From Landscape to Interior: a design studio experience in Monesteroli, Italy

Monesteroli is a small semi-abandoned village situated on a cliff on the coast of Liguria, Italy. The challenges of the site cut across all project scales, from infrastructural (the village can only be reached on foot) to landscape (the steep terrain has been modelled over the centuries by human labour, which has carved out cultivable terraces) to interior design (there are several abandoned traditional stone houses). In addition, there are collateral themes such as tourism enhancement, strategic planning and economic management of the project. In the MSc of Architecture, Built Environment and Interiors of the Politecnico di Milan, we proposed a classroom organized as a unique research and innovation design unit, where the students faced the case study without simplifying the complexity of the problems. The adopted approach is that of 'Design by Research' (DbR). This formula inverts the traditional relation between the two terms, turning design into the purpose and research into the method. We acknowledge that particularly complex or urgent design issues cannot be simply solved by applying a set of predetermined strategies. On the contrary, they require a tactical form of investigation that can individuate the most effective and locally relevant solutions by means of innovation. Therefore, DbR also indicates a format that looks after real and actual design issues, by focusing on the renewal and hybridization of design processes, elements and imaginaries: in particular, the case study bring the attention on the possible ways of living the wilderness without domesticating it and conceiving architectural design for post human scenarios. The theoretical contributions included in the course provided several inputs ranging from the philosophical to the practical/technical field. The experience of the studio opens to a wider reflection about introducing multi-scale approach in the teaching practice and provide a successful example of managing complexity.