Improving Communication about Mathematics through Vocabulary and Writing

In this action research study, where the subjects were my 6th grade mathematics students, I investigated the impact of direct vocabulary instruction on their communication and achievement. I strategically implemented the addition of vocabulary study into each lesson over a four-month time period. The students practiced using vocabulary in verbal discussions, review activities, and in mathematical problem explanations. I discovered that a majority of students improved their overall understanding of mathematical concepts based on an analysis of the data I collected. I also found that in general, students felt that knowing the definition of mathematical words was important and that it increased their achievement when they understood the words. In addition, students were more exact in their communication after receiving vocabulary instruction. As a result of this research, I plan to continue to implement vocabulary into daily lessons and keep vocabulary and communication as a focus of my 6th grade mathematics class.

The Role of Manipulatives in the Eighth Grade Mathematics Classroom

In this action research study of my classroom of eighth grade mathematics, I investigated the use of manipulatives and its impact on student attitude and understanding. I discovered that overall, students enjoy using manipulatives, not necessarily for the benefit of learning, but because it actively engages them in each lesson. I also found that students did perform better on exams when students were asked to solve problems using manipulatives in place of formal written representations of situations. In the course of this investigation, I also uncovered that student attitude toward mathematics improved when greater manipulative use was infused into the lessons. Students felt more confident that they understood the material, which translated into a better attitude regarding math class. As a result of this research, I plan to find ways to implement manipulatives in my teaching on a more regular basis. I intend to create lessons with manipulatives that will engage both hands and minds for the learners.

Daily Problem-Solving Warm-Ups: Harboring Mathematical Thinking In The Middle School Classroom

In this action research study of my classroom of 8th grade mathematics, I investigated the use of daily warm-ups written in problem-solving format. Data was collected to determine if use of such warm-ups would have an effect on students’ abilities to problem solve, their overall attitudes regarding problem solving and whether such an activity could also enhance their readiness each day to learn new mathematics concepts. It was also my hope that this practice would have some positive impact on maximizing the amount of time I have with my students for math instruction. I discovered that daily exposure to problem-solving practices did impact the students’ overall abilities and achievement (though sometimes not positively) and similarly the students’ attitudes showed slight changes as well. It certainly seemed to improve their readiness for the day’s lesson as class started in a more timely manner and students were more actively involved in learning mathematics (or perhaps working on mathematics) than other classes not involved in the research. As a result of this study, I plan to continue using daily warm-ups and problem-solving (perhaps on a less formal or regimented level) and continue gathering data to further determine if this methodology can be useful in improving students’ overall mathematical skills, abilities and achievement.

History and fate of a small isolated population of Weddell seals at White Island, Antarctica

Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii Lesson) at White Island, Antarctica form a small, completely enclosed, natural population hypothesized to be of recent origin, likely founded by individuals from nearby Erebus Bay. This population constitutes an ideal model to document a founder event and ensuing genetic drift, with implications for conservation. Here we combined historical accounts, census and tagging data since the late 1960s, and genetic data (41 microsatellite loci and mitochondrial DNA sequences) from 84 individuals representing nearly all individuals present between 1990 and 2000 to investigate the history of the founding of the White Island population, document its population dynamics and evaluate possible future threats. We fully resolved parental relationships over three overlapping generations. Cytonuclear disequilibrium among the first generation suggested that it comprised the direct descendants of a founding group. We estimated that the White Island population was founded by a small group of individuals that accessed the island during a brief break in the surrounding sea ice in the mid-1950s, consistent with historical accounts. Direct and indirect methods of calculating effective population size were highly congruent and suggested a minimum founding group consisting of three females and two males. The White Island population showed altered reproductive dynamics compared to Erebus Bay, including highly skewed sex ratio, documented inbred mating events, and the oldest known reproducing Weddell seals. A comparison with the putative source population showed that the White Island population has an effective inbreeding coefficient (Fe) of 0.29. Based on a pedigree analysis including the hypothesized founding group, 86% of the individuals for whom parents were known had inbreeding coefficients ranging 0.09–0.31. This high level of inbreeding was correlated with reduced pup survival. Seals at White Island therefore face the combined effects of low genetic variability, lack of immigration, and inbreeding depression. Ultimately, this study provides evidence of the effects of natural isolation on a large, long-lived vertebrate and can provide clues to the potential effects of anthropogenic- caused isolation of similar taxa.

IANR Recognition Luncheon

What a pleasure it is to come together here to recognize and celebrate Outstanding work of members of our IANR community. It is even more of a treat to have three reasons to celebrate today as we recognize excellence with two IANR Exemplary Service Awards, two Dinsdale Family Faculty Awards, and the IANR Team Award.

