more than with the nation. The characteristics that seem to define this art in progress that is inscribed in public space constitutes attempts to define this new identity, in a break with all the above, with an increasingly obvious desire to be inclusive and to make the notion of spectatorship disappear in favour of that of usership, as J.-C. Lanquetin points out, quoting Stephen Wright. The 13th edition of the Dak’Art 2018 Contemporary Art Biennale, entitled L’Heure Rouge (this title is a tribute to Aimé Césaire: the expression is taken from his play “Et les chiens se taisent”), highlighted these new links that the art world is establishing with the urban and those who live there. The color red, says its curator, Simon Njami, is used as a metaphor for maturity and transformation; it is the creative energy of a new, decolonized man. Several cultural initiatives that animated the In and even more so the off of Dak’Art 2018 can be hosted under this banner. In conversations with friends and colleagues who are architects, designers, artists, historians and art critics, cultural operators, who occupy the African art scene, we’ve questioned the seven trends we had identified in 2012. We present it in this text, enriched by the examples they have given us or that we ourselves have identified as representative of a trend. Nevertheless, some of them may relate to several at a time.

Self-expression Extra Muros Public sphere is preferred over closed spaces (museums, galleries, studios…) that are frequented by the “initiated”. Investing streets and plazas implies increasing the public who benefits, modifying its prerogatives while orienting them. Artworks are heavily anchored to the sites. Finally, because localized in sites that are accessible to all, they are no longer reserved for an elite.

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In this category, several actions have been carried out for at least fifteen years by Zinsou Foundation in Cotonou, a leading cultural space at continental level in the field of contemporary art. Its actions respond to this desire to get closer to the public by taking the works (or reproductions of them) outside: Champs de Foire, Esplanade du Stade de l’Amitié, Place Lenine and Place Bulgarie, the beach... have served to establish this connection with the public with, very often, performances by artists who dialogue with the works on display. (Fig. 6 & 7) This work has been pursued through capillary actions in many districts of Cotonou, in particular through a program to rehabilitate the documentation centres of several CEGs (Colleges of General Education), which have become quality mini libraries. These same spaces also serve as cultural places at the neighborhood level. Of a completely different nature, but also interesting, is the photographic exhibition, still organized by the Foundation, hosted during the 2012 Biennale by the former OCBN station and the wagons of the “Northern Line” Cotonou-Parakou, deserted in 2006 and which had allowed to cross Benin since 1902. An “invitation to travel” (this was the title of the exhibition and the book) that sends a message to government decision-makers: relaunch rail transport.

Re-work Memory The goal of commemoration persists, but the terms have changed: the discovery and selective re-interpretation of the memory of past leads to totally new forms for marking space. Two examples are the Ouidah Memorial and the slave route traced by Tokoudagba, which are inscribed in a larger project of “memorization (mémorisation)” (Sinou, 2005) which was concretized by the Festival des Arts Vodouns, Ouidah 92. In the same commemorative field stands out the work of South African artist Bruce Clarke who, closely following the evolution of war in Rwanda and the warning signs of genocide, is helping to set Figure 6. Stade de l’Amitié, Cotonou (Benin), Fondation Zinsou Exhibition, « Chasseurs Nagô du Royaume Bantè » (photograph by Céline Coyac, 2012)

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Figure 7. Stade de l’Amitié, Cotonou (Benin), Fondation Zinsou Exhibition, « Chasseurs Nagô du Royaume Bantè » (photograph by Céline Coyac, 2012)

up a collective for solidarity with the Rwandan people. It was during a photographic report commissioned by this group a few weeks after the genocide that he decided to create a memorial in the form of a monumental installation on a site near Kigali, Le Jardin de la mémoire (2000), a project carried out with the help of the victims’ families or relatives and supported by civil society, Rwandan institutions and UNESCO. (Cf. http://fondationzinsou.org/portfolio_page/avec-bruce-clarke/) Also worth mentioning is a research and visual creation project on the territory of memory from the urban environment of Dakar. Designed by Officina Mamiwata, “Reflections on the Future” was presented at the Dak’art 2018 Biennale (Fig. 8 & 9). Intended for young audiences, it offered, in the streets of Dakar, “an experience of discovering the past, reflecting on the present and creating for the future. If the space of the past materializes in heritage, we can consider cultural heritage as a concrete territory that we can explore, cross, read, question and live in again.” (Manfredi interview: May, 2019) This project by Tiziana Manfredi also resulted, within the framework of the Network Creative Cities, in another experiment: “Liquid landscape” focuses on the power of water, the water that surrounds the Cape Verde peninsula. “If, as Edouard Glissant believed, landscape is memory, the liquid landscape of water holds the key to unlocking memory, because in its eternal swaying it reminds that everything is carried along in the same movement: The Earth, humankind, and all other being swept up in the constant and inevitable dance of existence. Landscapes become our shared spaces, the crossroads where All meets. The landscape is our mutual friend, a lower who leaves their mark on us, changes us, just as we might change it. This landscape can be crossed with images placed on the horizon.” (Manfredi 2017, p.153) Virtual bridges between past and present have also been “built” in Saint-Louis by BRIDGE, directed by Salimata Diop, artistic director of the Musée de la Photographie (MuPho), who describes the project as a constellation of ephemeral spaces, in evolution, whose fertile walls are sometimes refurbished,

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Figure 8. Tiziana Manfredi, “Reflets du Futur”, URBI, Dak’Art 2018 © Tiziana Manfredi 2018

sometimes decadent, wrinkled and sublimated by the superposed layers of multicolored flaked paintings that bear witness to their many lives. A work on the memory of a city which, despite its classification as a UNESCO world heritage site, is groping for its preservation and rehabilitation in order to make way as much as possible for ex-novo construction.

Figure 9. Tiziana Manfredi, “Reflets du Futur”, URBI, Dak’Art 2018 © Tiziana Manfredi 2018

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Interaction Artists involve inhabitants as co-producers of artworks. Their approach and work are similar to that of anthropological investigations. Their productions thus work perfectly well together with the social/ socializing role of public space. Considered as the only valid mode of governing, “participation” is a catchall word across fields and which has to be used in any decision-making process. Doual’art, a non-profit cultural organization and art centre founded in 1991 by Didier Schaub and Marilyn Douala Bell in Douala (Cameroon), dedicated to new African urban practices and the promotion of public art, has since then carried out actions with artists, architects and designers that impact the environment of Douala: creation of public infrastructures or implementation of inventive solutions to concrete problems, strengthening the identity of certain places and squares, revitalizing public space with shared events and experiences. Over the years, dozens of projects have been carried out that have changed the perception of certain spaces and the Douala environment. The three works mentioned above were created as part of SUD (Salon Urbain de Douala), a three-year public art festival that Doual’art has been organizing since 2007. The Alioum Moussa passage, “La Passerelle” in Bassengue, Frédéric Keiff’s “Arbre à palabres” (2007) and Lucas Grandin’s “Jardin sonore” de Bonamouti (2010) are examples of this co-production work that has been carried out with the Centre’s management, which has often served as a mediator with populations and traditional leaders. The installation of Keiff iron and glass tree in Bonanjo, initially planned in Bonabéri, was the subject of lengthy discussions between the village chief and local elders until it became necessary to install it elsewhere. This story reveals the state of reflection on identity and the openness to foreign works in places that have always had little impact on them by the colonizers. This Douala Sound Garden is an elevated garden growing at the sound of the water. Different kinds of sound are directly conducted by the plants different needs of water. The water is collected by the rainfall, stocked in barrels and offered to the vertical garden trough transparent tubes using a hydroponic dripping system. Drops of water drip into cans of different sizes, creating notes, producing food, cosmetics plants, and light pharmaceutical plants for the neighborhood of Bonamouti. This building is a water sound garden, designed to help gain consciousness of the importance of the water in our lives, to give Douala its right to water back and to show its origins, to give a free new social meeting place in Bonamouti where anybody can go when rest is needed, to enjoy water melody, the smell of the flowers, to see the Wouri river and its original mangrove (where everybody came) and feel the wind of nature... a new social area to talk, to plant, to listen, to re-create a new inter-generational communication through the garden. A biological and sound garden that, through its gaze, its space and its relational proposals, will highlight the interactions and identity of a district and a city of water: Douala. (Lucas Grandin’s website) Eventually, as concerns the bridge, it was initially conceived as a cooperation development project, financed by Institut Régional de Coopération-Développement d’Alsace (IRCOD-Alsace), Urban Community of Douala I and Doual’art. As project coordinator, Doual’art led a community approach involving the local Bessengue-Akwa Development Committee (BADC), from the conceptualization phase to project implementation. During this process, an artistic competition was organized to define the aesthetic characteristics of La Passerelle. The selected proposal generated community debate and recalled historical conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous populations. The project designed by Alioum Moussa proposed to create a link between art and the experiences of the neighborhood community, to document shared intentions, to promote and pursue peaceful collaboration for future generations. This

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footbridge is regularly restored, a sign of its necessity and the attachment this bridge and the approach adopted have generated among the inhabitants of the area. All these projects, despite their different institutional and artistic status and processes, establish links that are co-developed by all the actors involved. The key to their success undoubtedly lies in the respective roles of individuals and groups driven by the same objectives and the same desire to improve their living environment. (Fig.10, 11 & 12)

Assemble and Commit Commitment is emphasized by artists working alongside NGOs as well as independent and non-profit institutions. They take the risk of instrumentalization. The experience of the Senegalese movement Set/ Setal is instructive. In Wolof, Set/Setal means “clean/to make clean.” In the same spirit, let us also mention the experience Graff&Santé, project led by the Senegalese graffiti artist, Docta. They built awareness of themes related to health and the environment through artistically transforming spaces: they did so first with murals and then by marking and cleaning strategic open spaces in order to ensure their protection and cleanliness and to suggest a change in behaviors regarding current problems. (Fig. 13)

Valorize the Ephemeral Artworks no longer aim to be timeless. On the one hand, the materials used are perishable and, on the other hand, the chosen exhibition sites cannot keep the installations indefinitely. The installations seek to transmit a message that, for different reasons, has been judged as necessary and pertinent to a given temporal-spatial context but whose validity is limited and not universal. An original intervention by Romuald Hazoumé (Copahuba, 2003) at Jardin des Plantes et de la Nature in Porto-Novo made it possible Figure 10. Alioum Moussa, “La Passerelle”, 2005, Bassengue, Douala (Cameroun) © Doual’art

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Figure 11. Frédéric Keiff, “Arbre à palabres”, 2007, Bonanjo, Douala (Cameroun) © Doual’art

to extend the life of a tree of a rare species, fallen in 2002 because of termites attack and humidity. The artist carved out sculptures from it, inspired by voodoo, perfectly adapting those sculptures to the sacred space they would inhabit until they totally decompose, as noticed by Houénoudé (2007). Indeed, it is worth recalling that JPN was once a sacred wood. Part of it was then transformed into a public garden.

Figure 12. Lucas Grandin, “Jardin sonore”, 2010, Bonamouti, Douala (Cameroun) © Doual’art

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Figure 13. Docta, Graff&Santé © Docta

Wander Itinerancy is adopted as a mode of expression in order to reach a larger public. The underlying idea is to deconstruct the image of art as an elitist and thus distant expression (which refers back to point 1). Movement temporarily transforms and does not freeze (itself); by creating signs, it acts on collective memory and it can inscribe itself there in order to spark other initiatives. It is with this goal in mind that Meschac Gaba proposed an ambulatory spectacle in the streets of Cotonou (MAVA, Musée d’Art de la Vie Active, 2010). The idea was to revisit history through focusing on major figures. Represented by masks, these men take the form of “human monuments,” icons that walk around the city by traveling through its most significant sites. It is important here to recall Meschac Gaba’s work on active memory and his urban journeys in December 2010 for a project with Laboratorio. (Fig.14) Walking around urban space can become a performative act. In other words, this apparently banal action of simply walking somewhere can take on a poetic (and artistic) aspect and arouse the desire to look at it and interact with the “travelling” being. The objectives of this type of stroll, or performance, are varied, but it is often a question of saying something about the space in which we find ourselves. More than temporarily appropriating the places, it is a question of building relationships with a particular context: a place, a moment, inhabitants, etc. with context itself being in perpetual change. Finally “we deal with” space. Assimilable in certain aspects to the anthropological approach, it can take the form of dialogue and listening or, otherwise, of an eccentric performative gesture to observe the reactions of the inhabitants, passing through the highlighting and exaggeration of the habits of a given community... Although ephemeral, it represents a particular way of being in space, both reading and interpreting it, a way of suggesting ideas, of becoming aware of certain realities and the relationship of the body to space or, again, of encouraging inhabiting initiatives or public authorities... AliceWalks, whose real name is Alice Neveu, describes her work in Johannesburg, Kinshasa and Dakar as follows: “These are urban walks (...) during which I let myself be guided by new encounters, friends or strangers. I reproduce these moments of stroll through texts, maps, photographs and performances,

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Figure 14. Meschac Gaba, MAVA (Musée de l’Art de la Vie Active) Cotonou, Performance parade, Cotonou (Benin) © Meschac Gaba 2010

which are for me tools to express and reflect on my subjectivity in the city. (...) the way things work obviously differs from French or European cities (...) allows me to question, and at stake, my points of reference, my operations, my codes and myself.” Taking the walk with Alice was also a great and thoughtful experience. The multiple interactions generated in the different spaces crossed by SICAP rue 10 (this is one of the first housing programs built by the Société Immobilière du Cap-Vert in Dakar in the early 1950s) go far beyond mere curiosity, because they question the tabula rasa as a modus operandi, question a mutation until then “soft”, made of grafts, extensions, changes in usage, etc., which becomes brutal. The “Cités des Célibataires” (“Cities of the Singles”) disappeared under the blows of bulldozers. During colonial era, those sites not only accommodated single men but entire families. This of course had an impact on the use of the premises, which also had an impact on their shape. Spaces had changed, the inhabitants had reclaimed them, while still leaving visible the traces, or strata, of the successive periods that have constituted the complex identity of the district. The project: high quality residential apartments, a symptom of the “emerging” dynamics of a capital in full “development”. Gap holes, palisades, sand piles and ghost images, the memory traces on the walls still standing of the openings characteristic of the old buildings of the Cities. The “Single Land” performance pays tribute to the former “single” inhabitants of the cities and more generally to the inhabitants of the places thus dislodged. Alice describes it this way: “The goal was double. At the same time I wanted to activate the memory of the places and the memory of the people who lived there. The sand became precious, an object worthy of attention and care. I also wanted to criticize this commodification of this land, sold to the highest bidder, to the detriment of the history of the site, its human wealth and its heritage interest.

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However I did not sell, I offered a small cup of sand for free. The primary intention was to open a dialogue around this “bachelor’s land”. What was it, what are we doing with it, where did these people go and what future do we offer them?” (Fig.15) In Benin, “Dérive connectée”, a project by Bénin Connexion collective in partnership with Austrian association Dérive during Regard Benin 2012 Biennale, proposed a synchronized and simultaneous stroll through the streets of two cities, punctuated by multimedia documenting in real time throughout the route. Drawing from the superposition of maps of the cities of Cotonou in Benin and Vienna in Austria, Beninese architect Francis Sessou, member of the collective, worked on the definition of a common route for both cities, resulting from various intersections of respective routes. Freely inspired by the drift of the Situationists who in their conceptual philosophy rejected any separation between art, architecture, poetry, politics and philosophy, the Connected Drift aimed to integrate an increased dimension of the urban experience through the use of new technologies. Walkers were invited to document the route using smartphones and tablets connected to a dedicated Web platform, and to report on all the events and meetings that took place at random during the walk. In line with the Situationist Movement and as the Beninese architect points out, Bénin Connexion Collective’s approach, while proposing a contemporary reading to the drift, takes a critical look at smartphones and new technologies, that were not only at the heart of Arab Spring revolutions and many popular protests around the world, but also are at the heart of the revolutionary technological leap underway on the African continent.

Contextualize The artistic goal is no longer perceived as immutable; the artwork, like the space where it is placed, adapts and changes over time in order to respond better to the exigencies that manifest each day. Metropolitan contexts change and, by definition, public spaces do too. In Benin, among the most significant

Figure 15. AliceWalks, Performance at SICAP rue 10, Cités des Célibataires, Dakar (Senegal) © Elise Fitte-Duval 2018

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experiments, it is important to mention Boulev’art, initiated in 1999 by Dominique Zinkpè at Place de l’Etoile Rouge in Cotonou and which took in 2003 pollution as its theme. Equally relevant are the earlier projects that emerged from the Set/Setal movement. This anchoring in the current events of the artwork’s subject is combined with the occupied terrain as a frame for action and for the neighborhood. The change in scale is key to a different engagement: the first goal of “lowering” oneself to the neighborhood is to bring art back into the daily life of all. Art’s displacement is simultaneously physical (itinerancy, the provisional occupation of streets and public places, traffic circles…) – because it is installed for a time in places that often have never previously been destined for such an effect – and thematic – because the questions it addresses bear witness to artists’ interests in themes that implicate both citizens and themselves. In Dakar, some timidly born cultural actions, by investing the districts of the capital from time to time, are becoming sustainable. During the 7th edition of Partcours in December 2018, Espace Médina located in the district of the same name was one of most outstanding venues. Partcours which is an association of artistic organizations engaged in continuous cultural activity in the city of Dakar, hosts this major annual event on Dakar cultural agenda during the first half of December and has helped reveal such spaces as Espace Médina. Its history is that of “a family of artists and intellectuals who have dedicated a space in their homes to artistic freedom since the early 1960s. Here, art merges with life, the city invites itself inside while art overflows into the public space. By art, we mean the one that flows on a certain frequency, that of the language of street and the vagrant mind. The Medina space strives to create bridges, ask questions and engage in dialogue with a wider audience than art, to move the forms and languages that define our ways of living in the world. And living in the world is above all living in the city, and even more so in the Medina district, on the edge of Gueule tapée canal: looking for forms of production and sharing of knowledge in order to become one and to make sense, in this place where we are.” The “portrait” of this space presented in the Partcours catalogue indicates an inclusive approach, both situated and abstract, that brings a total change of scenery. Each event organized by Espace Médina is a journey, both a dive into the heart of this district whose features, colors and smells can be precisely recognized and a magical flight in which you are gladly taken away by, in a kind of sublimated reality. Medina district, during Dak’Art 2018, also hosted another very interesting experience: “Mon super kilomètre”, an idea of the UY077 collective. An open-air gallery for one kilometre, along Gueule Tapée canal, which wanted to keep pace with the city or rather the district, a meeting place aimed at breaking down social and aesthetic barriers. “Art merges with the view of the Medina and its market”, an inclusive project that creates social bridges, a metalanguage where everyone finds their place according to its creators. Among the numerous interventions, one is of particular interest: Moving-wooden-joists by Jukai. The project idea starts from a low wall surrounding a 10 m2 area that was once used to store garbage. It is then cleant, a telephone kiosk is erected in its middle, but it remains marginal. Its vitality derives only from this broken cement wall that serves as a seat for street vendors, taxi drivers on breaks, car washers or onlookers. The development of this space starts there. Thus the wall will serve as a support for a reclaimed wood installation that will take the form of a public bench and, embracing the kiosk, it also creates shade. (Fig.16) “Urban links” project, led by Benin-born designer-architect Franck Houndégla, is also part of the same approach, and was being implemented in Benin, Chad and Morocco with the support of several architects, artists and designers. It is a program to enhance public spaces in African cities through experimental interventions that combine urban planning, design, art and heritage by bringing together residents, municipalities, cultural operators and designers of the living environment and the visual arts. 123

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Figure 16. JUKAI, “Moving-wooden-joists”, Mon super kilomètre (UY077), Dak’Art 2018, Dakar (Senegal) © JUKAI-Milano

Operating at local level, the program aims to address community use of exteriors spaces playing a central role in the social, economic and cultural activities of African cities in order to improve the urban living environment through concrete, rapid and affordable interventions, working in parallel with larger and more expensive urban operations. The first project, “Eating in Porto-Novo”, focused on the renovation in 2012-13 of Agonsa Honto voodoo square in Porto-Novo, a place for both worship and popular catering, and brought through conceptual designs and original artistic creations the contributions of a painter, a sculptor and an architect. The project was for Beninese architect Francis Sessou, associate designer, an opportunity to explore a spatial typology specific to the African sacred space, whose management has often found itself at the heart of tensions between municipal authorities and familial communities owning the piece of land. As the architect points out, Place Vodoun Agonsa is a space open up to the city, without fences, freely crossed by passers-by, occupied in its peripheral areas by small selling stands, which gives it a public visual and formal character. However, it is indeed a private space and property with very subtle modes of occupation managed and regulated by the familial community attached to Voodoo Agonsa. Actually, this square is to be perceived as an organic extension of the inner courtyard of the discretely hidden voodoo convent located next to the square. This organic link reveals itself at its best when the multifunctional square then becomes the greatest set for worshippers to celebrate with the city and the people during the sacred festivities of Hounwè. (Fig. 17 & 18) The work of art thus no longer is required to stand up as a symbol of a city and/or of those that govern it. The former Prince’s artist has now become an artist for the people from whom he comes and to whom he belongs. He uses and makes the spaces of circulation his own, particularly the neighborhood’s traffic circles and intersections, public spaces, beaches, the spaces outside of stadiums, and large spaces that have fallen into disuse because he occupies spaces without particular qualities that are nevertheless likely to secure connections between the fragments of the city that are juxtaposed with the additions of

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Figure 17. Place Vodoun Agonsa Honto (renovation), Franck Houndégla, “Liasons urbaines”, PortoNovo (Benin) @ Franck Houndégla 2014

large-scale projects and informal interventions in the interstices. This artist follows modern development, inserting himself in it while valorizing it by using local elements. Thus, the aesthetic of a place and the landscapes that characterize it become potentially tributaries of his intervention. It is somehow a matter of “diffuse art” that would inscribes itself in its setting to the extent that it can almost go unnoticed. Together or separately, the seven aspects highlighted here describe and show the dynamics at work between artistic expressions (as heterogeneous as they may be) and public space. As such, artistic expressions, without necessarily proposing solutions to actual problems, create the possibility, through the set of public spaces, to bring problems or topics onto the surface and put them into perspective. Formerly an elitist field, artworks are no longer reserved to one group of people and have somehow become a public space in its own right, partly due to the subjects they tackle as much as the spaces in which they invest. These dynamics, drawing from material substance and producing immaterial content, are surely nourishing the construction of a new vision of the world.

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Figure 18. Renovation drawings of Place Vodoun Agonsa Honto @ Francis Sessou 2013

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REFERENCES Adichie, C. N. (2019). Lagos: “the city of impermanence”. Courrier International, 1495, 42-46. Architecture créée. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://archicree.com/afrofuturisme/ Arendt, H. (1994). Condition de l’homme moderne. Paris: Pocket. Balandier, G. (1985). Sociologies des Brazzavilles noires. Paris: Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques. Bargna, I. (2012). Nessuna partecipazione senza distanza. Quel che l’arte pubblica e partecipativa mettono in gioco. Africa e Mediterraneo, 76, 1–2. Benga, N. (2013). Les murs-murs sur nos murs. Quête de citoyenneté et culture urbaine à Dakar (19902000). In Diouf (pp. 357–377). Fredericks. Biehler, A. (2010). Enjeux et modes de constitution des espaces publics à Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) (PhD thesis). Paris: 1-La Sorbonne, UFR Géographie. Coralli, M. (2005). Rôle de l’Etat et initiative citadine. Espaces publics à Cotonou (Bénin) (PhD thesis). Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense. Coralli, M., & De Biase, A. (Eds.). (2009). Espaces en commun. Nouvelles formes de penser et d’habiter la ville. Paris: L’Harmattan. Creative Cities Network UNESCO. (2017). Data city Exhibition. Dakar-Centre des Arts d’Enghienles-Bains. De Boeck, F., & Plissart, M.-F. (2005). Kinshasa. Récits de la ville invisible. Bruxelles: La Renaissance du Livre. de l’Art Contemporain, B. (2016). [’Heure Bleue. Catalogue.]. Dak’Art, 2016, L. de l’Art Contemporain, B. (2018). [’Heure rouge. Catalogue.]. Dak’Art, 2018, L. Diop, M. A. (2013). Jeunesse, culture urbaine et citoyenneté en Mauritanie. In Pieterse (pp. 313–323). Simone. Diouf, M. (1991). Fresques murales et écriture de l’histoire. Le Set/Setal à Dakar. Politique Africaine (Paris, France), 46, 41–54. Diouf, M., & Fredericks, R. (Eds.). (2013). Les arts de la citoyenneté au Sénégal. Espaces contestés et civilités urbaines. Paris: Karthala. Doual’art. Retrieved from http://www.doualart.org Duconseille, F. (2016). Pourquoi partir? Versus partir pour quoi? Play>Urban 1. Strasbourg: HEAR. Ela, J.-M. (1983). La ville en Afrique noire. Paris: Karthala. ENDA. (1991). Set Setal, « des murs qui parlent »…Nouvelle culture urbaine à Dakar. Dakar: ENDA. Fanon, F. (2002). Les damnés de la terre. Paris: La Découverte.

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Ferry, J.-M. (1989). Les transformations de la publicité politique. Hermès, 4. Retrieved from http:// www.fondationzinsou.org Grandin, L. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.lucas.grandin.free Habermas, J. (1993). L’espace public: archéologie de la publicité comme dimension constitutive de la société bourgeoise. Paris: Payot. Houénoudé, D. M. (2007). Entre stéréotypes et affirmation identitaire: quatre artistes contemporains d’Afrique occidentale (PhD thesis). Université de Trèves. Houndégla, F., & Neveu, A. (Eds.). (2016). Liaisons urbaines. Paris: A.p.r.e.s, Gilles Coudert. Koffi, K. (1999). Réjouissances privées et cérémonies officielles: une histoire socio-politique de la fête à Lomé. In O. Goerg (Ed.), Fêtes urbaines en Afrique: espaces, identités et pouvoirs (pp. 281–324). Paris: Karthala. doi:10.3917/kart.goerg.1999.01.0281 Lefebvre, H. (1974). La production de l’espace. Paris: Anthropos. Leimdorfer, F. (1999). Enjeux et imaginaires de l’espace public à Abidjan. Politique africaine, 74, 6-84. Maximy (de), R. (2000). Le commun des lieux: cours et discours sur la ville. Liège: Mardaga. Mbembe, A. (2013). Sortir de la grande nuit. Essai sur l’Afrique décolonisée. Paris: La Découverte. Pieterse, E., & Simone, A. (2013). Rogue urbanism: Emergent african cities. Jacana and African Centre for Cities. Play>Urban 1. (2016). Strasbourg: HEAR. Pourtier, R. (1999). Villes africaines. Paris: La Documentation française. Semmoud, N. (2007). La réception sociale de l’urbanisme. Paris, France: L’Harmattan. Simone, A. (2004). People as infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg. Public Culture, 16(3), 407-429. Sinou, A. (2005). Enjeux culturels et politiques de la mise en patrimoine des espaces coloniaux. Autrepart, 33, 13-32. Vennetier, P. (1991). Les villes d’Afrique tropicale. Paris: Masson.

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Old and New Territories of Interior Design

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Chapter 6

Urban Interior Design:

A Relational Approach for Resilient and Experiential Cities Barbara Di Prete Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT Nowadays the city of the anonymity prevails over the city of sharing. We move in more and more dilated spaces and we expand our territories, but we consume the community life in impersonal places that, too often, are only for casual encounters. For this reason it becomes more and more crucial to design spaces with wide recognition, characterized by an “accumulation of belongings” that makes them feel like familiar to everyone: the city, avoiding the risk of self-celebration, can find the opportunity to become a representation of a collective imagination in the sum of individual stories. The challenge is to experience the city as a sequence of “interiors” that people can intensely inhabit and not just use, in which people can leave traces, share memories, and imprint daily gestures. Places that satisfy emotional as well as functional needs, bringing into play the symbolic and intangible components, maybe imperceptible, but which are so decisive in determining the identity structure of a city. It is the relational dimension that acquires also an aesthetic code. This chapter explores a relational approach for resilient and experiential cities.

INTRODUCTION Urban Interiors: An Apparent Dichotomy The term “urban interiors” seems to intend to combine two disciplinary fields seemingly contradictory, if only because, from a semantic point of view, the two dimensions respectively recall the field of limited spaces and the one of the open spaces, two spheres that rarely found a convincing synthesis. The first term, which typically refers to the constructed world, implies a sense of warmth, protection, comfort, well-being and hospitality, typical of the enjoyment of a limited and protected environment; DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch006

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vice versa, the term urban refers to the territory of the community, to an experience of sharing but, unfortunately today, all too often turns into an anonymous and undifferentiated landscape. The objective of many on going design researches is to find a fruitful synthesis between these two polarities, in order to put it all together through solutions capable of rendering “inhabitable” (liveable) the public dimension, through the discovery of the deepest root of the word and putting the concepts of belonging, self-representation and relational identity back into game. (To live: from the Latin Habitare, frequentative verb derived from Habere, or to occupy, to carry within oneself, to possess). The challenge is to experience the city as a sequence of “interiors” that people can intensely inhabit and not just use, in which people can leave traces, share memories and imprint daily gestures. «When talking about “urban interiors”, in fact, it is not a question of city to, trivially, live (or in which to survive), but of a city to be recognized, to be explored, more precisely to be “inhabited”. Cities are born and are structured on an intense swarm of people that interface with each other, establishing from time to time intangible relationships that, like the tangible ones, help to define the urban organism. Many studies are carried out nowadays on these intangible “construction materials” that, less interested in the formal aspects, compositional, technological or structural of the design, can possibly give the largest contribution in terms of innovation and definition of a “new” city. They observe the urbs (from Latin: “a city”) as a “human” territory, made of dreams and fears, the result of sedimentation of emotions rather than layering of material. This is not an opposition, but a fruitful coexistence of constructive elements of physical and non-material relationships that, with the same intensity, participate to the architectural and urban design». (Di Prete, 2011, p.28). In a still highly relevant text on invented, dreamed or remembered cities, Italo Calvino reminds us that, «The cities are a collection of many things: memories, desires, signs of a language, are places of exchange, as explaining all the history books of the economy, but these trade-offs are not only of goods, are also traded their words, desires, memories». (Calvino, 1983, p.IX-X). Not surprisingly, then, especially today when the social and planning horizon is increasingly changeable and undefined, yet we seek places that welcome us, that can reassure us, tell us memories or suggest new interpretations. Places that allow architecture «once out of the objectivity of needs, to address the subjectivity of desires» (Saggio, 2004, para. 23). Speaking today of a project of the city therefore implies a change of perspective in relation to the traditional urban planning, encoded in the last century, as it becomes necessary to take account of the physical, social and cultural factors, but also the psychological and individual ones, in which the identity of the community can be reflected and self-replicated. It becomes more and more crucial to design spaces with wide recognition, characterized by an “accumulation of belongings” that makes them feel like familiar to everyone: the city, avoiding the risk of self-celebration, can find the opportunity to become a representation of a collective imagination in the sum of individual stories. Although it chases new paradigms, the contemporary urban living design does not renounce to a comprehensive view and still pursues the construction of the collective “public image” that Lynch would define as a «common mental framework brought alone by large sections of the population of a city. Those areas of consensus that can be expected to arise in the interaction between a single physical reality, a common culture and an equal physiological constitution» (Lynch, 1964, p. 29). Urban interiors design frees itself from the traditional vision of positivist urbanism, foretelling and often rigidly incapable of accepting the differences, reasoning rather on the micro dimension to rethink the macro one. It does not sidestep the search for an urban «imageability» (ibidem, p.31), but proceeds through an almost kaleidoscopic sum of contributions, ever changing and unpredictable. This approach 131

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is highly relevant because it interprets the city as the sum of «weak thoughts» (Morin, 2006), promoting awareness of provisional and temporary, conceiving the space of fragments not as a residual territory, but as an opportunity to give voice to the minimum actions. With this in mind and in the perspective to improve the use and the perception of the forgotten, central or peripheral urban areas characterized by a symbolic or purely interstitial value, the urban interior design moves in the way to reinvent the “everyday”. It subverts the routine with timely typological turnarounds or behavioural rejects, under the heading of sustainable projects (economically and socially), pursuing the idea of «soft project» (Mendini, as cited in Parmesani, 2004, p.432) as a response to the increasingly diverse needs and not easy to ascribe to pre-encoded models. The value of the temporariness manages to establish new literacy projects by accepting the unknown, the unexpected and the uncertainty; it is «the misunderstanding [...] that takes shape» (La Cecla, 2009, p.162) and that, once recognized as a creative and imaginative force, allows us to move away from preconceived mental schemes. It is that «semantic unpredictability» mentioned also by Gillo Dorfles (Dorfles, 2010, p. 31), which reminds us how often the «loss of semantics of an aesthetic sign» leads to «the purchase of new unpredictable values» (ivi). Maybe the bricolage of Lévi-Strauss, intended both as «intellectual activity» and as «mythopoetic activity» (Derrida, 1971, p.368), which plays on the reinterpretation and adaptation to reaffirm the value of heterogeneity. On these apparent fragilities, or «fragilisms» (Mendini, as cited in Parmesani, 2004, p.442), a new idea of urban project is renovating, punctual but pervasive, adaptable and reversible that reasons in terms of extroversion of living and breakup of the public-private, indoor-outdoor, individual-collective dichotomies. The paradigms on which the city can be rebuilt must contemplate a double level. On the one hand, a spatial context that might be called a level of “proximity” (Lambertini, 2013, p.10), welcoming people, providing a framework for their actions and reinforcing their habits, through the satisfaction of emotional, as well as functional needs. On the other hand, an apparently more abstract level, that brings into play the relational, symbolic and emotional components, maybe imperceptible, but decisive in determining the identity structure of a place. The urban interiors design must consider these both dimensions, the first coming from the tradition of the interior architecture, the second capable to intercept the multiple complexities necessarily posed by the urban areas, by definition public and collective. From their synergistic synthesis (and synesthetic), it becomes possible to encode a new horizon in terms of project and discipline.

BACKGROUND The Role of Urban Interiors in Contemporary Cities: The Design as a Resilient Force In the light of the widely shared social and urban surveys (Torres, 2005), it is now clear that urban spaces of contemporary cities are in deep crisis. People do not longer experience and consider them as the places where the population is identified and can be recognized. In short, they are no more representative of the communities that inhabit them. The city of the anonymity prevails over the city of sharing. We move in more and more dilated spaces and we expand our territories, but we consume the community life in impersonal places that, too often, are only for casual encounters. Thanks to the web and the ease 132

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of interconnection that it allows, in fact, the human being exponentially increases its relational abilities in far contexts and situations, but at the same time the identity bounds with a single site-communities become more labile than in the past (Nuvolati, 2007). Consequently, the contemporary urbs, more and more configured as a sequence of indefinite indistinct agglomerations in which everything becomes indiscernible, «interior and the exterior, there and elsewhere, yours and mine become confused. [...] The city collects and focuses the heterogeneous up to intimacy and promiscuity» (Gorzanelli, 2011, para.3). Defined as «non-places» (Augè, 2005) or «super places» (Fuksas, 2007), the object of a renewed design gaze should be every empty, anonymous space, maybe dense of population but with a lack of identity and a shared story, in which the personal stories do not project one into another because they seem to anesthetize. Those are silent spaces, unable to accept or to structure active social relations. Those are urban spaces existing only in the quality of space «in between» (Spirito, 2015) and could instead become the epicentres, the engines and the new forms of informal or structured sociality. Those are what some scholars call «urban reserves to experience collective dreams» (Inti, Cantaluppi, & Persichino, 2014, back cover). The need to propose new strategies for urban renewal, capable of activating mechanisms of acquisition of meaning and able to give back to the citizens these abandoned fragments emerges more and more clearly as a result. The challenge is that “the residual” is not necessarily interpreted as “marginal” and that the space is configured as «the image of which becoming part, an occasion of behaviour» (Acconci, as cited in Nicolin & Repishti, 2003, p.23), land of discovery and self-representation. To demonstrate that this is the paradigm of the contemporary urban living, it should be sufficient to recall that the current and most common points of socialization are the malls, large shopping centres, multi-cinemas and infrastructure that increasingly aspire to be recognised as “modern squares”. The “passing on” of meaning is stealing our collective consciousness, amplifying our condition of solitude in an individualistic society (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002): «the crisis of the public spaces of the contemporary city, reduced to shrunken and simulacra of a disappeared dimension, are both the cause and the effect of the crisis of the metropolitan human being» (Amendola, 1997, p.176). On the other hand, the city should find its best expression in the experience of coming together, as «more than other human environments, it is a place of discoveries and surprises that can be more or less pleasant, one where you can see things today which you did not see yesterday and meet other people» (Hannerz, 1994, p.407). In a nutshell, it should rediscover its «cultural attitude […] rising from the bottom, from the need of community, sharing, social interaction» (Boschetti, De Lucchi, Freyrie & Furlan, 2011, p.18). These statements of fact have now become, for those who reflect on urban interiors, the primary motivations for undertaking research projects, that «from the rubble of a semblance of a lost community are able to build new images - and new imaginaries - for an urban space that must recover its deepest sense of place for meeting and socializing» (Di Prete, in Crespi, 2011, p.29). In the pursue of this objective, it seems possible to answer to the philosophical and aesthetic question put a few years ago by Massimo Cacciari and according to which the paradox of the post-metropolitan cities resided in its essentially “anti-space” destiny, as if the post-metropolitan territory foresaw «the denial of any possibility of place», (Cacciari, in Bonomi & Abruzzese, 2004, p.53). On the contrary, it seems that, in the sequence of “internal places”, the city can now find a new expressive, formal and social dimension, setting itself as a happy synthesis between individual and collective ambitions and expectations, between consumed dreams and encoded needs.

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Peculiarly, in fact, the discipline of the interiors is recognized as art of the space for the everyday life (as interpreted by famous critics and architects, from Picasso to Moore, from Zevi to Frampton, from Wright to Piano). An art that communicates and receives the everyday in all its manifestations, acting as a medium between the need of use and behaviour, between functional and emotional. The human being is at the centre of the investigation of this discipline, because «the principal character of the architecture, for which it stands out from other artistic activities, is [just] in its actions with a three-dimensional vocabulary that includes the human being» (Zevi, 1948, p.21). Also Adriano Cornoldi (1994), defining the interior design not as art of spaces in the abstract, but as the result of a dense system of relationships that make spaces places in which it is pleasant to be, refers to the functional and emotional benefit, underlining the experiential as well as aesthetic aspects. The places that can be related to the wide category of interior architecture and urban interiors are therefore, necessarily «steeped in life» (De Carli, 1982, p.8). In this definition to the term “benefit” it is attributed a very broad meaning: a space can be experienced for a long time as well as only for a short moment, en passant (Nancy, 2002, p.58), it may be surrounded by walls or opened, provided that it is recognized, limited and perceived as unitary. If “opening” is taken to mean the broader sense of “generosity” and “acceptance of life,” two adjectives that for Carlo De Carli should be implicit in any project, the distinction between closed and open spaces seems to lose even more sense. The term “inner city” refers, therefore, to a large category of space, not defined a priori by certain environmental conditions or by dimensional constraints, but rather, from their natural disposition to be seen as attractors of social and planning in cities often indifferent to the subjectivity of the individual. These are areas that we recognize as our nearest neighbors, as by vocation welcoming and hospitable, designed as “human” even if included in a broader planning. The parameters for defining or deciphering them could be summarized in what Dorfles called «emotional memorization», «inter subjective relations», «recognition» and «new environmental symbology» (Dorfles, 2010, pp.136-137). The urban interiors, regardless of the presence/absence of borders, are therefore manufactured places that ontologically possess, at least potentially, a multiple essence of identity (Venturi Ferriolo, as cited in Lambertini, 2013, p.7). It is not given in origin, but it represents the result of a mental construction both individual and collective. It is not permanent and immutable but subject to multiple variations and temporal layers. Compared to that condition, the design does not have to be put as a resistant force, but as a resilient one: the design should accommodate all those operations of “regeneration” or urban appropriation that allow even the most anonymous and neglected place to orient itself to socializing, sharing and to hospitality. It is about «regaining public places, configure again marginal gaps, creating shared spaces [...] driven by the desire to produce poetic habitat» (ibidem, p.15). Without wanting to endorse the radical positions of those who believe that «it does not matter if places are beautiful or ugly, what matters is to be proud of them» (Ferrari, 2015), without therefore refrain from looking for a pleasant environment that can make a space friendly. It now appears increasingly crucial to pursue that component of empathy that a place can establish with its users, or the natural involvement between the human being and the living environment, with physiological and emotional roots and acting on the perception and use of that place (Mallgrave, 2015). Even neurosciences speak today of mirror-neurons and of the so-called «embodied simulation» (Gallese, Migone & Eagle, 2006): the mirror neuron system – as stated by the professor Vittorio Gallese, who studied them within the team of the professor Giacomo Rizzolatti - affects our perception of urban spaces and, activating the same neural areas of people who perform a certain action or live a certain experience. It seems to trigger a process 134

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that goes beyond the concept of empathy and involve multiple intersecting levels of consciousness. The self-perception, the spatial awareness, the identification in others transform into indistinct moments that contribute to the understanding (and then structuring) of the urban quality. The architecture «seems to involve more mechanisms of mirror neurons than the other arts» (Mallgrave, as cited in Guadagnucci, 2015, p.25) and therefore the design can not only work on a formal compositional level, also on the symbolical-identity one. In this context, it is crucial to encourage all those strategies that allow people to «live the city» (La Pietra, 2011), meaning by this term the act of expanding its own identity in the urban space. It is, generally, crucial the dimension of interiors design (broadly speaking the “living space”), which appears as the privileged areas to define a new urban and spatial semantic and to trace boundaries and structure new codes and tools. The design as “resilient force”, through processes of awareness and visionary capacity may propose projects, which will fulfill all these ongoing changes, imagining new scenarios of use. It may also introduce forms of “urban resistance” able to alter the state of things, sometimes simply through the introduction of temporary and reversible devices that affect the perception and can work with “weak” interventions to unsettle and to destabilize, bringing wonder into the habit of the daily living, in favor of opportunities for discussion and socializing.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER Urban, That Is, Kind, Polite and Civilised Urban (from Latin word urbanus, der. from urbs urbis, “city”) is an adjective describing not only what relates to the city, but also charged with an additional meaning, particularly unusual and disruptive if applied to the design discipline: urban also means “polite, kind”. In fact, in this sense it is really similar to “civilised”, although the latter describes something that is typical of the city and its inhabitants; however, as a consequence, the adjective “civilised” got to gain much broader and more complex common meanings that start from the geographic level to gain a social and moral relevance. Urban is instead a word that, even when used with the meaning of “kind and polite”, directly reminds us of a city-like dimension, evoking by its very roots a specific category of though: urban habits, urban behaviours... typical of «someone with nice and polite manners when dealing with others (especially strangers)», a person who got a typically non-rural education (www.treccani.it/vocabolario/urbano). As is so often the case, the etymology of a word reveals extremely meaningful nuances, maybe already forgotten in common parlance, yet owning an inherent truth; as a result, the concepts of courtesy and kindness also today appear as deeply underpinning the contemporary urban scenario. After all, kindness seems to have become a category of thought more and more often referred to – sometimes longed for, sometimes almost exorcised – in various cultural fields of our society of information, evoked both by popular international pop stars and by refined intellectuals. It seems no coincidence that, in a moment in which what prevails is the establishment of the immaterial dimension, at the same time there is a need for closer, more tangible, more “spatial” relationships. In 2009 Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor published an essay with a meaningful title – On kindness – first on The Guardian and then on Internazionale (Phillips & Taylor, 20th Feb. 2009, p. 38), followed by an interesting volume published by Ponte alle Grazie, Elogio della gentilezza (Celebration 135

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of kindness) (Phillips & Taylor, 2009). A book with a clear philosophical influence interpreting kindness as an ethical and aesthetic category, not as a form, but as the essence of social intelligence. In their historical discussion it is described as «the greatest joy of mankind», quoting emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius, as a means of «contact with one’s own emotional reality», quoting Scottish philosopher David Hume (1741), as a «universal human impulse to help strangers», according to the definition of sociologist Richard Titmuss (1942) or as «indicator of mental health», rephrasing what paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott wrote (1970). Today kindness almost appears as a “forbidden pleasure”, a dangerous attitude as «based on sensitivity towards others and the ability to identify oneself with their joys and sorrows [...] the capability to take on others’ vulnerability, and thus one’s own vulnerability, has become a sign of weakness» (Phillips & Taylor, 20th Feb. 2009, p. 38). It is what we commonly call “empathy”, a trait that the well-known economist and sociologist Jeremy Rifkin doesn’t see as a risk but, on the contrary, as the variable that, more than others, can represent and preserve the contemporary civilisation, a globalised, multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan civilisation (Rifkin, 2010): «if in the rural world conscience was driven by faith and in the industrial one by reason, with globalisation and the transition to the time of information it will be based on empathy, […] that is, on the ability to identify oneself with someone else’s mood or situation» (ibidem, back cover, p. 397). Indeed, the world «has become everyone’s home courtyard. […] And the psychological effects of globalisation have been as important as the economic ones: closed in a tighter and tighter embrace, we are increasingly exposed to one another» (ibidem, p. 391). The same concept was recently reused by a public figure with huge resonance in the music world; indeed, also Lady Gaga talked about strength and kindness as empathy during Global Changemakers Award 2018, on the occasion of the fundraising “Empathy Rocks” by Foundation Children Mending Hearts: «kindness has a gentle tone, sometimes people mistakes it for weakness, but it is extraordinarily powerful. It may change the way we see others, the way we see the society surrounding us and the way we work. [...] Being nice means that we open to others, to the world, we recognise that its existence is important just like ours. Being nice means being and being present». Also, many are the writers and scientists who recently talked about kindness in explicit terms in their papers or novels: Carlo Rovelli titled Ci sono luoghi al mondo dove più che le regole è importante la gentilezza (There are places in the world where kindness is more important than rules) (Rovelli, 2018) a collection of articles he had been publishing over the years on Corriere della Sera and on the supplement “Domenica” of Sole 24 Ore, while R. J. Palacio is remembered for Wonder (Palacio, 2013), bestseller on the top of New York Times’ charts, in which two «teachings of Mr. Browne» (ibidem, p. 281) praised kindness. Music, fiction, science, sociology, philosophy, psychology: the fields of knowledge that dealt with this topic, each from a different point of view, are many and are increasing, which shows a sensitivity that seems to be getting a paradigm of the contemporary age. Such sensitivity, expressed not only in a mere pulse of individual spirit, is now starting to be part of the design vocabulary and grammar. Consider, for instance, the volume Interior(c)ity, an interesting book investigating the changes occurring in Western public spaces, where researcher and designer Agnese Rebaglio (2017) dedicates an entire chapter to the topic of kindness as a strategy to work on the urban context: the chapter «Piccolo e vicino, ovvero della gentilezza» (Small and close, that is, on kindness) (ibidem, pp. 31-34) investigates «all those actions affecting spaces of daily life, those spaces next to inhabited interiors that people cross when moving to some other place, where you stop and meet others and towaords which you give gentleness and beauty [to contribute] to generating a sense of confidence and belonging” (ibidem, p. 31).

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This “kind” design approach is translated into urban fragments with a strong storytelling power, in devices capable of being interpreters of a collective identity; in a view to enhance glitches and uncertainty, welcoming the dimension of temporary. In such a perspective the contemporary design project requires more and more to think in terms of setup, reversibility and replicability; to support the vocation of places to turn into spontaneous sets to host the “events of daily life”; to act at the scale of what is small, inexact, of hospitality and openness to the other. It is about encourage, amplify or reflect relationships between users and observers, between bodies, objects and places – and in this sense “kindness” has become object of this paper. “Design kindness” as a planned and conscious act is interpreted by designers with several meanings, that could be summarised in two main attitudes: to “connect” people and to “circulate” local resources are peculiar action strategies to give shape to this scenario. These will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

“Connect” Many case studies also recently become front-page news embrace this approach: take, for example, the project by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, a couple of architects from California who in 2019 made the “Teetertotter wall”, literally a teetering wall that is translated into pink swings on the border between U.S.A. and Mexico to tear down, at least ideally, the wall separating the two states. It is a smallscale project that consists of punctual and playful devices but that has a much wider ethical value, to the point that it was quickly spread around the world through social networks as a “gently subversive” work. It is an opportunity to make kids and adults play, putting in connection peoples from “different sides”; it is an apparently light installation that, in its simplicity, becomes also a political act of revolutionary protest. «It was one of the most incredible experiences of my career, an event full of joy, excitement and solidarity experienced on the border, […] being aware that the actions taking place on one side have a direct consequence on the other»: these are the words that appeared on Ronald Rael (rrael)’s Instagram profile when the video of the project was published, which in little more than a day got over 40k likes. This initiative is not the only one that Ronald Rael developed for the wall separating the two states, that in his visions – now collected in the book of the same name Borderwall as Architecture (Rael, 2017) – becomes a space for events, negotiations, condemnation and playing, gaining every time the shape of a confessional, of a musical instrument, of a broken house or of a sequence of souvenirs, always with the belief that «good fences make good neighbours» (Rael at TED, December 2018, www.TED.com). The swing is not a new device in the design world, maybe because of that reference to childhood that grown-up people long for, maybe for its executive simplicity and narrative charge; we find it, for example, in the installation “21 Balançoires” made in 2011-2014 in Montréal by Canadians Daily tous les jours, a studio working on «making change possible, foster the engagement that triggers conversations between strangers and creating strong bonds between citizens and their environment» (www.dailytouslesjours.com). As it will be shown more in detail in the following paragraphs, it is not by chance that we resort to game so frequently to create engagement, excitement, fun and collective participation: gaming is a definitely effective design strategy. In this way also Antonella Bruzzese, former founder of union A12, today active Urban Planning Councillor of Milan’s zone 3, in October 2018 inaugurated in Milan two apparently banal projects, as is the laying of two ping pong tables that still today enliven the street. They represent the result of a participatory initiative involving local players (the guys living in the neighbourhood, Social Street Morgagni, the friends of Parco Ramelli, the retailers), aimed at improving interaction, promoting collective empowerment and building new “alliances” on the territory. As the Councillor herself states, 137

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«they are not only two green concrete tables then, but tools to favour social cohesion and to (try and) build a caring attitude towards the public space» (A. Bruzzese, inauguration speech at the event “3 new ping pong tables at Zone 3!”, 13th October 2018). The initiative appears to be in a seamless connection with the project that the group A12 presented ten years ago at an exhibition in Triennale Bovisa, whose telling title was “Small Spaces to treat with Kindness” (2008) and that highlighted how every project on public spaces should consider not only the importance to solve small, residual or forgotten spaces, but also the need to use kindness imagining a “new” city. The same community-centered and not simply user-centered design approach, i.e. aimed at triggering participatory processes among the various stakeholders of a territory (Manzini, Collina & Evans, 2004) has long characterised the ProstoRož Group in Ljubljana; their “Tabor Park” (2010) is particularly famous with its “Map of Wishes” standing out (www.prostoroz.org), a carpet-map that graphically shows on the road – as result of a process shared by the citizens and with a strong aesthetic value – all the inhabitants’ wishes collected imagining the transformation of the neighbourhood’s open spaces. It is a “grass-roots” imagination, that in other contexts we could have called “weak and widespread”, yet extremely pervasive in collective imagination. One last example talking about acts of “design kindness” with a strong social meaning is “The wall of kindness”, a charity initiative that consists in temporary urban installations moving around the web, all sharing the motto – that is also an invitation – “Leave if you do not need”. It seems that the first wall of kindness appeared in Iran, on the initiative of an unknown author, to give practical help to homeless people who could in this way wear warm clothes in the winter season; later the installations gained various faces, spreading around in other cities with the aim of donating objects (clothes, books, commodities) to the less fortunate. In short time more “walls of kindness” appeared in Pakistan, China, and recently in Sweden, where the writing “Take a coat if you’re cold. Leave a coat if you don’t use it anymore” stands out. In all respects it means setting up a wall equipped with hooks to facilitate sharing in a public space, that is, a wall that here is no longer division, separation or protection from “the other”, but that, on the contrary, encourages people to donate.

“Circulate” The second approach interpreting kindness as a design act implies the circulation of local resources, here meant as objects, materials and memories of the place; if, then, in the previous paragraph what drove the space’s transformation was the sharing of spontaneous values and gestures, in this one the key word driving the project is rather “reuse”, meant as enhancement of what would otherwise be forgotten and wasted. This attitude has the purpose of promoting an urban micro-renovation through limited investments and materials often recognisable (and recognised) by the inhabitants; also in this case it is a design approach acting in a gentle way, capable of generating “big” benefits with “small” interventions, aimed at building a multi-layered collective memory in new forms of use. One that, more than others, definitely included reuse among its political agenda’s priorities was Rotor (www.rotordb.org), a Belgian association of designers and architects now well-known in the international panorama: in 2013 they curated the Oslo Architecture Triennial “Behind the Green Door”, a paradigm developed to illustrate the world of what is “sustainable”; in 2018 they took part in Manifesta 12 in Palermo with a “zero action” poetic installation, “Da quassù è tutta un’altra cosa” (From up here it’s a whole other thing). Master in the art of archiving what doesn’t usually get archived, Rotor is interested in the recycling of materials and end-of-life components from construction sites; this very care for the 138

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resources used, the waste created and their possible reuse has become a design approach as well as a fruitful professional activity: an abandoned building gets “undressed” by the association, that takes care of the costs for the owner and in return can preserve all those things whose features allow their reuse. Windows, doors, claddings, floors, systems components are first dismantled, then provisionally stocked and finally preserved to be then sold or reused in new construction sites. This is what happened, for example, with the bar-store of homemade beers “Dekkera” (whose ceramic tiles come from the Brussels’ tube stations, the ceiling from a former headquarters of Générale de Banque, the bathroom’s basalt floor from the façade of an office building), or with the “Parodi bookshop”, designed with the idea of proposing a selection of books in all the European languages in a gallery-like atmosphere. A similar approach, yet not including the business part, is the one proposed by a group of teachers of Politecnico di Milano coordinated by Professor Luciano Crespi, entrusted in 2013 by Ferrovie nord Milano with a preliminary study for the redevelopment of the route of via Lambruschini, next to the Bovisa district. In this case this street, anonymous and quite inhospitable, becomes an opportunity to experiment an innovative and provocative strategy devoted to «the ability to reassign a symbolic value to things» (Crespi, 2014). Through the use of green, that surprises and floors, suggesting a paradoxical natural dimension unsolved in Milan’s outskirts, and through an ironic yet smart use of resources, that is, trying to extend the life cycle of the materials and elements already present, the “Green Street” was created. It is a large pedestrian area marked by the dissemination of various folies – devices designed along the path to promote stops, games, encounters and events – all these obtained thanks to the dismantlement of existing objects, stairways and ramps (ibidem). In both the cases proposed the project is a means to recover and respect the territory, but its space-related effects certainly go hand in hand with positive consequences in economic and environmental terms. Therefore, these are two visions, two design approaches yet to explore in their intrinsic potential, on which the future is likely to be betting. One last case study, analogous to those previously explained, is a project developed in the Master’s in Urban Interior Design, proposed by POLI.design and promoted by Politecnico di Milano together with Universidad CEU S. Pablo in Madrid; in 2016 the Master worked on the route of via Segneri in Giambellino (a district in the South-East suburbs of Milan), already object of works by Renzo Piano, who basically planned the “mending” of the communal gardens next to the road, but without changing the heart of the public space. On the contrary, this very public space was the focus of the Master’s design actions, that proposed to the City Hall a new “linear square”: the green was given back to the public, the patterns on the floor redesigned an “urban cultural kaleidoscope”, a set of temporary furniture played crucial collective functions. However, the most interesting and innovative part of the initiative focused on the construction site for the building of tube line 4, that would physically split the area in two separate segments for at least five years. In particular the project “La Casa fuori, il Bosco dentro” (“The house outside, the wood inside”) proposed solutions to set up the perimeter of the area under construction, rethinking its interface towards the city through its graphic transformation and hacking with “parasitic” elements that restored the original functions (and gave them their original meaning back) of the traditional bulkheads of the construction site. They «have thus become the subject of deep conceptual and design overturning. These modular panels bordering the yard from being a limit, that only has the role of hiding circumscribing and protecting, have become an opportunity for urban upgrading, fulfilling functional, but also symbolic and representative needs, to turn a hurt piece of urban, friendly and communicative» (Camocini, Di Prete & Rebaglio, 2017, p. 19). It is the turning of typically domestic scenarios into urban fragments that become in this way almost “familiar”, open to hospitality and to the encounter between different realities. Indeed, the furniture and pieces used to “set” the perimeter 139

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Figure 1. Luciano Crespi et al., Green street, project for the regeneration of via Lambruschini, in Milan, developed for Ferrovie Nord Milano, 2013 (© Copyright 2013, Luciano Crespi. Used with permission).

panels of the construction site come from the standard home environment: shelves, table lamps, coat racks, chairs, wall clocks – reproduced in smaller size to be installed also in narrow passages – recreating daily environments belonging to everyone’s imagination. Kitchen, bedroom, living room, garden ideally follow one another guiding the passer-by through a set with a strong evocative charge that, however, by including archetypical collective functions, (sitting down, leaning, communicating, playing…) doesn’t disregard functionality. Between them a frame to fill, a blackboard to customise, a bench waiting for some cushions, a flowerpot dish waiting for a vase to place on the shelf overlooking the street, as if it was a common windowsill, invite the inhabitants to literally make the site their own: it is a sort of “spontaneous hacking”, a phenomenon that the streets of many cities in the South of Italy still experience every day. Standardising the proposal, this could really become an example of replicable action useful for the many cases of areas turned into constructions sites filling (and often splitting) our cities, sometimes even for several years. It is about planning temporary actions of change and repossession, made even more crucial as capable of regenerating places dealing with hard physical rifts. Although with different degrees of sensitivity, all the projects described so far move in the same direction, sharing the same principles (temporary lifespan, reversibility, strong communication charge, low definition, affordability, recognisability in a group identity, welcoming of multiplicity and of the other, empathy-driven attitude), but the feature all these researches have in common certainly recalls the relational dimension: they show once more how a reflection on the meaning of public space necessarily requires us to ask ourselves about not only the forms of urban spaces, but especially the types of

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Figure 2. Luciano Crespi et al., Green street, project for the regeneration of via Lambruschini, in Milan, developed for Ferrovie Nord Milano, 2013 (© Copyright 2013, Luciano Crespi. Used with permission).

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Figure 3. Luciano Crespi et al., Green street, project for the regeneration of via Lambruschini, in Milan, developed for Ferrovie Nord Milano, 2013 (© Copyright 2013, Luciano Crespi. Used with permission).

Figure 4. Francesco Russo, Roberta Sinesio, Veronica Vacaro, La casa fuori, il bosco dentro, project for a new “linear square” along a construction site in Segneri street, Milan, 2016. Project developed in the Master’s in Urban Interior Design, organised by POLI.design with Politecnico di Milano and Universidad CEU S. Pablo in Madrid. (© Copyright 2013, Francesco Russo, Roberta Sinesio and Veronica Vacaro. Used with permission).

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Figure 5. Francesco Russo, Roberta Sinesio, Veronica Vacaro, La casa fuori, il bosco dentro, project for a new “linear square” along a construction site in Segneri street, Milan, 2016. Project developed in the Master’s in Urban Interior Design, organised by POLI.design with Politecnico di Milano and Universidad CEU S. Pablo in Madrid. (© Copyright 2013, Francesco Russo, Roberta Sinesio and Veronica Vacaro. Used with permission).

relationship and social encounter that these allow, all the more so that the relational part of the cities is now considered an unavoidable element also in the so called «economy of happiness» (Bartolini, as cited in Rebaglio, 2017, p. 24).

The Urban Interiors as an Archipelago of Relationships Embracing the values of contemporaneity to translate them into “relational”, that make the urban space a place for socializing and creativity, an opportunity to meet and debate. There is an important number of contemporary research seeking new strategies to act on public space, changing from time to time its reading, perception and use. These are projects in which the physical configurations, materials and compositions are designed to encourage the opportunities for dialogue and socialization, which are functional to the construction of places in which enjoying a renewed sense of belonging. The relational approach, in fact, even in art, «is not seen in any case as a regression to the intimate sphere, but as a way of making community through gathering» (Bourriaud, 2010, p.116). All these operations have in common the search of attribution of meaning to a public space too often undifferentiated, and are aimed at involving people both in the sharing of personal “mental maps”, as in the construction of devices for a city that is increasingly welcoming and hospitable.

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From the so-called “situation’s code” to the “relational code”, the step is not negligible, and perhaps able to account for an increasing semantic densification of the contemporary urban living: from the “situation” to the “relationship”, the object of investigation moves from the personal to the interpersonal world, adding an important degree of complexity. The modalities put in place to pursue this project are varied, but they are mostly characterized by a strong outfitting component. They might be in fact decorated, provocative and often futuristic visions by Italo Rota for enchanted cities. The colored blanket full of traces that appear as “daily frozen moments” by Pipilotti Rist and Carlos Martinez for San Gallo or even the connective experiments by Cliostraat and Stalker. «It is clear that these projects give to the city a strong sign that, however, it is almost always temporary and reversible: these are interventions that transform the city if only for an hour, but they have the strength to permanently change the imaginary» (Di Prete, in Crespi, 2011, p.29). Toward this direction moved Alessandro Mendini in the past, who already since the early 80s invited to pursue unpredictable projects, expressions of single individualities, and not of an improbably homogenous social corpus. Even when he was called to restore the memory of the community of Gibellina with a symbolic sign and totem, he chose to proceed through impalpable materials founders the urban life: its sounds, voices, whispers of a city never really lost. Mendini promoted projects easily reversible, based on the use of “delicate”, elements «the fabric, the colour, the atmosphere, the memory, the light, which touch the body without hurting him» (Mendini, as cited in Crespi, 2013, p.113), that interact with people without invasiveness, complying moods, behaviours, gestures. By pursuing this timely and site specific approach, able to listen to the city and at the same time to give back the individual and collective ambitions, in search for new ways to “live the urban”, the contemporary designers must continue to undermine the simplifications and the rigidity of spatial models inherited from the functionalist tradition. They operate the reversal of meaning that in the last century masters such as the aforementioned Alessandro Mendini and Ugo La Pietra developed. They applied it respectively to the house and the city; they were both able to decode faded behaviours and spatial conventions, to invent new models instead of interpretation of the urban employment, as well as new domestic rituals. «The search for a contamination between the private and the public space can be the best way to be able to destroy the separation between the two areas in which we conduct our lives. […] Formal contaminations allude also, and especially, to the behavioural ones» (La Pietra, 1983, p.164), as stated thirty years ago by Ugo La Pietra, making his own the famous motto of the Situationist International Living is being at home everywhere. If then, especially in his research, the attempt was to hybridize the domestic and urban dimension, blurring boundaries and hybridizing the paradigms (primarily concerning the public-private, individual-collective, and interior-exterior relations), today, interior designers are reflecting on other concepts, in the light of the evolution of our ways of living. Despite the variety of pursued approaches, it is possible to identify some recurring and useful design strategies to read those interventions acting on the urban and enhancing it as a place of gathering that assists / favours / aestheticizes the relations. These are projects that could be classified based on their «domestic, interactive, ludic, performing or programmatic character» (Di Prete, in Crespi, 2011, pp. 28-39). To these paradigms can be attributed a series of case studies that reflect on obvious common goals: the ability of connective playgrounds (Topotek 1, “Spielplatz Niebuhrstrasse”, Berlin 2003), the value of aggregation of the game between improvisation and strategic vision (Kikkit, “Tuned City festival”, Berlin 2008), the “relational” design intrinsic to the public art (Santiago Cirugeda, “Taking the street”, 1997), the ubiquitous communication of the guerrilla marketing (Ghigos, “Fata Morgana”, YAP 2011), the aesthetic horizon of a “behavioural” texture (Frederic Schwartz Architects, “The Hoboken Sept.11th 144

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Memorial”, New York 2003), the value of a city appearing more “familiar” (Italo Rota, the promenade of Palermo, 2006), the role of breaking of conceptual inversions and paradoxes (2a+p, “Round blur”, Turin 2002; Pipilotti, Rist, Martinez, “City Lounge”, St. Gallen 2008; Blancafort, Valero, “Sostre de Flors”, Casa Girbal, Girona 1997), the exceptional located in anomalies and functional unforeseen (Henk Hofstra, “The urban river”, Drachten 2007), the transition from the design definition to the coding of a program for the staging activities and to the unfolding of a landscape of actions not predetermined (B. Tschumi, “Parc de la Villette”, Paris 1983). All these categories represent design approaches that elaborate images - personal or collective - to build new-shared urban imaginaries. Among these, the ludic paradigm appears as a recurring and structural element of an urban relational design.

A Relational Approach: Playing as an Engine of Sociality and Participatory Mechanism A theme that characterizes the contemporary design research and that increasingly emerges as a privileged field of experimentation, especially in the field of urban interiors, is the ludic element as an opportunity for interaction with the users, as design input, as a mechanism to create strong relations also able to structure dynamically the spaces. This term does not mean an explicit way of playing (races, competitions, games ...) or projects in which the ludic component enters as functional aspect/intended use (amusement parks, stadiums, playgrounds ...), but projects that, from some principles that characterize the typical playing, aim to recreate in people who live the space the same feelings experienced through the play. Amazement, amusement, disorientation, curiosity, participation, and wonder, irony, in one word, engagement. Playing as a form of relation and design as form of playing. One might say that playing is a privileged form of relationship, an element that «allows people to get away from the idea of functionalist architecture, freeing it from the slavery of the rational view» (Crippa & Di Prete, 2011, p.200). The game and the relational thinking are thus two interrelated terms, as the first is a manifestation of the second: the games are made of relationships and are the basis of the relations themselves, since the very moment in which one plays is practicing the «art of relations» (Pizziolo & Micarelli, 2003). Paul Klee was perhaps the first who, thanks to his “temporal painting” or “relational fields”, brought «to this new, different creativity: the relational creativity» (ibidem, p. 16), but only today these issues seem to constructively sustain the design debate. Silvano Tagliagambe, outlining the transition from a linguistic concept to a structural one of the scientific research, has advocated the importance of playing as «interference between message and meta message» (Tagliagambe, 2008). The philosopher has also reassessed the role (and the value) of ambiguity, a specific character of ludic activities, calling it «a ripple of rationality» (ibidem), an interface between science and other disciplines. For him the game is the basis of any creative activity (and therefore also the design) since 1938, J. Huizinga had supported this theory in Homo Ludens (Huizinga, 1938), stating that «a playing community is generally a long-lasting one» (Huizinga, as cited in Lambertini, 2013, p.12). The role of playing in the development of the culture, as well as of scientific research, is unquestionable. It is a vital creative engine, that moves between «magical thinking and logical thinking» (de Brabandere, 2010), and is a fundamental cornerstone of the relational thinking, which frees one from a pre-built binary opposing to the conformism and favouring instead the ability to see with new eyes - or to “discover” or “rediscovering” - the world.

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The ludic element, that creates participation and involvement in architecture becomes one of the engines of the so-called «social creativity» (Lai, 2006), able to attribute new meanings to the spaces starting from spontaneous gestures of appropriation by individuals and communities. It has to do with the prediction, already in the design phase, of spaces able to interact, change and reconfigure themselves depending on their use. It has to do with pursuing an architecture that meets the psychological and not just the functional needs of the users. It designs environments that please, surprise and involve people. In short, it is an analysis of a place from the dynamics it establishes with the people who make use of it. «Considering the game as the guiding principle of the project [therefore] means to think about the urban artefact not in terms of performance and functionality, but in terms of “collaboration” to the unfolding of the human life» (Crippa & Di Prete, 2011, p.200). In this analysis, as the author highlighted in a previous book (ibidem, p.199), the emotional aspects become crucial: «the emotional evaluation of the environment (which according to the model of Russell and Lanius is structured from the crossed dimensions pleasant- unpleasant and activating-soporific) becomes a parameter to judge a more or less successful project (Russell & Lanius, 1984). Likewise, pleasantness environmental factors (in the model of Kaplan described as coherence, complexity, legibility, mystery) become the key components of the preference given to urban places» (Kaplan, as cited in Tempesta & Thiene, 2006, pp.15-17). The definition of the “playing field”, a field without preconceived constraints and already imposed hierarchies (Bateson, 1976), the research of the theme of interactivity, the focus on the relationship between observer-context, amplified and made as “material of project” are just some of the topics of investigation underlying the metaphor of play. Likewise, it could be introduced the concepts of paradox, already praised in American Lessons of Italo Calvino (2000), of self-construction, breakdown, unexpected and sensory exploration, fiction and in-lusion, which could correspond to as many modus operandi. The present design approach that has always existed in contemporary design is used and amplified. A poetry that transcends the individual “schools of thought”, because it crosses through different positions of the project and aims to create belonging and participation. An approach exceeds the free transfer trends because it is free from the concept of aesthetics, as if the formal constructive, functional aspects always present in any project, had an only instrumental value here only. No coincidence that one of the approaches proposed by Anna Lambertini in her book on the practice of urban regeneration is explicitly called «bring into play» (Lambertini, 2013, p.12): through the «new reading of squares and streets as unexpected ludic areas, [...] it is composed by heterogeneous vital landscapes of everyday life, made of critical actions, imaginative practices and reinterpretations of the usual patterns of the public space» (ibidem, inside front cover). It does not matter whether the relapses are graphic (Tselniker and Livne, “Urban Fabric”, in Timing 2010, Biennale of Landscape Urbanism, Bat Yam 2010), or they exploit the sensory perception (nEmoGruppo, “TP-O vortex”, Bilbao 2000), or the project will lead to a «portable football field» always at hand and that adapts flexibly to the context (Cliostraat, “Play or rewind”, Siena 2001). It does not matter whether the non-material relationships between people - conversations or exchange of phone messages - also become an aesthetic occasion for an empathic and narrative sky (Husman Haque, “Activating the sky”, Ivrea 2004). Whether the involvement and curiosity act through paradoxes, blurs and jumps of scale (EVOL, Huge ‘Buildings’ Mural, Paris 2009), the ludic component emerges as a strategy to promote gatherings, increase the sociability and return to the city the forgotten parts of it (today we refer to Topotek 1, BIG Architects and Superflex, Superkilen, Copenhagen 2012, but historically Van Eyck had already and wisely used this strategy with his playgrounds in Amsterdam, 1947-1978). 146

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FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS The Aestheticism of the Fruition as an Expression of a New “Aesthetics Of The Present Moment” With regard to what we considered up to now, we talked about relationships that structure the space and characterize them as well as in their value of use that in their aesthetic component. These relationships are realized in various capacities both as relationship between the human being and the space (its devices and physical objects, but also backdrop in terms of perception), as well as the ratio between the several people who share the same environment. If we would want to give a partly pre-figurative reading of the contemporary and poetics, which will come - we maybe have the first traces of it - the most interesting cases, however, propose an additional design gap. They assume the human figure (in its daily use of the spaces) as structural element of the project or as a feature that gave relevance and formal repercussions, determining the aesthetics of the building. It seems that the processes of use of the urban space are becoming an element of composition and there is an increasingly awareness that the human being is an integral part of the urban scene, becoming involuntary an actor. These projects would be considered as incomplete without people. A precursor to that effect was Achille Castiglioni in its Pavilion for the exhibition at the RAI XLIII Fair of Milan (1965), which actually took on the characteristic appearance of “centipede”, only if covered by people. Its previous preparation for the Pavilion of the Rai XXXIV Fair of Milan (1956) provided for the cancellation of the outer limits of the space and of each vertical element in order to only emphasize the human figures in constant motion, which unknowingly - and moved by curiosity - sought the information set forth gathering together «like moths under the light» (Ponti, as cited in Polano, 2001, p.236) and thus acting as a mutual call. Among the most explanatory examples of this design approach are enlisted “The Hoboken Sept. 11th Memorial” (New York, 2003) by Frederic Schwartz Architects, “Body Movies - Relational Architecture 6” (Rotterdam, 2000) by Rafael Lozano Hemmer or the “Facsimile” by Diller and Scofidio (Moscone Center, San Francisco, 2002). All these three projects have a strong urban significance, although typologically attributable to categories that traditionally we would have called “architecture”, “squares”, “facades”: they are respectively a transparent diaphragm characterized by the unpredictable and dynamic texture given by individual distances in progress “in that very moment”. A monument that seems to provide a frame for its internal life to make a composition matrix. A square that exploits the limits of the building as backdrop to literally “draw”, thanks to the instant and out of scale shadows that amplify the actions of the citizens living the square in that same moment. A statement interpreted as a broad interface that presents imagined, dramatized, sometimes pre-recorded actions, mixing them to the daily life that takes place behind the big-screen windows and playing between virtual and real, direct and differed directdeferred, involving passers-spectators in a sudden urban show. In all these cases «the sense and value of a livable place reveals itself through a sequence of moments, each of which represents part of the truth and cannot be frozen in the time of detached contemplation of a stable shape» (Cafiero, 2002, p. 124), in such a way to further emphasise the gap between a place for abstract contemplation and a ground for achieving a shared life experience. The most emblematic example though (and perhaps paradoxically for a designer) is Jemaa el-Fna in Marrakech, world heritage of UNESCO, for the stories that passes on, for the actions that take place on it and for the memories it contains, or for its intangible heritage and architecture. The content of the 147

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square prevails on its shape. It is like a big empty and not designed urban space - and not surprisingly was provocatively called «square of nothing» (Iacovoni, 2006) - but it shows «its uniqueness, its wealth, all its life» (ibidem, para.12). The vacuum seems to be the best design “fit” for an urban space in crisis and in search of a new identity. As if it was able to express at its best «the aesthetic and symbolic meaning that every urban place should convey, [...] looking for a dialogue with the context made of relations rather than architecture, of behavioural resonances rather than physical structures» (Purini, 2001). The famous Ratchada Market in Bangkok has a similar many-sided, changing and labyrinthine character; it appears as a spectacular pattern, extremely colourful if seen from the top, but it turns into a maze of paths, stands, tables and baskets, perfumes and sounds, for those using it from inside. Its nocturnal form appears as a “living tetris”, always crowded with thousands of tourists moving under more than one thousand coloured pavilions – red, blue, pink, yellow, green and white – that, thanks to the mix of lights and fabrics, reflect the movements, shadows and crowd of visitors creating themselves a spectacular landscape. In all these examples, in any case, «the human being is in effect part of the scene, which is not only modelled on him, but “with him” because [in its absence] the perception of the project would inevitably be compromised» (Crippa & Di Prete, 2011, p.11). This new line of research «often leads to emphasize (and sometimes to reverse) the relationship between the inside and the outside: the inside is projected in the urban and “the processes of use” are staged. [The gestures of the individual] break in the collective space and [...] take part in the construction of the city itself. At some point in the process, the external maybe completely disappears, in favour of an innumerable multitude of interior scenes» (Crippa & Di Prete, 2010, p.104). The result is a new concept of urban interior design, «whose salient features are identified in the mutability, the temporariness and the spectacularization of relations» (ibidem, p.101). As so often happens, this vanguard, not yet codified but whose premises are increasingly recurrent and structured in the contemporary design landscape, has found in art its most fertile ground for investigation and experimentation. We recall in this respect the experiments of Anish Kapoor, able to introject the city into kaleidoscopic works, the researches of Michelangelo Pistoletto, who uses mirrors to involve the spectator, making it an active and participant of the creative process. We recall also the most recent proposal by Andrea Aquilanti (exhibition “Italian Code”, Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, 2015), which reflects the ambiguity of the relationship between reality and representation, between analogical and digital techniques, intercepting the shadows of the visitors and thus contaminating with the “body language” Piranesi’s engraving projected in the background. In such a scenario the urban interiors, interpreting the processes of use of space as an aesthetic parameter and enhancing the concept of space-user (or user-user) “relationship” beyond the simple functional opportunities, seems to represent the privileged place to stage the everyday “show”, at the same time being able to take advantage of unwitting actors and interested spectators. «The person who uses the space contributes to define its aesthetic, because it is an integral part of the scene, which helps to structure dynamically, but also the interested observer of all the several surrounding scenes. Obviously, these roles are not uniquely defined, because the positions will continue to reverse, by mixing actors and spectators. It is a happy and continuous co-creation, which enhances the uniqueness and unpredictability [of urban living]. Contemporary, post-functionalist and entertainment culture transformed the city into a kind of “stage” of these performing and architectural micro-events, giving a new social and cultural centrality to the urban space» (ibidem, pp.104-105).

