Authors
Michele Bonino; Valeria Federighi; Camilla Forina; Lidia Preti
Cite this paper
Polito Studio. Progettare l’internazionalizzazione della pratica di architettura fra università e ordine professionale (Polito Studio. Designing the internationalisation of architectural practice between university and professional association) / Bonino, Michele; Federighi, Valeria; Forina, Camilla; Preti, Lidia. – ELETTRONICO. – (2021), pp. 264-269. (Intervento presentato al convegno Proarch 4. Webinar Meeting. PROGETTO | RICERCA | LINGUAGGIO Progetto architettonico come prodotto di ricerca e possibili strumenti della comunicazione tenutosi a Ferrara (online webinar) nel 4, 11, 18, 25 Novembre 2020).
Link
https://iris.polito.it/handle/11583/2912274
Abstract
The Polito Studio project is part of the first agreement between the Polytechnic University of Turin and the Association of Architects of Turin, and defines a collaboration between the two institutions to support the internationalisation of Turin’s architectural practices. The reference scenario is well known: the demand for design services in Italy is the second lowest in Europe; the number of architects is the highest; Italian architectural practices are on average small and not competitive on international markets; however, the reputation of Italian designers offers a potential to be exploited, and unlike professional practices, academic institutions can count on extensive and multidisciplinary structures. In other geographical and regulatory contexts, professional and academic institutions find ample spaces for collaboration (an example for all: the Chinese Design Institute; but also experiences such as PennPraxis at the University of Pennsylvania), which allow for the combination of different spaces of action and metrics of impact. The project intends to experiment with the construction of a practice community between academia and profession. On the one hand, this makes it possible to exploit innovation potentials linked to the type of reference structure that the literature defines as complementary through a direct mixing of different competences (‘communities of practice’ in Turin: academy + profession – Amin, Roberts 2008). On the other hand, the dimension of geographical openness allows for variable overlaps between different communities of practice (‘constellations of practices’ – Faulconbridge 2010) opening up spaces for incremental innovation. These steps are carried out through successive forms of ‘putting into practice’ (Barbera 2019) that allow objectives, tools and actions to be defined on the run rather than in advance.