The People's Hour and the Social Gospel: George Howard Gibson's Gilded Age Search for an Organization of the Kingdom of God

Previous studies of the Social Gospel movement have acknowledged the fact that Social Gospelers were involved in multiple social reform movements during the Gilded Age and into the Progressive Era. However, most of these studies have failed to explain how the reform experiences of the Social Gospelers contributed to the development of the Social Gospel. The Social Gospelers’ ideas regarding the need to transform society and their strategies for doing so were largely a result of their personal experiences as reformers and their collaboration with other reformers. The knowledge and insight gained from interaction with a variety of reform methods played a vital role in the development of the ideology and theology of the Social Gospel. George Howard Gibson is exemplary of the connections between the Social Gospel movement and several other social reform movements of the time. He was involved in the Temperance movement, was a member of both the Prohibition Party and the People’s Party, and co-founded a Christian socialist cooperative colony. His writings illustrate the formation of his identity as a Social Gospeler as well as his attempts to find an organization through which to realize the kingdom of God on earth. Failure to achieve the changes he desired via prohibition encouraged him to broaden his reform goals. Like many Midwestern Social Gospelers Gibson believed he had found “God’s Party” in the People’s Party, but he rejected reform via the political system once the Populists restricted their attention to the silver issue and fused with the Democratic Party. Yet his involvement with the People’s Party demonstrates the attraction many Social Gospelers had to the reforms proposed in the Omaha Platform of 1892 as well as to the party’s use of revivalistic language and emphasis on producerism and brotherhood. Gibson’s experimentation with a variety of ways to achieve the kingdom of God on earth provides new insight into the experiences and contributions of lay Social Gospelers. Adviser: Kenneth J. Winkle

Report on Recent Large Bird Ingestions into Transport Turbofan Engines

Today I am going to give you a report on recent bird ingestion events into transport category turbofan engine in commercial service. We are still having these events. We may not ever completely eliminate all such events, but our purpose for meeting is to put all our resources to work to try. The events that I am going to report on today represent some of the more significant events over the last couple of years. The events are significant because of the potential for jeopardizing the safety of the aircraft involved and the aircraft occupants. The events I am going to discuss all involve encounters with large birds. Each situation reflects a bird control issue or event that resulted in a high workload for the flight crew because something out of the ordinary happened that they had to respond to. Some of the situations involve areas outside the US or Canada but serve as a lesson because that the same situation can happen here.

O ensino da escrita no último ano da Educação Infantil: práticas convertidas ao traçado das letras excludentes à noção de símbolo

The theme of the writing learning in childhood education has conquered space in academic works, which occupy in analyze and understand how this process in contexts of meaning and not more before the mechanics of learning letters. Thus, in this work, it constitutes general objective to investigate whether and how the practice of teaching of oral and written expression in the last year of child education promotes the development of the symbol (sign) in children, so necessary to the learning of writing from inside to outside. The questions that served as the North for the study were the following: the teaching of writing, in the last year of child education, is organized to promote the development of the symbol (sign) in children? Which and how the ratings graphics made by children demarcate the stage of development of their writing? For its implementation, a bibliographic research was performed, using as a theoretical support for the prospect of Psychology socio-historical, especially authors as Vygotsky (1984), Luria (2001), Oliveira (1995) and Mello (2005). In addition to this was performed the empirical research of qualitative approach, according to his purpose. The data were collected by six instruments: systematic observation and direct in the classroom; audio-recording; records in a field diary, annual teaching plan of the school; lesson plan weekly and material produced by children, result of write activities. By means of the analysis of these data, we note that the writing has been worked from outside to inside, as an imposition, practice that opposes the theory of Vygotsky, already that the writing has been tackled in a way mechanical, in contexts not significant, with focused practices to the trace of the letters and copy of words, exclusive to the notion of symbol. This result points to the emergence of changes in education of writing in childhood education, without which becomes inglorious the search for a pedagogy of writing aware and...

Development of musculoskeletal models for the design and the pre-clinical validation of hip resurfacing prosthesis

Background. The surgical treatment of dysfunctional hips is a severe condition for the patient and a costly therapy for the public health. Hip resurfacing techniques seem to hold the promise of various advantages over traditional THR, with particular attention to young and active patients. Although the lesson provided in the past by many branches of engineering is that success in designing competitive products can be achieved only by predicting the possible scenario of failure, to date the understanding of the implant quality is poorly pre-clinically addressed. Thus revision is the only delayed and reliable end point for assessment. The aim of the present work was to model the musculoskeletal system so as to develop a protocol for predicting failure of hip resurfacing prosthesis. Methods. Preliminary studies validated the technique for the generation of subject specific finite element (FE) models of long bones from Computed Thomography data. The proposed protocol consisted in the numerical analysis of the prosthesis biomechanics by deterministic and statistic studies so as to assess the risk of biomechanical failure on the different operative conditions the implant might face in a population of interest during various activities of daily living. Physiological conditions were defined including the variability of the anatomy, bone densitometry, surgery uncertainties and published boundary conditions at the hip. The protocol was tested by analysing a successful design on the market and a new prototype of a resurfacing prosthesis. Results. The intrinsic accuracy of models on bone stress predictions (RMSE < 10%) was aligned to the current state of the art in this field. The accuracy of prediction on the bone-prosthesis contact mechanics was also excellent (< 0.001 mm). The sensitivity of models prediction to uncertainties on modelling parameter was found below 8.4%. The analysis of the successful design resulted in a very good agreement with published retrospective studies. The geometry optimisation of the new prototype lead to a final design with a low risk of failure. The statistical analysis confirmed the minimal risk of the optimised design over the entire population of interest. The performances of the optimised design showed a significant improvement with respect to the first prototype (+35%). Limitations. On the authors opinion the major limitation of this study is on boundary conditions. The muscular forces and the hip joint reaction were derived from the few data available in the literature, which can be considered significant but hardly representative of the entire variability of boundary conditions the implant might face over the patients population. This moved the focus of the research on modelling the musculoskeletal system; the ongoing activity is to develop subject-specific musculoskeletal models of the lower limb from medical images. Conclusions. The developed protocol was able to accurately predict known clinical outcomes when applied to a well-established device and, to support the design optimisation phase providing important information on critical characteristics of the patients when applied to a new prosthesis. The presented approach does have a relevant generality that would allow the extension of the protocol to a large set of orthopaedic scenarios with minor changes. Hence, a failure mode analysis criterion can be considered a suitable tool in developing new orthopaedic devices.

