New Models and Methods
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, School of Architecture
Towards a Typology of Social Space: An Examination of the Vicinato in the Built Work of Giancarlo De Carlo in Urbino, Italy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mark Blizard
This paper examines the central role of the “communal courtyard” [vicinato] in the spatial organization of Giancarlo De Carlo’s University of Urbino residential campus (1962–1983). As a young architect, De Carlo first encountered the vicinato in Matera as part of a group of architects and planners who descended on this remote city at the eastern edge of Basilicata. Matera found itself at the epicenter of the post-war polemic as Europeans questioned the continued relevance of the traditional city. The vicinato, a semi-public space, was woven into the urban fabric by a network of paths and stairways. It was widely acknowledged as the key spatial unit that mediated between the public and private realms and gave Matera its particular character and social structure. Drawn from his experience in Matera, and the multi-disciplinary analysis of the city and its region as provided by the initial Study Group, the vicinato appears as a principle of organization in De Carlo’s buildings where it is translated in different ways, responding to different situations. For De Carlo, Urbino became a living laboratory. His work in Urbino spans decades and includes over fifteen realized projects. As such, the typology of the vicinato and its evolving place within his design process can be assessed over time.
Featured Constructing Justice around Desalination: Disentangling Discourses on the Future of the the Built Environment under Climate Change View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Brian O'Neill
Conceptions of justice and the built environment now go hand in hand amidst escalating discussions of climate adaptation. This study articulates one expression of this urban tensions through a discussion of environmental justice discourses. The environmental justice (EJ) frame is a key feature of successful grassroots mobilization against the uneven distribution of environmental problems. But what happens when this discursive framework is questioned – when basic features of its established definition are made to serve, rather than contest, industry? The paper examines this dynamic through an ethnography of a high-volume desalination (potable ocean water) proposal - an object understand as an additional blight amidst a coastal wasteland. Findings indicate community groups and non-governmental organizations make normative EJ arguments about the high costs of desalination, community disruption, and industrial burden. Organized labor and public sector actors align with the private sector to promote desalination, using a competing series of arguments about high costs of alternatives, local independence, regional responsibility, and employment. Disentangling these discourses, the author argues that claims in favor of desalination are part of a cooptation process, conceived within the financial framework of “project finance” that ultimately facilitates community cleavage in favor of a class bias for a luxury commodity – purified ocean water. Linking environmental sociology and political economy, this research contributes to sociological and policy discussions about industrial infrastructure, calling scholars, activists, and decision-makers to attend to how environmental (in)justice politics adopts surprising meanings based upon social context amidst the expansion of financial capitalism.