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CONCLUSION On a consistent basis with the theory set out in the previous paragraphs, the following hypothesis seems to make its way: «the idea of an external observer within the phenomenon that it is to be observed needs to be replaced to the observed phenomenon [...]. The change of perspective implies that the observer is not anymore “objectively” separated by the time and the space from the observed phenomenon, but that it is part of it. [...] In this way, both the observer and the observed phenomenon, as placed inside the event, undergo a mutual change» (Pizziolo & Micarelli, 2003, pp.274-275). This is about overturning standard roles, a method that has already been effectively tested in theatre, music and art, for example by L. Ronconi, B. Wilson, but also by J. Cage and Studio Azzurro. In this framework, the urban interiors design becomes both design of the content and of the container, a program of actions (or events) and the support that allows them to unfold, the design of a schedule and a multiplicity of narratives that can intersect on it. The celebration of the urban living, which is now not only welcomed but also cleverly exposed, and the performance of daily rituals of anonymous actors, leading more and more often to speak of «architecture of the experience» (Cao & Cantucci, 2001, p.162) and - perhaps rashly - even of «change in form» (Green, 2007-2008, p.4). Many designers who interpret the contemporary and try to give it “voice”, in fact, pursue an open and unpredictable composition, imagining a “landscape of action” that cannot be planned, in which the gestures, the words, the reactions of the people take an aesthetic value. «In these projects, constantly changing and necessarily accessible in “that single moment”, the temporal dimension prevails [because the exception, the uniqueness, the improvisation are fundamental traits of this new poetic]: unaware users act as if they were part of an open script. It is a spontaneous “new theatricality”, which takes place in a society in which the media, the entertainment and the reality mix together, and where the projects are interpreted more and more like [...] “narrating compositions”» (Crippa & Di Prete, 2010, p.101). The time - only suggested in the Op Art, a latent element, “in power”, in the Programmed Art or a “gesture of signs” attributed to the artist in the Current Gesture Art (Dorfles, 2010, p.54) - now abandons its value as a symbol or a pretext. It is no longer just a timeframe to be considered for a conscious management of the project in terms of future reversibility, adaptability and sustainability (social, economic and environmental); it is not only a «perception-enhancing factor» (Cafiero, 2002, p.124), nor something merely supporting «inhabitants’ continuous transformations through use» (ibidem, p.125): today The temporal dimension really becomes a fundamental part of a project that, especially when it intersects with the urban context, seems to be increasingly closed to performing, making itself expression of a new «aesthetics of the present moment» (Crippa & Di Prete, 2011, p.12).

REFERENCES Amendola, G. (1997). La città postmoderna. Magie e paure della metropoli contemporanea. Roma Bari, Italy: Laterza. Augè, M. (2005). Nonluoghi. Introduzione a una antropologia della surmodernità. Milano, Itay: Elèuthera. Augè, M. (2009). Che fine ha fatto il futuro? Dai non luoghi al nontempo. Milano, Italy: Elèuthera.

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Bartolini, S. (2012). Manifesto per la felicità. Milano, Italy: Feltrinelli. Bateson, G. (1976). Una teoria del gioco e della fantasia. In Verso un’ecologia della mente (pp. 218235). Milano, Italy: Adelphi. Beck, U., & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Individualization: institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences (Vol. 13). New York: SAGE Publications. Boschetti, A., De Lucchi, M., Freyrie, L., & Furlan, G. (2011). Superurbano. Sustainable urban regeneration. International architecture biennial. Venezia, Italy: Marsilio. Bourriaud, N. (2004). Postproduction. Come l’arte riprogramma il mondo. Milano, Italy: Postmedia Books. Bourriaud, N. (2010). Estetica relazionale. Milano, Italy: Postmedia Books. Cacciari, M. (2004). Nomadi in prigione. In La città infinita (pp. 51-58). Milano, Italy: Mondadori. Cafiero, G. (2002). Il valore dell’interno tra contemplazione e partecipazione. Napoli, Italy: B. di M. Calvino, I. (1983). Le città invisibili. Milano, Italy: Mondadori. Calvino, I. (2000). Lezioni americane. Milano, Italy: Mondadori. Camocini, B., Di Prete, B., & Rebaglio, A. (2017). Temporary and Narrative Design Approaches for Fragile Urban Contexts. In Sense & Sensibility 2017. Design Beyond Borders and Rhizomes (pp. 1420). Funchal: UNIDCOM/IADE and Madeira University. Cao, U., & Cantucci, S. (Eds.). (2001). Spazi e maschere. Roma, Italy: Meltemi. Cornoldi, A. (1994). Architettura dei luoghi domestici. Milano, Italy: Jaca Book. Crespi, L. (Ed.). (2011). Città come/The city as. Milano, Italy: Maggioli. Crespi, L. (2013). Da spazio nasce spazio. L’interior design nella trasformazione degli ambienti contemporanei. Milano, Italy: Postmedia Books. Crespi, L. (2014). Città ospitali. In Arredo urbano. Un’identità per la città, tutto il visibile tra 0 e 5 mt. Convegno promosso da Arcipelago Milano, Triennale di Milano. Crippa, D., & Di Prete, B. (2010). Behaviour. In Interior Wor(l)ds (pp. 100-105). Torino, Italy: Allemandi Univeristy Press. Crippa, D., & Di Prete, B. (2011). L’estetica del momentaneo. Milano, Italy: Maggioli. de Brabandere, L. (2010). Pensiero magico e pensiero logico. Roma, Italy: Castelvecchi. De Carli, C. (1982). Architettura. Spazio primario. Milano, Italy: Hoepli. Derrida, J. (1971). La scrittura e la differenza. Milano, Italy: Einaudi. Di Prete, B. (2011). Città come arcipelago di relazioni. In Città come/The city as (pp. 28-39). Milano, Italy: Maggioli. Dorfles, G. (2010). Dal significato alle scelte. Roma, Italy: Castelvecchi.

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Ferrari, G. A. (2015). Miracolo a Milano. Il Corriere della Sera, 27(6). Fuksas, M. (2007). La civiltà dei superluoghi: notizie dalla metropoli quotidiana. Bologna, Italy: Damiani. Gallese, V., Migone, P., & Eagle, M. N. (2006). La simulazione incarnata: I neuroni specchio, le basi neurofisiologiche dell’intersoggettività e alcune implicazioni per la psicoanalisi. Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, XL, 3, 543–580. Gorzanelli, I. (2011). La città specchio, la città riccio e la città volpe. Campo della Cultura. Retrieved November 12, 2015, from www.campodellacultura.it/conoscere/campo-della-cultura/sezione-quarta Green, P. (2007-2008). Case con vista: Esibizionismo e solitudine tra i grattacieli di Manhattan. The reader, 4, 12–1. Guadagnucci, L. (2015). Un’emozione a forma di casa. L’architetto a lezione di neuroscienze, Città e psiche. Il Giorno, 23(11), 25. Hannerz, U. (1994). Esplorare la città. Antropologia della vita urbana. Bologna, Italy: Il Mulino. Huizinga, J. (1973). Homo ludens. Torino, Italy: Einaudi. Iacovoni, A. (2006). Playground. Piazza del nulla. Arch’it. Retrieved November 6, 2015, from www. architettura.it Inti, I., Cantaluppi, G., & Persichino, M. (2014). TEMPORIUSO. Manuale per il riuso temporaneo di spazi in abbandono, in Italia. Milano, Italy: altreconomia edizioni. La Cecla, F. (2009). Il malinteso. Antropologia dell’incontro. Roma Bari, Italy: Laterza. La Pietra, U. (1983). Abitare la città. Ricerche, interventi, progetti nello spazio urbano dal 1962 al 1982. Firenze, Italy: Alinea. La Pietra, U. (2011). Abitare la città, Ricerche, interventi, progetti nello spazio urbano dal 1960 al 2000. Torino, Italy: Allemandi. Lai, F. (2006). La creatività sociale, una prospettiva antropologia sull’innovazione. Roma, Italy: Carocci. Lambertini, A. (2013). Urban Beauty! Luoghi prossimi e pratiche di resistenza estetica. Bologna, Italy: Compositori. Lynch, K. (1964). L’immagine della città. Venezia, Italy: Marsilio. Maldonado, T. (2005). Reale e viruale. Milano, Italy: Feltrinelli. Mallgrave, H. F. (2015). L’empatia degli spazi. Milano, Italy: Raffaello Cortina Editore. Manzini, E., Collina, L., & Evans, S. (2004). Solution oriented partnership. Cranfield, UK: Cranfield University. Morin, E. (2006). L’età dell’incertezza. La forza del pensiero debole. Lettera internazionale, 88(2). Nancy, J. L. (2002). La città lontana. Verona, Italy: Ombre corte. Nicolin, P., & Repishti, F. (2003). Dizionario dei nuovi paesaggisti. Milano, Italy: Skira.

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Nuvolati, G. (2007). Mobilità quotidiana e complessità urbana. Firenze, Italy: Firenze University Press. Palacio, R. J. (2013). Wonder. Firenze, Italy: Giunti. Parmesani, L. (Ed.). (2004). Alessandro Mendini. Gli scritti. Milano, Italy: Skira. Phillips, A., & Taylor, B. (2009). Elogio della gentilezza. Milano, Italy: Ponte alle Grazie. Phillips, A., & Taylor, B. (2009). Sulla gentilezza. Internazionale, 783(2), 38. Pizziolo, G., & Micarelli, R. (2003). L’arte delle relazioni. Firenze, Italy: Alinea. Polano, S. (2001). Achille Castiglioni. Tutte le opere 1938-2000. Milano, Italy: Electa. Purini, F. (2001). Spazio pubblico e conflitto. Academic Press. Rael, R. (2017). Borderwall as Architecture: a Manifesto for U.S. - Mexicoboundary. Berkeley, CA: UC Press. Rebaglio, A. (2017). Interior(c)ity. Milano, Italy: Maggioli. Rifkin, J. (2010). La civiltà dell’empatia. Milano, Italy: Mondadori. Rovelli, C. (2018). Ci sono luoghi al mondo dove più che le regole è importante la gentilezza. Milano, Italy: RCS. Russell, J. A., & Lanius, U. F. (1984). Adaptation level and the affective appraisal of environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 4(2), 119–135. doi:10.1016/S0272-4944(84)80029-8 Saggio, A. (2004). Nuova soggettività. L’architettura tra comunicazione e informazione. Arch’it. Retrieved October 28, 2015, from www.architettura.it Spirito, G. (2015). In-between places. Forme dello spazio relazionale dagli anni Sessanta a oggi. Macerata, Italy: Quodlibet Studio. Tagliagambe, S. (2008). La ricerca scientifica tra universo della precisione e mondo dell’ambiguità. (Unpublished academic lesson). Milano: Politecnico di Milano. Tempesta, T., & Thiene, M. (2006). Percezione e valore del paesaggio. Milano, Italy: FrancoAngeli. Torres, M. (2005). Luoghi magnetici. Spazi pubblici nella città moderna e contemporanea. Milano, Italy: FrancoAngeli. Zevi, B. (1948). Saper vedere l’architettura. Torino, Italy: Einaudi. Retrieved from www.celsius.lucca. it/masp02/documenti/modulo10_11_2002.pdf

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Everyday: Set of actions, gestures, events that take place in the daily life and can be taken as a scenography as well as script of the project. Fragilism: Ability to enhance concepts seemingly negligible and residual to promote a new awareness of the unexpected, the provisional, the unknown and the unseen. Identity: Layering and intertwining of individual memories that create places recognizable from a wider community. Imaginary: Set of individual and collective visions that live of imagination but are able to outline an evolving reality. In-Lusion: Design strategy that aims to create involvement through recreational and interactive processes both perceptual and physical between people and between people, and space. Narration: Sum of implicit and explicit content of a place suggesting to the user a variety of subjective experiences. Recognition: Set of physical and symbolic characteristics of a place that make it capable to express the identity of a person or of a community that is self-projected in that place with a wealth of experiences and shared expectations. Relation: Induced or accidental relationship involving two or more people at the same time in the functional symbolic and emotional sphere. Situation: Contextual and objective condition that surrounds and determines the behaviour of a person or a community in a given place. Spectacularization: Staging of behaviours and processes of use of the space in order to aestheticize its use.

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Practice of Consumption and Spaces for Goods/Retail Futures Francesca Murialdo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0932-4592 Middlesex University, UK

ABSTRACT The change in the significance of goods is a process that, ever since the end of the Industrial Revolution, has triggered far-reaching changes in society as the term has lost any meaning in relation to its purely functional character and increasingly come to represent symbolic and cultural contents. “Practice of Consumption and Spaces for Goods” has the aim to investigate contemporary retail spaces as complex places combining many aspects that go beyond the spatial and functional to include the physical, social, cultural, and economic.

NOT ‘JUST’ SHOPPING (INTRODUCTION) Interiors, intended as the discipline able to build (not only) physical connections in between spaces, people and objects, has deeply changed in the last decades, being able to generate innovative and collaborative insight and solutions. Its role and scope is continuously moving fast towards new contents, new meanings and different strategies. The tools and methods of interiors as a discipline are able to draw connections to social context, being flexible enough to be shapeable on specific situations, promote social innovation, raise awareness about values and beliefs and question established ways of living, working and consuming. The borders of interiors discipline, traditionally blurring with art, design and architecture, thanks to its culturally and politically situated nature, now include a complex network of knowledge, an interdisciplinary space in which many other disciplines and different actors route to embrace instruments and methods of enquiry. Interior architecture and design has today to deal with strategy, business, and politics, inventing new frameworks able to engage and innovate: a wider knowledge to fit the ever-changing world’s challenges. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch007

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 Practice of Consumption and Spaces for Goods/Retail Futures

In this framework, Retail Design, both in research and practice, is particularly relevant as an expression of this disciplinary shift, with an approach characterized by experimentation and a strong relational dimension. “Practice of Consumption” explores what seems today to be one of the distinctive features we can use to describe the social, political and economic phenomenologies which, for better or worse, influence our lives. These places’ roles, organization and form, are at once mirrors and heralds of societal transformation. “Spaces for Goods” cannot be reduced anymore to their physical appearance as places where goods are presented and sold. Retail spaces are experimental and experiential, merging with public spaces, cultural and leisure spaces, exploring possible relationship between public and business, public and public, product and public. This chapter discusses Retail Design as a coordinator of a complex network of disciplines without precise disciplinary boundaries: consumption is influenced by social convention, production pattern, politics and ideology. The history of retail is the history of society with its rules, and human relationships. There is a huge shift in what retail is and the role it plays - the future of retail offers new possibilities and challenges for an ever-changing context.

FROM PUBLIC HAPPINESS TO PRIVATE SHOPPING The Declaration of Independence of United States of America in 1776 states that governments are created among people to protect their Inalienable Rights, i.e. Life, Freedom and the search for Happiness: a collective project, the pursuing of a common goal, involving everyone and keeping united a society which recognizes in the search for its happiness an inalienable right. At the end of ‘800 (in the United States) the main features of that culture were the acquisition and the consumption as means to reach happiness; the cult of novelties; the democratization of wishes; and the value of money as a determining factor of the value of society (Leach, 1993, p.3). After 1850, between the first and the second industrial revolution, the General Stores start to appear in big cities1. The impact of the new trade structures on the city and the appearance of this new typology, felt like an epochal revolution, capable of deeply transforming the structure of social life until today. With the General Store, leisure has been routed towards consumption: here is where «consumers start to feel as a mass» (Benjamin, 1982). Happiness is normally bound to relative consumption: it depends on how much our consumption is different from the one of our equals (Bruni, Pelligra, 2002, p. 113). Goods played a critic role in the transformation of the idea and perception of happiness: as the production capacity increased, the consumption capacity proportionally grew as well and happiness shifted from a political collective project to individual gratification to be consumed just like any other product. At the beginning of the 1980’s, Margaret Thatcher stated that «society doesn’t exist» thus definitively giving way to the idea that all political and social axioms have to be routed in the economical sphere of liberalism. 155

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The market brought down the wall, not economics2. The extraordinary conceptual and physical power of machinery, its unlimited capacity to solve problems and optimise processes in a continuous development aimed to a mechanicistic view of the universe, has influenced the whole of western thought and, last but not least, the way to organize the built environment. During the last century, the culture of the project, having its apex in the theorems of the Modern Movement, was based on the centrality of industrial processes, capable of spreading to the market, the society the organization of the inhabited environment. In this view, being the industrial production processes the core of the system, the commercial network, as well as communications or promotion, seemed to represent peripheral phenomena which were necessary but collateral to industrial production. The globalization of systems and places of production moved the focus from the industrial to the commercial network. The commercial network plays a key-role within the globalization process, being the only interface between the market and the production system. What characterizes today’s western societies, as a matter of fact, is not the production of goods and nevertheless of the producers necessary for their creation. It is the consumers’ production (Codeluppi, 2003, p.8). The process already defined by Marx as mercification of society pervades all the spaces, multiplying types and quantities of places where goods are available, occupying places traditionally separated (hotels, restaurants, cinemas, museums, sport, health…). These transformations deeply reflect on the structure of the city disrupting its hierarchy: it is now the commercial network that hosts the city and not the other way around.

BILBAO EFFECT3 AND THE “CITY AS OFFER” In 1997 the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry, was inaugurated. The process that has transformed, through the construction of a landmark, a city of little interest into a mecca with thousands of visitors a day has been defined as “The Bilbao effect”. A very similar strategy has been used by retail in the awareness that consumption today is only partly connected to the offer of physical goods and involves soft qualities connected to experience and lifestyles, with the intent to sell ideas more than commodities. Often the first impression of a city is influenced by the quality of its commercial network: shop windows and signs can tell much about the story and culture of places. According to Rem Koolhaas (Chung, C. J., Inaba, J., Koolhaas, R., Leong, S. T., 2001), retail is the greatest influencing power in modeling the modern city and the only feature able to define its quality. Back in 1979, Mrs. Huxtable, from the New York Times’, reported with concern that the city was selling its internal public places «like soaps» (Huxtable, 1979). The consumer’s society has relegated the city to the role of spectator rather than actor. […] a landscape of the “city as order” to the “city as offer”, as a possibility for the realization of the individual […]. The city doesn’t draw any longer a social order […] materializing itself through an

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organization of space, with its avenues, public squares and monuments. It represents a system of offers of professional activities and employment […], services and products, relationships, sense, possible behaviours and, more specifically, milieus, tales, events, mobility structures (Bourdin, 2005). The design tools used to image this new territory of commodity merges with visual merchandising, marketing and communication. From the mid 90’s the change in role has been so disruptive that, thanks to the collaboration of brands and celebrated designers, commercial architecture has literally re-shaped the city centres of the world’s metropoles: «marketing projects that use architecture to change the city», as Giandomenico Amendola asserts (Amendola, 2007). At the beginning of the century, the city centers of the world capitals were transformed into stunning commercial architectural landscapes; Omotesando, the well-known shopping district of Tokyo, has turned into a retail architecture park with Louis Vuitton design by Jun Aoki (2002), Prada building by Herzog & De Meuron (2003), Tod’s by Toyo Ito (2004), Dior by SANAA (2004), amongst others. Retail plays a fundamental role in the different organization of the city, its public spaces and social life; it also supports a complete re-invention of the significance of the goods and, in the last instance, of our lifestyle and understanding of the world. Prada, with the Epicenter strategy developed by OMA (2001) has subverted the idea that a successful commercial environment was meant to sell products. Rem Koolhaas understanding of the social role of retail environments - «Shopping is perhaps the last remaining form of public activity» - together with the comment that everything is turning into shopping - «Not only is shopping melting into everything, but everything is melting into shopping» - becomes the conceptual framework for the new project. Shopping is such a successful parasite, able to merge with other functions and taking advantage of it, that it has become the host, it «has infiltrated, colonized, and even replaced, almost every aspect of urban life. Town centers, suburbs, streets, and now airports, train stations, museums, hospitals, schools, the Internet, and the military are shaped by the mechanism and spaces of shopping» (Chung, C. J., Inaba, J., Koolhaas, R., Leong, S. T., 2001). The spectacular design of Prada, New York (2001) and Los Angeles (2004), meant to reverberate the image of an idea rather than promoting the consumption of goods. Rem Koolhaas’ radical new idea for mingling retail and cultural activities in the same space led to many other experiments on different scales. Among others, Federation Square in Melbourne (2002, offices, shops, an open-air market and part of the Victoria Museum), Renzo Piano’s Maison Hermès in Tokyo (2001, with a double height arcade hosting exhibitions of contemporary art), the Migros premises in Lucerne which houses a school as well as a supermarket. Up until the mid 90’s, places of commerce had never played such a key cultural role. Architects worked on museums, public buildings and skyscrapers and the world of commerce was always relegated to a secondary position, even though some of those projects played a fundamental role in the definition of the interiors discipline. The history of retail can’t be fully understood without going through key projects that shaped spaces and ideas. Adolf Loos’ Knize Tailor in Vienna (1910-1913), is certainly one of these: designed to be clearly exclusive and intended for a social class with the economic capability to pay for the prestigious garments for sale. Between 1928 and 1930, Robert Mallet-Stevens worked on a series of projects for the footwear brand Bally, questioning the meaning of the shop as a window display for new architecture. Two years later, Dudok designed the De Bijenkorf department store in Rotterdam. The building and its interiors, de157

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stroyed by the Second World War bombing, was the architectural and conceptual epitome of what these microcosms represented in the city. With the Bat’a shop which was never built, Le Corbusier went one step further in his theory of functionalism, foreseeing the concept of coordinated image which would shortly become so commonplace. In Italy, both Pellicceria Zanini furriers and the bookshop Libreria Baldini & Castoldi by Franco Albini, express the social and political context of Milan, still in ruins but in the process of being rebuilt after the Second World War destruction. Both projects, but especially the one for the furriers, given the particular nature of the goods involved, are distinguished by a measured and balanced approach in the layout, a seductive but restrained elegance, conscious of the post-war climate. Albini brought to interior design the value of lightness and reversibility, as opposed to stability, a concept with long lasting influence on retail design.

RETAILED SCAPES At the end of the 20th century, the interest in the design of commercial spaces increased together with its growing importance in economical and in cultural terms. The retailscape of the 21st century is characterized by innovative elements: it introduced new phenomena and developed new synergies between different consumer sectors, as in the case of co-branding, by experimenting and reinterpreting practices and places of commerce. The flagship store phenomenon, extensively covered by recent literature (Klanten, Bolhöfer, 2011, AA.VV., 2012, Ehmann, Borges, 2013, Szita 2014, Messedat, 2015,…), has been consolidated by carrying out single operations entrusted to a joint venture between companies (mostly belonging to the luxury segment of the market) and individual professionals; it has been the last typology-centred space for commerce. Typology blurs and contamination produces new environments selling different commodities as cars and plants, bookshops with cafés and restaurants. People enjoy the experience of buying; sometimes more than having the products themselves, because the moment of buying is one of enthusiastic fantasy and escape (Kelley, 2003). The new retailscape becomes a new model of city in the city, a territory of «commodity economics, exchange, information and service» (Branzi, 2008): the quality of the retail network is nowadays one of the essential elements of the aesthetic and cultural quality of the city. Consumption, more than shopping, with its mechanisms, strategies and patterns, is one of the most interesting topics to be investigated in order to understand the way people relate to the material and immaterial world. The way we consume, not only shop, has to do with personal legacies, contextual situations, political issues and our vision of ourselves and the world around us. Buying behaviors and consumption patterns are among the most distinctive characters able to define our society, at once mirrors and heralds of societal transformation. The change in the significance of goods is a process that, ever since the end of the Industrial Revolution, has triggered far-reaching changes in society; the term goods has lost any meaning in relation to its purely functional character and increasingly represents symbolic and cultural contents. This radical transformation has led to the creation of specialised, refined, «ideologically informed» places, as Tony Fretton defines them (Vernet, de Wit, 2007): from passages to concept stores, these spe158

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cial places occupy an ever more central role in society and in the organization of our landscape; nodal centres which attract spaces dedicated to entertainment, culture and socializing. Consumption was not included into the cycle of daily functions imagined by the Athens Charter - the document published in 1933 by CIAM on the urban planning and that just included inhabiting, working and recreation - but the places of commerce have been among the special ones that shaped the modern world. In a commodity related civilization, market’s rules become a central topic to relate to, and the practice of consumption is a lens through which we look at the way we inhabit the world. From a formal point of view, spaces devoted to retail are multiform, organized into a variety of different types and with no structured features. Over time, they have been shaped in relation with the surrounding landscape, express a typological fluidity that produces spaces different from one another: retail spaces are the market, bazaar, individual shop, department store, mall, supermarket and also the virtual retail space of online platforms. Looking at the role that retail spaces have played throughout the course of history, it is evident how it is always being a place of relation and interaction, able to build a dialogue with other functions as interface and amalgam. From a more specifically disciplinary point of view, there is a crisis in the hierarchy of the components traditionally associated with the retail typology (window display, sign, display space, point of purchase, decor for display and layout of the goods, spaces for facilities). Functional design seems to have been completely subverted by new values that inform these spaces. Even materials and technologies no longer respond solely to performance-related or functional requirements and the organization of the space and its identity does not anymore relate to the goods or the selling process. Consequently, some of the traditional components of the space as shop windows or display systems are not meant to literally communicate the goods offer and moved to a different role. The research on actual and future spaces for goods follows two parallel tracks: interiors discipline which interprets design and its components, and human sciences that focus on the cultural models that produce these components and needs. The contemporary sales space is a place which integrates a multitude of spatial and functional aspects in a complex network, crossed by systems of physical, social, cultural and economic relations that determine its character and specificity. It is the place in which material culture, business culture and the needs of the consumer become fully manifest through a system of synergies which come into play between the specific ambits of the diverse material and immaterial spatial relations: from place of buying it turned into place of experience, knowledge and entertainment. It’s not anymore a place where merchandise is made available to become symbolic and the metaphorical realm where products are becoming a system of values, expressions of how we live and imagine our lives, indicators of social and political choices and actions on the world, where what matters is (the much-abused term) experience, now reshaping into participation. Space not only takes on the task of showing goods and representing their value, but also creates a relationship with the customer who becomes the true protagonist no longer relegated to the role of spectator. The globalized post-industrial system is producing a commodity culture, in the sense that the goods system not only represents the most widespread economic medium in our society, but also expresses new individual moral values and logics, selective and complex values of profound social identities, as in the case of ethical consumption (Branzi, 2008).

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If planning was focused on goods, and innovation governed by technology (escalators, air conditioning etc), now the main attention is routed to the consumer: design needs to look at other disciplines as consumers are now seen as persons with desires, feelings and different personalities, not anymore just as the potential product’s buyer. A dramatic change is obviously underway in terms of companies, customer needs, types of goods and design tools. Stores today are no longer the end point of a production process. Instead, they are its core: an interface that translates and represents the needs of the two primary players – the company and the consumer – creating an ever-shifting landscape. The concept of one size fits all, which met with enormous success between the late-60’s and early70’s, is no longer suitable to satisfy different personalities. The space for commerce can no longer have the same form regardless of where they are, whether inside a shopping centre, in a street in a historic town centre, in Rome or New Delhi. Service, the human touch, and the connection with the context are the relevant components of retail space. (Fig.1).

The Disappearance of Goods, Target and Typologies This research argues that three main factors are driving and causing a radical shift into the thinking and the organization of the spaces for goods; three main elements, able in the past to define the qualities of retail spaces are completely disappearing and disrupted: the goods, that are losing their material properties and becoming an expression of a system of values; the target, the consumer, completely transformed with new behaviours, and the typology of those spaces that escapes a specific definition. The radical change of the retail ingredients that faced the disappearance of the goods, the target and the typology, together with the renewed interest for the commercial spaces and the appearance of new technologies, enhance the exploration of new challenges for the future of retail design. Design needs to renovate its strategies and tools in order to deal with systems of values and knowledge. Typological and functional contamination mixes together different formats and concepts. Storytelling, local relevance, customized service, curated selection, become the new keywords able to shape the retail landscape, new urban realities where the epicenter is the client. Spaces for consumption must be characterized by a quick response to ever changing needs: adaptable in terms of space, display, content, experience and commercial opportunity. Retail design challenges the traditional hierarchy of space elements in favor of more experimental research to better translate the new commercial narratives. The multiple choices of elements that come into play in a consumption space drive the design to focus on situations, circumstances and experimentation, towards a temporal, in progress, fluid model. The definition of this potential retail environment is changing and shifting, far beyond the traditional confines of the four walls, to contaminate every space, whether it is public or private.

No Good(s)- The Decline of the Products and Curated Consumption The aim of the play of consumption is not the desire either to acquire and possess or to amass a large fortune in the material, tangible sense, on the other hand it is the excitement for new sensations, never experienced before. Consumers are first of all gatherers of sensations: they are collectors of things only in a secondary and derived sense (Bauman, 2001, p.93).

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Figure 1. H&M, Barcelona, Estudio Mariscal, 2008. Global brands consider local relevance a value that can be used to create a stronger connection with consumers.

Goods available to buy abound in quantity and variety. Products are dematerializing, becoming a system of values: an expression of how we live and imagine our lives, how we express our socio-political choices and action in the world. Things we buy have ever-less material characteristics and ever-more contents able to satisfy our intangible needs. In their 1991 book Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore traced how the service economy became the experience economy, moving from a culture of possession to one of experience. Almost a decade later, Albert Boswijk, Thomas Thijssen and Ed Peelen, in their book The Experience Economy: A New Perceptive (2007), redefined the terms of the argument. They highlighted how the economy of experience that Pine and Gilmore talked about entailed a passive perception shaped by economic stimuli, while we are going increasingly towards the active engagement of consumers in experiences. They term this as co-creation, which entails a change in the creation of value, shaped by different economic models requiring more transparency and social responsibility. The

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consumer is engaged in ways that reflect the contents and needs of each commercial narrative. It is not just about operations in which consumers shape the product to their tastes or needs (there are countless examples that have let products be customized, from shoes to cars); rather, they are processes in which the brand becomes an interface and disseminates culture and information and the customer actively participates in the shaping of value. It is easily understandable how this dematerialization of goods has affected the concept and the spatial organization of new commercial spaces. Today, more than the products themselves, their selection, curatorship and presentation is key. New key concepts relating to content more than form enhance the goods’ system of values: we consume ideas, lifestyle, political statements symbolically embedded in an object (Fig.2).

One Size Doesn’t Fit All The concept of a target audience is dissolving and the consumer, who has been surveyed, filed, and hyper-categorized, no longer exists. Classification according to age, gender, geographical origin, social class or purchasing power does not communicate enough information about the lifestyle of the consumer: consumption, increasingly characterized by the ease and speed of access to information, produces an infinite number of consumer types that cannot be easily classified within the bounds of rigid divisions, with consumption models that are not linear or comprehensible. The central role which certain disciplines have played in the prefiguration of the organization of commercial spaces, suffice to mention the omnipresence of experience marketing, seems to allow space for more refined and differentiated studies; individuals, transformed from citizens into consumers, are to assume a primary role which can exert and influence the global economy. The order of things seems Figure 2. Selfridges, London, 2014. The shop window and the shop front are not meant to describe the products; the subjects of the mise-en-scène relates to a broader context linking the brand of the store to a theme connected to news, debates and lifestyle.

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to have been turned on its head; before it was the requirements of production, distribution and sales of the companies which influenced typologies of consumption (consume-centred), today it is the social phenomena which influence company planning (consumer-centred). People are increasingly informed, independent minded and aesthetically sophisticated so brands have to generate a cultural relevant dialogue within their customer communities and show in every communication effort that they bring genuine added value (Johnston, Agneessens, 2007). The impact of new consumers is evident in information accessibility, networks, innovations, and activism. From the rise of consumer associations to the late-1990s as the no-global movement, increasing attention has been given to how companies manage each step in their process of production, distribution, and sales (Klein, 2000). This includes attention for social and political needs, changing mechanisms of value creation and consumption practices. Purchasing power and consumption patterns have become among the most defining traits of our lifestyle, tools to seek justice in the consolation of the economic homogeneity. Consumers are the non-professional counterparts of business. They can deeply influence the company structure: spaces for goods become the meeting ground between these two worlds, more open and flexible in seeking new and more interesting expressions. Consumers are increasingly involved both in the definition and generation of value, and in the experience of co-creation as Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad says: It’s the democratization of industry […] We are seeing the emergence of an economy of the people, by the people, for the people [...] Most basic change has been a shift in the role of the consumer-from isolated to connected, from unaware to informed, from passive to active (Prahalad, Ramaswamy, 2004). In this way, a new dynamic between producer and consumer, involves the consumers in every stage of the process, from the production and distribution to the creation of the value of the goods. The consumer is no longer observed from the perspective of his expectations in terms of needs, will and desires, but as a player able to influence the entire consumer system. When the focal point of the shop shifts from the goods to the customer, the designer needs to closely observe the customer, understand his expectations, needs and feelings. The awareness of how much our purchasing choices impact on the world are giving retail the opportunity to rethink its strategies in order to find more sustainable consumer habits.

Other Stories for Another Store The definition “Spaces for Goods” tries to get rid of spatial classifications, thinking that places to buy and exchange goods have changed so radically that they deserve a new definition. Their continuous transformation is moving towards a complete typology disappearance, melting with different formats and concepts: they become specialized, sophisticated places, crucial hubs mixed with entertainment, culture. The dominant models at the beginning of the XXI century, the shopping centres and flagship stores, did suffer the impact of the crisis. Both models declined for the very same reasons that led to their success. The flagship store, with the end of the euphoria of the omnipotence of the brand, have exhausted the imaginative repertoire they were able to generate, in need of a more complex a multi layered experience 163

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where the consumer plays a more active role. The mall, which grew in conjunction with the model of private mobility, declined as a result of the energy crisis, traffic congestion and pollution. In the United States the debate on how to invest and re-use these great abandoned containers4 has been going on for many years and associations and institutions, such as the Congress for the New Urbanism, are working together at the creation of an alternative ecologically sustainable development model (Tagliaventi, Diolaiti, Bucci, 2004, p. 35). We have all entered the post-mall era […] it seems that there is no future […] we will be forced to find some way of reusing them that will release them from their present piteous condition of enormous white elephants (Underhill, 2004, pp. 236-238). If modern society is characterised by differentiation and specialisation, postmodern society sees its dominant traits in contamination, the decline of linear thought and discontinuity. In an era of convergence, with new emerging practices, socio-economic emergencies and a renewed political awareness, we move forward the disappearance of building types: this process which is certainly nothing new, has already given rise to hybrid models which are well-established by now, such as the home-office. But this drift is even more evident in the retail sector where typological contamination is so powerful as to generate new spaces where the boundary between different activities becomes ever fainter. The two classical building types, the residential and the commercial space are increasingly convergent with the shop, by means of modern technology, coming into the home, and the home, getting smaller in size, substituting the spaces in it once devoted to socialising with those in commercial buildings. The space of commerce is a key actor of this shift, a node in an open system in which goods and services concentrate around cultural hubs, places for living and working; its flexibility is able to guarantee a continuous re-negotiability of its role and meaning: new solutions emerge that meet the new needs of sellers and consumers alike, with lounges, homes, transit places, and cultural spaces. If the megastore and multistore can easily be replaced by virtual commerce, it will become increasingly necessary to have spaces where the customer can find a range of specific objects or services, from themed bookshops to clothes shops which sell convenient trendy outfits at reasonable prices, and food stores specialising in organic produce. Even the most established and historicized formats, such as department stores or markets, are becoming theme-based. They are conceived and designed for a specific public, its tastes and behaviours. New flexible spaces should be conceived to accommodate different functions within, being able to change perspectives deftly and to adapt to the city’s life. (Fig. 3). At the other extreme, we will have fluid shops, characterised by the simultaneous presence of goods and services which are available to meet specific functions at different hours of the day, where the attraction is not so much the goods on sale as the variety of opportunities on offer. The temporary shop or moving store is the response to a dynamic development model and variations in the market. It occupies transition spaces, offers what the market requires at that precise moment, can expand or contract or move following market opportunities (Fig.4). The general contraction in the size of retail outlets can be seen in the policy adopted by the big brands who are appearing in the urban fabric in points of sale which are decidedly smaller than their flagship stores (Nike, for example, which has gone from Niketown to proximity stores or to temporary stores with a high level of local relevance), as well as the new policy of the large-scale retail brands. Both the retail giant Wal-Mart and the smaller supermarket chains are opening smaller stores and the so-called

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Figure 3. Boxpark Wembley, London, design by Brinkworth opened in 2018 after its predecessors in Shoreditch (2011) and Croydon (2016). The concept is a temporary pop-up Mall that provides a mix of street food, events and leisure with the idea to become a destination for the design community of the area (copyright Louise Melchior from Boxpark Wembley).

C-Stores, convenience stores, where in the smallest possible space the shop stocks only essential goods to meet the specific requirement of functional shopping. What used to be public space in the city is now an enormous open air shopping centre shaped by the biggest retail chains which have transformed radically the historic centres of our towns and cities; in the most audacious solutions development models integrate urban quarters with a mix of functions, for example the Markthal in Rotterdam by MVRDV (2014) that hosts retail and housing in the same complex. New design plans capable of including a variety of functions, integrated within the urban fabric, can adapt to the continuously changing city structure, maintain a character that can be remodeled according to the new requirements and its capacity to grow, change and adapt. Interventions must be aimed at a multitude of demographic groups and include activities which can take place at different times of day, not merely adding leisure components to a retail environment. The creation of value for goods acts through such sophisticated mechanisms that some companies reinforce their image by extending their brand to completely different realms, such as culture and hospitality (Fig.5). Personalized and competent service is not a complementary function, but has become one of the key components together with local relevance and the extensive use of new technologies in allowing new experiential consumer’s behaviours . Web 2.0 or the new web, as it is called, is characterized by an increased interaction between content and user, which has led to a mutated relationship between the different players. Companies collect opinions, needs and suggestions to understand how best to connect with their consumers. In turn, consumers as

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Figure 4. Ikea Temporary, Milano, 2015. Ikea Temporary has been open in Milano during the Expo 2015; the limited lifespan and the selection of product available, transform the traditional Ikea shop into something diametrically opposite.

users are involved in all the steps of the commercial process of the goods, from the production onwards. Spaces of commerce need to integrate the online world, unexplored and incorrectly considered an alternative to the traditionally physical world. Spaces for retail increasingly try to include technological features in their spaces in ways that are innovative to varying degrees. Some stores that have built their success online but still, at specific times of year or for specific products, opt to have a space for physical goods (it has been rumored for months that Amazon shops will open for its Kindle reader. Etsy, one of the largest online sales platforms, with a network of micro-stores each operated by a small craftsperson, for whom online sales was not just a commercial opportunity but a conceptual choice, opened a temporary shop last Christmas in New York). The different sales channels result in a more faceted communication for companies, attract different customer types, and better convey their value system.

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Figure 5. Louis Vuitton, London, 2015. Louis Vuitton, as other luxury brands, uses contemporary art to express the brand values.

Retail Futures - From Retail Experience to Retail as Experience In the previous chapters we’ve been looking at the deep transformations that occurred, and still underway, in the way we shop and consume and how this has impacted on our way of seeing the world – and the other way around. Societal, economic and new technology issues impact the way we think and design spaces for goods that keeps on producing ever new proposals and solutions. Goods have ever-less material qualities and ever-more intangible values, retail spaces are merging into everything else (and the other way around) and, more importantly, we are modifying our behaviours in such a way that everything will never be the same again. The way we consume, our buying behaviours and consumption patterns, is one of the most distinctive aspects able to describe how we engage with the world around us. Retail, the mechanisms able to provide us with goods and services, is a fluid network that merges with politics, education and culture. Its ability to be ubiquitous goes with the opportunity to raise and support tackling important contemporary issues such as climate change, sustainability and social justice.

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Retail has the ability – more than other sectors – to respond in a timely way to shifting socio-economic conditions and to be more experimental and innovative. As consumers, by our consumption habits and we have the opportunity to take a stand and to question the very nature of the consumer culture. There is a huge shift in what retail is and on the role it plays. This is due to many different reasons – new possibilities and new challenges are offered by and in an ever-changing context. The means retail uses to reach the consumer today – and will even more so in the future - are many, different and multi-layered. The word multi-channel is usually employed to accent the different ways through which retail operates: virtual and physical stores but also in collaboration with education, cultural, health and care institutions. The use of digital technologies has disrupted the practice of consumption in a much deeper way than anticipated. It is superfluous to say that the technology we use every day through different devices – from google maps to social media, from online shopping to online streaming – has a huge impact on our life, meaning a shift in reading, understanding and experiencing the world around us. But the way it manifests is very complex, continuously evolving and very difficult to unpick. A few years ago the fear was that the digital world would have overcome the physical one – virtual versus physical space, online versus offline shopping; it is quite clear now how, on the contrary, a successful retail multichannel strategy has to use all the digital and physical platforms interconnecting them to create a meaningful experience, online and offline. While this is now clear and accepted, its application still struggles to produce relevant outcomes and experiences. It needs to be more than simply adding digital screens in physical shops: it rather means to try to envision how these (and future) technologies might contribute to support societal change – and consider retail as one of the many means everyone can use to tackle this. Spaces for goods – hybrids between virtual and physical ones - become experimental crucibles for innovative practice able to communicate, sustain and design responses to environmental and social issues. The core of the debate should move from how technology evolves, to the thinking of what we might use it for. In the past few years (decades now) Virtual Reality was meant to be the way we would have been allowed to experience new worlds - the idea was that, in a special environment, a virtual reality, imagined not real, could have produced enough stimuli to be substituted for the ‘real’ reality. Virtual reality never quite replaced the understanding of spatial environments and its appearance is a one-off experience unable to impact meaningfully on the way we are in the world. More recent discourses around Augmented Reality drop the ambition of having something able to substitute the real world – the idea is that we could add to the world we live in some information by overlapping with it instead of substituting it. This idea of overlapping and layering content, information and perception, seems to provide a new framework through which to envision possible more appealing, future applications. The shift from the Retail Experience to Retail as Experience encompasses a different understanding of the role of retail. Retail Experience has been the result of the shift of the focal point of consumption from the goods to the customer: the consumer stands at the centre of the process, and the experience (provided) needs to understand expectations, needs and feelings. The term Retail Experience has been used to describe an approach that offers more than a selection of goods: a system of values, an expression of desires and ambitions. Despite these strategies used by different brands to focus on the consumer – from co-creation to offering additional services – the narrative has been mainly driven by the industry and, gradually, modified accordingly to the customer’s

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feedbacks. The overall process still feels not seamless but artificial and disconnected and – despite the promises - still very brand centered. Retail as Experience should be able to provide a more layered and personal experience, closer to the way we naturally experience things. It is not a matter of designing special apps/events but to use technologies to augment our abilities; AR might offer edited information combining our retail experience with everything else we usually do. The challenge is to explore and envision new behaviours and to detect how to interact with them. Some experimentation has already proven very successful – from the check out free by AmazonGo (behavioural) to the possibility to browse for ingredient’s information (educational) but there is still a long way to go. Communication, intended in a much broader way than advertising, poses the most challenging questions and social media plays a central role. Born as a network to expand friendship connections, it has become a platform we refer to in order to get recommendations, suggestions and approvals. Issues regarding social media are very complex and controversial and they impact broadly on the way we act. Even if artificially driven, the system allows everyone to join in and actively contribute with feedback, ideas and approval. This feature – integral to the way we interact with the world – has disrupted previous communication channels. It has opened opportunities for small productions to reach out to the public promoting a more diverse retail background and an independent retail culture. In an article in Harvard Design Magazine, Kevin Ervin Kelly countered the hypocrisy of those who denigrate retail by labeling it immoral, when it should be considered a great opportunity (Kelly, 2003). Spaces for goods are naturally conceived and designed as attractors, revitalizers, and catalysts of exchange (not only material exchange). Their great adaptability and permeability make them a potential partner to support small and large projects alike. The outcome of shifts in design strategy is the creation of not only spaces and objects, but lines of intervention on reality, knowledge systems (Ikea does not only sell mass products, but also intervenes in the process of choice, culture and habits) that aspire to influence our thinking. The development of retail design which has undergone such a radical transformation requires previously unknown skills. Alongside design and other disciplines, there has been the emergence of a widespread, fluid, and design culture entrusted to the consumers themselves. Today, retail plays a number of different roles operating as both activator and facilitator. Supporting small business, it can also offer the opportunity for big brands to act ethically, and as a platform to communicate a political message. At Choose Love, a temporary shop and an online one, created by Help Refugees in partnership with creative collective Glimpse in 2017, you can buy real gifts for refugees, but instead of taking them home, each purchase buys a similar item for someone who truly needs it. The enterprise has been really successful – and still is as the online shop is still open – and in 2017 raised nearly £1 million getting the message out to over 200 million people but, even more interestingly, put forward a new model of charitable giving combined with retail facility. Second hand and charity shops are a well-established typology that in the last few years has increased in clients’ attention, becoming a sustainable alternative to wasteful consumerism and an active way to support charitable causes, producing interesting spaces. Boutique by Shelter5 located in the trendy Coal Drops Yard in London, owned by the charity that helps people struggling with homelessness, dismantles the idea that a charity shop hasn’t got a design agenda. Here the items on sale are curated as in a ‘boutique’ and the political message displayed as integral part of the shop interior design. The ‘shopping consciously’ idea is translated onto the space that 169

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Figure 6. Choose Love, London 2017. Help Refugees opened a store that sells real products for refugees, a new way to allow people to contribute to an aid organization.

makes good use of new and reclaimed construction materials, even from the Coal Drops development itself, that would otherwise have gone to waste. (Fig.7) The shops Pass the Baton6, founded by the Japanese Masamichi Toyama, sells used and repurposed items, and intellectually bonds the new and the old owner by attaching to the items a photograph of the previous owner and a personal anecdote about the item, also offering the buyer the option to write a note to previous owners: stories and personalities become the item’s most valuable feature. Pass the Baton also offers ‘remakes’, items from stock that couldn’t be sold due to tiny imperfections, adding to them a little feature. Activism and a role in spreading the message, can also be achieved in more mainstream brands. Lush, a UK based cosmetic retailer, uses its shop windows to speak out about environmental, animal welfare and human right issues7. The company founders and owners offer small charities and activist groups a window to promote campaigns and supports them with financial grants – they want to raise awareness of issues that Lush deems important, even if this is sometimes perceived as disconnected with what they sell. The meaning and scope of retail is as vast as it is vague. It deals with the place and method of production, with human rights by protecting workers, with sustainability by using recycled-recyclable materials and by discouraging waste, with consumer’s behaviours by integrating new experiences, with politics by supporting campaigns, with consumption habits redesigning the offer. And it reflects the habits and structures of contemporary society, whilst also constituting an experimental ground that allows for more innovation and experimentation than other fields. The strong experimental matrix of retail design is grounded in the envisioning of our ever changing needs as important design elements; consumption spaces have the ability to relate and answer to circumstances, not only in terms of the immediate response to a commercial opportunity (as the traditional

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Figure 7. Boutique by Shelter, London 2019. Owned by the charity that helps people struggling with homelessness, the interior has been designed with new and reclaimed construction materials.

temporary store supporting design, art or sport events) but also to more complex issues such as sustainability from a business, social and environmental point of view beyond commercial need. A transversal reading of the phenomenology of consumption spaces and of the processes underpinning them, identifies the dynamics of change and provides a map of themes that in the near future will see radical changes.

REFERENCES AA.VV. (2012). Curated Design. Hong Kong: Sandu Publishing. Amendola, G. (2007). Luoghi, nonluoghi e superluoghi del commercio. In La civiltà dei superluoghi. Bologna: Damiani editore. Baudrillard, J. (1970). The Consumer Society. London: Sage Benjamin, W. (1982). Das Passagen-Werk. Suhrkamp.

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Boswijk, A., Thijssen, A., & Peelen, E. (2007). The experience economy, a new perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Bourdin, A., (2005). La métropole des individus. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’Aube. Boyer, C. (1992). Cities for sale: merchandising history at South Street seaport. In M. Sorkin (Ed.), Variation on a theme park: The New American City and the End of Public Space. New York: Hill and Wang. Branzi, A. (2008). Retailing in the globalization era. In Places & Themes of Interiors Contemporary Research Worldwide. Milano: Franco Angeli. Bruni, L., & Pelligra, V. (Eds.). (2002). Economia come impegno civile. Roma: Città Nuova. Chung, C. J., Inaba, J., Koolhaas, R., & Leong, S. T. (2001). Harvard Design school Guide to Shopping. Köln: Taschen. Codeluppi, V. (2003). Il potere del consumo. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri. Ehmann, S., & Borges, S. (2013). Brand Spaces: Branded Architecture and the Future of Retail Design. Berlin: Gestalten. Huxtable, A. L. (1979, Jan. 16). Selling cities like soaps. New York Times. Johnston, L., & Agneessens, S. (2007). The Culture of Commerce. GDR Creative Review, 26. Kelley, K.E. (2003). Architecture for Sale(s). Harvard Design Magazine, 17. Klanten, R., & Bolhöfer, K. (2011). Out of the Box! Brand Experiences between Pop-Up and Flagship. Berlin: Gestalten. Klein, N. (2000). No logo. Toronto, Canada: Knopf. Leach, W. (1993). Land of desire: Merchants, Power and the Rise of New American Culture. New York: Pantheon Books. Messedat, J. (2015). Retail Architecture S-XXL: Developement, Design, Projects. Stuttgart: Avedition. Pine, J., & Gilmore. (1999). The Experience Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Prahalad, C. K., & Ramaswamy, V. (2004). The Future of Competition. Co-Creating Unique Value with Costumers. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Steven, R. (2019, June). Bringing activism to the high street. The Creative Review. Szita, J. (2014). PowersPowershop 4: New Retail Design. Rotterdam: Frame Publishers. Tagliaventi, G., Diolaiti, D., & Bucci, A. (2004). La fine dell’era degli ipermercati: i nuovi quartieri urbani integrati. In Dal mercato ambulante all’outlet. Luoghi e architetture per il commercio. Bologna: Editrice Compositori. Underhill, P. (2004). The Call of the Mall: A Walking Tour Through the Crossroads of Our Shopping Culture. New York: Simon and Schuster. Vernet, D., & de Wit, L. (2007). Boutiques and Other Retail Spaces. New York: Routledge.

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Williams, E. (2019, June). Changing the charity script. The Creative Review.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Consume-Centred: The organization of the commercial space that is focused on the products. Consumer-Centred: The organization of the commercial space that is focused on the consumer. Consumption: The practice of consuming goods or services. Retail: The process of selling products or service to a customer. Space(s) for Goods: A place which integrates a multitude of spatial and functional aspects in a complex network, crossed by a system of physical, social, cultural and economic relations that determine its character and specificity.

ENDNOTES



1 In 1838 opens in Paris the Bon Marchè of Aristide Boucilant. 2 Paolini, Marco, I Miserabili, io e Margareth Tatcher, play broadcasted by channel La7 for the commemoration of the twenty years from the demolition of Berlin Wall. 3 Paraphrasing «Beaubourg effect» in Baudrillard, J., Simulacri e impostura. Bestie, Beaubourg, apparenze e altri oggetti, Cappelli, Bologna 1980, p. 24; Baudrillard maintains that the transformation in show of the building Beaubourg correspond to a lack of content for a commercial purpose; Beaubourg means for the first time for culture, what ipermarket means for goods. 4 Among other sources: www.deadmalls.com is mapping and photographing all the shopping centres closed and abandoned; Christensen, J., Big Box Reuse, MIT Press, Cambridge 2008. 5 Boutique by Shelter, designed by Hemingway Design. https://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/ projects/shelter-shop/ 6 Some of the Pass the Baton shops have been designed by Wonderwall. 7 Includes campaigns against fox-hunting, oil-drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and human right abuses in Guantanamo.

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Rethinking Retail Design in the Experience Economy Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun University of Portland, USA

ABSTRACT This chapter seeks to explore and discuss the way commercial companies and non-commercial companies have transformed the design and the delivering of products and services offered. This work aims to contribute to the discussion of the character of interiors by exploring empirical cases. These cases exhibit experiences comprised of emotional as well as functional interactions between customers and service providers. Their key attribute is to deliver a personal experience that stirs feelings, sensations, and emotions that are memorable and inclusive. The result of this research intends to enable professionals to have a series of instruments that are multidisciplinary in nature so that they can use them in their design practice.

RETHINKING RETAIL DESIGN IN THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY These subliminal aspects of everything that happens to us may seem to play very little part on our daily lives. But they are almost invisible roots or our conscious thoughts. - Carl Jung The twenty-first century observed the progression of the economy, where organizations require to regard their competitive position, pricing, and needs of customers to compete (Pine II and Gilmore, 2011). This type of economy, in turns, changed the way commercial companies and non-commercial companies design, promote and deliver their products and services. Organizations can fit under four different stages, extract commodities, make goods, deliver services or stage experiences, depending on their economic function, nature of the offering, key attributes, methods of supply, sell, buy and factors of demand (Table 1). The nature of experience economy comprises the delivery of personal experiences that stir sensations through functional, usable, intuitive, aesthetic and emotional products and/or services that are compelling and memorable (Berry, Carbone, and Haeckel, 2002; Beltagui et al. 2012). Products and services move beyond tangible goods, giving primacy to socio-cultural, psychological, and emotional DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch008

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 Rethinking Retail Design in the Experience Economy

connections (Brakus, Schmitt, and Zarantonello, 2009). Consequently, businesses must design, manage, and stage customer experiences as its success depends on the ability to design a theatrical performance appropriately for the audience. At this stage, the generation of value is somewhat nebulous since consumers highly regard the time spend enjoying a series of memorable events that a company stage. The creation of these offerings must consider the functional value of products or services (what they do), and the symbolic or experiential value (what they mean) (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Norman (2004) suggest the concept of emotional design for going beyond mere functional performance. He proposes three elements of emotional design, behavioral design, visceral design, and reflective design. The first want aims to make things functional, but at the same understandable. It is purely concerned with logical and successful function. Visceral design aims to appeal to the senses, for example, through visual, audial, inhaled, and tactile stimuli. The brain interprets sensory stimuli in a primitive and impulsive manner, rather than a logical one. Reflective design aims to tap in the higher layer of cognition. It targets abstract and non-verbal connections between people and things. Hence, businesses should regard the design of products and services the consumer experience journey to identify the critical elements in their experience. This action enables designing physical and digital means that consider consumers emotional responses, expectations, and motivations before, during, and after the consumer’s interaction with the business. This endeavor triggers collaboration among different fields to define experiences that are affected by external and personal factors like intangibility, time, duration, type of interaction, and user motives. This chapter regards four sections to explore and discuss the design of retail in the experience economy. The first section theoretically examines user experience approach in commercial design, especially its use in restaurants, departmental stores, and service stores. It discusses how organizations aim to create co-experiences that reflect emotional responses, expectations, and motivations of a brand. The following section centers in analyzing commercial design from a brand cultural perspective. It inquiries how a brand permeates the visual (or sensorial stimuli) and spatial space and how does it transcend and transit between the physical world to the digital arena and vice versa. The third section explores the intrinsic relation uniting art and science and design and how this transdisciplinary interplay encourages the creation of unique experiences in commercial design. This transdisciplinary approach allows understandTable 1. Experience economy Economy

Commodity

Product

Service

Experience

Economy

Agrarian

Industrial

Service

Experience

Economic function

Extract

Make

Deliver

Stage

Nature of offering

Fungible [Interchangeable]

Tangible

Intangible

Memorable

Key attribute

Natural

Standardized

Customized

Personal

Method of supply

Stored in bulk

Inventoried after production

Delivered on demand

Revealed over time

Seller

Trader

Manufacturer

Provider

Stager

Buyer

Market

User

Client

Guest

Factors of demand

Characteristics

Features

Benefits

Sensations

Adapted from Joseph Pine II and James Gilmore, The experience Economy

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ing about how these interactions create value by generating unique experiences in different touchpoints offered by the brand. The last section reviews case studies located in different parts of the world that exhibit the use of sensorial physical and digital experiences in the spatial design of commercial design.

User Experiences in Commercial Design In a globalized world, technological advances impel societies to gain access to and share information from geographically and remote cultural regions. This new reality enables organizations to enter new markets and compete with other transnational and local businesses using different means of communication to connect with consumers. Therefore, they require new interactions that allow their prospective consumers to play other roles beyond mere users or observers. For example, they can become “prosumers”, in which consumers use information technology to produce what they purchase and/or consume (Beom Kim et al., 2009). They can also go a step beyond becoming “expeririers”, where they seek out to try, test, experience, and/or prove events, occurrences, or moments that leave a lasting and meaningful impression. Consumers have expectations about the products and services that they interact within their everyday life. If these products/services do not fulfill their desired expectations, then consumers can consider other options available in the market. Organizations should not solely rely on their customer relationship management (CRM) data or data analytics accumulated online and offline to identify customer needs and wants. They also need to consider other means to unveil a person’s behaviors, attitudes, and emotions using a product, service, or process/system. The final aim is to create quality experiences that regard the breadth and depth of interaction that consumers have with product and services and how profoundly these touch their life. Ergo, enterprises should concentrate on examining how people respond to events that happen daily and how these actions or inactions dictate what they buy, eat, and think. These series of behaviors lead consumers to act in a seemingly involuntary way creating a habit. The design of emotional and compelling experiences can influence people behaviors and transform them into new habits. The design of emotional physical and digital means allows organizations to bond with users through co-experiences, emotional responses, expectations, and motivations. A vital prerequisite for organizations is to adopt a consumer-centered design approach since the moment they design their products/services until their disposal. They require to understand and prioritize those needs before, during, and after they interact with the design touchpoints (Brown, 2008). The use of a consumer experience approach depends on understanding the sum of physical and virtual interactions that a customer has with a product or service offered by an organization. The aim is to improve the experiences delivered through the cohesive brand interactions in each of their touchpoints. Organizations are accountable to plan and design those physical, virtual, and human instants of interaction, named designable touchpoints (DTs). These DTs depend on the design discipline that defines the production of specific tangible or intangible outcomes that are part of the brand experience offered by organizations. Organizations require the fulfillment of experiences by meeting the following criteria, usefulness, usability, learnability, aesthetics, and emotions, in their products or services and their touchpoints. Figure 1 exhibits the five designable touchpoints that are important to generate intangible and tangible experiences (Kyongsill et al., 2013). Space design, product design, identity design, advertising and graphic design, and new media design are core instruments to design tangible and intangible experiences. Therefore, organizations need to hire architects, designers, sociologists, psychologists, visual communicators, computer scientists, and cognitive scientists to support the production of specific outcomes like

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in-store, product, print, email, social network, web, and people (service). A coherent design throughout all these mediums assists in creating a strong brand identity. This type of collaboration becomes evident when consumers interplay with spatial scenarios and visual commercial design locations such as offices, retail stores, restaurants, lobbies, and public spaces. Designers, specifically interior designers, are participants of multidisciplinary teams that are in charge of planning and creating spaces that exhibit a coherent brand identity at different levels. Design is an intellectual activity that focuses on the creation of practical and effective products and services that serve human beings in all aspects of their lives (Buchanan, 2012). Hence, design is critical for service-based organizations as it supports the design of a series of interactions with different touchpoints that the brand offers at the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase stages. The consumer journey experience will vary depending on the type of service offered and on the physical and virtual system in which users are immersed. Those companies offering services along with products-based experiences, face a critical momentum at the purchasing stage. Thus, they rely on their spatial brand design in order to define their product and service assortment, point of purchase, service attention, and product performance, among others. In the meantime, they need to make sure that consumers’ experience transcends stages to captivate them and transform them into loyal users or customers. They have to master the intangibility and duration of the experience. Then, they will able to define the interaction with the user, the type of interaction, and the user motives. In this case, the type of interaction is cognitive or sensorial. The former focuses on designing spaces that force a mental action or process of acquiring knowledge through thought, experience, and the senses. While the latter concentrates on designing a structure for conveying an impulse that tends to result in sensation. In what respect to user motives, these can be utilitarian or hedonic. The first focuses on designing a useful or practical outcome, while the second its design is related to, characterized by, or considered in terms of pleasant sensations that provide wellbeing. Besides, the type Figure 1. Touch points and specializations

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of business offering defines the level of palpable qualities offered, the level of interactions for the different points, and the duration of the contracted service. Organizations have to anticipate the motives of users, physical or emotional, to use specific services/products. Experiences can have different depth and breadth depending on the coverage of touchpoints experienced and the degree of impact (number and diversity of sensory stimuli) that these touchpoints have with the customer. In the following paragraph, it is important to discuss specific examples of commercial design. Figure 2 exhibits the consumer journey in three different types of service offerings, restaurant, departmental store, and service store. It highlights the journey that consumers undertake when interacting with DTs and the dependency that they have with them. Figure 2a displays the consumer journey in a restaurant where users highly depend on and interact with DTs. The experience is mainly intangible, sensorial, and hedonic rather than utilitarian. The duration of the service is limited and discrete. These types of businesses invest in designing the product, service, and space offered to customers. Figure 2b shows the consumer journey in a departmental store where consumers are highly dependable of DTs, even though their interaction is low. The experience is tangible, sensorial, cognitive, and utilitarian, although it can also be hedonic. The duration of the service is limited and discrete, and thus, it requires a significant investment in space design and attention to information and service design. Figure 2c displays the consumer journey of a service store where consumers have a low dependence on DTs and low interaction with them. The experience is intangible, cognitive, and utilitarian. The duration of the service is long and continuous. This type of businesses invests mainly in the information design, but they also have to take into consideration the design of new media and space to manage the intangible part of the service. Organizations need to hire designers along with other specialists to anticipate needs and expectations while designing a unique user experience for commercial design. Designers’ work has to exhibit a clear purpose, intuitive wayfinding in the space and interaction with virtual touchpoints, a visual appearance that is appealing with the brand, and an evoking emotional stimulus that leave a lasting impact on the user and their willingness to continue experiencing it.

Figure 2. User journey in three types of services

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Branding in Retail Design In the past three decades, technological advances, along with the global economy, have transformed how organizations design their brands to have a global image. A brand image is essential to establish the framework in where a consumer would place the product/service characteristics and the meaning associated with the offering (Roth, 1995). Brand managers offer four arguments for why branding is both necessary and beneficial for commercial actors. First, branding adds emotion and trust to products, services, and locations that are so alike that it is difficult to differentiate them by their quality, reliability, and other essential traits. Second, an emotional relationship between brand and consumer ensure loyalty. Third, the brand creates an aspirational lifestyle and even can ersatz for trends that are losing their relevance. Fourth, a comprehensive brand that cares about emotions, relationships, lifestyle (values) and lasting experiences can charge premium prices for its products/services (Van Gelder, 2002). Organizations use branding as a technique to fulfill a series of principles for building a strong brand that can be replicated across cultures. Global brands are those corporative whose positioning, advertising strategy, personality, look, and feel is consistent from one country to another (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 1999). Theory in international marketing has continuously discussed which approach, ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric, or geocentric, should be taken into consideration when discussing global branding. A geocentric approach is considered when companies require a consistent corporate image around the world. These companies have to be based on industries where trust and consistency are essential, like finance and web services (Wright, 2002). According to Quelch (1999), having a global brand offers advantages such as lower advertising cost due to economies of scale, lower administrative complexity in managing a single global brand, lower-cost entry new markets due to global reputation, and improved cross-border learning within the company. Contrary, some companies have a fragmented brand identity in diverse markets. In this case, brands are reduced to units that are shaped according to markets, nations, regions, or global consumers. However, organizations and their brands are much more than single entities, as they have unique historical, geographical, and social contexts. Strong brands identities have a set of symbols and perceptions that are ubiquitous in global popular culture. Hence, this research focuses on studying brands from a cultural approach. Then, it is possible to take into consideration those encapsulating ideas that tell stories in the product and service context, address people as consumers, and promise to fulfill unmeet desires and needs (Cayla and Arnould, 2008). A cultural approach demands to broaden the established methods, as brands are analyzed as part of the fabric of popular culture and their stories populate our modern mythology. They must be regarded as cultural forms, carriers of meaning, and devices structuring thought and experiences. Their brand meaning has to be produced under the network of consumers, users, and influencers rather than based on individual minds. These evolving narratives become a collective process that involves diverse stakeholders, even includes popular culture intermediaries, who would add their interpretations (Holt, 2003). A brand meaning emerges out of consensus and dissensus from the collective sharing of what it means to all its stakeholders as well as from the active and often conflictual negotiation of such meanings in different cultural contexts. These sets of ideas, along with the history of the company, allow producing a brand narrative that archive commercially compelling elements. As well as, it enables global brand dynamics to illustrate the compelling strengths of local appropriations (Miller, 1998; Watson, 1997). This led to a co-created brand story emerges across various media platforms in what they are incorporated heterodox associations (Jenkins, 2006). Consequently, companies require branding as a means of displaying coherence, cohesion, and unity throughout their different touchpoints. They have to make sure that their 179

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brand, image, and reputation is consistent externally and internally. The internal branding is essential to provide employees and employers a sense of directions and purpose. The external branding is used to manage identity, loyalty, and reputation to reach out to new customers and to gain market share and attention. Hence, companies have to identify target audiences to unveil the multiple layers of meaning, intersubjective understandings, and practices for different users (Wendt, 1999). Companies are demanded to attract consumers through physical touchpoints, explicitly spatial design such as exterior, retail space, and exhibition space, to meet cultures and ideals. Their exteriors have to take into consideration the city. Nevertheless, the city is continuously changing with society through marked emergence of new spaces and new processes linking these spaces (Castells, 1996). For example, pocket urbanism concentrates in the local development of communities where residents and visitors alike enjoy genuinely neighborhoods through beauty, business opportunities, experimentation, industry development, and healthy and sustainable spaces. Consequently, brands have to take into consideration people’s activities at the local level. Their social interaction can go beyond through flows of information, money, symbols, values, ideas, and images. These elements might be interconnected to the exterior and are increasingly essential elements of social development. Designers have to shape strategies that allow them to deal with the complexity of fitting into the local urban pockets while capturing the core culture value proposition of the brand. In commercial design, designers require to produce messages that are categorized as emotional versus rational or thinking versus feeling or transformational versus informational. The effectiveness of a commercial design depends on the brand choice in a product class, whether it is logical and rational, or it is mostly based on affect. Companies have to concentrate on their place brand due to it represents “the totality of the thoughts, feelings, associations and expectations that come to mind when a prospect or consumer is exposed to an entity’s name, logo, products, services, events, or any design or symbol representing them” (Lindsay, 2000). Zinkhan, et. al, (1992) and Cutler and Javalgi (1993) attribute the use of transformational (emotional) strategies to intangibility, suggesting that affective strategies that create meaningful associations with an intangible service can be affective. Scholars and professionals urge managers to keep their brands consistent across cultural boundaries. Since a global brand has to achieve consistency not just in the name, position, and offering; but also, in visual, verbal, auditory and tactile identity across diverse platforms and geographies (Reibstein, 2005; Erdem and Swait, 1998). These elements should be linked with strong intellectual and emotional relationships with people in every touchpoint. Creating brand mythology allows operationalizing cross-cultural branding in such a way that goes beyond the traditional focus on putative national culture. For brands, image and reputation are built on factors such as trust and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that they consider investing in intellectual property such as trademark, copyright, patents, etc. to build a strong brand identity.

Art, Design and Science Creating Unique Experiences Design is a branch of knowledge that shares basis, methods, and principles with science and art. Hence, designers can use tools that combine the logic of scientific approach and creative effort and intuitive, artistic dimension (Borja de Mozota, 2003). The definition of design is multidimensional. It converges in being a process to solve problems or generate new ideas and in the (tangible and intangible) outcomes resulting from this process (Bruce and Besant, 2002; Oakley, 1990). The definition can be discussed from different perspectives as it combines the scientific and artistic approach. It can focus on the di180

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verse domains of their practice and how these practices undertake different processes to achieve their outcomes. In practice, design activities use both branches to explore possibilities, create new orders, involve emerging collaborations, engage in creative activities and cognitive processes, and evolve with the development of science and artifacts (Alexiou et al., 2010). In the case of designing commercial space, it is important to consider the relationship between the following professional specializations, architecture, art, digital media, fashion, interior design, performance, policy design, robotics, service design, and urban planning. Design covers a wide array of activities that go from the highly subjective and ephemeral senses to the very objective and tangible arena. Art can be considered a research laboratory for design, as many creative design disciplines encourage questioning the conventional and suggesting the new. Art can be intricate in many ways, as it relates to the physics of the way the material interacts induced and guided by the artifact. It can also be used as an instrument to elicit information about social systems. While science is increasingly concerned with what could be, as an extension of what is. It focuses on the artificial and synthetic and the science of complex systems in natural and social sciences. Design motivates scientists to design and manage complex socio-technical systems whose behavior depends on interactions between physical laws and human behavior. This complex relation between art, science, and design offers tools, methodologies, and theories for analyzing, representing, and modeling its processes and outcomes; improving and augmenting communication and interaction; and supporting innovation and creativity. It also extends the scope to have more significant synergies and to investigate new directions for collaborative working. They also offer new insights to the understanding, modeling, and managing of complex sociotechnical systems and significant contributions to the emerging science of complex systems. Design practice continuously changes due to the social and physical world entangles its realm. Thus, designers have to consider complex systems and subsystems that co-exist and co-evolve when they design and manage their activities. Complexity is an intrinsic attribute or characteristic of design activity. It has different levels, as it frames designers’ decisions, abilities, knowledge, and characteristics. Designers need to seek understanding of complex multilevel systems of the decision to reproduce unique characteristics of the design that are demanded at a specific level. The first level refers to the design of products, services or systems such as airplanes, buildings, microchips, information systems, manufacturing or organizations, in which designers have to deal with complex dynamic activities when creating, fabricating, or manufacturing for different stakeholders. The second level involves the process of designing complex social dynamics. In this process, diverse specialists exchange complex heterogeneous information over complex human and communication networks in the context of changing constraints. The third level considers the social and economic context of design, as its complexity deals with embracing market economics, legal regulation, social trends, mass culture, fashion and much more. The design of commercial spaces demands that interior designers become part of a collaborative design enterprise to ideate physical and intangible outcomes. These have to provide sensorial, cognitive, and emotional stimulus relevant to consumers and users. Their participation in the project can be concurrent or independent. In both cases, they need to use different tools, knowledge, languages, methodologies, and processes to consider diverse elements of design. These collaborations induce to unveil phenomena through modeling processes in real-time stimulating change and visualizing future planning scenarios (Besussi and Cecchini, 1996). This relationship between different disciplines is viable in practice, but it appears complex at the theoretical level. At the methodological level, the intersection of disciplines happens to allow an opportunity to experiment with a rich territory populated by cross-fertilized approaches. These approaches extend the (social) science to realms of design and art to focus on technological possibilities 181

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into people’s preferences. Therefore, it is essential to follow a creative process characterized for five stages, preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation, and elaboration (Csikzentmilyi, 1996). The preparation stage refers to the immersion in a set of problematic issues that are interesting and arouse curiosity. The incubation stage concerns with ideas that are churned around and below the level of consciousness, and unusual connections that are made at that moment. While the insights stage represents the moment where the outcomes of research and analysis pose questions about previous work and provoke a more cohesive and extensive view. Then, there is an evaluation in which is decided the insight that is most valuable and worth pursuing to turn it into something real. Commercial design encompasses several subspecialties such as corporate healthcare, hospitality and recreation, institutional facilities, retail, restaurants, teaching, and private institutions, and visual and spatial branding. When interior designers become accountable for a commercial design project, they need to analyze and understand consumer behaviors along with their social interaction. They require aligning this information with business demands and technological feasibility. This awareness is essential for three primary activities: planning and managing the spatial planning; creating functional designs with effective use of space; and developing consistent visual and spatial branding. Interior designers need to collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to arrange the basic layout of space, to blend technical issues in the spatial space, to understand how people interact with space and how they are influenced by it. The aim is to recreate a world in where the sensorial senses interact with the physical space and products or service to make a satisfying experience. Figure 3 exhibits the physical, cognitive, emotional, and contextual elements that are regarded by users when interacting with products, services, spaces, and systems offered by organizations. It also exhibits the two approaches, user-oriented design, and firm-oriented design, that are possible to pursue when approaching consumers. When designers pursue a user-centered approach, it needs to consider aspects from the core physical (sensorial) interaction to the cognitive stimuli. Designers have to analyze users

Figure 3. User-oriented design and Firm-oriented design

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through psychographic data along with a thorough understanding of their aesthetic impressions, and their symbolic and semantic identification of the product and service offered by the brand. Subsequently, they require concentrating on the emotional relation, affect, and behavior that users have towards the brand. In the end, designers have to analyze the context that engulfs the users’ cultural, situational, and social reality. When designers engage in a firm-oriented perspective, they take into considerations those actions and offerings that users have with their products, services, or systems. At the core of the tactic, designers explore the physical actions that users encounter with the offerings. Then, they concern with all those factors that make users think and engage with the brand through a cognitive proposition. This action leads to building the emotional approach that allows an attachment to the brand by integrating an interconnection with the physical and cognitive stage. Context closes this virtue circle, as it discusses the cultural, social and situations in where organizations have to compete. In the following section, a series of cases of study in three different types of commercial space are presented. These cases exhibit a thorough understanding of coherent brand identity communication in all their touchpoints displayed in their space design. Designers were capable of immerse users in a physical, sensorial, cognitive, and emotional discourse with the brand. They considered in their design the level of palpable qualities offered, the level of interaction of different touchpoints, and the duration of the contracted service. These actions allow creating a brand experience through merging art, design, and science in a commercial space.

CASE STUDIES The proliferation of businesses propositions commonly results in increased branding aesthetic homogeneity. This homogeneity is evident when we walk through the city, as retail spaces and their brands have dramatically transformed the face of streets (suburbs and cities alike). Besides, the introduction of a variety of digital media channels for shopping has facilitated the evolution of the brand into something ephemeral and transitional. The risk of the virtual encroaching on the physical has provoked a sensory blending of the transitory and permanent design of the commercial space. This overload of information can provoke that senses and feelings erode. However, if it is mastered, it can incite the face of streets along with retail spaces to once again distinguish themselves from the mainstream. A brand (city, suburb, and business) has to have the ability to maintain its relevance in the spatial marketing approach that bridges the virtual with the physical. When designers think about retail spaces, they should go beyond the architectural challenges in order to consider sensations, perceptions, and attractions that are required to evoke in the branded space. Designers have to be aware that human behavior and social interaction are triggers in the evolvement of trends such as language, fashion, music, etc. They should try to understand the behavior of people who are designing for and creating some elements that integrate well the evolution of offering a different level of the systems. In other words, retail spaces have to trigger interest and to connect with users in the exterior to guide them to the interior and its imagery spatial space. This action sparks the reinvention of retail to develop exciting forms of spatial branding based on user-centred experiences.

