Rebuilding an urban empty space. The area where the Eretenio Theatre once stood near the River Retrone in Vicenza, Italy

Vicenza is an ancient city located in the Veneto region, not far from Venice, in the north-east corner of Italy. This work specifically refers to the area of the Eretenio theatre on the bank of the River Retrone. The theatre was bombed and destroyed in 1944. Intimately part of the historic center of Vicenza, this abandoned area gradually lost its functional and social identity. The idea of rebuilding that degraded place has long been the object of discussion on the part of local authorities. The Eretenio theatre area is one of the subjects recently investigated by our students at the \u2018Architectural and Urban Composition 2' course taught on the master\u2019s degree in Architectural Engineering at the University of Padua. Students were required to present project hypotheses to reconfigure the lost unity of this symbolic part of the city. The history is considered an indispensable tool to know the deep reasons of the urban structure, which can be used to control the change of functional systems (political, social and economic). The Eretenio theatre area was proposed to our students as an opportunity to suggest new ways to manage the passage from past to future in the shadow of Andrea Palladio\u2019s architecture

Study to regenerate the degraded neighborhood of San Carlo on the northern outskirt of Padua, Italy

The San Carlo neighborhood with the church of San Carlo at its center is a degraded area in the northern outskirts of Padua, a city located near Venice in the Veneto region of north-eastern Italy. Once marked by a distinctive identity, this part of the outskirts of Padua has gradually lost its social and functional character. The idea of restoring this decaying district has long been the subject of discussion by the local authorities. The neighborhood of San Carlo is one of the subjects recently investigated by students studying the \u2018Architectural and Urban Composition 2' course on the Master\u2019s Degree in Architectural Engineering at the University of Padua. Their ideas include a green piazza park, a community center and hall, a library, study rooms for students, additional parking, open space for the weekly market

Hendricus Theodorus Wijdeveld. Visions of a new Amsterdam

The early decades of the twentieth century represented a period of particular turmoil for the Netherlands as the country underwent a cultural transition that culminated in the search for a new social order to counteract the chaos generated by the Great War. The Dutch art world, which had always felt the need to play a role in society, now felt a pressing urge for renewal representative of the new community ideal. Wijdeveld contributed to this search through written pieces published in the magazine Wendingen. His support for a new social order first manifested itself in the idealistic design of the People’s Theatre to be built in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, then in the visionary design concerning the expansion of the city of Amsterdam. Wijdeveld’s proposal for the People’s Theatre was initially conceived in 1919. The monumental theatre is located inside the Vondelpark in Amsterdam up against the city’s seventeenth- century perimeter walls. All around it lie the symbols of the country’s artistic culture: the Rijksmuseum, the Concertgebouw and the Stedelijk Museum. The drawings published in Wendingen magazine on the 9th and 10th of September-October 1919 highlight the urban value of the project. A major road axis, a veritable urban boulevard dotted with tower buildings, crosses the historic Vondelpark. Starting from the ramparts, the boulevard constitutes a perspective axis at the end of which stands the monumental People’s Theatre. The size of the public building reveals its representative value in accordance with a compositional tradition that harks back to the conception of the classical city. In the drawings, the Vondelpark appears to be overshadowed, with its presence negated. A modern route replaced the idea of the romantic park crossed by winding streets and symbolises trust in progress and the idea of urban and social order. This project prefaced the study of a contemporary and monumental expansion plan that involved the development of Amsterdam along radial roads that set out from the heart of the historical city towards rural land. These routes were dotted with a series of tower buildings that represented the idea of a city open to nature, following a development method that contrasted with the settlement rules of the historical city

The ancient village of Sottomarina in the Venetian lagoon and the demolished Church of Saint Martin Bishop

