Designing “Clouds” for a flexible use of educational space: research and didactic experimentation for Public Engagement in the post-pandemic era

As part of the curriculum of the courses “Materials and Design of Building Elements” and “Urban Planning I”, first-year students of the undergraduate programme in Architecture at the Department of Architecture of Pescara, together with undergraduate students from the “Design and Construction” undergraduate laboratory, were involved in an experimental design and construction activity. The project was based on the innovative use of digital design and fabrication techniques and sustainable materials for the design and construction of small buildings, the “Clouds”, whose social aims respond to the post-pandemic condition. The laboratory’s experimentation and research activity, coordinated by professors Daniela Ladiana and Piero Rovigatti of the Department of Architecture in Pescara, and visiting professor Camilo Cifuentes of La Salle University in Bogotà, Colombia, focused on designing structures to support cultural activities in schools or educational spaces in neighbourhoods characterised by high dropout rates and educational poverty. The small buildings proposed in the final elaborations of the courses respond to the requirements of lightness, ease of construction and reversibility to facilitate self-construction by school communities. The work focused not only the content but also on teaching methods, implemented through a process of comparison and collaboration among students from different courses and levels. A further phase of work, for the construction of models and verification of the technical and economic feasibility of the project, involved local companies