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Restaurant The word restaurant has its origin in the early 19th century from the French word “resteurer” which means provide food for (literally restore to a former state). It is commonly described in dictionaries, such as a place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are cooked and served on the premise. This description of the real proposal of restaurants is narrow of the perceived value related to the desires and expectations of users. Nevertheless, managers have to deal with exceedingly complex problems while offering fresh food. They have to manage volatile prices, fragmented suppliers, perishable and fragile products, and laborious quality-control processes. Nowadays, retailers are carrying an ever-expanding range of fresh products that are required by the rising costumer demands. Besides, the high competition in the market and the use of new means to promote their offering has pinpointed the struggle of restaurants to achieve satisfactory margin levels. Restaurants have to have a strong value proposition about how they position their products/services and what makes them distinctive in the eyes of target customers. Restaurants are places in which people nurture their soul and the soul of their communities. People seek comfort or exposure when they decide on their food and thus their experience. They tend to surround themselves with everything in which they feel safe because they know what to expect -they know themselves. Few are those who challenge their comfort zone and adventure for new experiences. Restaurants are those places that influence their consumers’ reminiscences through their senses, perceptions, and emotions. • • • • • •

Architect: Alan Chu Website: www.chu.arq.br/ Client: The Gourmet Tea Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2012 Project: The Gourmet Tea-Cidade Jardin Touch points: Product and Space

The Gourmet Tea was born from the pleasure of enjoying tea and offering people a high-quality beverage for every moment in an inventive and consistently way. They aim to create sensorial experiences for consumers through their passion for tea that goes beyond combinations of flowers, herbs, and spices. They play using unique sensory means that evoke on the consumers’ different feelings, colors, and aromas exploiting their environment, mood, and time of the day. Their ingredients are from the organic selected origin from different countries seeking international organic certifications that are not available in Brazil yet. By 2010, they had four physical stores that strive to offer well-being and quality of life through their lines of teas and healthy cuisine that is consistent with their philosophy. Alan Chu was in charge to translate this intangible philosophy into a colorfully covert store in the exterior streets of Sao Paulo. In his design, he drew the aesthetic inspiration from the brand’s bright packaging for its range of 35 organic tea blends into an abstract plywood canvas. He playfully uses an abstract composition of colorful layers when the shop is closed, but when this flat plywood canvas is open, it reveals a fully operational and inviting teashop within. Its play with spatial spaces that do not exist until they are revealed, and these are like parasites that are alive and transform the whole exterior. • • 184

Architect: Rugo Raff collaboration with Tom Stringer Design Patterns Website: www.rugoraff.com

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• • • •

Client: Alinea Location: Chicago, USA, 2015 Project: Corridor false perspective and interiors Touch points: Product and Space

Alinea established a new type of American modernist cuisine restaurant in 2005. Its offering is based on a single menu that has between 18 to 22 courses that push the experience of dining not only to enjoy the food, but also to have a series of emotions, and provocations through it. This experience, along with other experimentations in their products and services, has led it to be named the best restaurant in America. It has also been awarded a Michelin 3-Star rating. When asked Chef (owner) Grant Achatz says that Alinea is a place in which people are forced to expose themselves, as its experience focuses on evoking emotions, and bringing nostalgia and aesthetics in real food art. They aim to affect that moment in which consumers share food leading them to reflect on what they are eating. They asked architects and designers to create a space in where people are confronted with unique sensorial stimuli since the moment they open the door. Thus, consumers should question where are they standing when they face the corridor that has a false perspective. Then, they are challenged throughout the journey until they arrive at their tables, as they are going to experience something different from what they have ever seen. Consumers choose to go to Alinea to experience something that they have never felt before, but at the same time, something that they recognize. They may experience something that it might be uncomfortable, but in a way, they are stripping all their armor to say, this is who I am. Thus, they expose themselves in that magical journey through the combination of space and service.

Departmental Store The definition of departmental is concerned with or belonging to a department of an organization. In commercial design, it is described, as a retail establishment offering a wide range of goods in different categories knows as departments. Departmental stores are moving into more incentive scenarios in which they aim to distinguish themselves from the mainstream. Therefore, this new interest in investing in the development of exciting spaces has sparked original and individual spatial branding. Departmental stores have to masterfully introduce choreographic elements that share common lifestyles and identities of prospect users or costumers. This trend is becoming a new form of social interaction that forges customer relationships and a sense of community through brand recognition and a shared retail environment. It is more than an architectural challenge because the branded space has a multifaceted layer act balancing sensation, perception, and attraction. It is possible to rebrand spaces playing with curiosity, surprise, wonder, and understanding. Designers can carefully consider the exterior through the window displayed to the choreographies or compositions sequences using light, materials, color, forms, and shapes in the interior. • • • • • •

Architect: WOW / Wow Inc. Tokyo Web: www.w0w.co.jp Client: Issey Miyake/Elttob Tep Issey Miyake/Semba Osaka Location: Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, 2012 Project: Bloom skin - Window display Touch points: Space-Product 185

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Issey Miyake is one of the most recognizable and successful Japanese fashion designers and brand. It is famous for his cutting-edge pleating and technologically-driven clothing designs, exhibitions, and fragrances. This artist-designer treats each of his touchpoints with utmost care aiming to achieve the same bespoke and one-of-a-kind experience throughout the encounter offered throughout his products. His retail stores are based on concepts such as austerity, simplicity, tactile stimuli, and ethereal qualities that are linked and reflected on the clothing and product lines. The brand collaborates intensively with the most recognized Japanese architects and world-class designers in each project to maximize the visual impact of the featured clothing while simultaneously testing a new underlying spatial aesthetic rich in sculptural and technical quality. They are investing in new spatial explorations in where brand experience becomes visible through a straightforward and approachable aesthetic of the store layout. They use brand colors to accentuate the display and brightly lit and play with the spatial space. The brand experience exhibits the company’s ongoing interest in the demure, the serene, the surprising, and the ephemeral accented detail. WOW produced a great artistic technology-driven use of the window display. They use lightweight polyester that creates an ephemeral sea of undulating sheer fabric that float and shift midair. The rose and cream-colored transparent fabric hover over the merchandise shifting in form based on the changing intensity of wind controlled by programmed fans. Conveying volume with minimal material, WOW creates an intervention that highlight Issey Miyake space elegantly commanding the full attention of the customer on the products. The surreal volume floats through the air, maintaining a compelling visual dynamism by remaining eternally in flux. • • • • • •

Designer: Saat creative agency Web: www.staat.com Client: Nike-Selfridges Location: London, United Kingdom, 2012 Project: Nike house of innovation Touch points: Product- Space and Information

In recent years, Nike’s image has experienced a constant change in producing the most recognizable shoes. This action has affected its spatial branding strategies. During the past two decades, it has invested a large number of resources in creating momentary and permanent landmarks in their flagship store location in major metropolitan cities. They are aiming for maintaining a widespread and adaptable presence on their crucial trend-defining sport and athletic wear style. They are continually pulling international pop-up stores, special events, and critical themes strategies in departmental stores to make their image stronger, desirable, and stylish. Nike’s financial resources have enabled it to no only keep up with the rapidly shifting looks and trends of the contemporary retail market, but to define them. In this case, Staat creative agency assisted in designing eight stunning window display where Nike emphasized eight different family products in the renowned department store Selfridges. Each widow represents a spatial possibility to exhibit the features of a revolutionary new Nike product intended to engage, inspire, and encourage customers to visit the inside of “Nike+ House of innovation”. The most striking value of this design proposition is that each display combines science and art to display the main characteristics of each product and translate them into various interactive and kinetic art installation. The project juxtaposes analog material like folded paper and tennis balls with digital elements and lightning to develop an alluring high-tech that meets the handmade aesthetic. These interactive and/or kinetic installations provokes that pedestrians interact with the displays and transform their role to possible consumers. 186

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Service Organizations that offer services have to invest in designing strong brands that exhibit their character, values, stories, and profound history. It means that their touchpoints have to be coherent to express their brand. They have to respond to the growing need to reach out to their increasingly sophisticated audience through a range of different approaches and mediums. They have to invest in projects that transcend the realm of their industry to establish a new relationship with customers and consumers. The art of discovery and engagement in the process of shaping one image is a critical factor in informing the contemporary look and design of commercial spaces. It is vital to engage people in the exploration of the brand in contemporary branding spaces using hierarchies on the logical, sensorial, and experiential arena. These branded spaces have to become a multifaceted balancing act between sensation, perception, and attraction in both the physical and psychological landscapes. The service sector enjoys the benefit of substantial client investment, high stakes, and rapid turnovers, fueling one of the most exciting, inspiring, and prolific public testing grounds. This situation provokes that the spaces become a means to create narratives about the story of the organization and cultivate environments that add depth and value to both the brand and its patrons. • • • • • •

Designer: flying saucer Website: www.flyingsaucer.de Client: BASF SE Location: Germany, 2011 Project: Future science Touch points: Information and Product-Space

BASF is a world-leading German company based on the chemistry industry (traditional) for 150 years. They invest in science and innovation to meet the current and future needs of different organizations based on different industries. BASF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80 countries and operates six integrated production sites. On 2011, BASF SE commissioned flying saucer to design a spatial space that would be presented on Rhineland-Palatinate’s summer celebration in Berlin. They designed a glowing geodesic structure on more than 2,000 square meters to exhibit vividly complex and multifaceted information about BASF and chemistry in general. They used a series of diagrams and projections to present 14 recent science innovations in a visual and appealing way. Through 150 (mostly interactive) exhibits, innovative media use, and sensory, even tactile experiences, technical knowledge is translated into comprehensible visual language. The exhibition included innovations like infrared absorbing coatings, flexible solar cells, organic LEDs, and concrete additives. The use of hands-on-activities allowed these stories of technical innovation to be told intuitively, appealing to a broad audience. • • • • • •

Designer: Wonderlabz & Visomat Website: www.wonderlabz.org | www.visomat.com Client: Henkel Location: Germany, 2011 Project: Henkel Explorer World Touch points: Information-Space and Product

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Henkel AG & Company has its headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany. It is a multinational company active both in the consumer and in the industrial sector. In 2011, Henkel launched the education initiative “Research World” for six to ten-year-old boy and girls. The initiative aimed to inspire children exploring different scientific phenomena and to create valuable points of contact between elementary education and the working world of adults. They had collaborations with Wonderlabz and Visomat to transform 460 square meters into a whimsical and diverse learning environment that offers a dynamic space to explore, play, learn, and collaborate. This spatial concept interprets learning and experiential spaces in their way, suggesting that learning is an individual trip. It accommodates 25 kids and six guides at a time. Each group spends one week together, exploring a special theme within this highly graphic and engaging space. The children are introduced to this immersive experience using geometric shapes to alter the diverse and sensorial learning landscape. This design helps in extending across the perception of floor, furnishing, ceiling, and lighting, becoming a dense forest hideout in one instance and an interactive cloudscape filled with raindrop-themed seating in another. A layered fantasyland comprising lively shapes, colors, and materials provides a flexible place for cultivating child-friendly learning and discovery (Klanten et al., 2013).

CONCLUSION This work explored retail design from a user experience approach to discuss how interior designers integrate art, design, and science in commercial design to create memorable brand experiences. It demanded to discuss research-based user experience, branding, and design to facilitate the introduction of key theoretical terms. It examined the relation among professionals to collaborate in creating experiences that engage users through physical, cognitive, emotional, and contextual stimuli. It explored different case studies in which their brands exhibited different approaches to create a coherent identity throughout different touchpoints when designing their commercial spaces. It discusses how interior designer could plan and organize the involvement of different specializations in the designable touchpoints at the different stages of a user journey. The aim was to enable professionals to have a holistic view and balanced approach on the design of retail stores considering physical and virtual visual and spatial branding touchpoints.

REFERENCES Aaker, D., & Joachimsthaler, E. (1999). The Lure of Global Branding. Harvard Business Review, 77, 137–144. PMID:10662002 Alexiou, K., Johnson, J., & Zamenopoulos, T. (2010). Embracing Complexity in Design: Emerging Perspectives and Opportunities. In T. Inns (Ed.), Designing for the 21st Century Interdisciplinary Methods and Findings (pp. 87–100). London: Gower. Beltagui, A., Candi, M., & Riedel, J. (2012). Designing in the experience economy. In S. Zou & S. Swan (Eds.), Interdisciplibary approaches to International Marketing: Creative Research on Branding, Product Design/Innovation, and Strategic Thought/Social Entrepreneurship. Advances in International Marketing Series (Vol. 23). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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Beom Kim, J., Koo, Y., & Chang, R. (2009). Integrated Brand Experience through Sensory Branding and IMC. Design Management Review, 20(3), 72–81. doi:10.1111/j.1948-7169.2009.00024.x Berry, L., Carbone, L., & Haeckel, S. (2002). ‘Managing the Total Customer Experience’. MIT Sloan Management Review, 43(3), 85–89. Borja de Mozota, B. (2003). Design Management: Using Design to Build Brand Value and Corporate Innovation. New York: Allworth Press. Brakus, J. J., Schmitt, B. H., & Zarantonello, L. (2009). ‘Brand Experience: What Is It? How Is It Measured? Does It Affect Loyalty?’. Journal of Marketing, 73(May), 52–68. doi:10.1509/jmkg.73.3.052 Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, (June), 84–92. PMID:18605031 Bruce, M., & Bessant, J. (2002). Design in Business Strategic Innovation through Design. Essex, UK: Pearson Education. Castells, M. (1998). End of Millennium. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Cayla, J., & Arnould, E. (2008) A Cultural Approach to Branding in the Global Marketplace. American Marketing Association, 16(4), 86-112. Crilly, N., Moultrie, J., & Clarkson, J. (2004). Seeing Things: Consumer Response to the Visual Domain in Product Design. Design Studies, 25(6), 547–577. doi:10.1016/j.destud.2004.03.001 Crilly, N., Moultrie, J., & Clarkson, J. (2009). Shaping Things: Intended Consumer Response and the Determinants of Product Form. Design Studies, 30(3), 224–254. doi:10.1016/j.destud.2008.08.001 Cutler, B., & Javalgi, R. (1993). Analysis of Print Ad Features: Services versus Products. Journal of Advertising Research, 33(March/April), 62–69. Erdem, T., & Swait, J. (1998). Brand Equity as a Signaling Phenomenon. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 7(2), 131–157. doi:10.120715327663jcp0702_02 Holbrook, M., & Hirschman, E. (1982). ‘The experiential aspects of consumption: Consumer fantasies, feelings, and fun’. The Journal of Consumer Research, 9(2), 132–140. doi:10.1086/208906 Holt, D. (2002). Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding. The Journal of Consumer Research, 29(June), 70–90. doi:10.1086/339922 Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and new media Collide. New York: New York University Press. Klanten, R., Ehmann, S., & Borges, S. (2013). Brand Spaces: Branded Architecture and the Future of Retail Design. Berlin: Gestalten. Kyongsill, L., Chung, K., & Nam, K. (2013). Orchestrating Designable Touchpoints for Service Businesses. Design Management Review, 24(3), 14–21. doi:10.1111/drev.10246 Lindsay, M. (2000). The Brand Called Wisconsin. Design Management Review, 24(3), 14–21.

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Miller, D. (1998). Coca-Cola: A Black Sweet Drink from Trinidad. In D. Miller (Ed.), Material Cultures: Why some things Matter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. doi:10.4324/9780203167014 Norman, D. (2004). Emotional Design. Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books. Oakley, M. (Ed.). (1990). Design Management: A Handbook of Issues and Methods. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. Pine, I. I. J., & Gilmore, J. (2011). The rise of the experience economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review. Quelch, J. (1999). Global Brands: Taking Stock. Business Strategy Review, 10(1), 1–14. doi:10.1111/14678616.00085 Reibstein, D. (2005). House of Brands Versus Branded House. Global Agenda, 3(January), 175–177. Roth, M. (1995). Effects of Global Market Conditions on Brand Image. Journal of Advertising, 24(4), 55–72. doi:10.1080/00913367.1995.10673489 Van Gelder, S. (2002). A View on the Future of Branding. Manuscript. Van Ham, P. (2008). Place Branding: The State of the Art. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1), 126–149. doi:10.1177/0002716207312274 Watson, J. (1997) Transnationalism, Localization and Fast Foods in East Asia, in Golden Arches East: McDonald’s, James L. Watson™: Can We Make It Relevant and Different for Competitive Advantage? Economic Summit White Paper 2000. Retrieved from http://www.wisconsin.edu/summit/archive/2000/ papers/pdf/lindsay.pdf Wendt, A. (1999). Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511612183 Wright, A. (2002). Technology as Enabler of the Global Branding of Retail Financial Services. Journal of International Marketing, 10(2), 83–98. doi:10.1509/jimk.10.2.83.19535 Zinkhan, G., Johnson, M., & Zinkhan, C. (1992). Differences between Product and Services Television Commercials. Journal of Services Marketing, 6(Summer), 59–63. doi:10.1108/08876049210035944

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Chapter 9

Art and Space:

New Boundaries of Intervention Giulia Crespi Archivio Emilio Isgrò, Italy

ABSTRACT The duo “art and space” looks very easy to understand: art interacts with spaces, uses spaces, or simply fills spaces. However, starting from this simple consideration, what this chapter would like to propose is a reflection about a kind of art that creates spaces and places instead, expanding the discussion about the interdisciplinary approach of artists to creation. Considering the works of some artists that have made the intervention on spaces one of their prerogatives, the research focuses on the new connections that arise between the artist and the public through these creations. The imagery of Yayoi Kusama, Tomas Saraceno, Anish Kapoor, Cristina Iglesias, Carsten Nicolai, Rudolf Stingel, among others, allows a different perception, most of time asking to the spectator itself an active part in the work of art. The chapter offers a specific case study dedicated to the work of the Dutch artist Krijn de Koning.

INTRODUCTION Somehow there are no more boundaries between different disciplines; art, design, architecture, installation, sound and light are all gathered together to conceive a new experience, far beyond the simple contemplation. The examples that will be discussed in the chapter aim to consider how contemporary art has opened up new possibilities, where the communication with the public is not straightforward anymore, but passes through different channels and uses different means and materials. A type of art that is interior and exterior at the same time, reaching beyond the simple intervention on spaces, and generating new ones ready to be experienced in a different way. This research, then, wants to be a selected recollection of artistic expressions where the relationship between art and space has reached a new level of awareness. The direct participation and interaction of the spectator in the work of art becomes essential to the development of the project and produces unexpected results, which are constantly changing. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch009

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Art and Space: New Boundaries of Intervention The 20th and 21st century have demonstrated a certain tendency to blur the borders between different artistic disciplines. The result seems to be a harmony of what is usually called art or design or architecture or performance. Within this contemporary path, it is particularly interesting to analyse how art and space has taken a significant turn towards a new way of conceiving creation. In the 1970s lots of artists began to look for new connections with the surrounding space, giving birth to a series of interventions that moved outside the commonly designated places for art, like galleries and museums, and invaded public spaces and unlimited landscapes. “The space of art was no longer conceived as a blank slate, a tabula rasa, but a real place” (Kwon, 2002, p. 11). Minimal art and Land art marked the growth of the site-specific art concept, thanks to the research of artists like Richard Serra, Richard Long, Robert Smithson, Walter de Maria, and Daniel Buren. As early as 1970 Buren proclaimed (1973): “Whether the place in which the work is shown imprints and marks this work, whatever it may be, or whether the work itself is directly- consciously or not- produced for the Museum, any work presented on that framework, if it does not explicitly examine the influence of the framework upon itself, falls into the illusion of self-sufficiency-or idealism” (p. 67). At the same time, the public dimension of these creations has consequently acquired a new meaning within the realm of perception: the interaction and the intervention of the spectator has become essential in the process, allowing a different experience of the work of art and, of course, the space. Because the artistic experience is thought to belong to a specific place, it will no more be perceived as an external object, which only occupies a portion of the space, but it arises with the space and, sometimes, it creates a new space. It becomes clear that there is a certain affinity for architecture or design, disciplines whose main prerogative is to build new spaces for a specific purpose. The research shows that some artists are moving in a similar direction, though using a different prospective: the space they are conceiving has not a material or tangible objective, it becomes pure creativity and aesthetic experience. Although the rooms of Yayoi Kusama are created to be real, confined rooms, they are nothing but a stream of the troubled subconscious of the artist, who she wants to make the visitor be part of. The space becomes the canvas, but the spectator is not only an observer from the outside, he leaves all the barriers behind and is invited to personally participate and grow the experience of the creation. L’inversione delle attese sposta la finalità del lavoro dalla contemplazione estetica alla riorganizzazione del rapporto fruitore-opera. […] Esso è usato per negare l’abituale ruolo e significato narrativo o programmatico-strumentale del testo, fondato sul modello consequenziale della scrittura, per mettere lo spettatore dentro un sistema di relazioni. (Grazioli, 2001, p. 174) English Translation of the quotation: “The reversal of expectations moves the purpose of the work from the aesthetic contemplation to the reorganisation of the relationship between the viewer and the work of art. [...] It is used to deny the common role and narrative meaning or programmatic-instrumental of the text, based on the consequential model of the writing, for placing the spectator inside a system of relationships”.

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It is exactly this new system of relationships that some of the most recent tendencies of art are pursuing. Generating new spaces that become exterior and interior at the same time, reaches beyond the simple intervention, and allows a different perception of the work of art. “Clearing-away brings forth the free, the openness for man’s settling and dwelling” (Heidegger, 1969, p. 25). Heidegger’s considerations perfectly harmonize with the work of Anish Kapoor; his sculptures, as interior spaces, are made of spirituality and materials. They generate, along with the surrounding space, an empathetic sensorial experience. Kapoor felt the necessity of making it possible to walk through his sculptures, this way allowing the audience to sense the darkness and to meditate on the nature of “being”. Dirty Corner, specifically made for the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan in 2011, is a perfect example of the artist’s philosophy. This gigantic sculpture, whose enormity cannot be fully perceived by the viewer, who is made to be walk in through a passage that becomes darker as the person gets inside. The experience is then amplified by a mechanism that releases sand at the top of the sculpture. While walking, different senses are involved and the public is induced to think about what is waiting for him at the end of the “tunnel”. It becomes not only an aesthetic experience, but also a personal route that changes depending on the state of mind. Lo spazio non è più quello di cui parla Dioptrique, un reticolo di relazioni fra gli oggetti, come lo vedrebbe un testimone della mia visione, o un geometra che la ricostruisse sollevandola, ma è uno spazio considerato a partire da me come punto o grado zero della spazialità. E non lo vedo secondo il suo involucro esteriore, lo vivo dall’interno, vi sono inglobato. Dopotutto, il mondo è intorno a me, non di fronte a me. (Merleau-Ponty, 1964, p.42) English Translation of the quotation: “Space is not what it was in the Dioptrics, a network of relations between objects such as would be seen by a third party, witnessing my vision, or by a geometer looking over it and reconstructing it from outside. It is, rather, a space reckoned starting from me as the null point or degree zero of spatiality. I do not see it according to its exterior envelope; I live it from the inside; I am immersed in it. After all, the world is around me, not in front of me”. A similar experience of darkness was reached by Miroslaw Balka’s How it is. This huge steel container conceived for the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London in 2009 invites visitors to get inside and walk towards the end. The result is an immersive environment made with silence and obscurity, where the human feels his vulnerability and looks desperately for something to grasp in order not to lose himself. It is a space that has become a sort of black hole. The Korean artist kimsooja, in 2013, transformed the Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale into a space for a comparable transcendental event. She conceived two main rooms: the first one, To breath:Bottari, was filled with diffraction grating film, aluminium and mirror panels, inviting the public to experience the awareness of the condition of being human and the loss of real perception. The second room was conceived as an anechoic chamber, completely black and silent. “This environment refuses knowledge of the other, by putting the audience in a position of complete ignorance in terms of visual knowledge. Darkness amplifies our fears, insecurities and fantasies of the ‘unknown’ or ‘unseen’; which is the origin of human ignorance” (kimsooja, 2013) – light and darkness as counterparts of existence. Once again the creation of a new space is linked to the intention of exploring personal limits and personal feelings. Artists work on new environments, which become 193

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not only physical spaces, but also metaphysical places raise questions about the present and generate pathways to finding everybody’s appropriate answers. Another artist who is increasingly interested in questioning our certainty in our perceptions through his installations is the Argentinian Tomàs Saraceno. His researches aim to create new experimental spaces that engage with the public in a mutual communication about urban structures and sensitivity. Some of his most renown floating works (In orbit, at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany; On space time foam, at Hangar Bicocca in Milan; Cloud cities) become a system of relationships, a twist of pathways that are activated by the direct participation of the audience. Moreover, it is the movement, the breathing and the action in themselves that change the form of the installation to, as it were, a living organism. When I look at the multi-layered levels of diaphanous lines and spheres, I am reminded of models of the universe that depict the forces of gravity and planetary bodies. For me, the work visualizes the space-time continuum, the three-dimensional web of a spider, the ramifications of tissue in the brain, dark matter, or the structure of the universe. With ‘in orbit,’ proportions enter into new relationships; human bodies become planets, molecules, or social black holes. (Saraceno, 2013) In this case, the research for new spaces is strongly bonded with human organisms and nature; it is a site-specific intervention that is accompanied by deep reflection about the meaning of space as an unpredictable changing dimension.

Figure 1. Tomàs Saraceno In Orbit Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf 2013 Photography by Studio Tomás Saraceno ©2013

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The flowing of time through the space can also be found inside the poetic work of the Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias. As for Saraceno, her work follows a metamorphosis and transition and, to do that, water and reflecting surfaces become essential elements inside her creations. Yet, at first glance, the close relationship that Iglesias’s works have with architecture becomes clear, where “fluyen los conceptos, se enredan, se zambullen, se esconden, vuelven a emerger a través de obquedades, membranas, piel, cascaras”(Sandqvist, 2013, p. 44). The space is exactly the work of art, and is extremely tactile. Iglesias has said that “le enteresa hacer piezas que sean sensibles al espacio que ocupan” (Moure, 2009, p. 126). Her pieces are mazes, caves to hide in, and they want to provoke reflection about intimacy and the private dimension of our being. Although one cannot walk through some of them, they let the imagination and one’s observations do that with doors and accesses that separate the interior from the exterior. Iglesias’s creations are screens that aim to encourage a deep consideration of the inner and outer space, introducing also the flux of time and memory. They are very evocative, thanks to the materialization of physical and mental contexts that converse with each other. She finds drama inside the tension and the struggle between the materials she uses and they have a strong metaphorical connotation. Concrete and steel are combined with painting, producing a succession of the solid and the malleable. Corredor suspendido (2007), Habitación vegetal (2005), Sin título (1990), and Estancia sumergidas (2010) are only a few examples of these intimate and complex spaces that invite the audience to undertake a mental journey. It is pertinent to use the adjective mental when exploring the work of another female artist that has become one of the most representative artists of the 20th century: the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Her history of mental illness is crucial to understanding her creations, with the appropriate consideration that it is not the subject of the work but the starting point of its development. Although her portfolio is much more variegated, this research focuses on the rooms she produced. Her Infinity rooms are nothing but the extension of her signature pattern that overflows the canvas and invades the surrounding environment. The result feels like entering inside the artist’s mind and perceiving her obsessions. “Kusama saw the process of making the Infinity nets as integral to the works themselves, and the physical and emotional energy that she poured into them as an imprint of her physical being” (Hoptman, 2000, p. 46). Everything is covered with polka dots, which will become very important for many artists after Kusama (Roy Lichtenstein, for example), and becomes the materialization of the disturbed nature of her mind. When experiencing these spaces, the public feels uncomfortable, inside an infinite mirroring of himself or being shocked by an invasion of colourful objects covered with dots. Forms expand and boundaries are transcended as Kusama’s research is focused on the breaking of limits and the widening of perceptions. Talking about the Essen exhibition of Driving image, Alexandra Munroe said (1989): In its installation, Kusama actualizes the hallucination which first inspired her to create environmental art: a room –s its furnishing, objects and inhabitants glazed in a ubiquitous, psychedelic pattern of dots and nets. […] The interconnecting oneness which binds Kusama’s people and things dissolves the distinction between self and other, subject and object, animate and inanimate. The net represents Kusama’s desire for relationship, simultaneously denying it by denying differentiation. (p. 26) Within the trajectory that this research has tried to trace, Kusama’s rooms are what so far most resemble a typical architectural space. They are delimited by common walls and ceilings; so it is not exactly true to say that they produce a new space, as other artistic researches do. These places use something already given, like a simple room, and alter its perception and meaning. The work of Kusama shows 195

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how the contemporary tendencies of art open up new possibilities and understandings, trespassing once again distinctions between the use of spaces. Inside his essay Postproduction, Nicolas Bourriaud (2002) states that, The artistic question is no longer: what can we make that is new? But how can we make do with what we have. […] Artists no longer consider the artistic field a museum containing works that must be cited or ‘surpassed’, as the modernist ideology of originality would have it, but so many storehouses filled with tools that should be used, stockpiles of data to manipulate and present. (p.9) The creations of Krijn de Koning have to be seen in this light. Using the typical elements of the architecture, the Dutch artist produces many spatial installations that suggest a different way of perceiving the interior spaces. Walls, floors, ceilings, openings and breaches are the elementary elements that build his works, imagining though opposite perspectives. These spaces lose their meaning and find a new one, which become a pure aesthetic and creative experience; the spectator finds himself confused, looking at something he recognizes, but it is not that anymore. The perception is indeed challenged to expand and go beyond pure contemplation, to seek new considerations and reflections. But is not all contemporary art about that? With conceptual art, a new way of creation has started, moving the attention from the material production to the creative process. Duchamp was one of the first, during the 1960s, to provoke the artistic world with the concept that creation was all about including an object in a new context, giving it a completely renovated meaning. The ready-made is extremely current and has influenced the work of many artists in many different ways. Applying this assumption to the ensemble of art and space it is very easy to get carried away by the enormous quantity of examples. If, according to the dictionary definition, space is: ”the unlimited threedimensional expanse in which all material objects are located” (Collins dictionary), it becomes clear that the creativity of art can produce infinite declinations of something that is absolutely undeniable. Moreover, it is the awareness that art can produce spaces that can be experienced in many different ways that has allowed the expansion of artistic communication and the stimulation of new relationships between people involved in the creative process. Marx considered the human essence as the set of social relations and, …artistic practice is now focused upon the sphere of inter-human relations, as illustrated by artistic activities that have been in progress since the early 90s. So the artist sets his sights more and more clearly on the relations that his work will create among his public, and on the invention of models of sociability. (Bourriaud, 1998, p. 28) This research is presenting artists that create new environments, spaces to be experienced in a social way that consider the personal involvement to be a crucial element of the creative persuasion. Places that sometimes share the same urgency of design and architecture but belong to a different realm and raise different questions. The Korean born artist Do Ho Suh perfectly straddles the borderline between art, architecture and design. His sculptures reproduce homes made with translucent fabric or resin. The sensation is a ghostly space, without the creepy inclination. It is a space of memory and recollection of the artist’s intimacy. Suh’s oeuvres show a particular interest in the occupation of space and the possible modification that can be performed on it. Sometimes they occupy real places and sometimes they are only metaphorical, but they all share the same concern with defying ordinary perceptions. The series Perfect home, for example, 196

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is a reproduction of homes where the artist lived and where it is tangible the personal engagement with the spectator who finds himself immersed inside the artist’s most personal memory, highlighting the open boundary between public and private space, as well as notions of nomadism, global identity and displacement. “It has an interesting narrative,” Suh (2013) says of his childhood house. “But then, every building, every space, has that. It’s just not told”. The wide site-specific installation of 2013 created by Rudolf Stingel for Palazzo Grassi in Venice is another stimulating expression of the debate about the relationship between art and space. The artist covered the entire interiors, including walls and floors, of the palace with a carpet, based on oriental motives. The work is a further development of Stingel’s research on the relationship between the exhibition space and artistic intervention; in this case, the carpet becomes the connection between the painting and the architectural context. The public is therefore invited to walk through the rooms, inside a labyrinthine path, to eventually discover some paintings that the artist has spread all over the spaces. Also, the oriental carpets recall Sigmund Freud’s study in Vienna, and this reference is really important for extending the level of interpretation of the work: it is now not only a physical experience but also an introspective reflection about self consciousness. As it was for Kusama, Stingel’s installation is an outpouring of personal reflections and feelings, which allows the spectator to understand better the artist as well as himself, thanks to a very private and intimate experience. Interior revisited places for an interior individual event. Another powerful show was the one offered by the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson to the London audience of Tate Modern. The weather project of 2003 recreated, inside the space of the Turbine Hall, a spectacular artificial sunset. The installation had encountered a very positive reaction from critics and the public and had been, indeed, a very peculiar event where the distinction between inside and outside was completely forgotten. “In my work I have tried to present time or duration, the relational understanding Figure 2. Do Ho Suh The Perfect Home II 2003 Translucent nylon 110 x 240 x 516 inches © Do Ho Suh, Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

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of orientation, and movement as some of the fundamental basics for experiencing/understanding spaceand thus ourselves (self evaluation/critique)” (Eliasson, 2003, p. 33). His work, which can be assimilated to Minimal Art, finds in colour one of its most important expression. Spaces he creates are always characterized by the use of colours, which become not only a question of perception, but also a cultural element. 360° room for all colours (2002) is the perfect example of his search for a totalizing experience through space, colour and light. Here, the influence of the theories and ideas of Merleau-Ponty is undeniable. ...because my body is visible and mobile, it pertains to things, it is one of them, it is a part of the world’s mesh, and it has the same cohesion as a thing. But because it sees and moves, it holds things in a circle around itself as an attachment or extension of itself, they are embedded in its flesh, they partake of its complete definition, and the world is made of the same stuff as the body. (Merleau-Ponty, 1964, p. 19) Ones again Elliasson’s art looks for the direct participation of the spectator, enhancing the personal experience of the perception of the surrounding environment. People are challenged to perceive the space/nature in a different way, modified by external elements that enact ephemeral spectacles, limited in time and space. Meanwhile, the Igloos of Mario Merz are inhospitable environments. Since 1967 the Italian artist has produced numerous variations of these shape, using different materials (glass, natural elements, granite). They look like a filter between the external and the intimate space, connecting the outside world with the most internal feelings and expectations. When it is possible to enter inside the igloo, the sensation is not of something welcoming but, instead, of an uncomfortable space, very fragile where to lose the perception of reality. Sometimes they also include neon writings or naked trees, enhancing the feeling of an ephemeral situation. The reconsideration of nature and natural elements is acquiring a crucial importance for many artists of the same generation as Merz, becoming the untouched place where everything originates from in contrast to the corrupted social sphere. Nell’arte povera l’esperienza artistica coincide con l’esperienza stessa del proprio sentire e del proprio vivere; i lavori diventano prolungamenti sensoriali, cristallizzazioni istantanee dei pensieri, che lo spettatore è invitato a prolungare a sua volta, in una reazione a catena in cui I flussi di energia si accrescono, secondo un orientamento di massima aperture e adesione alla mutabilità della vita, delle idee, in esplicita contrapposizione alla rigidità dell’inerzia e dei confini prestabiliti. (Dish, 2003, p. 143) English Translation of the quotation “With arte povera, the artistic experience corresponds with the experience of the feeling and the living itself; the works become sensory extensions, temporary crystallization of thoughts, that the spectator is asked to extend in return through a chain reaction where the flows of energy grow, following a direction of maximum opening and adhesion to the changeability of life and ideas, openly contrasting with the rigidity of passivity and predetermined boundaries”.

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Figure 3. Olafur Eliasson The weather project, 2003 Monofrequency lights, projection foil, haze machines, mirror foil, aluminium, scaffolding 26,7 x 22,23 x 155,44 m Tate Modern London, 2003

Photo: Olafur Eliasson Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York © Olafur Eliasson

During the last few decades the world has seen the growing development of new technologies and this phenomenon has consequently modified the artistic medium too. When mixing space and new media art, infinite possibilities and virtual environments are offered. Technological art, which makes the creation of virtual realities one of its key elements, creates new emotional conditions and broadens mental processes. In addition, these researches enhance the public sensibility towards much more immersive environments, where the use of sound, music and light becomes essential as part of a new “aesthetic of simulation” (Shanken, 2006, p. 67). Even though the space is not real, the experience is and the interaction between the emitter-receiver-media evolves into a relationship of interdependence and complementarity. “The artwork is often transformed into an open

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structure in process that relies on a constant flux of information and engages the viewer-participant in the way a performance might do” (Paul, 2008, p. 21). With these features in mind, it is possible to read the work of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer or Carsten Nicolai. The Pulse room (2006) of Lozano-Hemmer is an incredible installation where a series of light bulbs are synchronized with the heart rate of visitors, which is recorded by a sensor. Every time a new participant records his heart rate, the rhythm of the lights changes, creating an ephemeral and touching atmosphere. Open air (2012) consists of what the artist describes as relational architecture. Different robotic searchlights are programmed to modify the sky of Philadelphia, reacting to the frequency and volume of voices from different messages recorded by the participants through a particular IPhone application. It is clear how the direct participation of the public is crucial for the realisation of Lozano-Hemmer’s ideas. Using the broad possibilities provided by technology and the internet, he engages in a direct relationship with the “user” and leaves him the final result of the work of art. His relational architecture is particularly innovative, trespassing the borders between public art, interaction design, and architecture. Lozano-Hemmer creates new environments, revisiting the ones yet existing, to produce new human and sensorial relationships. As I’m using technologies, I am conscious of the fact that they are not neutral. Most developments originate from military or corporate research, which imbues them with Orwellian, gendered, asymmetric values. One must admit that one is a part of the problem when one uses these tools: we are all complicit with the society of control. Many of my works feature tracking systems that detect the presence of people and react to their presence. You can say these are works about participation and inclusion and complicity, but you can also say that they are about policing and predatorial vision and certain assumptions and prejudices that are inherent in technology and the format itself. So, conscious of that, you still do it, hopefully with a poetic or critical result. (Lozano-Hemmer, 2014) The search for the limits of visual and auditory perception is also particularly important for the German artist Carsten Nicolai. His work revolves around observations of nature and its translation into a system made with sounds, shapes and lights, using the most modern digital techniques. The result is a disorienting experience for the public, who find themselves observing a repertoire of distorted images. Yes/no (2008) is a three-dimensional translation of the sound produced by the pronunciation of words. Realistic (1998), Telefunken (2000), and Future part perfect p (2009) are some of Nicolai’s reflections about the application of new technologies on art and exhibition spaces; software, laser monitor projections and record players are the instruments through which the artist generates unexpected phenomena and new interdisciplinary imaginaries. Unidisplay (2002) is a sort of communication experiment, where the language is composed exclusively by graphic forms connected to sounds. What makes these creations very different from previous artistic experiences is that they are contingent to a particular location at a particular time. Most interactive and technological artworks are indeed exhibited only for a short period of time and then they disappear. The ephemeral character of the spaces they produce is one of their most peculiar features, leaving only video or image documentation of the event. Paraphrasing Benjamin, the hic et nunc somehow can be discovered again through these experiences. “The unique value of the ‘authentic’ work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value” (Benjamin, 1936, p. 12). Also, this Aesthetic of interaction modifies the concept of space, which moves from being exclusively material, as described in the definition 200

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above, to a “more or less fluid individual or collective construction, which may be material or may exist only in perception, in ideation, or in recall” (Löw, 2001, p. 45). Consequently physical space and digital data space can create an intangible intricate new environment.

The Ephemeral Twisted Reality: Krijn de Koning Krijn de Koning doesn’t have an architectural background and yet its installations resemble real architectural project, made of structures that create a new space to experience and live. Starting from questioning the place he is looking at, de Koning inserts its creation in it and through them he tries to give an understanding of the space. It is always a challenge that brings the artist to think about how he can interact with that specific environment and how he can create a different perspective and perception of it. Therefore, he twists the notion of space and time experimenting the conjunction of forms and elements that allow the audience to engage an unexpected relationship with the place and with the work of art. The boundaries between the outside and the inside are completely overcome in favour of a multifaceted experience involving many of our senses. Studying the artistic intervention that de Koning created for Estate de Braak, in The Netherlands, in 2006, we can immediately perceive his attention to the challenge. The estate, left without any house, consists in a gigantic park where the artist decided to characterize different corners. The one he called The entrance, positioned for welcoming visitors to the park, is in fact, a room, without ceiling but with walls coloured green on the outside changing to red when entering inside. Immediately the audience feel a real uncertainty. This perception grows when the audience find a floor walking through a bush or a saloon in the middle of the forest. Finally, The Labyrinth, where the visitor is pushed to find a path and reach the end. There de Koning built a new room. It is not the end; it is the beginning of a new research. A space inside a space where a bench is cut in half by a wall, leaving no space for answers. Colours play a crucial role in the artist’s creation. Sometimes they could be only a visual tool but sometimes they are directly connected to the feeling and the emotion originated by the place. Like in Green Dwelling, the work created for Compton Verney in Warwickshire in 2019. Another park, different construction. This time he uses no architectural structures, only various elements positioned all over the space, painted in different shades of green. The visitor is attracted to reach the following site, walking towards it. Like a modern Stonehenge, the installation provokes questions and asks the visitors to see it through. The same thing happens when de Koning works on inner spaces. Here the feeling is even more intense. The complexity of his installations, combining the pre-existent building elements with the new ones he creates, affects the perception and allows spectators to live an experience made of changing points of view and turning paths. If we look at the work Blu Drawing, specifically made for the private collection Billarant in Le Silo of Marines in France, the visitor is not able to read it in one simple direction. He is asked to look at the space, to use the space, sitting or climbing, and to follow the colour, which is drawn as a never ending blue line. It feels like an Escher painting but it’s tri-dimensional and it is not possible to see it all at once, turning upside down the concept of reality. This feeling is increased by the fact that his creations are ephemeral and can be seen only for a small period of time.

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Figure 4. Krijn de Koning The Labyrinth, 2006 Estate de Braak, The Netherlands

Photo courtesy of the artist © Krijn de Koning

All of de Koning installations are made to be lived, not only contemplated; this way the fruition of the work of art is naturally connected to every single person who is approaching it. It constantly changes depending on the state of mind of who is looking. Figure 5. Krijn de Koning Green Dwelling, 2019 Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK Photo courtesy of the artist © Krijn de Koning

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The same way every colour used by the artist has a specific purpose, informing the spectator about the presence of an opening, a closure, a window, a hallway, a seat…; a practice that recalls the minimalistic researches of Daniel Buren. Sometimes the same installation has been exhibited in two different venues, but using different colours. The result is a completely different experience and perception of the given space. One of his last project was made for the Cultura Nova Festival, that took place in Heerlen, in The Netherlands, at the end of August 2019. The installation consists in a realization of a square where architectural elements are directly connected to nature. Every corner, in fact, has its own type of tree. This time, instead of the colour, the visual tool is the tree, chosen only for its particular form, which perfectly corresponds to de Koning’s visual research. The space acquires now different characteristics depending on who’s using it. It can be a place to rest, a place to chat, a place to play. The improvisation and the indeterminacy become an essential part for the success of his installations and sometimes they resemble a Happening, where people are the protagonists without any instructions, free to move and experience everything possible. The theatrical dimension is also extremely marked in some of de Koning’s interventions. Taking for example the work made in Deventer in 2014, where the artist integrated green elements on some modern ruins, the effect is very similar to a contemporary theatre scenery, but on stage there isn’t a classical play but the reminiscences of the past that has left traces and tracks in that particular place. Looking at these projects of de Koning it becomes clear how the interaction with a specific place during a specific time is the essence of his work for generating new spaces, not only physically but also mentally. The research and the emotional understanding allow him to discover a way to focus the attention on ambiguous aspects of the reality, using different disciplines and mediums. This way there is never one key only to read his work, leaving to the spectator the possibility to find his own way to relate with it.

Figure 6. Krijn de Koning Blue Drawing, 2015 Collection Billarant, Le Silo, France

Photo courtesy of the artist © Krijn de Koning

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Figure 7. Krijn de Koning Cultura Nova Festival, 2019 Heerlen, The Netherlands Photo courtesy of the artist © Krijn de Koning

Figure 8. Krijn de Koning Keizersrande, 2014 The Netherlands Photo courtesy of the artist © Krijn de Koning

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CONCLUSION Through this recollection of specific artistic creations, the way in which the relationship between art and space embraces infinite possibilities, which overcome simple interactions and allow new experiences, is brought out. While the boundaries between different disciplines become thinner and thinner, a peculiar consideration to intervene on existing places, both private and public, is growing considerably. At the same time, within the process of creation, the public itself is gaining a crucial role. Looking at the past, when works of art could only be contemplated from a certain distance with a sort of devotion, which gave them the status of untouchable objects, the latest artistic tendencies seem to reverse this attitude and, instead, they look for the direct participation of the spectator. New spaces and places open up new forms of communication, where the connection between the artist and the receiver is fundamental. Moreover, with the advent of new technological instruments, the space is not limited anymore to the simple physical area; virtual intangible places also produce new realities, where connections multiply exponentially. It is extremely fascinating to see the realm of art encompassing so many different aspects that before were thought to belong to different areas of expertise. The hybridization of art, architecture, design, and technology is indeed reaching unexplored territories, which are widening the debate on artistic production.

REFERENCES Benjamin, W. (2014). L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica. Milano: Einaudi. Bourriaud, N. (1998). Relational aesthetics. Paris: Le presses du réel. Bourriaud, N. (2002). Postproduction. Culture as screenplay: How art reprograms the world. New York: Has & Sternberg. Buren, D. (1973). The Function of the Museum. Artforum. Dish, M. (2003). Process art e arte povera. In F. Poli (Ed.), Arte contemporanea. Milano: Electa. Eliasson, O. (2003). Olafur Eliasson: Colour memory and other informal shadows. Milano: Postmedia. Grazioli, E. (2001). Arte e pubblicità. Milano: Bruno Mondadori. Heidegger, M. (2015). L’arte e lo spazio. Genova: il nuovo melangolo. Hoptman, L. (2000). Yayoi Kusama: A reckoning. In A. Tatehata, L. Hoptman, & U. Kultermann (Eds.), Yayoi Kusama. New York: Phaidon Press. Kimsooja. (2013). Kimsooja: Korean pavilion at the Venice art biennale. Retrieved from http://www. designboom.com/art/kimsooja-korean-pavilion-at-the-venice-art-biennale/ Kwon, M. (2002). One Place after another: Site-specific art and locational identity. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/5138.001.0001 Löw, M. (2001). Raumsoziologie. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

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Lozano-Hemmer, R. (2014). Interview with Jessica Baran. Sculpture City. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1989). L’occhio e lo spirito. Milano: Se. Moure, G. (2009). Cristina Iglesias. Milan: Ex. Cat. Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodo. Edición Polígrafa. Munroe, A. (1989). Obsession, fantasy and outrage: The art of Yayoi Kusama. In Yayoi Kusama: A retrospective. New York: Center for International Contemporary Arts. Paul, C. (2008). Digital Art. London: Thames & Hudson. Sandqvist, G. (2013). Caparazones, envolturas: Apuntes en torno a Cristina Iglesias. In R. Ferguson, E. De Diego, G. Sandqvist, L. Cooke, & G. Bruno (Eds.), Cristina Iglesias: Metonimia. Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Saraceno, T. (2013). ‘In Orbit’ Installation / Tomás Saraceno. Retrieved from http://www.archdaily. com/394622/in-orbit-installation-tomas-saraceno Shanken, E. A. (2006). Historicizing art and technology. In O. Grau (Ed.), MediArtHistories. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

ADDITIONAL READING Argan, G. C. (2002). L’arte moderna. Milano: Sansoni. Kwastek, K. (2013). Aesthetics of interaction in digital art. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9592.001.0001 Mercurio, G., & Paparoni, D. (2001). Anish Kapoor. Dirty Corners. Milano: Skira. Perelli, L. (2006). Public art: Arte, interazione e progetto urbano. Milano: Francoangeli. Venezia, F., Bertelli, C., Ottolini, G., Alison, F., Laudani, M., Riva, U., ... Balena, I. (2010). La stanza. Milano: Silvana Editoriale. Vergine, L. (1999). L’arte in trincea: Lessico delle tendenze artistiche 1960–1990. Milano: Skira.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Aesthetic of Interaction: It is a particular inclination of producing works of art where the interaction between the artist and the public becomes the crucial part in the creation process. Aesthetic of Simulation: This term is strictly linked to new media art production. It is a particular tendency where the simulation of an alternate or virtual reality is the main feature of the work of art. Arte Povera: It is an artistic movement that originated in Italy during the 1960s. Its main characteristic consists in the use of “poor” materials to produce pieces of art. Combining aspects of minimalism, performance art and processual art, this tendency also has a political motivation, trying to subvert the commercial world of art. Some of the most important exponents of Arte Povera are Michelangelo

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Pistoletto, Mario Merz, Jannis Kounellis, Luciano Fabro, Alighiero Boetti, Giovanni Anselmo, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, and Gilberto Zorio. Environmental Art: It is a term defining a large range of artistic creations. It can be associated with art that is about nature, with art that uses natural elements, with art that intervenes on nature, and with art that has ecological concerns motivating it. Immersive Environment: It usually describes an environment where every sense is called to participate. Thanks to the use of sound, light, and visuals the spectator finds himself caught inside a complete experience. Land-Art: It is an artistic tendency intervening directly on landscapes. Nature becomes the canvas, and natural elements, such as rock, sand, soil, and organic components become the materials used for the creations. Some of the most important exponents of this movement are Richard Long, Walter de Maria, Robert Smithson, and Richard Serra. Minimal-Art: It is an artistic tendency that started in the early 1960s, which is characterized by a predominance in every discipline of regular and geometrical shapes and monochromatic tones. Some of the most important representatives of Minimal art are: Frank Stella, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, and Daniel Buren. New Media Art: It is an artistic tendency that has grown with the advent of technology applied to art in the late 1980s and early 1990s. New media art encompasses a large range of movements: video art, net art, installations, happenings, interactive art, videogames. Although it has experienced particularly strong growth during the last two decades, its origin can be found in the 1960s with the diffusion of video as a mean of creation. Ready-Made: This term indicates an object, which already has a particular function and meaning and acquires a new one. Originating from the French word Objet trouvé, it was used by Marcel Duchamp to indicate his practice of taking an ordinary object, like a urinal, for example, and making it into a piece of art to be exhibited inside a museum with the title Fountain. Relational Architecture: The term has been created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer to describe a particular form of art that involves architecture, where interaction is an essential part of the process of creation. It has a strong derivation from the relational aesthetics theorized by Nicolas Bourriaud. LozanoHemmer’s works show a particular interest in the urban architecture structures to be experienced with an interactive approach. Site-Specific: It literally means specific to a site. Within the art realm this definition is used to define a work of art which is specifically conceived and produced for a specific site and place. It then adapts to that exact space, modelling itself around it.

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Chapter 10

Art Staging the Civic:

From Rhetoric to Spaciousness Mário Caeiro Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal Madalena Folgado Universidades Lusíada, CITAD, Portugal

ABSTRACT The chapter presents a conceptual and pragmatic mindset, concerning activities such as curating artistic projects in public space, programming cultural events, and designing habitats. Different experiments in art are fueling the emergence of a new sensibility, showing how ‘parts of the city’ can become possibilities, thus spaces with a great potential for change. In a peculiar rhetorical balance—an ethos of attention, a logos of ongoing urban-based research, and finally a pathos of witty sharing of information, knowledge, and experience—some artistic installations and urban projects are a valid laboratory for creative citizenship. Art is presented as a tekne sensitive to discrete elements of the city, leading these to become the building blocks of urban life. In the epilogue, the authors switch from analysis to a phenomenological approach in order to give to see the very moment wherein the work of art’s resoundingness brings awareness to urban space as theatre of apparitions.

INTRODUCTION In this chapter what is presented is a mindset and a disposition for a critical and transformative approach of activities such as curating artistic projects in public space and programming cultural situations in the city. It is a valid ethical and theoretical framework also for designing habitats and teaching practice. By means of revisiting a set of urban artworks and through the complementary gathering of shreds of a specific jargon in Public Art, a Contemporary understanding of the City as a socio-spatial device is put forward. Such insight is inspiring many innovative activities that are today not only protagonists in the visual dimension of the city’s sceneries, but truly the outcome of a total rhetoric of the urban form, if not an instance where the dream of a post-capitalist society meets the quest for presence. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch010

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The chapter acknowledges the fact that by means of a certain kind of urban art culture appears as a crucial transformative element in the urban fabric, affirming an urban-based Civic creativity. What is concretely presented here is a set of aesthetic visions whose exemplary status is underlined. The intention behind this brief cartography is to explore a concrete corpus of heuristic interventions – some absolutely confirmed as milestones in Contemporary Art, others less known and realized in relatively marginal contexts. All lead the reader to understand how behind all these work(s) lies a same understanding of the potency of the socius as an aesthetic fact. The argument is divided in three parts. In the first part, comments on a series of quite famous artworks highlight the idea that they can be seen as particularly memorable urban moments, very much in the sense that Lefebvre and later Liggett give to the word (Lefebvre, 2005; Liggett, 2003). These moments are at the core of a pragmatic and conceptual frame of mind, precisely because one could define them as rhetorical gestures – see Wittgenstein’s conception of gesture (Albertsen, 2000), and as well, more recently, the relation between gesture and participatory art (Bala, 2018). In this spirit, we must accept that the one good definition of rhetoric comes from Aristotle who considers it a counterpart of both logic and politics, and calls it the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion (Aristotle, written 350 B.C.E, para. 10); and we must keep in mind understand gesture as situated between image, speech and action – no longer image but not yet act (Bala, 2018) – and in the core of any reflection on the issue of participation both in terms of artistic practice and reception, and in the sphere of public and civic life (Bala, 2018). In the second part, a series of less known Urban Light Art installations is described, proving that, despite being much recent, they share the same communicational energy as the works presented in the first part. This is a way to avoid the Classics being ruled out as ‘a story told’. In other words, today’s Light Art can/shall be observed as a situated updating of Modern and Post-Modern Civic experiments and advancements. Light appears here as a technical medium and a cultural model for the gesture – an act that is condensed into hint, a suggestion (Bala, 2018) – to be enlightening. In the final part, it becomes clear that ‘reading’ such ensemble of works as such – a kaleidoscope of aesthetic insights – what appears is the conscience that the City is a complex rhetoric stage (De Certeau, 1984) where art is absolutely necessary, even if – and precisely because – most of the time it’s messages are fuelling a common and embodied critique of urban reality. In other words, what is proposed is artistic rhetoric as a tool to engage in the Project as a device to deal cognitively with the Western everyday life; but ultimately also to acknowledge emerging conditions for the momentaneous contact with Essence (Abreu, 2015) within the contingencies of the urban condition. Furthermore, this text tries to make clear that there is a difference between irrelevant production of ambiguous utterances and a richer metaphorology – see Blumenberg (1987/2010) – that offers both the Interior and the Public richer ways of accessing the pivotal role of creativity, and specifically design and art in the urban fabric. In very concrete terms, what is praised is, on one hand, the rhetorical in art (and not just art’s rhetoric), for any urban intervention is interdependent from the management of complex issues such as the way the work inhabits tensions such as the ones between museums and the city; the object and the landscape; poetry and silence. On the other hand, what is envisaged is art as the stage for the semblance of diverse aspects of something essential and which we seize through the metaphor of the apparition. And this is the idea developed in the Epilogue. In conclusion, what is proposed is a rhetorical understanding of the Project in Contemporary Interiors and Civic Art, acknowledging it as leading to a mystical research drive. It should help us all in the

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task of linking everyday discernment to historical if not anachronic wisdom, something that seems to be missing from a large part of today’s cultural production, be it ephemeral, permanent or cyclic in kind. Accordingly, the objective is to offer both a panoramic and engaged view of phenomena bearing ‘tricky’ designations such as “public art, installation art, participatory art, urban art, critical art, community- based art, arts-based placemaking, street art, or non-authorized art”. Today, there are many processes we could describe as civic urban interventions. They prove that “the world is full of gods” (Barrento, 2011). But also that maybe God is anywhere, as some manifestations seem to demonstrate. In this sense, the expression Civic Art is an acceptable designation for what many of us are trying to do: to explore and share urban creativity in the very surface of the matter which is the urban realm. This is still the best way for art to stage the civic, no less for the City to be acknowledged as a common work of art.

URBAN MOMENTS: A FEW EXCEPTIONAL CASES OF ARTISTIC RHETORIC It is possible to propose a model for a common reflexivity connecting the aesthetic, the political and the artistic. Such could be the basis for us all to deal with the multidimensionality – see Butler on Lefebvre’s concept of space as a social matrix (Butler, 2012, p. 42) – inherent in creative citizenship. Just like some art and urban design are a product of critical thinking, with artistic ethos becoming engaged with the public (space and sphere), rhetoric is becoming the tool for the public(s) – the urban community – to become acquainted with the power of syntax. The term is advanced by Barbara Formis, referring to the innovation that the Conceptual movement brought to the eternal dialogue between art and (social) life (Formis, 2003). Rhetoric is a fundamental aspect of communication. It helps us to build a community of readers of the urban space. It is an instrumental framework to engage cognitively in the Urban Project, the latter seen as a device to deal with the complexities of the everyday (Lefebvre, 1961/1991; De Certeau, 1984) in a creative way. Nevertheless, departing from Giorgio Agamben’s understanding of the experience of reading and thinking as such (Zartaloudis, 2010), there is a difference between relevant but uninteresting urban utterances and irrelevant but therefore truly creative artistic projects that offer the citizens a chance to participate in the urban fabric. Furthermore, the latter do sometimes mobilize the urban (Nawratek, 2019) and propose (post-secular) cultural values that might be seen as working out as messages from a future Empire, existing somewhere beyond the capitalist urban scape. Since the meaning of the artwork or other sorts of urban interventions is interdependent from the management of issues such as the way the work inhabits the urban in all its ‘problematicity’, some of these contexts are particularly inspiring – take for instance the tension high art vs. suburbia materialized in Thomas Hirschhorn’s precarious museum – the Musée Précaire Albinet (2004) – a project in a Paris suburb, exploiting the tension between the Art Museum and its distant margins. Run by local residents, this makeshift museum (Pacquement, 2004) displayed a selection of modern masters borrowed from the prestigious collection housed at the Pompidou. Other potentially very creative tensions would be the ones between the object and the process; the interiors and the outside; discourse and the body. This kind of tensions fuels the power of the most interesting artworks defining today’s cultural environment. It is in any case by means of concrete urban interventions – in fact their relation to the pleasant and the passionate, values we can trace back to Fourier

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(Stanek, p. 176) – that art becomes capable of establishing (or breaking) the associations (Lefebvre) we experience in our ordinary life in the city. This is particularly true when one keeps in mind that art and philosophy have a non-dialectical and a non-instrumental relation toward each other; that is, when one looks at artistic actions as the fabrication of new objects and new gestures, to use quite precise words by artist Félix Gonzales-Torres. Some of these gestures are in fact about affirming their innovative power as creative actions, as much as about concretely dealing with the social as it is constantly manifested in the cityscape. This is particularly relevant when one looks at (the) participatory (in) art: “Perhaps the force of the participatory lies not in a causal relationship between audience and participation in the theatre and people’s participation in public life, but in a relationship of simultaneity, one gesturing (to) the other”. (Bala, 2018) In any case, this chapter shows that many different experiments in art, management and communication are fueling the emergence of this new sensibility, cross-disciplinary in kind and transdisciplinary in spirit. It is fascinating to explore their language, their ways and their complex and varied results from the perspective of the values they activate. Through this strategy, a broad public is witnessing how ‘parts of the city’ can become cultural possibilities, and under certain conditions even manifestation of something true – as when an individual artistic sensibility touches the timeless or anachronic wisdom. Urban elements and spaces become then visible to the civic community and thus also potentially strategic for change. All this is particularly evident in Elemental: Incremental Housing (2001-ongoing) – a project by Alejandro Aravena. Within the framework of the current Housing Policy in Chile, what began as an academic initiative would become a professional “do tank” resulting from an equal partnership between an architect, an oil company and a university. It is now a worldwide reference contributing in its own terms to the current paradigm shift, for “Elemental is no mere talking shop. Its ethos is to implement what it can, whatever the circumstances – and the circumstances of housing the poor in Latin American cities are pretty onerous” (McGuirk, 2009). One must also keep in mind (now recalling the Romantic Friedrich Schiller in his Letters Upon The Aesthetic Education of Man, first published in 1794 and Huizinga’s concept of Homo Ludens, coined in 1938, that the artistic gesture is about dealing with the ludic in a productive way. It is a gesture calibrating the energies and immediate possibilities of dilettantism, at the same time inspiring all of us to care collectively for urban and social innovation, and to foster it at diverse urban scales. To give an example, recent movements reinventing the city, such as tactical urbanism or urban acupuncture, must then be seen as a civic reaction to “the neoliberal rhetoric which typically dreams with an opulent and anesthetized City fabric that pushes anything else to the distant margins” (Short & Kim, 1999). When we observe the apparently endless variety of creative, aesthetic and artistic appropriations of the urban form; when we grasp the actual validity of topics such as loose space (Franck & Stevens, 2006) or parasitical architecture (Marini, 2009) – some remaining in the margins of mainstream, others already occupying the center stage of urban theory –, we are witnessing the results of a cultural process: the continuous invention of circumstances. Back to Guy Debord in 1957, we speak of the creation of situations (Debord, 2006). Many of those situations arise because the creative mind is faced with an opportunity for intervention. In the diversity of outcomes of this freedom of necessity (to paraphrase Schiller again), we should recognize a fascinating aspect of globalization. For Appadurai, “If globalization is characterized by disjunctive flows that generate acute problems of social well-being, one positive force that encourages an emancipatory politics of globalization is the role of the imagination in social life” (Appadurai, 2001).

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So, there are urban works validated by art history (but certainly not yet by the mainstream history of urban life) that trigger our citizen responsibility. After a contact with this kind of works, for instance in the framework of Appadurai’s processes geography, what follows is a drive for making and sharing sense. In critically rhetorical urban interventions, the Contemporary polis makes it is clear that art plays an unquestionable role in civic dialogue; artistic work and its communicative dimension clearly resonating with the aforementioned critical concept of urban moments. (Figure 1). Take Christo and Jean-Claude’s Wrapped Reichtag (1971-95). After a struggle spanning the seventies, eighties and nineties, the wrapping of the Reichstag was completed on June 24, 1995 by a work force of 90 professional climbers and 120 installation workers. The Reichstag remained wrapped for 14 days and all materials were recycled. 1,076,390 square feet (100,000 square meters) of thick woven polypropylene fabric with an aluminum surface and 9.7 miles (15.6 kilometers) of blue polypropylene rope, diameter 1.26 inch (3.2 centimeters), were used for the wrapping of the Reichstag. The façades, the towers and the roof were covered by 70 tailor-made fabric panels, twice as much fabric as the surface of the building. The work of art was entirely financed by the artists, as in all previous projects, through the sale of preparatory studies, drawings, collages, scale models as well as early works and original lithographs. The artists do not accept sponsorship of any kind (Christo, n.d.). In the official site of the artists, one paragraph stands out: For a period of two weeks, the richness of the silvery fabric, shaped by the blue ropes, created a sumptuous flow of vertical folds highlighting the features and proportions of the imposing structure, revealing the essence of the Reichstag (Christo, 2005). Wrapped Reichtag is absolutely sharp in the way it transforms a building (with all meanings attached) into a metaphor for artistic potency. It works precisely because of its straightforward mix of semi-abstract (non-narrative) approach of form and down-to-earth – although (very) large scale – production values. But what is even more impressive is the redemptive social grace attained, “It has got Berlin into more of a celebratory mood than anything since the fall of the wall five and a half years ago” (Goldberger, 1995), wrote The New York Times, managing to define the radically ambiguous character of the intervention – “at once a work of art, a cultural event, a political happening and an ambitious piece of business” (Goldberger, 1995). Take Mierle-Laderman Ukeles’ Touch Sanitation (1976): Touch Sanitation was Ukeles’ first project as the city’s [New York] new artist-in-residence. She drew attention to the maintenance of urban ecological systems in general and the use of pejorative language to represent “garbage men” in particular. Ukeles travelled sections of New York City to shake the hands of over 8500 sanitation employees or “sanmen” during a year-long performance. She documented her activities on a map, meticulously recording her conversations with the workers. In her commitment to process and duration, Ukeles used her art as an agent of change to challenge conventional language stereotypes. (Krug, n.d.) Ukeles, for whom the personal is political, manages to link her ecological restoration philosophy to the concrete everyday of thousands of her fellow citizens, developing her own version of participatory 212

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Figure 1. Vicente ’12. Long Streets for Short Stories in Lisbon by architects MOOV and artist Miguel Faro. Photo courtesy of Projecto Travessa da Ermida.

democracy. In her take on performativity, she feels compelled to give visibility to a social group while dignifying aspects of its daily contribution to the urban habitat. Take Joseph Beuys and his 7 000 Oaks: Begun in 1982, this ambitious project became a five-year effort in which he and others planted 7,000 trees of various types throughout the City of Kassel in Germany, each with an accompanying basalt stele as a marker. The solid stone form beside the ever-changing tree symbolically represents a basic concept in Beuys’ philosophy, that these two natural and yet oppositional qualities are complementary and coexist harmoniously. Local community councils, associations, and citizens’ initiatives determined where the trees would be planted. The organization of this project resulted in a series of conversations among participants concerning a wide range of issues, from its impact on City planning to its meaning for future generations. Completed in 1987 by his son, Wenzel, on the first anniversary of his father’s death, 7000 Oaks truly epitomizes Beuys’ ideas about art and its ability to effect change in society (Walker Art Center, n.d.). Concerning the legacy of the project (but no less Beuys’s therapeutic concept of time), Wikipedia states: Beuys’ 7000 Oaks work is an example of the thread that links the Situationist International’s approach to art and its re-creation by new groups continues to evolve through a new generation of socially conscious organizations that merge art, education, and environmental issues in their work. In 2000, the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (out of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County) developed the Joseph Beuys Sculpture Park and Joseph Beuys Tree Partnership and planted over 350 trees in various parks in Baltimore Parks with the help of over 500 volunteers including children from local schools. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

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As it should be widely acknowledged, the duration of this kind of action is extraordinary, namely as recreated by posterity. In this revolutionary artwork, social philosophy meets urban interventionism. The result of its focus on the anthropological possibilities of an expanded idea of creativity is an effective balance between the drive for participation (the project asserts the importance of stakeholder involvement) and a long-term collective commitment with public space and urban life. 7 000 Oaks still functions today as a matrix for the creation of new collectives and ephemeral communities of interest (inter-est/inter esse) and action (if not activism). Take Krzysztof Wodiczko’s The Tijuana Projection (2001). The artist’s statements are very clear about its objectives: The purpose of the Tijuana Project was to use progressive technology to give voice and visibility to the women who work in the “maquiladora” industry in Tijuana. We designed a headset that integrated a camera and a microphone allowing the wearer to move while keeping the transmitted image in focus. The headset was connected to two projectors and loudspeakers that transmitted the testi- monies live. The women’s testimonies focused on a variety of issues including work related abuse, sexual abuse, family disintegration, alcoholism, and domestic violence. These problems were shared live by the participants, in a public plaza on two consecutive nights, for an audience of more than 1,500. projec- tions on the 60foot diameter façade of the Omnimax Theater at the Centro Cultural Tijuana(CECUT). (Wodiczko, n.d.) It is clear that these projections “wage a “symbolic attack” on the sleeping buildings, exposing their official rhetoric” (Wodiczko & Czubak, 2011). Launched after dark, these projections interface the façades of urban architecture with images of the body. As a consequence, and because being juxtaposed on public buildings, monuments, and occasionally also corporate architecture, the psycho-social space of the public realm makes a spec(ta)cular appearance. Take When Faith Moves Mountains (2002) by Francis Alÿs. In his best-known work, Alÿs recruited 500 volunteers in Ventanilla District outside of Lima, Peru. Each person moved a shovel full of sand one step at a time from one side of a dune to the other, and together they moved the entire geographical location of the dune by a few inches. We must agree with art critic Jean Fisher writing “that the radical event of art precipitates a crisis of meaning or, rather, it exposes the void of meaning at the core of a given social situation, which is its truth” (Fisher, 2007, p. 116). Echoing Mikhail Bakhtin, who affirms that social existence is based in the negotiated sense made of communication – co-being (Rockwell, 2011, p. 31) –, we can say that Alÿs is using social tension as his ready-made. Take Paul Notzold’s TXTual Healing (2006-): TXTual Healing has become a collection of interactive public projections and performance formats that encourage creation of dialogue through text messaging from mobile phones. Whether interacting with custom digital signage, or live performers TXTual Healing builds community through public story telling via the mobile phone. (Notzold, n.d.) In this ongoing work, public façades of buildings are used as canvas for people to make their own content for projected speech bubbles. The artwork is of course immediately understood as a platform for spontaneous dialogue, with often amusing results, also because the rhythm of the collective performance is absolutely contingent: each new posting takes about 20’ at most and the messages line up in a queue, like a juke box, so no messages are missed. In the end, it becomes clear that (mobile) technology 214

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can become a handy tool (pun intended) for audiences to participate in some sort of new urban theatre, through user-generated storytelling. Finally consider Néle Azevedo’s Minimum Monuments (2012-). In a recent intervention, in the UK, Azevedo arranged 5,000 little ice figurines on the step of Chamberlain Square in Birmingham, to remember the men and women lost during WWI, including the civilians. “The melting, ghostly figures, placed by volunteers, created a truly haunting image, and they were crowned by a red figure that seemed to drip a trail of blood down the steps” (Bored Panda, 2014, para. 2. “Breaking with the traditional characteristics of a monument” Azevedo’s acções urbanas (urban actions) are moving alternatives to the official canons of the monument: in the place of the hero, the anonym; “in the place of the solidity of the stone, the ephemeral ice; in the place of the monumental scale, the minimum scale of the perishable bodies” (Azevedo, n.d. para. 7). In these fragile assemblements the quest for sense is not torn apart from emotional experience. They are a paradoxically powerful expression of something intangible, and furthermore demonstrate eloquently that community isn’t something given, but the result of continuous experiments in getting people together to live the moment and the place. In all their diversity, each exceeding categories such as the monument, the event or activism in their own way, all these overtly urban artworks deal with issues which are crucial for civic life to be become more passionate: promoting and praising mediation, engagement, celebration, provocation, cooperation, information, representation, materialization…at the end of the day they offer rhetoric images of the always emerging social self. Beuys, Christo, Ukeles, as other artists such as Vito Acconci, Jochen Gerz, Barbara Kruger or Jenny Holzer, stand for an almost heroic generation of public artists who have dealt in a highly innovative way with the historical and ideological codes of the Contemporary city. Using the city’s matters in unexpected, surprising, if not subversive ways, they inscribed the fundamental ‘language’ of an art engaged in the urban reality and it’s future. That’s why if Conceptual art’s dematerialization can certainly be seen as an attempt to rhetoricize art, then to engage with the city in the same spirit (looking at the City as the ultimate ‘readymade’ for instance) is necessarily to define the proper timing for all sorts of celebrations of urban innovation to take the center stage. After all, logos is a fundamental project of the Human, the one where the power of understanding permeates all – subliming all. So, when one looks carefully at what is the role of Public Space in recent art practice – be it generous (Purves, 2004), contextual (Ardenne, 2009) or relational (Bourriaud, 1998) – there is an endless row of complementary designations for one same movement with different layers and levels of civic rhetoricity, one becomes aware that this is less a genre and much more an ethical turn which is proposing that art and urban design may have the power to create our own sense of presence. Architect Frida Escobedo offers a striking example of this possibility, with Palco Civico (Lisbon, 2013) clearly appearing to be a stage, but no less a deliberately cynical – see Sloterdijk’s radical redefinition of this term (Sloterdijk, 1987) – utterance about citizenship. In a contrasting ironic tone, Il Dito in Milan, by Maurizio Cattelan, is a monument to… wit: the most recent and much discussed artwork by Maurizio Cattelan arrived today in milan’s piazza affari, in front of the Italian stock exchange building. The controversial monument is made in marble, about 4 meters high and has been allocated on a base that brings the sculpture to a total height of 11 meters. During the making process, the famed Italian artist changed the title from ‘omnia munda mun-

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dis’ – literally meaning ‘to the pure [men], all things [are] pure’, a Latin sentence that has entered a relatively common usage in many countries – to ‘L.O.V. E.’. (Lohmann, 2010) But the most crucial aspect of this artwork is the fact that it plays with the idea of the ruin (a highly evident sememe in the Italian cultural landscape); thus the gesture of ‘giving a finger to the bankers’ (inventio) is contextualized with utmost precision by the overtly ironical materialization of the idea as a conventional sculptural monument on a plynth (dispositio) but more, by a ‘precious’ detail: the remaining fingers are broken, not bent (elocutio). To sum up, it is a fact that we live in a time after Conceptual Art has met the need to rethink the urban futures (Miles) and at the same time the role art should/could play in it. In other words, certain works try to be particularly rhetoric while engaging with the urban elements and form. They are exceptionally communicative because whilst conveying operative concepts, at the same time they are the result of intense reflexive participation and co-creation, also by the public. Art becomes in this sense a lived platform and an invitation to question all kind of assumptions about City making.

APPROPRIATING A JARGON: (MORE) ENLIGHTENING WORKS It is time to check the validity of the urban jargon provoked by works such as those cited above and revisit key-terms for their (re)appropriation in a specific context, the one of Light Events/Festivals, a cultural context with its own communicative rules. From Amsterdam to Lyon, from Tallinn to Cascais, from Durham to Chartres, Light and its urban expressions is being consecrated by means of different kinds of organizations, attracting hundreds, thousands and even millions of visitors and always creating a specific celebratory mood which completely transforms important parts of the towns. These ephemeral celebrations also end up involving critical aspects. The events, though designed to build a massive audience for the spectacle, also lead to the gathering of experts and specialists to discuss and approach Light as a cultural topic or in the light (pun intended) of the pressing problems of the Contemporary City. In short, Light is a transversal subject. It touches on many of the biggest challenges for the world today, and such is confirmed by the fact that 2015 has been the International Year of Light and Lightbased Technology (IYOL), a year-long celebration of the impact that light has on science, technology, the arts, culture and everyday life. But also very informal collective actions as well as delicate individual interventions are leading to a growing awareness about the importance of light for the urban life and form. This is the case of the movement Transnational Light Detectives, who organize City walks around the world concerning specific survey themes and searching across the nightscape for their heroes & villains. But particularly revealing is an artwork such as Andrea Acosta’s Coming Soon (2007), which was part of the exhibition Wackelkontakt (Loose Contact, Illuminating the Public Sphere) in the City of Jena, Germany. In the words of the artist: A former shopping center called “am Inselplatz” served as the starting point for exploring the idea of light and architecture in the City of Jena, Germany. Opened only one month before the wall came down and now empty for several years, this immense entity seems to have reached a profound state of invisibility. Covered by graffiti, posters, wild plants and construction materials; the place constantly portraits the failure of its own structure. And thus becomes a place deprived of any potential use due

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to its own nature and its advanced state of neglect. In the back of the building four light spots hanging from the façade were found, pointing to a previously used advertisement wall, but today there is nothing to be illuminated. So was triggered the question of how a small action can make a whole space change and in some- way unveil how alive a structure can be. For this intervention the entire wall was ‘cleaned’ by painting it completely in white and the four light spots were lit again, using a nearby street lamp as the power supply. For the duration of the exhibition the wall became an empty lit screen, a place for imagination, a portrayal of the state of the building, of this constant wait, when everything is there for something to happen but it actually never does. Still, the structure waits, for something that perhaps is coming soon… (Acosta, n.d.) The theme of Light in its relation to the City is also the basis for the urban metaphorology behind initiatives such as Skyway (2009-), Vicente (2011-) or Lightcraft (2015), produced between Portugal and Poland. In Poland, “Skyway” is about the collective celebration of the urban identity of the City of Toruń, birthplace of Copernicus. In Lisbon, in the area of Belém, “Vicente” is about revisiting the myth of Saint Vincent, Patron Saint of the City through Contemporary artworks and essays. (Figure 2) Also in Lisbon, but in the neighborhood of Castelo, “Lightcraft” is about celebrating the spirit of a place through original interpretations of the Art of Light in the outdoor and indoor spaces of the 500 year old Palácio Belmonte. In these projects an essayistic background becomes visible in a specific style of curating practice. Such practice shows how concrete urban contexts, through a clear and transparent take on locality, gain from entertaining an ongoing dialogue with the ‘giants’ of art and culture. The ethos of late-modern citizens’ reconnaitra les siens. Take Javier Nuñes Gasco and his project for Luzboa, Misérias Ilimitadas, Lda. (2006). It consisted in a very complex social readymade, involving the creation of a company of beggars, equipped with elegant neon signs (reproducing real signs previously bought to ‘real’ beggars) installed in some of the busiest streets of Lisbon. Their provocative presence raised questions related to social justice, poetically and performatively “blurring art and life” (Kaprow, 2003), or at least what one might expect from art in public space and what citizens should easily accept as civic. In fact, it is precisely in the interstices of what is/should be accepted that Gasco works, a territory of ambiguity where between reality and the construction of that same reality there is a both invisible and undeniable line. For the public, the seductive power of these urban characters and the managerial idea behind their semblance comes then from the fact that the artist uses reality not just as inspiration, but also – like Ukeles or Alÿs – as his medium and end result. In a particularly provocative style, the concept of liminality (Turner, 1977) is thus overtly explored, as well as a rare opportunity: to reflect on serious social problems in the very core of the affluent tourist and heritage City. Take Moov + Miguel Faro and their Soap Catharsis Wall (2009). It consisted in an ephemeral architectural intervention in the Polish City of Toruń, an important world heritage site: “In Ciasna Street we can find the evidence of time on the missing bricks on the walls that surround the street. Material scares that tell us an invisible story of conflict and abandonment” (Moov, 2009, para. 1). In fact, Soap Catharsis Wall traversed these material and civic dimensions through publicizing the most intimate fears of the human being.

