Research at the Crossroads

The essay introduces the first issue of the Quadra series and the results of researches developed in the frame of the Architecture curriculum of the XXXII-XXXIV Cycles of the PhD course in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, jointly established by the Università di Trieste and Università di Udine since the 2015-16 academic year. Bringing together architectural and urban design reflections and devices, technical and technological tools, spatial planning investigations and instruments, the doctoral researches provide a picture of a large variety of topics and approaches. Their common aim is to explore fields of innovation in the various steps of transformation processes: from their conception to the proposal of approaches to the building of possible solutions. The first section of the book, Territories of Smartness and Interactions, collects contributions dealing with material and immaterial, physical and technological aspects and tools, addressed to the investigation, integrated planning, management and communication of the multiple dimensions of territorial assets and transformations. The second section, New Metabolisms and Subtractions, presents researches that are primarily related to the fields of architectural and urban design. Each essay is the result of a synthesis and reworking of a doctoral thesis and its key findings, and is introduced by a presentation written by the research supervisor to sketch broader theoretical frameworks. Overall, the book offers an articulate “geography” of topics and hypotheses the PhD course has dealt with: a tentative mapping of research paths, understood as a starting point for new critical reflections, and for stronger interactions among disciplinary fields and approaches.