Con la venia de Carlos III. El castigo ejemplar de Olavide, consecuencia de la venganza de Grimaldi contra el conde de Aranda

[ES] Los inquisidores castigaron a Pablo de Olavide en 1776, pero fueron Grimaldi, ministro de Estado, y Carlos III los que le eligieron como castigo ejemplar para responder a la agitación política provocada por el conde de Aranda en su deseo de volver al poder. Como no podían tocar a un grande de España como Aranda, se vengaron en su protegido Olavide y lo llevaron a las cárceles secretas de la Inquisición. Todo se acordó con Su Majestad. [EN] Inquisitors punished Pablo de Olavide in 1776, but Grimaldi, Minister of State, Inquisitors punished Pablo de Olavide in 1776, but Grimaldi, Minister of State, and Charles III were the ones who chose his case as an exemplary punishment to respond to the political turmoil caused by the Count of Aranda after an attemp to return to power. As they could not punish a grandee of Spain such as Aranda, they took revenge on his protégé Olavide and took him to the secret prisons of the Inquisition. Everything was agreed with His Majesty.

Las ascensión de los Iriarte. A propósito de la relación entre políticos y literatos en la España del absolutismo borbónico

[ES]Al amparo del tío paterno, que llamó a los sobrinos a la corte y supo servirse de sus influencias para situarlos convenientemente, los Iriarte constituyeron un importante núcleo intelectual y político en la España del siglo XVIII. A pesar de su singularidad, la formidable ascensión del clan familiar no ha sido suficientemente explicada, a pesar de que en ella se concitan de manera ejemplar las particulares circunstancias que orientaron las relaciones entre políticos y literatos en la España del absolutismo borbónico.

Peer assessment in ULPGC on line CLIL course 2010-2013

[EN]Introduction to Content Language and Integrated Learning ( CLIL) is a 60 hour on line course offered by Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria within its extracurricular courses. During three years we have had 76 students whose final assessment has been to create a CLIL lesson which was evaluated by their peers. The tool for the peer assessment has been the Moodle platform; forums. The assessment was guided by a list of questions they had to apply when evaluating the lessons, but the replies from the CLIL lesson creators did not have any predetermined structure or guidelines to be followed. We have analysed the assessments and replies by grouping them according to content similarities.