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The gaps in the Ciasna Street walls – its ‘scars’ – were covered by soap bricks containing sins and confessions collected on the internet. Since each brick was illuminated from inside with a small LED, the whole street was transformed into more than an openly shared confessionary; it was experienced as an earthly sky, with the verticality of the place (ciasna means ‘narrow’), the low-key lighting creating a chiaroscuro effect, the soft paraffin odor and the written messages came together to create an impressive spiritual experience. Behind it lies a statement, not far from Azevedo’s: extreme care and precision can meet the necessity to question a place’s cultural paradigms and challenge future generations concerning their legitimate aspirations. Take Guerrilla Lighting and the action Firmament (2009), also for Skyway ’09. Revisiting the press release: Coming from Ireland, Guerrilla Lighting is a group of architects, designers and social scientists who stroke Toruń with their urban war on ‘bad lighting’. GL is about having fun and raising the aware- ness of the power of light. Like MOOV, they promote a tactical and convivial approach to urban design. As they have done in quite a few British cities, once again their actions included the citizens in creating transient architectural lighting installations using high-powered torches and colored filters. This time though, they accepted the challenge of the curator to expand their vision to the provisional architectural lighting of the City walls: the careful application of colored filters to the existing luminaires allowed the whole city’s ‘panorama‘ to be totally transfigured. It was in juxtaposition to the City walls’ ‘canvas‘ that the performative lighting of the gates underlined their function as nodes of communication, movement and creativity between the City, its people and the outside world. In line with the celestial theme of the event, GL have looked to astronomical images for inspiration and photos of nebulae from the Hubble telescope were particularly useful, as mood images. (Toruń 2016, 2009) What is striking in this generous understanding of artistic education is the complex network of decisions and emotions that such a highly participatory and ephemeral work, which lasts only time enough Figure 2. Vicente ’14. Performance in Lisbon by artist Krzysztof ‘Leon’ Dziemaszkiewicz.

Photo by Agata Wiorko. Courtesy of Projecto Travessa da Ermida.

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to take a beautiful photograph of the designs, offers to the public and directly involved participants. Somehow like with Christo’s wrappings, it’s as if the more ephemeral and fragile, the more radically shifting the conscience of the power of light as a social tool becomes. Take Raoul Kurvitz’s Cathedral, as presented in Toruń (2013). The church-based building, made of discarded windows and window frames, a calm mesmerizing sound, a few projectors and candles, is a monument to light, both spiritual and actual. Installed amidst the ruins of the former St. Nicolaus church, its presence was an obvious invitation to look at the religious in an abstract way, (as if) independently from any doctrine. In fact, during the presentation, moved visitors – who had the opportunity to light themselves a candle – had the impression that they were in a peculiar, almost sacred world. So, one can say that the installation touches upon the innermost human feelings, provoking not only reflection but a meditative cosmopolitanism. In order to engage the viewer in such mood, the artwork defines the rules for its own game, no less than the détournement (that is, the integration of present or past artistic productions into a superior construction of a milieu, as developed in the 50’s by the Letterist International and later by the Situationist International) of the cultural-architectural form of the church. What is magic is how each material decision taken by the artist has led to the tangible (sculptural) definition of a total space, both ordinary and extraordinary. (Figure 3). Take Dominik Lejman, and his 60 Seconds Cathedral (2012). Lejman’s projection, onto the façade of Toruń’s Contemporary art center, features a specially-trained group of skydivers attempting to recreate the vaulted ceiling of the Durham Cathedral as they fall to earth. The specially commissioned film recordings reveals not only shapes in the sky inspired by the architectural diagrams of the Cathedral, but represent a collective process lasting 60 seconds. For, in order to achieve a collective result – their cooperation – the skydivers have to open their parachutes just before dispersing their formation… This whole ‘scene’, endlessly repeated in a loop, has the capacity to evoke the structure of Christian values, as well a philosophical and ethical enquiry. It is important to note that Lejman, just like Wodiczko, projects these kind of ‘films’ onto architectural surfaces, creating his own brand of video art, in fact, his own take on painting – or, what he calls his time-based-painting. More precisely, these “mergings confront our prejudices of what we think a painting should be in the same manner as the Suprematists did in using collage as a technique to defy the boundaries of their generation’s assumptions of what a painting was.” (Persons, 2014) While doing this in terms of their artistic filiation, Lejman pays particular attention to architecture and spaces as well as to the question of how they influence or even determine people’s patterns of movement. So art, in this approach of the urban video-projection, and despite (or because of) its fragility and ephemerality, blurs the given in the spaces and involves the viewer in the collective discovering of spatial and cultural structures, visible and invisible. (Figure 4). Finally, back to Lisbon, take the latest version of Stefan Kornacki’s ongoing Inscription Project (2015). The main idea of the project Inscription is to act in public space using recovered inscriptions and neon signs. Since 2009, installations, events and happenings based on and using the original designs appear in different contexts, relocating stories of the places they come from. Keeping their character as communication devices, these typographic signs embody a semantic field which becomes disturbed and expanded, promoting new possibilities of meaning. The original functionality of the messages is completely surpassed. In the ruins of Pátio de D. Fradique, the artist has installed words such as ‘VICTORIA’, ‘KOSMOS’, ‘UNIWERSAM… Each evokes a complex memory. VICTORIA, the most international hotel in Warsaw, was once the first luxury hotel in Poland, having been immortalized in a number of 219

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movies… The word UNIWERSAM, once the symbol of an economic boom in Poland, was not so many years ago proudly on the top of the most important department store in Toruń… KOSMOS, also in Toruń (birthplace of Copernicus), descended from the skies in 2009 (from the top of the eponymous hotel), to star at the first edition of the Light Festival Skyway… In the framework of a new curatorial concept and establishing with the tourist area of Castelo a strange dialogue, The ruins at Pátio de D. Fradique become a post-apocalyptic scenery, though still demanding the act of reading. What conclusions might we draw from the experience of reading urban space as the relic from another Civilization? […] For it is clear they appear to want to be characters of the world-text which is history, memory, discourse. (Belmonte Cultural Club, 2016) (Figure 5) In sum, all the works described above are a particularly compact expression of the ways art in urban space is taking since the Conceptual turn. In a few words, it is basically about new Contemporary flâneurs tackling the everydayness of the City in all its complexity, while producing political assaults on the urban forms and, at the same time, managing to question their own (ir)relevance concerning the collective destiny. Art like this is of course related to what Guattari – after Næss, the father of deep ecology (Næss, 1973) – has proposed as ecosophy in 1989 (Guattari, 1998/2008). And it is as well a complex communicative act that can be seen as a comment on the past, the present and the future of society.

FOR THE TOTAL RHETORIC OF URBAN ART What might be the consequence, for each new generation, of encountering in the City these urban aphorisms? In such total communication of the City there is a fundamental move, connecting the artistic and creative drives to the conquering of the City-as-device. Through rhetoric and rhetorical insight the vital activity of developing awareness tackles the urban mess, through cultural interfaces, as Krzysztof Nawratek puts it, that are specific(ally) urban. (Nawratek, 2012) Artworks appear then as short utterances expressing a true or wise idea.

Figure 3. Bella Skyway Festival ’12. 60 Seconds Cathedral in Toruń by artist Dominik Lejman. Photo courtesy of the artist.

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Figure 4. LightCraft, 2015. VICTORIA in Lisbon by artist Stefan Kornacki.

Photo by Agata Wiorko. Courtesy of Palácio Belmonte.

Though remaining an assemblage of fragments, the City as a fragmented reality becomes something I – the citizen – can communicate with, make mine, and then finally integrate in my life. It is in this sense that certain urban gestures are solving specific gaps, such as between architectural concept and lived space, or between top-down discourse (for instance the official narrative of a building) and bottom-up conversations (for instance when that building is ‘taken over’ by art for an ephemeral moment). Today, the impact of such kind of gestures is found not only in a whole new range of street art practices (authorized and non-authorized, more or less legitimated by the system of art), but as well in the core of a new sensibility of politicians, managers or urban planners – not to mention ‘mere’ citizens – toward the role of artistic innovation. When it comes to boost a place’s spatial character, cultural identity or social potential, real innovation in Civic Art is about letting us acknowledge such as public potency (Lins, 2004). A truly civic art project therefore frequently promotes a feeling together, being necessarily the out- come of a combinatory art (Schefer, 2005), rebuilding through imagination our presence in the world and intensifying it poetically. Sometimes, our conversations with these objects (and processes) is marked by shock, or incomprehension; or by pure joy and the feeling that they simply make sense; what counts is that this always emergent grammar of artistic diversity is turning the urban into something more and truly shared. This might well be connected to the ability of society to learn (Sloterdijk, 1987). In any case, and regarding the problem of art’s (fundamental) autonomy, it’s important to note, with Jacques Rancière: Whether the quest is for art alone or for emancipation through art, the stage is the same. On this stage, art must tear itself away from the territory of aestheticized life and draw a new borderline, which cannot be crossed. This is a position that we cannot simply ascribe to the avant-garde insistence on art’s autonomy (Rancière, 2010, p. 129). Such insistence in the value of art is in tandem with the belief that the emancipation of the Civic starts with the attention to the other. This is a most pertinent strategic hypothesis (Lefebvre, 2005, p.

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116), for the City must be seen as capable of creating interfaces for the production of attention (to the other, to ourselves, to ourselves as others, to the others as ourselves). Only then can our Civic attention take place and become visible, in the Arendtean sense (Arendt, 1998). Unlike mere representation, situated artistic practice is accordingly about encountering the city. For, unlike representation, which reinforces thinking habits, critical civic art stimulates in the public affective power (O’Sullivan, 2006), thus the process of trying to tackle the confusion that follows the disruption of habit. All this becomes quite clear when we see how a certain urban form – the street for instance – is both the stage and the mechanism for urban concepts to conquer our attention (see for instance the Reclaim the Streets collective actions or, now within the art institution, an artwork such as Celebration (Cyprus Street) (2010) by Melanie Manchot. In both cases, situating the philosophical concepts in the everyday adds other possibilities to the trivial (Blanchot, 1987). Considering all the previously mentioned gestures of art in the urban environment, it is interesting to take a historical note into consideration. For the Ancient Greeks, kairos was a key-category to articulate the objectives of the speaker and the time and circumstances of his speech. This idea is in the core of the science behind the ephemeral in communication. It is also crucial to consider another strategic hypothesis, the one of a sovereign speaker. Rhetoric is then to be understood as the core of a problematology (Meyer, 1994) and never to be confined to stylistics or theory of argumentation. It is fundamental to turn urban spaces into discursive challenges. Thus, for a rhetorical spirit, democracy is in fact an integrated activity, materializing virtual individual and collective values. It is a formalized technique connecting people, just like art (in the City) can be about fostering a pragmatic knowledge through which we acknowledge our own persuasive powers, toward the Contemporary possibilities of the polis (Arendt, 1998) and of the urb – the two opposite poles of any urban model. (Nawratek, 2019) In any case, the alwaysemerging individual and collective task at hand is to establish a human-society-infrastructure-nature plexus (Nawratek, 2019), maybe with creative citizenship getting inspiration from Ernst Jünger’s total mobilization and stereoscopic view. (Nawratek, 2019). Of course, not all art has necessarily to be ‘political’ in the sense of deliberately conveying an opinion (about democracy for instance); but one thing is certain: any work implies a logos within its structure, it is the result of some authorship or emitter’s activity, and finally it will always be received through the experience – pathos – of some emotion. This is why the urban artwork might be seen as the rhetorical event par excellence. Or, in other words, and expanding the idea: for rhetoric, either we citizens speak and create in the very matter of the City, or somebody speaks and creates instead of us. In the present moment, one horizon is to envisage urban experimentation and prototyping as moments for pure joyful creation the only way to going beyond Capitalism’s attack to life, as it reduces life to numbers, metrics and typologies (Nawratek, 2019). So, the critical rhetoric offered by Civic Art today follows and expands traditional fields – from the New Genre Public Art, a term coined by Suzanne Lacy in 1991 (Lacy, 1995) to Wodiczko’s Critical Public Art (Léger, 1997) –, ranging today from the creation of immersive synthetic landscapes to the promotion of participatory contexts for grassroots citizenship. The Civic might well be a meta-rationality that is crucial for social participation and allows an emancipated experience of the political (moment). This certainly means that art shall as well deal with the City of images (Campos et. al., 2011), that same urban scape which became in the last years less a stage for soundbites (the slogans of traditional politics, for instance) but more a Gargantuesque orgy of visual signs (Stallabrass, 1996). Noise. It is 222

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important to note here that when acknowledging this shift, some artworks rightly manage to connect the visual and the written in a particularly witty way – this is precisely the case of Kornacki’s salvaged neons. In the end, one has to accept, firstly, that the visual is more visceral than the textual; and secondly that “rhetoric is used in the construction of true arguments, or in identifying what is relevant, the crux of the matter, in a selection of true but otherwise trivial statements” (Wikipedia, n.d.). In any case, without rhetoric there cannot be an emancipatory experimentation concerning citizenship, just as a certain kind of artistic practice is the Civic sharing of urban discourse and knowledge. Through it, culture becomes an integrative expression of the urban logos, which has a major consequence: it becomes clearer, how the City works, because complete citizenship is about having and exchanging opinions, in particular those defining our relation to the environment. This might explain the specific rhetorical power of contextual art and locality-based urban design practices (when resilient to the absurdity of a globalization). And of course urban situations where the sublime is manifested in absolutely moving ways. In fact, for rhetoric, what is fascinating is the intense interest for the concrete facts – even of inner experiences of revelation. As Ross puts it, ‘form’ and meaning of the world must be found not beyond, but embedded in its ‘matter’. (Ross, 1987) The most iconic work of Eliasson, The Weather Project (2003) is a fine example of such a processuality. At some point, one can now look at this total rhetoric of buildings, places, streets and landscapes as the platform for a sort of magic realism – the very same perspective connecting Vilém Flusser’s ideas about how design should deal with the codes of the world (Flusser, 2002) to Joseph Beuys’ polemical proposal of social sculpture. One could add: behind the idea that every man is an artist, lies another one: every reader may prepare him/herself to become a writer. Another possible consequence of this is that the public becomes its own public. To finish this point, and with Aristotle: in the power of devising the possible ways for persuading people about any given subject, rhetoric is about demonstrating possibilities, or it isn’t rhetoric at all. Through this lens it becomes clear why some critical actions by artists such as Gabriel Orozco, the Stalker Collective or Freee are the very proof that in urban life there is a deep need for performatics to light up urban reality. What is performatics? “the science of making through forms(s), or knowledge of making through forms” (Hunter, 2008, p. 7). Hunter adds: “Fine, but forms, shapes, are nothing without material, so the emphasis has to be on ‘through’ rather than ‘form’, it’s the science of making through if it’s a science at all, ‘peractics’? Not only a science but a production, sliding into operatics, with its hyperbole and excess” (Hunter, 2008, p. 7). So, rhetoric is making a spectacular comeback to Public Space. As Meyer has put it, this never before seen expansion of rationality and evolution responds to a democratic anxiety for collective and public knowledge and power. Art’s rhetoric is in these terms an extremely lucid enterprise, but only as long as it remains the art of encountering the multidimensional City. We can even affirm that there is an art which starts with paying attention to the City. It is Civic Art which promotes and updates Aristotle’s endoxa – a lost link between commonplace and consensus, as ‘embedded’ in the everyday. Put another way, any Civic Art which forgets that communication demands the experience of pleasure – see Barthes’s erotic of reading (Barthes, 1973) – won’t do any good for the community; and this explains the fascination with urban art works which, despite not solving the problems of the world (would we expect that from them?), still show how to engage audiences in their own participation. Especially when extraordinary or memorable, the artwork redistributes emotions (Gross, 2007), and this is today’s greatest of challenges.

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Creating provisional communities of more or less involved and engaged publics, Civic Art can be seen as an emotionally rich response to a dangerous grammaticalization of the visible (Stiegler, 2002). For Stiegler, we need a new economy, based on caring. It is something crucial for the critique of technology and the industrial model which is defining urban life but not caring for its libidinal sustainability. In other words, an art engaged with the Civic is an antidote to the alienating technologies of the spirit that surround us in/through the urban experience. This is for instance what happens when certain artworks question the pervasive ubiquity of publicity and its images, for instance in ‘counter-visual’ guerrilla actions or vertical urbanism. So it is not only possible, but necessary, to relate the fundamental gesture of Duchamp – Lanham (2007) sees him as the ultimate economist of attention – to Contemporary Art’s potential to become a public thing. For if rhetoric is man within logos, we desperately require an open-ended conversation with ourselves as citizens, in the form of successive dialogical devices for transindividuality – a term coined by Gilbert Simondon (see Combes, 2012). The task of creative citizenship is then to activate any available space (or space-time) for intervention, letting enthusiasm fight apathy through an effective appropriation of the contigent. It is in this sense that Contemporary rhetoric is the public art of participation, making it explicit that there is one possibility sustaining all others: again, we can be actors and not just spectators of our own destiny. And in this sense art might even become powerfully reflexive-meditative-contemplative instrument. With Adorno (1998), we shall not forget, though, that enigmaticity is a characteristic of art; and, with Giulio Carlo Argan (1992), we must see art as the epiphany of the urban context; so, the most thoughtprovoking public art might well be the one that manages to communicate its own problematic autonomy. That means, at some point, avoiding the temptation to become a popular rendition of ‘common sense’. So, artistic installations and urban projects can be a legitimate laboratory for cultural visions concerning the taming of a productive tension between the ‘interior’ in its relation to the outdoor and the ‘civic’. Especially when performing a peculiar rhetorical balance: an ethos of attentive and open curiosity toward the City (as lived environment); a logos of ongoing research and production based on the reconfiguration of the elements which constitute the City (people included); and finally a pathos through which social encounter is felt as redemptive beauty (and/or sublime). In other words, creative citizenship is fuelled by the tensions provoked by the activation of its driving force(s) and at the same time of the discrete factors that define the City and create urbanity. But it is decisive to note, that in urban art, just as in exhibition curating “good exhibitions have a definite but not definitive point of view that invites serious analysis and critique, not only of the art but of the particu- lar weights and measures used in its evaluation by the exhibition maker” (Storr, 2006) So great urban art always tells a lot about the processes it went through to become a public utterance and create potentially common value. Several concepts implicit or explicit in all the urban/Civic art works mentioned above can now be seen as elements of a plot. They are sometimes messy concerning their relation to pressing civilizational issues, not to mention immediate agendas; but they are no less a perceptual toolbox at our disposal when it comes to the pragmatic appropriation of the urban realm, the City, and all kinds of transitional spaces we come across in our everyday. Of course, some of these works are a complex and at the same time concise mediation of various forces, while others appear to remain pure communication, that is, a somehow impoverished and a-critical experience of the urban apparatus. But some key-questions are to be put: in a time of pervasive media and 24/24 communication – against which Virilio proposes his dromology (Virilio, 2006), what is the cultural if not civilizational 224

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role of resilient urban practice? And how to judge that resilience, and to understand its formative and pedagogical value and integrate it in a both cognitive and insightful appropriation of urban space? How can the art of the urban be truly shared, and become a collective asset in the City? The position should be to accept a marginal (ir)relevance among the dynamics of the cultural industries? Or to participate in the dangerous games of total (political, aesthetic) action through the apparently non-political issue which is the aesthetics of a good life? What are the other options available? What kind of agency are we interested in? In this text’s loose cartography of artistic proposals, their power is evident as is their persuasive character. Humour or irony, for instance, but also gravitas and serenitas help us to create the grounds for creative citizenship. This implies that we engage with art in much more generous and assertive ways than to see it just as an instrumental tool for cynicism to perform its power of alienation. In order to tackle these issues in all their complex entanglement, the authors who could join the dialogue range from Vilém Flusser to Brian Massumi, Bruno Latour or Malcolm Miles. In any case, inspired by these and other authors’ key-terms (a jargon), it’s always fundamental to continue to question one’s relation to the Project, once we look at it as an urban utterance. For the City as a text is to be revisited from the perspective of the production of urban facts. Art – be it a cathartic performance, a synthetic landscape, a haptic projection, a polished sculpture, or even the unexpected result of a spontaneous proposal by anonymous writers trespassing legal limits – is a major force-field to experience the world of ideas beyond any strict disciplinary boundaries. That’s what comes to the mind of the public when enjoying the mesmerizing installed drawings by Jana Matekjova-Middleton (with Rory Middleton) realized in Lisbon, in the framework of the Light events Vicente (2011) and LightCraft (2016): It is a model for the appropriation of the occasion in the City, creating pauses in which to feel a space, more than losing oneself in landscapes. It teaches us to be part of something marvellously enigmatic, close to our deepest, but also highest, aspirations. It tells us to pay attention to those urban moments when one hears the heart of the City, pulsating in textures of light and sound (Caeiro, 2012). So, it is through the analysis of concrete cases of art in the City, that we might acknowledge how art can appear as a teknè sensitive to discrete elements of the urban form, while leading them, at the same time, to become the building blocks of urban creativity and civic life. As we see, these artworks, along with other urban situations created by non-professional artists or interventionist citizens which risk social innovation, have defined the standards for art to become a public thing. What we witness today is certainly a broad and frequently enlightening set of practices resonating these issues, of course in disparate contexts and posing the diverse problems that actuality inevitably brings. Be it through the action of throwing words onto buildings – the text-based art of Martin Creed (Everything is going to be alright) or Claire Fontaine (Capitalism kills love) is particularly compelling; managing social processes through participatory cartography – see the emotion-mapping projects by Christian Nold (Nold, 2009); tactically appropriating and celebrating the street – see Kitchain by Moov + Benedetta Maxia… (Louro, 2009) art is today frequently flirting with its redefinition as the staging of Civic processes. In the previously referred to urban situations, one recognizes of course different rhetorical balances. But what must constantly be underlined is the (ir)relevance of one specific dynamics between the values present in any project. It is the aforementioned balance between attention, device and grace. For any 225

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interesting Civic art project is always something which departs from the act of paying attention, namely to the urban facts surrounding us. The artist, the curator, the cultural manager, the educator, create a protocol for that attention to become a public fact, in order for the (potentially mystical) transformations of art to be appropriated by the public, often by the public created by its very semblance. Finally, what the community experiences is a situation that functions as a platform for the City – and the world as such – to appear to itself. When this happens, it may occur that people recognize relations between themselves that were previously not acknowledged, and experience a common or collective emotion, shared in urban space. The present text assumes art is an aesthetic modality for staging the Civic. Through the acknowledgement of a rhetorical layer in the artistic production and reception, the presentation of a few Contemporary artists’ proposals is the proof that through art, society is looking as if into a mirror, recognizing its current urban situation but also the possibility of a collective cultural horizon. The point is that the urban project demands a look onto how art works not only in, but also for the City. Some artistic installations, as well as certain urban projects are a valid laboratory for cultural visions concerning the taming of the productive tensions between the ‘interior’ in its relation to the outdoor and the ‘civic’ in its relation to the creative citizenship society should recognize as one of its own main driving forces. In this chapter what has been presented until now is part of the jargon behind a specific method for looking at art and creation in the City. It might be considered crucial for a truly Contemporary understanding of the City as a whole. It is an understanding inspiring all those innovative activities that can now be defined as the outcome of a total rhetoric of the urban form. In other words, art is embodying a peculiar rhetorical balance – an ethos of attention to the City in all its multidimensionality; a logos of urban-based research and finally a pathos of shared information and knowledge, mirroring society and the urban realm. It is thus crucial for anyone interested in the development of citizenship, and artistic citizenship in particular, to understand why some artworks – more than others – convey an approach of the urban and social reality in ways which transform cognitively given ideas about the urban reality. In other words, it is obligatory to experience or at least to read certain artwork’s situated metaphors – the way these works deal with the urban form and its elements – in order to make the rhetoric something closer to the everyday of each and every citizen. Eventually, such promotion of multidimensionality is important for any institution or organization wanting to engage with the power of art (Groys, 2008) as a liberating and inspiring vision of the Human in relation to space(s).

EPILOGUE: ON URBAN SPACE AS A THEATRE OF APPARITIONS It is time to acknowledge the contribution of co-author Madalena Folgado to this text, within a discursive strategy that sees how the publicness of art, as part of a global movement toward a deep airy awareness, where the urban space appears as a theatre of apparitions. In other words, as a stage where we – the public of the City, namely the citizens – shall give what has been given, as a gift. Allowing what comes into being to be presented is a talent, it demands embodied presence. Greatness is always announced by soundless, however (s)pace-creating, heartbeats. This reminds us what Timothy Morton calls “truthfeel”, which diverges from the truth-like (2018). Mainly, because it makes us feel vulnerable and we do not want to feel vulnerable, ultimately, we do not want to feel. Nonetheless, vulnerability is the tesserae1 for entering in the theatre of apparitions. The strength of 226

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urban dialogue stems from silence – currently a psychopolitical defense weapon; i.e., when spaciousness arises within ourselves in such a way that (g)hosts what is not me. Yet, what haunts me connect us, phantasmagoria triggers processes. We are now – more and more – aware of it. The experience of a specific work by César Barrio2 has haunted us text; auratic phenomena has taken place3. Therefore, we are proposing his work – We, the two authors, are now discoursing through what remained from that experience, at the core of the urban space. We are still staging in his work: unfolding layers and partaking from its maturation process, once given us to see, by means of (under)standing (for) it as an apparition4 (Didi-Huberman, 2017). As a result of such engagement with the anachronic, fundamental (urban) strata appear – a sort of cardo and decomanus of being is showing us the way. Writing about such work turned out to be a conscious act, an act of contemplation5 – a word derived from the Roman cities’ foundation act (Trias, 2002). On the other hand, it means to unfold the notion of stage itself; in the theatre of apparitions, polysemy is part the play(full) stage. If you are still with us, you are consciously acting through an unfolding read; you are staying-being with us, taking part in your role at the theatre of apparitions, however, not as a persona. We can dwell in the publicness of artworks through the participation in their very production and reception conditions: presence is a gift and to stay present is to be gifted with essence. It is now time to give to see the Barrios’s delicate and simultaneously clear and powerful instantiating gesture, meaning that we cannot (over)stand it, but rather humbly listen to what it has to say: its greatness is announced by a choir-like discourse; i.e., in our terms, its ancestral publicness, as a result of self-attunement. Quatro Paredes de Água (in Portuguese, ‘Four Water Walls’) is the name of Barrio’s installation; itself a curriculum vitae, a gate to the course of life, since both a course of water; four water falls, four water walls. Before rhetorically switching to colour, we ask the reader to dwell with us in the four amniotic water tanks and its child-like drawings on wash-house’s6 walls, wherein it took place; since water was available to be played – We could faithfully touch the world before it comes in. Not even the white acrylic panel bleached this primordial sensation. Yet everything seemed to be in an autopioetic7 process throughout the day light; water reflections embodying the space, as well as shadows and the passing of the time, the loquat tree… everything was dancing. Such beauty refers to an unceasing sparkle, to approaching life’s hermaphrodite heart (Molder, 2010). We “truthfeel” plurality when the urban discourse becomes the dialectic image that seals the encounter between the What-has-been and the Now, as if in a flash lightning, to use the terminology pointed out by Walter Benjamin his livre des passages, (1989). In order to span such cosmic-like gap, and experience its deep profound connectiveness, artistically (in)formed citizenship has to engage with a sort of spiritual parkour. By means of dissolving the eye-mind’s objectiveness and playing with its apparent limitations – its porous walls – something enlightening then happens. This experience can be seen as much as transcendental as subscendental, considering Timothy Morton’s definition: “Subsendence is transcendence upside-down. Subsendence is the format via which the whole is always less than the sum of its parts” (2016). We are warming-up for eye parkour. Yet, warming-up as getting close, approaching what cannot be graspable, one could use the expression coined by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, on the eye’s mysterious profundity, in his essay L’Oeil et l’esprit, an ever-present reference for both authors of this text and the artist César Barrio, in which the French phenomenologist refers to it as the deflagration of being, (Merleau-Ponty, 1997) – regarding enlightening, at the Fenix’s nest, not her pyre. (Bhabha, 2018). Concerning the formation of a constellation, (Benjamin, 1989), as figurative happening of being, and from his painting experience, Barrio 227

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has shown us that he knows by heart the following Paul Cézanne quote, retrieved from Merleau-Ponty’s essay: Ela [a cor] é o lugar onde o nosso cérebro e o universo se reúnem8. In order to keep the rules of this academic article, we are presenting the original source from which the quote was retrieved in the main text, and translating it at the correspondent footnote. However, from it, please keep in mind the word cor (=colour) and its intimacy to the expression ‘knowing by heart’; as we are about to see, there is a crucial translation process involving both. In terms of gravity – and against all odds – it seems much more profitable to be down-to-heart rather than ‘down-to-earth’; there is something suspensive at the core of a deep touching experience. As a matter of fact, half of the communal wash-house of Francesinhas in the neighborhood of Madragoa is about to be demolished, in order to give way to the construction of a day centre. Yet colour cathedral has been created by means of the intense visual embodied moment at experiencing Barrio’s Four Water Walls. The artist vividly washed acrylic panels there. His vigorous ceasing9 gesture both captured –as in a ghostly photograph – and released – as in a panting by a child – decades of colour; from human body’s secretions, now proudly standing still, to colour tisanes captured and given to see in their (e)motional dance – in their releasing human (co)motion. Through some anachronistic artistic wisdom, these colour explosions have lead us to Ana Hatherly’s Tisanes. The latter have their own world, since they work out as an emotional map to a cultural framework, in-fusion – inner fusion – producing a releasing movement, one could say, the released (all)chemical substances have the spirit as their judge. (Hatherly, 1997, p.7)10 Still mesmerized by our almost daily stay at the four water tanks – four water mirrors – an old saying appears in our minds: “Sill waters run deep”. In fact, paradoxically, there is something deeply revolutionary in contemplation; and of course, since our rhetoric is moving towards spaciousness, we are prone to release all emotions first. Yet, as we have said in the beginning of this epilogue, vulnerability is the pass-word to get in the theatre of apparitions. Didi-Huberman tells us that emotions have a power of transformation, nonetheless, they are not the power itself; the anachronistic art historian takes the sense of the words addressed by Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe to children in a conference in which the philosopher showed them that from the moment a music touches us, something called joy takes place in such a way that we might cry, however, not from sadness: this happens because we are experiencing the oldest emotion, arising to submerge us (Didi-Huberman, 2016). If there is something alchemic in salty tears, concerning aesthetic experience, there is also something syn(a)esthetic about the saltiness of Tagus River that seems to have lent (trans)lucidity to the acrylic supports used by Barrio. As the artist stated,11 his work intentionally reflects the way the Tagus spreads its light reflections onto the streets, creating a light denser than the air. Barrio’s total installation staged a dense atmosphere: inside it, we are going nowhere but now. We are staging the stage. We are acting consciously; remaining not only present, but also remaining as presence. At this moment, ‘We’ accurately includes you. To put it in phenomenological terms: “present is an essence” and “when we represent ourselves intuitively and with sheer clarity it means cor” (Husserl apud Hessen, 1987,). Cor it is a Latin word that means heart, and in Portuguese language we can write colour with the same tree letters; however it sounds totally different; as I sounds the same as eye. Additionally, saying “I know by heart” is to say “Eu sei de cor12;” which means that if you are objectively reading, you might end up apprehending something as “I know by colour” and not by heart. Nevertheless, it is the same in the very core of this art work. Something from its production moment has been carried away to the receiving moment through presence. Presence goes beyond mere interpretation, presence’s translation agents turn the ungraspable into a momentarily tangible cultural phenomena – and that is civically

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immense. Visually speaking and sense translating, concerning the Latin root of the word translation, i.e., translatio, which means carried across, one could say that we are in-sight-seeing colour in a joyful way. Resuming to emotions, ajoie or abgioia, is the Italian chosen word by Didi-Hubernan for joy; in its turn, the latter has been taken as a loan from the medieval troubadours by Pier Paolo Pasolini, since the ‘a’ of joie (=joy), works as a veil, giving it a private sense; it can refer to the absent of joy or to a higher joy (2016). In sum, only presence can translate it. However, when facing duality, the art historian recommends the following task, “to find signs of restlessness in the heart of our present joys as well as joy possibilities in our actual pains” (2016, Didi-Huberman). In the last day of the communal wash-house, there were no troubadours, there was Fado, a Portuguese emblematic music genre; particularly relevant, since it is a socio-cultural reality in the area. Fado means fate and is usually perceived as sad. “Sad is happy for deep people”, is a Doctor Who’s saying, quoted by Timothy Morton, to playfully make us realize the urgency of not remaining numb, concerning the ecological agenda (2017). While the Fado singer and the two Portuguese guitar players performed, Barrio performed himself a painting. We were at the very core of the four water walls and Barrio painted an immense heart13. It is up to us to make it beat, since the past is away. Furthermore, concerning presence as essence, Husserl tells us about the moment when we walk our sight on perceptions, by pure intuition (1987), everything then becomes a portal. “A portal is a place where the past and future meet without touching”. (Morton, 2016). All senses are, vividly, partaking from this theatre of apparitions. And here we go again: senses and senses… Such playful rhetorical complexity does not reflect a complicated speech; it rather stages the civic, beating up; the City claims for embodied spaciousness – presence –, afterwards, the most stunning after-words, effortlessly appear – as urban haikus. In other words, the City does not need more layers of data, the latter means what is given (Morton, 2017). What is given is gift, a gift is a present, awareness is, therefore, to beat up the present. Marie-José Mondzain relates this beatness to a beautiful Greek word: Exousia. The complex translation of this word beats up for power; true power; concerning our context, power with. It refers to the gift’s excess, once appearing as “the irruption of the possible’s signs in order to be given back multiplied”. It stems from the very fundamental creative act. It refers to freedom, however, not the absent freedom of the Greek slaves, but rather something momentarily tangible to the subject of desire and word (2011). Therefore, when we say possible, we are referring to its superabundance (Mondzain, 2011). We have experienced exousia as a sort of spatio novel, having in mind an insightful quote from Iris Murdoch on what should be a novel, that had blown Homi K. Bhabha away: “A novel should be a house for free people live” (2018, p.19). Once given to see, the spatio novel became the script of the theatre of apparitions. And here we are again, back to the beginning, intertwined, me and the glance that stages me as a character, anchoring the infinite14, reading the preface of an Agustina Bessa-Luís’s novel, specifically, the following words, written in 1959: A arte é a constante das realidades invisíveis.15 (2010). We have driven by drive for phenomenological rigour. Eye am appearing behind the anchor colour16. Barrio’s conversation piece (Kester, 2004) took place at the centre of the installation; in such total interface, we have been moving from rhetoric to spaciousness. We have been enlightened by the discovery of the temple by means of a growing conscious act – accordingly to Trias, cum-templare (2002). The cruciform water matrix was already there, designed by the four building-tanks and its street-corridors; the two axis, cardo and decomanus; respectively, north-south and east-west main streets – the strata of our in-sight-seeing tour. Barrio’s installation lifted it into the infinite. We only have to be empty enough to see it.

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Figure 5. Set of photographs of César Barrio’s installation, Quatro Paredes de Água (2019). Photo by Madalena Folgado.

REFERENCES Abreu, J., & Abellio, R. (2015). A caminhada para o conhecimento. Paris: Nota de rodapé. Acosta, A. (n.d.). i-MPERFECT a series of interventions by Andrea Acosta. Retrieved January 30 2016, from http://i-mperfect.blogspot.pt/ Adorno, T. W. (1970/1998). Aesthetic Theory (R. Hullot-Kentor, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

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Albertsen, N. (2000). The Artwork in the Semiosphere of Gestures: Wittgenstein, Gesture and Secondary Meaning. In J. Bakacsy, A. V. Munch, & A.-L. Sommer (Eds.), Architecture, Language, Critique: Around Paul Engelmann (pp. 67–104). Amsterdam: Rodopi. Appadurai, A. (Ed.). (2001). Globalization. A Millennial Quartet Book. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Ardenne, P. (2009). Un art contextuel: Création artistique en milieu urbain, en situation, d’intervention, de participation. Paris: Flammarion. Arendt, H. (1958/1998). The Human Condition (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Argan, G. C. (1992). História da Arte como História da Cidade. São Paulo: Martins Fontes. Aristotle. (n.d.). Rhetoric (W. Rhys Roberts, Trans.). Retrieved from http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/ rhetoric.1.i.html Azevedo, N. (n.d.). Monumento Mínimo. Minimum Project. Retrieved from http://neleazevedo.com. br/?page_id=6 Bala, S. (2018). The gestures of participatory art. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. Barrento, J. (2011). O Mundo está cheio de Deuses. Crise e Crítica do Contemporâneo. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim. Barthes, R. (1973). Le plaisir du texte. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. Belmonte Cultural Club. (2016). LightCraft Belmonte. Three original interpretations of the Art of Light, in the outdoor and indoor spaces of the magnificent Palácio Belmonte, in Lisbon. Retrieved from http:// palaciobelmonte.com/image-video-gallery/lightcraft-belmonte/ Benjamin, W. (1989). Paris, capitale du XIXe siècle: le livre des passages (J. Lacoste, Trans.). Paris: Le Cerf. Benjamin, W. (2008). Work of art in the age of its reproducibility, and other writings on media. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bessa-luís, A. (2010). Prefácio. In Ternos Guerreiros. Lisboa: Babel. Bhabha, H. K. (2018). O mundo e a casa (J. Baptista, Trans.). In A casa e o mundo. Lisboa: Lata. Blanchot, M. (1987). Everyday speech (S. Hanson Trans.). Yale French Studies, Everyday Life, 73, 1220. (Original work published 1959) Blumenberg, H. (2010). Paradigms for a Metaphorology (R. Savage, Trans.). New York, NY: Cornell University Press. doi:10.7591/j.ctt7v7cn Bourriaud, N. (1998). Relational Aesthetics. Paris: Les Presses Du Réel. Brighenti, A. M., Campos, R., & Spinelli, L. (Eds.). (2011). Uma Cidade de Imagens. Lisboa: Editora Mundos Sociais.

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Butler, A. (2013, December 3). Civic stage by Frida Escobedo at the Lisbon triennial. Retrieved from http://www.designboom.com/architecture/civic-stage-by-frida-escobedo-12-03-2013/ Butler, C. (2012). Henri Lefebvre. Spatial politics, everyday life and the right to the city. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203880760 Caeiro, M. (2012). Hearing the Heart Beat of the City. Future is Now, 3-5. Caeiro, M. (2014). Arte na Cidade – História Contemporânea. Lisboa: Temas e Debates/Círculo de Leitores. Christo. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/wrapped-reichstag?view=info#. VmazBWSyOko Combes, M. (2012). Gilbert Simondon and the Philosophy of the Transindividual (T. LaMarre, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. De Certeau, M. (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life (S. Rendall, Trans.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Debord, G. (2006). Report on the Construction of Situations and on the International Situationist Tendency’s Conditions of Organization and Action (K. Knabb, Trans.). In Situationist International Anthology. Revised and Expanded Edition (pp. 17–25). Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets. (Original work published 1957) Didi-huberman, G. (2016). Que emoção! Que emoção? (C. Ciscato, Trans.). São Paulo: Editora 34. Didi-huberman, G. (2017). Diante do tempo. História da arte e das imagens (L. Lima, Trans.). Lisboa: Orfeu Negro. During, S. (Ed.). (1999). The Cultural Studies Reader (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Fisher, J., Medina, C., Ferguson, R., & Monterroso, A. (Eds.). (2007). Francis Alÿs. London: Phaidon Press. Flusser, V., & Ströhl, A. (Eds.). (2002). Writings (E. Eisel, Trans). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1978) Formis, B. (2003). Le pouvoir de la syntaxe: Yvonne Rainier choreographe et Ludwig Witgenstein philosophe. In Revue d’Esthétique, 44. Paris: Éditions Jean-Michel Place. Franck, K. A., & Stevens, Q. (2006). Loose Space: Possibility and Diversity in Urban Life. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203799574 Goldberger, P. (1995, June 23). Christo’s Wrapped Reichstag: Symbol for the New Germany. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/23/arts/christo-s-wrapped-reichstag-symbol-for-the-new-germany. html?pagewanted=all Gross, D. E. (2007). The Secret History of Emotion. From Aristotle’s Rhetoric to Modern Brain Science. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Grout, C. (2000). Pour une réalité publique de l’art. Paris: L’Harmattan.

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Merlau-ponty, M. (1997). O Olho e o espírito (L. Bernardo, Trans.). Lisboa: Vega. Meyer, M. (1994). Rhetoric, Language and Reason. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Miles, M. (Ed.). (2005). New Practices. New Pedagogies. London: Routledge. Molder, M. (2010). Sobre a beleza. Jornal Arquitectos, 241, 93-97. Mondzain, M.-J. (2011). Nada tudo qualquer coisa ou a arte das imagens como poder de transformação. In A república por vir. Arte, política, e pensamento para o século XXI (pp. 101–126). Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Moov. (2009, October 10). Soap Catharsis Wall. Retrieved from http://moovblog.blogspot.pt/2009/10/ moov-art-summer-2.html Morton, T. (2016). Portals. In ÅBÄKE et tal. The Baltic pavillion (pp. 12–18). Berlin: Sternberg Press. Morton, T. (2018). Being ecological. London: Pelican. doi:10.7551/mitpress/11638.001.0001 Næss, A. (1973). The Shallow and the Deep Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary. Inquiry, 16(1-4), 95–100. doi:10.1080/00201747308601682 Nawratek, K. (2012). Holes. In The Whole: Introduction to the Urban Revolutions. Winchester, WA: Zero Books. Nawratek, K. (2018). Total Urban Mobilisation. In Ernst Jünger and the Post-Capitalist City. London: Palgrave Macmilan. Nold, C. (Ed.). (2009). Emotional Cartography – Technologies of the Self. Retrieved from http://emotionalcartography.net/ Notzold, P. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.txtualhealing.com/blog/ O’Sullivan, S. (2008). Art Encounters Deleuze and Guattari. Hampshire, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Pacquement, A. (2004, September 1). The precarious museum. Retrieved from http://www.tate.org.uk/ context-comment/articles/precarious-museum Panda, B. (2004). These Sculptures Look Awesome, But The Story Behind Them Will Melt Your Heart. Retrieved from http://www.boredpanda.com/minimum-monument-ice-sculptures-first-world-war-neleazevedo/ Persons, T. (2014). Dominik Lejman. Painting with Timecode. Berlin: Hatje Canz. Purves, T. (Ed.). (2004). What We Want Is Free. Generosity and Exchange in Recent Art. New York, NY: State University of New York Press. Rancière, J. (2002, March-April). The aesthetic revolution and its outcomes: Emplotments of autonomy and heteronomy. New Left Review, 14, 133–151. Rockwell, B. H. (2011). The Life of Voices: Bodies, Subjects and Dialogue. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203818893

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Tesserae, which also means tile, was a token used as theatre ticket in the ancient Roman Empire. It symbolized a person’s entanglement under the established authority. César Barrio (Oviedo, 1971) lives and works in Madrid and Lisbon, and he his graduated in architecture by the University of Navarra in 2009. Since then, he has been delivering classes and lectures as an invited professor in several architecture universities. As an artist, his first exhibition was in 1989, and he has been collaborating with diverse architecture’s studios and in multidisciplinary projects. As a strange tissue of space and time: the unique apparition of a distance, however near it may be (Benjamin, 2008). Georges Didi-Huberman dedicated a subchapter of Devant le temps: Histoire de l’art et anachronisme des images to this subject matter referring to the Benjaminian concept of aura. Paulo Borges, in a lecture on Contemplative Culture delivered at Museu do Oriente in Lisbon, on July 20th, 2019, clearly stated that contemplation is a conscious action, in which there is no separation from the stillness of being. Contemplation, he clarified, is often misinterpreted as the opposite of action. César Barrios’s installation took place at the communal wash-house of Francesinhas, in Lisbon, from May 9th up to 31st, 2019. See the concept as coined by biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. It [the colour] is the place where the brain meets the universe. (Author’s translation). Barrio’s intallation intentionally marks the last event at the communal wash-house of Francesinhas. As Tisanas são in-fusões destinadas a des-prender. Contrariamente ao espírito búdico, que aspira à imobilidade as Tisanas aspiram à dinamização. Daí o seu rosto ocidental, irónico e pungente. O mundo das Tisanas é um mapa emotivo de uma conjuntura cultural em que os agentes de sentido têm por árbitro o espírito. (Hatherly, 1997). In a talk, May 23rt, 2019 at the place. Heart, however, means coração in Portuguese language, the Latin root remained.

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Maria Filomena Molder says that there is no muse for beauty (2010, p.75). Barrio started is performance painting a women figure, and then she vanished in colour layers, until become the installation heart. Lisbon – Anchor of the Infinite has been the slogan of the 2018 edition of the Project VICENTE, curated by Mário Caeiro for Projecto Travessa da Ermida. Art is the constant of the invisible realities. (Author’s tranlation). A day before, at the talk – the conversation piece – Barrio named the pinky-red colour as anchor colour.

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Chapter 11

Interactive Spaces:

What If Walls Could Talk? Davide Crippa Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT The chapter focuses on the contemporary project, interpreted using the paradigm of interactivity as privileged reading key. Indeed, the changes (both social and technological) brought by the IT revolution and the information society force design to face new challenges, calling upon it to rethink the traditional categories of space and time. Today we are witnessing a more integrated fusion between physical products and digital images; the traditional boundaries between different environments are now dynamic and interactive communication interfaces; spaces become “perceivable” and the standard design of finished shapes seems to be replaced by the planning of reversible strategies. The project itself is what triggers different actions and is responsive towards its interlocutor, also thanks to a technological evolution now allowing a new osmosis between man, media, and space. The result of it is a sensory amplification defining immersive environments and setting new boundaries for the discipline that finds in exhibits its own privileged field of expression and research.

INTRODUCTION The Information Society: From Time Speedup to Space Dematerialisation We are in the era of “everything is possible”, of the highest accessibility and extreme ease finding any kind of information. To understand how we got to this situation it is useful to draw a historical picture of the changes that modified our approach – both theoretical and practical – to media experiences. According to the studies of the School of Toronto “the progress of technology appears as a [progressive] osmosis between man and the media, considered as “extensions of our senses” (Gagliardi, 2019). Indeed, each historical phase is marked by a special interaction of the media with their interlocutor and this necessarily determines various, every time more complex thought forms. McLuhan goes deeper into the media experiences dividing them in three phases, which correspond to as many development DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch011

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stages of communication systems. The first phase being analysed is obviously the oral tradition, which characterises the tribal culture and has its roots in verbal communication. From the time man started communicating, oral expression has always been the privileged system of communication and transfer of knowledge, a system supported by forms of transmission based on rituals, gestures and kinaesthetic body movements. Such phase is typical of a closed society that lacks any individuality, based on a culture of community sharing. The second stage is that of writing and printing, in which the eye replaces the metaphor of the ear. In this case, indeed, observing is preferred over listening: rationality and linear communication are favoured, as allowing graphic rather than oral transmission. This “cultural era” was undoubtedly disruptive, because printing has had a great impact on the Western society promoting education and literacy, mass production and industrialisation. The third and last phase is the electronic one; it proposes a global-scale engagement “that circularly extends the nervous system to the whole planet [...]: in the eras of mechanics we extended our body in spatial terms. Today, after over a century of technological use of electricity, we extended our central nervous system in a global embrace that, at least for what concerns our planet, erases both time and space” (McLuhan, 1967, p. 9). As a matter of fact, according to McLuhan “the speedup of the electronic era is for the Western man […] an unexpected implosion and a fusion between space and functions. Our civilisation […] suddenly and spontaneously sees all of its mechanised fragments reorganised in an organic entity. This is the new world of the global village” (ivi, p.102). Consequently also the design discipline moves away from its traditional forms and the approach of interior designers to space changes: we are now in a borderless “container” where data run fast and are within everyone’s reach; it is a virtual space that still is part of reality, appearing more and more clear and pervasive. It is the so-called “cyberspace”: an intangible dimension that connects the whole world through one network allowing users to interact with each other. The new dimension establishing itself is then the one of information and connectivity, as already explained by William J. Mitchell in City of bits (Mitchell, 1997) prefiguring the spaces of the future and the role of designers in their definition. Mitchell describes cyberspace as “a city uprooted by any precise point on the Earth’s surface, […] inhabited by incorporeal and fragmented entities that exist as collections of aliases and electronic agents” (ivi, p.17). Such virtual scenario, that has been object of many studies for years, has Marcos Novak as one of its strongest supporters, theorising the concept of Fluid architecture and defining it “an architecture that breaths, pulsates, jumps from a shape to land on another shape. Liquid architecture is one whose shape depends on the interests of those who look at it; it is an architecture opening to welcome me and closing to protect me; an architecture without doors or corridors, where the following room is always the one where I need to be and the one I need it to be” (Novak, 1991, p. 272). Therefore, space gains in the contemporary age the meaning of “many-sided determination of virtual within real” (Colonna, 2016, p.1). The very perception of the environments, just like their “expected use”, is totally different from the past, where a specific place was associated to a specific function, a logical placement and a static relation with the neighbouring contexts; now, on the contrary, we are witnessing an “endless rotation of elements, like the one you see moving from one window to another on a computer screen” (Jameson, 1989, p. 90). Making a more sociological reference to the topic here discussed it is important to mention the theories of philosophers Pierre Levy and De Kerckhove. Levy first analysed the concept of collective intelligence (Levy, 1996), defining it as an individual intelligence that is connected with other types of intelligence in real time; we can find it not only in the era of the media, but also in myths, rituals and legends of different cultural traditions. It is an intelligence allowing the interaction and exchange of information between many individuals, mixing their own resources and skills. De Kerckhove analyses instead more in 238

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depth the concept of connective intelligence (De Kerckhove, 1999), meant as an intelligence developing through relationships and bonds built thanks to the computer network. Connective intelligence, as the word says, implies the interaction and, more specifically, the connection between possible intelligences through the tools of new technologies. We could say that it is the dynamic part of collective intelligence: computers’ screens are nothing but places where thoughts are written and developed by various people who can meet here, wherever they are, whenever they want, to give their contribution to a common thinking process. In this respect the definition of Internet Galaxy by Manuel Castells is quite interesting: “if information technology is today’s equivalent of electricity in the industrial era, the Internet could be compared to both the power line and to the electric motor. […] Just like new technologies, that to produce and distribute energy turned factories and big plants into the organisational foundations of the industrial society, the Internet is the technological basis for organisation in the information era: it is the network” (Castells, 2006, p.16). This “galaxy” is a new environment, a place where to communicate, but also an unprecedented meeting point and a chance to express sociality on the Web, where communication methods “affect the language and the way we use it, also involving our data elaboration strategy” (De Kerckhove, 2011). New technologies appear as increasingly moving away from the classical idea of independent bodies, to a certain extent the computer becomes “an extension of our intelligence” (De Kerckhove, 2014), but the biggest gap – especially at design level – occurs when these are exploited by man as integral parts of his own sensory skills. In such a borderless scenario, of improvement of “cognitive functions” and of continuous access to new flows of information, we are witnessing an inevitable change in the society, which appears more and more diversified and kaleidoscopic. It is a society that relentlessly changes shape and structure, that feels it has to (and is entitled to) express itself on many levels, actively engaging each individual in its building. In urban planning this wish is expressed by the concept of open city: “the open city can foster exchange and cooperation between people, allowing them to take part in and continuously and creatively complete their own environments” (Sennett, 2013). On the contrary in architecture, this ambition can be well represented by the paradigm of Open Source Architecture (Ratti, 2014), a participatory, widespread and branched-out model based on connectivity, pursuing the same idea of collaborative planning. In both cases we notice an open system that, like in mathematics, is able to embrace non-linear shapes and abolishes the rigid hierarchical sequencing, leaving free, and almost endless, interpretation possibilities. In this society data are transferred at light speed through bits, that have no colour, no shape, no weight; bits are economic, they can be transferred everywhere and in huge quantities at ridiculous prices, to the point that they can be defined as the smallest atomic element of “information DNA”. According to writer Negroponte “Information technology is no longer about computers. It is about life” (Zampaglione, 1995), as if to further highlight how bits are an integral part of human relationships and that, without them, the contemporary society would collapse. They are now an inescapable reality and a founding element of the new digital society; the digitalisation process that they started has many advantages as it allows, for example, data compression and instant error correction, yet its reach is way bigger and affects several fields of life: it contributes to the building of a knowledge and a common consciousness (culture), it is a tool for direct democracy (politics), it is a platform for sharing data to produce “on demand” consumer goods (economics). This is an IT revolution but, as highlighted by Andrea Branzi, “the most relevant effect of the Third Industrial Revolution is mainly social and economic”: indeed, “a new social, destructured and dynamic economy is establishing itself [that] can be framed into the typical phenomena of a society like ours, which must commit everyday to reforming itself elaborating its status of permanent crisis in a positive way, defined by Kevin Kelly as essential condition for its survival and 239

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development” (Branzi, 2005). Vattimo interprets this society as bearer of weak thinking (Vattimo & Rovatti, 1983) as it works in an experimental way and does not produce any strong and focused positions: what prevails is the disjointed dynamics of knowledge processing. This weakness should not be seen as negative because, on the contrary, it promotes uncertainty as a value to pursue, as modus operandi and a boost to research more: “rules, order, permanency, irreversibility [now] make way for turbulence, disorder, randomness [and] erratic search for reversibility” (Branzi, 2005). Also the contemporary culture is constantly subject to new stimuli and continuous changes caused by the IT Revolution, changes that affect every discipline and express themselves through, for example, the so called “simultaneous synchronisation” that Livio Sacchi and Maurizio Unali, among others, have specifically talked about (Sacchi, Unali, 2003, p. 9). This concept of simultaneity can be described as an integrated information system allowing to process unified experiences, although led by other-places. In today’s architecture the direct equivalent of this experience is the bim, more specifically Building Information Modeling. It is a process that uses a model including all the data directly referring to a project’s whole life cycle; from its design to its creation, up to its demolition. With bim it is possible to create an integrated, shared and continuously evolving model of the artefact and it is easy to understand how, with a small change, the project becomes dynamic and can interact with more than one interlocutors. The most meaningful example in this respect, however, comes once again from IT, that already in 1984 had started with Linux an experiment for a collaborative planning platform that is still popular nowadays. In the past century “real” space was predominant; now, with “the speedup of reality” (Virilio, 2000, p. 3), the pervasiveness of information and omnipresence of the present, what prevails is “real time”. This is the legacy of the development of the kinematic mechanism, treated by Paul Virilio as a science applied to sociality and the society: “and meanwhile [a new] revolution is about to start, after the one of transports and telecommunications: the revolution of transplants. Indeed, micro-technologies allow the transplant in the human body of life, memory and perception stimulators. This development marks the introduction of technology in the living world, which, from the body of nature and the city, moves to changing the body of a human being. Marinetti’s futuristic dream and the idea of the man-machine have then come true” (Virilio, 1996). The theoretical approach towards reality – here briefly described in its philosophical and epistemological implications – has clear repercussions also on space, as the design scenarios and tools available for designers are many more than before, just like the users’ perception possibilities and sensory potential of spaces. In such a changing context the project itself eventually influences the process of use: stimulated and strained, environments respond to their users’ behaviours and more and more frequently “strategies rather than projects seem to emerge, not unequivocal solutions but uncertain scenarios, in a context of unpredictability and endless possibilities of use of the space” (Crippa, Di Prete, 2011, p. 9).

BACKGROUND The IT Revolution: The Paradigm of Interactivity Between Permanency and Transience, Between Forecast and Indefiniteness The context described so far generates a strong innovative boost to the design research, that constantly draws inspiration from various disciplines such as philosophy, science, art, mathematics. The landscape that designers are now exploring is indeed broad and diversified; it ranges from scientific research in 240

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mathematics and physics to Newton-based linear sciences, going through the sciences of complexity, with a deep interest in self-organising systems, chaotic and non-linear dynamics, starting from fractals. Theory and design easily converge on the philosophical ground: post-structuralist scholars like Jean Francois Lyotard have expressed “coherent criticism on the idea of system, hierarchy, centrality and the very idea of reason, as it was known from Enlightenment to fideistic progressivism, from historicism to ideologism” (Leoni, 2001, p. 92). This research field was also analysed by philosopher Jacques Derrida, who destructured the concept of identity, going against any attempt to identify human existence, and consequently its essence, with some sort of unity (Dalmasso, 2007). The unpredictability of the changes affecting the contemporary age, their undetermined nature and their reversibility are both a nutriment and a problem for design disciplines, that have always looked for a vertical control of results, starting from certain data and using well-established methodologies. Therefore, we are witnessing a clear handover between modern and super-modernity thanks to the new categories of thought that became popular with the IT Revolution, which led to a gradual shift from permanency and forecast to transience and indefiniteness. In a changing society of interconnection like ours, we are facing a dematerialisation of the very founding principles of the project; topography, morphology, typology make way for a new design vocabulary: narrative environments, responsive spaces, augmented objects set up a new grammar that today’s designers must necessarily deal with. In such a framework the physical and, now, also the virtual relationships are centre-stage. They are much more complex and gain a much broader meaning, as we no longer deal with interpersonal relationships only, but also with relationships between man and the surrounding environment. “That is, a new relationship built up between men and places, interlocutor and context, in which mutual changes take place: each individual tends to change their own context and are in turn changed by others” (Crippa, Di Prete, 2011, p. 279). Space appears more and more predictable, just like the person “occupying” it; between them is a new, extremely close connection, leading both parties to intersect and start a mutual dialogue. The environments themselves are more and more often capable of changing so as to perfectly fit in the complex system they are part of, reacting to internal and external inputs. Among others, Eduardo Arroyo focused on indefiniteness, proposing “an architecture of uncertainty” (Arroyo, 2003, pp. 26-29) able to deal with the new, the other and with continuous innovation, that is, able to search “reversible, incomplete, temporary solutions granting the possibility to make flexible decisions” (Branzi, 2005). Marialuisa Palumbo also shares this opinion, as in her view “[we have now] the chance to think architecture no longer as a (more or less exploded) brickwork box, but rather as a sensitive, flexible, changeable structure. […] We are witnessing the rebellion of the body to the organism as a closed, univocal and well-defined shape, in favour of a hybrid and transversal nature that doesn’t fit in the Euclidean measures, escaping perspective rigidity and the logic of otherness between organic and inorganic” (Palumbo, 2001, pp. 30-31). The scenario here pictured is that of the undetermined, of a space that follows, just like human nature, a constant openness and receptivity to external inputs. The concept of shape loses its meaning to give strength to the “logic of the shapeless”, involving the architectural as well as the artistic level. The process leading to the project no longer follows a composition rule, but appears as a “reversible and crossable architectural system, permanently incomplete and defective, yet suitable to include a space made of networks, services and relations, thus always likely to change over time” (Branzi, 2005). The management of this complex dynamism is proposed by Rem Koolhas as an urban planning-oriented attitude, as “the ability to think in terms of flows, events, changes and strategies” (Vidler, 1994). In this highly articulated structure the values of transience and variability find an operating synthesis in the concept of interactivity, meant as a category of design and of thought; the 241

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concept of interactivity between bodies-objects-spaces, belonging to different social and design patterns, is so contemporary that is by many considered a paradigm of the contemporary age: “ interactivity will be what transparency was in Gropius’ new objectivity “ (Saggio, 2004). Interactivity aims at structuring continuously evolving environments, changeable and responsive to the stimuli coming from outside, with which they are able to build an action-reaction bond. The unpredictability of this modus operandi makes the space uncertain, unstable and (sometimes) transient. This approach affects all the project scales, especially the field of museum and exhibition spaces, where the narrative element is prevalent. New staging needs are then established, to the point that the ability to interact becomes a design bedrock of contemporary exhibit: the objects and works exhibited establish a physical connection with the digital and telecommunications world, but especially an emotional, symbolic and relational connection with visitors. For this reason, the following paragraphs will specifically focus on this issue. However, the key tool offering the interactive paradigm a chance of feasibility can be found in the various IoT - Internet of Things devices, a neologism identifying all those objects responding to people’s needs connecting to the Internet with the purpose of monitoring, checking and transferring information to then perform tasks. For this very function they are – maybe simplistically – called smart or responsive objects.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER Smart and Responsive Objects With the term smart objects we mean those objects having a function of identification, localisation, diagnosis, interaction, elaboration and obviously connection. They are at the basis of interaction design, a science focusing on the study and design of elements interacting with their interlocutor. To give them a design relevance it is then essential to fully understand their context of use and their reference target, so that the interaction experience is fulfilling and stimulating. Among the factors to consider in the preliminary phase we can mention two parameters, one subjective, linked to the user’s perception and usage, and one more objective, with real usefulness. The Italian case best describing the genesis of these devices and their practical utility is with no doubt the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea. It was born from the joined initiative of Olivetti and Telecom Italia and worked autonomously from 2001 to 2005, when it was ceded to Domus Academy. “It is time to design emotions. The more I deal with technology, the more I realise that what really matters is emotions” (Palermi, 2002), this is what Giannino Malossi, Professor at the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, said about this new design discipline. The main purpose of the Institute was to create wearable technology, as it was defined by Stijn Ossevort: “ for example for elderly people, who can’t see well but want to read, we can imagine a tiny, ring-shaped flashlight to wear on their finger: while you follow the lines with your index finger you light up the page. With technology we can also make people happy” (ibidem). From Not so white walls to 22 POP the explorations between exhibit and product started in Ivrea are really countless. The results of these studies were presented in 2004 at Milan Triennale during the Milan Design Week and somehow revolutionised the way of designing and thinking Design, not only at national but also at global scale.

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Arduino’s “Revolution” The project that best describes this “revolution” is the platform Arduino, whose name evokes the one of a historic bar in Ivrea (where teachers and students used to go for breakfast) that in turn was an homage to King Arduin of Ivrea, King of Italy in 1002. Developed in 2003 by some teachers of the Interaction Design Institute as a tool for quick prototyping for hobby, teaching and professional purposes, this device allows to create in a fast and easy way small-size equipment able to manage lighting, motors’ speed, temperature and humidity. These projects use sensors and effectors allowing the communication between different devices; the software used is open source and the circuit diagrams are given away as free hardware. If Arduino represents the most precious and innovative technical synthesis that Ivrea left us as a legacy, some illuminating examples of its practical application were shown in the exhibition This is Today, the invasion of interactive ultrabodies (Mirti, Aprile, 2004), set up in the school in 2004. Some revolutionary and responsive solutions and objects were presented on this occasion, so smart that they seemed futuristic and future-proof prototypes. “This is the time of interactive design: ringing beds, smart cars and video upholstery” (Taccani, 2004); for example upholstery appears totally familiar to the touch and sight (it can be applied on the wall like a normal wallpaper), yet it features on the back a grid of sensors making it interactive. So, if touched lightly, Not-So-White-Walls can turn on the TV, set the volume, turn into a screen. “First of all ideas, projects, people, styles in the mirror to tell about the present and different prototypes to imagine and bring the future forward” (Minardi, 2004, pp .16-18). In this “invasion of the body snatchers”, like in Don Siegel’s movie of the same name “Interaction Design becomes the alien-friend able to recover the past to look at the future through human lenses” (Piassente, 2004). Indeed, the constant search for archetypes of the past is at the basis of this experimentation: and this is how also the project 22 POP was born, a typewriter capable of sending e-mails (the iconic 22 Olivetti made able to connect to a normal telephone line and send e-mails through the use of the Internet). Another noteworthy example is Tableportation, a brilliant project consisting of a complex system connecting many users who are in the same place, a cafè where, through the tables’ surfaces, people can interact with one another. Touching them lightly, pushing them or pouring some water, and putting them in contact with metallic materials triggers specific mechanisms making the tables capable of sending diversified messages from one side of the bar to the other, responding to external inputs and changing colours and ambient lights. This complex process of connection of bar tables comes from the need to allow strangers to communicate with each other to increase their interaction chances, giving shape to invisible connections and generating sequences of events. In a few years the visionary nature of these studies has incredibly known an unexpected market success: “Arduino created a market that didn’t exist where apparently there were no chances at all to make money: “honestly who would have thought that giving Design schools’ students the chance to build interactive systems would turn into such a huge phenomenon? Today it is finally clear that using the open source formula created an ecosystem” (De Martino, 2012). With this awareness Officine Arduino was founded in Turin in 2012, with the purpose of promoting open hardware and open source in Italy; interaction design also reflects on the gap that traditionally divided technology and “daily culture”, allowing to develop new economic sustainability models. This discipline – only relatively new – draws inspiration from and is based on Industrial Design (from which it takes method and perspective, taking them to the most technologically advanced places), with the aim of going beyond the simple utility-centred element to involve in the same system many senses, users, stories at a time. 243

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High technologies, small needs of everyday life and big daydreams finally find an accessible synthesis in this very system: for its main supporter, Massimo Banzi, Arduino is a defective machine that can find perfection for each individual. It has an endless scale of use, it can involve the most diverse fields of application at once and everyone can implement it in their image and likeness. Indeed, the board is still open source: anyone can make copies, can redesign it and even sell the copies. No copyright must be paid and no permission must be asked. What ten years ago seemed so far from reality is now one of the bedrocks of International Design. This is shown by applications like Open Mirror, apparently a mirror, performing many functions as actually being a speaker, a smartphone reading device and a light reproducer. One of the brand-new frontiers of fitness is instead Mirror, that follows the body’s moves and, through an avatar with the user’s specific body features, leads the training specifying the energy consumption and the exercises to do. Also, it is possible to interact with the mirror’s surface using it as a real touch screen to set exercises and preferences. As already mentioned, these extremely innovative projects are often based on objects of the past. The speaker Pelty fully explains the concept; it connects via Bluetooth and doesn’t require any power to run, as bio-oil combustion is enough for that. Thanks to the heat generated by fire Pelty powers itself and is able to reproduce multimedia content from smartphones, tablets and computers.

A Case History: The Design Hostel The project Design Hostel by Studio Ghigos and IDEAS bit-factory is also noteworthy (Crippa, 2017). This special design hostel uses the spaces of a former factory in Milan’s outskirts to create, between the machinery still in use of an old printing press and the new-generation ones of a fablab, some brandnew rooms for guests. The experience you live inside the hostel is really broad as you breath the air of materials, machinery, ideas and daily life made of dust and of pixels. Within this project the analog and digital levels become one, yet following two different processes, as they apply the same “rules”. This is how several experiments were born, among which an interactive book whose inks become metaphor and embodiment of the research between analog and digital (the first ink is pasty, diluted by the “smart hands” of movable type printers, the second is applied with laser printing, the third ink involved is instead conductive. When touched it sends a signal to a computer showing the digital information connected to that specific page). In this way the book interacts with the devices present in the room ad changes its perception of the space itself, switching on monitors and shows based on how these precious “sensitive” areas are browsed. Three inks. Three levels. Three different keys to reading. One page and one semantics of quotes similar to html, which evokes, not by chance, a hypertext. On the same occasion, the Milan Design Week 2017, the Design Hostel also proposed M@is 2.0, an innovative machine turning corn into popcorn producing “noise music”. M@is 2.0 reminds of the futuristic Intonarumori and, by simply inserting a coin in this strange “popcorn machine” you start a classical chamber music (the same base of “Serenata” by Antonio Russolo) randomly mixed with electronic music produced making popcorns blow. The “heart” of M@is 2.0 is exactly made of Arduino, that as an expert maestro uses the crackling to produce melodies. Again by Studio Ghigos for Design Hostel we can mention the project Favole al telefono (Fairy tales on the phone), presenting the “History of Italy’s food and drinks” using a hybrid format including an interactive exhibition, an immersive exhibition and a diffused exhibition. “In the exhibition, just like in the book [by Gianni Rodari], it all starts from a telephone receiver of an old Sip phone: picking it up and dialling a number you can listen to the story of one of the [food and drink] brands selected, watching 244

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Figure 1. Ghigos and IDEAS bit-factory, A letto con il Design- Design Hostel, project for the exhibition of Design Hostel during Milan Design week 2017, Milano, 2017. (© Copyright 2017, Angelo Becci. Used with permission).

the related video at the same time. The following step is to discover, walking around the rooms of the Design Hostel, what are the “suites” dedicated to these products, decorated with pictures and objects describing the history of each company” (Barriello, 2018). As it gets used, the space becomes alive: inside the rooms of the Design Hostel you can see projections accompanying the “fairy tales” you are listening to on the phone. They are historical documents, faraway landscapes, stories of products talking Figure 2. Ghigos and IDEAS bit-factory, Book Interattivo, Design Hostel, Project proposed for Design Hostel during Milan Design week 2017; interactive book, Milano, 2017. (© Copyright 2017, IDEAS bit-factory. Used with permission).

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about tenacity, courage and talent. By entering the various theme rooms visitors can fully dive into the world of each brand, where the business history of each is presented through various multimedia tools, giving voice to their protagonists. Just like smart objects exist, capable of responding and talking with their interlocutors, now spaces – especially for narrative and exhibition purposes – capable of triggering the same dynamics are becoming more and more, in similar ways but with extremely more inclusive and engaging results; these have been called in many different ways, but, more shortly, we could define them sensitive spaces.

SENSITIVE AND IMMERSIVE SPACES In interior design physical activity is meant as a type of space capable of changing, modifying its geometric, material and environmental features, from the formal to the light or thermo-hygrometric ones. These smart spaces are able to change depending on the situation or the order they receive: it is about “ conceiving sensors controlling the light inflow, managing energy optimisation and optimising the views; […] to think of a space that changes according to the variable needs of those inhabiting it” (Puglisi, 2002). A clear example going in this direction is provided by Decoi, that created a screen-buzzer for the theatre Aegis Hyposurface. This screen doesn’t use the communication ability of the images, but those of the screen itself: “the project appears as a dynamic wall driven by mechanical pistons and “animated” by the impulses caused by the passers-by’s movements, detected by sensors. The screen catches your attention because is an object in continuous transformation, changing its shape and getting bigger and smaller alternatively” (Crippa, Di Prete, 2005, p. 176). The project Aegi Hyposurface is an example of “architecture of uncertainty” (Goulthorpe, cited in Chang, Jiang, Chen & Datta, 2012, p. 92) that warps according to people’s proximity. This way, the time dimension penetrates the aesthetic one. This space is sensitive as it is reactive, yet it represents only one of the early stages of this kind of research, in which the borders of a mobile surface bind the exploration of physical interactivity. Many more, increasingly complex projects followed that move away from the pure surface to invade the whole space, thus appearing more and more immersive; just think about Padiglione dell’acqua by Nox, Museo Chopin by Migliore+Servetto, Memoriale Giuseppe Garibaldi by n03 as well as Piccolo Museo del Diario by dotdotdot. All cases in which the interior design project and that for the space-container work together in an indistinguishable unicum, that engages the users in participatory dynamics, multimedia environments, visual and sound inputs proposing enchanting multi-sensory paths. In this respect, ADA – The intelligent space, interactive pavilion presented at the Swiss National Exposition Expo.02 and designed by the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Zurich, must definitely be mentioned as one of the most complex and forward-looking examples: “Ada is a new, space-shaped artificial organism capable of perceiving its own environment and react to it. Its shape allows a new type of interaction between man and machine, that goes beyond the possibilities of a standard computer, that is, keyboard, mouse, joystick. Ada has a sensory system, it can see, feel, perceive the contact. Ada can’t communicate using words but expresses itself through sounds, lights and projections. Ada learns to coordinate its many components, like the tiles of a floor, mobile eyes and luminous beams. It is able to remember the visitors it played with and of whom it perceived gestures, moves, and noises. Just like human beings, Ada learns from experience: it can memorise a specific circumstance and use it in its following actions. Ada can also connect different pieces of information and draw conclusions. If for example two people stay close to each other for a long time, it will deduce that they are together” (D’Ambrosio, 246

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2006, p. 140). Therefore, the purpose of this organism is to establish a connection between physical and psychological world, catching their mutual bonds. It is a sensorimotor system; a sort of robot shaped as a space with real smart sensors, able to make visitors “feel like they visited a human being” (Palumbo, 2004). Ada has a “brain”, it can process complex thoughts and simple or ambiguous information; it as a sleep/wake cycle and can explore its own spaces, letting others explore it. Indeed, Ada feeds on others’ experiences and has nerve endings made up of neural networks. Just like humans, also Ada is unpredictable and reacts to the surrounding environment quite similarly to humans; it is no coincidence that its design took years of research on the brain and its impulses. In this case the computer is almost an element of the space, capable of mixing real and virtual every time with more creativity.

The Precursors of Contemporary Research This history of design explorations around the paradigm of interactivity, that now counts on several well-known cases, finds its cultural substratum of reference in a series of artistic studies belonging to visual art, mainly carried out by Nam June Paik and Studio Azzurro, that thinking videoart in a new way created the conditions for the progress of the discipline. They are our forerunners, the masters all the following researches still owe a lot to. Particularly, Studio Azzurro is certainly one of the most interesting designers for this paper, as it marked a turning point in the design world using new technologies in an interactive way, using them not only as a tool but also as a language. The studio was founded in 1982 thanks to the partnership between Paolo Rosa, Fabio Cirifino, Leonardo Sangiorgi and Stefano Roveda, promoting a research that explored visual arts, cinema, theatre, architecture, music, urban planning and design: from their very beginnings “they started their long journey through electronic art driven by a spirit reminding of […] a Middle Ages or Renaissance workshop, where the goal was to create an art that, although using the most complex and modern technologies, still preserves an ancient spirit; a “behavioural” art that is not something to look at from a distance, but a collective and shareable experience in which to identify and mirror oneself” (Di Marino, 2007, p. 5). As a matter of fact, new technologies are an amazing new tool used by them to trigger emotions, almost raising awareness in the viewer; in this way, when they approach the museum they won’t see it as a simple place where to store up memories, but rather as a place to live, explore, even to change. In Totale della battaglia, for example, made for Museo Virtuale in Lucca (1999), Studio Azzurro designed experiences, not artworks. Here the designers brought back to life a bastion of the city walls, enlivening it and immersing the visitor in the very moment of the battle, of which they recreated the atmosphere and dynamics, noises and brawls. It is no longer just a historical monument, but a living work that endures the passage of time: “the place, as they wrote in the project back then, raises no doubts: it is real, solidly laying down on its centuries, tolerant but harsh, almost severe in its hospitality yet ready, with its brick and rocky soul, to join at any time any adventurous idea of the men who started to put it in place and test it long ago, piece by piece. When we think of the approach underpinning the making of the project for Baluardo we inevitably think of these two souls: one modern, technological, light, made of unstable electrons and the other one solid, old, built with old stones” (Cirifino, Papa & Rosa, 2011, pp. 39-40). From the first research phase, explained for example in the ambient video Il Nuotatore (1984), the studio developed a path of gradual critical detachment, which resulted in the use of projections to replace screens (that, having a frame, appeared too far from the immersive concept of space Milan’s designers 247

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were pursuing). Experimenting the potential of a projection shaped “in” and “with” the space, Studio Azzurro also tried harder and harder to hide the technological equipment supporting the installations, to avoid everything that could “lead to a technological reading of such relation. It was better not to show any electric wire in the environment. This allows to see more clearly not the “technology” but rather its effects. It also allows to connect more effectively the intangible world of images, sounds, with the tangible one of objects or environments used to complete the work” (Rosa, in Mattei, 1998-1999). This second phase of Studio Azzurro’s poetics found fertile ground for experimentation in the adventure of theatre, field in which the studio was probably the first to make gestures and media converge: “if in those years, following Teatro Immagine by Memè Perlini, the new scenic writing theorised by Giuseppe Bartolucci and Carmelo Bene and the metalinguistic experiments of Carlo Quartucci, the research theatre searched in cinema and in the new video language new forms of expression, Studio Azzurro and Corsetti managed to catch earlier than anyone a new and possible way to make theatre action and video image complement each other, creating the “double scene” “ (Di Marino, 2007, p. 25). In the play Prologo, for example, Studio Azzurro staged a real TV set not visible to the public; here the actors were like trapped. Twelve video cameras, positioned in four vertical lines, filmed their bodies and movements made visible to the audience only through twelve screens, each of which connected to a camera. The actors then appeared on the scene invading it and destabilising the public only through their electronic virtual bodies. “The event of the direct and indirect interaction between the actor’s body and the virtual space of the video results not only in a new scenic concept, but also in a new perceptual experience for the viewer (an issue that will become key in Studio Azzurro’s projects and will culminate in the sensitive interactive spaces of 1990s)” (therein, p. 26). This dialogue between real and artificial characters allows to think of the scene with a drama rather than scenographic approach, a gap allowed by screens that go beyond their mere technical function. This incursion in the world of drama is useful for this paper as it represents a crucial phase of the research, a middle turning point – both practical and conceptual – that will lead to the definition of the most mature sensitive and interactive spaces: “sensitive spaces are [like a] big theatre, of which the viewer himself becomes protagonist together with the virtual performers: with a clap he influences the microevents, with an unexpected move he magically materialises objects, with his body movement he can wake up other bodies. […] [These are] virtual architectures that develop on three spatial levels, all strongly interconnected: that of the image, of the device projecting it and of the surrounding environment” (therein, p. 7). These installations are “alive” thanks to the body interactions of those observing and using them: the hands, gestures, and moves literally “reawaken” things, making them animated. Currently, retail and exhibition spaces are those in which it is more likely to come across this kind of installations, where “collaborativity”, amazement, gaming and wonder are now usual design categories.

