A Survey on Daylighting Education in Italian Universities. Knowledge of Standards, Metrics and Simulation Tools

Daylighting is a strategic topic to achieve sustainable buildings, so it is more and more imperative that it is implemented in architecture curricula to prepare a new generation of daylighting-oriented practitioners. In this frame, the DAYKE project (Daylight Knowledge in Europe) was set up to explore the level of knowledge about daylighting among European professionals and students. DAYKE-Europe was replicated as DAYKE-Italy to study the knowledge of daylight standards, metrics and software among Italian architecture students, and to compare it to that observed within DAYKE-Europe. A sample of 542 questionnaires were collected in five universities. Primary outcomes were: (i) a general low level of knowledge on daylighting was observed; the most cited metrics were the average daylight factor and the geometrical window-to-floor ratio, while climate-based daylight metrics were rarely mentioned; (ii) master science M.Sc. students reported more knowledge on daylight metrics and regulations than bachelor B.Sc. students, while the implementation of daylight metrics and strategies in projects was mainly deficient among B.Sc. students; (iii) compared to European students (DAYKE-Europe), Italian students showed a higher knowledge of daylight metrics and software (especially as for M.Sc. students), while the opposite was observed for standards, regulations and protocols. Based on the results, a reconsideration of daylight education in architecture curricula is recommended.

I mercati coperti di Giuseppe Mengoni

Florence, the new capital of the Kingdom of Italy (1864-1870), went through a period of great transformation, which would leave significant traces in the city’s image and structure. The construction of the new markets is emblematic of the city’s infrastructural modernisation, with the introduction of new architectural languages and construction technologies of international standing. The Central Market at San Lorenzo is one of the most representative buildings of this modernisation process, a true masterpiece by Giuseppe Mengoni, the renowned designer of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. This volume reconstructs its history from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, based on largely unpublished documentation. It places Florence and its new market in a European context where architecture, town planning, politics and finance are tightly intertwined. The Florentine case becomes a paradigm of the renewal of Italian architecture in the second half of the 19th century.

THE FORMING OF CASTELLUM-TYPE CASTLES AND FOUR-UNIT BUILDING COMPLEXES WITH CHAPELS IN SECULAR POWER CENTRES OF COURLAND AND THE STATE OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER

In the noble families houses, a sacral room or a separate volume made for relics’ storage or prayers started to call the chapel (German: Kapelle, Latin: capella). The name for this building type was borrowed from the Latin words cappa, capa. The knights for implementation of its policy on conquered lands inhabited by the Balts founded economically independent castles of stone that included chapels. According to regulations of castellum’s planning, the chapel had to be situated on the east side of the structure. In Livonia and the State of the Teutonic Order, the location of castles and cult buildings influenced layouts of town centres. Research goal: analysis the impact of cult buildings on layouts and spatial structures of castles and fortified centres to determine common and different characteristics in Livonia and the State of the Teutonic Order. Research problem: the influence of sacred buildings’ location on layouts of castles, built by the Teutonic Order. has not well researched. Research novelty: structures of the Teutonic Order’s fortresses are studied in the context of Italian architecture. Research methods: studies of urban planning cartographic materials, archive documents, projects, published literature and inspection of buildings in nature.

СЕМАНТИКА ГОРОДСКИХ И СЕЛЬСКИХ ПЕЙЗАЖЕЙ ЛИТВЫ В ДЕТСКОМ СОВЕТСКОМ КИНЕМАТОГРАФЕ

В статье проанализированы специфические причины появления в советских детских фильмах эпизодов, демонстрирующих городские и сельские ландшафты Литвы и создающих особую атмосферу в кадре. Поскольку вильнюсское барокко испытало на себе влияние итальянской архитектуры, то съёмки в Литве создавали в советском кинематографе иллюзию Италии. Ещё одна из причин лежит в плоскости инаковости культуры, внутри которой легко сотворить образ врага. Но вместе с этой крайностью в контексте детского кинематографа лежит и полярно другая целевая причина: визуально продемонстрировать абсолютную идентичность литовского городского пространства российскому, точнее, советскому пространству. Использование ландшафтов литовских городов носило мозаичный характер. Определённые места, которые зритель видит в кадре, по смыслу выполняют иную функцию, нежели та, которая характерна для них в реальности. Городское пространство Литвы в детском советском кинематографе лишено присущей ему семантики. В статье выявляются закономерности, согласно которым авторы фильмов намеренно отказывают в узнаваемости историческим и повседневным объектам этой прибалтийской республики.The article analyzes the specific reasons for the occurrence of episodes demonstrating urban and rural landscapes of Lithuania and creating a distinctive atmosphere within the frame in Soviet children films. Since Vilnius baroque was influenced by Italian architecture, filmmaking in Lithuania created the illusion of Italy for Soviet cinema. Another reason lies in the ground of otherness of the culture, inside which an image of an enemy was easier to create. But along with this extreme point there is another opposite aspect in the context of Soviet children cinematograph – visual demonstration of the absolute identity of Lithuanian urban space to Russian, or, more precisely, Soviet one. The use of Lithuanian cities landscapes was mosaic by its nature. Different meaning, than the one they performed in reality, was attributed to certain places that the audience saw in frames. The urban space of Lithuania in children’s Soviet cinema is devoid of its true meaning. The article reveals those patterns by which filmmakers deliberately refuse to show historical and everyday objects of this Baltic republic in a recognizable way.

Specificity of arrangement of apse space in the Franciscan Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples (1260-1340)

This article explores the peculiarities of spatial planning and construction phases of apse in the Franciscan Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples. Gothic deambulatory with a crown of radial chapels in the Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore is a unique typology of apse structure for the architecture of Franciscans in Italy. The architectural monument is ranked with a number of other Franciscan churches in Naples, built under the patronage of the monarchs of the Kingdom of Naples from Anjou Dynasty. Analysis is conducted on engineering aspects and system of orders of the Neapolitan Church. The analysis of formal-stylistic features and taking and consideration of historical peculiarities of the architectural monuments, the author suggests possible influence of the architectural language of French Gothicism upon the plan of the Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore. The article revises historiography of the question of origin of oriental hue in the Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore. The author substantially broadens the vector of research problems and interpretations associated with examination of French influence upon the plan of the apse of the Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore. The novelty of consists in the analysis of apse of the Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore the context of logics of the development of deambulatory in French Gothicism, rather than borrowing of this shape from medieval Italian architecture.

Domesticating Italy's foreignness in China: the transcultural politics of the copy and the real

This article consists of three sections. The first one concentrates on the conceptualisation of the Italian concession in Tianjin (1901–1947). The second connects the past imagery of the Italian ‘aristocratic concession’ to its contemporary reinvention as the ‘New Italian-style Town’. The third section explores the rationale for the diffusion of what I define as Italianerie: a fascination for Italy, for a ‘real-unreal’ Italian-flavoured atmosphere, through the creation of multi-million-dollar luxury designer outlets known as ‘Florentia Villages’. The first Florentia Village, ‘inspired by classic Italian architecture’, opened in Wuqing, halfway between Beijing and Tianjin, in June 2011, followed by the replica of this template in eight Chinese cities. Is this the outcome of a specific patrimonialisation strategy? What is the significance of this showcase of Italian design in China? What lies behind the apparent paradox of reproducing ‘in/authentic’ Italy in miniature, and using it to sell the ‘real’ luxury products, in a country like China, which is stereotyped as the paradise of the fake? Is innovation by design reconfiguring the relationship between production and consumption of cultural images and commodities? This article intends to explore these questions with particular attention to transcultural strategies in Chinese urbanism – past and present.