Max Bill in Italia . Lo spazio logico dell'architettura

I Max Bill is an intense giornata of a big fresco. An analysis of the main social, artistic and cultural events throughout the twentieth century is needed in order to trace his career through his masterpieces and architectures. Some of the faces of this hypothetical mural painting are, among others, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Kandinskij, Klee, Mondrian, Vatongerloo, Ignazio Silone, while the backcloth is given by artistic avant-gardes, Bauhaus, International Exhibitions, CIAM, war events, reconstruction, Milan Triennali, Venice Biennali, the School of Ulm. Architect, even though more known as painter, sculptor, designer and graphic artist, Max Bill attends the Bauhaus as a student in the years 1927-1929, and from this experience derives the main features of a rational, objective, constructive and non figurative art. His research is devoted to give his art a scientific methodology: each work proceeds from the analysis of a problem to the logical and always verifiable solution of the same problem. By means of composition elements (such as rhythm, seriality, theme and its variation, harmony and dissonance), he faces, with consistent results, themes apparently very distant from each other as the project for the H.f.G. or the design for a font. Mathematics are a constant reference frame as field of certainties, order, objectivity: ‘for Bill mathematics are never confined to a simple function: they represent a climate of spiritual certainties, and also the theme of non attempted in its purest state, objectivity of the sign and of the geometrical place, and at the same time restlessness of the infinity: Limited and Unlimited ’. In almost sixty years of activity, experiencing all artistic fields, Max Bill works, projects, designs, holds conferences and exhibitions in Europe, Asia and Americas, confronting himself with the most influencing personalities of the twentieth century. In such a vast scenery, the need to limit the investigation field combined with the necessity to address and analyse the unpublished and original aspect of Bill’s relations with Italy. The original contribution of the present research regards this particular ‘geographic delimitation’; in particular, beyond the deep cultural exchanges between Bill and a series of Milanese architects, most of all with Rogers, two main projects have been addressed: the realtà nuova at Milan Triennale in 1947, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Florence in 1980. It is important to note that these projects have not been previously investigated, and the former never appears in the sources either. These works, together with the most well-known ones, such as the projects for the VI and IX Triennale, and the Swiss pavilion for the Biennale, add important details to the reference frame of the relations which took place between Zurich and Milan. Most of the occasions for exchanges took part in between the Thirties and the Fifties, years during which Bill underwent a significant period of artistic growth. He meets the Swiss progressive architects and the Paris artists from the Abstraction-Création movement, enters the CIAM, collaborates with Le Corbusier to the third volume of his Complete Works, and in Milan he works and gets confronted with the events related to post-war reconstruction. In these years Bill defines his own working methodology, attaining an artistic maturity in his work. The present research investigates the mentioned time period, despite some necessary exceptions. II The official Max Bill bibliography is naturally wide, including spreading works along with ones more devoted to analytical investigation, mainly written in German and often translated into French and English (Max Bill himself published his works in three languages). Few works have been published in Italian and, excluding the catalogue of the Parma exhibition from 1977, they cannot be considered comprehensive. Many publications are exhibition catalogues, some of which include essays written by Max Bill himself, some others bring Bill’s comments in a educational-pedagogical approach, to accompany the observer towards a full understanding of the composition processes of his art works. Bill also left a great amount of theoretical speculations to encourage a critical reading of his works in the form of books edited or written by him, and essays published in ‘Werk’, magazine of the Swiss Werkbund, and other international reviews, among which Domus and Casabella. These three reviews have been important tools of analysis, since they include tracks of some of Max Bill’s architectural works. The architectural aspect is less investigated than the plastic and pictorial ones in all the main reference manuals on the subject: Benevolo, Tafuri and Dal Co, Frampton, Allenspach consider Max Bill as an artist proceeding in his work from Bauhaus in the Ulm experience . A first filing of his works was published in 2004 in the monographic issue of the Spanish magazine 2G, together with critical essays by Karin Gimmi, Stanislaus von Moos, Arthur Rüegg and Hans Frei, and in ‘Konkrete Architektur?’, again by Hans Frei. Moreover, the monographic essay on the Atelier Haus building by Arthur Rüegg from 1997, and the DPA 17 issue of the Catalonia Polytechnic with contributions of Carlos Martì, Bruno Reichlin and Ton Salvadò, the latter publication concentrating on a few Bill’s themes and architectures. An urge to studying and going in depth in Max Bill’s works was marked in 2008 by the centenary of his birth and by a recent rediscovery of Bill as initiator of the ‘minimalist’ tradition in Swiss architecture. Bill’s heirs are both very active in promoting exhibitions, researching and publishing. Jakob Bill, Max Bill’s son and painter himself, recently published a work on Bill’s experience in Bauhaus, and earlier on he had published an in-depth study on ‘Endless Ribbons’ sculptures. Angela Thomas Schmid, Bill’s wife and art historian, published in end 2008 the first volume of a biography on Max Bill and, together with the film maker Eric Schmid, produced a documentary film which was also presented at the last Locarno Film Festival. Both biography and documentary concentrate on Max Bill’s political involvement, from antifascism and 1968 protest movements to Bill experiences as Zurich Municipality councilman and member of the Swiss Confederation Parliament. In the present research, the bibliography includes also direct sources, such as interviews and original materials in the form of letters correspondence and graphic works together with related essays, kept in the max+binia+jakob bill stiftung archive in Zurich. III The results of the present research are organized into four main chapters, each of them subdivided into four parts. The first chapter concentrates on the research field, reasons, tools and methodologies employed, whereas the second one consists of a short biographical note organized by topics, introducing the subject of the research. The third chapter, which includes unpublished events, traces the historical and cultural frame with particular reference to the relations between Max Bill and the Italian scene, especially Milan and the architects Rogers and Baldessari around the Fifties, searching the themes and the keys for interpretation of Bill’s architectures and investigating the critical debate on the reviews and the plastic survey through sculpture. The fourth and last chapter examines four main architectures chosen on a geographical basis, all devoted to exhibition spaces, investigating Max Bill’s composition process related to the pictorial field. Paintings has surely been easier and faster to investigate and verify than the building field. A doctoral thesis discussed in Lausanne in 1977 investigating Max Bill’s plastic and pictorial works, provided a series of devices which were corrected and adapted for the definition of the interpretation grid for the composition structures of Bill’s main architectures. Four different tools are employed in the investigation of each work: a context analysis related to chapter three results; a specific theoretical essay by Max Bill briefly explaining his main theses, even though not directly linked to the very same work of art considered; the interpretation grid for the composition themes derived from a related pictorial work; the architecture drawing and digital three-dimensional model. The double analysis of the architectural and pictorial fields is functional to underlining the relation among the different elements of the composition process; the two fields, however, cannot be compared and they stay, in Max Bill’s works as in the present research, interdependent though self-sufficient. IV An important aspect of Max Bill production is self-referentiality: talking of Max Bill, also through Max Bill, as a need for coherence instead of a method limitation. Ernesto Nathan Rogers describes Bill as the last humanist, and his horizon is the known world but, as the ‘Concrete Art’ of which he is one of the main representatives, his production justifies itself: Max Bill not only found a method, but he autonomously re-wrote the ‘rules of the game’, derived timeless theoretical principles and verified them through a rich and interdisciplinary artistic production. The most recurrent words in the present research work are synthesis, unity, space and logic. These terms are part of Max Bill’s vocabulary and can be referred to his works. Similarly, graphic settings or analytical schemes in this research text referring to or commenting Bill’s architectural projects were drawn up keeping in mind the concise precision of his architectural design. As for Mies van der Rohe, it has been written that Max Bill took art to ‘zero degree’ reaching in this way a high complexity. His works are a synthesis of art: they conceptually encompass all previous and –considered their developments- most of contemporary pictures. Contents and message are generally explicitly declared in the title or in Bill’s essays on his artistic works and architectural projects: the beneficiary is invited to go through and re-build the process of synthesis generating the shape. In the course of the interview with the Milan artist Getulio Alviani, he tells how he would not write more than a page for an essay on Josef Albers: everything was already evident ‘on the surface’ and any additional sentence would be redundant. Two years after that interview, these pages attempt to decompose and single out the elements and processes connected with some of Max Bill’s works which, for their own origin, already contain all possible explanations and interpretations. The formal reduction in favour of contents maximization is, perhaps, Max Bill’s main lesson.

