MOSTRA d'OLTREMARE

This volume collects design proposals from 43 groups representing various universities, submitted for the Call for Projects launched in Naples in May 2024. The theme, focusing on the upper boundary of the Mostra d’Oltremare urban system and stemming from the archaeological remains on Via Terracina, has enabled the expansion of research into urban archaeology. The three focal areas are: the Roman baths, serving as a connector between the Polytechnic and the architecture of the Mostra; the Esedra Fountain, envisioned as a new northern entrance; and the boundary wall, reinterpreted as urban infrastructure. This publication represents the final step in a process that began with the selection of the project site and progressed through site visits, exhibitions, and debates, culminating in this scientific work. It is organized into three sections: the first consists of essays describing the site context; the second presents the projects from both theoretical and applied perspectives, outlining a wide range of interpretations; and the third collects critical analyses, fostering a comparison between different design approaches, broadening research themes, and constructing future scenarios for the city of Naples.

UnionIsland

This book is part of a series of reports included in the PIU collection, as well as published in other volumes and journals, documenting the work of the Integrated Urban Design Laboratory within the Master’s Degree in Architecture at the University of Udine. Contributions from faculty and students are complemented by essays from other authors who have provided expertise on specific aspects regarding floating structures, lagoon foundations, and landscape and naturalistic features within the course itself. UnionIsland might appear to be a utopia, and in a sense, it is, but it is certainly not a dystopian idea. The project stands on the threshold between feasibility and infeasibility, a condition dictated more by its Italian location (specifically within the Venice Lagoon) than by general constraints. This also applies to certain architectural details, particularly the floating sections, which would be easily realizable in many other locations. The project is aimed at teaching, research, debate, and the vision of a city composed of self-sufficient parts. It seeks to reassemble the degraded and neglected mosaic of contemporary cities and suburbs, which have suffered influences poorly coordinated with their historical evolution and are currently incapable of restoring an overall form to settlements. Here, urban form is sought through the concept of a manifold city of slow formation, where the parts relate to the whole through transport systems oriented toward the development and redesign of the settlement system in its entirety. In the background loom the critical themes of climate change and the rediscovery of a harmonious dimension between the city and the natural environment, with four-fifths of the settlement envisioned on stilts or floating buildings.