Historical excursus on the mechanisms of urban perception and design.

1. THE CITY IN THE IMAGE
ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF URBAN LANDSCAPE
09.09.2015 | DOMUS ACADEMY | MASTER IN URBAN VISION AND ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

2. THE EVOLVING EYE

3. Rural Urban

4. Landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose
character is the result of the action and interaction of natural
and/or human factors.
European Landscape Convention, Florence, 20.X.2000, article 1: definitions.
Urban landscape means an urban area, as perceived by people,
whose character is the result of the action and interaction
of natural and/or human factors.

5. GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE, Uomo alla finestra, 1875CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH, Il viandante sul mare di nebbia, 1818

6. Just as the landscape of our individual experience, in
any moment and place, is necessarily limited by a
certain horizon, landscape in general is limited by the
horizon of a certain vision of the world, which is
characteristic of a certain context, of a certain culture
and of a certain epoch.
AUGUSTIN BERQUE, Come parlare di paesaggio?, 2009

7. JOACHIM PATINIR, Passaggio agli inferi, 1514-20

8. JAKOB VAN RUISDAEL, View of Haarlem, 1670

9. CIMABUE, Ytalia, 1280-90

10. GIOTTO, Rinuncia ai beni, 1299

11. ANONIMO, Città ideale di Urbino, 1480-90

12. ANONIMO, Città ideale di Baltimora, 1480-90

13. ANONIMO, Città ideale di Berlino, 1480-90

14. SEBASTIANO SERLIO, Scena tragica, 1545

15. JAN VAN DER HEYDEN, Il Oudezijds Voorbugwal con la Oude Kerk, 1660-70

16. GASPAR VAN WITTEL, Il Molo, la Piazzetta e Palazzo Ducale, 1697

17. CANALETTO, Il bacino di San Marco verso est, 1740

18. FRANCESCO GUARDI, Gondola sulla laguna, 1780

19. GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, Veduta dell'Arco di Tito, 1756

20. ROBERT ASTON BARKER, Panorama di Londra, 1792

21. THOMAS HORNOR, Panorama di Londra, 1828

22. LOUIS DAGUERRE, Boulevard du Temple, 1838

23. NADAR, Paris, 1858

24. ADOLPHE BRAUN, Il Ponte delle Arti, 1867

25. CLAUDE MONET, Carnevale nel Boulevard des Capucines, 1873

26. GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE, Il Ponte d’Europa, 1876-77

27. Church, tower, and cottages composed a
charming picture, as quaintly effective, as full of
colour, and as delightful to look upon, as though the
scene were designed by an artist. [...]
Why will not painters give us glimpses of some of the quaint
townscapes (to invent another word) of our romantic,
unspoilt English towns, instead of everlastingly rushing off
to the Continent for such subjects?.
JAMES JOHN HISSEY, A Tour in a Phaeton Through the Eastern Countries, 1889

