Dec. 6 – “Rural architectural Intensification” is a project coordinated by Tiziano Cattaneo, from the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Pavia. The project was presented in China at the 5th Biennial of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The International Exhibition of Urban Planning and Architecture – entitled “Urban Border” – is being held at the Shekou Ferry Terminal in Shenzhen. The event opened today and will close its doors on February 28; it is directed by the Dutch architect Ole Bouman, curator and creative director, and the duo Li Xiangning – Jeffrey Johnson, directors for the academic section. UABB – Urbanism \ Architecture Bi-city Biennale of Shenzhen and Hong Kong – includes an academic section dedicated to “Designing the Urban -Rural Interaction,” a particularly innovative and interesting area in which the relationship between urban and rural areas is investigated. The international Biennale is an opportunity to showcase the Pavia research project, which pays particular attention to the positive aspects of rural landscaping. “The research project ‘Rural Architectural Intesification’ was born within the research PRIN2009 (Research Project of National Interest), funded by the Ministry of Education and later developed as an independent program,” says Cattaneo, today in Shenzhen for the opening event of the Biennale. “The presence of our project at the Biennale in Shenzhen comes after a long selection process made by the curators of the Biennale and the Chinese team. Therefore, our participation alongside the most important universities in the world is an incentive to continue and develop this project. From this success, our dream is to be able to develop and disseminate our project in the context of research and development in our country.” Rural Architectural Intensification is an innovative architecture and urban design plan; it can be usedto regenerate and transform modern cities and landscapes in ways that are suitable for modern use while being more sustainable. Three are the key words of the project: intensification, as a strategy to create sustainable population density in which the natural and the rural environments coexist with the urban one; architecture, such as process and product construction, which can create social, cultural, economic and technological innovation; and rural, an environment rich in history, memory, identity and landscape quality.
