Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

The phenomena of space, and movement through space, play an important role in shaping our perception of the atmosphere of the historic city as well as Giancarlo De Carlo’s work. He is known for his close reading of the historic city of Urbino and its region. This provided the basis for his subsequent architectural works. The paper first briefly outlines De Carlo’s process of reading the territory, focusing on the role of the passage as a visual armature for organizing space. De Carlo’s own writings, rather vague on this subject, are nonetheless considered. Following which, the paper looks into questions that surround formulating an aesthetics of passage through the city, drawing from the writings of the late philosopher, Heinz Paetzold, Lefebvre’s “Writings on Cities,” Burckhardt’s science of strollology, and De Certeau’s rhetoric of walking. These serve as a lens through which De Carlo’s architecture is re-examined. The paper concludes by considering the formation of a urban aesthetic, one that is inextricable from our experience of the atmosphere of the city and grasped through our rhythmic movement through its spaces, offers a new perspective on the urban fabric, urban design practices, and architecture in general. In addition, the paper contributes to expanding our knowledge of De Carlo’s design process through a spatial examination of his built work of Giancarlo de Carlo.