Miegunyah Lectures
Melbourne School of Design
Faculty of Architecture, Building & Planning
The University of Melbourne
Lecture 1 - Tuesday 17th August
Professor Attilio Petruccioli (Head, Department of Civil Engineering and Architectural Science, Polytechnic of Bari, Italy)
‘The Genetics of Walls: Urban DNA and social features’
In the 1950s, Saverio Muratori created the ‘urban typology school’ to study the morphological evolution of the city of Venice through the centuries. This lecture will use the main tenets of Muratori’s theory to read the historic and contemporary fabric of Balkan, Middle Eastern and Central Asian cities. Through the analysis of their structural skeleton, light will be shed on the spatial complexity and social richness of specific urban textures, from Bosnia to Jerusalem, many of which have been scarred by recent events in world history. By reflecting on their cultural value and environmental rationale, the discussion will tease out the lessons that should be learnt from traditional settlements, and consider how these lessons could be used to assess or guide reconstruction efforts in war-torn or disaster-prone areas in the Islamic world.
Date: Tuesday 17 August, 2010 at 7pm
Venue: Prince Philip Theatre, Ground floor, Architecture Building, The University of Melbourne
Free Admission
Lecture 2 - Tuesday 24th August
Professor Claudio D’Amato Guerrieri (Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Polytechnic of Bari, Italy)
‘The Sustainable Weight of History: The contribution of digital technologies to the continuity and innovation of masonry in architecture’
Architecture must always respond to two sets of elements fundamentally connected to its social nature: spatial types, with their slow evolution over time; and building techniques, or the methods of construction enabling the transformation of those types into concrete artifacts. Moving from such a premise, this lecture will review a specific mode of renewal for the architectural discipline: through the use of digital technologies, in deference to its disciplinary statute, and in continuity with its built tradition.
Date: Tuesday 24 August, 2010 at 7pm
Venue: Prince Philip Theatre Ground floor, Architecture Building, The University of Melbourne
Free Admission
For more information on both lectures and to register visit http://www.msd.unimelb.edu.au/events/special-lectures/miegunyah.html
To coincide with the Miegunyah Lectures an exhibition of recent works by Professor Attilio Petruccioli and Professor Claudio D’Amato Guerrieri will be presented in the Wunderlich Gallery, Architecture Building, 17 - 27 August, 2010.