Forma Terrae. Learning from the Ground: Towards a New Architecture of the City.

Authors

  • Adriano Dessì

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Abstract

The paper relates to the teaching experience of the final laboratory in Architecture, City, and Landscape at the School of Architecture in Cagliari, titled FORMA TERRAE, as an interdisciplinary moment and the construction of a cultural posture in architectural projects.

This teaching experience flows into the PRIN Research Project TEArch - Towards a Terrestrial Architecture, conducted with the Universities of Naples, Bari, and Catania, addressing the fragility of southern Italy territories and the role of architecture concerning natural balances, earth forms, water, vegetation, and landscapes of mining abandonment.

FORMA TERRAE interpreted the theme of transhistorical teaching in two ways: * studying the city of Cagliari not for its urban forms, monuments, or infrastructures, but for its original relation- ship to the earth, through the activity of excavating and depositing soils and rocks to build the city. The complex system of urban quarries since the Phoenician-Punic foundation has shaped the city’s history, with contemporary issues(stability, water flow, biodiversity, connections) still tied to this ancient system; * developing a methodology for continuous comparison between landforms and urban forms, hypogeal and epigean systems, ground structure and surface ecologies. This allowed the development of skills and knowledge in geological, hydrological, botanical, and petrographic disciplines, with ongoing comparisons with experts. It aimed to develop the capacity for synthesis and elaboration of the project from these sciences.

The paper will present laboratory results to outline a profile of architects capable of addressing the crises of the contemporary stratified city. The projects have been partly presented in international workshops and conferences and constitute an expanding body of experience.

A further result will be the definition of a new mapping of the city seen as a large terrestrial form (Aït-Touati, Terra Forma, 2022) and as an anthropogeographic landscape (Gregotti, Il territorio dell’architettura, 1966).

How to Cite

Dessì, A. (2025). Forma Terrae. Learning from the Ground: Towards a New Architecture of the City. EAAE Annual Conference Proceedings, 1(1). Retrieved from https://publishings.eaae.be/index.php/annual_conference/article/view/275

Published

2025-09-03

Issue

2025: Transhistorical Pedagogies - EAAE Annual Conference 2025 - Book of Abstracts

Section

SESSION 2 It’s time! Architecture as synthesis

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Copyright (c) 2025 Adriano Dessì

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biography

Adriano Dessì

The paper relates to the teaching experience of the final laboratory in Architecture, City, and Landscape at the School of Architecture in Cagliari, titled FORMA TERRAE, as an interdisciplinary moment and the construction of a cultural posture in architectural projects.

This teaching experience flows into the PRIN Research Project TEArch - Towards a Terrestrial Architecture, conducted with the Universities of Naples, Bari, and Catania, addressing the fragility of southern Italy territories and the role of architecture concerning natural balances, earth forms, water, vegetation, and landscapes of mining abandonment.

FORMA TERRAE interpreted the theme of transhistorical teaching in two ways:

* studying the city of Cagliari not for its urban forms, monuments, or infrastructures, but for its original relation- ship to the earth, through the activity of excavating and depositing soils and rocks to build the city. The complex system of urban quarries since the Phoenician-Punic foundation has shaped the city’s history, with contemporary issues (stability, water flow, biodiversity, connections) still tied to this ancient system;

* developing a methodology for continuous comparison between landforms and urban forms, hypogeal and epigean systems, ground structure and surface ecologies. This allowed the development of skills and knowledge in geological, hydrological, botanical, and petrographic disciplines, with ongoing comparisons with experts. It aimed to develop the capacity for synthesis and elaboration of the project from these sciences.

The paper will present laboratory results to outline a profile of architects capable of addressing the crises of the contemporary stratified city. The projects have been partly presented in international workshops and conferences and constitute an expanding body of experience.

A further result will be the definition of a new mapping of the city seen as a large terrestrial form (Aït-Touati, Terra Forma, 2022) and as an anthropogeographic landscape (Gregotti, Il territorio dell’architettura, 1966).