Salon for Urban Architecture : Italian School Florence , Italy

atelier ashley munday

Florence

Florence, birthplace to not only the Renaissance but also to a new way of thinking about the city and the urban fabric that constructs it, is the ideal classroom for stu-dents to begin to understand the interrelationship be-tween architecture, public space, and urban structure.

The Italian School places an emphasis on understanding the relationship between a single edifi ce and the over-all urban composition not only in spatial and aesthetic terms, but also the “design intent” of the architects and urbanists of the day in relation to the geographic, spa-tial, cultural, economic, political, and religious context that infl uenced the design of the city. The idea is that in addition to students experiencing the fi nest examples of architecture as urban devices such as the Piazza degli Uffi zi and Piazza Santissima Annunziata , is that with an understanding of the architecture, urban structure, and historical context of Florence that stu-dents will be given the tools needed to begin to “read” and understand other cities.

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Italian School Scope

The Italian School is intended to be a two week urban design and architecture workshop based in the city of Florence in Italy and will be conducted primarily by Ash-ley Munday and Karin Templin in conjunction with other local and international educational institutions and pro-fessionals.

The workshop content can be varied to make it more ur-ban design or architecture orientated depending on the students or professionals involved.

The workshop can either be a self- contained two week exercise or treated as the initial two weeks of a project with the remainder to be executed as part of a course project with foreign lecturers making follow critiques and tutorials in the students or professionals home coun-try.

The workshop will be orientated towards observation and analysis of the urban environment and undertaking a design exercise in the context of the precious heritage environment of Florence.

It is desirable that the initial workshop be conducted for a minimum of 15 to a maximum of 25 foreign students or professionals with their respective tutors. Smaller num-bers or mixed groups are also possible at a negotiable fee.

The Italian School will also include visits to smaller towns surrounding Florence will be made to broaden the expe-rience and to study the history and urban evolution of places such as Rome, Pisa, Sienna and Lucca.

Costs

The university and students will be required to cover their own costs of food, accommodation and fl ights to Rome and ground transport to Florence as well as local transport to surrounding villages.

We will be able to give recommendations and contacts for accommodation and reccomend local restaurants during the Italian School.

Budget Estimate

Approximate Cost Estimate for student budgeting pur-poses only for food accomodation and travel.

All costs are given in UK Pounds Sterling and are not in-cluded in the Italian School fee.

Flight - £800Accommodation - £800Food - £700Other Travel Expenses - £ 200

Approximate Total - £2500

Foreign students will be responsible for the procurement and costs of their own visas. Invitation letters will be supplied by the Salon for Urban Architecture or any rel-evant institutions in Italy to assist the visa process.

Italian School Fee

The minimum fee for a 14 day Italian School will be :

- £15,000 for up to 25 students maximum (£600 per stu dent for 25 students)

- £ 20,000 for up to 25 professionals maximum (£800 per professional based on 25 professionals)

- Combined groups of students and professionals are pos-sible for a negotiable fee.

The fee includes tutors time and expenses, fees for guest lecturers and guides and for teaching space rental in Italy.

Timing

The Italian School will be conducted over a 14 day time period with shorter or longer programmes also negotia-ble. The School can be conducted anytime of the year dependant on tutor availability with exception of August and the Christmas New Year period.

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Sample Programme Programme

•Day 1 – Meet in Rome

•Day 2 – Walking tour of Rome and guest Lecture by Cup pellloni specialist conservation architects in Rome

•Day 3 - Train to Florence (TBC)

•Day 4 - 14 September – conduct course in Florence with day trips to surrounding Tuscan Towns – Lucca, Siena and Pisa. Other guest lectures in Florence to be confi rmed

•Day 15 – Students and Tutors depart

Possible Guest Lectures (but not limited to)

Cuppelloni Conservation Architects RomeBuro Happold Engineers – London and BolognaPatrick Lynch Architects – London Andrea Pozzi Architect – FlorenceAllies and Morrison - London

Learning outcomes

The majority of the course takes place on-site visiting the architectural and urban masterpieces ofFlorence. Through a series of walking and sketching tours the course explores the factors that led to the metamor-phosis of building and urban spatial typologies, and the overall development of the city.

