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The Affective City/2

Federico De MatteisLeave a comment

The Affective City / 2

Abitare il Terremoto

a cura di Federico De Matteis e Stefano Catucci

LetteraVentidue, 2022

Per capire, era necessario camminare. Lo spazio del terremoto non si vede da lontano, non si vede dall’alto: si avverte solamente quando lo si incontra, in una sorta di impatto frontale. È necessario camminare, andare a cercare lo spazio e poi tornarci, annusare l’aria e ascoltare il movimento del proprio corpo. È necessario guardare ed essere guardati, anche se spesso non c’è nessuno: sono gli edifici stessi, le case svuotate, i terreni incolti, le rovine puntellate ad ospitare gli sguardi. Abbiamo incontrato viventi ma anche spettri, presenze ormai abituate le une alle altre, capaci di coabitare. Non con serenità, perché non c’è nulla di sereno nello spazio del terremoto. Un racconto di atmosfere, di sentimenti incontrati nell’aria, di corpi che si agitano e risuonano, di distruzione e ricostruzione. È la storia dei paesaggi e delle case, delle finestre affacciate al sole e delle rovine, dei cieli sopra il Gran Sasso e anche del nostro sguardo, che ha incrociato quello delle montagne.

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The Affective City/1

Federico De MatteisLeave a comment

The Affective City / 1

Spaces, Atmospheres and Practices in Changing Urban Territories

Edited by Stefano Catucci and Federico De Matteis

LetteraVentidue, 2021

Cities are not made only of stone: they harbor ways of life, practices, movements, moods, atmospheres, feelings. Yet the ineffable nature of affects has long deprived human passions of a meaningful role when it comes to observing urban space and envisioning its future transformation. With this book, we explore the contemporary city and its transitional conditions from a different perspective: a quest to understand how the space of collective life and the feelings this engenders are connected, how they mutually give form to each other. In an interdisciplinary collection of essays, The Affective City means to open a discussion on the “soft” presences animating the world of urban objects: beyond the city built out of mere things, this book’s focus is on the forces that make urban life emerge, thrive, flourish, but also wither, and sometimes die. A task crucial for the survival of cities as human habitats, in an urban world that – with every passing day – seems to draw closer a crisis.

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Seoul. Designing the Megacity

Federico De MatteisLeave a comment

Seoul

Designing the megacity

Federico De Matteis, Luca Reale
Aracne, 2019

Seoul, the sprawling capital of the Republic of Korea, is a vibrant megacity with a metropolitan area exceeding a population of 25 million inhabitants, among the largest of the world. It is not only South Korea’s prime urban center: it has also evolved to become a global hub, with thriving culture and economy, multinational companies and top-ranked universities. As the city has expanded well beyond the historic center, its ancient core still represents a crucial space of identity for its citizens and for the Nation as a whole.
Over the past three decades, after the landmark 1988 Olympic Games that heralded the arrival of democracy and the country’s rise on the international scenario, Seoul has engaged with many major renovation plans that have radically transformed its urban landscape. Architectural design has played a central role in promoting a new dimension of urban quality, necessary requirement to place the city on the global map.
This book documents a decade of research and design work carried out on several important sites in Seoul’s central core. Through architectural competitions, master theses, design workshops and investigations of some of the city’s most relevant projects, the authors provide insight into the practices of designing for a megacity.

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