28. ROBERT DELAUNAY, Campo di Marte, 1911

29. PAUL CITROEN, Metropolis, 1923

30. NIKOLAUS PEVSNER, Map for walking tour of Queen's Lane, Oxford, 1950s

31. GORDON CULLEN, Townscape, 1961

32. GORDON CULLEN, Serial Vision (Townscape), 1961

33. GORDON CULLEN, Place (Townscape), 1961

34. GORDON CULLEN, Content (Townscape), 1961

35. IVOR DE WOLFE, KENNETH BROWNE, Civilia, 1971

36. IVOR DE WOLFE, KENNETH BROWNE, Civilia, 1971

37. IVOR DE WOLFE, KENNETH BROWNE, Civilia, 1971

38. KING VIDOR, The Crowd, 1928

39. JACQUES TATI, Play Time, 1967

40. WIM WENDERS, Wings of desire, 1987

41. ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR, Abre los ojos, 1997

42. JON RAFMAN, The nine eyes of Google Street View, 2009

43. MISHKA HENNER, Dutch Landscapes, 2011

44. SUPERFLUX, Drone Aviary, 2015

45. Aireal: airspace as the next commodity

46. London City Dashboard

48. MIGRATIONS

49. MVRDV, BLANCA LLEÓ, Mirador, 2005

51. BALDASSARRE LANCI, Prospettiva teatrale, 1569

53. VIVIANO CODAZZI, Prospetto della Basilica di San Pietro, 1630

55. ANTONIO LOPEZ, Madrid desde Torres Blancas, 1976-82

57. JAMES TURRELL, Meeting, 1980

58. Paradox though it may seem [...] life imitates art
far more than Art imitates life. […]
Where, if not from the Impressionists, do we get those wonderful
brown fogs that come creeping down our streets, blurring the
gas-lamps and changing the houses into monstrous shadows?
Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we
see it, depends on the Arts that have influenced us. To look at a thing
is very different from seeing a thing. One does not see anything until one
sees its beauty. Then, and then only, does it come into existence.
At present, people see fogs, not because there are fogs, but because
poets and painters have taught them the mysterious loveliness of
such effects. There may have been fogs for centuries in London.
I dare say there were. But no one saw them, and so we do
not know anything about them. They did not exist till
Art had invented them.
OSCAR WILDE, The Decay of Lying, 1891

59. WOODY ALLEN, Midnight in Paris, 2011

60. CASPAR VAN WITTEL, la Piazzetta e il Palazzo Ducale, 1697

61. WILLIAM TURNER, Stamford, 1828

62. Driving into Stamford, a place we had never visited before,
we were struck by the familiarity of the townscape presented
to us; it seemed to greet us like an old friend, whose face we
had often seen.
JAMES JOHN HISSEY, Over Fen and Wold, 1898

63. EDWARD HOPPER, Gas, 1940

64. WIM WENDERS, Pina, 2011

65. Our eye, even when we think of it as poor, is rich and saturated
of an abundance of latent models, rooted and therefore beyond
suspicion – coming from painting, literature, cinema,
television, commercials, etc. - which act unconsciously in
order shape our experience, perceptive or not.
they
ALAIN ROGER, Short Treaty on Landscape, 1997

66. ERIC ROHMER, Il segno del leone, 1962EUGENE ATGET, Un coin du quai de la Tournelle, 1911

67. EDWARD HOPPER, Nighthawks, 1942
HERBERT ROSS, Pennies from Heaven, 1981

68. LUCIE AND SIMON, Times Square, 2011ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR, Abre los ojos, 1997

69. SAUL STEINBERG, “The New Yorker”, 1976 BOLLES+WILSON, Landscaping Hotel New York, 2006

70. GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, Prospettiva delle rovine dell'acquedotto, 1756

71. DAVID ROBERTS, Acquedotto di Segovia, 1837

72. LUDWIG HILBERSEIMER, Città Verticale, 1924

73. LE CORBUSIER, Plan Obus, 1933

74. Muro di Berlino, 1961

75. ARCHIZOOM, Parallel districts in Berlin, 1969

76. SUPERSTUDIO, Monumento Continuo, 1969

77. REM KOOLHAAS, ELIA ZENGHELIS, Exodus, 1971

78. DANIEL LIBESKIND, Potsdamer Platz, 1991

79. DOGMA, Field of wllas, 2012

80. BENIAMINO SERVINO, Agganciandosi alle utopie degli altri C+S Architetti, Casa della Giustizia di Venezia, 2012

81. GESTALTUNG
(construction)
configuration of matter already present
in the external environment, in virtue of
a human intervention.
VORSTELLUNG
(imagination)
internal representation or idea we form
when we perceive a selected part of
the Earth surface.
DARSTELLUNG
(representation)
artistic representation that crystalizes
the scenery of imagination in reference
to a selected part of the Earth surface.