Students are required to complete a series of on-site sketches, diagrams, plans, sections, and elevations in or-der to truly “see” the implicit design principles.

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Summary of Study

Between the end of the 13th and 16th centuries Florence experienced an unprecedented urban transformation culminating from its status fi rstly, as a centre of crafts-men and trade, then as a global banking powerhouse, and fi nally as the cultural epicentre of Europe. The birthplace of the Renaissance gave us not only the mas-terpieces of Botticelli, Raphael, and Da Vinci, but also a new way of thinking about the city and the urban fabric that constructs it.

The complex politics and pageantry of Renaissance Flor-ence manifested itself in the design and connectivity of piazzas and transformed streets. New piazzas were cre-ated out of former slums and orchards to celebrate the democratic and philanthropic society of the Florentine Republic. Streets were widened to emphasize a family’s newly achieved political status, aligning themselves not only with the Florence’s centre of government, but also the religious and educational centre of the city. A new city was born and with it the idea of an “ideal city”.

Objectives

The two-week course in Florence focuses on its urban form and understanding the interrelationship between the city’s architecture, public space and urban structure. The buildings, spaces, and overall structure of the city are examined both in terms of the “design intent” of the architects and urbanists of the day as well as how the geographic, spatial, cultural, economic, political, and religious context infl uenced the design of the city.

The course will explore not only the city’s strategic routes and monumental urban spaces such as Vasari’s Pi-azza degli Uffi zi and Brunelleschi’s Piazza Santissima An-nunziata but also the architectural complexes and urban building typologies which make up the bulk of the urban fabric of Florence.

Tutors The two-week course will introduce a design project sit-ed in Florence and other Cities in Italy with critiques and guidance tutors Ashley Munday and Karin Templin.

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List of Proposed Study Areas in Florence

Piazze (Public Squares)

Piazza Santissima Annunziata•Ospedale degli Innocenti – Filippo Brunelleschi•Church of Santissima Annunziata – Michelozzo, 1444- 1476

Piazza del Duomo•Cathedral – Arnolfo di Cambio, 1296-1421•Dome – Filippo Brunelleschi, 1418-34•Bell tower – Giotto, 1334-57•Baptistery of San Giovanni – 11th-13th centuries

Piazza della Signoria and Piazza degli Uffi zi•Palazzo Vecchio – Arnolfo di Cambio, 1299-1314•Loggia degli Lanzi – Benci di Cione and Simone Talenti, 1374-81•Uffi zi – Giorgio Vasari, 1559-1580

Piazza della Repubblica

Urban Complexes

Piazza and complex of San Lorenzo •Old Sacristy – Filippo Brunelleschi, 1420-1429•Basilica of San Lorenzo – Filippo Brunelleschi, 1419-1460•New Sacristy – Michelangelo, 1519-1534•Laurentian Library – Michelangelo, 1519-1559

Piazza and complex of Santa Croce•Basilica of Santa Croce – Arnolfo di Cambio, 1294•Pazzi Chapel – Filippo Brunelleschi, 1430-1473•Cloister – Filippo Brunelleschi, 1430-73

Piazza and complex of San Marco – Michelozzo, 1437-52

Piazza and complex of Santo Spirito•Basilica of Santo Spirito – Filippo Brunelleschi, 1446-88

Piazza and complex of Santa Maria Novella•Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, 1278-1360•Façade – Leon Battista Alberti, 1439-42

Urban Building Typologies

Churches

Cloisters

Loggias

•Loggia dei Lanzi – Benci di Cione and Simone Talenti, 1374-81•Mercato Nuovo – Simone Talenti, 1337-1404•Loggia Rucellai – Leon Battista Alberti, 1460-1466•Church of Orsanmichele (old grain market)

Florentine housing from the medieval tower to the Re-naissance palazzo

•Medieval towers – 13th century•Palazzo dei Mozzi – 1260-73•Palazzo Davanzati – c. 1350•Palazzo dei Medici – Michelozzo, 1444-1469•Piazza, Loggia and Palazzo Rucellai – Leon Battista Alberti , 1446-1451•Palazzo Strozzi – Giuliano da Sangallo, 1489-1534

Tutor Biographies

Ashley Munday

Ashley was born in Australia and studied architecture at the Queensland Institute of Technology in Brisbane. He has lived and worked in the UK since 1996 and has under-taken a wide range of architectural and urbanism proj-ects both in the UK and around the world.

