Passages. Architecture for Flowing and Connecting Spaces: Conference Proceedings: Book of Abstracts

Front Cover
Nicolò Chierichetti, Raffaella Cavallaro
TU Delft Open, Sep 1, 2025 - Architecture - 196 pages

« Ceci n’est pas une conférence sur la mobilité »

As infrastructures of movement often prioritize technical efficiency, they risk neglecting the qualitative and experiential dimensions of space, an oversight that architectural thinking is distinctively positioned to address. Architecture offers a special perspective to address this gap, particularly in light of SDG 09-Industry, Innovation and Infrastructures and SDG 11-Sustainable Cities and Communities, and in reference to the principles of the EAAE Charter.

By engaging with mobility through a transversal approach, the conference explores how architectural design can contribute to reimagining spaces to overcome functionalist engineering limitations, also considering the ecological, climate and social impacts of mobility spaces as something more than mere built objects.

Through the examination of design methodologies and prototype case studies, the conference attempts to unveil the potential of architectural design and research tools to enrich unconventional discussions about mobility in urban and peri-urban contexts, its spatial configurations and experiential qualities. Although mobility is intended as a framework, the discourse will focus on the spaces above, below, in-between, and to the sides of the ordinary boundaries of architectures of flow, as well as on the spaces of new forms of movement. The conference «Passages. Architecture for Flowing and Connecting Spaces» invited contributions which critically address the role of Architecture in the Shaping the spaces of mobility, and in their interference, around the sessions of “Intersection”, “Collateral” and “Evolution”.

 

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About the author (2025)

Nicolò Chierichetti is an architect and researcher at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) of the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Currently, he is also guest researcher at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), department of Architecture, in the research group of Architectural Design Crossovers. His research interests focus on the intersection of urban infrastructure, landscape architecture, and residual spaces, with a particular interest in the marginal areas adjacent to ring road systems. Nicolò is currently pursuing research under the national PNRR program (within the European NEXTGeneration EU program) and with FNMGroup-Milano Serravalle fundings – dealing with the challenges of the green transition for the Ring Roads system of the Metropolitan City of Milan – and framing Sustainable Mobility as an opportunity for Urban and Landscape Regeneration. His methodology refers to research-by-design, adopting meta-design explorations to provide strategic design visions. In Politecnico di Milano, he is also elected representative in the PhD board council across faculties and in the Council of Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, as a member of the Guarantee Committee Act, and part of the European Researcher Charter Group.

Raffaella Cavallaro is an architect and researcher in the Architectural, Urban and Interior Design Program (AUID) at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) of the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where she has been researching and supporting teaching since 2019. She is, currently, a visiting researcher at ENSA Paris Malaquais in the Laboratoire Infrastructure, Architecture, Territoire (LIAT). Her research, “Learning Spaces in Contemporary Metropolitan Cities. «Common Ground» design strategies to care and update Milan’s primary and secondary state schools”, which deals with architecture for education and explores models and strategies for innovative learning spaces, is part of the national PNRR program (within the European NEXTGeneration EU program) in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan’s Schools Technical Area. She is committed to defining strategies for updating school buildings, a topic she has explored in recent years through research collaborations, workshops, publications and design competitions. She has contributed to publications on architecture for education, such as “Una scuola condivisa: per una cultura della felicità “(2022) and “Inventing Schools. A School as Big as the World” (2023).

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