OLTRE IL MURO Growth, development and value of the former Paolo Pini Psychiatric Hospital [by Francesco Covelli, Elisabetta Martelli, July 2014]
Set within the former Paolo Pini Psychiatric Hospital in Milan, the project focuses on the shared ground that connects the many activities now inhabiting the site. Conceived as a collective and open park, this common space becomes the key element through which social, cultural, and spatial relationships are strengthened. The proposal works to dissolve physical and symbolic boundaries, weaving new connections between the interior of the complex and the surrounding city, and redefining the site as an active, inclusive landscape for the wider community.
Set within the transnational territory of Venezia Giulia, shared by Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia, the project addresses landscapes marked by unresolved ethnic conflict. Rather than preserving memory as a static record, the thesis proposes its re-activation through architecture, engaging traces embedded in soil and geography. The work confronts forms of removal and silence surrounding traumatic histories, using spatial interventions to reopen processes of collective recollection and reinterpretation.
Ritorno all’AgriCultura Return to AgriCulture: Revitalizing an Abandoned Farmstead in the Iblei Mountains [by Carla Monaco, 2014]
Set within the rural landscape of the Iblei Mountains in Sicily, the project addresses the progressive abandonment of agricultural land and traditional farming structures. Through the recovery of an abandoned masseria, the thesis explores a contemporary reinterpretation of agriculture as a cultural, social, and productive system. The proposal combines architectural restoration with agricultural reuse, focusing on sustainability, local identity, and culinary heritage, and positions rural regeneration as an active tool for reconnecting landscape, memory, and everyday life.
MUSEUM IN AN AGE OF MIGRATIONS, OSLO KHM [Rachele Albini, December 2013]
The world we live in it’s becoming everyday more a world of ‘others’ rather than a world of ‘self’. Students, workers, professionals and tourists are the new nomads, protagonists of a dynamism now more intense than in the past and which interests all kind of spheres: from the economical to the demographical one, from the political to the cultural one. This phenomenon, increased by Internet and globalization, is being responsible of a change in our way to perceive the history, art and the idea of nationality.
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REDEFINING LANDSCAPES New forms of compensation for unauthorized construction in Italy [by Stefano Galasso, 2013]
Developed within the Integrated Adaptive Re-Use course at Politecnico di Milano, the research addresses the widespread condition of building abuse in Italian landscapes, often hidden behind environmental and cultural value. The project investigates how architecture can act as a compensatory tool, transforming minor violations into opportunities for collective identity, environmental repair and territorial rebalancing. Through a methodological framework that links research and design, the work proposes sustainable reactivation strategies where landscape, architecture and social interest operate together.
SHRINKING MONTEVIDEO Urban contraction as a design challenge [by Isabella Forestieri, 2013]
Urbanization is often associated with continuous growth, yet many cities around the world are instead facing processes of shrinkage. Shrinking Montevideo questions the assumption of inevitable urban expansion, reading the city as a living organism shaped by social and anthropological dynamics. The research reframes urban contraction as a design opportunity to rethink livability, equity, and spatial strategies.
As a living beings we depend on food. Our entire life is shaped by this essential need but considering cities, the place in which we live and work, a contradiction is becoming visible. The sustenance of the urban lifestyle depends even more from something we produce elsewhere, in something we usually call countryside.
BETTER SHARED HOUSE A Study on Human Relationship and Domestic Environment [by Yezi Zhang, Zui Tao, 2013]
Exploring shared housing as an emerging global living model, the study investigates how domestic space influences relationships, well-being, and everyday life among unrelated residents. Focusing on spatial identity, intimacy, and conflict within shared homes, the research combines theoretical analysis, case studies, and a design proposal to rethink how collective living environments can better balance individual needs and shared experiences. The project frames the domestic environment as an active agent in shaping social interaction and future patterns of urban living.
Oggetto del lavoro è stato il complesso residenziale dei Robin Hood Gardens (1966-1972) di Alison and Peter Smithson che l’amministrazione comunale di Londra ha deciso nel 2009 di demolire per la cattiva condizione statica, igienica e sociale del complesso.
Il laboratorio di Progettazione degli Interni 1B, dopo una fase ricognitiva sui dati materiali e culturali legati all’immobile, affronta l’ipotesi di un progetto di recupero e riqualificazione per uno dei capolavori del brutalismo britannico.
Grazie alla collaborazione di Martina Pini e Marco Pioventini è stato possibile impaginare e pubblicare i due volumi consultabili su issuu:
ContrACTIONS Cluj-Napoca: landscape urban strategies for a shrinking city [by Enrico Cigolotti, Guia Cimino, 2011/2012]
Addressing the condition of urban shrinkage, the project investigates vacancy and decline as structural phenomena affecting Cluj-Napoca and other European cities undergoing demographic and economic contraction. Through demographic analysis, economic projections, and comparative case studies, the research reframes decline as an opportunity for spatial reactivation. A series of low-budget, high-impact landscape interventions is proposed, focusing on vacant land, everyday practices, and collective use. Rather than large-scale regeneration, the project explores tactical actions capable of reshaping perception, social interaction, and the relationship between citizens and neglected urban spaces.
IF INTANGIBLE HERITAGE Intangible heritage at risk [by Andrea Bergamini, Stefano Mori, 2013]
Focusing on artistic and traditional craftsmanship in northern Italy, the project addresses the risk of losing skills and knowledge that form part of the country’s intangible cultural heritage. As production declines and transmission between generations weakens, craft practices become increasingly fragile. The research proposes architecture not as a mere container, but as a strategic framework capable of supporting knowledge exchange, collaboration, and renewal, turning endangered traditions into active drivers of cultural continuity.
INCLUSIVE CITY Diverse city. Creative city. [by Guadalupe Ciocoletto, April 2013]
Set in Milan, the project explores migration, cultural diversity, and hyper-diversity as defining conditions of the contemporary city. It investigates how immigration reshapes urban, social, and economic structures, questioning segregation while highlighting diversity as a driver of creativity and growth. Through the design of a co-working hub, the project proposes architecture as a tool to foster integration, collaboration, and social cohesion, redefining the city as an inclusive platform shaped by cultural exchange.
Architecture of integration by Ceylan Sener (POLIMI, April 2013)
A research work to investigate possible architectonic interventions to upgrade schools architecture and their interiors in relationship with the multicultural society we live in now in Italy. case study: Milano, scuola in via Paravia.
The Liquid MuSEAum Hybridization Through the Mediterranean Coasts [by Chiara Baravalle, Giuseppe Biscottini, 2013]
Conceived as a postcolonial museum model, the project investigates migration and cultural hybridization across the Mediterranean basin. Rather than a fixed institution, the museum is imagined as a fluid and adaptive system shaped by movement, exchange, and overlapping identities. Using the Mediterranean Sea as a shared cultural space, the project redefines the museum as a dynamic framework for dialogue, memory, and transformation.
