Author page: Alessandro Calvi Rollino

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The Place of Architecture the Architecture of Place – Part I: The Identity of Places   

July 20, 2024

In the article The Identity of a Place: Place-Based Interventions Between Land and Society, I argued for the necessity of a place-based document or report that could assist practitioners who work with places (e.g., architects, planners, politicians, social scientists, etc.) in making decisions, whenever they are concerned with understanding the character of a place from a holistic or, as I…

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>News, Processes( )Systems, Transdisciplinary, Urban Planning

On the Modernity of Patrick Geddes (1854-1932)

July 18, 2024

1. Prologue: A New Vision of Nature ‘Since the middle of the nineteenth century, many traditional scientific certainties faded away, because of discoveries in Physics, Chemistry and Biology… A convergence between physical, biological and social sciences began and similarities between processes in living, non-living and social systems were noted. This led to hypothesize the existence of similar laws behind processes…

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>News, Architecture, Transdisciplinary

On Place and Site

June 12, 2024

This article is about a distinction we often tend to overlook: the difference between ‘place’ and ‘site’. Even if the two terms are both used to denote a territory or a piece of land, I hold – as others have done before me – [1] there is a reduction of meaning in the passage from ‘place’ to ‘site’: a reduction…

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>News, Processes( )Systems, Transdisciplinary

The Identity of a Place: Place-Based Interventions Between Land and Society

January 11, 2024

A few weeks ago, I answered a call launched by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), in association with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for one of their programs – the Multidisciplinary Research Project. That project aims to promote ‘new modes for collective research’.[1] This year, the sixth edition of the Research Project had the following theme: In the Hurricane,…

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>News, Architecture

The Alexander-Eisenman Debate on the Background of Different Spatial Theories

November 22, 2023

In 1982 renewed architects and theorists Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenman met at Harvard University — Graduate School of Design — to debate on the concept of harmony in architecture: ‘Contrasting Concepts of Harmony in Architecture’ was the argument of that witty, biting, and ironic debate, which was originally published in the magazine Lotus International n° 40 (1983), and later…

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