Systemic Habitats by Michele Leonardi Architect

THIS "WORLD"

on line since 2012, is mainly dedicated to architecture and urbanism. It is not a site conceived only for specialists, but for anyone interested in architecture. For example, two masters of modern architecture like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, were not graduates. Otherwise looking at the distant past, the Roman emperor Hadrian, the director of a masterpiece of all time such as Villa Adriana near Tivoli, not even he was qualify himself as "graduate in architecture". Not to mention the architectures without architects that dot the world: from the trulli of Alberobello in Italy to the tulou in China, from the French cathedral builders in early second millennium up to the oasis of Sahara in the last millennia. Until to get to one of the oldest rights of the world: that of building your home yourself. But this does not mean that anyone can improvise as an architect, especially in our day, in the age of specialism, cloning and absolute conformism.

Second, there is an EXTRA CONTENTS

section dedicated to multidisciplinary themes. More: this is a professional and personal cosmic website, with universal cultural purposes. Here is not propagandized any doctrine, nor any final truth. Of course I advertise my projects, ideas and opinions in terms of architecture.

The meta-message included into the Extra Contents is essentially aimed to the "not born old" new generations: don't let yourself be overcome by pessimism and by Cassandras. Don't believe in clichés and the ignorance spread by the mass media, nor in certain forms of scientific dogmatism. Because humanity today has all the knowledge available and all the modern and traditional technology to solve any real problem, including the energy transition, indeed, not a problem, but a new opportunity and a new frontier.

WHAT IS A SYSTEMIC HABITAT?

The principles of Systemic Architectures and Constructions are exposed in my free eBook entitled "Toward A Different Habitat: 36 Projects of Luigi Pellegrin Architect", in Italian, at the moment available in English only the Introduction. The Introduction is available also in Italian, in German, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and more languages.

However, in short, the basic assumption is that nature is systemic. It's still valid that nature is the best teacher, "natura naturans", without for this reason divinizing it. All this beyond the form that an architecture or a building can take, because, as is well known, the forms are unlimited. Man and society are not outside nature, but inside, being themselves nature. Let us not forget.

IN OUR TIMES

the common opinion is that architecture is something more, a kind of ornament, the superfluous for rich people. This is a big strategic error. On the opposite many past civilizations have lasted for a long time exactly because these civilizations have recognized the fundamental and organic function of architecture in the society. Here it is proposed to follow the way of systemic habitats and long-term strategies.

IF THE

Systemic Habitats' principles will be emulated in the future, this will be one more step towards liberation from current building practice, given by inhuman piece's logic, the sum that is never a sum, which results in the anonymous modern cities: “the old pie crust”, as rightly Frank Lloyd Wright called them, more or less.

The name for the theme we are dealing with here is not random. Habitats indicates the spaces of living, the places where people live and carry out their activities; from the basic living cell, to the architectural organism, up to the urban and territorial scale. While the adjective Systemic indicates that the components of a given architecture or construction make system with each other.

THAT'S ALL?

No, because the evolution of a project is never linear. It has no limits, it is not predictable. Two, three good ideas and you can create a world, a new dimension for people. It's wasted time to enunciate a recipe ready to use for any occasion, or formulate a program, or define an algorithm. Therefore, here and in my e-book we rather indicate a direction, a method among the many possible and not "the method". Examples are given by realized and unrealized projects. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) suggested that "for every complex problem, there is always a simple solution which is wrong". In other words, architectural research cannot be channelled and limited by theorizing of any kind.

The history of architecture and urban planning shows how long any formalism last: not for long, having been born old, an example: the Postmodernism. Time before the postmodernist formalism, one master of modern architecture like Le Corbusier, about his famous Modulor, a system of architectural proportioning he conceived and based on human dimensions, it seems to have said paradoxically: “Le Modulor? Je m'en fiche! Quand cela ne fonctionne pas, il ne doit pas être appliqué." The Modulor? I don’t care! When it doesn't work, it shouldn't be applied. In other words his clear rejection of any formalism. So it's a matter to define an architectural language for contemporary life. It's a question of raising the qualitative level of common building practice.

THIS IS POSSIBLE

only by following the high road of continuous architectural research. Since we are always talking about organic architecture. There are no shortcuts.

We stop here, at the doors of a future unknown to us.

W E L C O M E T O S Y S T E M I C H A B I T A T S

B Y M I C H E L E L E O N A R D I

A R C H I T E C T

T H E M A R I N D U C T

THE MARINE WATER AQUEDUCT

D E E P B L U E

SEAWATER FOR OVER 200,000 POOLS OF

L O S A N G E L E S

D U N E S

THE MARINDUCT OASIS SYSTEM

T H E P E N S I L E P O O L S

BY BRIDGE-POOLS

WATERFUN & SPORTING BATHS

THE ROLLER COASTER OF STAIRS

A LABYRINTH OF STAIRS

FOR SEAWATER FUN PARKS

F O R H U M A N B E I N G S

N O T F O R M A C H I N E S

S T A I R S I N T H E W A T E R

A SEAWATER SPORTING & FUN PARK

T H E N A U T I L U S

A VILLAGE IN THE DESERT

T H E B L U E S H E L L

A HOME WITH A THERMAL

SHIELD OF SAND

T H E Z E B R A S

CHAIRS & TABLES BY POLYCARBONATE

& ALUMINIUM TUBES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Even the longest journey begins with a first step! Systemic Habitats is on line since the 18th of May 2012. This website was created to publish online my ebook "Towards another habitat" on the contemporary architecture and urbanism. Later many other contents were added. For their direct or indirect contribution to its realisation strarting from 2012, we would like to thank: Roberto Vacca, Marco Pizzuti, Fiorenzo and Raffaella Zampieri, Antonella Todeschini, All the Amici di Marco Todeschini, Ecaterina Bagrin, Stefania Ciocchetti, Marcello Leonardi, Joseph Davidovits, Frédéric Davidovits, Rossella Sinisi, Pasquale Cascella, Carlo Cesana, Filippo Schiavetti Arcangeli, Laura Pane, Antonio Montemiglio, Patrizia Piras, Bruno Nicola Rapisarda, Ruberto Ruberti, Marco Cicconcelli, Ezio Prato, Sveva Labriola, Rosario Francalanza, Giacinto Sabellotti, All the Amici di Gigi, Ruth and Ricky Meghiddo, Natalie Edwards, Rafael Schmitd, Nicola Romano, Sergio Bianchi, Cesare Rocchi, Henri Bertand, Philippe Salgarolo, Paolo Piva detto il Pivapao, Norbert Trenkle, Gaetano Giuseppe Magro, Carlo Blangiforti, Mario Ludovico, Riccardo Viola, Giulio Peruzzi, Ahmed Elgazzar, and last but not least Warren Teitz. M.L.