This work concerns Sottomarina, a village located in the Venetian lagoon, and it specifically refers to the demolished Church of San Martin Bishop. The idea of restoring the central area of the village where the Church rised has long been the object of discussion on the part of local authorities. The village of Sottomarina is one of the subjects recently investigated by our research group at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua. The centre of the ancient village of Sottomarina in the Venetian lagoon was thought as an opportunity to reconfigure the lost unity of this symbolic and representative place, custodian of its memory and identity. The order and hierarchy of the elements that characterized the form of this old place have been reconsidered. The intent to regenerate the area and the observations about the relationship between the village and the Venetian lagoon lead to recognize in the demolished Church of Saint Martin Bishop a unique opportunity which allows to recover rituals and connections from the past. The working method is based on the belief that, in the study of urban morphology, is basic to analyse the history of the city, clarifying the relationship between permanent structures and temporary ones. The history becomes an indispensable tool to know the deep reasons of the urban structure which is the memory and the image of the community. The methodology looks at the city as a product of functional systems (political, social, economic), but overall contemplates the urban form as a result of its spatial structure. The life of the urban form is investigated in its physical specificity, the only one able of giving reason of its special nature over every social, economic and political aspect, certainly important but not sufficient

Disused areas and urban regeneration. The historic centre of Vicenza, Italy

This work concerns Vicenza, a city located not far from Venice in the north-east corner of Italy, and it specifically refers to an area situated on the outskirts of the city's urban fabric between the perimeter of its ancient walls and the banks of the Bacchiglione river, in the shadow of the abandoned monastery of St. Biagio. The idea of restoring that physically and socially degraded area of the city of Vicenza has long been the object of discussion on the part of local authorities. Once intimately linked to the city's historic center, the area gradually lost its functional and social identity becoming first a parking lot and then equipped as a city warehouse. The intent to regenerate the area and the observation that the relationship between the city and its river is constantly refused, or delayed, lead to recognize in the long edge of the area a unique meeting opportunity which allows to repair the water-city association, recuperating rituals and connections from the past. The municipality is presently planning on pursuing a qualitative restoration of the area which will be used for social and cultural enrichment. The final part of the current work outlines some proposals that were developed during the Architectural and Urban Composition 2 course recently offered by the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua (Italy)

Perforated peptic ulcer (PPU) treatment: an Italian nationwide propensity score-matched cohort study investigating laparoscopic vs open approach

BackgroundPerforated peptic ulcer (PPU) remain a surgical emergency accounting for 37% of all peptic ulcer-related deaths. Surgery remains the standard of care. The benefits of laparoscopic approach have been well-established even in the elderly. However, because of inconsistent results with specific regard to some technical aspects of such technique surgeons questioned the adoption of laparoscopic approach. This leads to choose the type of approach based on personal experience. The aim of our study was to critically appraise the use of the laparoscopic approach in PPU treatment comparing it with open procedure.MethodsA retrospective study with propensity score matching analysis of patients underwent surgical procedure for PPU was performed. Patients undergoing PPU repair were divided into: Laparoscopic approach (LapA) and Open approach (OpenA) groups and clinical-pathological features of patients in the both groups were compared.ResultsA total of 453 patients underwent PPU simple repair. Among these, a LapA was adopted in 49% (222/453 patients). After propensity score matching, 172 patients were included in each group (the LapA and the OpenA). Analysis demonstrated increased operative times in the OpenA [OpenA: 96.4 +/- 37.2 vs LapA 88.47 +/- 33 min, p = 0.035], with shorter overall length of stay in the LapA group [OpenA 13 +/- 12 vs LapA 10.3 +/- 11.4 days p = 0.038]. There was no statistically significant difference in mortality [OpenA 26 (15.1%) vs LapA 18 (10.5%), p = 0.258]. Focusing on morbidity, the overall rate of 30-day postoperative morbidity was significantly lower in the LapA group [OpenA 67 patients (39.0%) vs LapA 37 patients (21.5%) p = 0.002]. When stratified using the Clavien-Dindo classification, the severity of postoperative complications was statistically different only for C-D 1-2.ConclusionsBased on the present study, we can support that laparoscopic suturing of perforated peptic ulcers, apart from being a safe technique, could provide significant advantages in terms of postoperative complications and hospital stay

Observations on the Fantastic Nature in the Architecture of Aldo Rossi

The Aldo Rossi's project study has progressively made the writer develop the idea of a composition that moves on the level of fantasy according to a fantastic interpretation that goes beyond its obvious literary meaning. Indeed, one can consider fantastic the reality that fantasy transfigures into unreal and improbable shapes obtained by arbitrarily combining images with images, as it happens in those childish representations of childhood, hardly comprehensible to the intellect and to custom. Or you can think of applying the term fantastic to all that reality, which with its conventional and customary though not at all bizarre shapes, produces a state of wonder in contemplating and grasping the profound meaning that animates reality. Then what is fantastic is that sense of wonder that reality produces in our imagination, when it makes us perceive another imagined truth, which is ideal, but equally real, beyond the obviousness of things, beyond appearance

