Il significato di centralità. Tecniche di densificazione dello spazio costruito

Il presente articolo indaga il termine centralità urbana, una delle parole chiave della ricerca Spinner 2013 Progettare il costruito: nuovi modelli a qualità integrata per la città compatta, in corso dal 2012. L’architettura si è spesso confrontata col significato di centralità urbanainterpretandolo a seconda delle dinamiche evolutive che, via via, hanno guidato le scelte progettuali di sviluppo urbano. Il termine centralità è da intendersi nell'accezione di tipologia architettonica ma in primisnell'accezione simbolica di effetto comunitario, aggregativo e, in conclusione, di luogo. Essa si concretizza in un sistema insediativo complesso che conforma uno spazio di tipo centrifugo e allo stesso tempo centripeto, introverso e estroverso, capace di custodire in se la memoria del contesto di appartenenza da cui ha attinto i propri caratteri formali e, al contempo, costruire una memoria identitaria della comunità che lo abita e che lo abiterà

La nuova Fondazione Prada a Milano. Un “colossal architettonico”

The "dismission's landscape" is now an important resource for regeneration strategies, based on “constructing the built” practice. The complexity of disaster recovery is often reflected in the spectacular image of the results obtained; the new Rem Koolhaas's Prada Foundation is the perfect example. These operations cannot be taken as best-practices if they are sporadic and only bound to contexts in which strong private interests persist in ensuring  “all star cast" for "architectural colossal".Il “paesaggio della dismissione” è oggi una risorsa importante per le strategie di rigenerazione fondate sulla pratica del costruire il costruito. La complessità dell’azione di recupero del patrimonio dismesso si traduce, spesso, nell’immagine spettacolare dei risultati ottenuti, come nel caso della nuova Fondazione Prada di Rem Koolhaas. Operazioni, queste, che non possono essere assunte come best-practices in quanto sporadiche e unicamente rilegate a contesti in cui persistono forti interessi privati in grado di garantire “cast” stellari per “colossal architettonici”

Editoriale: La spettacolarizzazione della dismissione

One of the invariants that the super-places of centrality, born to regenerative strategies share, is that the component of spectacularization is guaranteed by the chosen settlement functions. The latter, in a directly proportional way, is reflected in the aesthetic appearance of the containers that in certain ways we define "talking ducks" (R, Venturi, D. S. Brown, Learning from Las Vegas, MitPress, 1977). Whether it is interventions based on thrust conservation, as in the case of monuments emphasizing seemingly dead landscapes and memories, which hesitate to the happy descending (Park Dora in Turin, on the tracks of the Ruhr in Germany), rather than regenerative interventions based on poly functionality having a urban and extra-urban role, the goal is still the creation of places of the "loisir", oriented to the leisure and the psycho-physical entertainment of the person, in which to dare to be lazy in the Barthes's meaning.Una delle invarianti che accomuna i super-luoghi di centralità nati da strategie rigenerative, è quella componente di spettacolarizzazione garantita dalle funzioni insediative prescelte che, in maniera direttamente proporzionale, si riflette nelle sembianze estetiche dei contenitori per certi versi definibili “papere parlanti” (R. Venturi, D. S. Brown, Learning from Las Vegas, MitPress, 1977). Sia che si tratti di interventi basati sulla conservazione spinta, come nel caso di monumenti alla memoria enfatizzanti paesaggi apparentemente morti, che inneggiano alla decrescita felice (Parco Dora a Torino sulle orme della Ruhr), piuttosto che di interventi rigenerativi basati sulla polifunzionalità avente un ruolo urbano ed extra-urbano, l’obiettivo è comunque la fondazione di luoghi del “loisir”, diretti al tempo libero e all’intrattenimento psico-fisico della persona, in cui osare essere pigri nell’accezione del pensiero di Barthes

La teatralità del campus universitario. Lezioni americane

Direct experience gained in one of the most prestigious scenarios of American academia helps create a typological profile of the campus, a place that produces culture and that, originally, was set against the city according to a principle of anti-urban life. According to the American ideal, nowadays the campus represents a completed city part that wishes to impress the spectator – whether student, city inhabitant or visitor – by heightening emotional effects through its capacity to introject the complex functional programme of the entire urban settlement, and to communicate by means of thespian figures.Un’esperienza diretta svolta su una delle scene più prestigiose dell’accademia americana contribuisce alla restituzione di un profilo tipologico del campus, luogo che produce cultura e che, originariamente, si pone rispetto alla città secondo un principio di anti urbanità. Il campus, secondo l’ideale americano, rappresenta oggi una parte di città di per sé finita che vuole impressionare lo spettatore - studente, abitante della città o visitatore che sia - accentuandone gli effetti emotivi mediante la sua capacità di introiettare il complesso programma funzionale dell’intero insediamento urbano e comunicarlo attraverso figure teatranti