The Interactive Paradigm in Exhibition Design In particular, in sensitive spaces with exhibition functions “the device is not only a medium, a technological mechanism, a container of images, a system of signs, but becomes the symbolic element influencing all the others involved and establishing a new concept of the world and of things” (therein, p.14). Thanks to the cooperation between people and environments, these spaces are able to describe and, more importantly, to make people live a direct experience, reinventing the traditional museographic setting: the concept of archiving, of preservation and the very use of the museum must be rethought in full. Indeed, the boom of the multimedia culture redesigns “models and methods of knowledge transfer, which leads 248

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to change people’s mental frameworks and behaviours and to reconsider past values and future projects” (Cirifino, Papa & Rosa, 2011, p. 6). In these exhibition spaces it is essential to notice how technological devices are not displayed as artworks, but rather as “amplifiers of emotions”; this means “not making what is banal more technologically complicated, not putting technique’s needs into the foreground, but rather focusing on the device’s effects, emphasising its results” (therein, p. 12). In such a view museums can be described as “ecosystems of knowledge, immersive places of experimentation, territories of memory. They are real “narrative habitats” in which the fragmentation of stories favours an experiential approach and interactive language creates the conditions for dialogue and participation” (therein, p. 13). Therefore, in museums we more and more live and actively take part in stories, we share experiences and immerse in alien worlds. We no longer focus on the object as such but on the story (and the kind of storytelling) that is told about it. Designing these relational practices requires a careful study of gestures, perceptions, sensations and a punctual and previsional analysis of the possible interactions between visitors, work, device and space: “the museum, in its participatory, experiential and interactive form, is like a developing laboratory, it appears as a territorial reference and a hub for experimental activities. It acts like a real “creative station” that, put on the web with similar initiatives, generates a productive cycle of new culture that, without losing contact with history and memory, is capable of opening to the new forms of expression emerging on the territory and in younger generations” (ivi, p.19). The new paradigm of interaction design has broken into our lives, yet it is probably the museum field – and the exhibition field in general – that underwent the most disruptive changes (conceptual more than physical): the museum can no longer be an impersonal container of documents, as it must and wants to be captivating and able to “narrate without voice”.

A Journey Through Interactive Exhibition Design The sensory experience explored by Studio Azzurro paved the way to a series of projects that, thanks to the accessibility of more and more affordable and easy-to-use technologies, have now become a common language. Lombardies - a unique territory with multiple identities, made by Ghigos for Expo Milan 2015, is definitely one of these projects owing a lot to the researches of Studio Azzurro. The stand shows the thousand facets of Lombardy, its colours, perfumes, flavours, sounds, exploring a broad and varied territory marked by different social habits and cultures. The exhibition develops in three spaces, guiding visitors through an evocative path between landscapes of sensitive data, interactive platforms and dynamic projections. The words of the curator Giuliano Simonelli clarify the perspective from which the research was carried out: “the exhibition is not only an occasion for representation, but also a time of regeneration and reflection to look at the future, while talking and interacting with the world” (Simonelli, 2015). The setup includes two big “paintings” made with the technique of “cromolandscape” that reconstruct “the digital tracks left by online users of “Google images” in different countries of the world” (www.polidesign.net/it/Lombardies); a “constellation” of start-ups is made accessible through position sensors that activate the video-interviews of the start uppers: Lombardy’s “nursery of innovation” is outlined through a “3D anamorphic diagram” while the typical plain, hill and mountain landscapes “turn on and off” when visitors pass by. In this way the regional tradition is explained through stories belonging to the collective identity, recognised and recognisable, yet conveyed with technological tools and scenographic mechanisms turning the visitor into both a user and a content “activator”.

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Once again, then, we see a hybridisation between sensitive spaces “activated” by technological devices and immersive spaces, where the exhibition project gains a strong scenographic value and the emotionalperceptual element often goes beyond the mere didactic one. For example, thanks to the partnership between Politecnico di Milano and Domus, an interesting project was born in 2016 that was then staged at Piccolo Spazio Politecnico in RovelloDue: Lo spettacolo degli artefatti presents a selection of Architecture, Design and Engineering works linked to Politecnico di Milano with a focus on their technological challenges, aesthetic researches and the motivations behind them. However, the concepts of innovation, beauty and functionality no longer lie in the objects or works exhibited, but the whole exhibition space becomes a medium helping them convey those very concepts, taking visitors “in the backstage” of each experimentation and making them live the atmosphere of every new discovery. The interactive installation welcomes visitors between architectural mock-ups and collections of sketches, here “it is enough to take the “right” block, letting yourself be captured by the title or intrigued by the design on the cover, and place it on the bookstand nearby. Doing so, you will see a new multimedia content start in front of you. The storytelling gets started. Videos and images become alive on the vertical surface. By changing the block of sketches you change the project and the content being projected. Few seconds of viewing and you choose again a new topic” (Domusweb, 2017). The full engagement in the story – with visitors surrounded by projections that seem to make the room become intangible – is at the heart of the exhibition experience, an immersive experience that goes beyond standard, pedagogical storytelling. The design choices made for the exhibition In linea con Zanuso (2018) seem as much engaging and interactive. The exhibition, curated by Davide Crippa for and with Politecnico di Milano in the rooms of Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, paid homage to designer Marco Zanuso, considered one of the fathers of Italian industrial design. “Entering the place you find yourself pleasantly disoriented, immediately led back to the studio of the great Milanese architect, where you can still admire the outstanding drafting machine that saw the birth of masterpieces like Seggiolina K 1340 (Kartell, 1964), Unità mobile di emergenza (MoMA, 1972), the system for the endless couch Lombrico (C&B, 1967); Olivetti Plants (Guarulhos, Figure 3. Ghigos, Lombardies - a unique territory with multiple identities, project realized for 2015 Expo exhibition, an evocative space in colours, parfumes and Lombardy Region wonders, 2015.

(© Copyright 2015, Davide Crippa. Used with permission).

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Figure 4. Ghigos with Politecnico di Milano, RovelloDue: Spazio, Tempo, Parola, the exhibition that inaugurates the new space of RovelloDue to commemorate Luca Ronconi, the last Director of the Piccolo Teatro, Milano, 2016. (© Copyright 2016, Davide Crippa. Used with permission).

San Paolo, 1956-61; Buenos Aires, 1955-59), IBM Offices (Segrate, 1968-76) or Piccolo Teatro itself (Milano, 1979-98). Now the drafting machine contains sketches that seem frozen out of time, maybe dusty but still contemporary, capable of telling us about the recreational needs of a child who became “creator” of space, the prefab solutions for the “new nomads”, the experimentations of “domestic land art” but also the anti-middle class innovations, […] the myth of a factory bringing wealth and beauty, just like the metaphor of a society mirroring itself in a theatre and turning it into an “urban monument”. Among the sketches exhibited are a mix of memos, work notes and telephone numbers allowing to literally “get into” each project: the unique Grillo (Siemens, 1966), available for visitors, becomes a means to be Figure 5. Ghigos with Politecnico di Milano, RovelloDue: Lo spettacolo degli artefatti, project in the space of RovelloDue that immerses the visitor in the background of architectural and engineering design, with a particular focus on “how is it done?”, Milano, 2017. (© Copyright 2017, Davide Crippa. Used with permission).

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“put through” with Zanuso and get closer to his thoughts. A phone, but also a “storyteller”, because by simply dialling the number written down on the sheets you activate multimedia contents guiding visitors through a symbolic dialogue with the designer and his works. A chance to “first-name him”, as if he was still here with us, tracing new worlds for us” (Crippa, 2018). Zanuso was always ready to redefine rules, demolish conventions, create new needs providing innovative solutions, yet strongly grounded in reality. In line with these attitudes the exhibition setup played on the clash between utopian boost and practical consequence, welcoming visitors in the studio of the designer and from there, by extension, through his phone, in his world of ideas and creativity. The recent exhibition “Leonardo Da Vinci 3D” (Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan 2019) is another multisensory exhibition that redefines the traditional narrative about Leonardo with a multi-sensory language through augmented reality, holograms and some immersive paths which use images, sounds, lights, music and colors in an evocative setting. Although using different tools and specific “user-experiences”, we could say that all the cases described here – and in general all the projects proposing sensitive and immersive exhibits – aim at creating “emotional landscapes”, thus combining the need to display the content in a clear and immediate way but also to make them captivating. This results in museums like modern storytellers, inviting to “touch” and interact with exhibition systems so as to achieve two goals at once: on one hand they catch the viewer’s attention and curiosity by raising all his senses, opening also to audiences of non-insiders usually less interested in exploring museums; on the other they push visitors to go beyond the first level of interpretation of the content, promoting a personal reading that can be remembered more easily.

Figure 6. Davide Crippa, In linea con Zanuso, installation in homage to the designer Marco Zanuso; a face to face with the artist and the background that led to the creation of his most famous works, Milano, 2018. (© Copyright 2018, Davide Crippa. Used with permission).

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FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Interaction Intercepts the Contents Dimension As it has been explained up to now, “ on one hand there are designers who exploit the capacity of information technology to transform objects and architectural components into instruments that perceive external commands and inputs. [...] On the other hand, more refined research is emerging which, [...] progressively, exploits new media and the most advanced telecommunications technologies for the creation of “new visions” “ (Crippa, Di Prete, 2005, p. 175). In short, one could conclude that we are witnessing the establishment of intelligent systems that automatically respond to their user’s gestures or words, taking as physical code the functional-physical code between the environment and the inhabitants, as well as projects that mainly play on the perceptive and sensory level. As previously illustrated, driven by the need to obtain easily communicable, scenographic, impactful and immediately understandable results, museum institutions mainly invest in this last option, promoting research and innovation. It is not by chance that it is in this context that the first experiments with “augmented” spaces can be seen (think of the “reconstruction” of the furnishings in the Villa Reale in Monza) and of “virtual” spaces (such as the ancient “Virtual Museum” by Asymptote). Hence, we can imagine that cutting-edge prototypical research will gradually be introduced under the new technological thrusts. In this analysis, however, it is interesting to introduce a further step, which reveals some interesting interpretations of the near future; observing some uncommonly explored routes, widespread in the museum field, one perceives, a further change of paradigm: not only users of a “sensitive” or “augmented” space, but all people increasingly appear to become builders themselves of the contents. In this perspective of a collaborative museum, the themes addressed are the result of “social” incursions or participatory dynamics that directly involve the visitors. In this scenario it is the curation of space itself that dictates its rhythms and forms and, increasingly, the museum becomes a unitary work in which the curatorial, exhibition and spatial projects converge. Thus in 2007 the founders of Studio Azzurro said: “ the interactive experience has undergone a new transformation, going from a simple dimension to a more participated one, investing the social territory as well as the environment “ (Di Marino, 2007, p. 44). Studio Azzurro and its successors have therefore not only transformed the container-museum, but have reconsidered the very concept of the “museum form” (by connecting physical spaces, collections, contents, visitors and the experience). “ In the past, before them, the intervention of the artist on and in the museum was limited to hardware (architecture, placement of objects in space, interior and visual design), they never dared to “touch”, or even worse design, the software (contents)” (Cirifino, Papa & Rosa, 2011, p. 168). From this moment on, the museums and exhibition pavilions are ready to “tell a different story”. Emblematic in this regard are the projects for the “999 questions on living” exhibition, curated by Stefano Mirti (Milan Triennale, 2018), or for the exhibitions promoted by Nancy Proctor, executive director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, whose contents are the result of participatory and inclusive dynamics, of digital collaboration and “social incursions”. The affirmation of all these interactive components as characteristic elements of contemporary installations “is bringing [also] the design of urban interiors towards a much more scenographic dimension: they almost become windows on dynamic shows, the stage of a changing narrative or even, sometimes, themselves an unprecedented “show” “(Di Prete, 2016, p. 173) to which the inhabitants participate in an always more conscious way. 253

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If, in fact, not too many years ago the interaction was still in its infancy and played with people “using” their gestures and behaviour, today the work-user partnership is increasingly evident and even sought after. The intercepted evolution in the museum context seems, therefore, to be repeated also in the urban context. Consider, as extreme examples of this progression – in terms of concept as well as design - the project “Usman Haque. Activate the sky” (2004) and “Living Connections”, recently set up on the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal (2017). In the first case it is a cloud of balloons equipped with internal sensors that make the LEDs change colour inside the balloons, based on the field generated by the electromagnetic waves in a particular moment; this installation is therefore configured as an “empathic” sky, representative of the underlying information flows determined by the number of messages and phone calls made. The case of the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal is much more “involving”. It is the first bridge that can be lit up and coloured dynamically based on the news appearing on social networks with 2,800 led lights and 27 mln euros invested. The installation “Living Connections” (2017) appears as a multi-coloured interface capable of showing the mood of the city: the bridge changes its own skin in real time, chromatically connecting with the city’s trend topics and changing the intensity, speed and density of the lights according to how often Montreal gets mentioned on social networks (every tweet with hashtag #illuminationMTL becomes a “moving light”, the lights expand for every new like). In this way, «thanks to intelligent programming, this first connected bridge comes alive every night. An iconic landmark during the day, the bridge comes to life at sunset, [...]. Activated by millions of data that make up the pulse of the city, the bridge becomes a unifying, living and lasting symbol» (https://jacquescartierchamplain.ca). The spatial dimension goes beyond pure form and traditional dimensional constraints: the so-called “urban reservoir ” is no longer just a boundary to “fill in” with contents or to be equipped, but it becomes an interface, a sometimes elusive story, a scenography dynamic that changes according to the relationship with the visitor (Di Prete, 2016, p. 173).

CONCLUSION As discussed in the previous paragraphs, over the last few years the use of technology has played a more and more crucial role in the design and artistic choices characterising both architectural research (which, however, always appears strongly reluctant to include new experimentations in its artefacts) and especially exhibition design. Indeed, thanks to new-generation technological devices there are now more ways of communication, expressive languages and abilities to convey complex concepts immediately (settings, atmospheres, suggestions hardly conveyable through a mere written description). Space and technology complement each other and are equally involved in the museum or art experience; “the link between art and technology is actually a real longstanding love. Metaphors aside, and not considering some peculiar cases in history, [...] last century’s 1950s and 1960s marked one of the first turning points in the dialogue [between them]. A dialogue capable of generating a homogeneous flow of experimentations, experience, hybrid collaborations” (Mancuso, 2019). As it often happens, art advances dynamics that subsequently become widespread also in the other design fields, prefiguring both spatial and social visions. This was also the case for the paradigm of interactivity, that from primordial theoretical speculation or purely prototypical research soon became virtual reality, augmented reality, digital production, with undeniable repercussions also on the industrial 254

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system as well as the design one. Therefore, today it is almost impossible to split physical and digital world and – although the “analogue” is object of constant rediscovery and enhancement, in response to the rampant digitalisation of the society – the use of technology is now so pervasive and inclusive that it seems hard to do without it. Smart objects living in our homes every day, “easing” our lives; sensitive artefacts capable of perceiving our movements, adapt to them and recognise our moods; immersive spaces that amplify the experience of use making it emotional and engaging: these three categories constitute a broad horizon already offering practically observable and measurable solutions, that in this paper we tried to briefly explain. This investigation, however, is obviously not thorough; it opens countless further explorations, stemming from that super-fast process of technological innovation in which we are immersed and whose new design effects we will see very soon. How much will they still be able to amaze us?

REFERENCES Arroyo, E. (2003). Principle of uncertainty. El Croquis, 118, 26-29. Barriello, V. (2018). Prendiamoci una pausa per ascoltare una favola. Domusweb. Retrieved June 13, 2019 from www.domusweb.it Branzi, A. (2005). La progettazione degli interni nella città contemporanea. In Architettura degli interni. Padova, Italy: Il Poligrafo. Branzi, A. (2005). Verso una modernità debole e diffusa. Milano, Italy: Skira. Castells, M. (2006). Galassia Internet. Milano, Italy: Feltrinelli. Chang, T. W., Jiang, H., Chen, S. H., & Datta, S. (2012). Dynamic skin: interacting with space. Proceeding of the 17th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, 89-98. Cirifino, F., Papa, E., & Rosa, P. (2011). Musei di narrazione. Milano, Italy: SilvanaEditoriale. Colonna, S. (2016). Per uno statuto di Architettura e Museologia liquida. UniRoma Lettere. Retrieved September 11, 2019 from www.lettere.uniroma1.it Crippa, D. (2017). A letto con il Design, Design Hostel. Roma, Italy: D Editore. Crippa, D. (2018). Testo introduttivo alla mostra In linea con Zanuso. Piccolo Spazio Politecnico. Crippa, D., & Di Prete, B. (2005). Modello, informatica, progetto di Architettura. Milano, Italy: Edizioni Clup. Crippa, D., & Di Prete, B. (2011). Verso un’estetica del Momentaneo, L’architettura degli interni: dal progetto al processo. Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy: Maggioli Editore. D’Ambrosio, M. (2006). Media Corpi Saperi, Per un’estetica della formazione. Milano, Italy: FrancoAngeli. Dal Sasso, D. (2019). Intervista a Mancuso, “Dialoghi di Estetica, parola a Marco Mancuso”. Retrieved 15 July, 2019 from www.artribune.com

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Dalmasso, G. (2007). A partire da Jacques Derrida. Scrittura, decostruzione, ospitalità, responsabilità. Milano, Italy: Jaca Book. De Kerckhove, D. (1999). L’intelligenza connettiva. Roma: Aurelio De Laurentiis Multimedia. De Kerckhove, D. (2011). Il sapere digitale. Napoli, Italy: Liguori Editore. De Kerckohve, D. (2014). Psicotecnologie collettive. Milano, Italy: Egea. De Martino, M. (2012). 9 Anni di Arduino. Wired Italia. Retrieved August 24, 2019 from www.wired.it Di Marino, B. (2007). Tracce, sguardi e altri pensieri. Milano, Italy: Feltrinelli. Di Prete, B. (2016). Urban Interior Design: Strategies for Public Living Spaces. In L. Crespi (Ed.), Design Innovations for Contemporary Interiors and Civic Art (pp. 156–185). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Domusweb. (2017). Lo spettacolo degli artefatti. Retrieved September 01, 2019 from www.domusweb.it Gagliardi, C. (2019). Villaggio globale. La comunicazione. Dizionario di scienze e tecniche. Retrieved September 14, 2019 from www.lacomunicazione.it Jameson, F. (1989). Il Postmoderno, o la logica culturale del tardo capitalismo. Milano, Italy: Garzanti. Leoni, F. (2001). L’architettura della simultaneità nello spazio antiprospettico. Milano, Italy: Meltemi. Levy, P. (1996). L’intelligenza collettiva. Per un’antropologia del cyberspazio. Milano, Italy: Feltrinelli. Mc Luhan, M. (1967). Gli strumenti del comunicare. Milano, Italy: Il Saggiatore. Minardi, S. (2004). Salone Show, Stili di vita nomadi. Ambienti interattivi. Invasione di ultraoggetti. Il lifestyle internazionale in mostra a Milano. L’espresso. Retrieved August 04, 2019 from www.espresso. repubblica.it Mirti, S., & Aprile, W. (2004). This is Today. l’invasione degli ultracorpi interattivi. Arch’it. Retrieved August 14, 2019 from www.architettura.it Mitchell, W. (1997). La città di bits. Milano, Italy: Electa. Novak, M. (1991). Liquid Architecture in cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Palermi, V. (2002). I laboratori che inventano il futuro. La Repubblica. Retrieved August 27, 2019 from www.repubblica.it Palumbo, M. L. (2001). Nuovi ventri-corpi elettronici e disordini architettonici. Torino, Italy: Testo&Immagine. Palumbo, M. L. (2004). Sguardo sul primo spazio neuromorfo. Conversazione con Paul Verschure. Architettura.it. Retrieved September 12, 2019 from www.architettura.it Parascandolo, R. (1996). Intervista a Paul Virilio, La terza Rivoluzione Tecnologica. Rai Scuola. Retrieved July 11, 2019 from www.raiscuola.rai.it Piassente, M. (2004). La vecchia Lettera 22 ora manda le e-mail. Il Sole 24 Ore. Retrieved June 02, 2019 from www.ilsole24ore.com

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Prestinenza Puglisi, L. (2002). Tre parole per il prossimo future. Milano, Italy: Booklet Milano. Prestinenza Puglisi, L. (2002). Tre parole per il prossimo futuro. Arch’it. Retrieved September 10, 209 from www.architettura.it Ratti, C. (2014). Architettura open source. Milano, Italy: Einaudi editore. Rosa, P. (1998-1999). Rapporto confidenziale su un’esperienza interattiva. In Interattività. Studio Azzurro, opere tra partecipazione e osservazione. Perugia, Italy: Fondazione Umbria Spettacolo. Sacchi, L., & Unali, M. (2003). Architettura e cultura digitale. Milano, Italy: Skira. Saggio, A. (2004). Nuova soggettività. L’architettura tra comunicazione e informazione. Arch’it. Retrieved August 28, 2019 from www.architettura.it Sennett, R. (2013). La città ideale è un romanzo infinito. Report for the international conference “Guido Martinotti, sociologo della città aperta”, Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca. Simonelli, G. (2015). Intervento durante l’inaugurazione della mostra “Lombardies a unique territory with a multiple identity”. Casa Italia, Expo di Milano. Taccani, L. (2004). Silenzio, parlano i muri. D - La Repubblica. Retrieved September 10, 2019 from www.d.repubblica.it Vattimo, G., & Rovatti, P. A. (1983). Il pensiero debole. Milano, Italy: Feltrinelli. Vidler, A. (1994). S, M, L, XL, Urbanism vs Architecture. The Bigness of Rem Koolhaas, 9. Virilio, P. (2000). A Landscape of Events. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Zampaglione, A. (1995). Negroponte, il futuro vi piacerà. La Repubblica. Retrieved August 16, 2019 from www.repubblica.it www.jacquescartierchamplain.ca www.lombardiesexpo.it

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Dematerialisation: Tendency of the project to cross the borders of the intangible using the “nonmaterial” as a category of thought, work tool, and material “to shape.” Innovation: Introduction of new systems of user-experience, new sets of thoughts, new methods of production of artefacts, new technological devices supporting the project and able to boost a deep change with respect to a traditional method. Interaction: Action-reaction occurring between two or more people, but also between an individual and the system of objects or spaces surrounding him, mostly triggered by technological devices and determining a mutual influence between them. Relation: Relationship between two or more people, as well as between people and their environment, engaging at the same time the symbolic and emotional functional sphere. Situation: Contextual and objective condition “framing” the behaviour of a person or a community that, in design terms, gains also an executive value.

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Strategy: Complex of planning actions preparatory to the project, system of conceptual maps acting in abstract terms regardless of styles, languages, shapes, that can correspond to multiple physical consequences.

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New Narrative Spaces Ico Migliore Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT In exhibition design, and in the museum field in particular, the challenge of the designer consists of facing the complexity of reality by interweaving contents that they must reshape, giving them a narrative pace. The result of this recasting is a narrative museum. This is a concept that the author has developed through in-depth research and has implemented in actual museum projects in recent years. Conceived as a reaction against and opposition to the type of design used in the cases of the nail-in-the-wall museum and the funfair museum, the narrative museum makes the user the active protagonist of an interactive multimedia diorama. Presenting his perspective on this issue, the author argues the possibility of a polyphonic project, in which spaces are defined beyond forms with the aim of activating new usage patterns, placing an emphasis on the narrative quality of the place in directing the project.

INTRODUCTION For quite some time now, the author’s interest in exhibition design within the museum field has been directed towards the idea of a narrative museum. This is a concept that the author has developed through in-depth research and has implemented in numerous museum projects in recent years. The intention behind is to turn users into active protagonists of a space that conveys a narration. As a matter of fact, the title of this collection of essays, “Cultural, Theoretical, and Innovative Approaches to Contemporary Interior Design” refers to the fact that, within the field of interiors, designing can no longer fail to start from a basis that is theoretical, innovative and above all cultural, as a necessary prerequisite for a design that is liveable before being aesthetically pleasing. What is being expressed here by means of the term liveable is the idea that exhibition design has the task of driving an approach to the project that makes it possible to intercept different audiences, and that guarantees the full, conscious involvement and cultural enrichment of the user. As designers, we must not underestimate the importance of designing spaces conceived to articulate cultural narration that become places of identity and implement new collective behaviours. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch012

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BACKGROUND Designing with a view to the programmatic permeability of spatial borders therefore gives shape to exhibition spaces that are not limited to functioning as containers of the objects displayed, nor, therefore, are they concluded at the end of the interventions by the designer and outfitter. Rather, they are open to action on the part of the public, which is given the freedom to interpret and modify the given design scheme and narrative. In this regard, we could talk about architectures where it rains inside, outlining a designed space that is permeable to the impulses from the outside (visitors, natural light, etc.). These welcoming spaces set aside common architectural schemes and define the container not in the relationship between ceiling and floor, but between sky and earth. In this sense, the relationship with the context, with the casing that contains the exhibition, can also be seen as an extremely free and dialectical relationship. In fact, the surroundings can be considered as a horizon called on to take part in the project, its level of perception having a greater or lesser influence of the choice of design solutions. These forms of architectures where it rains inside offer no protection or shelter, nor do they mark clear distinctions between inside and outside, between above and below. They are spaces of mutual connection – true, real and not virtual connection – between the visitors and the content and between the visitors and the places, where experimentation with materials and light are combined with the introduction of dynamic events, allowing the design to determine the quality of the place and therefore also that of the cognitive experience. It was Bayer (1939), who first experimented with the museum exhibit as a defined environmental experience, with linear paths – with a single entrance and a single exit – developed as a book in which, as he states: «The theme should not retain its distance from the spectator, it should be brought close to him, penetrate and leave an impression on him, should explain, demonstrate, and even persuade and lead him to a planned and direct reaction» (p. 17). The background for these revolutions within exhibition design was given by the United States and New York in particular, where, at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s, Bayer designed three major exhibitions at the MoMA, then directed by Alfred H. Barr: “Bauhaus: 1919-1928” in 1938, “Road to Victory” in 1942 and “Airways to Peace” in 1943. In each of them, Bayer proposes a “total” exhibit that involves the entire space. In addition to vertical walls, the floor and the dividing walls contribute to the creation of a dynamic environment for the interaction between the person and object on display, while acting as guides and hiding the irregularities of the museum architecture. The importance of the interaction between exhibition and public had already previously been addressed by Bayer in his collaboration with Bauhaus associates Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, in the design of the “Exposition de la Société des Artists décorateurs” for the Deutscher Werkbund, held at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1930. The exhibition project included a series of inclined planes to optimise the visual field afforded to the spectator, who could thus look at the object from different points of view, defining a device that would be taken up again in the future, on many other occasions and by different authors, including Kiesler for the “Surrealist Exhibition” of 1942, Rudofsky for Architecture Without Architects” in 1964, Charles and Ray Eames in the “Multiscreen Projection” from 1965 and Arthur Drexler for “Transformations in Modern Architecture” in 1979.

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One of the people who recognised Bayer as the most authoritative source of reference for exhibition design in a time more or less contemporary to him was Bernard Rudofsky, who used many of his display solutions. However, he showed himself not to share the idea of ​​an exhibition as «a collection of objects in space [...] to impart information to the spectator or lead him to a planned reaction» (Rudofsky, 1947, p. 60). As evidence of this, in the lesson “On Exhibition Design” Rudofsky gave in Tokyo, he presented the “Japanese Exhibition House” by Arthur Drexler, set up in the garden of the MoMA in the summer of 1954 and 1955, as a methodologically effective and significantly didactic example (Rudofsky, n.d.). The simulation adopted by Drexler made it possible to fully experience the effect of living in a Japanese house, without any filters. The visitor could therefore feel what no description or image could ever convey: from the natural light to the olfactory experience, to the tactile sensation of the floor. Contradicting Bayer, the immediacy of the experience thus provoked an unexpected and above all unpredictable reaction. This example clearly shows that the goals identified by Rudofsky at the end of the 1950s were those of stimulating curiosity and personal sensory experience, and they would continue to guide him in his exhibition layouts (Bocco Guarnieri, 1994). While these were his objectives, the contents of Rudofsky’s exhibitions become essentially an instrument of reflection for the public, where the main purpose is to develop visitors’ critical awareness. It is no coincidence that his arrangements were defined by James Carmel (Carmel, 1962) as sort of exhibitions with a point of view, noting the capacity of his projects to put the visitor in a position of independent reflection, and by Ada Louise Huxtable (Huxtable, 1981) in the terms of shows with a personal vision, acknowledging their provocative goal of stimulating an active reaction and curiosity on the part of the visitor. It is clear then that the abundance of opportunities offered by exhibition design invites us to consider the identity of spaces as a network of relationships and identifying characters, the mesh of which is wide enough to accommodate multiple interpretations and to integrate with the chosen content. For this reason, it is first and foremost necessary to find the logical and human dimension for the space intended to host the exhibition, to strengthen and favour its integration and interaction with the public. If, in this redefinition of a given space, the exhibition project does not acknowledge clear divisions between the interior and exterior, not by providing shelter or protection but rather by inducing knowledge and awareness, the objective – beyond the construct – then coincides with the transformation of dormant spaces into places. In other words, the project ends up configuring itself as a sort of ideal map of magnetic fields of attraction, conceived to define the right distance and the right time between things. Exhibition strategies that take the concept of time into account can therefore be read as approaches in which different focal points either come together or pull apart: they accumulate in situations of transparency and stratification, while they disperse in cases of separation and isolation. In any case, by their very nature, they always select visual, sound and tactile objects from their primary context, rearranging them in combinations that are not causal but rather subordinated to the narration in which they participate. In light of their inherent propensity for display, contemporary exhibitions may generally be defined as a large frame. Daniela Ferrari has reflected on the fate of the frame – as it is traditionally understood – in the wake of the revolution of the historical avant-gardes, asking whether it has not only lost its exhibition function, but also its very conceptual relevance. She concludes that: «The frame still exists: it is only broader. Today the frame is the system of art, the gallery or the museum. It is the sign that delimits the field of the artistic event [...]; it functions as a theatre stage, a place en-

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trusted with eliciting an event, with “making something happen”, something that we know belongs to a different world with respect to everyday occurrences. It is a “sacred” space, one that is necessary but not sufficient for stimulating an artistic event» (Ferrari, 2018, p. 46). Contemporary exhibitions, then, not only circumscribe the narration within the exhibition but also integrate it by showing that it is able to expand and transform itself to the point of becoming an absolute frame. Within the narrative pathway, a dialogue with the displayed objects develops, each of these being delimited by a frame, which in turn is understood not as a mere physical container but also as a constellation of values and pieces of information that indeed govern that object. In this nest of Chinese boxes, the exhibition needs to bring the space into line with the purpose of framing it, subjecting it to the order of a vision and a responsibility that give it meaning. However, in order to establish itself as that dialogical device for dynamic mediation between the public and the objects, it is also crucial for it to retain the character of its special configuration, in which no horizon remains trapped within spatial boundaries, but rather where the virtual trajectories of the points of view have an opportunity to invade the frame of the objects and the story. Thus, by adding together a set of meanings that are not communicative at first sight, these imaginative trajectories trigger stimuli that will produce behaviours or actions over time. The process of osmosis between the gazes of the viewers and the interior and exterior of the frame is therefore an imaginative one. At the same time, it becomes effective as a mode of inhabiting things and rendering them complete, and as a way of entering the scene, which is made possible for the visitor by the expansion of the frame. It is therefore not a question of merely designing exhibition systems but rather relationships between the objects displayed, the space and the objects, the space and the people. In fact, according to Franco Purini (2002): «[…] preparing an exhibition means producing a divergence with respect to the given space, a differential surplus value that brings out the hidden qualities of the space itself. However, this divergence must also affect the works on show, which the design of the setting displaces to another context in the imagination, putting them under stress. With regard to the setting that houses the works, the divergence is principally produced at the level of the plan and the space, but it also operates on the planes of scale, light and material. As far as the works are concerned, this surplus of value is created through the construction of a web of references between them, references that are made, in turn, to the space that comprises them» (p. 63). In this regard, in view of the fact that visitors do not all have the same cultural level and approach, it must build up different and specific layers of scenarios, conceived for diversified audiences. After all, exhibition practices involve a branch of interior design that has grown and matured, following the evolutions that gradually demanded that the traditional cultural piazzas be made accessible to an increasingly vast and varied public in terms of preparation, age demographics and origin. Being conceived as a setting for new actions to be carried out with new tools to interact with, each place thus becomes a complex space, the raison d’être of which lies in its fruition rather than in its merely being viewed. The fruition discussed here is increasingly being planned in relation to a varied public in terms of background – educational and social –, age and interests. For at least 30 years, the author has detected a trend – at least on the part of exhibition design – of setting a horizon of a diversified usership, in terms

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of indeterminacy and fluidity, and the intention to pursue both a synthesis of and respect for complexity. These two objectives, which are inescapable yet not to be taken for granted, arise from addressing this kind of public. In this way, by overturning the widely held perspective on standardised or standardisable behaviours on the part of the public, the exhibit now pursues the design of environments and routes that adopt a narrative-based, open form to encourage a dynamic relationship between the environment and the visitor. This is done in the awareness that human relations and narrations take shape along a whole set of guidelines that contribute to the construction of an environment that is completed through the individual and collective actions and reactions of the users. Reassessing and choosing complexity as a modus operandi therefore seems to be an obligatory choice for constructing spaces arranged with a marked identity that withstands the tests of time. This is due to the strength and innovation of their content, which is capable of responding to the unstoppable technological evolution without overlooking the necessary cultural enrichment of the user. In short, spaces of knowledge function if they have been designed to be inhabited personally and socially, modifying themselves through presences, interpretations and interactions. The most urgent need may be that of recreating a dialogue between narrations – to which a physical space can give syntax and form – and visitors, driving recent exhibition systems to focus on constructing narratives predisposed towards interaction with users and their active presence within multi-dimensional sites. A determining part of the cognitive experience of this lies in the personalisation of time and usage methods. The exhibition thus entrusts visitors with its interpretation, involving and allowing them to feel as thought they are within the exhibition and not in front of it. As outlined in Figure 1, the visitorspectator becomes an actor who actively takes part in the exhibition. In other words, visitors can see themselves reflected in the exhibition, in what could be termed an effect. Diego Velázquez’s famous painting “Las Meninas” (1656) lends itself to clarifying the concept, becoming an interpretative vehicle for a design approach that aims to broaden the horizon of the gaze. Indeed, the size of the painting expands to make the viewers a part of it, transporting them into the scene through a play of reflections and perspective reversals that introduce ambiguity into the roles of those Figure 1. From Contemplation to Experience. (Migliore + Servetto Architects).

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who look and those who are looked at. The concise description of this masterpiece provided by Stefano Mirti (2007) is, however, sufficient when it comes to isolating the painting’s potential for disruption: «I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the famous painting by Velázquez, “Las Meninas”, the one in which the mirror doubles the pictorial space, literally allowing us to fall into the painting. [...]. In the mirror, we see King Philip IV and the Queen. Because they are in the mirror, they must be behind us. At that moment, when we turn around to see whether they really are behind us, that’s when we become part of the painting» (p. 15). In this context, in order to re-establish the space and its contents to reflect the diversity of the users destined to interact with it, an investment of responsibility and care must be made, which is a value in itself. Likewise, the construction of slower elements and timings, which encourage real relationships within the path of knowledge, can trigger some of the most ancient social dynamics underlying human cognitive processes, reconfiguring their meaning. As Nicola Marras (1982) stated at the beginning of the 1980s: «[…] the exhibition is one of the expressions of creative thought; its possible meaning is therefore in the quest to transform knowledge: by producing contexts, relationships, new perspectives, it proposes new constellations of materials, gives new form to the past, and can orient the present» (p. 12). Therefore, by imagining the public as a set of specific qualities and not as a mass, every user of the pathway – designed as a layered narrative environment, capable of foreseeing and adapting to the intensity, time available and attention span of each visitor – will discover that they have a unique role and their own usefulness. By temporarily restricting the scope of exhibition design to the designing of museum spaces, the author would like to specify the feasibility of the objectives under discussion by addressing three types of permanent exhibitions. These can be defined by the terms: narrative museum, nail in the wall museum and funfair museum.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER The Nail-in-the-Wall Museum Considered as a case study, for a long time Italy remained in a state of stagnation with regard to the creation of new museums, as well as the expansion and reorganisation of the existing ones. It continued to replicate the rigid nineteenth-century layout, whereby the exhibition had the univocal task of rewriting the space almost exclusively on the basis of order and philological rigour. This began to change after the Second World War, with the sudden interest that architects, museum designers, museum directors and conservators began to pour into Italian museums, combined with the need to redesign what the war-time bombings had often obliterated in one fell swoop (Marani, 2006). However, in that context, it was not possible to even begin to conceive of an exhibition aimed at communicating something, at least in that era. In the mid-1950s, reasoning on the evolving value of the museum’s function, starting from a nottoo-distant past – between the end of the eighteenth century and the middle of the nineteenth, when the beginning of social progress was accompanied by the first recognition of the social value of the

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museum – and arriving at post-World War Two, Franco Albini was quick to note that (as cited in Bucci & Irace, 2006, p. 71): «The function of the early museums was still [...] limited to collecting the largest number of examples of material and keeping them for study purposes and the public’s curiosity: generally speaking, every museum exhibited everything it possessed, without an order guided by precise critical intentions. [...] the simple tasks of collecting and preserving did not raise issues of how the objects would be displayed and the architecture was an end in itself. It was not related either to the exhibited works or to the visitor». Albini identified what he called the first act of exhibition design in this stage, admitting, however, the existence of a second act, characterised by seeking out a relationship with the works, and a third, in which the museum’s function was aimed at making contact with the public (cited in Bucci & Irace, 2006, p. 71). Only very slowly and in a non-generalised way did Italy leave that safe harbour that had so long been represented by the nail-in-the-wall museum model, as we have seen in this brief preliminary digression. The nail-in-the-wall museum perpetuates the concept of a museum space exclusively devoted to preserving the works, and therefore only exhibits the works by hanging them on the wall or showing them in closed and immobile display cases. Despite its traditionalism, this concept cannot be considered completely eradicated from the terrain of museum experimentation, at least within given limits in Italy. Indeed, the nail-in-the-wall museum still holds its cataloguer’s charm, and as such it has continued to find a place in the layouts of some recent museums. This is done despite the fact that the contemporary world no longer lends itself to the constraints of its own structures within fixed canons, but instead makes substantially dynamic urban places and spaces correspond to the liquid nature of society and the times we live in. Today then, the paradigm of the nail-in-the-wall museum appears to be a design anachronism, especially considering that interior design, in all its specialisations, is progressively adapting to the spirit of the times, and is learning to strive for high-velocity reconfiguration.

The Funfair Museum The extraordinary proliferation of places generated by the need to exhibit, and the enthusiasm with which the public inhabits them, helps us understand that there is still a wide margin for redefining the forms, meaning and role of exhibits that are more pertinent to the spirit of the times. On this basis, we could say that the exhibition – be it temporary or permanent – transpires to be more of a tool than an end in itself and, above all, not an artificial prosthesis of knowledge but rather a means for transforming it. By contrast, if there is a type of museum whose meaning lies entirely in its pyrotechnic outcome, this is the funfair museum. The spectacular nature of scenography is combined with the deafening use of technology and special effects combined, often for reasons of commercial convenience, to define the comfort zone of this widely exploited museum solution. We cannot deny that the digital agility of the tools now available to the designer has embellished the scope of exhibition design with new possibilities. This opportunity to innovate display language has been grasped with both hands by some industry players. Ralph Appelbaum, for example, has given full

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dignity to technological and digital language, developing advanced, communicative examples that are not an end in themselves. Since founding the Ralph Appelbaum Associates studio in 1978, Appelbaum and team have created more than 100 public spaces in more than 50 cities, fashioning innovative environments that create full-immersion experiences, that spur the imagination, that awaken the emotions and expand the mind. From the “U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum” in Washington, DC, to the “Corning Museum of Glass” in Corning, New York, passing through the Hall of Biodiversity and the Hall of the Universe, both part of the “American Museum of Natural History” in New York, digital technology and language are blended with design, architecture, storytelling and the cinematographic language, in a balanced measure. As such, displays at the “Corning Museum” tell the stories of discoveries by various inventors: the development of safety glass, the automated bottle maker, fibreglass, fibre-optic cable. The “Holocaust Museum”, conversely, issues identity cards that let visitors follow the fate of a survivor or a victim of the Holocaust. Above all, RAA’s designs show that they are fully concerned with the mission of the museum as a place entrusted with providing complex explanations and ideas in a way that is understandable for all audiences. To this end, they allow visitors to experience the idea that an exhibit seeks to describe, as is the case, for example, in the Hall of Biodiversity in the “Natural History Museum”, where RAA recreated a section of the Amazon forest. The display brings the forest to life by using latex moulds of intricate leaves made from real flora, a wildlife soundtrack and replicas of nearly two dozen varieties of trees. Hidden projectors cast an image of a watering hole onto a screen behind the trees, which gives the scene depth and realism. Not by chance, Ralph Appelbaum has not failed to note the varying reach of his museum exhibits, which – the author would add – distance themselves both from nail-in-the-wall museums and from funfair museums. As Appelbaum has stated (cited in Dahle, 2000, para. 6): «The old style of exhibit making was to place a series of black boxes around a formal great hall, with no rhyme or reason or connection between one box and the next. We try to control the sequence of experiences that visitors have. We design the spaces in between the exhibits. That does not mean that we control people. It means that we construct a strong linear experience, one that tells a clear story and that lets visitors break away to explore various aspects of an exhibit in more depth». Nevertheless, the majority of the museums that make extensive use of digital languages could take the chance of running into an insidious risk sooner or later. Before considering this eventuality, we need to understand that, in the delicate work of rethinking boundaries and redefining the meaning of a space that already seems to have one, the designer must find their own directorial quality, consisting of an awareness of the need to become a translator and interpreter of other points of view and visions, as well as their own. First and foremost among these are those of the client and the curator. The designer is therefore called upon to play a privileged role mediating between the first vision that emerges through dialogue with committers and curators and the concrete space that will constitute the frame of the actual exhibition. However, as Enzo Mari maintains on the pages of the “Progex” magazine, in the text entitled “Per una qualità dell’allestire” (For Quality in Exhibition Design), only the designer should have the responsibility for setting up the exhibition space. In fact he wrote that:

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«A historian of the institution or an industrialist or, alas, a committee of “experts”, cannot expect to naively predetermine the exhibition design with prearranged decisions constraining the quality of the communication» (Mari, 1991, p. 6). Within this framework, the existing space is no longer seen as a single whole, but rather a reading of it proceeds through the development of differences and episodes of singularity. It is, in fact, the variations within the spatial continuum that distinguish the space inhabited by indefiniteness from that of emptiness, like a frame that subtracts a part from the whole. To conclude, we could say that the story of an interior is therefore not constant, but the assumption that the whole can be read in the form of an organic story means that the visitors have the opportunity to walk through the individual units from which it is formed, and to evaluate them as a whole through their own personal interpretation. In turn, using their own bodies and senses, they can inhabit and set up a succession of environments in which the relationships and meanings of the contents may take on another significance within their gaze, which orders them. Finally, they will remember these as the product of an autonomous and new creative, cognitive process. The above-mentioned risk arises when potential spatial editing – to give a name to the process described above – turns into a reckless overlapping of apparatuses that primarily targets the visitors’ emotions under the banner of a superficial level of empathy. This ensures the impact, and therefore often also the success, of the exhibition, but not in evolutionary and cultural terms. The response to this type of impasse, then, is an intensification of the visitors’ empathic awareness of the contents by means of a museum pathway that guides them towards a greater complexity that nevertheless always remains accessible. In keeping with the lesson taught by Achille Castiglioni – a great master of Italian design, and also the mentor under whom the author graduated and whom he worked alongside in the early years of his career – the author believes in the importance of drawing the pathway. This is a fundamental element in all his projects. However, he also believes that drawing the path has now become a question of drawing paths: variable and multiple, physical or intangible paths that the designer must be able to visualise, conceptualise and include in their project. A project should never forget to place the human figure at the centre, defining it in a dialectic between the place and the construction of identity, directing its usage behaviour a priori. Thus, in exhibition design in particular, every project finds its raison d’être by starting from the visitor, who moves, feels, looks, touches, interacts and memorises in space. From this point of view, places of cultural communication must therefore be conceived as milestones that generate pathways leading to deeper exploration, starting points or intermediate episodes of a wider process of enrichment for the visitor. These projects function by slow release, so to speak, in that they serve as effective activating moments for subsequent personal research, both in relation to the content and the container. The ability to induce new actions and behaviours through the introduction of particular points of view and observation by preparing a path of discovery that pushes the visitor to a continuous curiosity towards the surroundings – this is the aim that emerges from the Eames House, also known as Case Study House No. 8 –, which was completed in 1949 at 203 North Chautauqua Boulevard, in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles (Koenig, 2005). The product of the genius of its designers and owners, Charles and Ray Eames, the house presents a series of singular design episodes that underline the centrality of the human figure in a living context 267

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that easily recalls that of a museum exhibit. Thus, in the living area, in their heterogeneity of devices and their unusual positioning, both the suspended staircase that leads nowhere and the painting suspended above the iconic James Lounge Chair present the common denominator of the human factor. In fact, this is the only way of effectively breaking the exhibition spell that would reduce them to mere ornaments and complete their meaning, by means of new human behaviours that, ultimately, reinforce the perception of space in its essence as a “total” environment, where the smallest object has the same importance as the largest furniture. In short, this is the purest Eames style re-proposed at every architectural scale (Frampton & Larkin, 1995). Case Study House no. 8 seems to teach us that within the overabundance of contents and images constantly offered to us by every sort of interior, quality is defined as the ability to design spaces and times that make it possible to adequately perceive these contents and images. As has already been the case for product design, which has succeeded in promoting a new widespread quality of living, so the field of exhibition design promotes the opportunity to become the interpreter of a widespread quality of places – as tools of knowledge and relationships – resulting from the transversal nature of the inspirations that the designer is able to rework to obtain an organic result, in the name of effective communication. All this leads to the emergence of a new aesthetic of actions and behaviour of use, which passes through the definition of new interfaces of physical interaction with the visitor. The need to display different concepts and materials with clarity and immediacy leads to the development of very complex exhibition structures that are capable of capturing the visitor’s attention and curiosity without, however, losing sight of the objective and ultimate aim underpinning the contents of the original story. What still persists in funfair museums, conversely, is a difficulty in retracing the consistency of the promised narration, which is highly reduced by the carousel of lights, images and sounds euphemistically chosen as a thematic mask. As they often only provide a taste of the depth of content that they then neglect to develop, going to extremes in stripping away all the complexity of communication and further study, funfair museums paradoxically suggest that the old model of the nail-in-the-wall museum may still have a lot to say. In an opposite but similar way, by not properly developing the contents proposed, the nail-in-the-wall museum and the funfair museum represent two approaches to exhibition design that draw many people in and yet are not well-focused on what ought to be the task of every museum, as a place of communication in which the public could form a relationship with culture. In fact, the museum should trigger a relationship with the visitor, not in terms of a reaction to a oneway message but rather in terms of a mutual exchange, a two-way dialogue. In this regard, Fulvio Irace (1997) argues the case for an: «“interpretive museography” [...] premise to a museum exhibition where “the masterpiece must no longer be cloaked in the mysterious venerability of the ancient sites and full of history and colour” and “art must not be ‘explained as culture’”, but, so to speak, offered in its essential appeal for direct dialogue with the viewer» (p. 10). By offering different levels of detailed study, the museum space must compel the visitor to return on the basis of the stimuli that it offers, pushing them toward cultivation, with the effect of transforming the museum from a place to visit into a place to which to return. It should be a welcoming place, where the visitor can find harmony and feel as though they are an active part of it.

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Moreover, within the author’s vision of design at least, the visitor is the main subject of the exhibition project. Their presence and freedom of action must be designed at different levels. In the mirror game presupposed by this choice, putting the visitor in the role of spectator and protagonist at the same time helps to create connections with reality and social issues, as well as to inspire a series of reflections on inhabiting time and space. Stopping and sitting are inevitable moments in every museum itinerary and also stages that need to be designed. Tranquillity, waiting and silent contemplation can then be seen as various moments in the visitor’s cultural growth, and therefore gaps to be re-evaluated. The system of varying levels of further study based on both real and virtual elements is what allows each visitor to create a personal, customised visit, where the directorial skills keep all these aspects together harmoniously.

The Narrative Museum More precisely, this directorial approach leads to the narrative museum, a polyphonic space for culture, which is no longer philologically and statically preserved in a display case as in the nail-in-the-wall museum, nor overshadowed by the pyrotechnics of a spectacular display as in the funfair museum. Defining a variable for the future of museum exhibitions – a kind of third way for design, a reaction and opposition to the type of design used in the cases of museums previously taken into consideration, as exemplified in Figure 2 – the narrative museum makes culture an articulated complex system of different levels of reading/interpretation, inviting the public to become an active part of a multi-modal interactive diorama, a product of the integration between virtual and physical elements, to create an evocative and inspiring place, without the need for similar scenographic reconstructions. The protagonist at the centre of the narrative museum is the visitor, who goes from being a passive to an active observer and is free to move and customise their story among the events woven into the exhibition fabric, garnering knowledge and experience from the exhibition elements simultaneously offered by the shared space of culture. Within a space created to be perceived at 360° thanks to an exhibit that uses all the surfaces, with no clear-cut divisions between floors, walls and ceilings, visitors then find themselves in a full-immersion environment that allows them to view a progressive horizon developed across the three dimensions and on different levels. Figure 2. Towards the Narrative Museum. (Migliore + Servetto Architects).

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Analogous to the BMW brand, which stands for innovative technology and design, the new BMW Museum in Munich takes new approaches to interweaving architecture, exhibition design and communicative media, conveying contents and actively involving the visitor in the exhibition pathway. The museum, which opened in 2008, has set a new standard in the realm of brand-focused museums, featuring a modern, dynamic language: the language of the automotive world. The Stuttgart-based Atelier Brückner studio was commissioned to carry out the general planning, architecture, and exhibition design. Art+Com, a Berlin design office for new media, completed the spatial media design and interactive installations, while Integral Ruedi Baur executed the graphic design (Atelier Brückner, 2018). In the museum space, which had to be integrated into the existing structural fabric of the group headquarters in Munich, media choreography from projections, lighting, and sound designed by Art+Com reinforce the statements of the rooms and set the stage for the exhibits. In the meantime, interactive installations designed as an integral component of the architecture and so-called “auxiliary” formats offer secondary, in-depth information on the side. The climax of the media staging is undoubtedly the BMW Platz, developed by Atelier Brückner collectively with Art+Com. It is the pulsating heart at the centre of the permanent exhibition, the nucleus of the exhibition house grouping. The visitor experiences this 13 metre-high airspace several times while on the path, and from different points of view; the critical viewpoint occurs as the visitor crosses the BMW Platz on a central bridge. Below the bridge, the parked vehicles on display almost seem to move as the multimedia light reflections progress across them, and architecture and scenery is briefly reflected in the polished varnish of the roadsters. In the media light displays held at the BMW Platz, created by Art+Com, space and spectator synchronise in terms of in movement. The facades of the space, which spans approximately 706 square metres, were constructed with LED technology that uses more than 1.7 million light-emitting diodes, hidden by panes of glass. Art+Com devised more than 30 possible light displays, creating a technical atmosphere along with an additional poetic and emotional dimension, where the architecture is dematerialised and given a new dynamic attitude. Urging the visitors to be active protagonists of the museum experience, the BMW Museum stands as an example of a narrative museum that creates an impressive spatial experience that adequately connects the brand to the architecture and media technology, and which assumes an evolution of language by posing a challenge in terms of integrated design, calling for a relationship between the designer, curator and scientific consultants. Although designers are no longer obliged to design exhibit structures, but rather relationships – between the space and the objects, between the objects and people, between the space and people – they are still primarily responsible for creating the subtle direction that must go beyond the old story of the old museum. Mindful of the potential and narrative qualities of places, and working on the construction of a new relationship between content and visitors, they develop different interpretations to involve highly diversified audiences in terms of age and interests. In this perspective, both experimentations with new materials and/or technologies and those using light and dynamics, text and readability have taken on a value in defining the rhythms and times offered by the overall spatial editing. Transcribed from the world of cinema, it defines the set up of the space as a sum of narrative sequences structured by means of time and rhythm, as already mentioned. In a space set up with dynamic and narrative sequences, spectators have a range of possible uses and discoveries

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available to them. By providing actions on multiple levels and stimulating all the senses, these invite visitors to inhabit the place while interweaving relationships.

The Polyphonic Project As illustrated in Figure 3, the polyphonic space therefore presupposes a reasoning with regard to the user’s times and movements within it, to enhance its quality of use and its capacity to transmit memorable content and images. The main contents must be also perceived superficially and quickly, just as those who can dedicate more time to the visit must be able to find further insights and materials to satisfy their desires for wider and/or more specialised reading. Producing projects of this type therefore becomes more complex, as it is no longer so much a work of construction but rather of conception. Indeed, it is a matter of imagining, visualising and giving shape to the relations between the parts, as well as providing meaning for the temporal element. This latter is another variable that plays an increasingly determining role in the design of interiors and in exhibition design in particular, precisely because the designer cannot fail to think about time, especially with the increasingly mass use of multimedia technologies. It is time, not the measuring stick, that constitutes our true beacon. I often find myself asking curators if they know at what speed people normally read, and on average they are not able to answer me. Well, people read 150 words a minute. Therefore, if a 150-word caption is inserted within the context of an exhibition space, the visitor must stand in front of that text for a minute in order to understand it. The conclusion, which follows naturally if these dynamics are really taken into consideration at the design stage, is that when a space is designed, it is necessary to take the temporal variables at work there into account. This is done by thinking of the time of an action, rest or motion, of moving closer or further from a centre, and reflecting on the time needed to visualise, interact with or read the descriptions that accompany a displayed object. It is through these considerations that we truly place the human figure at the centre of an approach that is bound to lead to the fruits of our efforts being used constructively. The polyphonic space in no way relinquishes the task of spreading and enhancing culture in an elevated sense, but if it is conceived in accordance with a precise curatorial objective, it manages to combine the immediacy of use with the complexity of information and further study. It thereby finds a chance to increase the sharpness of the memories taken away by the visitors in the responses of those visitors it manages to involve.

Figure 3. The Polyphonic Space. (Migliore + Servetto Architects).

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A possible summary could be to state that the function of polyphonic spaces for culture is that of germinating an awareness in the visitors, both of themselves and the reality in which they live. A simple visit to a museum space is then converted into an enriching experience that, by involving the visitor from both a sensorial and intellectual point of view, stimulates them to reflect on it later. Within the Japan Pavilion at Milan Expo 2015, the Japanese teamLab studio presented two interactive, digital exhibits that responded to the theme “Harmonious diversity”, exciting visitor’s senses alongside their cognitive activity, as they actually conveyed contents. These consisted of a pair of immersive installations, designed to give shape to a precise narration structured around the main theme of food culture in Japan. They were spread across two rooms: in the first one, a participatory projection space required the visitor to wade through a technological expanse of rice patty fields; in the second one, a digital waterfall of information relayed descriptive knowledge about Japanese food and culture. As teamlab founder Toshiyuki Inoko stated, the Japanese Pavilion created its own theme of “harmonious diversity” when responding to the Expo’s general theme of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” (as cited in Azzarello, 2015, para. 4). In the “Harmony” installation, the visitors and objects did not just each other, the public were free to get into the artworks, which reacted to their behaviour. In this way, the people and the installation ended up creating a piece of work together. Rice fields formed the background to the origin of Japan’s food culture. As they actually grow at different height levels, the installation reflected this in the terraced rice-fields, which are peculiar to Japan’s landscape. In order to show that paddy fields prosper in places with different heights, the space of the exhibition room was therefore filled with screens resembling ears of rice. The screens were installed at different levels, from the knees up to the waist, creating an interactive projection space, the images of which changed in line with the visitors’ movements, as if spreading out infinitely in various directions. In “Diversity”, the installation sought to convey large volumes of information related to the great diversity existing within Japanese food. In order to achieve this, a huge waterfall was shown, the meaning of which related to water as the origin of foods, agriculture and energy of life. It could be viewed from 360°, and displayed many images of food. Visitors could touch the images that flew down the waterfall and transfer individual images with detailed information to their smartphones. They could then take the information home with them. This installation tackled the challenge of ensuring that people could share their emotions and experiences, while offering the convenience of providing large amounts of information. In this respect, Inoko underlined that (cited in Azzarello, 2015, para. 11): «We achieved this by creating a symbolic waterfall that allowed visitors to share the same experience within the same space, and by giving them the ability to link this experience with their own personal smartphones». As can be seen in the case of the teamLab installations at Milan Expo 2015, the effectiveness of a narrative space can be evaluated based on the design’s capacity to allow for a slow release, inspiring in the visitor that curiosity and interest that will push them to gain personal insights. Within this vision, exhibition design is entirely redefined. The scenography design alone becomes an active memory and behaviour within an intense script. In the new places that this exhibition approach is able to create, the real protagonist is no longer just the exhibition’s subject matter or the elements on

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display, but the totality of the cognitive experience, and the dynamic and empathic relationship between the different players – the objects or subjects of the exhibition. The goal of the polyphonic project is therefore not so much the construction as the creation of an ideal that is capable of attracting or distancing, designed to define the right time and right distance between things. As in a living organism, in an exhibit that presupposes the polyphonic exhibition space, each element has its own qualities, and potentially serves as the subject of a story capable of unfolding its rich contents and references to an increasingly broader, more varied audience. Its completeness, its capacity to offer different interpretations and the meaning of its parts only come from the whole, however, and from the overall definition of the quality of space, which then becomes a place. What we could call architecture of communication (Ferrari, 1991), in short, could not only concretely shape exhibits and museums intended as architectural containers for preserving culture, but cultural meeting places that are open, just like the traditional open piazza, where the flow of individuals has the opportunity to intermingle, rediscovering the meaning of physical sharing as a foundational element of culture itself, and where the different stories of the individual objects on display lead to a unity, rewriting a larger narration. It is within a community – in other words, by constituting a lemma within a network of individuals – that a cultural object can be defined as such, and certainly not in isolation. Moreover, it is by encountering the public that the narrative museum, as a paradigm of polyphonic space, completes the reason for its exhibit, configuring itself as a radical innovation that is changing the structures and methods of cultural procurement for each of us today, while at the same time laying the foundations for the future of the exhibition space. In order to better explain these concepts, we will now analyse some case studies of permanent exhibitions in museums where the above-mentioned topics have been implemented.

SOLUTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS As already mentioned, the integration of technologies and multimedia communication instruments in experimental exhibits should never occur outside of narrative purposes. In reflecting on how this integration plays a part in defining the meaning of the exhibition, we should take more complex considerations into account beyond simple interfacing. While today the range of possibilities of this kind available to the designer for interiors goes beyond the question of choice, the latter is often accompanied by the doubt that excessive technological noise does no more than mask a substantial lack of content. Awareness of the danger of possible abuses should not lead us to Luddite-style reactions, however, especially given the communicative potential with which new technologies have further expanded the frame by multiplying the possibilities for interaction. At this point, it should be recalled that, due to the singular nature of digital technology, the public has been definitively removed from the orbit of the usual profiling criteria. Expectations and behaviours have shifted from habitual to shared, ever more exacting and extreme demands for adequate interfaces and dynamic interaction modes. However this public may be, it remains the true cause and purpose behind every exhibit. With regard to the narrative requirements of exhibition design, then, the apparatuses that accompany displayed objects today represent indispensable tools, which employ them through a complex system of

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integrated multimedia. Referring to the “display of culture” in museums and exhibitions, Luca Basso Peressut (2014) has emphasised that, in the space of a century, exhibition practices have gone from the mere exhibiting of artefacts: «[…] to the spread of multimedia devices, to immersive environments, to augmented reality, to performativity and to interactivity. In each case, project choices are linked not only to technological advances, but also and especially to recent changes that have emerged in the relationship with visitors, who demand ever greater involvement in the access to knowledge […]» (p. 100). Digital supports have therefore progressively gained a recognised role as an integral part of interior design. This is thanks to the versatility with which they adapt to exhibits, transforming them into open spaces in which the meaning of the evolving and relational dynamic of the contents can be perceived.

The Chopin Museum Inaugurated in 2010 in Warsaw on the occasion of the bicentennial of the famous Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin’s birth, the project for the new “Chopin Museum” – which the author carried out with Mara Servetto – was the result of an international competition sponsored by Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Board. The museum boasts an articulated, complex and multi-material design, both in the architectural sense of the term and, above all, from the point of view of the construction of what could be defined as artificial landscapes with multimodal characteristics, as illustrated in Figure 4. The interactive and multimedia systems in the museum were conceived as instruments for creatively enhancing and developing the contents of the eleven rooms, which were presented in eight different lanFigure 4. “Chopin Museum” (2010), Ostrowski Palace, Warsaw (Poland). Permanent Exhibition Design by Migliore + Servetto Architects. The room dedicated to the city of Warsaw. (Migliore + Servetto Architects).

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guages. The constant integration of technology, music, objects of the collection and physical backdrops define a multi-layered and multimodal exhibition, as exemplified in Figure 5. This arrangement gives visitors the opportunity to choose the temporal settings and modes for reading the contents, allowing for a unique experience based on variable rhythms. Indeed, the decision to use RFID technology for the admissions ticket lies at the core of the museum creation project. Although RFID technology has been around since the 1970s, its initial high costs restricted usage to larger businesses, many of whom developed proprietary systems. Now that costs are falling, RFID systems are still typically more expensive to set up and use than alternative systems such as optical scanning. However, RFID systems bring their own cost benefits, such as reduced labour costs and improved efficiency. In fact, when RFID solutions are properly deployed, they are often highly accurate, which means the data stored in a system is precise and can be trusted. In the case of the “Chopin Museum”, this system stores the routes chosen by the individuals, allowing the museum to create a database that it can draw on to carry out studies aimed at the optimisation of contents. In addition, this system is able to guarantee personalised audio-video content by means of active participation on the part of visitors, who can directly interact with the contents at the more than 70 hands-on stations thanks to the functions designed for the badge. Museums in general have started to use RFID technology in order to enhance visitors’ experience by having a tag read whenever a visitor approaches an item, triggering visual or audio information. In the “Chopin Museum”, the application offers four levels of interaction: for children, teenagers and adults, experts, and people with vision or hearing impairment. Specific content such as subtitles and large scripts is used for this latter group. As can be seen in Figure 6 and in Figure 7, the interactive technological system at the visitors’ disposal makes use of the coexistence of different systems, which are activated by proximity or capacitive

Figure 5. Multi-layered and Multimodal Message. (Migliore + Servetto Architects).

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sensors on a case by case basis. Interaction with the display systems stimulates the visitors’ curiosity, encouraging them to go beyond the first possible level of interpreting the contents. Multimodality, then, emerges from the layering and adding of synergic narrative tools – video and light with dynamic qualities – that are differentiated at the same time. Moving from the virtual to the material, from two-dimensionality to spaces that can be walked through, visitors are given the completeness of a dynamic narrative experience in different spaces. At the “Chopin Museum”, complexity, in the sense of an enrichment of the contents that a contemporary museum can offer and wishes to display, is translated into a system of different thematic paths, which constitute something akin to micro-museums within the museum. Each of these paths is a chapter in a story that the visitor has the possibility of choosing, following and comprehending. Within each of the exhibition cells, finally, it is always possible to locate the overall cultural axis and framework of the

Figure 6. “Chopin Museum” (2010), Ostrowski Palace, Warsaw (Poland). Permanent Exhibition Design by Migliore + Servetto Architects. The admission ticket with RFDI technology. (Migliore + Servetto Architects).

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Figure 7. “Chopin Museum” (2010), Ostrowski Palace, Warsaw (Poland). Permanent Exhibition Design by Migliore + Servetto Architects. Interactive Technological Systems in the Women’s Room. (Migliore + Servetto Architects).

museum. With the support of a multilayer display system, the visitors can investigate a particular detail without losing sight of the whole. In this way, an experiment in spatial design is delineated. The new technologies do not, therefore, resemble the dystopian and objectionable transplants that are grafted onto the body of traditional structures. Rather, they seem to give rise to projects that are comfortable navigating between the feasible and the ephemeral. Indeed, in the planning of exhibits, the problem of the short lifespan of technological solutions determined by continuous innovation in that field requires projects to confront the challenge of searching for solutions projected into the future. The goal must therefore be to integrate the structure and multimedia forms in order to maintain functionality and value over time and to postpone the arrival of obsolescence. This is precisely what occurs in the field of product design on a longer temporal scale, for example with regard to the problem of conserving projects that were developed with certain technological and plastic materials in the 1960s. It is to a public that is experiencing progressive digitisation that the exhibition narrative is addressed, and it is with this public in mind that the designer must gauge the use of technology as a parameter of a more articulated proxemics. As exhibition environments become ever more crowded by a potentially inexhaustible flow of stimuli, the quantity of focal points inviting each visitor to choose their own frame increases. The project must address this circumstance by paying corresponding attention to an arrangement of suitable spaces with respect to the array of modes and times of consumption.

The Leonardiana Museum Pursuing the same objectives that had characterised the design of the “Chopin Museum”, together with Mara Servetto the author produced the entire exhibition design project for “Leonardiana. A New Museum”, which opened in 2016 within the space of Vigevano Castle in Vigevano, a town in the south-west part of Lombardy.

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The museum was conceived as an ambitious revitalisation plan and an innovative local developmentproject, the aim of which was to strategically enhance the combination of both the historical-artistic and the environmental heritage through new multimedia technologies. In achieving the programmatic intentions that had animated the project ever since its conception, the museum ended up constructing a local system based on culture, tourism and innovation centred on the figure of Leonardo da Vinci – who had actually been in Vigevano – the water system and rice, all key elements of the territory in which the town of Vigevano is located. In this way, the Castle has regained its historical role and, through the figure of Leonardo da Vinci, has again become the key element in the strong relationship between Vigevano and the surrounding territory. The product of a competition launched by Consorzio A.S.T. in 2012, the permanent exhibition conceived for “Leonardiana” uses advanced light tools, multimedia and environmental graphic design to develop an innovative narration that leads the visitor to explore the main phases of da Vinci’s thought throughout his lifetime. In particular, light acts as a device for describing and including the exhibition as part of the narration. Indeed, given the absence of limits imposed by the preservation of the artefacts – which were copies of the originals – artificial lighting could work synergistically with the natural light for “Leonardiana”, as can be seen in Figure 8. Precise illumination mixes with stage lighting effects and with the different intensities of the projections, to the point of blending into unexpected variations of the luminosity produced by the cityscape and the interior space. Light is treated here as in a musical composition, which proceeds by narrative accents: it passes from digital formats to the graphic abstraction of texts, and then on to architectural elements, pervading and defining the space of the museum. The museum’s exhibition pathway winds along the historical rooms of the castle, defining unexpected storytelling places that evoke the richness of the different contents, as illustrated in Figure 9. Music, reproductions of artwork and drawings, scientific contributions and interactive systems that, starting from da Vinci’s stay in Vigevano and thanks to his relationship with the Sforza Family, propose a broader view of the artist’s entire body of work and highlight original episodes. As a result, the exhibit fits lightly within the Maschio of the Castle, independently and non-invasively, allowing for a reading of the historical rooms of Palazzo Ducale while at the same time offering an immersive experience of knowledge and exploration, defining a multimodal message made available to different audiences. What emerges is the work on the reversed relationship between container and content, between the original piece, replica and narration, in order to make the exhibited subject become the thoughts and the actions of Leonardo da Vinci inside the original scene.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Both the “Chopin Museum” and the “Leonardiana Museum” are two examples of exhibition projects that, conceived as acts of cultural communication in their complexity, define spaces of knowledge and sharing that are strongly characterised, unique and not cloneable, in that they are deeply rooted in the place and closely connected to the specific content (Migliore & Servetto, 2009). In the first instance, this is achieved by means of a narrative tension that is capable of holding the individual contents together affirmatively, on the basis of an unavoidable reflection on their cultural identity, which should be the starting point of every design decision.

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Figure 8. “Leonardiana. A New Museum” (2016), Historical Castle, Vigevano (Italy). Permanent Exhibition Design by Migliore + Servetto Architects. “The Codices” (Detail).

(Migliore + Servetto Architects).

Of course, both the museum sites chosen as examples can be recognised as having an undeniable aesthetic strength, but what distinguishes them above all is the quality of the relationship that they manage to establish between the user and the work. As said, this is done in the presence of a strong narration and also interactivity, and the use of the most advanced technologies in a way that is both balanced and engaging. In short, the design of the exhibition should be a privileged place where the different forms of knowledge that contribute to the definition of multiple modes of expressing culture converge. This disciplinary convergence makes the action of showing a veritable act of directing, which is deployed to coordinate the narration between the place, the object on display and the times and methods of use.

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Figure 9. “Leonardiana. A New Museum” (2016), Historical Castle, Vigevano (Italy). Permanent Exhibition Design by Migliore + Servetto Architects. “The Great Horse. Two Dreams that Merged”. (Migliore + Servetto Architects).

To paraphrase Le Corbusier, and his obsessive fascination with the world of mechanics, we can say that the exhibition is, in effect, a machine for knowing, the greater or lesser functioning of which depends on the quality of the underlying design, just like with machines.

CONCLUSION To conclude, we could say that the challenge of the designer in the field of interior design, and exhibition design in particular, is thus that of facing the complexity of reality with an interweaving of contents that they must reshape, giving them a narrative pace. The result of this recasting is a polyphonic project in which spaces are defined beyond forms, with the aim of activating new usage patterns, while the possibility of interaction acts as a tool for directing this complexity.

REFERENCES Atelier Brückner. (Ed.). (2018). Scenography – Staging the Space. Basel, Germany: Birkäuser. Azzarello, N. (2015). Inside Expo’s Japan Pavilion with teamlab founder Toshiyuki Inoko. Designboom. Retrieved from https://www.designboom.com/art/teamlab-interview-japan-pavilion-expo-milan-toshiyuki-inoko-07-02-2015 Basso Peressut, L. (2014). Allestimenti e musei nell’età della comunicazione globale. In L. Basso Peressut, G. Bosoni, & P. Salvadeo (Eds.), Mettere in mostra. Mettere in scena (p. 100). Siracusa, Italy: Lettera Ventidue.

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Bayer, H. (1939). [Production Manager]. Fundamentals of Exhibition Design. P.M., 6, 17. Bocco Guarneri, A. (1994). La didattica della curiosità. Il progetto espositivo di Bernard Rudofsky. Progex, 10, 26–33. Bucci, F., & Irace, F. (Eds.). (2006). Zero Gravity. Franco Albini, Costruire la modernità. Milano, Italy: Triennale Electa. Carmel, J. H. (1962). Exhibition Techniques. Traveling and Temporary. New York: Reinhold Publ. Corp. Dahle, C. (2000). Museums with a mission. Fast Company Magazine, 34. Retrieved from https://www. fastcompany.com/39256/museums-mission Ferrari, D. (2018). Breve storia del “ruffiano” nel quadro. In D. Ferrari & A. Pinotti (Eds.), La cornice. Storie, teorie, testi (p. 46). Monza, Italy: Johan & Levi. Ferrari, P. (1991). Architettura d’interni per esporre. Progetti di Achille Castiglioni. In M. Mastropietro (Ed.), Progettare Mostre. Dieci lezioni di allestimento (p. 24). Milano, Italy: Lybra Immagine. Frampton, K., & Larkin, D. (1995). American Masterworks: The Twentieth Century House. Milano: Rizzoli. Huxtable, A. L. (1981, January 11). Shows with a Personal Vision. The New York Times. Irace, F. (1997). The place of the Muses. Art and Architecture in the Museum Style of Franco Albini and Carlo Scarpa. Domus Dossier, 5, 10. Koenig, G. (2005). Charles & Ray Eames, 1907-1978, 1912-1988: Pioneers of Mid-century Modernism. Cologne, Germany: Taschen. Lloyd Morgan, C. (Ed.). (2002). Atelier Brückner. Form Follows Content. Ludwigsburg, Germany: Avedition. Marani, P. C. (2006). Il rinnovato rapporto tra contenitore e contenuti. In P. C. Marani & R. Pavone (Eds.), Musei. Trasformazioni di un’istituzione dall’età moderna al contemporaneo (p. 53). Venezia, Italy: Marsilio. Mari, E. (1991). Per una qualità dell’allestire. Progex, 07, 6. Marras, N. (1982). Una logica della rappresentazione. Rassegna (Allestimenti/Exhibit Design), 10, 12. Migliore, I., & Servetto, M. (2009). Azioni e modificazioni progressive. In Il progetto di allestimento e la sua officina. Luogo, memoria ed evento: mostre alle Fruttiere di Palazzo Te, Mantova (p. 32). Milano, Italy: Skira. Mirti, S. (2007). You have to be in the right place at the right moment. Not too early, not too late. In I. Migliore & M. Servetto (Eds.), Spacemorphing (p. 15). Milan, Italy: Five Continents. Purini, F. (2002). Allestire [Designing Exhibitions]. Lotus international, 115, 63. Rudofsky, B. (1947). Notes on exhibition design: Herbert Bayer’s pioneer work. Interiors (New York, N.Y.), 12, 60.

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Rudofsky, B. (1958). On exhibition design. Lecture given at International House, Tokyo, Japan. Scott, F. (2003). Encounters With The Face of America. In A. Picon & A. Ponte (Eds.), Architecture and the Sciences: Exchanging Metaphors (pp. 256–291). Princeton, NJ: Architectural Press. Scott, F. (2007). An Eye for Modern Architecture. In Lessons from Bernard Rudofsky: Life as a Voyage (pp. 172-209). Wien: Birkhäuser.

ADDITIONAL READING Janicki, M. (Ed.). (2011). Chopin Museum. The Chopin Museum, Warsaw. The New Permanent Exhibition – From Competition to Opening. Warsaw, Poland: Fryderyk Chopin Institute. Migliore, I. (2014). Nuova estetica dei comportamenti. In L. Basso Peressut, G. Bosoni, & P. Salvadeo (Eds.), Mettere in mostra. Mettere in scena (pp. 125–131). Siracusa, Italy: Lettera Ventidue. Migliore, I. (2017). A New Interior Design Syntax. In L. Crespi (Ed.), Design Innovations for Contemporary Interiors and Civic Art (pp. XVIII–XIX). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Migliore, I. (2018). Il progetto polifonico. In La Magnifica Fabbrica. 240 Years of Teatro alla Scala, from Piermarini to Botta [Catalogue of the Exhibition]. (pp. 12–15). Roma, Italy: Treccani. Migliore, I. (2019). A). Time to Exhibit. Directing Spatial Design and New Narrative Pathways. Milano, Italy: Franco Angeli. Migliore, I. (2019). B). Shaping Pathways and Behaviours. In F. Bucci & L. Collina (Eds.), Padiglione Italia. 4 Elements / Taking Care (pp. 14–23). Mantova, Italy: Corraini. Migliore, I. (2019). C). Spazi per la cultura polifonici. Modulo, 417, 52–55. Migliore, I., & Servetto, M. (2003). Sull’architettura degli allestimenti. Abitare, 426, 128–131. Migliore, I., & Servetto, M. (2004). Teatri di vita. Modo, 240, 50–52. Migliore, I., & Servetto, M. (Eds.). (2007). A). Space Morphing. Migliore + Servetto Temporary Architecture. Milano, Italy: Five Continents. Migliore, I. & Servetto, M. (2007 B). Paesaggi per comunicare. Inside Quality Design, 6, 128-135. Migliore, I., & Servetto, M. (2016). Un percorso per tappe significanti. In Leonardiana. Un Museo Nuovo (pp. 194–195). Milano, Italy: Giunti. [Catalogue of the Museum] San Pietro, S., Migliore, I., & Servetto, M. (Eds.). (2000). New Exhibits 2. Made in Italy. Milano, Italy: L’Archivolto.