82. URBAN SPACE ODDITY

83. The Wealth Report 2015, Where Ultra High Net Worth Individuals really live?

84. One Hyde Park

85. Westfield World Trade Center

86. 432 Park Avenue Development (New York)

87. Hudson Yards development (New York)

88. Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore

89. Empty street in a rich neighbourhood of London

90. Skating in Ordos

91. APOPS + MASNYC, Map of Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) in New York City

92. HELMUT JAHN, Sony Center, 2001

93. TOWNSHEND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, Granary Square, 2012

94. Hostile architecture, Guangzhou

95. Hostile architecture, London

96. Moving Sound Technologies, Mosquito Device

98. SUPERSTUDIO, Flooded Florence, 1972

99. The Italianness of Italian Landscape | Piazza del Duomo, 2014

100. The triumph of visual culture obliterates all complexities,
freezing the synaesthetic emotions and the psychological
dimension. It is the absolute visual supremacy that has determined
the reduction of landscape to a spectacle to be consumed.
The society of the spectacle has produced themed landscapes as a new
commodity to compensate the devastating internalization of
consumption.
But what is this landscape, this empty word that echoes in our times as
a sweet solution to all problems? Oh, how beautiful these Italian
landscapes are! They are so beautiful that we must save them.
We must preserve them, embalm them, protect them!
MARCO NAVARRA, Abiura dal paesaggio, 2012.

101. Freemont Street (Las Vegas)

102. Main Street (Disneyland)

103. South Street Seaport (New York)

104. Qianmen Street (Pechno)

105. Sky City (Hanghzou)

106. Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park (Manhattan)

107. Huis Ten Bosch (Nagasaki)

108. BANSKY, Dismaland

109. Black Rock City

110. Black Rock City (masterplan 2015)

111. Black Rock City (evolution)

112. Black Rock City (landscape)

113. SUPERSTUDIO, A Trip from A to B, 1969

114. THE THIRD CITY

115. The materiality of an inhabited center isn't just the
manifestation of a congregation of individuals, more
or less linked by family bonds or intentions, but
physically represents the conscious collective will to
build a political subject. […]
The fact that the civitas and the urbs are united just
as the palm and the back of a hend, changes the very
nature of the visible city.
MARCO ROMANO, L'estetica della città europea. Forme e immagini, 2005

116. AMBROGIO LORENZETTI, Effetti del Buon Governo in Città, 1340

117. URBS
CIVITAS

118. IMAGO
URBS
CIVITAS

119. IMAGO
(images)
URBS
(form)
CIVITAS
(structure)

120. Times Square, 2004 (?)

121. LATZ AND PARTNERS, Parco Dora, 2012

122. ZUS, Luchtsingle, 2015

123. AES Group, Islamic Project, 1996-2003

124. Brooklin Greenpoint Landing, 2013

125. RENZO PIANO BUILDING WORKSHOP, Intesa San Paolo tower, 2007

126. Manifest of the committee “Non Grattiamo il Cielo di Torino”

127. Logo of the committee “Non Grattiamo il Cielo di Torino”

128. “Don't Scrape the Sky” graffiti made by the committee “Non Grattiamo il Cielo di Torino”

129. Renders made by the committee “Non Grattiamo il Cielo di Torino”

130. Render made by the committee “Non Grattiamo il Cielo di Torino”

131. Renzo Piano's correction of the render made by the committee “Non Grattiamo il Cielo di Torino”

132. The Intesa San Paolo skyscraper in Torino's urban landscape

133. IMAGO
(images)
URBS
(form)
CIVITAS
(structure)

134. IMAGO
(images)
URBS
(form)
CIVITAS
(structure)
INTENSITY

135. Sanchinarro (Madrid)

136. IMAGO
(images)
URBS
(form)
CIVITAS
(structure)
INTENSITY DENSITY

137. San Blas (Madrid)

138. IMAGO
(images)
URBS
(form)
CIVITAS
(structure)
INTENSITY DENSITY
DIVERSITY

139. Seseña (Madrid)

140. SIMONA ROTA, Instant Village I: Tenerife, 2011

141. SIMONA ROTA, Instant Village II: Fuerteventura, 2011

142. JULIA SCHULZ-DORNBURG, Ruinas Modernas, 2012

143. JULIA SCHULZ-DORNBURG, Ruinas Modernas, 2012

144. JULIA SCHULZ-DORNBURG, Ruinas Modernas, 2012

145. Bubblescapes 2015

146. Bubblescapes 2015

147. Bubblescapes 2015

148. Every urban landscape is the spatial image of a specific
society in a specific historical period.
To design the urban landscape means to make possible the
existence of a certain kind of society by constructing the
network of social, physical and visual fragments of the city
it occupies.
In synthesis, the project of the urban landscape is the
project of the city itself.