L'eredità di Aldo Rossi nella Penisola Iberica. La costruzione della città e il progetto contemporaneo

Descrizione, tema e obiettivi della ricerca La ricerca si propone lo studio delle possibili influenze che la teoria di Aldo Rossi ha avuto sulla pratica progettuale nella Penisola Iberica, intende quindi affrontare i caratteri fondamentali della teoria che sta alla base di un metodo progettuale ed in particolar modo porre l'attenzione alle nuove costruzioni quando queste si confrontano con le città storiche. Ha come oggetto principale lo studio dei documenti, saggi e scritti riguardanti il tema della costruzione all'interno delle città storiche. Dallo studio di testi selezionati di Aldo Rossi sulla città si vuole concentrare l'attenzione sull'influenza che tale teoria ha avuto nei progetti della Penisola Iberica, studiare come è stata recepita e trasmessa successivamente, attraverso gli scritti di autori spagnoli e come ha visto un suo concretizzarsi poi nei progetti di nuove costruzioni all'interno delle città storiche. Si intende restringere il campo su un periodo ed un luogo precisi, Spagna e Portogallo a partire dagli anni Settanta, tramite la lettura di un importante evento che ha ufficializzato il contatto dell'architetto italiano con la Penisola Iberica, quale il Seminario di Santiago de Compostela tenutosi nel 1976. Al Seminario parteciparono numerosi architetti che si confrontarono su di un progetto per la città di Santiago e furono invitati personaggi di fama internazionale a tenere lezioni introduttive sul tema di dibattito in merito al progetto e alla città storica. Il Seminario di Santiago si colloca in un periodo storico cruciale per la Penisola Iberica, nel 1974 cade il regime salazarista in Portogallo e nel 1975 cade il regime franchista in Spagna ed è quindi di rilevante importanza capire il legame tra l'architettura e la nuova situazione politica. Dallo studio degli interventi, dei progetti che furono prodotti durante il Seminario, della relazione tra questo evento ed il periodo storico in cui esso va contestualizzato, si intende giungere alla individuazione delle tracce della reale presenza di tale eredità. Presupposti metodologici. Percorso e strumenti di ricerca La ricerca può quindi essere articolata in distinte fasi corrispondenti per lo più ai capitoli in cui si articola la tesi: una prima fase con carattere prevalentemente storica, di ricerca del materiale per poter definire il contesto in cui si sviluppano poi le vicende oggetto della tesi; una seconda fase di impronta teorica, ossia di ricerca bibliografica del materiale e delle testimonianze che provvedono alla definizione della reale presenza di effetti scaturiti dai contatti tra Rossi e la Penisola Iberica, per andare a costruire una eredità ; una terza fase che entra nel merito della composizione attraverso lo studio e la verifica delle prime due parti, tramite l'analisi grafica applicata ad uno specifico esempio architettonico selezionato; una quarta fase dove il punto di vista viene ribaltato e si indaga l'influenza dei luoghi visitati e dei contatti intrattenuti con alcuni personaggi della Penisola Iberica sull'architettura di Rossi, ricercandone i riferimenti. La ricerca è stata condotta attraverso lo studio di alcuni eventi selezionati nel corso degli anni che si sono mostrati significativi per l'indagine, per la risonanza che hanno avuto sulla storia dell'architettura della Penisola. A questo scopo si sono utilizzati principalmente tre strumenti: lo studio dei documenti, le pubblicazioni e le riviste prodotte in Spagna, gli scritti di Aldo Rossi in merito, e la testimonianza diretta attraverso interviste di personaggi chiave. La ricerca ha prodotto un testo suddiviso per capitoli che rispetta l'organizzazione in fasi di lavoro. A seguito di determinate condizioni storiche e politiche, studiate nella ricerca a supporto della tesi espressa, nella Penisola Iberica si è verificato il diffondersi della necessità e del desiderio di guardare e prendere a riferimento l'architettura europea e in particolar modo quella italiana. Il periodo sul quale viene focalizzata l'attenzione ha inizio negli anni Sessanta, gli ultimi prima della caduta delle dittature, scenario dei primi viaggi di Aldo Rossi nella Penisola Iberica. Questi primi contatti pongono le basi per intense e significative relazioni future. Attraverso l'approfondimento e la studio dei materiali relativi all'oggetto della tesi, si è cercato di mettere in luce il contesto culturale, l'attenzione e l'interesse per l'apertura di un dibattito intorno all'architettura, non solo a livello nazionale, ma europeo. Ciò ha evidenziato il desiderio di innescare un meccanismo di discussione e scambio di idee, facendo leva sull'importanza dello sviluppo e ricerca di una base teorica comune che rende coerente i lavori prodotti nel panorama architettonico iberico, seppur ottenendo risultati che si differenziano gli uni dagli altri. E' emerso un forte interesse per il discorso teorico sull'architettura, trasmissibile e comunicabile, che diventa punto di partenza per un metodo progettuale. Ciò ha reso palese una condivisione di intenti e l'assunzione della teoria di Aldo Rossi, acquisita, diffusa e discussa, attraverso la pubblicazione dei suoi saggi, la conoscenza diretta con l'architetto e la sua architettura, conferenze, seminari, come