The City and The Water

The International Summer School “The City and the Water”, since 2014, is a Design Full-Time Workshop, aimed at investigating the complex relationships between the built environment and the water, in its broadest meaning of environmental resource, and therefore including seaside, rivers, lakes and water resources.

The Summer School is organized in 13 days and hosted in Pisa by the Department of Energy, Systems, Territory, and Constructions Engineering of the University of Pisa.

Students will be engaged in the development of a project on a case study, with the support of teachers and tutors of the Universities of Pisa and visiting professors of other national and international schools of architecture and landscape design.

The Summer School is organized in 13 days. The first 5 days are primarily aimed at the critical reading and knowledge of the area chosen as a case study “THE HIDDEN WATER OF PISA”, in order to identify its value and criticisms. In the other days, students will work for the development of a project of enhancement on the area chosen as a case study both at architectural, urban and technological scale. For the whole period, lessons will be opportunely organized in order to give theoretical and methodological supports for the development of the projects.

The ideas and drawings elaborated during the International Summer School will be presented in a public exhibition.

Course leader

Prof. Giovanni Santi

Target group

The International Summer School is open to university students and PhD students of Architecture, Urban Planning, Design, Design Institutes, Landscape Design, and also to young professionals and artists from all EU and non-EU countries.

Course aim

The summer school aims to provide theoretical skills and methodological tools for the architectural design linked to water's landscape.

Students, organized in groups composed by members of different nationalities, will be asked to develop a project of enhancement for an area chosen as a case study. The internationality of the group of students is fundamental for promoting cultural exchange and comparison, also in terms of approach, between dfferent experiences in the field of architectural design, landscape conservation and enhancement at an international level.