[Colloque international] “Motorway Architecture and Landscapes Retrospectives and Perspectives between Critique and Design” – Politecnico de Milan – 1er-2 mars 2024

Le colloque international “Motorway Architecture and Landscapes Retrospectives and Perspectives between Critique and Design” se déroulera au DAStU (département d’architecture et d’études urbaines) du Politecnico de Milan les 1er et 2 mars 2024.

Accédez à l’annonce : Politecnico de Milan

Contacts: motorarchland@polimi.it

Comités d’organisation et scientifique

Organization: Elena Fontanella, Claudia Zanda, DAStU, Politecnico di Milano

Scientific committee: Eric Alonzo (Éav&t Paris-Est, OCS/AUSser), Carmen Andriani (Università di Genova), Walter Angonese (Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio), Renato Bocchi (Università IUAV di Venezia), Antonio De Rossi (Politecnico di Torino), Alberto Ferlenga (Università IUAV di Venezia), Andrea Gritti (Politecnico di Milano), Tullia Iori (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata), Mathieu Mercuriali (ENSA Strasbourg), Alessandra Oppio (Politecnico di Milano),
Dominique Rouillard (ENSA Paris Malaquais), Ilaria Valente(Politecnico di Milano).

Présentation

The conference aims to explore motorways both in retrospective and perspective terms. Looking towards the past, motorways appear as emblems of modernity, able to characterize territories and landscapes and, with alternating fortunes, to face the shocks produced by recurring economic, political and social crises. At the same time, looking towards the future, motorways emerge as a frontier place where it is possible to test new design strategies, both to counter the effects of climate change and to seize the opportunities offered by the expansion of new digital technologies in integrated systems for the mobility of people and goods. By assuming this twofold point of view, the Conference is adressed to researchers that, since the beginning of the 21st century, have studied the relationship between motorways and their contexts, proposing a series of questions.

What are the design experimentations that characterised the first century of motorway history from the points of view of architecture and engineering and their scales of intervention? Which of these projects, later realised, is worthy of preservation today, or which of them are object of maintenance cycles that changed their meaning or to removals that have erased their presence? Where and how has the relationship between motorway infrastructure and the crossed territories changed among decades? Why do motorway landscapes emerge at different latitudes that are sometimes generic and sometimes specific? How should the design of motorway infrastructure change to counteract nowadays the effects of climate change and strengthen processes of ecological and energy transition? When and how could designers collaborate with transport systems providers to reduce motorway ecological footprint?

Motorway Architecture and Landscapes conference is therefore an opportunity to reflect on history, places, theories and practices of architectural, urban and landscape design, by starting to study the interiors and surroundings of the motorway: the elements that make them resonate with their contexts, whether physical or cultural, real or virtual.

Programme

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