base teorica su cui fondare il proprio sapere architettonico ed il processo metodologico progettuale da applicare di volta in volta negli interventi concreti. Si è giunti così alla definizione di determinati eventi che hanno permesso di entrare nel profondo della questione e di sondare la relazione tra Rossi e la Penisola Iberica, il materiale fornito dallo studio di tali episodi, quali il I SIAC, la diffusione della rivista "2C. Construccion de la Ciudad", la Coleccion Arquitectura y Critica di Gustavo Gili, hanno poi dato impulso per il reperimento di una rete di ulteriori riferimenti. E' stato possibile quindi individuare un gruppo di architetti spagnoli, che si identificano come allievi del maestro Rossi, impegnato per altro in quegli anni nella formazione di una Scuola e di un insegnamento, che non viene recepito tanto nelle forme, piuttosto nei contenuti. I punti su cui si fondano le connessioni tra l'analisi urbana e il progetto architettonico si centrano attorno due temi di base che riprendono la teoria esposta da Rossi nel saggio L'architettura della città : - relazione tra l'area-studio e la città nella sua globalità, - relazione tra la tipologia edificatoria e gli aspetti morfologici. La ricerca presentata ha visto nelle sue successive fasi di approfondimento, come si è detto, lo sviluppo parallelo di più tematiche. Nell'affrontare ciascuna fase è stato necessario, di volta in volta, operare una verifica delle tappe percorse precedentemente, per mantenere costante il filo del discorso col lavoro svolto e ritrovare, durante lo svolgimento stesso della ricerca, gli elementi di connessione tra i diversi episodi analizzati. Tale operazione ha messo in luce talvolta nodi della ricerca rimasti in sospeso che richiedevano un ulteriore approfondimento o talvolta solo una rivisitazione per renderne possibile un più proficuo collegamento con la rete di informazioni accumulate. La ricerca ha percorso strade diverse che corrono parallele, per quanto riguarda il periodo preso in analisi: - i testi sulla storia dell'architettura spagnola e la situazione contestuale agli anni Settanta - il materiale riguardante il I SIAC - le interviste ai partecipanti al I SIAC - le traduzioni di Gustavo Gili nella Coleccion Arquitectura y Critica - la rivista "2C. Construccion de la Ciudad" Esse hanno portato alla luce una notevole quantità di tematiche, attraverso le quali, queste strade vengono ad intrecciarsi e a coincidere, verificando l'una la veridicità dell'altra e rafforzandone il valore delle affermazioni. Esposizione sintetica dei principali contenuti esposti dalla ricerca Andiamo ora a vedere brevemente i contenuti dei singoli capitoli. Nel primo capitolo Anni Settanta. Periodo di transizione per la Penisola Iberica si è cercato di dare un contesto storico agli eventi studiati successivamente, andando ad evidenziare gli elementi chiave che permettono di rintracciare la presenza della predisposizione ad un cambiamento culturale. La fase di passaggio da una condizione di chiusura rispetto alle contaminazioni provenienti dall'esterno, che caratterizza Spagna e Portogallo negli anni Sessanta, lascia il posto ad un graduale abbandono della situazione di isolamento venutasi a creare intorno al Paese a causa del regime dittatoriale, fino a giungere all'apertura e all'interesse nei confronti degli apporti culturali esterni. E' in questo contesto che si gettano le basi per la realizzazione del I Seminario Internazionale di Architettura Contemporanea a Santiago de Compostela, del 1976, diretto da Aldo Rossi e organizzato da César Portela e Salvador Tarragó, di cui tratta il capitolo secondo. Questo è uno degli eventi rintracciati nella storia delle relazioni tra Rossi e la Penisola Iberica, attraverso il quale è stato possibile constatare la presenza di uno scambio culturale e l'importazione in Spagna delle teorie di Aldo Rossi. Organizzato all'indomani della caduta del franchismo, ne conserva una reminescenza formale. Il capitolo è organizzato in tre parti, la prima si occupa della ricostruzione dei momenti salienti del Seminario Proyecto y ciudad historica, dagli interventi di architetti di fama internazionale, quali lo stesso Aldo Rossi, Carlo Aymonino, James Stirling, Oswald Mathias Ungers e molti altri, che si confrontano sul tema delle città storiche, alle giornate seminariali dedicate all’elaborazione di un progetto per cinque aree individuate all’interno di Santiago de Compostela e quindi dell’applicazione alla pratica progettuale dell’inscindibile base teorica esposta. Segue la seconda parte dello stesso capitolo riguardante La selezione di interviste ai partecipanti al Seminario. Esso contiene la raccolta dei colloqui avuti con alcuni dei personaggi che presero parte al Seminario e attraverso le loro parole si è cercato di approfondire la materia, in particolar modo andando ad evidenziare l’ambiente culturale in cui nacque l’idea del Seminario, il ruolo avuto nella diffusione della teoria di Aldo Rossi in Spagna e la ripercussione che ebbe nella pratica costruttiva. Le diverse interviste, seppur rivolte a persone che oggi vivono in contesti distanti e che in seguito a questa esperienza collettiva hanno intrapreso strade diverse, hanno fatto emergere aspetti comuni, tale unanimità ha dato ancor più importanza al valore di testimonianza offerta. L’elemento