Dipartimento di Architettura

This paper is based on some considerations on the inter-scalar figurative relations which bind all of its constituents and elements of detail, within a work of architecture. This relation can be an environment in which to study the portal created by Francesco Borromini and the door cornices, inside Palazzo Falconieri, so far ignored by historiography. The text contextualizes these analysis and observations within Borromini's relationship with antiquity focusing on the role of design and of geometry in the definition of his language. The original drawings of the project and the construction of the entry portal to the apartment of Orazio Falconieri were used to evaluate the relationship between the drawings and what was built, based on the data of the direct survey considered, in this case, as the most effective instrument of knowledge. The results, though partial, permit the clarification of some of the construction events related to the Palazzo.

This article deals with the research whose title is " Survey for a better knowledge of ancient architecture". The object of study and testing of the different survey methods is the so-called Arch of Drusus located on the Appian Way, near the St Sebastian Gate,

Starting from a reflection on the new role of digital technology in this pandemic situation, and particularly the role of AR for Cultural Heritage, this paper presents two AR applications. The first is used to share the analyses carried out on the Pantheon surveys realized between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The second is about the illusionistic dome in the Church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome, realized by Andrea Pozzo. These two applications can display three-dimensional models superimposed onto images and original drawings, and also two-dimensional contents: the results of graphical analysis carried out on digital copies. The final aim of this ongoing research is to develop some AR multimedia content, linked to semantic concepts.

Il terremoto del 1648 distrusse quasi completamente Sambiase, una frazione di Lamezia Terme, in Calabria, e ne segnò profondamente la storia, determinando l'avvio di un lungo e mai definitivamente concluso processo di ricostruzione. Lo studio del tessuto urbano realizzato attraverso il rilievo fotogrammetrico e 3D, svolto mediante tecniche 'a distanza', insieme all'analisi della documentazione storica, ha permesso di svelare preziose testimonianze del lessico architettonico del barocco calabrese all'interno di un agglomerato multiforme e disordinato. In particolare, lo studio alla scala dell'edificio, condotto sul Palazzo Cerra, ha messo in evidenza le modifiche avvenute durante i secoli e ha permesso di ipotizzare le varie fasi storico-ricostruttive. Questo studio ci consente di riaffermare, ancora una volta, il ruolo del disegno quale strumento di riconoscimento e riappropriazione dei caratteri identitari di un luogo, con la finalità di colmare la distanza nel tempo fra i frammenti di storia urbana e architettonica dispersi in contesti con i quali non hanno più relazione, per rileggerli come parte di una storia continua. Esso riconosce inoltre al disegno la proprietà di superare le distanze fisiche, oggi ulteriormente ampliate dalle restrizioni dovute alla pandemia, grazie alla condivisione e all'uso di metodologie che si basano sulle tecnologie digitali.

Even at the end of the nineteenth century, Rome prided a large number of decorated facades in graffiti or monochrome chiaroscuro, which te- stified the compositional richness and variety of these decorations, executed since the fifteenth century. The current research, which presents the first results, is aimed at deepening the study of formal features and materials of the Roman graphite facades, with the objective - among others - to define ways of recognition and con- servation practices of graffiti coverings. The re- search started by cataloging the graphite and painted facades in Rome in the fifteenth and si- xteenth centuries, and revealed the progressive loss of material characters and figurative values of such historical and artistic heritage. A systema- tic historical research has yielded, by continuous comparisons, the definition of a series of buil- dings types. One of these - the graffitied house in vicolo del Governo Vecchio, 52 - has been studied in detail, also using th...

Molti furono i pittori che concorsero con i loro disegni: chi offrendosi di farla di tavole rotonda, chi ottagonale, chi a stoia e a catino, e chi d’una figura e chi d’un’altra. Fra questi però non mancò il pensiero e il disegno del Padre Andrea: il quale propose di farla in tela piana stesa sopra un gran telaio, in cui fosse dipinta la cupola per sottoinsù; promettendo di farla apparire rotonda e ben ornata come se fosse fatta d’intiero rilievo1.

Recognizing the identity of a territory and examining its balances means recognizing a complex and delicate system in which all its elements are interdependent and linked to each other. For this reason, the study shows partial results of an inter-disciplinary research carried out on Acque Albule Basin, located in the NorthEast of metropolitan areas around Rome (Lazio Region in Italy). In particular, a trial of methodological protocol to define the knowledge system is proposed. This system is useful to draw up guidelines to the sustainable regeneration of cultural heritage. In this operating environment, the drawing, through its aspects, confirmed its function as a tool for knowledge. The acquisition, the integration and the systematization of data allowed the identification of main and minor themes, showing their mutual connections. In fact, landscape study is carried out from soil superior layers to the deepest ones, linking information that is very different in the scale of analysis and language. The study about historical and iconographic documentation, the integrated surveys, and 3D digital reconstruction highlight that the area is characterized by its peculiar balance, as a result of natural and human aspects and their combined action in time. The methodological protocol wants to combine natural resource information (water and Lapis Tiburtinus) and natural hazard data with anthropogenic and cultural aspects, due to industrial exploitation (travertine mining), agricultural use of soil and archaeological and architectonic heritage in the area. Comparing data is possible thanks to peculiar cognitive and organizational filters. Some aspects dealt with by the research are: a) the cataloguing of territorial elements, divided in anthropic, cultural and natural aspects through texts, ancient and actual cartographies, geological maps, iconographies, photos, and instrumental survey analysis; b) data vectorization to create maps and diagrams and to render historical information with scientific language; c) the cataloguing of natural hazards, obtained from a preliminary study about geomorphological and hydrogeological structure and its consecutive graphical representation, connected with territorial aspects; d) the cataloguing and graphical representation of related sceneries to mapping empathic balance or affected landscapes, according with temporal steps. In conclusion, the aim of this study is to identify an algorithm to discretize a complex landscape. Data management, due to a multidisciplinary approach and led by representation, is useful to rendering the cultural identity, nowadays cancelled by recent urban and territorial transformations.

