Villa Altissimo: Circunstância e Projecto

Abstract

The dissertation that is presented is based on the development of a project entitled Artist-in-Residence located in Moncalieri, south of Turin city centre in Piedmont, in the scope of the Hill of the Arts competition. The presented work is structured from the reflection on a set of project themes that were considered relevant. In fact, this dissertation derives from the desire to approach the broad theme of architectural intervention in historical contexts through the reading and understanding of a specific reality, the Villa Altissimo. This approach intends not only to circumscribe and relativize the "construction in the built" through the confrontation with the starting circumstance, but also to reinforce the essential interdependence of the issues of Architecture Theory and its practice, questioning the unidirectionality of the projectual intervention in heritage professed by the conservators of the restoration discipline. The work presented here is organised into three chapters: Prelúdio, Concurso e Temas de Projecto. The first exists as a premise, a condition apparently disconnected, at least in part, but fundamental to the understanding of the design action narrated in the second and third parts. The other two chapters are, in fact, a collection of reflections divided between the themes and issues that were deemed relevant to the competition and the themes and issues whose gathering was prompted by the design action. Finally, the theme of the dissertation, architectural intervention in historical contexts, is developed and presented from the design process, culminating in the presentation of a final proposal. This final proposal is not intended to be the conclusion of a previous theoretical study, but a starting point for the act of thinking and designing places.