che risulta più evidente è il lascito teorico, di molto prevalente rispetto a quello progettuale che si è andato mescolando di volta in volta con la tradizione e l’esperienza dei cosiddetti allievi di Aldo Rossi. Negli stessi anni comincia a farsi strada l’importanza del confronto e del dibattito circa i temi architettonici e nel capitolo La fortuna critica della teoria di Aldo Rossi nella Penisola Iberica è stato affrontato proprio questo rinnovato interesse per la teoria che in quegli anni si stava diffondendo. Si è portato avanti lo studio delle pubblicazioni di Gustavo Gili nella Coleccion Arquitectura y Critica che, a partire dalla fine degli anni Sessanta, pubblica e traduce in lingua spagnola i più importanti saggi di architettura, tra i quali La arquitectura de la ciudad di Aldo Rossi, nel 1971, e Comlejidad y contradiccion en arquitectura di Robert Venturi nel 1972. Entrambi fondamentali per il modo di affrontare determinate tematiche di cui sempre più in quegli anni si stava interessando la cultura architettonica iberica, diventando così ¬ testi di riferimento anche nelle scuole. Le tracce dell’influenza di Rossi sulla Penisola Iberica si sono poi ricercate nella rivista “2C. Construccion de la Ciudad” individuata come strumento di espressione di una teoria condivisa. Con la nascita nel 1972 a Barcellona di questa rivista viene portato avanti l’impegno di promuovere la Tendenza, facendo riferimento all’opera e alle idee di Rossi ed altri architetti europei, mirando inoltre al recupero di un ruolo privilegiato dell’architettura catalana. A questo proposito sono emersi due fondamentali aspetti che hanno legittimato l’indagine e lo studio di questa fonte: - la diffusione della cultura architettonica, il controllo ideologico e di informazione operato dal lavoro compiuto dalla rivista; - la documentazione circa i criteri di scelta della redazione a proposito del materiale pubblicato. E’ infatti attraverso le pubblicazioni di “2C. Construccion de la Ciudad” che è stato possibile il ritrovamento delle notizie sulla mostra Arquitectura y razionalismo. Aldo Rossi + 21 arquitectos españoles, che accomuna in un’unica esposizione le opere del maestro e di ventuno giovani allievi che hanno recepito e condiviso la teoria espressa ne “L’architettura della città”. Tale mostra viene poi riproposta nella Sezione Internazionale di Architettura della XV Triennale di Milano, la quale dedica un Padiglione col titolo Barcelona, tres epocas tres propuestas. Dalla disamina dei progetti presentati è emerso un interessante caso di confronto tra le Viviendas para gitanos di César Portela e la Casa Bay di Borgo Ticino di Aldo Rossi, di cui si è occupato l’ultimo paragrafo di questo capitolo. Nel corso degli studi è poi emerso un interessante risvolto della ricerca che, capovolgendone l’oggetto stesso, ne ha approfondito gli aspetti cercando di scavare più in profondità nell’analisi della reciproca influenza tra la cultura iberica e Aldo Rossi, questa parte, sviscerata nell’ultimo capitolo, La Penisola Iberica nel “magazzino della memoria” di Aldo Rossi, ha preso il posto di quello che inizialmente doveva presentarsi come il risvolto progettuale della tesi. Era previsto infatti, al termine dello studio dell’influenza di Aldo Rossi sulla Penisola Iberica, un capitolo che concentrava l’attenzione sulla produzione progettuale. A seguito dell’emergere di un’influenza di carattere prettamente teorica, che ha sicuramente modificato la pratica dal punto di vista delle scelte architettoniche, senza però rendersi esplicita dal punto di vista formale, si è preferito, anche per la difficoltà di individuare un solo esempio rappresentativo di quanto espresso, sostituire quest’ultima parte con lo studio dell’altra faccia della medaglia, ossia l’importanza che a sua volta ha avuto la cultura iberica nella formazione della collezione dei riferimenti di Aldo Rossi. L’articolarsi della tesi in fasi distinte, strettamente connesse tra loro da un filo conduttore, ha reso necessari successivi aggiustamenti nel percorso intrapreso, dettati dall’emergere durante la ricerca di nuovi elementi di indagine. Si è pertanto resa esplicita la ricercata eredità di Aldo Rossi, configurandosi però prevalentemente come un’influenza teorica che ha preso le sfumature del contesto e dell’esperienza personale di chi se ne è fatto ricevente, diventandone così un continuatore attraverso il proprio percorso autonomo o collettivo intrapreso in seguito. Come suggerisce José Charters Monteiro, l’eredità di Rossi può essere letta attraverso tre aspetti su cui si basa la sua lezione: la biografia, la teoria dell’architettura, l’opera. In particolar modo per quanto riguarda la Penisola Iberica si può parlare dell’individuazione di un insegnamento riferito alla seconda categoria, i suoi libri di testo, le sue partecipazioni, le traduzioni. Questo è un lascito che rende possibile la continuazione di un dibattito in merito ai temi della teoria dell’architettura, della sue finalità e delle concrete applicazioni nelle opere, che ha permesso il verificarsi di una apertura mentale che mette in relazione l’architettura con altre discipline umanistiche e scientifiche, dalla politica, alla sociologia, comprendendo l’arte, le città la morfologia, la topografia, mediate e messe in relazione proprio attraverso l’architettura.

