Cities and architecture in the context of global migration

© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CC BY-NC-ND licence, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Since the origins of human society, communities have dealt with migration issues as established settlements grappled with how to deal with new arrivals. As societies became larger and more complex and human movement became easier, mass migration has become a global issue that correlates with broad and rapid economic, social, political, and technological transformation. The result is that more people live outside their native communities than at any other time in history. The number of migrants is estimated to be over three hundred million worldwide.Approximately two-thirds of this number migrate for economic reasons, with the rest being the result of forced displacement induced by either conflict or disaster, both of which are increasing in frequency due to human activity. The issues arising from these phenomena pose a particular challenge in architecture, urban planning and related fields.Overwhelmingly, large urban areas are the focal point of mass migration. Cities centralise the economic, educational, and cultural opportunities that attract migrants. Cities also provide concentrated services and communities.Cities can best integrate new arrivals when architecture and planning pursue policies of inclusion that also make allowances for the distinct identities of migrant communities. Among the examples of inclusive integration strategies are participatory design, multicultural activities, and involvement of migrant communities in the preservation of the historic built environment. Such actions transfer knowledge and skills from one community to another. They also minimise barriers to social integration.These and other compelling themes are presented in this issue of Disegnare Con which collects papers relating to migration and the built environment with a particular focus on spatial analysis and visualisationsPeer reviewe

On the Move: Michel Écochard, Migration, and Transdisciplinary Exchange in Urban Design

© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CC BY-NC-ND licence, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Trained as an architect, archaeologist, and urban planner, Michel Écochard was both a prominent proponent of Modernist architecture and a conservation architect with a deep appreciation of traditional construction methods and architectural forms. Working in territories where social and economic conditions were quickly changing, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, Écochard proposed an unconventional method for imagining cities and communities’ development that merged Eastern and Western models. This paper briefly surveys his career, framing it as a search for a “Third Way,” then focuses on a more detailed analysis of two projects, both of which were responses to mass migration. The first project, carried out from 1946 to 1953 as head of the Department of Urban Development in Morocco, was a specific urban planning solution for migrants from rural areas. The second is a planning strategy proposed to address the problem of refugees that had begun coming to Pakistan due to the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. In carrying out both projects, Michel Écochard developed extensive visual materials to analyse the sites’ social and physical characteristics and convey his vision to others. This paper analyses these materials in detail, relying on both published illustrations and the Michel Écochard Archive of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT to clearly understand his vision and measure the degree to which it has been achieved.Peer reviewe

Learning from built vernacular heritage

In the last three decades, scholars and professional architects have developed a keen interest in the architectural style commonly known as vernacular. The reason for this attention is twofold: on the one hand, this style of architecture has been considered as a guide to design sustainable buildings that work with the climate representing cultural, social and economic diversity; on the other hand traditional dwellings have been used as sources of inspiration: a basic lexicon for the development of new ideas for contemporary projects. In this working paper contributions of vernacular heritage to environmental, cultural and economic sustainability will be identified. Starting from the different definitions existing in the literature, the various aspects involved in this traditional language will be described in this working paper, identifying some of the reasons for its safeguarding

Le città del Jabal Nafusah Libico: strutture insediative e spazi abitativi.

Interest in the Jabal Nafusah Mountain, in the north-eastern part of Libya, arises from the desire to study a system of settlements and landscape transformations which are unique to the Maghreb territory characteristics. The goal of this research is to propose a reading method for the urban structure and architectural forms, by the analysis of three models of settlement: Nalut, Cabao, Ulad Mahamud. These three significant study cases are analyzed by graphic and historical instruments with the purpose of under standing and verifying configuration and territorial continuity. The aim is to create an analytic sequence which starts from the territory with minimal architectural objects and extends to those nearest to the human scale of structure and dimensions, allowing us to understand the relations among the landscape, the history and the city formation.L’interesse verso la zona del Jabal Nafusah, nella Libia nord occidentale, nasce dalla volontà di studiare un sistema di insediamenti e di trasformazioni del paesaggio che per caratteristiche ed esiti formali rappresentano un unicum all’interno del Maghreb. Il lavoro presentato, diviso in quattro sezioni, si propone come un possibile metodo di lettura delle forme urbane e delle architetture che le hanno generate, attraverso lo studio delle tre città berbere di Nalut, Cabao, Ulad Mahmud. Tre casi di studio significativi analizzati mediante gli strumenti del disegno e dell’analisi grafica con lo scopo di comprenderne l’organizzazione logica delle configurazioni e verificarne la continuità territoriale. L’obiettivo è quello di creare una sequenza storico/analitica che partendo dagli oggetti architettonici più minuti, i più vicini alla scala umana per struttura e dimensione, proceda fino all’estensione urbana e territoriale. Un metodo di analisi induttivo che seppur limitato ad una porzione circoscritta dà vita ad un valido processo di interpretazione formale