– To this day, after three decades of ever more widespread use, the computer is still only one of the many tools necessary in the architect’s daily activity, as it has complemented but not substituted those based on manual graphics skills. The pedagogical and didactic questions to be weighted between traditional and digital tools is therefore as current as ever. Presented herein is a proposed teaching method that, for the exposition of the fundamental principles of the discipline, alternates directly drawing at the board and projecting interactive digital models, but deems pencil drawings and model building to be the overriding tools in the formation of the budding architect. The didactic methodology adopted is founded on the consideration that such manual activities contribute to consolidating the ability to reason sequentially with positive impact both towards the acquisition and subsequent use of computer aided design. Riassunto – Ancora oggi, dopo circa un trentennio di generali...

3D survey and advanced modeling in the study of the Forts of Rome: the Forte Monte AntenneIn the studies the authors are conducting on the entrenched camp of Rome, 3D surveys and digital models are used as means to understand constructions with the aim of developing restoration and re-utilization projects. For Forte Monte Antenne (1882-1891), the authors have carried out systematic studies of the formal and structural aspects. The data acquired from a direct survey and with laser scanner, drone and photogrammetry, integrated with data obtained from iconographic and bibliographic sources, were integrated in the creation of a digital model, which made the classification of the various elements in a structured database possible, including the verification of the relationship among the parts at varying levels, and the system of aeration ducts. Convective motions and the thermo-hygrometric and visual comfort within some of the environments, as well as thermographic surveys of the walls w...

Here some results are presented from the ongoing research of the analysis of the drawings by Francesco Borromini, preserved at the Albertina in Vienna, relating to designs of cupolas, in order to highlight the geometric constructions and the proportional relationships in function of the realization of the projects. In fact, besides the symbolic geometries traceable especially in the most famous buildings, such as the San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane or Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, evidenced even by Borromini himself, other and more decisive geometries are revealed by carefully observing the signed drawings. The research methodology adopted is based on comparing what emerged from the analysis of the drawings, the study of the treatises concerning the construction methods of the cupolas and the results obtained from the survey by means of a 3D laser scanner. The survey, in fact, becomes the tool to ascertain the correspondence between the theoretical form underlying the drawings, and the realized form, including the provisional works that determine the geometric conformation, verifying the link between the geometric-graphic reasoning related to the load distribution and the consequent dimension of the components.

In the studies the authors are conducting on the entrenched camp of Rome, 3D surveys and digital models are used as means to understand constructions with the aim of developing restoration and reutilization projects. For Forte Monte Antenne (1882-1891), the authors have carried out systematic studies of the formal and structural aspects. The data acquired from a direct survey and with laser scanner, drone and photogrammetry, integrated with data obtained from iconographic and bibliographic sources, were integrated in the creation of a digital model, which made the classification of the various elements in a structured database possible, including the verification of the relationship among the parts at varying levels, and the system of aeration ducts. Convective motions and the thermo-hygrometric and visual comfort within some of the environments, as well as thermographic surveys of the walls were conducted. The BIM model was integrated, therefore, with a MEP model. The hypothesis of restoration and possible adaptation to new functions cannot disregard the analysis of those parameters which complete the picture of environmental quality and thus of the effective potentials in repurposing of the structure.

The survey of ancient buildings and its computer graphic representation set some questions, particularly about period, site, conservation, accessibility and quality of the building. This research tests new computer programs oriented to the construction of three-dimensional models and graphics through non-metric photographs. The aim is to evaluate the relationships between modern methods, traditional ones and direct observation. The test is about some small dimension archaeological buildings (or parts of larger buildings) in Pompeii, in which the question is to represent the various kinds of building materials and the colour of the surfaces, through drawings in different graphic scales. The research presents some results with a fairly good balance between the dimensional reliability, the general morphology and the quality of the details.

Il testo parte da alcune riflessioni sul tema della piega nel barocco, nell’accezione datane da Gilles Deleuze, come spunto per rintracciare all’interno dell’opera di Francesco Borromini una continuita figurativa tra il piccolo e il grande, tra il dettaglio e l’opera di cui fa parte. Numerosi disegni autografi mostrano come la definizione del dettaglio assuma un ruolo centrale nell’ambito dell’opera, e sembra di poter leggere nelle pieghe che modellano le superfici architettoniche degli spazi interni, o delle facciate esterne, gli stessi valori linguistici che articolano le singole modanature. In Borromini e evidente che il disegno sia strumento di formazione del linguaggio, anche attraverso lo studio delle antichita, e che esso abbia una funzione euristica nell’ambito della ricerca progettuale. Il testo si sofferma quindi su una lettura ascalare di alcuni disegni, nei quali e possibile interpretare le pieghe che modellano le modanature, come le equivalenti articolazioni delle paret...

Starting from reflections on the theme of the fold in the Baroque, in the sense given by Gilles Deleuze, as a starting point we go on to trace, within Francesco Borromini’s work, a figurative continuity between the small and the large, between the detail and the whole work of which it is but a part. Numerous of his original drawings show how the definition of detail takes on a central role in his work, and it may be possible to read in the folds that shape the architectural surfaces of the interior spaces, or of the external facades, the same linguistic values that articulate the individual moldings. In Borromini it is evident that the drawing is an instrument of the formation of his language, as it is in his study of antiquity, and has a heuristic function within the design research. The text focuses on an ascalar (here the term ascalar has been coined to signify invariant on any scale) reading of some drawings, in which one can interpret the folds that shape the moldings, as the e...