Hypotheses of urban regeneration. Small towns in the Veneto region

This work considers the small towns of the Veneto region, Italy, as a case study, concentrating analysis and proposals for a new urban design on areas that has been affected by a rapid post 2nd world war reconstruction and by following building speculation, thus losing their organic unity with the surrounding parts. The violence that often characterizes the insertion in the twentieth century of disproportionate volumes into the urban fabric inherited from the medieval culture and enriched by Renaissance masterpieces is easily recognizable. This is the reason why a lower standard of living is now perceived, if we accept the idea that standard of living is proportionated to the level of culture expressed by the context. The methodology looks at the town as a result of its spatial structure. More than political, social, and economic systems, reasons for its special nature can be found because of its constancy. Planning new buildings starts from understanding the context, that is, its physical structure. The method adopted is based on studying the history of the place to understand the urban morphology of it. The physical specificity of the urban form is explored with the aim of elaborating a design process to reinforce the public space as a reference point for the community. The spatial aspects and formal image of the transformations have been studied as a premise for the design of the new architecture that has developed because of necessity and the events that have occurred in the territory. Intervening through a process of urban redevelopment inside the city involves measuring according to the values that have become rooted in the areas with the passage of time. Good regeneration practice must not leave recovering the old together with its values out of consideration. This point of view leads us to consider that urbanism as a group of skills and bureaucratic apparatuses must occupy itself with the city and above all with its formal structure rather than be occupied so much with the contents of the legal, financial-economic, and administrative order

The ancient village of Sottomarina in the Venetian lagoon and the demolished Church of Saint Martin Bishop

This work concerns Sottomarina, a village located in the Venetian lagoon, and it specifically refers to the demolished Church of San Martin Bishop. The idea of restoring the central area of the village where the Church rised has long been the object of discussion on the part of local authorities. The village of Sottomarina is one of the subjects recently investigated by our research group at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua. The centre of the ancient village of Sottomarina in the Venetian lagoon was thought as an opportunity to reconfigure the lost unity of this symbolic and representative place, custodian of its memory and identity. The order and hierarchy of the elements that characterized the form of this old place have been reconsidered. The intent to regenerate the area and the observations about the relationship between the village and the Venetian lagoon lead to recognize in the demolished Church of Saint Martin Bishop a unique opportunity which allows to recover rituals and connections from the past. The working method is based on the belief that, in the study of urban morphology, is basic to analyse the history of the city, clarifying the relationship between permanent structures and temporary ones. The history becomes an indispensable tool to know the deep reasons of the urban structure which is the memory and the image of the community. The methodology looks at the city as a product of functional systems (political, social, economic), but overall contemplates the urban form as a result of its spatial structure. The life of the urban form is investigated in its physical specificity, the only one able of giving reason of its special nature over every social, economic and political aspect, certainly important but not sufficient

Lo spazio in architettura. Manuale per lo studente

Questo libro nasce dall\u2019idea di rimaneggiare e raccogliere in un testo unico una serie di scritti composti in tempi e occasioni diverse prevalentemente nati da contributi su riviste, convegni, testi che, accomunati da una stesso pensiero informatore, invitano a pensare l\u2019architettura come disciplina che si occupa dello spazio. Non c\u2019\ue8 alcuna pretesa di fare una dissertazione sullo spazio nonostante il titolo pretenzioso: in continuit\ue0 con il precedente Esempi di architettura anche questo testo \ue8 pensato come manuale per lo studente. Il testo offre un momento di riflessione sullo spazio in architettura in un periodo in cui l\u2019attenzione per lo spazio appare trascurata o minimizzata da una tendenza a produrre oggetti autoreferenti incapaci di intessere legami significativi con il luogo. Si ritiene che la consapevolezza del valore dello spazio possa orientare lo studente verso un\u2019architettura meno individualistica e poco inclusiva favorendo la visione di una dimensione del vivere pi\uf9 civile e collettiva. Il testo \ue8 accompagnato da esempi di architetture indispensabili alla comprensione della parte scritta in riferimento ai temi della corte, della piazza, dell\u2019aula e del portico