Tassonomia del tipo-asilo

Recensione al libro Autore: Enrico PrandiTitolo: Il progetto del polo per l’infanzia. Sperimentazioni architettoniche tra didattica e ricercaLingua: italianoEditore: AiónCaratteristiche: formato 22x22 cm, brossura, immagini a coloriISBN: 9788898262694Anno: 201

RANK-Dependent Autosomal Recessive Osteopetrosis: Characterization of Five New Cases With Novel Mutations

Autosomal recessive osteopetrosis (ARO) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder attributed to reduced bone resorption by osteoclasts. Most human AROs are classified as osteoclast rich, but recently two subsets of osteoclast-poor ARO have been recognized as caused by defects in either TNFSF11 or TNFRSF11A genes, coding the RANKL and RANK proteins, respectively. The RANKL/RANK axis drives osteoclast differentiation and also plays a role in the immune system. In fact, we have recently reported that mutations in the TNFRSF11A gene lead to osteoclast-poor osteopetrosis associated with hypogammaglobulinemia. Here we present the characterization of five additional unpublished patients from four unrelated families in which we found five novel mutations in the TNFRSF11A gene, including two missense and two nonsense mutations and a single-nucleotide insertion. Immunological investigation in three of them showed that the previously described defect in the B cell compartment was present only in some patients and that its severity seemed to increase with age and the progression of the disease. HSCT performed in all five patients almost completely cured the disease even when carried out in late infancy. Hypercalcemia was the most important posttransplant complication. Overall, our results further underline the heterogeneity of human ARO also deriving from the interplay between bone and the immune system, and highlight the prognostic and therapeutic implications of the molecular diagnosis. © 2012 American Society for Bone and Mineral Researc

Homeostatic expansion of autoreactive immunoglobulin-secreting cells in the Rag2 mouse model of Omenn syndrome

Hypomorphic RAG mutations, leading to limited V(D)J rearrangements, cause Omenn syndrome (OS), a peculiar severe combined immunodeficiency associated with autoimmune-like manifestations. Whether B cells play a role in OS pathogenesis is so far unexplored. Here we report the detection of plasma cells in lymphoid organs of OS patients, in which circulating B cells are undetectable. Hypomorphic Rag2R229Q knock-in mice, which recapitulate OS, revealed, beyond severe B cell developmental arrest, a normal or even enlarged compartment of immunoglobulin-secreting cells (ISC). The size of this ISC compartment correlated with increased expression of Blimp1 and Xbp1, and these ISC were sustained by elevated levels of T cell derived homeostatic and effector cytokines. The detection of high affinity pathogenic autoantibodies toward target organs indicated defaults in B cell selection and tolerance induction. We hypothesize that impaired B cell receptor (BCR) editing and a serum B cell activating factor (BAFF) abundance might contribute toward the development of a pathogenic B cell repertoire in hypomorphic Rag2R229Q knock-in mice. BAFF-R blockade reduced serum levels of nucleic acid-specific autoantibodies and significantly ameliorated inflammatory tissue damage. These findings highlight a role for B cells in OS pathogenesis

Homeostatic expansion of autoreactive immunoglobulin-secreting cells in the Rag2 mouse model of Omenn syndrome

Hypomorphic RAG mutations, leading to limited V(D)J rearrangements, cause Omenn syndrome (OS), a peculiar severe combined immunodeficiency associated with autoimmune-like manifestations. Whether B cells play a role in OS pathogenesis is so far unexplored. Here we report the detection of plasma cells in lymphoid organs of OS patients, in which circulating B cells are undetectable. Hypomorphic Rag2R229Q knock-in mice, which recapitulate OS, revealed, beyond severe B cell developmental arrest, a normal or even enlarged compartment of immunoglobulin-secreting cells (ISC). The size of this ISC compartment correlated with increased expression of Blimp1 and Xbp1, and these ISC were sustained by elevated levels of T cell derived homeostatic and effector cytokines. The detection of high affinity pathogenic autoantibodies toward target organs indicated defaults in B cell selection and tolerance induction. We hypothesize that impaired B cell receptor (BCR) editing and a serum B cell activating factor (BAFF) abundance might contribute toward the development of a pathogenic B cell repertoire in hypomorphic Rag2R229Q knock-in mice. BAFF-R blockade reduced serum levels of nucleic acid-specific autoantibodies and significantly ameliorated inflammatory tissue damage. These findings highlight a role for B cells in OS pathogenesis