Aesthetic Perspectives in Group Decision and Negotiation Practice

This paper explores the role of the aesthetics in Group Decision and Negotiation (GDN) practice, specifically how it affects the methods and the cognitive processes in the architectural field. We intend aesthetics as “scientia cognitionis sensitivæ”, a particular process and way of knowing and experiencing the problem through senses, imagination and empathy. We argue that (a) aesthetics and aesthetic features can (and do) convey knowledge about the problem; (b) we can distinguish between two kinds of aesthetics, one of the process and one of the product and (c) the aes-thetics can contribute to create a “plural subject”. The issue is investigated through a decision problem about the transformation of an iconic building in the centre of Turin (Italy), in two ways: (1) by merging the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA) with architectural design and (2) by approaching the same issue with Storytelling, as a method for problem-based instruction. Considering the aesthetics as a specific form of language, the paper offers innovative considerations about the role of repre-sentation and visualisation tools and models—drawing, scheme, diagrams, but also video and text—as support for group decisions and negotiations, in the construction of knowledge within decisional processes

Adequate housing and covid-19: Assessing the potential for value creation through the project

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the relationship between people’s behaviors and residential spaces, bringing to public and academic attention, on the one hand, the exacerbation of pre-existing problems and, on the other, the potential of spaces, such as communal gardens and apartment-block terraces, to become important resources of sociability or privacy. Overall, this raises the question of how to assess the responsiveness of the existing residential stock to needs that transcend the traditional concept of housing adequacy—e.g., the need for adaptable, open, and livable spaces. This research moves from the assumption that underused spaces in residential neighborhoods represent a crucial asset for creating new economic and social values through architectural and urban projects. Consequently, moving from an in-depth observation of a selection of public housing buildings in Turin as a paradigmatic case study, the aim is to explore the potential for the adaptive reuse of residential spaces at different scales—from the apartment to the neighborhoods—highlighting the implications for design. In doing so, the paper puts forward a methodological approach, which widens the way housing adequacy is normally assessed, by focusing on the possibility of transformation of often neglected spatial resources

Innovation in Practice in Theory: Positioning Architectural Design and its Agency.

The book is the result of a tripartite academic trajectory dedicated to the issue of innovation in practice. It gathers material produced for and during an interna-tional Ph.D. course, an international Summer School for Master students, and an international Ph.D. seminar, all held at Politecnico di Torino with the participation of students and faculty from TU Berlin, University of Belgrade, Architectural As-sociation, KTH Stockholm, Sciences Po, Centre Jean Pépin, CNRS Paris, Ecole National d’Architecture Paris Val de Seine. These three events also coincided, in temporal terms and in the general hypothesis being tested, with the fifth issue of the journal Ardeth (Architectural Design Theory) guest-curated by Andrés Jaque and dedicated to the theme of “Innovation as it happens.” These academic ex-periences are part of a wider thrust towards the consolidation of a growing net-work of schools and research groups working on the issue of innovation in the project of architecture: what does it mean to innovate the practice of architec-ture? Can we understand the project of architecture as a socio-technical object that, as much as other socio-technical objects, is susceptible to processes of innovation? Which paradigms of innovation can we refer to as architects? What is the role of critical theory in the research for innovation in the project? And, on the other hand, what is the contribution that pragmatist approaches can make when looking at day-to-day practice