Largest Architectural Firms in the Global Scenario
Authorship Histories, Design Cultures and Managerial Organization

I grandi studi di architettura nello scenario globale
Storie autoriali, cultura progettuale e organizzazione d'impresa

International conference, Zoom Webinar

The conference aims to investigate the impact of the managerial organization and design expertise as key elements of architectural creativity. Since the last decades the most important architecture firms started to count hundreds of employees, having to necessarily structure themselves as real creative companies, managing the interaction between different skills – architects, structural engineers, plant engineers, furniture and product designers, graphic designers, IT experts, model-makers, accountants, legal experts etc. in order to foster their performance and remain competitive in the market. The managerial skills and the fruitful intersection of their internal different competences, can result in innovative design methodologies that will increasingly become crucial factors of the quality and competitiveness of the architecture firms.

Possible themes in relation to the Conference might include, but are not limited to:
- evolution of the practice and architects' and designers' daily work
- hierarchization of work force into the firms
- how to fit individual creativity with the competitive aims of huge firms
- how to develop the authorship and national identities in such global firms
- combination and exploitation processes of heterogeneous skills (e.g. architects, structural engineers, plant engineers, product and graphic designers etc.) to improve architecture firms' performance
- participation in decision making processes and its impact on architecture firms' performance
- the impact of IT on the organization of architecture firms
- management of huge and complex construction sites
- knowledge sharing within architecture firms to enhance creativity
- the use of effective coordination mechanisms within architecture firms


PROGRAM

11 February 2021

9:45 Welcome
Giuseppe De Luca (DIDA, University of Florence)
Maria Elvira Mancino (DISEI, University of Florence)

Lorenzo Ciccarelli (Università di Firenze)

10:15
Federico Bucci (Milan Polytechnic),
Introduction to the conference

First session, Towards the largest design firms
Chair: Angelo Ciribini (Università di Brescia)

10:30
Massimiliano Savorra (Università di Pavia)
La premiata ditta McKim Mead & White e la nascita della grandi società di architettura

11:00
Nicholas Adams (Vassar College)
Mine, Yours, Ours: Personal and Corporate Identity at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

11:30 coffee break

11:45
Ruth Lang (London University of the Arts)
How and Where to Work: Spatial Relations in the London County Council Architect's Department

12:15
Davide Spina (ETH Zürich)
In-House: Società Generale Immobiliare and Its Architects


Second session - Authorship in design process between IT and business organization
Chair: Davide Turrini (Università di Ferrara)

15:00
Sara Lombardi (Università di Firenze)
Investigating Architecture Firms' Creativity: An Organizational Design Perspective

15:30
Pietro Messina (Studio CoLegal)
Designs, Architectural Works and Engineering Projects: Authorship and Key Legal Issues in an International and Comparative Perspective

16:00
Phillip Bernstein (Yale School of Architecture)
Commodity Services versus Outcome-based Delivery: Technologically Transfigured Business Strategies for Design

16:30
Aaron Cayer (University of New Mexico), Peggy Deamer (Yale School of Architecture)
Gensler to AECOM: US Models of Neoliberal Architecture Practice

17:00 coffee break

17:30
Keynote Lecture - Marco Biraghi (Milan Polytechnic)
Is This the End? L'architettura nell'epoca del capitalismo finanziario


12 February 2021

Third session - Largest design firms in the global scenario
Chair: Emanuela Ferretti (Università di Firenze)

9:30
Albena Yaneva (University of Manchester)
Made by OMA: Thinking Through Modelling

10:00
Rosa Sessa (Università di Napoli Federico II)
VSBA Architects & Planners. Navigating the Legacy of Venturi and Scott Brown in the Contemporary Global Scenario

10:30
Hua Xiahong (Tongji University)
Integrating Production, Education and Research: The Historical Evolution of Chinese University-affiliated Design Institutes

11:00 coffee break

11:15
Lorenzo Mingardi (Università di Firenze)
Arup Architecture. Il progetto come molteplicità di prestazioni

11:45
Lorenzo Ciccarelli (Università di Firenze)
Da atelier a industria creativa: autorialità e organizzazione d'impresa in Foster + Partners.


Fourth session - Multiscale projects. From architecture to design, to art sites
Chair: Carlo Martino (Sapienza Università di Roma)

15:00
Elena Dellapiana (Turin Polytechnic)
Quando il grande architetto diventa designer. La logica dello studio multiscalare

15:30
Davide Turrini (Università di Ferrara)
Snøhetta Multiscale Design Method

16:00
Elisabetta Trincherini (Università di Ferrara)
Zaha Hadid Design

16:30
Emanuela Ferretti (Università di Firenze)
La processualità nell'arte contemporanea in rapporto al contesto architettonico e paesaggistico. Alcune riflessioni

17:00 coffe break

17:30
Keynote Lecture - Deyan Sudjic (Lancaster University)
From S to XL, by Way of M and L: The Transformation of Architectural Practice


In order to subscribe and enter the Zoom Webinar, please follow this link:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T3uE3o5yRg2huU0CN3uFlw