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Architecture of Communication: This defines a kind of interior design that aims to build relationships between the space and the objects, and between the space and the people, the ultimate goal being to induce thoughts and sensations. Architecture Where It Rains Inside: This defines a designed space that is permeable to impulses from the outside (visitors, natural light, etc.). As such, it pursues a relationship to the context that is dialectic and free. Expanded Frame: In an exhibition, given that it is set up in a physically limited space, we have an expanded frame when the exhibit itself not only circumscribes the contents displayed but also integrates them by showing that it is able to expand and transform itself, to the point of becoming an absolute frame. Interactions: In an exhibition, this defines the complete range of possible interactions between the user and the exhibition system. Mirroring Effect: This is when an exhibition involves the visitor by means of the personalisation of time and methods of interaction, allowing them to feel as though they are within the exhibition and not in front of it. As a result, the visitor-spectator becomes an actor who actively takes part in the exhibition. Multi-Layered Exhibition: An exhibition system that deploys different and specific layers of scenarios, both with the aim of being as exhaustive and complex as possible, of and meeting the varied levels of knowledge represented by a diversified audience. Spatial Editing: Transposed from the world of cinema, this defines the exhibition system as a sum of dynamic narrative sequences structured by means of time and rhythm. As such, the exhibition makes a range of possible uses and discoveries available to visitors.

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Re-Coding Homes as a Flexible Design Approach for Living Environments S. Banu Garip https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7632-0962 Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Nilufer Saglar Onay https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9619-584X Independent Researcher, Italy Ervin Garip https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7825-6282 Istanbul Technical University, Turkey

ABSTRACT This chapter discusses the results of the “Recoding Homes Project,” which has been conducted as a TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) research project with the title “A User-Centered Model Research Towards a Flexible Interior Spatial Design for Mass Housing Units: Urban Renewal Housing.” The project aims to improve the interior spaces of mass housing projects in accordance with user needs and to provide solutions that will increase the flexibility of interior spaces. The design model outlined in this chapter has the potential to change the traditional ways of housing supply as it gives the possibility to produce complete living environments with all their necessary components. It investigates how an interior design model can transform existing spaces into more flexible and more functional housing units. This way of housing supply can eliminate the non-compatibility between the architectural features and interior components often chosen randomly without evaluating actual conditions and needs.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch013

Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Re-Coding Homes as a Flexible Design Approach for Living Environments

INTRODUCTION Starting from 1940’s, Turkey witnessed important economic and structural reforms, which also changed the socio-cultural structure of the population. Many families living in rural areas in Anatolia started to migrate to big cities in order to have better jobs and education opportunities. But getting involved within the big city life necessitated creating their own solutions for housing. Gecekondu (self built houses without any permission from authorities) settlements started to spread in the peripheries of big cities. Over time, these settlements were regarded as unhealthy and dangerous living environments because of the great threat of earthquake. Subsequent to the great İzmit earthquake of 1999, the urgent need to renew old or high-risk housing brought about urban renewal projects into the agenda. The state founded the Housing Development Administration (TOKI) to solve the problem of social housing. During the last two decades, many families living in gecekondu areas and other unplanned quarters of big cities started to move to new social houses in scope of urban transformation projects. But these new living units were mostly apartment blocks constructed with the priority of reducing construction costs without any other further research about family structures and socio-cultural requirements. Although many families are thankful and pleased to have their own apartments which have better living conditions regarding infrastructure and services, they have many difficulties in performing their daily activities within the spaces. The apartment units are too small, impractical and very difficult to interfere because of the fixed tunnel construction method that is used. Especially crowded families try to create their own primitive solutions in order to use the rooms for different activities and functions during different times of the day. They also have difficulties in performing social rituals that necessitate the participation of neighbours and relatives. The design model which is proposed in scope of Re-coding Homes project has the potential to change the traditional ways of housing interior supply as it gives the possibility to produce complete living environments with all their necessary components. It investigates how an interior design model can transform existing spaces into more flexible and more functional housing units. When traditional residential architecture is examined, it is a fact that flexibility is not an unfamiliar issue for the Turkish living environment. In traditional houses, flexibility was a natural outcome of the need to use rooms for different purposes. Today’s solutions for flexible interiors need to use contemporary approaches by also evaluating the values hidden in the traditional environments.

BACKGROUND In Turkey the discussions about new housing settlements have different perspectives. In housing market new housing units even the most luxurious apartments are evaluated according to their overall areas, number of rooms and other quantitative properties. Housing projects developed for high income groups differ from the others only by the quality of construction and the existence of an artificial identity. According to Ek (2012), architects design only the characteristics of settlements and services by attaching some popular concepts to them for underwriting rather than designing alternative spatial-organizations providing different living qualities for different inhabitants. Mostly even the purchasers are not aware of the lack of qualitative properties that need to be evaluated in housing units. Issues like the cultural and social background of inhabitants; spatial properties that support domestic activities and environmental factors are often being disregarded. 285

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In academic studies and research, the architectural rigidness of mass housing units is mostly discussed through case studies in different regions of Turkey. In the housing literature of Turkey, the uniformity in the quality of architectural design is undertaken as a quality problem, because it causes to monotonous built-environment and inhibits the variety in spatial experience of the inhabitants. Moreover, most of these studies agree generally on that this problem mainly affects users’ living standards and decreases their living quality (Tekeli 2008, Sey 1994, Bilgin 2002). Bektaş (2007) stated that the new houses and residences built today in Turkey are intended to suit a different style of living. Bektaş (2007) also called this new period “influenced”, “integrated” or “modified” and a new synthesis, which have not matured at present, will evolve. The new houses and residences are mostly built similar to each other, ignoring all the climatically, geographical and local influences which traditional Turkish house valued a lot. On the other hand, Ek (2012) discusses that monotony and deficiency in the quality of architectural design, is not perceived as a problem by their inhabitants through a case study made in high-income, medium-income and low-income mass housing settlements in Izmir. She found out that 75% of the inhabitants of the selected cases are pleased to live in this uniformed design and there is no considerable difference between diverse income groups. Furthermore, Ek (2012) notes that besides uniformity in architectural-design characteristics of the selected mass housing, there is also uniformity in their inhabitants’ perceptions about those characteristics, which indicates a consensus. Consequently, Ek (2012) states that the uniformity is not a problem, but a preference. It indicates that there is a model for the design of the current mass-housing units, and this model is accepted and even inured by both inhabitants and architects. She asserts that the uniformity in users’ expectations and quality itself, as demonstrated in her thesis, can be related with the process of modernity. As asserted by Bilgin (1994), there comprised a lack of quality in design, since all of the qualitative references were reduced into the quantitative ones after modernity. By this way, the architect began to design ordinary buildings, and the role of the architect was redefined in this respect; he was limited with the design of the ordinary. The norms, standards, and typologies of housing projects were formed by the reflexes of different actors especially from the housing supply (Bilgin 1994, Tekeli 2008). Therefore, though the mentioned uniformities are formed by the demand and supply mechanism, it may be claimed that the supply-side of this mechanism has been more influential and determinative in the housing sector of Turkey (Ek, 2012). However, we can say that Turkish people in common have a tendency towards what is new. It is not possible for the inhabitants to evaluate all the qualitative properties of new housing units as they are not experts of architectural design. Another research which has been conducted by Ergun (2011) in the recently built low-income mass housing units in Başıbüyük İstanbul focused on the process of urban transformation. Ergun (2011) tried to find out how the lives of inhabitants were affected and attempted to understand their thoughts, feelings, expectations and suggestions. He has found out that all the inhabitants were informed about the process after the projects were approved. On the other hand, surprisingly he figured out that most of the inhabitants were satisfied with the physical environment they lived. The most important reason for this satisfaction was the continuity in social relationships because the new houses were built just beside the old settlements and the population was not scattered but held together in the same housing units. Other reasons were the healthier conditions of living related to infrastructure and reduced costs of heating compared to gecekondu units. Therefore it can be assumed that social interaction is one of the most important concerns for inhabitants previously living in gecekondu settlements.

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HOW CAN AUTOMATED INTERIOR DESIGN MODEL OPERATE WITHIN STANDARDIZED ARCHITECTURE Searching for Flexibility This work differentiates from other works and studies about mass housing as it focuses on interior spaces of mass housing units with the intention of creating applicable flexible solutions. As discussed above, many studies have been conducted to evaluate the architectural features of mass housing units. Many scholars have criticized their uniformity, similarity and monotony. Through case studies user responses have been evaluated in order to understand their deficiencies and successes. But while evaluating the issue with the perspective of interior design it is important to go further by understanding the potentials of existing spaces and adapting them to different needs. In other words interior design should explore what can be done with the existing environment by accepting it with all its positives and negatives. In this sense the response of interior architecture can even be more powerful than architecture when concerning people’s lives and ways of living. Interior design necessitates working at full scale, understanding human needs and responses and being involved in real life. Weinthal (2011) states that the interior begins with the elements that are closest to the body, forming concentric and more complex layers. As it progresses from the body into spaces, where larger scales are accommodated, the elements keep their relatedness to the body and emotion. Therefore the power of interior design as a follower of life should be underlined especially in housing units where people perform a great part of their lives. Different methodologies can be used in order to create new flexible solutions for mass housing units. Throughout this chapter the concept of house in Turkey and its evolution within the last century will be discussed in order to prepare the background for new design approaches. Afterwards, Re-coding Homes project run by ITU Department of Interior Architecture and funded by TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) will be presented in order to concretize the issue. The research focuses on the Başıbüyük Mass Housing Settlement built by TOKI (Housing Development Administration).

Past, Present, Future of the Concept of House in Turkey Characteristics of Traditional Turkish House Kuban (1995) indicates that until the pre-industrial age in Turkey there have been and intimate relationship between the house form and way of life and the house arose from the material and spiritual conditions of life. The spatial configuration of the house was a follower of all the activities performed in the house. Eldem (1993) underlines that it is the Turkish arts, Turkish components and Turkish life style, which bring together the house with all the other factors such as topography and climate. The room is the main component of the Turkish house and the characteristics of the room did not change from the 16th century onwards (Küçükerman, 1985). The single room unit was mostly equipped to support all daily activities of a nuclear family composed of parents and small children. Room units were attached to a space called “sofa” in different geometric configurations. The sofa gave access to all spaces and other floors but it was much more than a circulation space. It was the gathering place for the whole family composed of sisters, brothers, grandparents and other close relatives who shared the same house. That is why the sofa was also called “hayat” which means life in Turkish language. It was 287

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also used for many different purposes and social activities including engagement, marriage ceremonies, circumcision feasts and big family dinners. In order to adjust space to these different uses for changing number of people, portable and modular furniture were used. Spatial hierarchy, privacy, integration of interior elements with space, multi functionality of rooms and circulation areas are the most important characteristics of traditional Turkish houses. According to Küçükerman (1995) the traditional house has been designed in order to embrace the flexibility of life by supporting multiple use of space. The flexibility of traditional Turkish house arises from the need of using space for different purposes during different times of the day, week and year. Winter and summer uses of open and close areas also differed. The multifunctional use of space increased the spatial performance while it let to a more compact spatial design by decreasing dimensions. Spatial hierarchy, which arises from the organization of space, is another key characteristics of Turkish house. This hierarchy helps to acquire both privacy and socialization. In most traditional houses spatial hierarchy can be read both in plan in section. According to Arat (2011), the integration of necessary storage units and functional equipment with the spatial envelope helps to increase effective use of space. Therefore the envelope embraces all fixed elements that support multi functionality of the space defined in the middle. Bertram (2008) argues that the flexible character of Turkish room arises from the integration of space with the fixed functional equipment that surrounds it. The concept of Turkish house has changed a lot during the last 70 years because of the great sociocultural changes. Although the first apartment buildings built in growing cities had spatial characters similar to the traditional Turkish House, there was shift towards a more global apartment layout. According to Toker & Toker (2003), the gradual disappearance of complex family structure and the increasing domination of a nuclear family structure is parallel to the loss of daily life function in the “sofa”, and is clearly observable in the change of configurational properties from “sofa” to “hall”. The multi-functionality of the room was replaced with the understanding of interiors classified according to functional needs. Moreover modern furniture started to take the place of interior elements that were integrated to the spatial envelope.

Gecekondu as a Form of Spontaneous Metropolitan House At the end of 1940s, in Turkey the new government adopted liberal economic policies and aimed industrialisation through importing foreign technology. Agriculture was one of those sectors where structural interventions were applied. For the aim of integration of agricultural sector into the market, tractors, fertilisers, irrigation systems and new agricultural products were used. This resulted in unemployment of many working peasants in the rural areas and this population then started to migrate into the cities to find jobs (Özdemirli, 2012). Because of the absence of governmental policies, great part of immigrants started to create their own solutions. They built up their own shelters with limited sources and skills in order to integrate with the city as soon as possible. These houses built within a few weeks were called “gecekondu” which means built overnight in Turkish language. Gecekondu settlements were shaped in a way as to be independent from the formal and regular decision-making and planning procedures (Duyar, 2005). The most important determinants of gecekondu settlements have been land appropriation, ways of living and working, culture related behaviours and the limitations in urban sources (Turgut, 2005). As the first generation gecekondu houses were mostly built by their inhabitants they were shaped by their ways of living, which can be regarded as a strong resemblance to traditional Turkish house. Duyar 288

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(2005) discusses that space created in these neighbourhoods is the result of their particular social dynamics and settling in gecekondu settlements is a process of mutual interaction and negotiation of inhabitants. The formation of space in the gecekondu was based on the consensus among its inhabitants while each of the squatter tries to maximise his/her use of space until he/she meets the limits put forward by the others (Duyar, 2005). Nalbantoğlu (1998) defines the space in gecekondu as fluid and multifunctional, which is a result of the tactics used by its inhabitants. The spatial configuration was determined by the structure of the family with mostly a circulation space like the sofa in traditional Turkish house. As number of inhabitants and needs changed they added new spaces around or on top of existing ones. They tended to extend until they reached the territory of others. Social interaction of inhabitants, sharing and collective work was the reason for their survival. On the other hand the quality of construction was very low and there was no proper infrastructure.

Mass Housing as a Solution? In 1980’s, Gecekondu areas which were mostly located in peripheries of the city, started to become more valuable as a result of rapid urban growth. On the other hand labour-intensive industries started to be removed out of the city causing further unemployment problems for the population who lived in gecekondu settlements. At the end of the 1980s, transformation through “transformation projects” emerged as an alternative model for those areas, which couldn’t be transformed by improvement and redevelopment plans. The most important actor for these projects was the Housing Development Administration (TOKI), which was founded in 1984 in order to solve the problem of public housing. One of the most important objectives of TOKI was to build houses for low-income families. The new approach would upgrade the unplanned and unhealthy illegal settlements, and thus enable economic, social and cultural improvements to urban areas (Uzun and others, 2010). The process was called urban transformation although it differed in many ways from the applications all over the world. In urban transformation works, in many applications including those aimed at evacuating the area in general, TOKI has had the authority to plan new housing regions in the outskirts for the families to be evacuated from the transformation area by enabling them to use low loans (Kejanlı, 2013). But most of these applications failed to evaluate the social and cultural background of inhabitants. The dwellers were not involved in decision-making processes and were only given a chance to be homeowners within the rules and regulations determined by the state. As a result, in some areas urban transformation has caused the removal, displacement and marginalization of the inhabitants of Istanbul’s gecekondu settlements. In other areas where the inhabitants could be accommodated near to their previous settlements, the spatial characteristics of new housing options offered to the displaced residents were not suitable for their ways of life. While observing the housing settlements in Turkey and in Istanbul, one of the most problematic typologies can be regarded as the mass housing projects within urban transformation areas. These projects are being offered as new homes for crowded families that used to live in gecekondu settlements. Mostly these families have different socio-cultural identities and different lifestyles. Because of economic distress, within the gecekondu settlements, they share the same houses with their close relatives in order to reduce their living expenses. Moreover, their lifestyles show considerable resemblance to the ways of living in traditional Turkish houses. The extended family structure, the role of women, social rituals and activity patterns reflect the traditional understanding of living. Cultural values like sharing, hospitality, cooperation and solidarity play an important role in their social relations. Therefore, they tend to perform many social and religious activities in crowded groups. On the other hand, the new 289

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apartment units that they move to are smaller and they are composed of standardized spaces, which are not flexible to fulfill their social and functional needs. Additionally, as it is mentioned before, the new apartment blocks’ architectural design is extremely rigid because of the tunnel formwork construction system. At this point interior design solutions need to be generated in order to differentiate the standard spatial layout of interiors according to user needs and lifestyles. This differentiation can lead to a flexible understanding, which may increase spatial quality and performance of interiors.

Re-coding Homes Project: Flexible Interior Design Solutions for Mass Housing Units With Mass Customization The research project Re-Coding Homes develops an automated design model that generates home environments according to parameters defined by user needs. All the interior components are part of the same modular system that allows different configurations at different alternatives. Aim of the project is to create alternative flexible solutions for mass housing units’ interior spaces and to examine the issue with an interdisciplinary approach including interior architects, architects, and industrial designers. The expert system which can operate the flexible modular system proposed in the housing units has made it possible to achieve a large number of spatial variations by means of “multi-parameter layout design”. “Mass-customization” approach was used in order to generate satisfactory results for users’ various spatial needs. Within the scope of the study, the use of modular design principles has been effective in terms of obtaining product diversity that meets different uses and preventing complexity while creating various spatial combinations. Modular design can be seen as a design approach that can dramatically increase adaptability as well as flexibility within living environments. Baldwin and Clark (2000) defines modularity as an open and flexible system, in this sense, modularity can meet various needs by changing the necessary parts of the system without changing the whole system. Customized interior design, which is the subject of the study, defines a complex and multi-criteria design problem. Multi-criteria design method runs parallel processes and traditional design methods fail to solve such design problems. Generative systems, with their dynamic processes and outputs offer a new perspective on both conceptualizing design processes and working on the optimization designs. Genetic Algorithms has been used in many fields such as optimization of designs, spatial layout arrangement and searching architectural forms within the literature (Gu et.al, 2010). Genetic Algorithms basically act with the logic of producing and testing, in other words, the design is synthesized and evaluated (Rosenman, 1997). In this study, by means of Genetic Algorithms, an expert system that provides interior design alternatives according to different user types and usages is developed and outcomes are presented to the users through an interactive interface where they can take an active role as participants in the creation of interior layouts.

Case Study: Başıbüyük Houses, Istanbul In the case of mass housing units in urban transformation areas, user needs differentiate greatly because of the existence of extended and complex family types and different cultural backgrounds. The Başıbüyük Housing Settlement can be regarded as one of the most challenging areas because of the existence of numerous crowded families that also have different origins. Therefore, Başıbüyük Settlement has been chosen as a site for the case study in order to develop a user centred design approach that can answer 290

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to different scenarios. The research project is the one of the first projects, which seeks interior design solutions for the recently built mass housing units in transformation areas. The project consists of 3 main steps including field research and surveys, development of design model and application of design model. The first step of the research project is concerned with examining architectural and environmental features of the settlement in order to understand both spatial limitations and opportunities that can lead to flexible solutions (Figure 1). The layout of the apartments in Başıbüyük reflects the widespread plan typology applied by TOKI in all regions of Turkey. The walls are very difficult to modify because of the tunnel formwork construction system, which also determine the proportions of the rooms. The circulation areas are minimized in order to increase the areas of the rooms. The most important objective of the first stage is evaluating user needs because they are meant to be the most important determinants of the design model. According to Marcus (1986), in order to design housing settlements that can fulfill the needs of inhabitants, it is essential to find out what people want and what they don’t want. As the family represents the basic social unit, to understand user needs in Başıbüyük, the main unit of inquiry is regarded as the family. Therefore, the interviews aim to collect information about all family members. The interview is structured in four basic information groups including static information about the family, daily routines, social interaction and relationship with space (Figure 2). The relationship of the residents with space is analysed through open-ended questions. It is essential to understand the existing activity sets and the ways and time periods they are performed in relation to space, furniture and other interior elements. In this way, it is intended to understand the existing and dominant activity patterns and solutions created by the inhabitants themselves. The project team visited 50 apartments and mostly made interviews with women who stayed at home during daytime (Figure 3). The interviews were informal in order to increase the contribution of the inhabitants. They were encouraged to talk about their daily lives and problems. Besides the interviews, schematic drawings of the apartments were made in order to understand how interiors were used by the inhabitants. Every furniture, fixed interior element and intervention was shown on the drawings. The most important problem in evaluating the data gathered was to structure the scattered information. All the information were classified according to the design parameters, which will later on, build up the design model. The design parameters were defined by evaluating and schematizing the questions of the interview. All the information was grouped under categories and the answers were also gradationally Figure 1. The evaluation criteria of spatial limitations and opportunities

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Figure 2. The structure of the interview

classified. For example, the answers given to the question “how often do you accept long term guests?” were grouped under never, rarely (1), occasionally (2-3 times a year) often (3-4 times a year) and very often (more than 5 times a year). This understanding made it possible to create a reporting software that can show all the results together. The reporting software was structured to show both interview categories and spatial activity patterns on plans and sections (Figure 4). All the furniture and fixed interior elements in each housing unit were classified according to the activities sets. The reporting software also gave the opportunity to overlap all the plans so it was possible to understand the dominant ways of using space as well as exceptions.

Design Process and Stages of the Study in the Expert System The second phase of the project focuses on defining spatial variations through the concretization of the design matrix by using modular design principles. In this way, it became possible to create innumerable Figure 3. Field research in Başıbüyük Mass Housing Settlement

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Figure 4. The reporting system structured to show both interview categories and spatial activity patterns on plans and sections

spatial variations composed of modular elements that correspond to all the probable activity sets that can take place within housing units. Although the modular system is composed of simple units, their combinations define innumerable spatial alternatives. In this sense, the design model acts as a mass customization tool that generates different solutions for every different family type living within the current standardized interiors of mass housing units. According to a research conducted by Sarıyar and Pakdil (2012) which focuses on mass customization approach used in the production processes of high-end multi-story housing in İstanbul, the mass-customization approach of the producer firms is mainly used for providing variety and adaptability on the finishing and equipment levels despite the fact that most of survey participants have customization expectation on the spatial organization level. Therefore, the design approach of Re-coding Homes project also differentiates from existing research and applications as it uses mass customization method in order to obtain spatial flexibility. The main originality of the research project Re-coding Homes is the use of an expert system in order to obtain the required flexibility in interiors. This expert system generates spatial configurations depending on the design parameters which were defined within the case study. These parameters are mainly variables that differentiate the solutions according to the specific requirements of users. The main parameters that may effect the design are determined (Table1) and categorized as “People”, “Actions”, “Furnishings” and “Spaces”. “People” represent the specific users, which gets involved in the design process by making their choices. “Actions” refers to the possible activities and behaviours of the users. “Furnishings” represent the interior components to be placed within the apartment units and “Spaces” represent the parts of the existing units for which the solutions are created. The expert system generates

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variations by placing “Furnishings” in “Spaces” considering the input about “People” and “Actions” related to every single space that is three dimensionally defined inside the system. The expert system works with Genetic Algorithms which means designs were evolved within computer environment according to meet the fitness functions that were determined by the design team. These fitness functions define the relationship between furnishings and interior envelopes of apartment units in order to avoid meaningless and inappropriate solutions. As furnishings were input for the expert system they were represented as raw geometries in order to facilitate the production of variations in the computer environment. Figure 5 presents an example of a matrix created by selecting three alternatives from the designs evolving 5,100, 200 and 300 times respectively for one of the rooms. The design process continued with layout and furniture design by taking feedback from the expert system. During the first establishment of the expert system, numerous trials were made in order to define fitness functions that guide the genetic algorithms to generate alternatives. Evaluating the feedbacks from the system, main furniture design principles were determined. These principles were defined as: •

All components need to be modular or they need to fit in a modular grid. In terms of modular coordination, 60x60 and 30x30 cm modules are considered to be used in the plan layout, and a 30 cm grid to be dominant within anthropometric requirements in the sectional layout. In the plan layout, living and storage areas are differentiated. While areas close to windows with more natural light were reserved for multipurpose living spaces, areas with longer and continuous walls far from windows were reserved for storage (Figure 6). In rooms where more flexibility is needed, the modules need to be multifunctional fulfilling all of the main activities that take place in the room. For example, the living area within the living room was organized to accommodate activities such as sitting, eating, entertaining (neighbours and overnight guests), chatting, watching TV etc. Therefore the modules that meet these activities were considered within a setup that could be used in different forms depending on the increase in the number of users. Similarly, the modules that meet the main activities in bedrooms such as sleeping, resting, sitting, playing, watching TV, hosting overnight guest were setup so as to meet different needs by being brought together in different ways by the users themselves when needed. Figure 6 shows the decisions about fixed and mobile modules. Mobile module zones are identified

• •

Table 1. Main Parameters That Are Considered As Inputs for The Design Model and Their Influences Data From Field Studies That Can Affect the Design Process

The Fields That Are Affected by the Specified Data

Number of family members

Number of beds, single - double bed, arrangement of eating table, size of sitting area, size of storage, number of toilets

Presence of guests

Need for extra bed, configuration of eating table, bed storage, arrangement of sitting area

Activity space relationship

Sleeping, sitting, eating, breakfast, accepting guests, playing, cooking, working

Main problems /complaints

Dark rooms, insufficient storage, small kitchen and toilet.

Colors and patterns

Furniture design

Socio-economic situation

Decision of materials and techniques

Source: Sağlar Onay et.al 2017 .

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Figure 5. A matrix created by selecting three alternatives from the designs evolving 5,100, 200 and 300 times respectively for one of the rooms

Source: Saglar Onay et al., 2017.

•

with dashed line while fixed modules are shown with continuous line. Grey modules represent the storage zones that can be higher when needed. Fixed modules will be attached to walls in order to leave the central areas as flexible as possible for changing needs and furniture layouts created with mobile modules.

All the design principles listed above are defined to the expert system as design constrains in order to create rational solution sets. The genetic algorithm is launched with these rules or fitness functions to create design alternatives by simultaneously considering each fitness function during the installation of furnishings. While defining spatial solutions, the relationship between the proposed modular system and the existing architectural structure is formed by using dimensional coordination. The use of dimensional coordination increased the spatial value of interiors by eliminating aerial losses and made it possible to use the same design solutions in other mass housing settlements with different plan layouts.

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Figure 6. The modular layout showing mobile and fixed module zones and decisions about their height Source: Saglar Onay, Garip, Garip, 2019.

Outcomes, Models and Prototypes All modules and furniture are detailed in a parallel process to the expert system studies. They fit in the 3D grid of 30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm. Within this stage of the study, the furnishings, which were represented in simple cubic geometry in the previous stage, transforms into real furnishings. Movable modules are designed in two main groups; the first group stands on the floor and they have metal pillars which have the same details with the metal frames that can be used for fastening the modules to each other. The second group modules can be placed upon these modules that stand on the floor. The modules can be fastened on others by the help of metal frames that fit in grooves that are cut in wooden plates. The frames prevent the modules from sliding over each other, they can be easily assembled and dismantled by users themselves. In this way users can change the places and configurations of modules according to the activities that will take place in their living environments. Hangable modules are differentiated as laundry module, storage module (with transparent cover) and plant module. While these units are resolved on wall surfaces, it becomes possible to use balconies for other purposes like sitting, eating, working etc. If needed these modules can also be used on interior walls.

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Table 2 shows the list of modular furniture solutions developed for each space and activity. Flexibility in each space where multi-use is needed has been discussed within both the general layout and the modular-furniture scales. The layout and furnishings vary according to the family types, and the alternatives gathered from the evolved designs of the expert system have become a basis in this sense. The modular units can be grouped in categories according to the activity sets they are designed for. The modules are be grouped as follows: • • • • •

Multifunctional seating modules Multifunctional storage modules (19 modules) Multifunctional divisible bed/seating modules (3 modules) Chair and taborets Extendable table modules

Project team worked on detailing the interior modules by conducting a hands-on study with continuous feedback from modelling and prototyping studies. The 1/10 model of the whole apartment unit was made as an important tool during the design process (Figure 7). The main purpose of constructing a physical model was to discuss the concept of modularity in a holistic way regarding the interiors of the apartment units. The walls of the model is made of transparent plexiglass and the modular grid is engraved on plexiglass surfaces with the laser cutter machine in order to discuss the relations between modules and interior envelopes. Physical modelling studies also aimed to create a design language that embraces all of the modular solutions (Figure 8). The modular grid, material, connection frames, grooves carved on wooden surfaces were evaluated as factors that help to maintain the common design language. All the modules were developed to fit in the modular grid. This principle was vital to maintain maximum flexibility allowing

Table 2. List of modular furniture solutions developed for each space and activity Spaces

Activities

Solutions

sitting, watching TV, sleeping (for guests), playing, storage, eating, working, counter

Multi-functional seating modules The flexible use of the same unit as coffee table, pouf, sofa and bed (for guests) Extendable table modules

Room1 Large Bedroom

sleeping, sitting, watching TV, playing, working, storage

Multi-functional divisible bed/seating modules Integrated working table, TV unit and storage module

Room2 Small Bedroom Balcony

sleeping, sitting, watching TV, playing, working, storage sitting, eating, drying, storage

Multi-functional divisible bed/seating modules Integrated working table, TV unit and storage modules Extendable table modules Multi-functional hangable storage modules, drying, planting modules

cooking, storage, eating personal care storage

Fixed counter and storage modules Extendable table modules Multi-functional storage modules Multi-functional storage modules Multi-functional storage modules

Living Room

Spaces that require multiple usage solutions

Spaces that have specific usages

Kitchen Bathroom Hall

Source: Saglar Onay, Garip, Garip, 2019.

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Figure 7. 1/10 model of the whole apartment unit in TOKI Basibuyuk Housing Source: Project Archive

the combination of different modules. Figure 9 shows different configurations of storage modules and their junction details. The prototype studies mostly focused on material decisions and connection details. As the modules are intended to be assembled by the users themselves, materials needed to be as light as possible. In Figure 8. Common design language of modular furniture solutions and 1/10 models. Source: Project Archive.

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Figure 9. The horizontal and vertical combination of storage modules Source: Project Archive.

this sense, birch plywood was chosen as an appropriate material as it is light and it can be used without additional surface treatment. MDF was chosen as an alternative material in order to reduce costs and create more economic solutions. The dovetail joint was used for the connection of MDF/ plywood plates (Figure 10).

Development of the User Interface In web interface development process which is the last phase of the study, the main objective is to provide the user with residential interior designs which are diversified according to the needs of users. It is aimed to obtain an interface which brings together the needs of the inhabitants and provides specific solutions for them with all the outputs obtained from the project.

Figure 10. Examples from prototype studies. Source: Project Archive.

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Within the scope of the Re-coding Homes project, user participation has been provided in two important phases. In the first phase, the features and needs of existing users were determined through survey and field studies and these data were included in the design process as direct design parameters. In the final phase of the study, a simple survey including user preferences was prepared according to the predetermined design parameters (Figure 11). This survey works as a tool to provide the opportunity to see and choose from spatial variations through user participation on the website. A coding system that includes all of the solutions to arise according to the different responses to the survey questions has been developed. This coding system contains combinations of all possible answers to the survey questions, respectively. To upload spatial solution alternatives that respond to all possible codes to the relevant section of the website, generation of generations process was initiated. 11.654 different alternatives were produced in total and the visuals of these alternatives were placed in the “data” folder of the survey prepared to be added to the website. Plan layouts and perspectives were prepared for each alternative and a formula was determined to calculate the approximate cost values. The developed interface was structured through web hosting services and shared via website publishing. The interface functioning as a website works as a mass customization tool that brings together the users and the project outputs. For the legible representation of all the furniture modules used and for geometrical and spatial relations to be perceived in the third dimension as well, all alternatives are represented by two visuals, plan diagram and axonometric perspective (Figure 12). The web interface contains information about the project’s content and system, the methods applied and the team. It also includes a survey and the data set directed by the survey to provide user participation within the residential interior design process. Thus, the website will work as an interface that will provide user participation and mass customization as well as it will contain information about the project and will be used as a communication tool to share this information (Figure 13).

Figure 11. “Questionnaire” Page of the Web Site

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Figure 12. Sample String and Generated Design Alternative for the string (code) 11110011210. Source: Saglar Onay,Garip,Garip, 2019.

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Although there is a great variety in social pattern in big cities of Turkey, the response of architecture is extremely standardized. Therefore, the response of interior design needs to create the required variety by evaluating the existing situation. In this sense interior design can create solutions for the needs of Figure 13. Web site on the mobile phone and tablet Source: Project Archive

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crowded and different family types and improve their quality of life. Possible solutions need to primarily consider user needs and expectations. Moreover, they need to be logistically and economically applicable. Mass customization method which constitutes the design approach of Re-coding Homes project is one of the most convenient ways to reduce costs and increase variety. The design model proposes a unique approach about how to process the data collected from a specific context for a specific group of users and how to use this data to generate living environments that matches the needs of their future inhabitants. In this sense the design model makes it possible to obtain unique solution sets for changing context and users. The solutions obtained by the research project Re-coding Homes are intended to answer to the needs of a population that has moved to mass housing units from informal settlements. These settlements were areas that were formed by migrants coming from different regions of Anatolia with different geographical and cultural features, which were also reflected in people’s habits and ways of living. Therefore the design model was developed to cover this wide range of preferences related to space. In this sense the methodological structure of the study is based on creating flexible solutions and consequently it has the potential to be applied to other contexts with varying features. In different contexts, only the parameters and their effects of influence will change while the structure of the design model will remain similar.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS The design model creates solutions for existing standard buildings in order to create variety in their interiors but the opposite can also be possible. The interior solutions can lead to new architectures that can embrace the necessary variety demanded by future inhabitants of mass housing units. This necessitates the integration of architecture and interior design at the beginning of the architectural design process. In this way, time and energy lost can be recovered. Therefore, further research can explore new design approaches to integrate different scales of design from the beginning in order to increase the quality of the future living environments. Furthermore, new approaches should also cover the views of the other actors like the authorized persons of the central and local governments, entrepreneurs, city planners, engineers, contractors, site managers, and construction workers active in the production, construction or design processes. By the use of such an interdisciplinary understanding, it can be possible to reach to more inclusionary and applicable solutions.

CONCLUSION This study aims to underline the role of interior design in creating variety and flexibility for standardized architecture. This role can also be regarded as a public responsibility because of the great nonconcurrence between the variety of user profiles and uniformity in contemporary living environments. In many instances like this, architectural design fails to create the variety and flexibility that corresponds to different possible scenarios. Therefore, in these cases the response of interior design can even be more powerful than architecture in resolving the questions that architecture leave unsolved. The design methodology discussed in this chapter is structured specific to the case but it can be easily applied to different cases in other geographical contexts as it tries to develop a flexible model that can change according to different needs and circumstances. Therefore, insights offered by this work aims 302

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Figure 14. The structure of the design model Source: Saglar Onay,Garip,Garip, 2019.

to create a value that overcome the specific case and try to contribute to the general issue of designing interior living spaces. The power of interior design arises from its intimate relationship with human scale, body and senses. Working with interiors means working at full scale in order to determine all aspects of spaces and objects surrounding us. Furthermore, interior design also supports the ever-changing dynamics of life because of its relatively high temporality when compared to architecture. As ways of living, needs and preferences change, architectural space is to be interpreted by the interior designer and interior design’s role as the follower of life is to be revealed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The research project presented in this chapter “A User-Centered Model Research Towards a Flexible Interior Spatial Design for Mass Housing Units: Urban Renewal Housing” (with project number 114K279) was supported by TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) and Istanbul Technical University Scientific Research Projects Department. Researchers: Nilüfer Saglar Onay, Banu Garip, Ervin Garip, Cansu Tolunay Berber, Anıl Berber. Scholars: Orkan Güzelci, Serkan Kocabay, Fatma Karakaya, Rojda Edebali, Aleyna Tunçer, Rabia Alpargu, Yusuf Yüksel.

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Ozdemirli, Y. (2012). An Institutional Analysis of the Transformation of Informal Housing Settlements in Turkey: A Case Study in the Şentepe Neighbourhood of Ankara (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. Rosenman, M. A. (1997). An Exploration Into Evolutionary Models For Nonroutine Design. Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, 11(3), 287–293. doi:10.1016/S0954-1810(96)00046-5 Saglar Onay, N. (2015). Interiors Seeking a New Design Language. The International Journal of Architectonic. Spatial and Environmental Design., 8(2), 21–30. Sağlar Onay, N., Garip, E., & Garip, S. B. (2017). A Flexible User Centered Design Model for Social Housing Units (Vol. 97). Tafter Journal. Sağlar Onay, N., Garip, S.B. & Garip, E. (n.d.). Re-Coding Homes Through Flexible Interiors: Emerging Research and Opportunities. IGI Global. Sarıyar, A., & Pakdil, O. (2012). Endüstrileşmiş Konut Üretiminde Kitlesel Bireyselleştirme. Megaron, 7(3), 161–180. Sey, Y. (1994). Konutta Kalite ve Maliyet. In T. Aktüre (Ed.), Konutta Kalite. Mesa. Tekeli, İ. (2008, November). 1980’li Yıllara Kadar İzmir’deki Konut Sunum Biçimlerinde Yaşanan Çeşitlenmeler. Paper presented at the Symposium of İzmir’de 80’li Yıllardan Günümüze Konut ve Mimarlık Kültürü, Association of Professional Architects of Izmir, Izmir, Turkey. Toker, U., & Toker, Z. (2003). Family structure and spatial configuration in Turkish house form in Anatolia from late nineteenth century to late twentieth century. Proceedings of 4th International Space Syntax Symposium. Turgut, H. (2005). Türkiye’deki Gecekondu Sorununun Yapısal Analizi ve Bir Sağlıklaştırma Modeli Önerisi. Mimarlık, 323. Uzun, B., Cete, M., & Palancioglu, H. M. (2010). Legalizing and Upgrading Illegal Settlements in Turkey. Habitat International, 34(2), 204–209. doi:10.1016/j.habitatint.2009.09.004 Weinthal, L. (2011). Introduction. In L. Weinthal (Ed.), Toward a New Interior: An Anthology of Interior Design Theory (pp. 15–20). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Design Matrix: A matrix of abstract design solutions originated from each other. Design Model: A set of rules or a framework for the construction of an object or a system. Design Parameter: A variable that is evaluated during the design process determining the characteristics of the final object or system. Expert System: A computer program that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to simulate the judgment and behavior of a human or an organization. Flexible Interior Space: Interior that can be used for different activities and purposes at different times.

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Gecekondu: Self-built houses without any permission from authorities. Mass-Customization: Producing products that are customized due to the clients’ requests, characteristics, etc. Modular Design: Design based on interchangeable components in order to increase flexibility. Spatial Potentials: Features and facts that can be interpreted to increase the performance and quality of space. Spatial Solution: Determination of appropriate answers to a specific design problem concerned with interior space. User-Centered Design: Design that evaluates user needs and preferences at all stages of the design process.

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Tools, Leads, and Experiments

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Chapter 14

Design Surrenders to Virtual Reality Manlio Brusatin Istituto Universitario di Architettura Venezia, Italy

ABSTRACT Before moving into a house, each of us consults a drawing of a plan. But what turns that plan into the interior of a house? The representation of the architectural design produces a drawing for the project: they may become the same thing or perhaps different things. We know that each interior space is only truly designed by living in it. The designer narrates (draws) a design to make it become reality. But what kind of gap is there between knowing how to draw and knowing how to build, that is, between the ability to render in a drawing and the ability to construct a building? Compared to classic systems of representation (plan, elevation, section, and perspective), rendering has become the simulation of constructed reality, which does not yet exist and won’t have exactly the form envisaged. If in the design VR (virtual reality) tends to dominate the RR (real reality), the RR will end up revealing VR to be a fake reality (FR).

INTRODUCTION The idea for writing down these remarks on the relationship between drawing and design, or rather on the way in which architecture is first represented and then “built” came to me while considering the work of two great masters of twentieth-century Italian architecture, Carlo Scarpa and Aldo Rossi. I won’t dwell on them here, because too much has already been written about them. I will instead ex post look at the way architectural drawing, now banally called design, was produced until the mid-twentieth century, that is when a drawing was still done by hand, before the advent of CAD systems or similar forms of “graphic rendering” that produced a Copernican revolution in the perception and vision of architectural interiors and exteriors. But was that previous kind of drawing real, virtual or unreal representation? The simplest and most direct possible analogy is with the change from a manuscript written with the quill to Gutenberg’s printing with movable type. But even in this case the comparison is not a good match: a printed book reproduces an original text with exactly the same words, even if not the style of the calligraphy of a manuscript. As an example, it is more interesting in critical terms to consider how Carlo DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch014

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Scarpa (1906-1978) and Aldo Rossi (1931- 1997) mutually defined each other with an aphorism: one made the modern in the ancient (Carlo Scarpa), the other the ancient in the modern (Aldo Rossi). We are now witnessing the demise of the superficial critique of postmodernism along with a stimulating reappraisal of artistic craft skills, which have in fact pushed aside all the illusory Baroque-isms of celebrity architects. Both Scarpa and Rossi worked systematically, starting from inside the building and the built city, and re-proposed the small in the large and the large in the small. That is to say, a total interpenetration of interior and exterior in the light of the production of architectural art as it emerged from the designer’s pen-pencil. Significantly, they designed single-handedly. Carlo Scarpa’s design sheet was a table with the tracing paper glued on it, on which he drew the plan first and then the drawings of the elevation and the section, one superimposed on the other. The different drawings were distinguished simply by various pastel colors in a real structure, in which the three fundamental representations were compared. Plan-elevation-section became a unicum, all one. Although perfectly legible, the design sheet did not have a very rigorous, tidy appearance because the surplus blank spaces were minutely covered with small drawings of details either in perspective or axonometric views, or even sketches and caricatures of people snooping around his work. It was a drawing – in the case of Scarpa – drawn and redrawn as if it were a superimposition to be compared in the plan being simultaneously transformed into the various elevations, stressing that the real design that makes the actual construction of the architecture possible consists of the cross section and the longitudinal section. Unlike Scarpa, Aldo Rossi preferred architecture that was first described and narrated, then drawn. His notebooks are like the ideas and jottings of a serialized novel written down on post-it notes and then reassembled and developed like the latent image of a photographic plate that changes from negative to positive. His drawings are neither woven nor interlocking like those of Scarpa but loose and geometrically knotted like a Peruvian khipu: precisely delineated and sequenced, as found in the same arts that bring to mind the suggestion of an “ancient [invention] in the modern,” as classical is to neoclassical. Ideas, like icons, are very boldly drawn in ink. They are mostly small-sized elevations or axonometries, but tend to a single-dimensional sequence, like individual movie stills used to make the visual memory flow and enchant. This is, however, a typically Italian Neorealistic film effect, rather like when the idea of a costume design, cut out and glued into a personal diary, jumps out at you with the almost naive wonder of a pop-up.

DRAWING SURRENDERS TO VIRTUAL REALITY Everyone knows how difficult it is to find a home, even just a room. Or rather, find a house that we really like. No one is aware of this until forced to find a home, even just a room. We are used to buying or renting a house that has been used by others or to choosing a house that is not there yet. And then be able to live in it for who knows how long. The tools for viewing house interiors are generally very primitive and inadequate. At least they were until recently. Although people are taught enough to be able to make a house, they are not taught how to choose a house. We choose a house with less specific knowledge than when ordering a lunch. Any restaurant menu with its list of dishes and specialties provides much more precise information than what an elaborate real-estate agency design tells us and explains, when we have to decide to buy a house “on paper.” A lunch is not a house, of course, but a menu list is much more refined than a plan of an apartment drawn on scrap of paper proffered to anyone who decides to go find a house to live in the city and, 309

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as increasingly often happens, to sacrifice their life to stay in it for a lifetime. Without over-dramatizing: it’s better to physically inspect the property in bad weather and see a house with the roof on, even if still only being built or repaired. A house is often a lifetime project, which normally is not “gifted” to anyone, or at most it is only left to someone. So what kind of knowledge do we require to address the (pre)vision of a still inexistent space? Until recently, for a potential buyer, an unbuilt apartment was a photocopy of a very schematically drawn plan, in which the criteria for representation were primarily the square meters that decided the price, and then the load-bearing walls and partitions, the doors and windows. Little else, indeed nothing else. Written in uniform lettering-guide or transfer characters, the indications of the uses of the rooms were by category: kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, and bedroom/s. There were also possible joint forms of interiors: living-dining room, kitchen-dining room, accessoried wall, wardrobe, divan-bed, garden-terraces, double and triple bathrooms, etc. When not flaunted, the so-called “view” would only be hinted at: “Apartment with a view.” But view of what? Similarly, period furniture is offered. But what period? The architectural period and its style are even more a question of categories: prestige historic or modern building, or Art Nouveau villa, loft, ground floor, mezzanine, second-third floor with/ without elevator, etc. But no one says what we will see thousands and thousands of times from a window, from that window. The plan, the detailed design, as “drawn” by an architect, engineer or other technician, has been known in this form at least since Vitruvius, who in De Architectura established the geometric criteria for the representation of a building (best commented in the translation from the Latin by Daniele Barbaro, 1567). Vitruvius’s terms are the ichnographia (plan), the orthographia (front or elevation), and the sciographia, (perspective or axonometric view). The ichnographia in particular has an interesting etymological origin linked to the “footprint or impression.” The Italian word pianta (plan) refers to the homonymous pianta (sole) of the human or animal foot, after it has left its recognizable outline. A built house, with its foundations, therefore has a plan that may survive as a (foot)print even after the house has disappeared. Archeology in fact uncovers and detects buried “footprints” of houses and cities almost reduced to plans, although the houses themselves have not just been plans. It is important that at the origin of a properly built house, there is a plan traced or drawn on which to align and raise the stones, which perhaps after being completely destroyed may re-emerge, even only from the drawing of its plan. This is not thus just a drawing but a whole project, because constructing stands for dwelling or “being dwelled in,” and, as such, it reflects a civilization not a mere society. A plan is a geometric design that horizontally “cuts” through an existing building (in a survey) or not yet existing building (in a design), roughly at the height of three feet from the ground, showing what in reality cannot be completely seen: the thicknesses of the walls, for example, and then the difference between a door and a window, circumscribing what is abstractly called “the gross internal area,” which is the net surface area of a house excluding the walls. But the walls are part of the surface area of a house, and a more or less large common wall with a line marked in the middle, establishes how one property is separated from another, like the sacred border of a small country, to be defended at all costs against the claims of a neighbor: the skirmishes over what’s “yours and mine” can last until the owners perish, and even beyond. Like a map, the plan is, however, a rather abstract design, even if it seems very practical. But the ichnographia, in its original meaning as a horizontal cut, can also become one, or many vertical cuts, that is one or more sections. The section, then, is the indispensable design tool not only to see inside but to physically build a house. In the same way as “dissecting” means re-cognizing and re-constructing 310

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how a human body is made: “seen from within.” To form a rough idea of the interior of a house, a plan may perhaps be enough, a simple scrap of a drawing, not even well made. But the “drawing” of a plan is a far cry from the design, made up of many plans and sections. Even the terms drawing/design have in themselves a different meaning but very similar substance, similar to the relation between the French dessin (drawing) and dessein (design). “Having a drawing in mind” meant what was needed was action more than intentions, while still being a prevision – a design or project. The latter term entered Italian as progetto from the French projet, and extended well beyond eighteenth-century Rationalism and Enlightenment. It is only now being eroded by “mission,” which may at times triumph over project, but only in the way you win a battle but not the war. This is also the terrain of skills such as those required for a preparatory drawing, and especially in architecture where drawing(s) come under the term “model” (also when in paper form), before it is treated three-dimensionally in an analogical format as a physical scale model or in a digital format as a 3D image. Models made of wood, cardboard, and plaster are now obsolete, indeed completely outdated because they can be dematerialized and re-materialized by renderings in three dimensions (3D). Assisted design (CAD, acronym for computer-aided drafting) was thus like the invention and the principle of reproducibility in drafting a design. Indeed, in the telematic era, beginning in the 1980s, but especially in the 1990s, first timidly, with wireframe drawings and then through various developments in photorealism and more sophisticated animations in the 2000s, design systems were dominated by a new form of visual communication. What continues to be called the “presentation” of an architectural project (or design concept), is increasingly a simulation of the already made, albeit little more than an embryo. Even Deconstructivism, which seems a contradiction in terms, given the traditional concept of construction as building, would not have been possible without the computerized processing of data in a technically new way of viewing, although the effects of representation/communication, as happens in the society of the spectacle, do not in themselves stand for genuine new developments and skills. On the contrary, the illusion of the already made, of the already built, is wiping out the professional constructive and maintenance skills of architecture and boils down to the automatism of “how much does it cost” instead of “how much it will cost” or how much can it instantly seduce those who will be able to finance and then own a building. The way and the world in which the enduring work of architecture once seduced has now been transformed and only seems to harness high finance in its unstable liquidity. Today, in fact, all real estate agencies offering and selling houses and apartments to prospective buyers, inevitable resort to a more or less sophisticated rendering, instead of the old blue or sepia heliograph. But the simple black and white plan was much more honest than a “realistic rendering” elaborated with a taste for visual illiteracy or, with seductive graphics dressed up by Photoshop, which is the diffuse koine of a “mass eye” with an increasingly broader cultural reception area. No longer the sincere, naive way of representing the real but a virtual and illiterate world to which the real, “the true” will have to adapt. In the images and faces dissected and uncovered by the world of pixels (2D) and voxels (3D), every retouching is necessary and the graphic facelift is now a close relative of a widespread “phony style” of a post-truth. In spite of everything, however, because architecture is truly buildable by its nature, it is opposed to the economy of fake news fueling communications as incessant storytelling. This virtual reality, conceived as an “anticipatory perspective,” was first introduced by Filippo Brunelleschi in a variously interpreted experiment in an Italian piazza. Historically shrouded in a symbolic Panofskian aura, Brunelleschi was arguably not the inventor of perspective, but the “designer” of the construction of the “not already made” perspective. He knowledgeably used an ingenious ploy to deceive the eye but also to train it for a useful new way of viewing. There is a vast literature with 311

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almost unending interpretations of the famous two Brunelleschi “panels.” The first case involved the invention/construction of a wood panel with a perspective representation of the octagonal Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence. Unfortunately, the original of the painted panel has not survived but there is a fairly accurate description of it by a certain Antonio, or Pseudo-Manetti. With the second panel, Brunelleschi found a way of representing (and viewing) Piazza della Signoria using a previously untried method: he made a hole in the back of the small square panel (no more than thirty centimeters per side) depicting the piazza so that he could see the reflection of the painting on a shiny surface placed in front of it. This was more likely to have been a silver sheet than a mirror – Brunelleschi started his career as a skilled goldsmith – that served to reflect not only the fixed image of the painting of the architecture of the Baptistery and the piazza but also the blue sky of Florence with its moving strands of white clouds. This first example of Virtual Reality (VR) was a “rendering” that certainly changed the way of seeing and thinking about the Italian piazza. The “dolce prospettiva” (sweet perspective) was then celebrated in theoretical and practical terms by Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti. It also characterized those paintings entitled “Ideal Cities” or “Imaginary Cities,” which are not so very “imaginary” because we still see parts of them living on in Italian cities. Brunelleschi’s panels attempted to describe a way of seeing the new architecture of the Italian city, which he himself re-built on a gigantic real scale in the case of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, when he remedied previous errors but was literally worn out by the continual interruptions and disputes (he even ended up in prison). All his works seem to share the fate rather than the fortune of ancient and modern public works. Although by the end of the fifteenth century, the “artificial or artistic perspective” was being employed by many artists, its inflexible centrality began to be “something to be carefully examined rather than used” (“cosa più disputativa che da usarsi,” Leonardo Da Vinci). At this point linear perspective truly evolved, at least in painting, into aerial perspective (prospettiva de’ perdimenti), that is the representation of the various densities of the air in the different foreground and background planes and the horizon of the scene. Everything is still constructed with perspective lines but now mainly through the use of color, which is the substance of Leonardo’s sfumato. If the sfumato (the word was never actually used by Leonardo) really existed, it was never a simple graduated vision in black and white but a chromatic construction of relationships between near and far: Leonardo’s “blue distances” (azzurre lontananze) are no longer like the backgrounds of a prosaic, rigid perspective in which everything is sharply focused. In the wake of the evolution of Mannerism, after Paolo Lomazzo, who was already moving towards the Baroque, drawing and representation follow what was called the “curious or diabolic perspective,” i.e. anamorphosis. Or more precisely, Andrea Pozzo’s Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum (1693-1703) introduces a subversion of real space: the views from top to bottom (catoptic) and from bottom to top (anoptic) become metaphors of either a micrographic or a pantographic perspective: with the constant possibility of zooming in and out (like modern surveillance cameras). Emanuele Tesauro’s Cannocchiale aristotelico (Aristotelian Telescope, 1654), an encyclopedia of the verbal metaphor, is often a kaleidoscope as well as a telescope, alternatively seen through each end. All this is done for the consecration of a tool to teach would-be draftsmen to draw with little effort and application. The Pratica del Parallelogramma da disegnare (Practice of the Drawing Parallelogram) by Christoph Scheiner (1637) features the pantograph. With four perforated wooden slats, a writing tip and a fixed point, it was greatly used in reducing and enlarging drawings, thus simplifying the previously fairly elaborate processes of going from a bozzetto to a large-scale drawing or a miniature. This was both a visual and scientific trick to obtain the same kind of quality as a painting by raising or lowering 312

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the viewpoint with the effect of creating wonder at a sacred ascension or a descent into the world. Juan Caramuel y Lobkovitz’s L’arquitectura civil, recta y obliqua ... (1678) is an encyclopedia applied to this: the minimum exalted to the maximum and the maximum reduced to the minimum. In fact, every minimum becomes a maximum with a telescope pointed towards the stars or with a microscope that sees a teeming universe in a flea’s leg or a butterfly’s wing. The theme of “rendering” in the representation of modern designs (the more or less hyper-realistic computer rendering verging on the cartoon) had been accurately identified in Leonardo’s technical considerations concerning a way of looking to be able to reproduce – the issues were taken up again with the seventeenth-century publication of his Libro di Pittura, previously only available in manuscript – in what can be akin to as well as the opposite of the shadow produced by light (lume): a reflection (lustro). Color/shadow/ reflection connected to movement are the most difficult themes to create in today’s animated renderings, but are deliberately heightened or attenuated by technical methods to obtain effects or suggestions that are as realistic as they are artificial. By now who can even be surprised by classic Disney cartoons, and say that they are not realistic. A cartoon is as unrealistic as it is realistic: that’s its nature. For our purposes, the most interesting achievements of rendering in architecture are not the pseudorealistic and kitsch shadings of rubbery worlds on the verge of cosmic catastrophe (whether made in 4D Cinema, 3D Studio Max-Vray, etc.), but some very cartoon-like representations (SketchUp) or others (freeform) that do not have particular standards (Rhinoceros by Robert McNeel & Associates) but allow us to see through walls and are in themselves perspectives as well as sections. Consequently, they have shifted towards the language of realization rather than of representation and illusion. In fact, the either raised or lowered viewpoint of current renderings tends to move towards the unwitting observers, to blandish or amaze them in their visual enculturation, instead of towards the eye of the “maker” or “new artisan,” who may even be a web operator. The images (and the arts of representation), however, which seem to have a widespread dominion over the world, fail to exercise a total dictatorship over the eyes, and therefore more than a dicta-dura (harsh dictatorship) are a bearable dicta-blanda (soft dictatorship), due to the tumultuous, current eventful anarchy and remixing of visual media. But a widespread fear of abandonment and obsolescence dominates all of this, a dreaded “resetting” along with the right to oblivion: the fear of being precociously scrapped affects objects, subjects and their increasingly superficial representations, especially in the “liquefaction” of modern democracies – a perennial Toy Story. One day when the poet Ezra Pound was out on one of his customary walks through the streets of Venice, a woman followed him and insistently asked what was really new in the States. His blunt reply was: “Mickey Mouse!”

REFERENCES Anderson, C. (2012). Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. New York: Crown Business. Boito, C. (1894). Arte Utile. Decorazione policroma, Cinquanta cromolitografie illustrate da Camillo Boito. Milan: Hoepli. Brooker, G., & Weinthal, L. (Eds.). (2013). The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design. London: Bloomsbury Academic. doi:10.5040/9781474294096 da Vinci, L. (2006). Il codice C. Milan: Abscondita.

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Didi-Huberman, G. (2009). La survivance des lucioles. Paris: Éditions de Minuit. Eco, U., & Praglia, C. (2010). Storia della bellezza. Milan: Bompiani. Feyerabend, P. K. (1984). Scienza come arte. Bari: Laterza. Fontana, R. (2013). Oltre l’uomo artigiano. Capitale sociale e condizione delle conoscenze. Milan: Mondadori. Gauntlett, D. (2011). Making is Connecting. The social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Greenough, H. (1958). Form and Function. Remarks on Art, Design and Architecture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Itten, J. (1975). Design and Form. London: John Wiley & Son. Jones, O. (2001). The Grammar of Ornament. London: Herbert Press. (Original work published 1865) Jünger, E. (1954). Das Sanduhrbuch. Frankfurt: Klostermann. Juran, J. M. (Ed.). (1995). A History of Managing for Quality. Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Quality Press. Morris, W. (2009). News from Nowhere. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1890-91) Rudowsky, B. (1987). Sparta/Sybaris. Keine neue Bauweis, eine neue Lebenweise. Vienna: Residenz. Sennett, R. (2018). The Craftsman. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Simmel, G. (1904). Fashion. International Quarterly, 10(1), 130–155. Woolley, B. (1992). Virtual Worlds. Willey-Blackwell.

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(more)SoftAssertions:

A Progressive Paradigm for Urban Cultural Heritage, Interior Urbanism, and Contemporary Typologies Peter Di Sabatino Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT This chapter examines the shifting landscape of disciplines and professions, with particular focus towards “Spatial and Experience Design.” In spite of trends and increasing examples of the erosion and overlapping of disciplinary and professional boundaries, there is a need for some sort of disciplinary and professional definition. There needs to be a body of knowledge and skills defined and practiced and routes to circumvent them. This is especially relevant in a world of inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary work and comprehensive creative practices. The chapter examines core aspects of spatial/interior design and how this may intersect with other related disciplines and practices. An articulated interior urbanism creates clear areas of contribution from “interior” designers within the city. The chapter explores these cross-fertilizations through the curricular use of intensive design workshops (often of one-week duration) with a singular focus of the student’s attention; selected student works from two such workshops at Politecnico di Milano are included.

FOUNDATION AND INTRODUCTION All That Is Solid Melts into Air Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848, Communist Manifesto

The second decade of the twenty-first century continues to see the questioning of definitions and boundaries. In the realm of design, this questioning typically manifests in the erosion or erasure of strict disciplinary and professional domains. Additionally, collaboration amongst disciplines and professions has become common practice. Multidisciplinary practices are more the norm, especially at the global DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch015

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scale, with the offering of comprehensive design services and extensive design and technical muscle. This combination of depth and breath are considered to be a strong asset, if not a simple requirement in much of the creative practices of today. Along with comprehensive practices and/or highly collaborative situations, we also find the co-opting of once distinct academic and professional boundaries. We see disciplinary collisions and leap-frogging in the worlds of practice and education. The extent of creative practices that have a full array of collaborating disciplines, inclusive of art, foster not only multidisciplinary practice and education, but also the emergence of true transdisciplinary work. Education, disciplines, and creative practice are dynamic things, and must remain relevant and responsive to place and time. Of course, the combining of art and design, and multidisciplinary processes and work, is hardly new. Recent and popular research in this includes Walter Isaacson’s book on Leonardo da Vinci, where he writes in the second page: I embarked on this book because Leonardo da Vinci is the ultimate example of the main theme of my previous biographies: how the ability to make connections across disciplines – arts and sciences, humanities and technology –is a key to innovation, imagination, and genius. Benjamin Franklin… was a Leonardo of his era: with no formal education, he taught himself to become an imaginative polymath who was Enlightenment America’s best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist… Albert Einstein, when he was stymied in his pursuit of his theory of relativity, would pull out his violin and play Mozart, which helped him reconnect with the harmonies of the cosmos. Ada Lovelace… combined the poetic sensibility of her father, Lord Byron, with her mother’s love of the beauty of math to envision a general-purpose computer. And Steve Jobs climaxed his product launches with an image of street signs showing the intersection of liberal arts and technology. Leonardo was his hero. “He saw beauty in both art and engineering,” Jobs said, “and his ability to combine them was what made him a genius.” Walter Isaacson, 2017, Leonardo da Vinci (text emphasis added by the author)

Isaacson’s writing on Leonardo’s Florence in the same book is also interesting and relevant to this chapter. He writes about the merging of disciplines and professions, and of skills and ideas, that were the expected norm of the most advanced figures and undertakings of the time: The city’s cathedral was the most beautiful in Italy. In the 1430s it had been crowned with the world’s largest dome, built by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, which was a triumph of both art and engineering, and linking those two disciplines was a key to Florence’s creativity. Many of the city’s artists were also architects, and its fabric industry had been built by combining technology, design, chemistry, and commerce. This mixing of ideas from different disciplines became the norm as people of diverse talents intermingled. Silk makers worked with goldbeaters to create enchanted fashions. Architects and artists developed the science of perspective. Wood-carvers worked with architects to adorn the city’s 108 cathedrals. Shops became studios. Merchants became financiers. Artisans became artist. Walter Isaacson, 2017, Leonardo da Vinci (text emphasis added by the author)

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Florence and other places and times by inference credited, the extent and more normative nature of this type of creative practice and education may now be at unprecedented levels. Certain programs and “disciplines” in education have fundamentally included multidisciplinarity in their very foundation and formation. An example of such a program can be found in the “Environmental Design” degree at Art Center College of Design. Around 2002, while the Chair of the department, I led the writing of following descriptive text concerning the department, its degree, and place in the world. 1 The Emerging Practice (and new discipline) of Environmental Design The Department of Environmental Design at Art Center College of Design works within a spectrum inclusive of furniture, furnishings, interiors, buildings, landscapes and urbanism, while also engaging environmental art, environmental graphics and digital environments. We explore and practice anything that constitutes an environment / experience: be it for living, working or playing, be it small, medium or large. The Department seeks to foster the appreciation and ability to recognize, enhance and create beauty and meaning in not only the built environment, but also in “non-built” environments and experiences. With the students, we research, practice and explore the full spectrum of Environmental Design in an experimental and creative atmosphere with simultaneity, multiplicity, significance and responsibility at the core. We consciously disregard traditional disciplinary boundaries and divisions, choosing a dynamic, multiple and comprehensive approach to design. We strive for unity, not division. Our students exhibit the ability to fluidly and fluently navigate through scales and types in design. We embrace the emerging/maturing discipline and practice of Environment and Experience Design. We will see a way to navigate the 21st Century. The reference to a “new discipline” above may be an interesting thread to explore briefly here. We were faced with, or perhaps more accurately, we choose to face, the academic and professional situation as a new discipline and an emerging practice. But an odd situation immediately presented itself to me: when entering the department as its new Chair, the “History of Architecture” was still being taught as a required course in the curriculum for the degree, yet the program was intentionally not a degree program in architecture. The program was articulated at the time as being about the “grey areas,” and being situated “in-between” normative disciplinary and professional domains. Therefore it seemed a bit odd, and not too satisfying or appropriate, to be teaching an explicit history of a single and well established discipline. So we hired a few of the younger and brighter historians in the Los Angeles area to create a history and theory sequence on “Environmental Design” – or a body of knowledge about the design of environments and experiences. They were encouraged, as other disciplines and professions have done (especially in their formative years) to create and co-op material as needed while creating the story, “the history,” of the discipline (and profession). An articulated body of knowledge – a recognizable, repeatable and operative history and theory – is one of the requirements of any discipline. Additionally, we set to define the required skills of the discipline and profession, and made sure of their presence in the curriculum. The following additional text continued to articulate the concepts and intentions of the program at the time, and highlighted the importance of significant and comprehensive facilities, other disciplines, and an excellent, engaged, and vibrant faculty. i

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Significant and aesthetic work coupled with full experiences are fundamental goals, joined by responsible and ethical constructs and acts. We instill in our students the ability to make meaningful and significant spaces, places and things in a comprehensive and simultaneous manner while actively engaging the other departments and facilities at Art Center. The excellence and integration with the facilities and other departments is met by the strength, diversity and depth of the faculty. The faculty is inspired to teach by their expertise and dedication, the learning environment at Art Center, and the curiosity and passion of the students. The “emerging practice” of an inclusive and broad reaching design of environments and experiences was being shaped by many of the professional practices of the faculty in the department, and by the increasing number of graduates from the program. While this type of practice, of course, was not exclusive to those in our faculty, there were many faculty members at Art Center fully engaged in the forefront of this type of creative practice. Around this time, I also created the following diagram to help articulate and explain the program’s intention, and to permit focused development. i

While the entire diagram is important and provided much use, once the terms, concepts and contributing facets of Space, Surface, and Object became articulated, especially with the lack of reference to any degree, all possibilities and combinations became clearer. The diagram moved the importance of experience design, with the inclusion of interactive objects, surfaces and spaces, to the foreground. It reinforced the human nature of the degree – the need for intelligence, as well as skills, creativity and imagination – and the important necessity to work across dimensions. It diagrammatically articulated the call for the ability to move fluidly and fluently across domains, scales and types found in the text of the department. Additionally, the hierarchical articulation of Space, Surface and Object as the foundation and principle core of the department – and also for any college of art and design – clarified that students needed significant exposure and practice in these complimentary facets of design. And it became clear to us that

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there was little need (or desire) for normative degree nomenclature. However, the demands of academic and institutional reality continued to insist on the requirement of titles, and ultimately we were drifting to something like the more accurate, but (also) cumbersome and imperfect, name of “Environment and Experience Design” for the department and degree. No school is a school without an idea. Every school embodies an inheritance at least and at most is an invention rising out of its inheritance. By inheritance and invention, I mean the transmission and transformation of a creed, of a technique that animates the hand, of a thought about the consecration of knowledge as it individuates the self and enhances a community, a network, many communities and many networks. An ethics of knowledge is the foundation of any school in its essential definition as a gathering place, but the complexity of what that knowledge should be, how its production is configured and unfolds, who translates it across the bridges of generations and time, whether its structure is rigid or limpid in its willingness to change, whether it is resistant to external mandates or longs for the imprimatur of an outside authority, and what status and success signify for its teachers and graduates – all of these define the place of gathering, its ethical complexion, its reasons for being, and what learning means there. Steven Henry Madoff, 2009, Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century) (text emphasis added by the author)

This type of degree program at Art Center was not unique, but it was less frequent in years past, and its formation and development were relatively clear and pure. The “Interior Design” degree program in the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano (PoliMi) also offers a broad and comprehensive spectrum. It articulates many of the fundamental themes of this publication, including the expansive sense of “interior design” and the “challenge of retrofitting older outdoor urban spaces to provide a more hospitable “interior” atmosphere.” The Graduate Degree program at the School of Design at PoliMi has recently been revised in scope and depth and has changed its name to “Spatial and Interior Design.” This, also, is fundamentally about the maturation, articulation and dissemination of a discipline and profession. It is about the creation of a discipline and the creation / evolution of a profession. In Madoff’s introduction essay in Art School, he mentions the “potency of the Zeitgeist’s appetite for hybridity” in the second page, and shares other related thoughts on education, practice and our dynamic times: The topography of making has been flattened: no one discipline, style, genre, or artist dominates. Many schools have erased the boundaries between disciplines, as the supremacy of the expression of a concept in this post-Duchampian epoch rides across all material means – photography, video, painting, drawing, sculpture, or any of them and more joined in an installation. Somewhere between philosophy, research, manual training, technical training, and marketing, an evolved profile of contemporary artistic practice has pressed the art school as a pedagogical concept itself to address what an artist is now and what the critical criteria and physical requirements are for educating one – or should I say educating tens of thousands, as the complexities of capital markets worldwide have fostered an industry of producing artist for the primary purpose… of circulating objects tied to the speculative exchange of money. The economy and ecology of the images and thought-encrusted objects are only burgeoning, nurtured by technologies that are in fact eruptive, pervasive, and increasingly accessible. Steven Henry Madoff, 2009, Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century) (text emphasis added by the author)

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Fortunately for me, direct engagement in the spatial/interior graduate program (and in PSSD) at PoliMi has occurred on a number of occasions over the years. This work with the students and faculty articulated and exercised the focused, but expansive, range of interior design within the School of Design. Over the years, we have all been searching for a real sense of the domains and fundamental concerns of the discipline and profession. Additionally, the intensive one-week workshops at Politecnico have served well to assist in that exploration, and provide an interesting and important curricular model. The intensity and focus of these insertions into a normative curricular structure provide important opportunities for the students, faculty and (often) visiting professors / practitioners; we will return to this significant model later in the chapter. While there may be greater breath, diversity, hybridity and experimentation, there remains the assumption that the “Spatial and Interior Designer” is educated and practiced in the domains, concerns and responsibilities of the discipline / profession in some normative ways too. Importantly, this includes the need for a human-centered process and project, with a strong sense of empathy and intimacy. The interior designer must be attuned to the human in the space, and must address both the needs and aspirations of the individual and collective. As well as being sensitive to the vast spectrum of the project’s requirements and opportunities, the interior designer must understand and respond to the community and culture. In most urban environments, if not all, this also means engagement with tangible and intangible aspects of cultural heritage; the designer must simultaneously be in the past, present and future in the sense that T.S. Eliot writes in Tradition and the Individual Talent, and to which we will return to shortly. The Interior Designer is therefore a humanist, and must be versed in humanism as well as the specifics of the discipline and profession. Along with empathy and intimacy, and at least knowledge and sensitivity to the humanist tradition, it seems that that ability “to see” and to be able to be attentive must be amongst the highest priorities and responsibilities of the interior designer. Taking advantage and exploiting the domain of interior design, which includes an inherent focus and scale, a full and explicit attention to all details is vital. This also serves as a point of distinction and differentiation for the spatial and interior designer, and necessitates the ability of the designer to (really) see, select and act. The designer needs to observe, think and respond in detail and richness, and with poetry and propriety. Attention to Detail encompasses everything, including the human / humane nature of the discipline and profession. It is fundamental. It is ever-present and helps guide all of the other domains, concerns and responsibilities of the interior design. Without the ability to be attentive to details, and to attend to details, the discipline and practice of “Interior Design” would be on much less solid ground; and it would not take advantage of the creativity and pragmatism arising from intimate focus and scale. Therefore a possible un-ordered list of the domains, concerns and responsibilities would likely include, but not be exhausted by:i • • • • • • • •

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Attention to Detail (seeing, selecting, and taking action, with focus and control) Attentiveness (observing, connecting, and combining) Space Materials Scale Light / Lighting Color and Textures Details

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• • • • • • • • •

Human / humane… particularly in terms of Empathy / Intimacy / Humanism Sustainability… in all ways: ecological, economically, socially, culturally, etc… Intelligence (History / Theory / Conceptual and Imaginative skills and practices) Skill (being skillful and technologically adept in many things) Immersion Technologies (including interactivity and media) Program Meaning Place

FOCUS, ISSUES, ELABORATION AND CONCEPTUAL UNDERPINNINGS Streets are the dwelling place of the collective. The collective is an eternally unquiet, eternally agitated being that – in the space between building fronts – experiences, learns, understands, and invents as much as individuals do within the privacy of their own four walls. For this collective, glossy enameled shop signs are a wall decoration as good as, if not better than, an oil painting in the drawing room of a bourgeois; walls with their “Post No Bills” are its writing desk, newspaper stands its libraries, mailboxes its bronze busts, benches its bedroom furniture, and the café terrace is the balcony from which it looks down on the household. The section of railing where road workers hang their jackets is the vestibule, and the gateway which leads from the row of courtyards out into the open is the long corridor that daunts the bourgeois, being for the courtyards the entry to the chambers of the city. Among these latter, the arcade was the drawing room. More than anywhere else, the street reveals itself in the arcade as the furnished and familiar interior of the masses…. Walter Benjamin, 1927, The Arcades Project (text emphasis added by the author)

The city is a complex entity – created, maintained and modified by a multitude of forces and figures. The modern city is a collective effort, and everything in the city is designed and human made; there is no “wilderness” (and hence, nothing not designed) in the typical contemporary city, and so “nature” itself has been formed or re-formed… or at the very least, it has been re-contextualized. Therefore, the extent of design, including the various types of designers, is significant. Certainly, any simple list of designers contributing to the urban environment would at least include: Furniture and Product Designers, Graphic Designers, Interior Designers, Architects, Landscape Architects, Urban Designers / Planners, and Regional Planners / Designers…. Design of the city, in the city, and on the city is a constant and shared activity. The design work can be highly disciplinary, or it can be interor multi- or trans-disciplinary. In our contemporary world, the city is perhaps the most highly designed artifact; and the discipline and profession of “Interior Design” has its role to play. This opportunity, or responsibility, should be embraced fully by the profession and the academy. The interior domain of the city is crucial, and the importance of the concept of “interiority” at the urban scale transcends time and place. The inclusion of certain types of interior public or semi-public spaces in the Nolli Plan of Rome in 1748, via the rendering of solid and voids in the same manner as external public or semipublic spaces, explicitly and formally recognized the importance of an interior urbanism. The interior of a church, for example, was rendered – and hence conceived – in the same

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manner as a street or piazza The completely orthographic plan of the city was executed in a new and extremely detailed manner, and depicted private, enclosed built-space as a solid black pochè. Public exterior spaces, such as streets, piazzas and gardens were not darkened, closed or filled, but rather they graphically (and conceptually) remained white, open, and clear; this graphic convention and symbol (and conceptual idea) also applied to certain types of “interior” spaces. In other words, there was an important parity in terms of urban form, concept and experience of both inside and outside spaces being significant and equal urban elements. Both are of the city, and both contribute to the city. Also, the souks found commonly in the Middle East, and the enclosed gardens, courts and plazas of many cultures, speak to the important and persistent presence and sense of interiority, and the recognition of an interior urban nature across time and place. While Walter Benjamin sees and expresses the Parisian arcade poetically and powerfully, and provocatively proclaims it as “the furnished and familiar interior of the masses,” its archetype may be found best in other cultures. An interior urbanism has been with us for some time, and in many cultures and locations. Figure 1. Nolli Plan of Rome in 1748 (images and manipulations by the author)

Figure 2. Souk in Marrakesh (photograph by the author)

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The interior domains of the city hold a vital presence that serve numerous functions and satisfy many needs and desires; and the spatial and interior designer, educated and practiced in the shaping of spatial and interior environments is likely best situated to give form and meaning to these spaces.

