DISSEMINATION
New mobility technologies, from the invention of the wheel to the latest flying transports like drones, significantly influence the design and functionality of cities and buildings. This paper delves into the potential impact of flying vehicles on our living spaces in the future. Examples from literature and cinema, like Archizoom’s No Stop City and movies such as Inception and 2001: A Space Odyssey, envision cities with flying cars. These aerial vehicles, introducing a new dimension of time, could reshape our buildings, allowing access from roofs and facades. Exploring the historical typology of Milanese architecture, this article discusses how the “edificio a ballatoio” logic could align with the future drone city, transforming plans, materials, facades, and our ways of living.
Design for Ukraine’s heritage
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused, and continues to inflict, a substantial number of deaths and destruction of buildings, including museums, cultural institutions, and heritage. Despite the instruments of international law put in place to protect cultural heritage, alarming reports of the removal and displacement of museums’ collections from occupied areas continue to emerge. Amid this complex context, how can design researchers and educators prompt students towards the development of contributions for emergencies such as war? Can digital platforms be used to support such development? And how can these technologies be employed to safeguard and raise awareness about at-risk heritage? Drawing from the legacy of design activism and socially responsible design, the research aims to provide an answer to these questions, presenting the results of the Design for Ukraine’s Heritage (D4UH) experience. D4UH is an educational project, the first step of a broader strategy that has the goal of creating a network of European institutions and NGOs to envision and develop possible solutions to safeguard the Ukrainian museums’ heritage during and after times of war. D4UH pairs 20 Ukrainian museums with 20 international students from architecture and design schools, united by the desire to give support to Ukrainian heritage. Partners, students, and museums are asked to collaborate in the collection of videos, pictures, and interviews to design the Virtual Museum of Ukrainian Museums, which acts as a statement of Ukrainian museums’ current situation. Offering the chance of engaging, researching, curating, and designing the virtual exhibition’s narrative space, students and design educators can directly experience how the action of designing can tackle intricate cultural, social, and political issues. The expected results of the project are, in fact, not merely to exhibit Ukrainian cultural heritage, but also to consider the relevance of museum institutions themselves as guardians of temporality to be interpreted and protected, especially in times of war, because of their contribution to the community’s progress.
Please read the complete article titled "Design for Ukraine’s heritage: engaging international students during times of war through design activism"
Design and Anthropology: Impact of Environment on Human Settlements
This research aims to explore the reciprocal relationship between human beings and their living environment through the lens of design and anthropology;By examining the current understanding of physics, the study hypothesizes modifications to various environmental components to predict potential changes. Furthermore, it investigates the implications of these alterations on human physiology and the adaptability of organisms to their surroundings. Additionally, the research explores how environmental conditions can be optimized to accommodate the physiological needs of these hypothetical organisms. Through this interdisciplinary approach, the study seeks to illuminate the dynamic interplay between humans and their environment, offering insights into the potential impacts of environmental design on human well-being.
