BEST PRACTICE IN INNOVATIVE DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR THE OPEN SPACE NETWORK AT METROPOLITAN AND LOCAL LEVEL Call for paper
Published at: 22 December 2011

This call is to stimulate original writing on the subject of best practices as innovative design guidelines for the open space network at metropolitan and local level. Sponsored by the Ateneo Italo Tedesco a 2 days seminar took place in Rome (5 > 6 December 2011) where Italian and German relators compared experiences. The debate has been lively and vivacious focusing public attention on outstanding projects and practises. To implement the debate a publication will be arranged editing the seminar statements but also including written works selected by an international jury. The research team coordinate by Lucia Nucci and Esther Giani invite researchers at any level to participate at the call for paper. The material and general conditions of the competition will also be available on Planum webpage: www.planum.net/events-news/regole-progettuali

Best practices as innovative design guidelines for the open space network Research by Research Over the past ten years the topic of open space network has generated many challenging and interesting discussions both inside and outside academia, and almost all programmes in architecture have been influenced by the theme. Despite the many discussions, it’s still hard to define what best practices for the open space network at metropolitan and local level is. In the more established research fields outside the creative disciplines, best practices to set liveable open spaces within urban areas or brownfield situations are neither directly overlooked nor openly encoded. Italy probably is slightly behind other countries such as Germany, France, United Kingdom, who seem more opened up for new types of collaboration between design professions and other related fields. ** Research By Research** The open space system is put forward again in recent masterplan schemes, whose strategic framework is characterized by continuity and chain paradigm. This has become a crucial component for the regeneration and integration of the inner and modern city with the contemporary urban fringe. The importance of this research field stems from the great availability in contemporary global cities, coupled with the abandoned land, left over space remaining from the settlement process, brownfields in general. The questions addressed in this research deals with a number of issues. These are: - the way these areas are associated to very different typologies and factors (real estate residues, minor roads, old railway routes disused, old valley lines broken, green rural residues, left over space after planning); - how these are subjects to improper use (warehouses, temporary vegetable gardens, improvised play areas, unauthorised parking lots, etc.) or inadequate use (green public spaces divided into town districts); - how design tends to ignore these residual spaces or to use them in a fragmented vision of public and green spaces. Generally the re-use of these spaces has been episodic. Its motivations were mostly connected to the centrality land values, as well as to the agents’ contingent intentions, purely for densification purposes (to fill in gaps) or to protect the empty space. The hypothesis is to re-use these areas (left over space, abandoned land, brownfield site) to built green chains viewed not only as an ecological recuperation of the city’s environment quality but also as an occasion to find space for the social aggregation and as an opportunity to give a unitary design and formal quality for the whole city and its parts. In each case where there was a lack of definition, as well as a lack of precision, the new programmes have broadened definitions in relation to architectural research. The meaning of the term “research” is fortunately shifting, as Schools of Architecture (with the many disciplines that are involved) begin to acknowledge more widely and explicitly its importance for the future, towards the surrounding territory. This may well lead to more open and generous awareness of demands, needs, as well as research (of teaching, and of design). However, in that case it becomes crucial to answer the following question, as the theme for this international call sponsored by the German-Italian University Centre (Ateneo Italo-Tedesco – Deutsch-Italienisches Hochschulzentrum): What best practices as innovative design guidelines for the open space network at metropolitan and local level in order to improve the quality of architectural approach?
Background There is an academic research, coordinated by Lucia Nucci, who involved several researchers who deal in different disciplines but all committed with teaching. Part of this research, named regole o non regole, has been proposed at the German-Italian University Centre who sponsored an international seminars at the faculty of architecture of Roma Tre University. To wide the research and benefits of more experience as possible the research unit organises this call to explore the many positions and to reorganize them into a frame that can be seen and used by a larger community.
The Aim The aim of the call is to stimulate research initiatives, and to communicate these initiatives as related to the broad scope of teaching and research. The call is open to all researchers at any level.
The Task The research group calls for papers with the capacity to improve, challenge and enable a creative debate on architectural education related to the theme, best practices as innovative design guidelines for the open space network at metropolitan and local level. Both theoretically and practically oriented papers are welcome.
Submission Format Submissions may take the form of reports or critical reviews dealing with conceptual or methodological developments that make a significant contribution to the theme of the research. Documents must be in English or in Italian out of consi-deration for the jury’s work. Contributions should be sent electronically to the Organi-sing Committee in PDF format only. The length should be limited to 15,000 characters with spaces; illustrations must have a quality suited for electronic and paper publication. The identity of the author must be revealed in the PDF file. All material submitted should be original ie. neither published nor entered for publication at the time of entry, but also part of former publication. In the latter case it must be clear the reference. The Organising Committee will ensure that the contributions are sent to the jury. The material must have arrived at the Organising Committee no later than 20 February 2012.

Timetable The Call is divided into two phases. In the first phase, the submissions will be evaluated by the jury and 10-15 papers will be selected. By the end of 2012 these will be published on a print volume due to be edit by the research unit (second phase). The research unit will publish all the papers considered inherent to the theme on the webpage of Planum.
The Jury The scientific jury will consist of: Lucia Nucci and Esther Giani with Paolo Avarello, Giancarlo Carnevale, Anna Laura Palazzo, Christa Reicher, Max Welch Guerra.