APPLICATIONS – INTENSIVE DESIGN WORKSHOPS The above, along with additional thoughts, have helped form several workshops held at the Politecnico di Milano over the span of a few years. I have been fortunate to teach various five-day, intensive workshops in the interior design program that focused on cultural heritage and urban interventions – or what may be referred to as forays into an interior urbanism. Additionally, with critical stewardship by Professor Luisa Collina, a grant from the Italian government was awarded for me to explore cultural heritage and design within some these workshops; also significant support and encouragement was always provided by the department, school and university. The titles of the first two workshops with first-year graduate students in the Master of Interior Design Program were SoftAssertions and Cultural Constellations. Within this revised chapter, we add some selected work from a very recent one-week workshop that engaged Milan’s Chamber of Commerce (Camera di Commercio di Milano Monza Brianza Lodi) and was entitled: Salone del Futuro: Connecting Commerce. The combination of interior urban design interventions with the strong inclusion of cultural heritage, and the contemporary condition, were at the core of the workshops at PoliMi and previous work. The design insertions – potentially as another urban, spatial, cultural, narrative, and temporal layer, enhancement, or transformation – contained strong social, programmatic and conceptual foundations and articulated the search for contemporary expression and meaning within an existing urban context. The student proposals’ needed to engage a cultural basis that could be embedded within the design process and be expressed in the transformed environment / experience. The transformed environments and experiences needed to engage meanings and processes while possibly entangling culture, society, heritage, history, class, politics, and economics… as well as design and art. This could be articulated very overtly and “loudly,” or with perhaps a lighter touch and subtler approach. Perhaps a sense of humor or playfulness, and maybe notions of beauty and order, could enter. While the environments and experiences are immersive, that immersion could be subtle, or could be more brash and overt. Students explored this spectrum well in the workshops, and consistently produced interesting, and hopefully meaningful and relevant work. The transformation of urban environments necessitates contemporary processes and perspectives, or at least some sense of, and placement in, the contemporary… as well as a sense of the past and future. This may be particularly important in the context of established, historical or heritage sites; it seems important for the relevance and continued authenticity of people, places, and things. In this, there needs to be propriety and respect… but it also seems that understanding, propriety and respect should not only be afforded to the past, but also to the present and future. We must be equally authentic and respectful to the present and future. T.S. Eliot writes very strongly and clearly on this in his seminal essay entitled Tradition and the Individual Talent:

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Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, “tradition” should positively be discouraged…. Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves, in the first place, the historical sense, which we may call nearly indispensable to anyone who would continue to be a poet beyond his twenty-fifth year; and the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporaneity. No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead. I mean this as a principle of æsthetic, not merely historical, criticism. The necessity that he shall conform, that he shall cohere, is not one-sided; what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them. The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered; and so the relations, proportions, values of each work of art toward the whole are readjusted; and this is conformity between the old and the new. Whoever has approved this idea of order, of the form of European, of English literature, will not find it preposterous that the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. And the poet who is aware of this will be aware of great difficulties and responsibilities. In a peculiar sense he will be aware also that he must inevitably be judged by the standards of the past. I say judged, not amputated, by them; not judged to be as good as, or worse or better than, the dead; and certainly not judged by the canons of dead critics. It is a judgment, a comparison, in which two things are measured by each other. To conform merely would be for the new work not really to conform at all; it would not be new, and would therefore not be a work of art. T. S. Eliot, 1922, Tradition and the Individual Talent; The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism (text emphasis added by the author)

The overarching topic of the workshops explored and expressed culture, heritage, and the contemporary condition with an eye towards the future as well – and hence the attempt to link the past, present and future, and to make the city and culture ever relevant. Relevance is key. Further, there was a focus on the “soft,” or intangible, side of cultural heritage and the translation of those aspects, ideas, and concepts into a tangible space, intervention, and/or system. The workshops explored the possibility of meaning-

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ful and clear spatial, systemic and social strategies that, once in place and operational, would result in a potent, yet somehow intangible experience. The “intangibility” (or the return to the intangible state) of this experience referred back to the “soft” aspects of Milanese / Italian Cultural Heritage as well, and therefore attempted to make the intangible tangible and experienced in a meaningful, revealing, but transformed, way. Louis Kahn speaks towards the tangible and intangible aspects of environments and experiences with the use of the measurable and un-measurable phases in architecture. A great building, in my opinion, must begin with the unmeasurable, go through measurable means when it is being designed, and in the end must be unmeasurable. The design, the making of things, is a measurable act. At that point, you are like physical nature itself, because in physical nature everything is measurable—even that which is as yet unmeasured. . . . But what is unmeasurable is the psychic spirit. The psyche is expressed by feeling and also thought and I believe will always be unmeasurable. In the same way, a building has to start in the unmeasurable aura and go through the measurable to be accomplished. It is the only way you can build. The only way you can get it into being is through the measurable. You must follow the laws, but in the end, when the building becomes part of the living, it evokes unmeasurable qualities. Louis I. Kahn, 1961, Louis I. Kahn, Architect. (text emphasis added by the author.)

SoftAssertions The idea of making the invisible visible, or the intangible tangible, is fundamental to the role of art and design. In the studio workshops at Politecnico di Milano that I led, the basic programmatic idea extends this act by designing and inserting a spatial project into an existing site and context – to work with its “Genius Loci” in a sense – with its inherent being, past stories and circumstance, present realties, and future potentials – and with the intention to re-assert local Milanese culture into these underutilized, forgotten or contested places. The specific sites have included the Piazza dei Mercanti with the Palazzo della Ragione, and Piazza Colonne di San Lorenzo with the Basilica of San Lorenzo in previous workshops. The SoftAssertions workshop was held in November of 2015, with a selection of existing galleries (arcades) in the central core of historic Milan serving as the context for investigation and design. The five specific sites, in a way pivoting around the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and the Duomo of Milan, included: Galleria San Carlo + Galleria Strasburg; Galleria del Corso; Passagio Duomo + Piazza dei Mercanti; Galleria Mercanti - Orefici + Passagio Centrale; and Galleria Meravigli. The specific program(s) and programmatic ideas emerged through study and observation of the site and its context, and through research and design iterations. The students were not given any explicit program, or programmatic requirements. They were asked to observe, to see... to really see. They were asked to be attentive. They needed to see not only the contexts, places, spaces, people, surfaces, materials, details, etc… but to also see possibilities and opportunities arising from the sites, from the (quick) research in histories and heritage, and from whatever magic potions they could drink from to offer a progressive proposal from their prospective as interior design students. They were asked to transform “problems” into opportunities, and to work with intangibles and tangibles as the best designers and artist do everyday. The creative person is opportunistic and an opportunist, and is always a sort of storyteller

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and alchemist. These arcades are really the “dusty” sites of Benjamin; forgotten, abandoned, underutilized, and at times contested spaces and places. And at times and in certain circumstances, they really do serve “as the furnished and familiar interior of the masses...” A basic given strategic idea included the creation of a spatial intervention, and possible (spatial / social) system, that would encourage the residents of Milan to re-insert themselves into the specific site and the central core in general. These “Soft Assertions”, or soft re-assertions, of Milanese / Italian culture and heritage through the creation of a meaningful “place” and system was not meant to exclude anyone else. It was presented as an “open idea” and as an open place… while also (softly) asserting Italian and Milanese life, concerns and aspirations. These significant places should be for, and used by, the resident of Milan as well as the visiting tourist. They should be meaningful and relevant places, extending the sense of cultural heritage into the present and the future. So, the programs, ideas, concepts, and opportunities came about through the students seeing and researching the sites and contexts after understanding some basic intentions. The students were then asked to act, to design. Design is action. The work of the students reveal tangible connections from often intangible conditions… sometimes historical, or otherwise not seen or noticed. An outline of the workshop might include therefore (not necessarily set sequentially): • • • • • •

Existing conditions needed to be recorded or created. Research and thoughts collected. Initial ideas, schemes, diagrams and details created. Concepts and renderings created – to see again, to see the new proposals. Immersive and experiential renderings created to feel / sense the environment, experience and intentions. Details and developed proposals and presentations. Project titles and key words. Key images. Innovation / experimentation – emerging from the existing conditions and the past, from the opportunities and the future, and from the acts and processes of design. Immersive and experiential images / renderings were stressed.

These design workshops span a total of five days (Monday morning until Friday afternoon), inclusive of the launch of the workshop’s ideas and intentions, and the organizational logistics of the formation of groups with around 50 students of various nationalities, cultures and skills. The groups tend to range from three to five students, and usually they have not worked together before; they are typically very diverse. The first day also includes site visits, with additional discussions and primary observation and documentation in situ. Some nearby sites, such as the iconic Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, also act as firsthand case studies and serve as example of type and precedent. Independent research and other processes start. Therefore, there are about 3.5 days of iterative design work and the creation of presentations, with continuous desk critiques during the days in the studio. The studio space is dedicated solely to the use of the workshop, and there is usually at least one Teaching Assistant. The student groups present at least twice publically during the 3.5 workdays, and also present their proposals formally in a final review on Friday afternoon; these are internal reviews of the individual workshop, but are also open to the public. All work is completed by noon on Friday to also allow for a presentation of all of the workshops by all of the invited faculty workshop leaders to the university community. In Interior Design at PoliMi, there

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are typically three individual workshops running simultaneously, but with very separate projects, that join up for the overview session. It is an intense experience that is highly charged, very focused and extremely interesting. Much work is created, and a lot of learning happens. From my experience, it seems that one can achieve a significant body of work, equivalent to a full project in relative terms, done in this type of focused, immersive and intense week. It is exhausting, but also incredibly fun and satisfying. Both the students and faculty have each other’s full attention, and are fully dedicated to this singular activity. This is a very good curricular intervention (it is inserted into the semester at the School of Design) that is not unique, and that could be explored more… perhaps it could become a curricular system, as a model of intense, clustered and focused activities. In Design School Confidential: Extraordinary Class Projects from International Design Schools, Steven Heller and Lita Talarico, focus on and write about exemplary class projects, and I have excerpted some of the passages that may be most related to this chapter below. Extraordinary class projects are worth their weight in gold. Those projects that, for years after they are done, student discussed and teachers imitate are essential to successful design education. First, challenge the student: a project must offer sufficient variables and serendipity that students can test their skills and talents and, in the final analysis, surprise both the teacher and themselves. Second, inform the student; A project must also provide enough unanswered questions that students are learning something new by doing something new. Third, elevate the student: A project can propel students into opposing directions–either through success or failure. While the former is obvious, the latter way might seem perplexing. Often, however, only through failure can a student get the best critique and truly absorb the right lessons. Although failure will not produce a great portfolio piece, it you can have a longer-term influence. Challenge, inform, and elevate are the building blocks of a solid education, and to achieve this mix requires a selfless devotion on the part of the teacher and an intense willingness to learn on the part of the student. A good, or great, class project can make the education experience real. A good class project is combustible, it is the fuel that powers the creative engine; or put less metaphorically, it is the beginning, not the end, of an experience. Steven Heller & Lita Talarico, 2009, Design School Confidential (text emphasis added by the author.)

And finally, we turn to some of the actual student projects from the SoftAssertions workshop. The following three selected student projects do not show the full range of the work, processes, or final presentations of the studio or of any individual group’s project. The following are basically some conceptual diagrams, along with some relatively quick renderings trying to communicate the sense of the intervention and scheme. The projects presented here are in no particular order. Much thanks to all of the students in the workshop, the students selected below, and to Ms. Ilaria Bollati. Ilaria was the Teaching Assistant for this workshop, and contributed much to the studio and beyond. Special mention and great thanks is extended to Professor Luisa Collina for her continuous input and support over many years, and in this workshop; and to Professor Luciano Crespi for his support in the workshops, and his unending patience and assistance with this book chapter.

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Into the Light Sound Project Team: Wei Ji, Giulia Mazzarella, Shulin Ouyang, and Ralph Zahringer

Galleria Meravigli – see also location labeled as “B” within Figure 11 The installation of two simple rows of lines suspended symmetrically along the central core of the gallery create sound and light that reinforce the dimensions and directionality of the existing space. According Figure 3. Into the Light Sound at Galleria Meravigli _ Section of the arcade in new design proposal 2

Figure 4. Into the Light Sound at Galleria Meravigli _ Interactive detail of hanging strands ii

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Figure 5. Into the Light Sound at Galleria Meravigli _ Section of gallery showing various interactions and functions ii

Figure 6. Into the Light Sound at Galleria Meravigli _ Section detail with storefront shutters closed ii

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to the students, the hanging strands with downlights illuminating them create “low and relaxing sounds produced by wood and metallic objects, striking each other from the interaction with people passing along them, or the wind passing through the space.” 3Complemented by the proposal to up-light the existing pilasters, they also bring greater drama and awareness of the scale and detail of the space and surfaces. The result is a simple, but profound, experience. The intervention deftly uses the scale of the space and person in a direct and effective proposal that inherently speaks of inhabitation, even when empty or with just one person present. The installation of two hanging lines that produce sounds by the arranged materials colliding when moved, tell us that clearly someone was here recently, and left this reminder of occupation and playfulness. The piece begs to be touched, and responds to the act of touch… even by the wind. The visitor, piece and place unite through the scale, light and history of the space, the scale and presence of the intervention of the piece, and the actions of the visitor or nature. While poetic, it is also adaptable to the various functions of the gallery now and into the future; the hanging strands adjust to the various scenarios of use, such as fashion shows, exhibitions (during Design Week, Fashion Week, etc.), performances, parties, weddings, markets, and conferences held in the space. The installation therefore works well every day and on special days, and both in day and night. Design and art are merged in this intervention, and we find a successful balance of pure aesthetics and subtle functionalism. The shutters of the glazed openings in the arcade are covered with textures, patterns and iconography of the cosmos, and the students write that “the visitor is then surrounded by sound and the immensity of the universe, making them feel small in the atmosphere of the gallery.” iii The possibilities of art and design in the city need to enter into our environments and lives in both profound and subtle ways, and in both large public spaces, and smaller intimate places.

Aurum Project Team: Denada Dahriu, Ilaria Giannone, Jie Hou, Fansheng Zeng, and Wei Zhang

Passagio Centrale (+ Galleria Mercanti - Orefici) – see also location labeled as “C” within Figure 11 There are four elements that led the students to their final concept of “gold” _ Aurum, the title of the project, is the Latin word for gold. • • • •

the warm and powerful gold light that spreads through Galleria dei Mercanti the name of the street that links the two galleries, via degli Orefici (Italian word for goldsmith, and hence “the street of the goldsmiths”) the presence of a significant bank in Passaggio Centrale, and many others in the area the importance of Milan as a financial and commercial city, now and in the past.

The Galleria Mercanti - Orefici is adjacent to Piazza dei Mercanti, which was the secular center of Milan adjacent to the religious center represented by the Duomo. The Passagio Centrale is linked to the

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Figure 7. Aurum at Passagio Centrale _ Existing (left) and proposed court (right) within Passagio Centrale ii

Galleria Mercanti – Orefici via the cross-street named via degli Orefici. This project therefore connects to, and makes palatable, the mercantile / commercial history of Milan, including banking and finance. The proposal brings a tangible sense of history and place to a relatively forgotten and hidden area of Milan. It makes real and relevant an important history, memory and continued facet of the city, and offers both the Milanese and tourist another explicit place to learn from, rest in and explore. The change from an underused space of passage to a place of experience and rest is heightened by the exhibition on gold, wealth, finance and commerce that the project proposes. The students’ writings include the followingiii: Luminous lines guide the public through the arcades… the lines get more powerful and change their directions in a transversal direction, in contrast to the new black floor: the bond between these two elements creates a pedestrian walk that leads the public to the second gallery. The lines become more and more dynamic and powerful, and create linear geometric shapes that become seats. This area has become a pedestrian square. Going further in Passaggio Centrale, the lines become so powerful and strong that they leave the ground and explode: here we have the acme of the importance of gold in our culture: banks as a place of power. Cubic golden metal seats lay on a mirroring floor that is also a display: here videos about gold’s history and importance add a function to the space, that becomes a place to stay, and not just pass through. The floor is made by black grey porcelain that has been treated with a special solution to make it slip-resistant, while the linear elements are composed by golden metal, glass, and LED light which, reflecting on the surfaces, create the final effect.

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The Opera of The City Project Team: Emeline Ardi, Lorenzo Fossi, Beatrice Magri, Yang Xu, and Hanjing Zhang

Galleria del Corso The students’ research into the Galleria del Corso revealed an interesting and important connection to the history of musicians and the music industry in Milan. Amongst other things, the gallery served as a center for musicians to meet and to seek work in general, and specifically as the center-point for the surrounding theaters, cinemas, and start-up location for two of Italy’s important music companies. Space, sound and light become the principle elements and means to create a powerful place and experience steeped to connections of the past and with ephemeral connections to the contemporary city. Memory and meaning, combined with space and place, via technologies and clear concepts become both the drivers and voices. Once again we are faced with the combination of design and art… perhaps we always are in successful projects. The inclusion of various technologies and scale that result in intimate and individual experiences to more public and collective (at the central point of the arcades) experiences achieve poetic resolution of the latent potentials of the Galleria del Corso. The design of the experience includes an intangible sense of mystery and curiosity. The students’ written description of the project includesiii:

Figure 8. The Opera of The City at Galleria del Corso _ Conceptual diagrams ii

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Figure 9. The Opera of The City at Galleria del Corso _ Schematic diagrams ii

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Figure 10. The Opera of The City at Galleria del Corso _ Schematic rendering ii

Discovering that the gallery was the meeting point of the musician of the city, we decided to make music and sound the main focus of our project. The gallery itself is in the center of the city, a fulcrum of intensity and humanity; we used this point to identify our goal to make a connection between this fulcrum and the gallery with music and sounds. We also decided to use music and sounds of all kinds, and that it should be available to everyone. Through the use of microphones around the city, the sound enters in the gallery, listenable by hidden speakers in walls and in the central rings. Sound is actually the main protagonist of our project, although light plays an important part as well – a crescendo of suspended light-rings at the center of the gallery attract and holds people in its place. The lower two circles contain speakers as well, and create a synesthetic atmosphere of light and sound for a memorable experience.

APPLICATION 2: SELECTED STUDENT PROPOSALS FROM SALONE DEL FUTURO — CONNECTING COMMERCE The second five-day workshop to be briefly presented in this revised chapter was held between 11 - 15 February 2019 at Politecnico di Milano. Importantly, this was also an interdisciplinary design workshop with first-year graduate students from the Product Design program and the Spatial and Interior Design program at the School of Design. Once again, I would like to recognize and thank Dean Luisa Collina for her support and for introducing me to the potentials of the collaboration that we undertook in the workshop. I would also like to recognize and thank Ms. Claudia Mastrantoni, who was the Teaching Assistant for the workshop, and who also helped in organizing the student work in this section… and of course all of the students in the workshop.

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The workshop collaborated with Milan’s “Chamber of Commerce” (Camera di Commercio di Milano Monza Brianza Lodi). The Chamber of Commerce is located within the (former) Villa Turati, in the center of Milan on Via Meravigli (see location “A” in Figure x), and has served as the touch point / information point for those wishing to start a business in Milan, apply for patents, pay for permits, submit and receive information, initiate digital services, and many other significant services, programs, needs, and inquiries. Since much information and many processes have shifted to an online format, the existing space (including existing products, services, systems and programs/functions) needed to be reconsidered and redesigned for the present and future. This was also underlined since the facilities had not been renovated for over 50 years… yet, and of course, much has changed in this time period. Therefore, in collaboration with the Camera di Commercio, the workshop had the opportunity to envision and articulate an important hub of Milan in terms of product, service/system, and spatial/interior design. Further, this five-day workshop was the start of an ongoing collaboration between PoliMi and the Chamber. This initial concept-design phase would be followed by a longer design studio, that I would also lead, with PSSD (Product_System_Service Design) students to develop the work initiated in the workshop, and also add breath and depth. These studios also would serve as the foundation for a parallel track of research and work to be done under a separate arrangement with faculty I the School of Design and the Chamber of Commerce to develop the project into an actual proposal for construction. This is to be developed in future publications, but it is interesting to understand that this was intended to develop into a built project… and hence the work from the workshop could serve as a foundation, or at least influence (offering possible visions and scenarios), for a new space to be realized soon. Also, there was the possibility that some students from the workshop could be selected to continue to work on the project in the future in terms of internship or other arrangements. The themes and processes articulated above are in common with this workshop, and I will not repeat them in this section. The basic trajectory of the work is the same, or certainly similar enough, and continues to be a focus of my undertakings in research and design studios. In my first meeting with selected administration and staff at the Chamber of Commerce, prior to the start of the workshop, a senior administrator used the phrase “Salone del Futuro” (Chamber / Hall of the Future) to help describe the intentions of the overall project from their point of view, and from their stated needs and desires. Upon hearing this, I jumped at the opportunity to support and underline its conceptual, programmatic, and design significance and possible influence… and hence it became part of the initial working title of the workshop. It was an initial driver for the workshop, and helped to explore and expose other concepts and drivers through the workshop.

Salone del Futuro In very basic and general terms, there were primarily three constituent groups in relation to the Camera/ Salone del Futuro… so there were many opportunities at this level for research, exploration and design. They include: • •

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The general public – which includes people from Milan and beyond… but perhaps with some connection towards the Camera and its functions. And also international (and national) tourists – which may have a limited relation to the Camera, but an interest in Milan, tourism and commerce. The business community and intentional costumers (or “users”) of the Camera.

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•

The staff and administration of the Camera, plus other governmental, and institutional entities/ people related directly or indirectly.

There were a number of areas for study that are very important for research, analysis and design. Although we were not given an explicit, well defined program, we were provided with a current description of current functions… and in the first site visit with the students, newer programmatic needs and desires were shared. Some of the general ideas, functions and areas included: •

• • •

• • • •

Welcome, reception, and orientation… inclusive of when and where “welcome” starts and ends… where and when processes and interaction start and end. This could also include follow-ups and continuations… and, if need be, “waiting” (but should someone really need to wait?). It certainly also included the online presence, functionality, and environment/experience… and if there even should be the formal “reception desk” in the “Chamber of the Future.” Self-service and more independent work/activities Work and Workplace… in general, and inclusive of “front-office” and “back-office” issues, and pubic/private issues, etc… Media, technology, and mediated environments/communications… inclusive of all three constituencies, and taking into account the present and future opportunities. For example, beyond practical and functional necessities, who can the Salone del Futuro engage and extend/connect in this area? What does “commerce” look like.. how does it feel…? Beyond the area of data transformed and expresses as information (or informatics), how can commerce become, be expressed in terms of emotion, abstraction, and storytelling? People and Place… what does the “Salone del Futuro” mean now and in the future, and specifically in this place? Communication, graphics, wayfinding, etc… How do we understand and navigate the Salone del Futuro? How can this become a two-way street, versus the traditional mono-directional situation? How can we connect, expose, extend, enrich, enlarge…? Community… How is the Salone del Futuro a vibrant, relevant and open community? How does it engage the various communities, and those beyond the most obvious communities? How does it affect things beyond itself, as well as those people and things within its immediate domain? Nature… what is the role and place of nature and the natural?

The students were asked to quickly find key words, key concepts, and key strategies and to transform them into operational and project drivers… and to design the project at least at a preliminary / concept level of articulation. The workshop also explored briefly the idea of a “Camera di Commercio” (and “commerce” in general) at this time and in this context... and in terms of the future. The basic questions always remained: what does a new Chamber of Commerce look like, how does it feel, what are its attitudes towards services, systems, products, and spaces, what are the new and innovative services, systems, products, and spaces that articulate the Salone del Futuro? The workshop did in fact result in significant concepts, spatial, and programmatic development in a brief period of time. Some concepts, and key words / strategies included, and became the starting points for the next phases of the project / process:

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• • • • •

OPEN: transparent, light/lightness, layers, de-material (likely the strongest conceptual driver for the future of the process)… Fluid: flexible, adaptable, moving, non-static… Public: community, communal… connected, engaged… Smart: technology, media, mediated environments and experiences… Nature: natural, fresh, healthy, sustainable/eco… ecology/ecosystem

Figure 11. Timeline for Palazzo Turati – Chamber of Commerce – Milan (Notes A, B and C)

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SELECTED STUDENTS PROPOSAL FROM WORKSHOP As mentioned earlier, the following four selected student projects from the workshop do not show the full range of the work, processes, or final presentations of the studio or of any individual group’s project. The following are basically some conceptual diagrams, along with some relatively quick renderings trying to communicate the sense of the concept, intervention and possible scheme.

Cloud - Dematerialisation Project Team: Miona Aleksic, Filippo Bonanomi, Arianna Bosio, Michele Corna, Fernanda Paniagua Loredo.

Palazzo Turati; Chamber of Commerce _ Salone del Futuro Cloud is about the dematerialization of spaces, products and services. Clouds, air and materials are ethereal substances – and may also reference the cloud of digital storage systems linked to technologies that represents the future of Chamber of Commerce. This is particularly relevant since public services have been changing in recent years towards a digitalization of services and tools. Technology and innovation have created another way in which the world relates, and how institutions must approach users and future generations; which results is a corresponding shift in the way services are provided, and spaces are made.

Figure 12. Cloud at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. General view of the main components ii

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Figure 13. Cloud at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Sections ii

Figure 14. Cloud at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. General view and diagram of Untentgible area. ii

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Figure 15. Cloud at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. View of interactive welcome screen / reception ii

This proposal configures spaces, functions, objects and surfaces through the use of immaterial materials, including translucent surfaces, translucent and elastic fabrics creating places, and wireframe structures and lights that delineate functions and services. According to the students “dematerialize means removing some material elements avoiding physical and mental boundaries to create an intangible space: at the center of the Salone, the installation of a Nuvola, an elastic wave where people can sit and relax looking at the ceiling where is placed a sky video projection, which is also “dematerialized.” The shape of the sofa is the result of people’s movements and gestures: leaning on something and sittting on something. The structure of the sofa is visible through the tissue, since the shape of metallic tubes inside is evident. Nuvola is quite close to the café area but separated by Essence, a sofa that also visually divides the two different functions.” iii The students add that “Information is also delivered in all spaces by digital projectors and lights, to also un-materialized the typical wayfinding system we (often) find in a public building” iiiSeveral curtains’ structures, quite intangible – or a sort of “Un-Tentgible” tent counter space, define the counters area; sliding panels delineate a meeting area, and self-services are on the back.

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A designed wireframe table / space, that surrounds columns is a self-service area for visitors and clients who want to do database research or fill documents on their own. When entering the space, the client can see information projected on screens suspended from the ceiling and can interact with a large digital curved surface screen near the main waiting area. While a person will welcome them, there is no physical reception desk. Services, spaces, materials and attitudes have changed in this “Salone de Futuro” proposal.

Oxygen – Charge Your Business Project Team: Ewan Jack Francis Brammall, Alphonse Nicolas Hennebel, Maria Graziana Mannarino, Arianna Meroni, Martina Platini.

Palazzo Turati; Chamber of Commerce _ Salone del Futuro The concept of Oxygen started with the coexistence of opposites, between spaces (private and public), between services (business and social), and between environments (ancient building and innovative Figure 16. Oxygen at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Diagrams.

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Figure 17. Oxygen at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Microspaces: meeting areas, with fabric that guarantees different degrees of transparency depending on the overlaps and privacy needs. ii

Figure 18. Oxygen at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. General view of the central area of the project with cylinder of plants that conceal functional services for the central table. ii

technologies). The students in the group write: “In the Oxygen project idea, the Chamber of Commerce becomes the Oxygen of business in Milan, where technology and nature convey the oxygen, and (where) technology will be the oxygen of the future… The design proposal is about pure space and nature: a comfortable waiting area where people can be in contact with nature and light, have privacy, and concentration in a relaxed atmosphere. An immersive Welcome Area through the use of huge screens and technology, and a technological Self Service Area, are an integration of a new indoor and digital nature.” iii The students’ writings include the followingiii Starting from the idea of transforming the Chamber of Commerce into the oxygen creator of the Milanese Business, we wanted to recreate a clean, pure, uncontaminated and healthy style inside. An environment in which the contrasts are protagonists: from the white that stands out on the existing building, the need to combine privacy and public.

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From the entrance through videos projected on fabric walls, the user is immersed in a new atmosphere, opposed to the external one. Beyond those fabric walls, the visitor is welcomed by the white of furnishings and the green of nature. From the central window, a decorate cylinder falls with plants that hide the cables that feed the central table. Hence the fundamental idea of the project: Technology (and nature) will be the Oxygen of the future.

Continuum Project Team: Lorena Gutiérrez Pastor, Maddalena Silva, Angela Stellaccio, Baoshan Xue, Michele Zanchi.

Palazzo Turati; Chamber of Commerce _ Salone del Futuro Continuum is inspired by the architecture of the original Roman amphitheater found below the main courtyard of the Chamber. There is a re-proposing, and a re-statement, via a more dynamic and flowing version of bleachers. The seating, designed by the students during the workshop and explicitly demonstrating the benefits of a multi-disciplinary situation, generates from the restated energy of the arena, and when it reaches the floor level, it evolves to generate a series of elements to furnish the overall working environment. This represents a thread, or continuity – a “continuum” – that comes from the past and that generates new forms intended to create the spaces, surfaces and objects of the future. The furniture objects are modular and can be combined and configured according to the needs and wishes of the people, spaces and services.

Figure 19. Continuum at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Preliminary sketch of Chamber hall. ii

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Figure 20. Continuum at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Development of seating / work systems. ii

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Figure 21. Continuum at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Sketch of Chamber hall. ii

Outside In Project Team: María Moreno Esteve, Mattia Dellepiane, Marco Finardi, Ilaria Fiorentini, Alessia Larotonda.

Palazzo Turati; Chamber of Commerce _ Salone del Futuro Turning immediately to the students’ writings, and their direct inclusion of nature into the Salone del Futuro which links to the original open air space of the courtyard, they state iii Figure 22. Outside In at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Sketch of Chamber hall. ii

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Figure 23. Outside In at Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Diagrammatic Elevation and Sections. ii

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Nature rebels against man’s constraints and re-conquests its space. In this vicious circle between humans and nature, (people) learn to dialogue with the vegetation that surrounds them. They find refuge and create a community through simple geometric structures that freely articulate in space. The purpose of this project is to create an innovative workspace… that can stimulate the creativity of the staff. The most interesting part of the space is the communal floor which gives the impression of being in a park... The lawn mounds work as seats, as a lounge to relax, and as a meeting place. The undulating lawn and plants create a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere, improving workers’ well-being and productivity. We bring the outside in… creating a sort of garden environment in the court of Palazzo Turati. The layout combines geometric and organic shapes, green areas with trees and lawn alternate with glass boxes that house the services of the Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, the students allow nature to permeate the scheme, and include a sort of natural stenographic approach for the front facade of the building, which also helps to mark the currently undistinguished entry of the Chamber.

The Matrix, a Collection of All the Group’s Work The large, comprehensive and collective studio matrix for the workshop has been a recent tool of expression and summation that I have been exploring at times. Towards the end of the workshop, it became clear that this could be an appropriate summary device to articulate the collective work of the workshop. All to often, studios revert to the individual’s or the group’s work, which of course is very important, but so is the collective body of work generated in a studio. Studios are, by their nature, a collective undertaking, and the diversity of approaches and work is a critical aspect of the successful studio. Students learn by seeing each other’s work, and the “studio” as a collective entity exists as much as the individual entities of the sole author or authorship via a group structure. Also, in this case, the need for dissemination of the work was very important. The workshop’s deliverables had to be shared with the people of the Chamber of Commerce; additionally, it would serve as the foundation for the next studio and the parallel design project. The matrix, over four meters large, provided a way for a quick overall comprehension of the work of the studio, and also provides a systematic way to compare and contrast ideas and work. It also served as a visual record of the collective aspect of the workshop… perhaps something that is too often forgotten or absent. The printed matrix, especially when hung on the wall after the conclusion of the formal review of each groups work, was huge in size, but even larger in the sense of impact. The visual and emotive impact was intense. The sense of pride towards, and the intrinsic value in, the work became evident to everyone, and manifested in spontaneous applause and hugs for the collective results of the workshop. The students were very proud to see what they had accomplished in a few days, as was I. Seeing the collective matrix helped them understand and appreciate not only their work and development, but the work and achievement of everyone.

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Figure 24. Studio Matrix from workshop: Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Matrix with students (Notes A - C)

Figure 25. Studio Matrix from workshop: Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Matrix process sketches i

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Figure 26. Studio Matrix from workshop: Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Matrix_final4

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Figure 27. Studio Matrix from workshop: Palazzo Turati – Salone del Futuro – Milan. Matrix_final iv

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The matrix was organized horizontally by groups and vertically by components. It simultaneously merged research, analysis, process, intentions, and initial and more developed design work in various formats. It established a clear body of “evidence” of the workshop, and “proof of concept” for the individual groups and the collective body. The “components” in the sequential panels included things like: • • • • • • • • •

Group identification of members, basic information, and project title, with key image Additional key words and key images Written abstract with images Research and case studies Key vision and intention, with images Plans, sections, elevations Immersive renderings Details, materials, programs, services… Final key vision rendering

DENOUEMENT AND CONCLUSION Design studios are a place of open inquiry, investigation, instigation, resolution, and expression. Perhaps they are best designed with some basic starting points that may include a conceptual or intellectual starting point, a programmatic starting point, and a location… and maybe a fiscal reference point. The best studios typically deal with tangible and intangible things… and the process and work of the studio starts from these initial points: researching them, developing them, and transforming them into the ideas and work of the student designer. This is the point of the studio, and its alchemy. i In a much more collaborative world, with shifting and new definitions of disciplines and domains, roles and responsibilities, and careers and education, we still sometimes find firm ground and relatively clear edges. Although disciplinary and professional boundaries continue to shift and erode, and new disciplines and professions emerge, the idea and propagation of differentiated domains and responsibilities is a certain reality. While some people and institutions, and certainly more than in the past, choose to forge new ground and more radically challenge assumptions, we find the majority still behaving. Without a doubt, more creative practices are not “behaving” than ever before, and some programs are teaching students to challenge and expand the bounds of traditional norms. This is a good and healthy thing. These static or dynamic domains, in both education and practice, present ripe and relevant areas for additional research and study over time. But, in either case, it remains critical that degree programs teach something, that students learn a body of knowledge and skills (no matter how large or small, or how traditional or novel), and that professions have something of value and use to offer. It is critical that everyone has something to bring to the table, and that there is at least a degree of differentiation. There remains, therefore, the need for some sort of definition; in other words, there needs to be a body of knowledge, theory, processes, and skills defined, taught and practiced. This is especially relevant in a world of inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary work and comprehensive creative practices. Without any sense of “discipline” or disciplines, it is impossible to combine them into multi- or trans-disciplinary situations. Also, the idea of being “disciplined,” of having discipline, is critical to the ability to continue to learn, and to shift the application of learning into ever new work and practices. This is vital in the world that we live in now,

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and into the future. One must be able to constantly learn, adapt and grow. Both education and practice must keep relevant and responsive. That said, education and creative practice can be rather “messy” and, when alive and relevant, are not typically static. The education and practice of “Interior Design” has simultaneously a very focused aspect and an expanded field. This expanded field includes explicit contributions to a meaningful and well-designed urban environment via normative and collaborative practice, and overlays and insertions into the city through subtle or radical interventions. Interior designers are often best situated for this kind of work due to their strong abilities of observation and focus. They are attentive in general, and attentive to details specifically, since this is at the very core of the discipline and practice. Also at the core is a “humane” sense and process, with a high degree of intelligence, imagination and innovation. The interior designer is a humanist, and must be well versed in the humanities. Hence, another area pregnant for increased attention, research and discussion concerns the duration of the education of an interior designer, and the degrees and steps towards professional licensure and distinction. Also, duration, curricular content, structure and typology can also be researched, discussed and experimented upon more. The workshop model present here has worked extremely well at various universities. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, it could be explored more and possibly expanded as a structural idea or standard curricular typology. There are certainly universities and programs that isolate bodies of knowledge or topics into discrete blocks of time and attention. Additional research, discussion and experimentation in this could be very helpful for the creative and studio-based disciplines. Education, in general, is not always simple and clear. There may be an inherent complexity to the education of a creative, and to the bounds and domains of that education and practice. Education and practice overlap, and learning, growth and discovery must never end. The interior designer, and the education within the universities and beyond, must be very familiar and fluent with issues and opportunities surrounding culture, heritage, place, and time. Empathy, intimacy and respect meet innovation and experimentation to create truly opportunistic and appropriate creative work. An interior urbanism acknowledges and accommodates the individual and the collective by creating environments and experiences that are relevant and meaningful… and hopefully poetic and profound.

REFERENCES Benjamin, W. (1999). The Arcades Project. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Eliot, T. S. (1998). Tradition and the Individual Talent. In The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism (p. 28). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. Heller, S., & Talarico, L. (Eds.). (2009). Design School Confidential: Extraordinary Class Projects from International Design Schools. Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers Inc. Isaacson, W. (2017). Leonardo da Vinci. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Kahn, L. I. (1961). Louis I. Kahn, Architect. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Architecture. Madoff, S. H. (Ed.). (2009). Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/7811.001.0001

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Marx, K. & Engels, F. (2005). Communist Manifesto (A. Lutins & J. Tarzia, Trans.). USA Commons. Nolli, G. (1748). Roma al Tempo di Benedetto XIV: La Pianta di Roma. Vaticano, Italia: Biblioteca Apostlica Vaticano.

ADDITIONAL READING Bachelard, G. (1969). The Poetics of Space. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Berger, J. (1973). Ways of Seeing. London, UK: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books. Bosoni, G., Rebaglio, A., & Scullica, F. (Eds.). (2012). The Contemporary Interior Landscape. Milano, IT: Abitare. Calvino, I. (1972). Invisible Cities. New York, NY: Harvest/Harcourt & Brac. Heller, S., & Talarico, L. (Eds.). (2009). Design School Confidential: Extraordinary Class Projects from International Design Schools. Beverly, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers Inc. Isaacson, W. (2017). Leonardo da Vinci. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Lupton, E., Albrecht, D., Yelavich, S., & Owens, M. (Eds.). (2003). Inside Design Now. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Lyndon, D., & Moore, C. (1994). Chambers for a Memory Palace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Madoff, S. H. (Ed.). (2009). Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/7811.001.0001 Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980). Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York, NY: Rizzoli. Norman, D. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things. New York, NY: Basic Books. Norman, D. (2004). Emotional Design: Why We Love or Hate Everyday Things. New York, NY: Basic Books. doi:10.1145/985600.966013 Pallasmaa, J. (2005). The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Pallasmaa, J. (2011). The Embodied Image: Imagination and Imagery in Architecture. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Piotrowski, C. M. (2014). Professional Practice for Interior Designers (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Rasmussen, S. E. (1964). Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Sennett, R. (2008). The Craftsman. New Haven, CT & London, UK: Yale University Press.

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Shedroff, N. (2001). Experience Design 1. Indiana, IN: New Riders. Tanizaki, J. (1997). In Praise of Shadows. New Haven, CT: Leete’s Island Books. Venturi, R. (1966). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art. Woodham, J. (1997). Twentieth-Century Design. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Comprehensive Design Services/Practices: Professional practices that contain a relatively large or comprehensive disciplines in the same firm, and therefore do not need to sub-contract that work to other design firms. Disciplinary/Discipline: A distinct area that is typically defined by a well-established range of knowledge and skills, such as architecture, graphic design, painting; when in the professional realm, this typically also includes specific roles and responsibilities, and some form of membership that delimits and brings greater definition. Experiential: A sensation, realization, or affectation gained by direct engagement with a person(s), place or thing that is usually intensive, impressionable, or illuminating in some way. Genius Loci: The sense and reality of a place formed over time, culture, traditions and typologies; this concept tries to get to the basic and fundamental root nature of a place, and its locational and cultural genesis. Intangible (Cultural Heritage): Typically, the non-physical, temporal aspects and acts—for example, the sensory and experiential manifestations including storytelling, music and the performance arts—of a culture over time and place. Interiority: The sense of, and actuality of, being inside, and hence possibly protected, distanced or shielded from others and other things. Multidisciplinary: The assembly and collaboration of many disciplines on a shared project, however each discipline typically contributes material from their particular area of expertise; a sort of collaboration with defined edges, roles and responsibilities. Diversity is celebrated and embraced (with the hope for greater creativity and innovation), however typical defined edges, roles and responsibilities are more than likely respected. Tangible (Cultural Heritage): Typically, the more permanent physical aspects and artifacts—for example, the material manifestations including art, architecture and writings—of a culture over time and place. Transdisciplinary: The assembly and collaboration of many disciplines on a shared project, with each discipline contributing material not only from their particular area of expertise, but rather a sort of collaboration with a much more broadly scope and interaction. Those in any particular discipline work collaboratively and intimately with others beyond their discipline, with the idea that one can, and the work can, transcend disciplines to create greater innovations and broader knowledge. Diversity is maximized. Typical defined edges, roles and responsibilities are mostly broken down.

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Di Sabatino, P. Taken from personal files. Unpublished. Student team members listed in division header. (2015 + 2019). Images excerpted from final student presentations. Unpublished. Student team members listed in division header. (2015 + 2019). Excerpts from text within final student presentations. Unpublished. All Student Group Members from the workshop, and represented in the matrix, include: • Group 1 – Cloud - Filippo Bonanomi, Arianna Bosio, Michele Corna, Fernanda Paniagua, Miona Aleksic. • Group 2 – Piazza del Commercio - Anna-Hermine Blixt, Carlo Leone Cattani, Daniele Crusco, Stefania De Bari, Faustas Jonas Povilaitis. • Group 3 – Outside In - María Moreno Esteve, Mattia Dellepiane, Marco Finardi, Ilaria Fiorentini, Alessia Larotonda. • Group 4 – Area - Lorenzo Fabbri, Gianluca Devito, Nicolò Masini, Victoria Serrano, Tianyi Mao. • Group 5 – Through Serena Crotti, Letizia Melano, Sonia Morosato, Alessandro Grati, Ma Eugenia G. Quevedo. • Group 6 – Statera - Susanna Borsatti, Francesco Pucciani, María Esperanza Monteagudo Jiménez, Santiago Gonzalez, Emma Teli. • Group 7 – Oxygen - Ewan Brammall, Alphonse Hennebel, Maria Graziana Mannarino, Arianna Meroni, Martina Platini. • Group 8 – Filo Conduttore - Alessia Orizio, Joana Xavier Dos Santos, Vittoria Scatiggio, Valeria Soffientini, Domenico Petrucci. • Group 9 – Roots - Guida Federica, Murari Guglielmo, Pirovano Cristina, Tortoioli Alessia, Vazquez Rull Marina. • Group 10 – Continuum - Lorena Gutiérrez Pastor, Maddalena Silva, Angela Stellaccio, Baoshan Xue, Michele Zanchi. • Group 11 – (A)kindo – Irene Aiazzi, Giorgia Bartolomeo, Eleonora Rossi, Alessandra Rota.

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Chapter 16

Any Colour You Like:

Considerations on the Surface of Things – Color, Matter, and Architectural Space Luigi Trentin Scuola del Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT The text starts from some observations on the role of color as an element of the language of cinema. In a particular way, two films are compared: Ran by Akira Kurosa and Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…and Spring by Kim-duk KIm. The two films show how color can take on a narrative character, but according to two different point of view. The modern idea of color is clearly expressed in the first: the white light is split through Newton’s prism and generates the primary colors: origin of the story and determination of the role of the characters. Pre-modern colors are expressed in the second film: they cannot be split because they belong to the physicality of things and cannot be mixed because their nature is chemically different. This difference exists even if we extend our observations to the world of materials. The prevalence of surface values brought into the project world has a perfect simulation situation of different materials that have a completely different nature inside. The text develops these considerations, showing how in a prevalence of the surface value of things.

INTRODUCTION The masterpiece by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, Ran (Japan, 1985), a brilliant reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear, begins with a long sequence where the main characters of the film are presented. Now, if we observe the magnificent costumes - awarded with the 1986 Oscar in the dedicated category - we immediately understand that the element of color is not dictated by chance or scenographic setting choices, but assumes an authentic role of narrative element: through the colors we can already identify, from the beginning of the story, the role that the characters will play and their psychological type.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch016

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Let’s start by saying that the premise for this plot device is the theory of the decomposition of light in the color spectrum of Newton (1676), an experiment known to all and whose perhaps most popular image is the cover of the Pink Floyd album “The Dark Side of the Moon”, which shows in iconographic form the profile of the prism used by Newton himself to break down light into its visible chromatic components. The modern color theory also derives from the decomposition of light according to its chromatic components, a theory to which we are all accustomed to from our formal school education. Primary and secondary colors, the relationship of complementarity, etc. are all notions that we take for granted and on which we tend to base our relationship with color. Now, the film by the Japanese master Kurosawa, despite the historical setting and the traditional design of the costumes, presents a very interesting communicative device, since it is based precisely on the modern idea of color. I do not think it’s accidental that right at the beginning of the film the chromatic element is used to identify the characters with an almost didactic clarity. Let us try to re-examine the sequence: Prince Hidetora Ichimonji, a feudal lord who controls a vast territory, communicates to his children an important decision he made regarding his succession. The meeting takes place outdoors, during a pause in a hunting trip, and in the presence of other feudal lords and characters of the court. Color emphasizes the distribution of roles; the Prince is dressed in white: the Light, the sum of all the components. In summary: the unity of the kingdom and its leadership. The three sons, Taro, Jiro and Saburo, are dressed in traditional clothes but it cannot be a coincidence that they are assigned to the three primary colors: yellow, red and blue. If we consider that the Prince is talking about the subdivision of the feud and the roles he intends to attribute to his sons, on a basis of relative equality of treatment, we can read the filmic choice in this way: the light splits into its components, but three of these have equal value - they are in fact primary colors - and their unity reconfirms the origin of the power conferred on them (white light). Everything seems to work, on a theoretical level: those who have seen or will see how the story develops, will understand that the theory of color or the metaphor proposed by the Prince with the image of a bundle of arrows tied together, cannot break, to avoid the development of the tragedy. Throughout the story, the colors will also have the precious role of allowing the identification of the movements of army troops, military and strategic role of great cinematic narrative device, effective for the help that it provides the viewer with, in order to decipher some crowded battle shots. Let us now analyze, specifically, the character of Hidetora Ichimonji’s three sons in relation to their chromatic connotation. Taro is the first to take action, once the roles assigned by the initial sequence have been clarified: Kurosawa assigns the color yellow to him. This is an interesting choice, because yellow is often associated with the idea of speed and dynamism. Jiro is dressed in red: all too evident his role in the tragedy that will consistently be that of violence, betrayal and bloodshed; to these traits is added the passionate character, which will see him involved in a relationship with Taro’s wife and which will eventually lead him to dramatic consequences. Saburo dresses an almost childlike blue: he immediately doubts the sincerity of the brothers and puts himself in a waiting position, of calm meditation, (a sort of “acting - non acting” of Zen derivation) contemplating the events. Let us go back to the sequence from which we started, where at least one other character is added, apparently secondary but which will prove to be fundamental with his constant presence that provides narrative voice to understand the events: the court jester, the “fool”. His costume is multicolored, according to a rather chaotic arrangement of bands of color on a white base. It is quite an unhidden transposition of madness: once again, light splits up, but it is no longer able to recompose itself into a coherent whole. The translation of the title of the film is Chaos: the court jester is the synecdoche of the whole affair, which seems to say how after a split, the components are no longer able to return to the primitive state. 356

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Once again a law of modern physics comes into play: in the process of changing state, a reversibility of the process is not possible. I wouldn’t want to go too far, but the chromatic background in which the scene takes place is dominated by the green of the hills around Mount Fuji, the location chosen by Kurosawa for most of the outdoor shots: green acts as a chromatic base element, enhancing the expressive value of previous choices. Ran is a clear example of how the narrative structures of the film generously use the expressive possibilities offered by color and how it is used according to a precise strategy that incorporates the modern conception of color. We will come back to this point later, but to begin to clarify it we can consider another interesting case, which also comes from the cinematographic field. In the film “Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and again Spring” by the Korean director Kim Ki-Duk (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and Spring, Korea, 2003) the color factor does not have the same narrative weight used by the Japanese director and, for a great part of the film, color has no other meaning, other than that of the beautiful landscape photography, indeed extraordinary, chosen as the filming location. However, color, becomes suddenly important towards the end of the film, within a story that develops in a circular pattern, expression of a conception of cyclical time, which is announced already by the title. The protagonist, having returned to the small temple of meditation found in a lake, whose still waters seem to allude to the only element of eternity, within a slow but continuous mutation of the events of life, is forced to carry out an act of expiation: to engrave in the wood of the floating temple floor the words of the Heart Sutra of Perfection of Wisdom. The words will then be colored with pigments prepared in some bowls. The moment of the preparation of the color clearly shows us different colors in different bowls. The colors do not mix with each other, they have - in a traditional world that does not seem to know modernity to which the film alludes to all the time – a different chemical nature. A brief dialogue between two characters commenting on the preparation of the pigments, underlines its nature: one of the two raises a shell and tells the other: “See, from this we get the white”. Meanwhile, the old monk crushes another color in the bowl. Each color has its own container, each color is a non-interchangeable individuality; the choice also seems to be marked by the chromatic choice of the sequence. The use of color in the two films is not only a narrative element but, rather, a detail from which it is possible to derive two different ideas of the world. For Kim-Ki-Duc, matter cannot be separated from its visual aspect. This is the premodern world, where the chemical manipulation of matter is not possible to a degree that gives absolute freedom of action. A world suspended in an “eternal present” - underlined by the cyclical structure of time in which the action takes place - where the immutable laws of nature are only slightly disturbed by the irruption of the contemporary (the two policemen in pursuit of the young monk, armed with guns and mobile phones). In the Korean film, the theme of color goes beyond the surface: the letters of the Sutra that are imprinted on the wood are engraved by removing material with a knife. The director lingers on the physical act of excavating the material, on the physical exertion of the work: each action of the design is, in the end, an act of modification of the world and this involves not only the use of the strength employed, but also an action which thrusts itself all the way up to the inner part of the matter. It is not sufficient, for Kim - Ki Duc, to color, while remaining on the surface, the plank facing the temple: it is necessary to dig it, go deep. Only later the color comes, almost an act of pacification after the violence on things; in no way does it appear secondary to the viewer that it is the wanted young man who, with no more escape route, engraves the words with repressed anger, while it is the policemen and the old monk of the temple who, moved almost to pity of the guilty young man, complete the work by applying the color. 357

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In the Korean film, the theme of color goes beyond the surface: the letters of the Sutra that is imprinted in the wood are engraved by removing material with a knife. The director lingers on the physical act of excavating the material, on the physical toil of the work: each design act is, in the end, an act of modification of the world and this involves not only using the force used, but also an action that goes up inside the subject. It is not enough, for Kim - Ki Duc, to color, remaining on the surface, the plank facing the temple: it is necessary to dig it, to go deep. Only later comes the color, almost an act of pacification after the violence on things; it does not seem secondary that it is the wanted young man who, with no more escape, engraves the words with repressed anger, while it is the policemen and the old monk of the temple who, moved almost to pity of the guilty, complete the work with the application of the color. Kurosawa, although setting his story in a well-defined historical period, acts instead in the full expressive freedom that modernity allows: color is a functional choice for narration and the chosen code is basically interchangeable and does not depend on the material but on artfully executed manipulation of the elements. The costumes are, in fact, costumes: clothes that can be worn or taken off, with a communicative function and in response to a shared but arbitrary code. We feel the weight of the drama that is unfolding, the rigid elegance of the human types/characters staged by the Japanese master - a clear and declared reference to the non-traditional Japanese theater, but we do not feel the material weight of the colorful costumes. When, towards the end of the story, one of Jiro’s vassals, aware of the crazy revenge plan orchestrated by the concubine (his brother’s ex-wife) decides to punish her with death, the splash of blood on the castle wall after the blow, with the katana, given to the woman, is bright red like the paint thrown on the chalk white of the wall: it is a clear significant sign which does not try in any way to be realistic or plausible. It belongs almost more to the world of theater than to that of cinema. The art of cinema certainly has many similarities with the world of architecture and design. In both cases, we are dealing with a complex process, which starts from an idea and which must be realized in a concrete object, obviously in a broad sense. The process, let us call it that, from the abstract to the concrete, involves the use of techniques, tools and materials that are driven by a process of economy, of the means used to arrive at a final result capable of producing emotions or, at least, to convey meanings. As you can see, a definition that is generic enough to be used both for defining a film or a piece of architecture. In both cases, it is a project. It is clear that if we analyze these exciting artifacts in a more refined way - if we can call them that - we will immediately discover the profound differences that separate the two worlds: differences that can be traced back to what we can define as the specific disciplinary that applies to both. Cinema uses editing techniques, the use of light and space, etc. in such a way that is all its own and not directly comparable with similar terms but which take on a decidedly different meaning and character in the design field. The composition may have similarities with the editing but still remains different when compared to the use that is made of the filmed material to be recomposed in the case of film editing. Without going further into a discussion that would lead us rather far, let us try instead to focus our attention on the different use of the chromatic factor expressed by the two films. Basically, from this point of view, the two films demonstrate how they stand on two absolutely different and opposite chromatic paradigms. I use the term “paradigm” borrowing it from a fortunate essay by Thomas S. Kuhn, who uses it to illustrate what he calls the “structure of scientific revolutions” (Kuhn, 1962). Kuhn uses this concept within his specific field of study, that of the history of science. Nevertheless, it is an extremely interesting concept that can be easily borrowed to try to better understand the concepts underlying the theory of art, literature or cinema. From this point of view, the paradigm is nothing more than a concept given as an indisputable fact and shared by the same community of researchers (in the specific field illustrated by Kuhn, it is obviously the scientific community): every theoretical elabora358

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tion must therefore be endowed with a certain number of common paradigms, which are not questioned and which allow communication, exchange and construction of further developments and constructions, provided they are based on the paradigms themselves. Thomas Kuhn defines this type of state, the state of “normal science”. This allows the researcher to speak of scientific revolutions precisely to describe those movements that one would be tempted to describe as telluric, that question precisely those principles on which shared knowledge is based. In other words, we can think of normal science as a game that takes place in a well-defined field and with shared basic rules, within which the game can unfold and develop in infinite directions but always within the fixed framework. On the contrary, the revolution takes place when the very rules of the game are questioned and the definition of the playing field consequently evolves in a crisis. This is an extremely interesting point of view, because it questions the very concept of scientific truth: the fact that for years, even for centuries, certain models have been used to explain and understand some phenomena does not make these models of interpretation automatically true of reality. By simplifying the discussion to the bone, we can say that truth is such, until a community considers it valid and, consequently, shares it. To use the example described by Robert Pirsig in his book “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance”, ghosts really exist, provided we believe they exist: this is true even when ghosts go by the name of “scientific truths”. In this sense, I believe that the two films analyzed express two interesting examples of paradigm in the use of color. This difference is of a cultural nature but is also intertwines with the world of science and technology, which we would be able to see as the “operative arm of science itself”. In other words, we certainly can only agree with the authoritative voice of a scholar like Pastoreau, which insists on the meaning that color assumes in relation to the different cultures that use it, in the face of a large number of texts, essays and specialized studies dedicated to the specific theme of color and its many social, historical and psychological implications. However, it is equally important to follow the development of the technique in the chromatic field, which has followed the changes introduced precisely by those scientific revolutions that determine a paradigm shift. In this sense, the film “Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and again Spring” expresses a chromatic paradigm linked to a normal state of science - to remain within the definitions of Khun - within which we clearly read a slow storage of knowledge and craftsmanship shared by an extended community, which is not only made up of artists, artisans and active operators but also clearly understands all that dimension that we can define as being “public”, that is, the society that sees, uses, possesses or desires any type of artifact that has a chromatic connotation. The correspondence between maker and company in which the author himself works, configures a sort of social agreement between the parties: both are aware of the general system of rules that establishes the possible degrees of freedom and therefore also fixes the limitations on the subject of expressive freedom. The field of what is possible is extensive but limited, its extension has precise economic connotations. A classic example is that of the funds that Giotto begins to use with lapislazuli blue, which supports or replaces the traditional “gold leaf” finish of previous and contemporary painters. Only a critique, completely detached from the concrete dimension of the art field can ascribe this choice exclusively to a determined expressive will or to independent compositional choices (the search for greater “realism” by Giotto who abandons the golden background of the sky, for a “blue” sky, to put it as simply as possible). Actually, as pointed out by numerous scholars, the Lapislazuli is nothing but a new possibility offered by a substance that finally becomes available to obtain a color that would otherwise be impossible to obtain and which nevertheless has a very high

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cost, equal or higher than that of the golden leaf - which is still used even by Giotto, when the economic availability of the client does not allow alternatives. I do not mean to say that the Italian master uses this color exclusively for its availability. The example is particularly interesting precisely because it shows how the terms of the question are intertwined and interdependent: the aforementioned search for greater realism - and it should be emphasized that this is not an isolated and solitary research, or that it can be separated from social acceptance and, in the specific, theological case of such an important iconographic change - is made possible by the availability of means. Availability that one would be tempted to define as instrumental, if it were not that in this way we risk having a reductive view of the question: the availability of the means is also a way of defining the field within which it is possible to express oneself. Subject to these considerations, we can simplify the question and say that the paradigm expressed by the Korean director is a premodern chromatic paradigm: a condition within which the choice of a tint could not (and cannot) disregard the matter from which it is derived. The memory of this matter is often registered in the name of the colors: the quoted lapis lazuli blue, the zinc white, the cadmium yellow, the Siena natural earth ... the list could go indefinitely. If for those of us who have a certain familiarity with colors these names immediately evoke a particular and definite shade or a very specific shade, for the previous culture it was instead a matter of immediately identifying the origin of color, its organic or mineral nature, the matter from which it originated or which it was possible to obtain; sometimes depending even on its geographical distance or the greater or lesser availability. The paradigm shift, in this truly revolutionary sense, in the sense given by Kuhn, for color is perfectly exemplified by Kurosawa’s film: color is available and is an expressive possibility. From the point of view of language and communication codes, “Ran” embodies the revolution of Modernity, which is rooted in the Technique and which lays the foundation for contemporaneity. For us, in fact, “choosing a color” has become a possibility that does not have to make excessive accounts with the availability of materials and with the economic factor that made some pigments rare, precious or even impossible to find. Riccardo Falcinelli explains very clearly in his book “Cromorama” (Falcinelli, 2017) how this condition is based on two factors. The possibility, suggested by Newton and his theory of the decomposition of light, to pursue the idea of the combination of materials to obtain the desired result and, as a logical consequence of the idea of the synthesis of matter, the industrial research that seeks to develop to the market a greater quantity of colors at reasonably low prices. It is interesting to note that these changed conditions generate an apparent paradox: the possibility of having infinite different shades ends up bringing, in the technical system, a few basic colors, from which all the others are derived. The current application of color in expressive, artistic and communicative processes is based on this condition. The mixture of tempera or oil paint in a tube (an experience that we all certainly did within our educational path even without being professional artists) taught us how the chemical homogeneity of the component allows the mixture. Letterpress printing processes are based on the controlled and gradual superimposition of a few base colors. All the technologies of digital screens, from the television, to the computer, to the most recent tablets and mobile phone screens form the images through points of colored light; the common projection systems are based on standards where the reduction reaches very few basic colors, such as in the RGB three-color systems. In other words, the premodern world had many colors available but in numbers proportional to the different materials from which these were derived and with a precise relationship between matter and color - this as a precise attribute of that: a world that does not know the mixture and that even sees it from the philosophical point of view as an improper and impure practice. Instead, contemporaneity 360

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offers infinite ranges of shades and nuances and has educated us, from the beginning of modernity, to the idea that today we are completely taken for granted by the theory of colors based on the existence of primary colors, from which to derive secondary, tertiary and relative relationships. An evidence that is actually impossible in the absence of industrial and serial synthesis processes and that is, in essence, quite recent. As Falcinelli notes: “In today’s society, therefore, color is not just a sensation nor a mere attribute of things. Color is often an idea or an expectation” (Falcinelli, 2017, p. 7). The Theory of Colors (the capital letter is a must) becomes an absolute law and, with it, the scale of values ​​we tend to associate with them becomes absolute: in this we find the revolutionary aspect of a new paradigm, capable of moving the ways in which we not only use color in a way, let’s say, technique (the availability of the material, the processes of application and derivation of dyes, etc.) but, more importantly, able to change the way in which we think so. Akira Kurosawa works in his film exactly as any contemporary designer who operates, in a broad sense, in the universe of communication would do: he uses color according to a precise code, aware of moving within a space that is both material and cultural within which the meaning of the signs can be reported to a shared language and where the use of certain formal attributes assumes a certain stability and certainty of meaning. We can interpret the story from the film in different ways, but the chromatic scale through which the parts are attributed, in relation to the role assumed by the characters, cannot be a random or merely scenographic element: the origin of the story is the White (the Prince), the development is given by the split into primaries (the heirs). The paradigm shift implies a revolution where something must be lost in order to gain something else: the previous paradigm is challenged to the point of taking away its validity and the new paradigm stabilizes, becoming the theoretical reference to refer to. It is interesting to reflect on this transition between two different conditions, because it seems to me that they constitute a situation of great importance to understand the contemporary moment and to understand what is the general condition within which the project moves. First, let us concentrate on how much is lost. It is a question of fully understanding and considering the divorce between the material and its perceivable aspect, of which color is certainly a fundamental attribute. It is not just an exclusively chromatic question: this separation also extends to the very substance of the material. We can express it through an example: in the premodern world, observing a surface made of stone meant not only that it appeared superficially as a stone, but that it was built with this material. This does not mean that the pre-modern world did not know the fiction given by the coating, a principle on which a lot of architecture and a wide range of production of artistic, craft or other artefacts have been based since ancient times. Those who know the architecture of Andrea Palladio, for example, are well aware that the Venetian architect had used clever disguise techniques for constructive elements, to the point of making it almost a trademark and using this technique as a strategic element to satisfy the requests for representativeness by part of a cultured and demanding client; those that appear to us solid marble columns are actually built with terracotta elements, covered with plaster to which, by shrewdly mixing the right materials in the mixture, the appearance of solid marble columns was obtained. The same could happen for architraves, which in some cases were obtained from appropriately shaped wooden beams with the appropriate moldings and then covered to show themselves in carved stone. The whole history of architecture is, in parallel, a story of how to “stage the construction”, especially when it referred to a mythical antiquity of classical derivation to which it is ideally connected. Numerous studies have dealt with this subject - in recent years I cannot fail to mention that of Kenneth Frampton 361

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on tectonics - which have retraced the debate, which was never actually concluded, between the total “honesty of the built form” and the possibility instead according to the “coating principle” (Frampton 1995, Fanelli, Gargiani 1994) . The same observations could be made for craft objects or works of art that are not strictly architectural. The substantial difference therefore does not lie in the degree of greater or lesser fiction operated through the coating, but in the congruence between the aspect of the matter and its physical nature. For example: the façade of the Cathedral of any major European city can be finished with marble slabs that cover it and conceal the reality of a brick wall that builds it - a situation that appears clear whenever such a building is not completed: like San Petronio in Bologna or the Church of Santa Maria delle Carceri in Prato, an unfinished work by Giuliano da Sangallo - but the marble that covers it is stone and the builders had to confront each other with this condition. It may be objected that there are numerous examples of mural painting that camouflages plaster as if it were precious marble: there is no lack of examples and they extend well beyond the limit of the nineteenth century, thus fully in the modern age. But it can be answered that, in addition to the level of fiction that very often does not go beyond an analysis made at close range of surfaces, we find ourselves again on the qualitative question of the colors we are talking about. This is why the film by the Korean director Kim Ki-Duk appears paradigmatic: in the sequence mentioned at the beginning, the physical act of engraving the written words goes far beyond the surface of the wood that is scratched by the protagonist’s knife. The act of engraving removes matter and, proceeding in depth, brings to light again the same matter. Only the color, applied by well-divided and separate bowls, can change its state. If this is the state of things we are going to leave, the lost chromatic paradigm, let’s consider what is acquired instead. First of all, we can speak of a statute of freedom: the choice of a color - and, as we will see, also that of a finish - is transformed into an action that no longer has to deal with material or economic limitations such as questioning it, but it increasingly takes on the characteristics of a choice referring to a sign value, expressive will or adherence to a given communication code. Red can signal a ban, launch a signal of danger or passion, recall a certain presence in contrast to other simultaneous colors but it no longer means the luxury that the purple toga immediately reconnected to the laborious, complicated and, therefore, expensive process that allowed to obtain fabrics of this color. Attributing a color to things becomes, for us, a choice between the many possibilities and the numerous options, they are of equivalent value. To use the words of Manlio Brusatin, everything translates into a “(...) logical process of subtraction of the density of matter” and of “(...) addition of a film idea” (Brusatin, 2000). The color, therefore, as a film, a kind of very thin skin that covers something else, a support from which the color itself has celebrated a divorce. The surface is offered as a support for “narrative” needs and purposes (Kurosawa’s characters that identify themselves through the code): in this we can read a contemporary condition of the project. The question can be read according to two different interpretative keys. The first is of a semantic nature. Color, in modern times, is characterized by its degree of freedom, which is ensured by the development of the technique that allows the disjunction between the thing and its chromatic appearance. From this point of view, color becomes an element of pure signification, as would be classified in the field of semiotics. That is, color becomes one of the communicative and signifying attributes that determines the identity of an object. This is a question well defined by Luis J. Prieto, when he observes how there is a distinction between numerical identity and specific identity. While the 362

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former identifies a given object in an absolute manner, the latter classifies it within a range of objects that share the same characteristics between them but are not, in absolute terms, the same object. This is obviously a fundamental question if we talk not only about industrial design but about the conception of the work of art in the period of its technical reproducibility, to quote the famous and prophetic title of Benjamin’s essay. As Prieto observes: “A specific identity of which an object is provided can be defined as a characteristic or a set of characteristics that it presents. Since an object always presents an infinity of characteristics, it is always provided with an infinity of different specific characteristics (although, obviously, never contradictory to each other). Furthermore, an object can transform itself, or lose and acquire specific identities. Finally, since a feature that presents an object can always be among the features that another object has, each of the specific identities of which an object is provided can always be a specific identity of which another object is equally provided and, consequently, an object can be specifically identical to an infinity of other objects” (Prieto, 1991, pp. 24 – 25). In the world of industrial production, the concept of identity is no longer applied to the exclusive use of a well-defined object (the one with a numerical identity) but to a class or category of objects that have the same specific identity. For these objects, any deviation from the serial standard is considered an error: it applies to all the characters that concur to determine the specific identity and is worth even more for the color. If on the one hand the color is linked to the act of free choice and not conditioned, at the time of the project or at the time of distribution and marketing of the object, on the other hand the absolute identity must be guaranteed, the non-deviation from the established norm, of the chromatic character of the same. If I order a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar in Fiesta Red coloring, I expect that the final paint applied to the object is unquestionably belonging to that particular shade of red that characterizes the whole set of identical objects with the same specific identity. The semantic discourse would also lead us to analyze the color in the form of a unique code, but this interpretation is subject to numerous limitations: Michel Pastoreau warns us very clearly of how “in the context of colors everything is cultural, strictly cultural”. In other words, it is not possible, even if it is an attempt made with periodic regularity in the history of art, to establish a rigid correspondence of meaning between a color and a precise communicative meaning associated with it. The cultural aspect of the question - as Pastoreau reminds us - only allows us to link certain colors to a use that is made of it in a specific age and in a specific cultural context. This authorizes us to put forward hypotheses, such as those we made at the beginning when talking about Kurosawa’s film, but it does not allow us to fix the conclusions as definitive; in other words, it is a question of defining, within a cultural context, the interpretative code that is used to read the chromatic component. The second question concerns the nature of matter and its relationship with the surface that characterizes it. In this sense, once again the question lends itself to being interpreted as a contemporary paradigm. The color can be assimilated to a thin outer covering film and the color is separated from any bond of belonging to a given material: in essence, it is a celebrated divorce between the material and its appearance. In the contemporary condition of the project, everything can be covered and the surface becomes a sort of neutral field, free from technical limitations, waiting to be treated to respond to what we may call narrative needs. It could easily be objected that this is not a condition unknown to antiquity or pre-modern age. Just think of the question of classical sculpture, which has long been interpreted as monochrome - and which has consequently provided the basis for a certain “purism” that has characterized neoclassical architectures and sculptures - and that more recent studies have instead established to be characterized 363

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by lively colors, with even a highly realistic intent. To the hieratic absoluteness of the marble material, which exhibited its own monochrome material, the vast sample of bright hues must have been replaced in our imagination, which in reality characterized not only sculptural but also architectural surfaces. The difference with the contemporary condition is not found so much in the possibility of treating the artifacts with the different pigments but it is rather in the mental condition through which we are accustomed to think about color. If we think of the experience of choosing an object of industrial production, as could be the purchase of a car, we are directly faced with this condition. In performance terms, we immediately discover how the characteristics are very precise: in some cases these are rigidly defined characteristics or variations that occur within closed classes (the displacement, the dimensions of the interiors, the optional possibilities in terms of comfort, the safety performance, etc.). In general, we are not inclined to question this organization of the “system of possible choices”, which respond to fairly precise technical and economic reasons. The system obviously allows rigid and limited movements within the same area. Color, on the other hand, seems to respond to a different order: it behaves like an independent variable and its choice is apparently free. I emphasize the question of apparent freedom: we know very well, in fact, how the choice of a color also depends on its actual availability, in relation to a specific product category, and its production in relation to commercial policies. But, if we reason in theory, we think of color as an expression of a completely unconditional choice. It is a contemporary phenomenon according to which we are witnessing a clear prevalence of the superficial value of objects, a value to which color contributes substantially. Phenomenon whose outlines had been captured in a very precise manner by Ezio Manzini, in an interesting essay of a few years ago. Manzini writes: “We note that our perceptive field is dominated by the supremacy of surfaces, systems of relations, information flows (...). The world seems to lose depth. The physical and cultural depth of things diminishes, everything seems to tend towards the two-dimensional surfaces and the messages that these can convey. Indeed, today’s emblematic images present us with an environment that is basically dematerialized, as fluid as the information that passes through it, flattened to the two-dimensionality of the printed paper and the video screen. On the other hand, this prevalence of two-dimensionality (and the perception of dematerialization that it entails) extends far beyond information supports. As for a “dragging effect”, the entire system of objects seems to be moving in the same direction: not only an extended family of products, hit by electronics and by the miniaturization of the functions that it allows, tends to bidimensionality, but even those objects that by their very reason of being maintain the three dimensions, tend to delegate to the surface a greater share of their performance and their expressive capacity. Thus the materials, infinitely manipulable and modular, lose their profound cultural identity. Their only possible image, their “sincere image”, is the set of infinite images that can be designed and projected onto their surface” (Manzini, 1990, pp. 22-23). The world described by Manzini is the world that lacks the deep dimension symbolized by the sequence of Kim Ki-Duk in which the engraving of the writings in the wood takes place: wood is wood also under the surface, but for the contemporary what counts is the colored writing and not the material consistency of the support. As designers, we usually meet this condition on a daily basis: it is enough for us to browse through an online catalog of semi-finished or building components to realize this. The classic window frame, cut crosswise to show us the performance characteristics in physical and mechanical terms, shows us a section where nothing of what happens inside has by now a direct relationship with the surface of things. We are rather used, on the contrary, to see how a series of increasingly sophisticated performance 364

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possibilities can be coupled with an appearance separated from every possible constructive truth. It is no longer just about color, but the “narration” goes all the way to the simulation of a wooden element, for example, if we are talking about a window or a door, under which a complex hollow section in PVC appears instead or in aluminum. The prevalence of surface values determines a situation characterized by an interesting ambiguity: the possibility of treating materials according to a freedom of choice - freedom of choice that color, understood as an element to identify the artefact, represents rather clearly - is accompanied by a loss of identity of materials, as the fundamental link between the material and its surface appearance has disappeared. In other words, the contemporary designer finds himself in a situation where the (theoretically) infinite possibility of finishing choices is accompanied by an unstable condition of the identity of the material itself. This situation translates into a new way of thinking about our artificial world, which is the object of our design thinking: expressive freedom is accompanied by a phenomenon of cloning, through which everything seems to be able to assume the identity of something else. When we were calling attention to the real internal form of a building component, such as the window used as an example of a much broader category of construction elements available on the market, we were not doing anything but underlining a condition in which, with identical performances in terms of resistance, isolation, performance and comfort, a protean identity can correspond, which the artifact can assume according to logics that no longer follow the relationship that existed in the pre-modern era between matter, its possibility of providing certain services and its final aspect. In some ways, it is a perspective that broadens the phenomenon of “copy”, a well-known process that has always characterized the development of the arts, craftsmanship and, in general, the production of any type of object. The history of art is also the history of copies: the Greek sculpture that is known to us almost exclusively through the work of copies made in Roman times, the reproduction of successful pictorial themes that led to the diffusion of iconographic patterns and repertoires, the copying of texts, etc. Our age has brought this phenomenon to a condition of exactness, in a condition where very often the very concept of “original” is questioned. In the field of digital design, there is no point in thinking about the existence of an original, since it is now a code that allows you to reproduce a computer drawing in an infinite number of absolutely identical copies. As Hernàndez Martìnez observes, “(...) copying in our daily life has become natural: we copy computer programs, discs, films, make photocopies, scan images, etc., to the point that copying and citing (text or graphics) have become a habitual working method among creatives, one of the most characteristic features of post-modern society. Today the fake, the quote, the appropriation, the reference, the plagiarism have crossed the border of the illegal, claiming specific artistic validity ” (Martinèz, 2007). To remain in the cinematographic metaphor with which we conducted this writing, the materials we are working with today seem to be very similar to the “Thing” that director John Carpenter describes with chilling realism in his eponymous film (“The Thing”, 1982): an entity capable of assuming the appearance of all the others and hiding its real identity behind this mask. Color freely expresses an identity, at the exact moment when the link between identity and truth of things is in crisis, opening up an interesting field of experimentation for the contemporary project and posing interesting questions whose final results are still to be determined.

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REFERENCES Brusatin, M. (2000). Storia dei colori. Torino: Einaudi. Eco, U. (1984). Semiotica e filosofia del linguaggio. Torino: Einaudi. Falcinelli, R. (2017). Cromorama. Come il colore ha cambiato il nostro sguardo. Torino: Einaudi. Fanelli, G., & Gargiani, R. (1994). Il principio del rivestimento. Prolegomena ad una storia dell’architettura contemporanea. Roma, Bari: Laterza. Frampton, K. (1995). Studies in Tectonic Culture. The Poetic of Construction between Nintheenth and Twentieth Century. Boston: The MIT Press. Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of the Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: The University of Chicago. Manzini, E. (1990). Artefatti. Verso una nuova ecologia dell’ambiente artficiale. Milano: Domus Academy. Martìnez, A. H. (2007). La clonacìon arquitectonica. Madrid: Siruela. Pastoreau, M. (2008). Nero. Storia di un colore. Milano: Ponte alle Grazie. Pastoreau, M. (2008). Blu. Storia di un colore. Milano: Ponte alle Grazie. Pastoreau, M. (2018). Dizionario dei colori del nostro tempo. Milano: Ponte alle Grazie. Prieto, L. J. (1991). Saggi di Semiotica. Sull’arte e sul soggetto. Parma: Pratiche. Renzi, V. (2005). Kim Ki-duk. Roma: Audino. Tassone, A. (2008). Akira Kurosawa. Milano: Il Castoro Cinema. Trani, S. (2013). Le basi della semiotica. Milano: Bompiani.