I progetti di Oswald Mathias Ungers per la città di Treviri. Questioni di composizione architettonica

Abstract This PhD thesis focuses on two projects carried out by Oswald Mathias Ungers in the city of Trier. More specifi cally, this study focuses on the relationship between composition principles, architectural forms, historical context and the nature of the city where these buildings have been built. The works carried out by Ungers in Trier are unique experiences - if taken in this master’s works context - and each one of them refl ects - in its specifi c project and architectural composition theme - the results - in terms of design - of a complex research on the fundamentals of architecture carried out by Ungers in more than fi ve decades of his activity. The theoretical and compositional experiment aspect is one of the main subjects to defi ne these buildings in terms of architecture. This aspect is so crucial that it is possible to consider them as an example of radical and specifi c experiences, referred to a specifi c place and based on a specifi c theoretical corpus. More specifi cally, this study focuses on the design activity carried out by Ungers in this city, mainly between the 80s and 90s and in the fi rst decade of the 21st century. It puts forward an interpretation that does not only defi ne the essential features, elements and questions lying behind these two architectures, but fi rst and foremost analyzes the theoretical, methodological and compositional relationship between Ungers and Trier, his adopted city. An increasingly closer relationship between the architect and his city highlights the wider relationship network established between the place and the projects carried out by Ungers in this city and makes it possible to understand the importance of Trier in the work of this architect, in his education and in his way to see, think and make architecture. The projects analyzed - the Thermen am Forum Museum (1988-1996) and the Kaiserthermen entrance hall (2003-2007) - were analyzed in terms of their architectural composition in an attempt to highlight the poetry of these architectures and to fi nd out their progressive, rational - and therefore transmissible - character. This study is an attempt to assess and unveil the compositional themes characterizing these projects while detecting the compositional principles lying behind the works and verifying the design process through which such principles were translated into architecture. Looking at these works as architectural composition examples makes it possible to clarify Ungers’ hermeneutic relationship established with the city’s history and structure. More specifi cally, the main subject of this thesis is the relationship between the architect, his city and history in the architectural solutions offered by two exemplary case studies, which were both built and placed in the historical city center of Trier and both connected with the ancient core of the city. The Thermen am Forum Museum and the Kaiserthermen entrance hall projects are - though being developed at different times of Ungers’ architectural life and though being extremely different in terms of approach to their context, due to their architectural image - two works that can be compared with the historical heritage of the city and this makes them ideal examples of the relationship between architectural forms, history and environment.