Course for Architects, designers (REQUIRED graphic skills, video making practice)

Every catastrophe can also be viewed positively as an opportunity to learn, to embrace its anticipation, and to navigate it with resilience—provided society is prepared for it. Today, it is essential for cities worldwide to face the impacts of global warming, whether directly or indirectly. Many European capitals and major metropolitan areas have experienced seasonal floods and droughts, and Milan is no exception. While the city may not currently appear to be on the front lines of this crisis, it possesses the potential to become a leader in resilience.

This course offers an opportunity to examine the key factors of global warming and to explore Milan's responses and strategies at both public and institutional levels, considering relevant collective and individual decisions and actions, whether significant or not, from diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives. The course will specifically critique the evolution of Milan over the last 25 years within the context of sustainable and resilient scenarios. More importantly, it encourages students to investigate the daily lives of Milanese residents to identify behavioral changes that promote responsible collective and individual sustainability and resilience. In this sense, the course adopts an anthropological approach to urban settings, life, and their citizens.

Students in small groups will work on a short research (visual and/or textual) essay to be agreed upon with the professor. The subject will be related to contemporary Milan's response to global warming, with a specific focus on daily routines. It will include research, images, and/or short movies. The evaluation will consider both the quality of the research work and its presentation by each group.

Students will conceptualize a critical reflection and formulate a hypothesis about the target group(s) they are studying. The steps of investigation and documentation will be planned with the professor. The student will represent, through graphic work, the outcomes of the research essay. The graphic and scientific quality of the work will also be taken into consideration in the evaluation.

Topics to be followed:

-         Global Warming, contemporary meaning, and concerns

-         Sustainability and resilience in urban contexts

-         Global Warming and daily local life

-         21st century Milan - Green Milano

-         The Milanese cohabite of Architecture/Architect/Activist/Citizen/Tourist through Global Warming

Topics to be followed:

-         Global Warming, contemporary meaning, and concerns

-         Sustainability and resilience in urban contexts

-         Global Warming and daily local life

-         21st century Milan - Green Milano

-         The Milanese cohabite of Architecture/Architect/Activist/Citizen/Tourist through Global Warming

Bibliography

-          Ingersoll, Richard. 'Think like a forest. Diluting the boundaries between nature and city', ZARCH: Journal of interdisciplinary studies in Architecture and Urbanism, 14 (June 2020).

-          Ingersoll, Richard. 'Eat the City' in Ecoweek: the Book #1: 50 Voices for Sustainability, ed. E. Messinas & D. Price, Athens: Ecovweek.Org, 2017.

-          Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction. An Unnatural History, London: Bloomsbury, 2014.

-          Ingersoll Richard. 'The Ecology Question and Architecture', in The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory, London: 2012.

-          Calthorpe, Peter. Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change, Washington: Island Press, 2011.

-          Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1999.

-          Engelke, Matthew. How to Think Like an Anthropologist. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. 

-          Knox, Hannah. Thinking Like a Climate: Governing a City in Times of Environmental Change. Duke University Press, 2020. 

-          Gentilcore, David, 'The ethnography of everyday life', in John A Marino (ed.), Early Modern Italy: 1550-1796 (Oxford, 2002; online edn, Oxford Academic, 31 Oct. 2023)

-          Ocejo, Richard. E, (ed.). Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork. New York: Routledge, 2013.

The students will present the outcomes of their research essay. Graphic and scientific quality will also be considered in the evaluation of the work as well as the effectiveness of their research communication/presentation.

Visit of Milan by day and night with aperitivos and pizza party.