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Figuring Out the Interiors Through the Representation of Experiential and Interactive Environments Giuseppe Amoruso https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7821-4517 Politecnico di Milano, Italy Polina Mironenko Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT In the learning society, knowledge is the new capital, and the role of the designer encompasses a visionary and imaginative force that must translate the cultural dimension of the project into formal expressions but also ensure a functional and environmental character that is nowadays enhanced by digital technologies. Design does not solely restrict itself to designing the experience of use, the “economy of experience,” but introduces an innovative vision of systems or innovative access to cultural heritage in all its forms. The chapter exploits methodologies to support the experiential design process where the tools of representation are critical to simulate, prototype, and build interiors but also arrange the right set to control and validate the final perception of a space. A participatory application for the Cola Filotesio museum of Amatrice concludes the chapter: a prototype of a community center to replace by the means of a virtual environment the church of Saint Emidio, which was razed to the ground by the 2016 earthquake.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch017

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 Figuring Out the Interiors Through the Representation of Experiential and Interactive Environments

INTRODUCTION Paideia, a word coming from the antique Greek, which means formation or education, is the term that in ancient Greece denoted the pedagogical model in force in Athens in the fifth century BC, referring not only to school education of children, but also to their ethical and spiritual development in order to make them citizens perfect and complete, a high form of culture capable of guiding their harmonious integration into society. Interior design is taught to be an essential tool for envisioning and modeling the environments we live in but also to create the places of knowledge, to encourage continuous learning according to an innovative vision. Donald Schön’s work on organizational learning and reflective practice that tends to receive the most attention in the literature, his exploration of the nature of learning systems and the significance of learning in changing societies has helped to define debates around the so called ‘learning society’. Education was not a segregated activity, conducted for certain hours, in certain places, at a certain time of life. It was the aim of the society. The city educated the man. The Athenian was educated by culture, by paideia. (Hutchins, 1970) Paideia, a word coming from the antique Greek, which means formation or education, is the term that in ancient Greece denoted the pedagogical model in force in Athens in the fifth century BC, referring not only to school education of children, but also to their ethical and spiritual development in order to make them citizens perfect and complete, a high form of culture capable of guiding their harmonious integration into society. In this renewed social context, the role of the designer who designs or transforms interiors requires a visionary and imaginative force that must translate the cultural dimension of the project into formal expression but also ensure a functional and environmental character that is nowadays integrated by digital technologies. The chapter, starting from the new social condition inspired by the learning society introduces issues and questions about the role of designers in the future. The change in the attitude of designers, the need to design and promote an effective experience of interiors is promoting the integration of interactive environments for the fruition of cultural heritage and a new concept for creating space for the community and the civic empowerment. Representing culture and human heritage in the digital age is the contemporary challenge for designers that are figuring out interiors for community centers, like a museum or a library or the new hybrid spaces designed as urban interiors. The chapter exploits the tools for experiential design describing the processes of representation to design and build interiors but also their perception as a space. Crucial is the role of visual interaction in designing and envisioning environments. Representing interior spaces through drawing requires a continuous process of imagination. Design does not solely restrict itself to designing the experience of use of goods, “economy of experience”, but introduces an innovative vision of systems and a shared vision of cultural heritage in all its forms; it also makes it possible to start upon a participatory and inclusive learning path, social well-being, which makes its diffusion in the community sustainable and cost-effective (from the institution to the cultural operator, to the different categories of users). Knowledge technologies are recognized as opportunities in terms of simulation and communication of environments, but also of creating culture and awareness that is expressed in the contemporary forms of sharing and dissemination. Learning, in the different seasons of life, should, therefore, be considered as the source of an increasingly innovative economy that becomes sustainable and has an impact if it reaches a substantial and diversified number of users and social subjects.

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THE LEARNING SOCIETY AND THE ROLE OF DESIGNERS Design process, considered as a whole set of disciplines in the universe of industrial design, deals with envisioning and creating the value of processes, goods, environments and services, and to address the right framework to a continuous increment of it among society and citizens. The learning society represents a new human condition linked to contemporary social phenomena, a society where men and women live, work, organize themselves and deal with the know-how and knowledge as a new form of capital. It is considered an educational philosophy promoted by the OECD and UNESCO that fosters education as the key to a nation’s economic development; according to its principles education should extend beyond formal learning (conventionally based in traditional educational institutions: schools, universities etc.) into informal learning centres to support a knowledgebased economy. A learning society encompasses the actual process of learning as an ‘activity, not a place’ – that is, it takes place outside of regular educational institutions, and is thus also decentralized and deregulated, a tenet of globalization theory (Cisco, 2010). If lifelong learning is about the ability of the individual, then this is enabled through a Learning Society. It is the social and cultural process of individual lifelong learning, internalizing the norms and ideologies of society and encompassing both learning and teaching. (Oecd, 2000) This vision lays the structural foundation for economics and social development: starting from Donald Schön’s paradigm, “learning, reflection and change” is translated into the promotion of creativity at all levels, addressing a critical and civic awareness and inducing a process of social change. (Schön, 1987) Donald Schön places the “dynamic conservatism” as very fundamental issue for social systems that must learn to become capable of transforming themselves without intolerable disruption. Robert M. Hutchins 1970, one of the key contributors to the need of a “learning society”, explained how the increasing proportion of free time and the rapidity of change became essential facts because the latter requires continuous education and the free time makes it possible (Hutchins, 1970). The new model of society and learning promotes creativity at all levels, creating a critical and civic awareness and inducing a social change process; it is currently aided through technologies at different level and the increasing focus on social networking, by using the shared learning experiences of individuals as a basis for a larger framework of education that encompasses both formal and informal environments (schools, universities, job-training, support, collaboration, feedback etc.). Service economy in recent years has shown considerable potential by creating an innovative system with a social nature, based on a particular type of economic performance. Goods and services are no longer sufficient as economic products; a new need has been created: through a design process, an integrated fruition project can be created, that is to say, the project of experience, leaving an experiential impression in people, in other words, giving a sensorial and psychological form to experience. Experiences are the fourth form of economic offer, distinct from services, products and commodities but until now not recognized as such. When an experience it is chosen, it is accepted the economic value to spend time in enjoying a series of events that engage us directly. The oldest and most basic form of experience is that of the prolonged use of a product, ie the one for Pine and Gilmore defined as “ing the thing: any can be inged”. (Pine and Gilmore, 2011) Knowledge is the new capital and technologies are recognized as opportunities in terms of conservation, study and communication of heritage, but also of creating culture and awareness that is expressed in the contemporary forms of sharing and dissemination. Learning, in the different seasons of life, should

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therefore be considered as the source of an increasingly innovative economy that becomes sustainable and has an impact if it reaches a substantial and diversified number of users and social subjects. Learning is to be considered as an economic expression of social well-being; it becomes sustainable if it reaches a large and diversified number of the population which benefits from it and returns it in the various forms of access to culture. In this new model of society, co-creation, design thinking and participatory planning are becoming more and more popular also in the design of buildings and public spaces, for example according to the process of service design and action-learning. It’s all part of the same attitude towards innovation and development. The idea of involving end users in development began in the 1960s, for example in the Scandinavian approach to design, called participatory design (Ingildsen, 1998). Then this way of designing was used above all to develop new technologies. Later Donald Norman coined the term user-centered design as a participatory design variant. In the 80s and 90s the new verb was usability, first as user experimentation and later on as involvement of users who become co-designers in the design process. (Norman, 1990) The latter is developed in collaboration between designers and staff on one side and users on the other - a process of sharing knowledge in which users are involved from the earliest stages, and not just at the end. In the nineties, people began to talk about ‘person-centered design’ and service design. Nowadays design thinking favors a creative approach that builds significant solutions to user needs. In an increasingly experience-driven economy, designers face difficulties implementing a vision of delivering experiences beyond the provision of technology-driven architecture. Because experience design concepts and approaches are spread across multiple, often disconnected disciplines, designers need to change their attitude and aspire to make interiors including people as a capital for the project’s worth.

DESIGNING EXPERIENCES: INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTS FOR CIVIC EMPOWERMENT AND CULTURAL HERITAGE J. Robert Rossman and Mathew D. Duerden synthesize the fundamental theories and methods from multiple disciplines and lay out a process for designing experiences from start to finish. They provide a framework of experience types, explaining people’s engagement with products and services and what makes experiences personal and fulfilling. They introduce key concepts such as memory, intentionality, and dramatic structure in a down-to-earth style, and provide readers with the tools they need to design innovative and indelible experiences and to move their organizations into the experience economy. (Rossman & Duerden, 2019) The experiential design proposes a system of mediation between environments, cultural contents or intangible heritage (memory, territory, landscape) and the target community of users, allowing multiple forms of interaction, communication and representation of values directly or using technologies. In this sense, the design process is not limited to the experience of use of value, the economy of experience, but introduces an innovative vision of system and shared cultural heritage in all its forms; it also makes it possible to activate a participatory and inclusive learning process, of social well-being, which makes its diffusion in the community sustainable and from the institution, to the cultural operator, to the different categories of users. The dissemination of digital skills can be combined with the need for innovation and technology transfer for the benefit of the territory, young people, start-ups and industrial 370

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districts. Nowadays the availability of low-cost technological resources makes it possible to use cultural heritage through the project of experience and the personalization of the relationship between citizens and the cultural asset as a common value shared in a community. According to Schön, in the learning systems’ models the unit of innovation is a functional system while in the conventional models the unit of innovation is a product or technique; another issue is on the pattern of diffusion, centre-periphery, according to the classical models while the learning system’ models introduce systems transformation. A paradigmatic case comes from Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark; the project is called Dokk1, Dock one in English, the largest modern and hybrid library in Scandinavia designed as a large urban interior for people’s well-being, their learning rather than as a place to store books. Architects are Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and the interior design is by the City of Aarhus & Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Paustian; the complex is 28,000 sqm, 18,000 of these for the library and Citizen Service. Dokk1 is a cultural centre located by Aarhus Harbour, which contains both the city’s main library and Citizen Service. The actual users have been important players in relation to the interior design of the building, and the result is a dynamic library intended to last at least 100 years. Opened in 2015 after a ten year consultation process, the annual visits are approximately 1.3 million. The library in Dokk1 gives “free access to a world of information, inspiration, learning and entertainment, it is a center for knowledge and culture which disseminates and makes a variety of media come alive across genres and formats. The library is the citizens’ house”, says the official web site. (Figure 1) Designers worked for 10 years within the Transformation Lab to support the design of the library as a space for innovation and to realize physical prototypes and visualization of the future library. Before Figure 1. Dokk1, Aarhus Harbour, Denmark. A bell says shallo to new life in Aarhus. The Gong is a tubular bell that is part of the art decorations and it has an arm, which new parents can activate from the maternity ward at the Aarhus University Hospital at the other end of town when a child is born.

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the opening of Dokk1, in the foyer of the old Aarhus Central Library, was settled a lab to share visions, illustrations and tangible models verified directly by both employees and library user: for example interactive floors, new technologies for children, new learning environments, the People’s Lab. The fundamental start was to include people to propose the name of the building; it was determined by a public contest held in the autumn of 2012 (Figure 2). A further lesson from the Transformation Lab, as a consequence of the active involvement of users in the design process, has shown that it is functional to leave some unprogrammed places, within the library, to an open space, not completely designed and never completely set up, and therefore these places can be changed at short notice and flexibility. The concept is to have an area that could accommodate temporary set-ups and experiments in collaboration with partners, confronting users with ideas that could be tested immediately. In this context, technological solutions transform the physical library by creating a connection between interiors, layouts and knowledge. Technology is omnipresent, a constituent part of the building, a link between interiors and between the various users, a bridge with the community and the city, it is never just a single installation. Among the technological installations, the civic role of the new media is privileged, their use as a sharing platform, for example using Instagram and the #dokk1 tag, stories of involvement and participation in the life of the library can be created, occupying a virtual and cultural space at the inside the physical space. At the center of Dokk1 is a large tubular bell, is the gong; every time a child is born, parents can press a button in the maternity ward of the local hospital to send a signal to Dokk1, and make the gong sound. The bell has been cast in bronze and is 25 feet long, 2.5 feet wide and weighs close to 3 tons, Figure 2. Dokk1, Aarhus Harbour, Denmark. The so-called media ramp is centrally located in the building, beneath a large skylight. This has five different platforms catering to various functions and leads to the second floor, where the children’s and young adults’ library is found.

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which makes it the largest of its kind in the world. The work of art is located almost as a centerpiece in Dokk1 hanging above the media ramp, the large inner stairway connecting level 1 and 2. The interior landscape, virtual, digital, connected also becomes sound thanks to an installation that creates an interactive sound environment that welcomes users inside the library. Some sounds are processed with the surrounding area data and the users themselves interactively participate to create an inclusive atmosphere that tells the mood of the day (Figure 3). Technological solutions make the content of the library more accessible, even to children who live learning through play and physical activity; the interactive floor allows children to use hands and feet to interact with the floor and carry out activities while other installations such as vending machines for books, floors and interactive tables highlight the work of librarians: reviews, news and suggestions created by the library system to promote knowledge in a differentiated and interactive way. Users can add elements to the digital layer in the building, there are platforms and spaces for partner activities, artists or students experimenting with new technologies and new media to create new experiences for users. The sound environment, the great digital ceiling of the Great hall and all the digital walls can be programmed by external subjects hosting content and installations. It is a project that today defines itself as smart, in the technological sense but above all in the less common meaning of building intelligence, that is, discovery, connection, relationship, awareness; there is also artificial intelligence, motion sensors, access points and cameras provide relevant data on how the building is used. Through the systems of machine learning is created evidence-based knowledge in the context of social practice and on library user’ needs to enhance the effective use of common spaces.

Figure 3. Dokk1, Aarhus Harbour, Denmark. The library is an open space supported by pillars with various levels and ceiling heights, organized in a broad-meshed grid featuring ceiling voids for skylights and confined areas for subsidiary functions.

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The goal is to optimize the user experience, interior design, communication, facilities, programs and services in the library building - based on factual data relating to library users. These facts explain why the Dokk1 design and construction process had to be participatory and engaging. In light of these developments, libraries are moving towards a new innovation practice that focuses on co-creation with users and that presupposes the inclusion of the users themselves and the activation of that knowledge that they might not be aware of having. Dokk1 would have been a success even if it had been a more traditional library? Perhaps, but it’s true the importance lies in the fact that it is the most innovative library in the world today. Not so much because there are many new technologies, works of art, many good services: all this is there, but it is not the most important thing. The thing more important is that here it is understood that, in a world digitized, the library must offer good reasons to go there and then distribute paper books on loan is not enough. Good reasons can only be on the side of “activities” that a place of knowledge can offer: services to citizens, courses, workshops, seminars, games and more. Above all, Dokk1 offers help to those in need, a political mission is given: make life easier for citizens. One other critical issue interior design is dealing with is the change request for temporary or stable culture places and the challenge of creating context and story with new media technology for immersive cultural museum experience. The “onsite” experience is changing, particularly in cultural museums. Interiors are including the use of advanced digital media technologies in creating immersive, story-driven visitor experiences, and new media technologies are being used to create cultural context and narratives. The change, the attitude transformation raises issues of representation, authenticity, integrity, and inclusivity. This engagement is critical at a time when cultural museum attendance is seriously declining. Going forward, museums must determine how to mentor future generations in interpreting past and present cultures. Cultural storytelling using new immersive design techniques is emerging as a powerful tool. (Burnette Stogner, 2011) Younger generations learn in very different styles than the traditional “passive observer” approach offered by many cultural museums. The Millennials, ages 8 to 28, tend to be teamoriented, collaborative, and “active users of culture” rather than “passive consumers” (Howe, 2006). The design process for cultural heritage includes theories, methodologies and enhancement techniques that have the cultural heritage system understood in its cognitive, social and symbolic dimensions as their application sphere. The disciplines of representation interact with the multiple disciplinary specializations of design, proposing the definition of interpretative models for the analysis and representation of the historical, cultural, aesthetic and environmental values of a cultural asset as well as its material and immaterial meaning. The value enhancement strategy produces advanced visualizations as well as computer and multimedia modelling. The concept that multi-sensory immersion can be used to engage audiences and heighten emotional experience is not new. It has been used in cultural rites and religious ceremonies for millennia. In the past century, populist museums have used dioramas, film projections, sound effects, voice tracks, and the occasional smoke and mirrors to contextualize cultural artifacts and historical objects with immersive atmospheres. They have drawn on the staging and mise -en-scene techniques commonly used in theater and film. They have at times dared to use cutting edge technologies, such as stereoscopic 3D when it was first popularized in the 1840s, to appeal to a wider audience. (Burnette Stogner, 2011) In museum environments, “…museum experiences can be deeply embedded in visitors’ memories with potential for significant learning” (Falk & Dierking, 2009). Experiences have always been the heart of entertainment, today we are talking about edutainment. The introduction of this innovative engagement based on experience can be attributed to Walt Disney. After 374

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introducing innovative experiential effects in cartoons (synchronized sound, color, three-dimensional backgrounds, stereo sound, etc.) reached its peak in 1955 with the opening of Disneyland in California and the subsequent opening of Walt Disney World. The well-known park EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow; a utopian city of the future designed by Walt Disney, often exchanging “city” and “community”. A project based on the experience of the future and other cultures of the world. In the first theme parks, visitors immersed themselves in the games and in the history that was taking place. Moreover, the experiential value of cultural heritage, with its emotional imprint and fruition, is emphasized through immersive and interactive technologies. In the last years, according to Burnette Stogner a visitor strolls through the exhibition as a spectator/observer, the typical passive role. In a moderately active role, the visitor participates in the narrative as a time-traveler, explorer or discoverer. In a highly active, interactive, and/or networked role, the visitor might contribute his or her own experiences or mediate information in the form of historian, archaeologist or art curator. (Burnette Stogner, 2011) Recent applications, as found in literature, make it possible to envision and design a structured and flexible knowledge process including simulation of forms of innovation and an increase in the social value of the transmission and sharing of cultural contents. A couple of remarkable best practices was designed by the Italian firm Studio Azzurro, a team of new media artists founded in 1982 in Milan by Fabio Cirifino, Paolo Rosa and Leonardo Sangiorgi. Their video art installations developing concepts that are dealing with technology to enhance art hybridization, rituals, experimentations of behaviors. The text of Verità Figure Vision (1998) is also written with the philosopher Jacques Derrida, with whom they have in common the idea of opposition to the reality of the contemporary. Some of their installations also play a fundamental role in the evolution of design. Studio Azzurro’s “sensitive environments” were judged to be an interaction mode between the observer and the object. One of them is Sensitive City, a sensitive environment, presented in Shanghai at the Italian pavilion of 2010 EXPO (Figure 4). The idea of Sensitive City refers to the great tradition of the imagined cities, from the City of the Sun by Tommaso Campanella to the Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, with the intention however that does not remain a suspended model, a literary invention, but that it is ideal only because it is not there yet, but it may be there. Studio Azzurro describes the storytelling project with these words: “When after a long journey, a traveler will arrive in Sensitive City he will have to stop, touch the first wayfarer he meets: he will be like the old” indicants “taking him by the hand and accompanying him to show him how that delicate and elusive character that connotes the city is deposited in the immateriality of its spaces, it will show him the city of wind, water, silence ... which corresponds to his memories, his desires and his dreams, following the different trajectories the traveler will discover rolled up cities to each other. It will pursue multiple paths that unfold, like so many balls thrown on the ground, creeping into cracks, in shady areas, in the variegated and wrinkled body of the city.” Syracuse, Matera, Lucca, Chioggia, Trieste ... they are different from each other and you have to turn them all, over and over again, to be able, perhaps, to tell them. The interest emerges of being able to take the idea of an anti-utopian city as a pretext to offer solicitations, elements of confrontation, to generate a vision of how a city of the near future could be configured. The installation is based on a technological set of 11 video projectors, 2 mac pro and 7 mini mac, 4 hologram projectors, 6 theatrical scenes and an interactive system. (Studio Azzurro, 2010) A second remarkable project, A Oriente Cities, Men and Gods on the Silk Roads was designed in 2011 for the Rome International Biennale of Culture as Exhibition itinerary at Baths of Diocletian (Figure 5). 375

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Figure 4. Sensitive City, Shanghai, Italian Pavillion at the EXPO 2010 which had Better City, Better Life as its theme. The spectators, not more simple visitors, touch the images that live through the screens to hear their voice. The cities reveal themselves as a world to be questioned, a paradoxical (and playful and poetic) book to browse through and from which to draw the fragments of memory without mediation. Picture source. Studio Azzurro

The common thread of the three great religions that characterized the terrestrial routes of the Silk Roads from the II century. B.C. to the XIV sec. A.D. accompanies the visitor along an articulated multimedia path that winds through the suggestive environments of the Baths of Diocletian. Through the filters of gaze, sounds, voices and gestures, the multimedia staging interprets twelve emblematic places, able to tell the complexity and the cultural and religious contamination of the Silk Roads. The wooden case, a storage system for archaeological material stored in these spaces, becomes a metaphor for travel and support for video installations, useful for staging that develops here, in time and space, between precious finds and rare pieces that they interact with wide scenarios, echoes of distant voices and stories of timeless places and characters. The installations provides an advanced technological set: 30 Video projectors, 14 interactive HD video players, 18 computers, 6 directional audio speakers, 30 passive audio speakers, 30 audio power amplifiers, 11 audio mixers, 1 sensitive carpet, 4 interactive books with RFID technology, 4 interactive feathers, 1 surface system sensitive, sensors for interaction, 2 holographic plates, 120 lights, 11 DMX. (Studio Azzurro, 2011) In order to fulfil their educational mission, the spaces of culture need to go beyond the tangible and common sensorial dimensions in order to communicate and share a heritage, understood also as a process of appropriation and as such also linked to the intangible dimension. It is in this direction that the Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (Paris, 2003) goes. It defines the in-

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Figure 5. A Oriente. Cities, Men and Gods on the Silk Roads, exhibition itinerary, Rome, Baths of Diocletian, Silk Roads exhibition, International Biennale of Culture, 2011. The multimedia staging interprets twelve emblematic places, able to tell the complexity and the cultural and religious contamination of the Silk Roads. Picture source. Studio Azzurro

tangible cultural heritage as “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage”. This immaterial cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly regenerated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and of human creativity. Learning becomes a sustainable economy, if it addresses society needs and encompasses a large and diversified number of people; learning as an expression of social well-being, approaching one’s own community, sense of identity and regeneration of memory. It is very singular the case of the Young Fund on memory and mnemonics. It is one of the richest collections of books, articles and memorabilia on the subject of memory and mnemonics today. It belongs to the library of the University of the Republic of San Marino, which bought it in 1991 from the American collector Morris N. Young. Umberto Eco reminds us that memory is “a faculty thanks to which both individuals and collectives base their identity (the forgetful does not know who it is)”. (Eco, 1998) The paper explores the role interior design as a key for setting a new way to settle environments and creating an experiential interaction. According to the Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections (Unesco, 2015), some primary functions are attributed to museums, including conservation, research, communication and education. Within the framework of UNESCO, the Recommendation underscores the importance of technologies in assisting museums in their task of educating and encouraging continuous learning. On this last aspect it is emphasized that “museums engage in formal and non-formal education and lifelong learning, through the development and transmission of knowledge, educational and pedagogical program, in partnership with other educational institutions, notably schools. Educational program in

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museums primarily contribute to educating various audiences about the subject matters of their collections and about civic life, as well as helping to raise greater awareness of the importance of preserving heritage, and fostering creativity. Museums can also provide knowledge and experiences that contribute to the understanding of related societal topics”. Technologies in museums are thus recognized as opportunities in terms of conservation, study and communication of heritage, but also of heritage and common value creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. Technologies are therefore changing the relationship between users and the utilization environment and cultural content in museums, libraries and places of learning. The environments must be imagined and transformed by also considering their virtual extension and allowing a range of customizations linked to the selection of contents. Participation and sharing mediated by the user can also create new cultural content by blazing a path to new forms of active and participatory learning. Among the cultural actions that are related to new media and their language, the creation and sharing of information and knowledge are included, as well as the accessibility to heritage through digital artefacts that represent ideas, identities and values of belonging. To these, Manovich also adds the interactive cultural experience, the opportunity to enjoy the experiences and cultural products by visitors, as well as ways to recreate the displayed objects, textual, vocal and/or visual communication and participation in a type of information that “ecologically” regenerates knowledge and its diffusion. Knowledge technologies offer multiple opportunities and challenges to cultural and scientific practitioners; the challenge of involvement and experience is not only one of technology and design, but also, and perhaps more importantly, a mental and imaginative one. In this panorama, in an increasingly multicultural society and in the age of migration, the challenges for the future are numerous; digital innovation can help overcome critical issues and introduce new methods of cultural mediation and socialization. Challenges are linked to technology transfer, digital skills practice, knowledge of national and regional heritage and the creation of efficient management models based on the opportunities of the digital universe. A sectoral study scope is that which analyzes the real and virtual, physical or digital nature of the museum: locally accessible information systems (multimedia workstations, touch screens located in the rooms of the royal museum); technological devices (iPad, smartphones, tablets, viewers, smart glasses ...); technological environments (virtual museums, apps, video games ...) that make information resources accessible via the internet in mobile mode. The technologies have changed the exhibition space within museums and places for culture learning and fruition; rooms are transformed according to a virtual amplification perspective of the paths, interaction with collections is designed according to personalization (users can select contents), participation and sharing is allowed (users can create new cultural contents and share them with other users) moving towards new forms of active and participatory learning. In this regard, Manovich has distinguished some specific cultural actions that are mediated by the new digital tools: creation, sharing of information and knowledge; creation, sharing and accessibility of digital artifacts representing aesthetic ideas and values; to the interactive cultural experience; textual, vocal and / or visual communication; participation in a sort of ecological information online. (Manovich, 2002)

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A PARTICIPATORY APPLICATION FOR THE COLA FILOTESIO MUSEUM OF AMATRICE The scientific challenge is to introduce the diverse emerging tools for the visualization of objects and shapes in the three-dimensional space creating the right framework to develop and build such complex shapes; a further challenge is to explore in depth the geometric environment with its relations, qualities, envisioning new expressions and new issues. This subject area is improving its impact into daily life and practice of designers since the introductions of several 3d printing technologies and low cost applications; so the book make possible the encounter of people that are using high-level processes for generation of 3d shapes, visualization of complex geometries and prototyping of surfaces and solids for building and product manufacturing. (Amoruso, 2016) The research project proposes to activate an innovative digitalization and dissemination laboratory in order to transfer to young people knowledge and skills to increase their cultural background and actively contribute to the realization of innovative application and digital services. The experiential design program is implemented through a plan of acquisition, data collection, production, consultation and dissemination of multimedia content and then, consequently, an itinerary of activation and experiential education. The project foresees to represent and disseminate part of the lost heritage through an immersive and interactive system aimed at the experiential involvement and dissemination of cultural contents and knowledge transfer; the application is simulated and developed at the Environmental Design and Multisensory Experience Laboratory of Politecnico di Milano introducing innovative interaction technology and sensorial perception within an immersive room (Figure 6). The project applies exploitation methodologies and techniques whose scope is the cultural heritage system understood in its cognitive, social and symbolic dimension. The disciplines of representation interact with the multiple disciplinary specializations of design, proposing the definition of interpretative models for the analysis and representation of the historical, cultural, aesthetic and environmental values of a cultural asset and its material and immaterial meaning. The valorization strategy produces advanced visualizations and informative and multimedia modeling. In addition, the experiential value, Figure 6. The immersive room at the Environmental Design and Multisensory Experience Laboratory of Politecnico di Milano. The three interactive and touch walls allow to interact with digital contents and to simulate the exhibit or the interior design of environments.

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of emotional imprint and fruition are emphasized through immersive and interactive technologies. The applications allow a structured and flexible knowledge process also to simulate the forms of innovation and increase the social value of the transmission and sharing of cultural contents. Among cultural actions that are related to new media and their language, the creation, sharing of information and knowledge but also the accessibility to heritage through digital artifacts that represent ideas, identities and values of belonging. To these Manovich also adds the interactive cultural experience, the opportunity to enjoy the experiences and cultural products by visitors and ways to recreate the exhibits, textual, vocal and / or visual communication and participation in a kind information that regenerates “ecologically” knowledge and its diffusion. (Manovich, 2002) Participatory museum (Simon, 2010) in which participatory processes are activated transform the museum into a socio-cultural platform able to connect different subjects and inform three use scenarios: the museum based on the personalization of the itinerary; the matryoshka museum based on the multilevel deepening of the contents in relation to the degree of deepening; the ludic-experiential museum, which relies on the performative dimension of the visit in which the user is called to action and not only to contemplative activity. Knowledge technologies, design techniques and tools for the image-based representation of complexity and interactive and haptic communication for the benchmark of ways of transferring the values and potential of heritage: graphic tools for territorial identity, social communication, information models, mobile applications based on graphic and immersive technologies, interactive virtual reconstructions of future and past oriented locations and habitats. Therefore contents representation inform a cognitive and exploratory investigation and orient results to a metaphorical and creative scope which is sharing a set of theories, tools and practices; these projects are developed at strategic, functional, aesthetic and formal level and applied to the enhancement of cul-

Figure 7. A participatory application for the Cola Filotesio Museum of Amatrice. The museum paradigm and the interaction media.

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Figure 8. A participatory application for the Cola Filotesio Museum of Amatrice. The installation of an immersive and interactive room.

tural heritage but also in the design of communication platforms and artifacts and in the configuration of urban locations and public spaces of high qualitative value. Finally, techniques and tools of representation and visualization will be decisive for the definition of ways of sharing and transferring the values and potentials of the asset through visual tools aimed at assessing its impact, fostering awareness, consent and participation and at the same time guaranteeing another degree of “instrumentality” and applicability to local actors through adequate and sustainable processes of involvement and training. The Amatrice Museum, razed to the ground by the 2016 earthquake, collected works from the Amatrician territory but also materials on the history of the building and on the city of Amatrice. The research project foresees to represent and disseminate part of the lost heritage through an immersive and interactive system aimed at the experiential involvement and dissemination of the Museum contents (Figure 7). The goal is to create awareness and attention on the cause of reconstruction by activating a dedicated fundraising. The installation of an immersive space with 3 interactive walls of 6 square meters each planned according to a strategy of public communication and civic participation. The user interfaces, with touch mode, but possibly expandable with eye-tracking and gesture systems, stimulate multi-sensory perceptions through the simulation of participatory scenarios inspired by the territory and the museum collections. Interactive walls enhance the conventional museum experience by making accessible masterpieces in an engaging and interactive way, integrating the display of works with infographics and allowing you to explore a cultural microcosm with the touch of your hands and the fusion of real and virtual worlds. An environment in which physical and digital objects coexist and interact in real time. People are completely

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immersed in a 3D scenario in which they can interact with natural gestures and experience the world from different points of view at the same time. Digital objects cannot replace the true masterpieces of art, but add value by allowing people to virtually explore the treasures preserved in the museum. It is also envisaged to create tactile copies that can become real doors of access to the heritage through the contents that can be connected to them (Figure 8). The dynamic contents to be explored in an immersive way are usually developed within a Unity virtual environment, a graphic engine that allows 2.5-3D views usable without glasses or wearable devices. C#, alternatively Javascript and Python, are the programming languages used for the development of scenario components. Maya is the software used for 3D modeling of objects to be imported in Unity environment. Other dynamic contents will be developed by local school and university volunteers in a sort of “open site”. The multimedia contents, developed on the various virtual reality platforms, can then possibly be displayed with augmented reality viewers (Microsoft Hololens, Epson Moverio) or other wearable augments in relation to the development of simulation-based public communication and training projects immersive in interactive environments of mixed reality, with augmented and virtual reality components. A further goal is the development of an interactive mobile cabin, intended for the collection of direct testimonies from citizens on the heritage of Amatrice, life stories, memories of the city, to be georeferenced. It is a living library project, to make oral history and democratic participation come alive. Born in Denmark in the 1980s, it is a method to promote dialogue through the understanding of social phenomena; has been recognized by the Council of Europe as a good practice for intercultural dialogue and as a tool for promoting human rights, such as the right to culture and beauty (Figure 9).

Figure 9. A participatory application for the Cola Filotesio Museum of Amatrice. The interactive mobile cabin for the living library project.

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Rather than the mere transmission of knowledge, the construction of knowledge is realized through a direct personal and social commitment. The art of memory is a practice that, following a precise system of rules, is aimed at the conservation and use of information for the benefit of civilization and citizens by associating a series of “places” and “images” to the memory. A living library works like any library: books are people in the flesh who choose their story or memory based on an aspect of their identity, their past, the place where they lived. It is no longer just the museum that tells itself but people contribute to telling the museum, regaining possession of their common heritage, their history and even the objects that were kept in the Filotesio Museum. Inside the cabin, among the features provided, there is an interactive electronic board called e-Wall (writing, drawing and painting, manipulation of images and virtual objects, etc.) including a voice recognition system that allows voice commands for the functioning of the e-REAL system, for example through the use of “formulas” to make digital objects appear. The cabin also allows the recording of vocal contributions, according to a series of topics, questions and keywords divided into thematic sections: territory, history, places, traditions, people. The initiatives for the reconstruction of the Cola Filotesio Museum will be the subject of the Watch Day promoted by the World Monument Fund in New York which, thanks to American Express, has included Amatrice and its museum among the 25 sites nominated worldwide in the Watch 2018 announcing a total loan of $ 1 million. The World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private non-profit organization Figure 10. A participatory application for the Cola Filotesio Museum of Amatrice. The AMAtrice, Roots and Territory, an interactive, sensorial and site-specific concept

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founded in New York in 1965, created to preserve historical architectural artefacts and sites of historical and cultural importance throughout the world, through fieldwork, promotion and funds for the training of local experts. The WMF has turned its attention to the Cola Filotesio Museum not only because it represents the cultural richness of Amatrice, but also in relation to the historical and identity link that the population has maintained, and maintains, with the city and its territory. The project of itinerant and widespread multimedia set-up in the course of planning and realization will be used to raise funds to promote the reconstruction of the Cola Filotesio Museum, of which only the bell tower survived, although largely compromised. It is a question of developing a model of museum, participatory museum, according to Simon, in which participatory processes are activated that transform the museum into a socio-cultural platform able to connect different subjects to each other (Figure 10).

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT Technologies are therefore changing the relationship between users and the fruition environment and cultural content in museums, libraries and learning places. The environments must be imagined and transformed considering also their virtual extension and also allowing a range of personalization linked to the selection of contents. Designers are including the innovative issue that space or interiors have to be conceived as a media and not as spaces for digital media. Lev Manovich, in The Language of New Media, argues about the purpose of this modern desire to reproduce mental processes. We can connect to the demand for standardization that characterizes the modern society of mass. Hence the objectification of inner, private mental processes, as well as their assimilation to external visual forms that can be easily manipulated, produced in large quantities and standardize separately. Internal processes and representations, not visible, have emerged from the individual sphere and carried outside in the form of drawings, photographs and other visual forms. What was hidden in the mind of the individual has become public knowledge. The same principle of hyperlinking, at the base of interactive media, makes the association process objective, often fundamental for thought human. This new type of identification is particularly suited to the information age in which we live. (Manovich, 2002) Participation and sharing also mediated by users, as spectator and then characters can create new cultural content by opening up new forms of active and participatory learning. The applications here presented allow a structured and flexible knowledge process also to simulate the forms of innovation and increase the social value of the transmission and sharing of cultural contents. Knowledge technologies offer multiple opportunities and challenges to cultural and scientific practitioners; the challenge of involvement and experience is not only technological and design, but also and perhaps above all mental, of imagination. The tradition of representation was dominated by the presence of a plane, a limited media, nowadays a digital screen. The innovation of simulation, following the address and vision by Manovich, aims at mixing and not separating physical space and virtual space. The future research direction will exploit how develop interactive environments and media for civic and cultural engagement working on the two spaces that have the same dimensional scale, their borders diminishes, and the viewer, no longer limited by the rectangular frame, is free to move within the physical space and to reproduce his mental process of learning.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work is part of an international research project that started in 2017 entitled: Regenerating Amatrice. The resilience of local identity funded by the Prince’s Charitable Trust through the INTBAU network based in London. Giuseppe Amoruso is coordinating the research addressing the methodology, designing the process contents and validating the outcomes and also edited the present essay; Polina Mironenko elaborated the illustrations about the Cola Filotesio Amatrice museum integrating multiple data sources and drafted the graphic models. Viviana Galloni designed the concept for the AMAtrice, Roots and Territory, under the supervision of Giuseppe Amoruso and Polina Mironenko. A special thanks to Studio Azzurro (Milano, www.studioazzurro.com) and Fabio Cirifino for the pictures of their installations as in the figures 4 and 5.

REFERENCES Amoruso, G. (2016). Handbook of Research on Visual Computing and Emerging Geometrical Design Tools. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Azzurro, S., Barsottini, M., Cirifino, F., Giardina Papa, E., Rosa, P., & Roveda, S. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.studioazzurro.com/index.php?com_works=&view=detail&work_id=88&option=com_ works&Itemid=22&lang=it Azzurro, S., Cirifino, F., Ligi, C., & Riva, M. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.studioazzurro.com/ index.php?com_works=&view=detail&work_id=115&option=com_works&Itemid=22&lang=it Burnette Stogner, M. (2011). The Immersive Cultural Museum Experience – Creating Context and Story with New Media Technology. The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 3(3). Retrieved from http://museum-journal.com/ Cisco Systems Inc. (2010). The Learning Society. Retrieved October 15, 2018, from Cisco Systems Inc.: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/socio-economic/docs/LearningSociety_WhitePaper.pdf Howe, N., & Strauss, W. (2006). Millennials and the pop culture: Strategies for a new generation of consumers in music, movies, television, the Internet, and video games. Great Falls, VA: LifeCourse Associates. Hutchins, R. M. (1970). The Learning Society. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. Ingildsen, P. (1998). User centred design: ideas, methods and examples. Danfoss User Centred Design Group. Manovich, L. (2002). The Language of New Media. Boston: Mit Press. Norman, D. A. (1990). The design of everyday things. New York: Doubleday. OECD. (2000). Knowledge Management in the Learning Society. OECD Publishing. Pine, B. J. II, & Gilmore, J. H. (2011). The Experience Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

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Rossman, J. R., & Duerden, M. D. (2019). Designing Experiences. Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/ ross19168 Schön, D. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Simon, N. (2010). The participatory museum. Santa Cruz: Museum 2.0. Stiglitz, J. E., & Greenwald Bruce, C. (2014). Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress. Columbia University Press. UNESCO. (2015). Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and their Role in Society. Paris: UNESCO.

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Chapter 18

Improving Occupants Comfort Through Qualitative Indoor Environments: A Case Study Dalia Hafiz Al Ghurair University, UAE

ABSTRACT Daylight is one key aspect to enhance the sense of place and influence the personal interpretation and impression that last long after leaving the place. However, visual discomfort and glare can distract architects from achieving the most of daylighting. To better achieve visual comfort in daylit space time and space dynamics of the daylight condition, the representation and re-imagining of these dynamics need to be considered. This chapter explored a selected case study that was used for application: a daylit museum located in Washington DC Metropolitan was examined for visual discomfort problems. Since museums are typically carefully lit because of the sensitivity of exhibits, this case study evaluated the daylighting condition in a museum using a series of illuminance field measurements, simulations, and views experienced by occupants along a circulation path through the space. The case study also aimed at understanding how small design changes can affect visual comfort as a tactic for case studies. A collaborative design effort was used in different stages of the case study.

INTRODUCTION Interior lighting enables us to see forms, navigate through spaces, and perform tasks. Because natural light has the highest color qualities that cannot be achieved by any artificial light, it presents the best light source to perform activities adequately and comfortably. However, daylight is dynamic; such dynamism is associated with some unwanted effects such as glare and visual discomfort, which can prevent the occupants from performing in space comfortably. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2823-5.ch018

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 Improving Occupants Comfort Through Qualitative Indoor Environments

Design decision-related visual comfort studies are critical factors in daylit buildings especially ones with acute lighting conditions like museums where adaptation is an essential aspect of comfort. This chapter primary goal was to enhance interior spaces connection through visual comfort. To achieve this goal, an evaluative decision-support tool was applied to a case study to provide designers and decision makers with scenarios where representations from the tool can improve designing through re-imagining spaces. Case study represents a principle methodology when an in-depth investigation is needed. It can be an alternative to traditional approaches to emphasize the researcher’s perspective as central to the process. Several definitions exist for the case study: Mitchell (1983) defined a case study as a “detailed examination of an event (or series of related incidents) which the analyst believes exhibits (or exhibit) the operation of some identified general theoretical principles”. Yin (1994) defined a case study as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident”. Jakubiec and Reinhart (2010) defined it as “an in-depth, multifaceted investigation using qualitative research method, of a single social phenomenon”.

BACKGROUND When it comes to evaluative process, collaborative activities are an important application, especially. In this chapter, factors of successful collaboration studied by (Mattessich and Monsey, 1992) were examined including: a shared understood goal (achieving better interior spaces connection through the enhancement of visual comfort and light transition); multiple forms of representation (in-situ and simulation-based evaluation were used); triangulation (analysis and assessment were based on a number of metrics. Also, qualitative interview analysis and qualitative statistical evaluation took place), and collaborative decisionmaking (the group of members collaborates to select the evaluation metrics and the design decisions).

Immersive Case Study Method Overview To allow for tool application, a group of purposefully selected architects and decision-makers were encouraged to apply the new tool on a selected case study space: a daylit museum located in Washington DC Metropolitan was examined for visual discomfort problems that could affect the interior spaces seamless connections. The study started by identifying primary visual discomfort zones. Illuminance and Luminance evaluation took place where high contrast was detected. Afterward, a series of design alternatives were proposed based on the initial evaluation results. For each alternative, visual comfort condition was compared with existing conditions to select an adequate alternative regarding glare controlling and visual comfort between spaces. Finally, the selected option was re-evaluated, and visual comfort conditions were compared with the as-built space conditions.

Collaborative Design Participants The members were chosen based on their background and expertise and consequently their ability to effectively understand the goals of the research and to interact with the tool. Participants with a strong background in the daylighting analysis were preferred in the collaboration; a focus group of three profes388

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sionals with daylighting analysis experience was selected. Participants immersion in the design process can be categorized into physical immersion and virtual immersion as explained in the following sections:

Physical Immersion One member (architect/ researcher) with a strong background in daylighting analysis and museums lighting was physically present in the as-built examined space and accompanied the investigator. The member was involved in the illuminance measuring process and provided opinions on the studied space in the museum; the member provided the researcher with thoughts on lighting zoning and illuminance measurements adjustments.

Virtual Immersion Two participants with a strong background in daylighting analysis and computer simulations were immersed virtually in space (one architecture professor/ researcher and one professional architect). Participants were engaged in the design process using a 3D model, building virtual tour and the investigator’s observations notes as shown in Table 1.

CASE STUDY SELECTION By Peter Zumthor “Small museums are great. Big museums are a drag” (Lange, 2014). The case study building was carefully selected while considering the following: 1-sufficient access was needed for the potential data collection, including people to be interviewed, in-situ lighting measurements, documents and records to be reviewed, 2- the selected space required to include a variety of lighting conditions and illumination levels, 3-the selected space included a variety of art materials (statues, paintings, sculptures), to requiring lighting variations, 4- to better examine the lighting quality no large exhibits were to be included in a range of lighting conditions can occur for a single artifact, 5a building with a transitional space was needed such that visual adaptation was considered. With these considerations, the researcher explored a number of the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC to find the best candidate. The candidates museums included: the Smithsonian Castle, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of American His-

Table 1. Immersive case study participants Participant Background

As Built Museum Space Immersion Method

Architecture and daylighting research, experience with museums design and lighting.

Physical

Architecture professor, daylighting research and daylighting computer simulations experience, previous research on visual comfort and daylighting analysis

Virtual

Professional architect with computer simulations knowledge, experience in museums design and lighting.

Virtual

As Built Museum Space Data Source Participants observations In-situ measurements Images Virtual tours 3D model Researcher notes and observations

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tory, National Museum of the American Indian, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Hirshhorn Museum and The National Postal Museum as shown in Figure 1

CASE STUDY DESCRIPTION-FREER GALLERY OF ART The Freer Gallery of Art primarily houses Asian art. The museum galleries have a long history of acclaimed exhibitions and present some of the most important holdings of Asian art in the world. The Freer Gallery of Art was selected for the case study. The Gallery was found to be the most suitable for this chapter purpose because 1- daylight represents the primary lighting source, 2-the Gallery exhibits a variety of artwork, therefore, lighting conditions vary significantly, and 4- the gallery has a corridor surrounding the central daylight source (the courtyard) that serves as a transition space. The Freer Gallery houses over 26,000 objects spanning 6,000 years of history from different eras. The collections include ancient Egyptian stone sculpture and wooden objects, ancient Near Eastern ceramics, Chinese paintings and ceramics, Korean pottery and porcelain, Japanese folding screens, Persian manuscripts, and Buddhist sculpture. It also contains the Peacock Room by American artist James McNeill Whistler, which serves as the centerpiece of the Freer’s American art collection (Curry, 1984 #121) as shown in Figure 2. Construction of The Freer Gallery of Art was completed in 1921. The building is an Italian Renaissancestyle building. The main construction material is granite: the exterior of the gallery is pink granite. The courtyard has a carnelian granite fountain and walls of unpolished white marble. The gallery’s interior walls are limestone, and the floors are polished marble Figure 3. In terms of lighting categorization the building as six zones: Zone 1; The Peacock room which is the darkest place in the gallery (0.8-3FC), Zone 2 and 3 carry oil paintings (2-10 FC), Zone 4: the corridor transitional space separating the courtyard from the galleries (3-30 FC), and zone5: holds old Chinese writings and books (1.2-4.5 FC), and zone 6: courtyard (70-400 FC) as shown in Figure 4. The visual comfort of the passageway “transitional space” connecting multiple gallery spaces and the courtyard was examined.

Transitional Space Examination From the researcher’s observation of the visitors’ circulations in the museum, one main circulation path was considered for visual comfort condition: the passageway connecting the Peacock Room (zone1) and the courtyard (zone6).

The Peacock Room The Peacock room is one of the museum’s famous exhibitions that has captivated visitors. The room is James McNeill Whistler’s masterpiece of interior decorative mural art. The room was painted between 1876 and 1877 and is considered one of the greatest surviving gorgeous interiors representing the Anglo-Japanese style. The room was originally designed as a dining room in a townhouse in London, UK. The ceiling was constructed in a pendant paneled, and decorated with eight globed pendant gas light fixtures. Freer purchased the entire room in 1904 and installed it in his house. After Freer death in

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1919, the Peacock Room was permanently installed in the Freer Gallery and was opened to the public in 1923(Merrill, 1998) as shown in Figure 5. The room was initially installed in the Freer Gallery to allow for daylight; the shutters were always open to admit the light of day. However, bright Washington sunshine conflicted with the electric glare from the pendant lamps. Also, Washington daylight had a further harmful effect on the room. Additionally, recent room renovations failed to match the original shade of blue and bright daylight made such failure more noticeable (Merrill, 1998). To protect the place from daylight damage and to add some romance to the room the shutters were closed, and the lamps were dull. It was argued that the room was intended to be a dining room, occupied at night and artificially lit as shown in Figure 6. However, Dimming the light in the Peacock room created high contrast between the room and the rest of the Gallery and created adaptation problems entering and exiting the room.

Transitional Corridor Passageway The corridor is the building’s main and only circulation path that connects all the gallery’s elements. It separates the central courtyard from the different galleries as shown in Figure 7.

Courtyard When the Peacock room was first installed in the gallery live peacocks were imported into to the Freer Gallery courtyard. When the museum was first open the courtyard was intended to be a place for quiet introspection. The museum was constructed before climate control technologies were invented, large glass doors and windows were initially installed to allow air and light to enter the galleries. Layers of green vegetation surround the courtyard, and the fountain is centralizing the space. With technology and concerns about preserving the exhibits, the yard was closed off to prevent humidity and temperature than can damage works of art (System, 2012) as shown in Figure 8.

Simulation Points Placement Simulation points were intended to be placed at the eye level every one second on the circulation path to capture glare and discomfort that might occur on the circulation path as discussed in the following sections:

Simulation Points Horizontal Placement The average speed of adults walking would vary according to their purpose, age, and gender. However, no significant differences were found between pedestrians age and gender (difference ranged from 0.32 and 0.42 second) (TranSafety, 1997). The average pedestrian speed was used in the study and was equal to 4.5 ft/sec.

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Simulation Points Vertical Placement The average female height varied from the average male and children heights. A study by Openshaw and Taylor (2006) examined the standing eye-level height of men and women, the average height was used in this study at 5.5 ft. Based on the above information simulation points were placed horizontally along the circulation path at (4.5ft) and vertically at equal (5.5ft) segments in the 3D-model generated for the building as shown in Figure 9 and Figure 10.

IMMERSIVE COLLABORATIVE PROCESS To implement the immersive case study a set steps were followed including 1) contacting the museum management to obtain a permission to run the study, 2) introducing the participants to the tool, its objectives and goals, 3) explaining the immersive case study process, 4) space examination,5)in-situ data collection, 6)3D model set-up, 7) as-built case study analysis and evaluation, 8) evaluation decisionmaking 9) design alternatives proposition, 10) alternatives evaluation and comparisons and 11)- Finally the researcher observations and notes coding and analysis to obtain the final conclusions as shown in Figure 11 and explained in the following sections:

Contacts and Permissions As a first step in implementing the study the researcher contacted the museum director and the Smithsonian museums lighting designer. The researcher was able to obtain permission to run the study. However some permission restrictions had to be discussed with the museum director including prohibited use of camera flash, camera tripod or monopod, maintain continues circulation in the building whenever visitors are present, and prohibited use of any marks or tapes on the walls or floors. The researcher had to get direct authorization from the museum director to use a tripod. The researcher was authorized to use a tripod but must be at least 4 feet away from all artwork; the researcher was required to remain with the tripod at all times.

Participants Introduction to the Tool The participants were introduced to the tool through a presentation where the tool framework, applied indexes, tool main objectives and goals were explained. Participants were encouraged to ask questions to increase their understanding of the tool, consequently improving their feedbacks values.

Explaining the Immersive Case Study Process The researcher explained the immersive case study process and main goals. She also clarified the immersion methods (virtual and physical). Participants anticipated collaborative role in the process was explained with their feedback role for concluded results triangulation. The researcher explained the building selection process and the immersive case study for data triangulation.

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As-Built Space Examination Upon obtaining the permission, the researcher examined the museum space and put several possible scenarios for the case study process; the researcher proposed examined spaces and data collection methods. The participants collaborated to make the final decision selecting the space for visual comfort evaluation and the circulation path.

In-Situ Data Collection The researcher made the selection of the appropriate luminance and illuminance measuring tools and techniques. The participants gave feedback on the selected tools and technology. The researcher recorded the participants notes on the measurements process. Finally, the researcher took the in-situ measurements according to the researcher initial guidelines, participants feedback and recorded notes.

3D-Model set-up The researcher generated the 3D model and justified it (as discussed in Chapter 4). She identified the building materials and proposed the 3D model level of details. The participants gave feedbacks on the material properties, the model details. Also, the simulation sky condition was discussed to best simulate existing conditions.

Case Study Analysis and Evaluation The evaluation phase of the case study aimed at understanding how designers decision-making process may be improved by representing glare and visual discomfort conditions that may occur in a daylit space using the prototype tool. When it comes to design decisions related to visual comfort, there are many aspects involved including visual adaptation, glare, light distribution, direction, room surface reflectances, user preference, and task requirements. In this research, three main aspects were examined: decisionrelated to contrast and quality of light, glare and the amount of light as shown in Figure 12. Regarding light measurements, the indexes were categorized into 1- illuminance based: which are based on the simulation illuminance value at each stationary point on the path and 2-luminance based: which are based on the visualization images. Research on daylighting metrics developments and digital High Dynamic Range photography techniques suggested that luminance based lighting controls have the potential to provide occupant satisfaction and energy saving improvements over traditional illuminance based lighting controls. However, there is no full agreement on illuminance limit values (Yin, 2011). Consequently, the chosen luminance and illuminance metrics with associated thresholds were used in the evaluation process as shown in Table 2 and discussed in details in the following sections:

Visual Comfort Evaluation Metrics Argument Because the literature found that no single metric could adequately address all the factors involved in a successful daylighting system (Jakubiec and Reinhart, 2010, Bellia et al., Yin, 2011); and because most of the indices examined in previous research are devoted to predicting firstly glare, secondly the amount of

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Table 2. Luminance and illuminance metrics Visual Comfort Aspect The Amount of Light

Quality of Light and Contrast

Visual Comfort Index Useful daylight illuminance (UDI)

Luminance/ Illuminance Based Index Illuminance based index

Luminance Ratio

Daylight Glare Probability (DGP) Glare Problems Daylight Glare Index(DGI)

Luminance based metrics

Description

Threshold/Guidelines

ensures that all the simulation points illuminance are within the appropriate limits (Yin, 2008).

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About the Contributors

Luciano Crespi is an architect, professor of Technological Culture of Design at the School of Architecture, Politecnico di Milano, from 1993. Full professor of Design at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, since 2000 to 2017, President of Interior Design Study Course, Politecnico di Milano, since 2009 to 2015. Member of PhD Faculty board of Design, until 2017, codirector of Post Graduate International Master in “Design of Public Spaces”, Politecnico di Milano, codirector of Postgraduate Master in “Exhibition Design”, Politecnico di Milano. Member of Managing Board of Società Italiana del Design until 2015. Curator of Exhibition Marco Zanuso Architect, Triennale di Milano, 1999. He was involved, with Fabio Reinhart, in the Venice Biennale, section “Città di pietra”, 2006. Co-curator of Research Seminar “Marco Zanuso architettura e design”, Milano 2018 Recent Publications: Crespi, L. (2019), Interno, esterno, mentale. Il paesaggio nell’opera di Zanuso, in Crespi, L., Viati A., Tedeschi, L. (ed.), Marco Zanuso: architettura e design, Academy Press, Mendrisio; Crespi, L. (2019). Leftovers, in Brooker, G., Harris H., Walker, K. (ed.), Interior Futures, Crucible press, USA; Crespi, L. (2018), Manifesto del Design del non-finito, Postmedia Books, Milano; Crespi, L. and others (2017). Designing Remains, in INTBAU Conference Proceding, Springer, Berlin; Crespi, L. (2017). Estetica dell’avanzo, in Anzani, A., Guglielmi, E. (ed.), Memoria, bellezza e transdisciplinarità, Maggioli, Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna. *** Giuseppe Amoruso is a Professor of Drawing at Politecnico di Milano, School of Design. His primary research interests are in drawing, design for cultural heritage, documentation of architecture and conservation areas (in which he obtained his PhD), and applied arts. He is a researcher and practitioner with a MSc in Architectural Engineering. He has served as an Invited reviewer and Guest Editor for several journals, including the DPArquitectura magazine and the Journal of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering (David Publishing, USA). He is member of the International College of Traditional Practictioner (International Network for Traditional Building Architecture & Urbanism London – Patron HRH The Prince of Wales) and Chair of the INTBAU ITALIA charity, where he developed several international academic programs. He has published 8 books, and over 80 journal and conference papers. Anna Anzani, MPhil, PhD, Associate Professor in the Design department at Politecnico di Milano, co-author of 115 scientific contributions. Her research activity, strongly connected with the didactic experience, deals with the reuse intervention on historical assets, its complexity and its psychological and anthropological implications. She is interested in the relationships between material and immaterial  

About the Contributors

aspects, design and artistic creativity, preservation of memory and beauty in an ecological and transdisciplinary perspective. Among her publications: Anzani A., Caramel C. (2019). The Liberty network in Varese province: strategies for its knowledge and enhancement. In G. Amoruso, R. Salerno (Eds.), Cultural Landscape in Practice. Conservation vs. Emergencies, (pp. 89-100). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature; Anzani A., Caramel C., Lonardo E. (2019). Hybridization and reuse of existing buildings. In F. Scullica, E. Elgani (Eds.), Living, Working and Travelling: New Processes of Hybridization for the Spaces of Hospitality and Work, (pp. 139-148). Milano, Italy: Franco Angeli; Anzani A., Guglielmi E. (Eds.) (2017), Memoria, Bellezza e Transdisciplinarità - riflessioni sull’attualità di Roberto Pane. Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy: Maggioli Editore; Crespi L., Anzani A., Caramel C., Crippa D., Di Prete B., Lonardo E. (2017). Designing remains. In G. Amoruso (Ed.), Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design. (pp. 1473-1482). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. Suzie Attiwill is Associate Dean Interior Design in the School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University, Melbourne. Since 1991, her practice has involved exhibition design, curatorial work, writing and teaching. Projects pose questions of interior and interiority in relation to contemporary conditions of living, inhabitation, subjectivity and pedagogy.Qualifications include practice-research PhD and Master degree, Bachelor Hons Interior Design and Bachelor Hons Art History. Manlio Brusatin (1943) graduated with Carlo Scarpa’s mentorship at IUAV Architecture University of Venice (1970). He taught at the Department of Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and at the Faculty of Design of the Polytechnic University of Milan. He cooperated in the opening of the Design Course at the School of Architecture of Alghero (Sardinia). He has worked in various exhibitions of the Venice Biennale for the Arts, Architecture and Theatre. Brusatin has an international experience in the field of Colour, a theme to which he dedicated various pieces of writing and a trilogy. He also participated as a lecturer to conferences, lessons and seminars in museums, foundations and universities. Mário Caeiro is a lecturer, a cultural programmer, a curator and a researcher in the field of urban culture and public art. He is the author of Arte da Cidade – História Contemporânea [Art in the City – Contemporary History], published in 2014. He is active since 1995 as an independent curator interested in transdisciplinarity, rhetorics, public space and the city. His first best-known projects are Lisboa, Capital do Nada – Marvila 2001 [Lisbon, Capital of Nothing – Marvila 2001] (2001-2002) and Luzboa – Bienal Internacional da Luz [Luzboa – International Biennale on the Theme of Light] (2004/2006). The Project VICENTE for Projecto Travessa da Ermida in Lisbon (2011-2018) and the Light Festival BELLA SKYWAY happening in Toruń, Poland, since 2009, are other aspects of his career, which alongside with independent exhibitions extends to work in Graphic Design and as an editor. Mário Caeiro holds a PhD in Visual Arts and Intermedia by Universidade Politecnica de Valencia (Spain), with a thesis about the rhetorics of art in the city. Caeiro is a Communication Designer (ESBAL), also graduated in Comparative Literary Studies. Holds a Master in German Studies (FCSH-UNL) and a Post-Graduation in Urban Design (CPD/FBAUL/Universidade de Barcelona). Was awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2005. Teaching at ESAD.CR/IPL (Portugal) since 2004, he lives in Caldas da Rainha. Mário Caeiro is a researcher at LIDA (Laboratório de Investigação em Design e Artes – IPL|ESAD.CR) and CECC (Centro de Estudos em Comunicação e Cultura – FCH|UCP).

453

About the Contributors

Claudia Caramel is an architect and a PhD in Design. After graduating, she carried out the professional activity and some university collaborations within courses related to Restoration and Interior Design. Currently, she is an adjunct professor of “Design and Restoration” at Politecnico di Milano in the School of Design. With Anna Anzani, she is carrying out research in which architectural, artistic, anthropological and social interests converge in the common goal of enhancing the beauty of less known cultural heritage and return it to the experience of everyday life. Among her publications: Anzani A., Caramel C. (2019). The Liberty network in Varese province: strategies for its knowledge and enhancement. In G. Amoruso, R. Salerno (Eds.), Cultural Landscape in Practice. Conservation vs. Emergencies, (pp. 89-100). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature; Anzani A., Caramel C., Lonardo E. (2019). Hybridization and reuse of existing buildings. In F. Scullica, E. Elgani (Eds.), Living, Working and Travelling: New Processes of Hybridization for the Spaces of Hospitality and Work, (pp. 139-148). Milano, Italy: Franco Angeli; Caramel C. (2017), Contro la rassegnazione. In A. Anzani, E. Guglielmi (Eds.) (2017), Memoria, Bellezza e Transdisciplinarità - riflessioni sull’attualità di Roberto Pane. Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy: Maggioli Editore; Crespi L., Anzani A., Caramel C., Crippa D., Di Prete B., Lonardo E. (2017). Designing remains. In G. Amoruso (Ed.), Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design. (pp. 1473-1482). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. Monica Coralli works since about ten years on urban transformations. Her researches are concern with the main french speaking african urban area and the foreign-born urban models. Lecturer in Cultural heritage at Gaston Berger University of Saint-Louis (Senegal) from 2016 to 2018, Monica Coralli is researcher at the UMR 7218 LAVUE / CNRS (Laboratoire Architecture/Anthropologie) and independent consultant. She worked both on urban issues and housing policy and preserving cultural heritage. Giulia Crespi graduated cum laude in History of Contemporary Art at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice with a final dissertation about the presence of Spain at the Venice Biennale in the last 40 years. She is currently working for the Archivio Emilio Isgrò in Milan where she studies and researches the work of Emilio Isgrò, one of the most renowned figure of Italian Neo Vanguards. Davide Crippa, architect and designer by educational background and by choice. He graduated in 2002 and successively follows a PhD in Interior Architecture and Design in 2007; in the meantime he had the ultimate luck to spend time with the masters of Italian design, allowing him to complete his training with an interdisciplinary view. Since 2007 he has been teaching at the Politecnico di Milano and at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (“New Academy of Fine Arts” - NABA) in Milan. Member of ADI and responsible for the designer commission until 2012, and Research Fellow at the Politecnico di Milano, he writes articles and publishes books on the theory and criticism of the project, always projecting his attention towards ever changing scenarios. In 2004 he founded the Ghigos studio and since then he has carried out an extensive research; he has designed exhibitions, installations and carried out numerous projects, from exhibit design to graphics, and from design to architecture, which have been awarded prizes in international competitions, and have been exhibited in prestigious museums (including Maxxi, MoMA, Expo2015, Triennale di Milano, and Venice Biennale). He is currently investigating the potentials of interaction design and new digital fabrication technologies. Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun, (Ph.D.) is an assistant professor of Design and Innovation at the University of Portland, Pamplin School of Business. Her primary research interests are in the impact of 454

About the Contributors

design in businesses, the use of design as an instrument to promote innovation, and the role of design in the society. She has worked with the industry, government, and academic institutions to discuss the role, value, and impact of design. Her current job appointment in the business school is leading her to develop courses that allow students to gain a comprehensive understanding of the social-environmental, economic, and political challenges faced by contemporary organizations in the 21st century. These new courses address essential questions of human concern through disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary studies of arts, science, and humanities. David Dernie is Director of Architecture, CUHK. Barbara Di Prete is a researcher at the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano. With the DHoC (Design for Hospitable City) group she pursues the dissolution of traditional disciplinary boundaries and investigates - in the perspective of increasingly narrative environments- the relational and emotional aspects of projects. She writes articles, publishes books and participates in conferences comparing the role and opportunities of design projects in contemporary scenery, ranging from interior design to urban design; two contiguous fields in terms of semantic values, anthropological implications and design practices. From 2015 she coordinates the master in Urban Interior Design (MUID) at the Politecnico di Milano, promoted by POLI.Design in collaboration with the Escuela Politécnica Superior Universidad CEU San Pablo in Madrid. Madalena Folgado (1980) holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Faculty of Architecture and Arts of Lusíada University of Lisbon. Since 2014, she has been a collaborative researcher of the Centre for Research in Planning, Architecture and Design (CITAD) partaking in the Research Group in Theory, History, and Contemporary Interdisciplinary Thinking, in The Heritage Observatory research project, as well as in the Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão Research Centre, by authoring several essays, articles and delivering lectures. She has been focused on presenting a complementary anachronistic and phenomenological approach informed by architectural experience and contemporary artistic practices. Ervin Garip received his undergraduate degree (2000) and his masters degree (2003) in “Architecture” at Istanbul Technical University. In 2009, he completed his doctoral studies in “Architectural Design” program of the same university. During his Ph.D. studies, he served as a visiting scholar in North Carolina State University College of Design (2009). His works have been awarded, exhibited and published by national and international institutions. He currently teaches at the Department of Interior Architecture at Istanbul Technical University as an Associate Professor and works on projects with 1+1 Design Team in Istanbul. He has studies on interior design, urban design, space syntax, wayfinding and orientation, and environmental psychology. Seniye Banu Garip is an architect currently holding a PhD degree (2010) in “Architectural Design” from the Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University. She got her BSc degree (2000), and MSc degree (2003) in “Architectural Design” from ITU. She worked as a visiting scholar at North Carolina State University College of Design, USA in 2009. Her projects have been awarded, exhibited and published by several institutions. Presently she is continuing her professional work at Istanbul Technical University Department of Interior Architecture as an Associate Professor, contributing to design and

455

About the Contributors

projects of 1+1. Her studies mostly focus on interior design, urban design, exhibition design, environmental psychology, and housing studies. Dalia Hafiz is an architect, academic, researcher, and phenomenologist who has a passion for environmental design and architecture, she received her Ph.D. and master’s degree from the school of Architecture and Design (A+D), Virginia Tech. She received her in Architecture from the same school. She was recognized as the best design research student by the School Of Architecture and Design in Virginia Tech twice. Also, she was awarded the Richard Kelly Grant for lighting research excellence in 2015. She taught and helped teaching various courses in both architecture and interior design fields in several universities in the US, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Dr. Hafiz has several research interests including exploring ways to enhancing the relationship between the education and practice of architecture; daylighting dynamism and visual discomfort; Glare effect in low-vision conditions; space making and city planning in the autonomous technology; and architecture conceptualization through the design process. Ico Migliore is an Italian architect and co-founder of the Milan based firm Migliore + Servetto Architects with Mara Servetto. The studio has developed international design projects and installations for some of the most important museums, institutions and brands and was awarded eleven Red Dot Design Awards (Ger), three Compasso d’Oro ADI prizes (Ita), two German Design Awards (Ger) and two FX Interior Design Awards (UK). He is Professor at the Politecnico di Milano and he is Chair Professor of the College of Design at the Dongseo University (DSU) in Busan (South Korea). Polina Mironenko is a research fellow at the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano. Francesca Murialdo is an architect and a PhD in Interior Architecture and Exhibition Design. In the past 10 years she’s been running her own practice and working as Adjunct Professor at the School of Design, Politecnico di Milano. From 2015 she is Programme Leader in Interior Architecture at Middlesex University in London. Her interests focus on the scale, and physical connections between spaces, people and objects, underlining emerging behaviours and strategies. Nilufer Saglar Onay is an architect and academician in the field of architecture and interior design. She got her B.Sc.(1999) in Architecture, M.Sc. (2001) and PhD(2010) in Architectural Design. She has been a visiting scholar at SUPSI, Switzerland in 2008, at UNIFI, Florence in 2010- 2011, at POLIMI, Milan and POLITO, Turin from 2015 until present. She started her professional academic career in Istanbul Technical University in 2004 as a research assistant and got the title of associate professor in 2015. She has contributed to several architectural projects and restoration projects in Istanbul. She has numerous national and international publications including journal articles, books, book chapters and conference papers. Her main research areas are public interior spaces, spatial evaluation models, residential architecture and adaptive re-use.

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Index

A abandoned buildings 405, 412, 415, 418-419 aerial perspective 312 Aesthetic of Interaction 200, 206 Aesthetic of Simulation 199, 206 Albini 18-20, 158, 265 Amatrice 367, 379-385 anti-biographies 17 Architecture of Communication 273, 283 Architecture Where It Rains Inside 283 Arte Povera 35, 198, 206

B beauty 19, 23, 68, 72, 74, 76, 79-81, 136, 180, 224, 227, 250-251, 316-317, 323, 382, 407-408, 417-418 best practices 375, 406, 413, 417, 419 Bouroullec 33-36 Brand 157, 162-163, 165, 167, 169, 175-178, 180, 183-188, 219, 246, 270 Brunelleschi 311-312, 316

C Castiglioni 22-24, 40, 147, 267 Character 5, 10-12, 15-16, 19, 25, 29, 34, 41, 50, 57, 70, 72, 77, 80, 90, 94, 124, 134, 144-145, 148, 154, 158-159, 165, 173-174, 187, 200, 212, 219, 221, 225, 229, 262, 288, 355-356, 358, 363, 367368, 375, 407, 411, 413, 419 Civic Life 209, 215, 225, 378 Cola Filotesio 367, 379-385 Colour 3, 10, 18-22, 25-27, 29-30, 34-35, 40, 47, 62, 85-99, 101-102, 144, 198, 201, 203, 227-229, 239, 254, 268, 355 Comprehensive Design Services/Practices 353 Consume-Centred 163, 173 consumer journey 177-178

Consumer-Centred 163, 173 Curation 253 Cyprus Buffer Zone 405, 415, 417

D Dematerialisation 237, 241, 257, 337 design approach 137-139, 146-147, 176, 263, 284, 290, 293, 302, 414, 417 Design concept 2, 16, 311, 407 Design Matrix 292, 305 Design Model 284-285, 287, 290-291, 293, 302-303, 305 Design Parameter 305 design strategies 1, 63, 144 Disciplinary/Discipline 353

E Environmental Art 195, 207, 317 ethology 65 Expanded Frame 283 experience economy 161, 174-175, 370 Experiential 68, 88, 130, 134, 155, 165, 175, 187-188, 249, 353, 367-370, 375, 377, 379, 381 Experiential design 367-368, 370, 379 experimentation 39, 41, 60, 63, 65, 145, 148, 155, 160, 169-170, 180, 222-223, 243, 248-250, 260, 265, 320, 351, 365, 370 Expert System 290, 292-297, 305

F Flexible Interior Design 290 Flexible Interior Space 305 Fragilism 153 Fujimoto 3-4, 6-7 Funfair Museum 259, 264-265, 268-269  

Index

G

K

Gecekondu 285-286, 288-289, 306 Genetic Algorithm 295 Genius Loci 10-12, 72, 325, 353

Kim Ki-duk 357, 362, 364 Kurosawa 355-358, 360-363

H Heritage 68-69, 73-74, 78-79, 104, 115-116, 121, 123, 147, 217, 274, 278, 315, 320, 323-326, 351, 353, 367-371, 374-379, 381-383, 411, 419 Hospitality 63, 130, 134, 137, 139, 165, 182, 247, 289, 419

I Identity 2, 13, 15-16, 29, 40-41, 59-60, 62-63, 68, 7273, 77, 81, 105, 107, 111, 113, 117, 121, 130-135, 137, 140, 148, 153, 159, 176-177, 179-180, 183, 188, 197, 217, 221, 241, 249, 259, 261, 263, 266267, 278, 285, 362-365, 377, 380, 383-385, 411 Imaginary 3, 19, 47, 50, 90, 92, 96, 105, 144, 153, 312 Immersive Environment 193, 207 In-Lusion 146, 153 Innovation 51, 131, 154, 160, 170, 181, 186-187, 210211, 215, 221, 225, 241, 249-250, 253, 255, 257, 263, 273, 277-278, 316, 337, 351, 353, 370-371, 374-375, 378, 380, 384, 406, 408, 413, 419 Intangible Cultural Heritage 376 interaction design 200, 242-243, 249 Interactions 62, 91, 117, 121, 174, 176-178, 181, 205, 248-249, 263, 283, 329 Interactive Multimedia 259 Interior Architecture 21, 60-61, 96, 132, 134, 154, 287, 409 Interior Design 1-2, 4, 7, 15-17, 23, 25, 29-30, 47, 51, 58-64, 68-69, 72, 76-77, 104, 130, 132, 134, 139, 142-143, 148, 158, 169, 181, 246, 259, 262, 265, 274, 280, 283-285, 287, 290-291, 300-303, 315, 319-321, 323, 325-326, 333-334, 351, 368, 371, 374, 377, 379, 407-408, 414-415, 417, 419 Interiority 59-65, 321-322, 353 Interiors 1-2, 19, 21, 23, 29-30, 45-46, 48, 58, 60-65, 85, 88, 90-95, 130-136, 143, 145, 148-149, 154, 157, 159, 174, 197, 210, 253, 259, 271, 273, 285, 288, 290-291, 293, 295, 297, 302-303, 308-310, 317, 364, 367-368, 370, 372, 374, 384, 390, 406, 410, 414 International Federation of Interior Architects/ Designers 60

458

L La Pietra 36-42, 135, 144 land-art 192, 207, 251 language of realization 313 Layout 5, 9, 11, 15, 22, 26, 57, 158-159, 182, 186, 264, 288, 290-291, 294, 296-297, 346 Learning Society 367-369 Leftovers 77, 405-406, 408-409, 413-419 Leonardiana 277-280 Leonardo Da Vinci 252, 278, 312, 316

M Mark Pimlott 59, 63 Mass-Customization 290, 293, 306 Master Plan 57 materials 2-3, 5, 25-27, 30, 35, 42-43, 46, 48, 70, 74, 78-80, 88-92, 96, 104, 111-112, 118, 131, 138139, 143-144, 159, 170-171, 185, 188, 191, 193, 195, 198, 206-207, 212, 216, 243-244, 260, 264, 268, 270-271, 277, 298, 325, 330, 337, 339-340, 355, 358, 360-361, 364-365, 381, 389, 393, 395, 406-409, 411, 413 Meeting 2, 33, 43, 61, 69, 79, 117, 123, 133, 163, 176, 239, 273, 283, 333-334, 339, 341, 346, 356, 414 memory 27, 33, 39, 41, 47, 50, 63, 68-69, 73-74, 7679, 81, 89, 105, 111, 114-116, 120-121, 138, 144, 195-197, 219-220, 240, 249, 272, 309, 331-332, 360, 370, 376-377, 383, 406, 414-419 Mendini 20, 22, 27-28, 30-32, 132, 144 Metaphor 4-5, 21, 46, 57, 72, 105, 113, 146, 209, 212, 238, 244, 251, 312, 356, 365, 376 minimal art 192, 198, 207 Mirroring Effect 283 Modular Design 290, 292, 306 Multidisciplinary 81, 174, 177, 315-316, 353, 406 Multi-Layered Exhibition 283 Multimodality 276 Multi-parameter Layout 290 Museum Pathway 267 Museums 19, 40, 113, 156-157, 192, 209, 249, 252253, 264-266, 268-270, 273-275, 374, 378, 384, 387-389, 392, 396, 407

Index

N Nail-in-The-Wall Museum 259, 264-265, 268-269 Narration 79, 153, 259, 261-262, 268, 272-273, 278279, 358, 365, 406, 414 narrative environment 264 Narrative Museum 259, 264, 269-270, 273 New Media Art 199, 206-207 new technologies 122, 160, 165, 199-200, 239, 247, 273, 277, 370, 372-374

P perception 16, 62, 69-72, 77, 79, 86, 89-91, 101, 117, 132, 134-135, 143, 146-148, 155, 161, 168, 185, 187-188, 191-193, 195-196, 198, 200-201, 203, 238, 240, 242, 244, 260, 268, 308, 324, 364, 367-368, 379, 402 Phenomenology 16, 62, 171 Place Identity 72, 77 Politecnico di Milano 61, 139, 142-143, 250-251, 315, 319, 323, 325, 333, 379 Polyphonic Project 259, 271, 273, 280 Ponti 24-27, 29, 40, 147 Project Theme 57 protection 73-75, 118, 130, 138, 260-261, 376-377 Public Art 109, 117, 144, 200, 208, 210, 222, 224 Public Space 36, 40-41, 59, 104-109, 112-113, 117, 123, 125, 138-140, 143-144, 146, 165, 208, 214215, 217, 219, 223, 414

R Ready-Made 22-23, 196, 207, 214 Recognition 7, 31, 77, 80, 89, 130-131, 134, 153, 185, 264, 322, 383 Relational Architecture 147, 200, 207 Relational dimension 130, 140, 155 responsive spaces 241 Retail Design 155, 158, 160, 169-170, 174, 179, 188 reuse 68, 73-74, 138-139, 406, 408-409, 414 Richard Sennett 59, 63

S

Shashi Caan 62 Shopping 39, 43, 63, 74, 133, 154-155, 157-158, 160, 163, 165, 168-169, 183, 216, 416 Site-Specific 192, 194, 197, 207, 383, 419 Situation 15, 37, 44, 59, 65, 101, 136, 144, 153, 187, 198, 214, 226, 237, 246, 257, 301, 317, 342, 355, 361-362, 365, 408, 416, 418 Situationists 64, 122 Sociability 79, 112, 146, 196 Sottsass 19-22 Soul of Places 13, 74 Space(s) for Goods 173 Spatial Editing 267, 270, 283 Spatial Potentials 306 Spatial Solution 300, 306 Spectacularization 148, 153, 407 Starck 30-33 Steven Holl 3, 5, 8-12 Store 23, 123, 155, 157-159, 162-164, 171, 178, 184186, 220, 247, 371 Strategy 16-17, 43, 48, 61, 136-137, 139, 146, 153-154, 156-157, 168-169, 179, 211, 226, 239, 258, 357, 374, 379, 381, 396, 407, 412

T Transdisciplinary 175, 211, 316, 353

U Urban Art 209-210, 220, 223-224 Urban Form 208, 211, 222, 225-226, 322 Urban Moments 209-210, 212, 225 Urbanity 59, 63, 224

V virtual reality 168, 206, 254, 308-309, 311-312, 382 Visual Comfort 387-388, 390, 393-397, 399, 403

W Walter Benjamin 62, 227, 321-322

Sharing 13, 64, 123, 130-134, 138, 140, 143, 179, 208, 212, 223, 238-239, 273, 278, 289, 368-370, 372, 375, 378, 380-381, 384

459