Onouye Studio | Paolo Desideri | 2015
Description
This year the Barry Onouye Endowed Chair Design Studio was taught by Professor Paolo Desideri of the University of Rome and ABDR Architetti Associati. The studio concentrated on the design of urban infrastructure in the downtown core of Seattle. It followed in the tradition of past Onouye Chair studios in engaging student in a collaborative design process that focuses on the integration of structure as a generative element within the broader context of the formal solution of design. Rather than seeing structure as providing only physical support to architecture, these studios view it as a central element in the development of the form of architecture — that is, its morphology.
The exploration of morphology and architecture, both at an urban and architectural scale, has been a constant theme in Italian architecture since the 1960s and was the unique didactic instrument of this year’s Onouye studio. In this tradition, the form of architecture has more than an aesthetic basis. It is a key element in the solution of a range of issues, from programmatic and functional ones to those that involve the urban context of the site. In addition to simultaneously posing the problem of form and structure and urban and architectural scales, the focus on urban infrastructure in this studio is intended to thematize the architectural importance of such utilitarian elements that are part of our daily experience of the city.
Chair Bio
Professor Paolo Desideri is chief architect and founding partner of ABDR Architetti Associati, along with Maria Laura Arlotti, Michele Beccu and Filippo Raimondo. His firm has been in practice since 1982. The work of his architectural practice primarily focuses on large scale infrastructural and cultural projects both in the public and private sector as well as on high density housing complexes. His contribution to this practice has focused on integrated design and the relationship between architecture and engineering with a particular concentration on complex infrastructural projects such as railway stations and subways. In academia, Professor Desideri is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design in the Department of Architecture, University of Rome, “RomaTre,” from 2007 to the present. With Carlo Olmo and others, he published La concezione strutturale. Ingegneria ed Architettura in Italia negli anni cinquanta e
sessanta. (The Structural Conception. Engineering and Architecture in Italy in the 1950s and 1960s), Torino: Umberto Alemandi & C. 2013.
Chair Lecture
UW Instructor
Brian McLaren, University of Washington
Students
Mattias Baily
Stephanie Farrell
Camilla Holm
Pardis Moinzadeh
Chris Morris
Weston Norwood
Michael Okonski
Matthew Rothlisberger
Kristen Strobel
Michelle Yates
Edwin Yip