Producing design objects from regular polyhedra: A Practical approach

In the last few years, digital modeling techniques have played a major role in Architecture and design, influencing, at the same time, the creative process and the way the objects are fabricated. This revolution has produced a new fertile generation of architects and designers focused on the expanding possibilities of material and formal production reinforcing the idea of architecture as an interaction between art and artisanship. This innovative perspective inspires this paper, which both describes the contemporary scenario and provides some practical guidance about tools and technologies designers most often use for creating geometrical sculptures by 3D printing. To do so, the creative possibilities of topological mesh modeling are used to create complex geometries. To delimitate the investigation, Regular Polyhedra are used as basic shapes. The aim of this procedure is to explore how combining different geometrical operations can activate architectural inquiry and generate interesting shapes with a creative flexibility

Horizons Maghrébins - le droit à la mémoire

This study describes the vernacular architecture and cultural landscape of Lybian Dj̲abal Nafūsa: the central portion of a horseshoe of mountains, about 600 meters high, which extends from the Maṭmāṭah region near Gabes in Tunisia to the coast not far from Misurata in Tripolitania. This peculiar geographic environment, forming the country’s "Berber heart", was historically characterized by the presence of the Ibadi Culture that is still consistently present today. Focusing mainly on the historic sites located on the border of this geographical region, this paper proposes an analysis, which runs from the territory to the basic architectural units. The aim is to verify the coincidence between the geographic space and cultural environment, studying the characteristics of landscape transformation, urban structures, architectural types and traditional constructive techniques

Impact of migration on architecture and urban landscape: the case of Leicester

open access journalIn the last five decades, Leicester has been a destination for communities of migrants coming from different parts of the world, becoming one of the most significant examples of a plural city in Europe. The current multicultural nature of the town is one of the elements that have gradually contributed to redefining its urban landscape, enriching the lexicon of shapes, forms and signs of a built environment traditionally associated with its industries and manufacturing plants. Two main events have been crucial for the development of this process: the first one is the arrival, in the ’50s of the Caribbean population from Antigua and Jamaica. The second is the migratory phenomenon of the late 1960s and early 70s which involved Asian families fleeing from Kenya, Uganda and Malawi. In the following years, diversity and openness progressively became a distinctive sign of the city image, often defined as one of the capitals of Asia in Britain from local stakeholders. Through historical and contemporary visual materials, this paper investigates and documents the impact of cultural diversity on the urban landscape of Leicester. In particular, the investigation aims at revealing some of the most exemplary case studies present in the city, describing the contributions made to the architectural and urban features by those who have made Leicester their hometown

A Shift in Teaching Architectural Design Studio: Adaptative Reuse and Retrofit as the Main Focus to Prepare Students for Complex Challenges of a Changing Profession

“The greenest building is the one that already exists”, Carl Elefante stated in 2007). In the last few years, this statement has been strengthened and the approach to sustainability in architecture has been focused more on understanding and decoding the potential and complexity of the existing built environment. To confirm this trend, in 2021 the Architecture Pritzker Prize was given to Lacaton & Vassal, whose mantra is “Never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform, and reuse!”. Considering this crucial shift in the profession, we need to adapt our teaching and equip students with specific tools to deal with this complex scenario. Re-use and retrofit are never an easy task and the constraints the existing building generates are an expression of the complex changing world. This new layer of complexity needs to be implemented in studio teaching to allow students to decode, investigate and take decisions after an existing artefact and contribute to the reduction of carbon emission and waste production. Since 2018 the research/teaching group (made of academics and professionals) tackled this issue in an integrated way where design, sustainability and technology, run across the semester in an interconnected delivery. From the appraisal of the existing building to the final scheme, fostering their peer-to-peer learning, students are teamed up stressing the potential of this fully integrated approach. Their final resolution is a design proposal informed by this wider complexity and able to improve and decode the world we are living and alongside this preserving its cultural values.Peer reviewe