While a student and recent graduate Ashley worked for Bligh Voller Neild and Robin Gibson in Brisbane on many residential and cultural projects including the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.

Since living in the UK Ashley spent his initial years work-ing for HOK Sport (now Populous) and then spent 8 forma-tive years working for Allies and Morrison where he lead many large urban regeneration and high profi le architec-tural projects. Ashley was also responsible for the design of several mixed use and education projects including the successful competition for Elizabeth House in central London as the Masterplan for Brent Cross Cricklewood in West London. While at Allies and Morrison Ashley was also responsible for large scale urban regeneration projects in the form of the New Heart of Doha in Qatar and the Strategic Plan for the city of Perm in Russia.

In recent years Ashley has been working on masterplan-ning and architectural projects in the Middle East, China and Africa including the design of the Olympic Village for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in China which is currently under construction.

Since the formulation of Atelier Ashley Munday he has led the design and delivery of high profi le projects such as the Xiasha Cultural Centre in Hangzhou China as well as the Urban Plan for Lianyungang China.

Ashley has worked and travelled extensively around the world often in emerging markets like middle-east, Rus-sia, China, Africa and South America. His experience of diverse parts of the world have allowed him to form a strong respect for the roles of nature, landscape as well as a deep interest in what defi nes a sense of place for buildings and cities alike. While being trained as an ar-chitect he also has a strong interest in the development and evolution of cities, as well as the fundamental role and contribution of architecture and infrastructure to the quality of urban fabric.

Ashley has been guest design critic at the London School of Architecture Westminster, Bartlett School of Archi-tecture and as part of the Cities Program at the London School of Economics.

Karin Templin

Karin Templin studied architecture and urban design in the US and Italy. An architectural and urban designer who “makes architecture out of urban design and urban design out of architecture”, Karin focuses on the interre-lationship between architecture, public space and urban structure.

Upon receiving a Master Degree in Architecture in Urban Design from Kent State University, Karin returned to Italy where she worked with Andrea Ponsi Architect, SUPER-STUDIO founder Robert Magris and Partners, and Immo-biliare Novoli SpA. After practicing in Italy for several years, Karin moved to London where she has worked with Allies and Morrison Architects and Schmidt Hammer Las-sen Architects. In 2009, Karin, along with Alfredo Cara-ballo, founded studioACKT.With extensive experience working in the area of urban regeneration, Karin’s projects include: the new quarter of San Donato in the ex-area FIAT Novoli in Florence, Italy; a New Town Centre at Brent Cross Cricklewood in London, UK; and the Creative Industries Quarter in Bark-ing- London, UK, and the Heart of Doha, Qatar.For over ten years, Karin has taught architecture design with an emphasis on its contribution tourban design at Kingston University in London, London Metropolitan University, Kent State University US and Florence Faculty, and the Florence Institute of Design International. She has also served as a visiting critic at numerous universities in the UK, Europe, USA, and South America including Cambridge University, the Bartlett UCL, the University of Plymouth, Queen’s University Bel-fast, the University of East London, Syracuse University, Universidad Central de Venezuela, and Bahçesehir Uni-versity of Istanbul.

Karin is currently a contributing writer for The Glass Magazine and a foreign correspondent for Esempi di Ar-chitettura and has published articles in the Architectural Review and the Bollettino di Studi Fiorentini.

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Contacts

For enquiries and bookings please contact Ashley Munday

amunday@atelier-am.eu

atelier ashley munday 37 Myddleton Street London EC1R 1UA +44 (0) 741 1161272 www.atelier-am.eu