Culture of the City

Summer School, 26th July - 3rd August

‘The Culture of the City’ is a summer school in its second year, which takes place in Ancona, Italy. It is promoted by the Università Politecnica delle Marche, to create an academic network aiming to exchange methodologies and strategies for the understanding of the urban landscape, and to explore the structure of a city and learn from existing conflicts in other contemporary cities.

The case study is the city of Ancona, a historic port city with a particular connection to its natural landscape – sea, hills and mountains. Ancona was studied to gain a quick understanding of its urban landscape, and then an intense design project was focused on social and anthropological issues as well as spatial and architectural scale problems. All the groups at the school identified almost immediately the lost connections between Ancona's contemporary city, the historical centre and the sea. We had studios within the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona's historic centre, which provided a fascinating environment for our studies.

The research aimed to assemble a broader picture of the city, information which was then used to assemble a group proposal at various scales. The group I was working with studied an area of the city characterised by a series of monasteries, one of which was in ruins following World War II and a subsequent earthquake. We envisioned a 'secret garden' which uncovered these ruins and made them a vital connection point in this area of the city, as well as a meaningful contemporary public space.

The summer school also featured a series of lectures by the professors and by some participating students, with discussions on a selected bibliography. I presented my current research into intangible heritage within the context of L'Aquila, which sparked interesting debate into appropriate reconstruction methods in Italy and worldwide with particularly useful feedback from Italian professors and students.