Terraforming

YEAR +

2018

INSTITUTION +

Made Program
Accademia di Belle Arti Rosario Gagliardi link

LOCATION +

Syracuse - Misterbianco | Italy

Terraforming
Design course - lectures and prototypes

A theoretical and practical course dedicated to raw earth: an ancient material that today is being rediscovered as contemporary and innovative, allowing a reflection on the use of natural materials in the fields of Architecture and Design.

Terraforming, the title of the course, refers to a theory developed by aerospace scientists and science fiction writers that a planet can be designed to host life. Conceived with the idea of terraforming the Moon or Mars, it later also served to explain how the planet Earth is engineered and transformed by man. Early prehistoric earth architectures, the subsequent technological stratifications, up to cloud computing and artificial intelligence, can be considered as a progressive layering of planning aimed at making the surrounding environment more habitable and therefore "designed".

During the course, both vernacular construction techniques and sustainable contemporary solutions will be presented with the aim of identifying the potential of an apparently elementary material such as earth. With the support of Guglielmino, a historic company from Misterbianco that has reinvented itself in the field of natural building materials, students will be able to study the properties of the raw earth and other techniques of processing materials related to green building, including pisè, cocciopesto, terra migaki and tadelakt.

The objective of the practical workshop will be to design and make a prototype capable of interpreting the raw earth through a contemporary perspective, investigating both speculative futures and realistic innovations and tapping into the expertise offered by Guglielmino.