Architecture in the Making: Conversations on Urban Morphology and Design

This book is a discourse on the study of urban form in the form of a conversation. It proposes a method of investigating the built environment and demonstrates it with many case studies. The method is based on the notion of process, a circular procedure that starts from the built reality and, by seeking the general in the particular, defines a finite series of general principles (abstractions) from which an infinite series of possible results (actions) in the production of the architectural form can be derived.

Architecture in the Making: Conversations on Urban Morphology and Design also investigates a contemporary notion of organism that is useful for architectural design. This concept has nothing to do with the imitation of nature, but it instead expresses the contemporary aspiration for a unifying synthesis, which runs through even the most critical phases of architectural history. The problem of designing organically, following the formative process of built reality, clashes today with design techniques undergoing a progressive phenomenon of abstraction. The dialogue presented in this book directly addresses the manipulated interpretation of the built environment superimposed on the direct and natural perception of reality.

Rita Salamouni is a French/Lebanese conservation architect. After studying architecture at the Lebanese American University, she obtained her Master’s degree in conservation in Rome. She is currently enrolled in the PhD program of Architecture and Construction of the city at La Sapienza university of Rome. She is particularly interested in studying the forming process of traditional houses along the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, using both historical and morphological methodologies. She has also collaborated and worked with several international firms in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and France. Her work mainly consists of studying different old settlements in order to understand their forming process and proceed with an adequate methodology for their conservation and restoration. She has mainly studied different UNESCO heritage sites in Saudi Arabia. Her aim is to combine both the morphological approach and conservation strategies, trying to apply these methodologies in her work. 

Nicola Scardigno is an architect with a PhD in architectural and urban design and RtDb at the ArCoD Department of the Polytechnic of Bari. Here he teaches the courses of "Architectural Design 1" and "Building Typologies and Urban Morphologies". He is a member of ISUFitaly and of the editorial committee of the U+D Urban form and Design magazine. He is the winner of international scholarships awarded by organizations (ISUF International) and universities (University of Wales). He participates in international research activities (Kaebup_Knowledge alliance for evidence-based urban practice), design competitions, national and international conferences and seminars. He carries out research on urban morphology and on issues affecting landscape transformations. He focuses his design activity, both educational and professional, and his writings on this area of interest.

Giuseppe Strappa, architect, designer and professor, is currently senior lecturer in Urban Morphology at the Faculty of Architecture of Roma Tre. He has carried out teaching and research activities at the University Sapienza of Rome, the Polytechnic University of Bari (where he was Head of the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture) and at Université Laval in Québec City. At Sapienza University, he was a full professor, member of the University Commission for Doctorates, coordinator of the Draco Doctorate in Architecture and Construction, Director of the Doctoral School in Architectural Sciences and Director of the Lpa (Reading and Design of Architecture) Laboratory.

He is editor of U+D, Urban form and Design, author of many scientific publications and articles and has contributed to newspapers of national importance (Repubblica, Corriere della Sera). For the FrancoAngeli publishing, he directs the "Lettura e progetto" series. He has given lectures and conferences in Italian and foreign universities and organized national and international conferences. The focus of his activity, as a professor and designer, is the study of urban form read through its formative processes.

He has also carried out design activities since 1972, winning numerous design competitions and realizing some of the projects.