Stefano Boeri at IaaC_Newspaper Interview

admin — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 14:18:06 +0000

IAAC LECTURES SERIES: STEFANO BOERI

admin — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:54:58 +0000

Tonight at IAAC, Stefano Boeri gave us a lecture explaining his way of producing architecture and specially the relation that this field has with politics. Stefano focused on two projects, one related to the harbour architecture, and the other one related with how can we use vegetation as a main element to produce a tower. One of the main characteristics of this projects is that they have been built, which is something that is not common in all this radical and innovative architectural projects. Because of that, Stefano could explain many aspects of the materialitzation of both projects, which gave to the lecture a very interesting sense of precision and reality.

I have always been obsessed with harbour architecture.

For many years, in Genoa, Thessaloniki, Naples, Trieste, Mytilene and La Maddalena, I have studied, thought

about and designed buildings that face onto the sea—constructions like silos, naval stations, warehouses,

observation towers and dry docks.

These buildings work as border infrastructure, accustomed to handling the huge mobile volumes of ships and

containers, acting as boundaries between expanses of water and the large spaces used for parking and

shunting goods.

The Villa Méditerranée is a dock building. It is a construction that combines the characteristics of civic

architecture with those of harbour infrastructure and off-shore platforms. Its spaces, traversed by a mixed

structure of reinforced concrete and steel, are articulated in plan via three parallel, superimposed, horizontal

levels, two of which are developed above and below the level of the sea—a large, 1,000-square-metre

exhibition area set 14 metres above the water, and a 2,500-square-metre space for conferences and theatrical

events below.

The heart of the project is the large piazza/dock pool: a covered collective space protected from the sun and

wind.

The water piazza is connected to the open sea, allowing currents, fish and boats to enter the architecture.

Rather than creating a pool or basin, this marine building provides useful space for mooring and sailing, for

games, parties, shows, commerce and even fishing. Villa Méditerranée will be the great cavana of Marseille, a

place where the city can welcome the currents of thought and life that cross the Mediterranean.

Villa Méditerranée is a place of thought and research that physically embraces the sea.

When I designed the building in 2003, I was working with the Multiplicity group on an investigation into routes

travelled by illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean. Titled Solid Sea, our study set out to highlight the new

form of the Mediterranean, how it had become a “solid sea” crossed by routes that are as specialised and rigid

as motorways, ones which never allow their various users (immigrants, tourists, fishermen and the military, for

example) to meet or communicate.

A year before, at Documenta XI in Kassel, with Multiplicity we presented the reconstruction of a tragedy that

took place off the coast of Sicily: a shipwreck that claimed the lives of over 283 Sri Lankan, Indian and

Pakistani refugees, partly as a result of the indifference of the Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities.

The desire to counteract this drift towards closure and isolation led to the idea of a building that, in contrast, is

explicitly open to the cultural exchanges originating from the sea, welcoming researchers, students, artists,

intellectuals and tourists. This structure represents the extraordinary mixture of languages, tastes and colours

that Marseille has received from other cities in the Mediterranean.

It is a design capable of embodying the ambitious project of Regional Council President Michel Vauzelle: to

create a centre in Marseille for the revival of cultural and political relationships between the Mediterranean’s

different shores and cities, amid a Europe in crisis, a North Africa in turmoil and a Middle East being torn

apart.

A text by Stefano Boeri

Stefano Boeri lecturing at IAAC on Thursday 23rd at 19:30

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:23:13 +0000

Stefano Boeri at IaaC

Lecture: “Mar Adentro”
23rd of May // 19:30 // IAAC Auditorium // C/Pujades 102 BARCELONA

Stefano Boeri, born in 1956, is a Milan-based architect and founder of “Stefano Boeri Architetti”. From 2004 to 2007 he was editor in chief of Domus international magazine. From 2007 to 2011 he was editor in chief of the international magazine Abitare. Professor of Urban Design at the Politecnico di Milano, he has taught as visiting professor at Harvard GSD, MIT and Berlage Institute among others. He is the founder of Multiplicity international research network dedicated to the study of contemporary urban transformations. Co-author of different volumes such as Mutations (Actar, 2000), USE (Skirà, 2002) and Cronache del Abitare (Mondadori, 2007), Biomilano (Corraini, 2011) and author of Anticittà (Laterza, 2011). Stefano Boeri, with his texts and reflections, is a regular contributor to several magazines and newspapers. Together with Burdett, Herzog and MacDonough, Boeri was part of the Architecture Advisory Board in charge of developing the guidelines for the urban transformations to be implemented within the frame of the 2015 Milan Architecture Expo.

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Stefano Boeri at IaaC_Newspaper Interview

IAAC LECTURES SERIES: STEFANO BOERI

Stefano Boeri lecturing at IAAC on Thursday 23rd at 19:30