PIPE GARDEN

Andrea Ponsi, Alinea Editore, Florence, 2010

Kent State University - Florence Program - College of Architecture & Environmental Design

ISBN 978-8860553102

The idea of proposing the "Pipe Garden" project to the students in the Design Studio course at the Kent State University Florence Program came to fruition when a substantial supply of copper tubing, which I had earlier used to mount some exhibitions, became available. The assignment for each student was to create a life-size installation, on a scale of 1:1, in the courtyard-garden of my studio on Via della Fonderia. This direct passage , without intermediaries, from the drawing board to the actual construction was thus a stimulus to develop further, together with the students, the following themes: the idea of "limitation" and how this can be transformed, during the design process, in order to spur imagination and creativity; the development of an "elementary"design, that is to say of objects and systems based on the use of limited building elements that can be assembled using a simple, coherent architectural language; the compositional possibilities of the "line" understood as an abstract geometric figure, a concrete element ( the pipe ), and a symbolic sign; the relationship between body and design and consequently between material, space, and sensory perceptions. The fruits of this experience are now gathered together in this little book, it too the result of the work of photographic documentation and graphic layout done by the students themselves.