Public space and urban transformation

A sealed envelope with two alternative practical-exam themes for the Junior Architect (Section B). THEME 1 — reorganization of "Pratone Parella", an ~11,000 sqm flat meadow in western Turin, now a commons managed through a Collaboration Pact between citizens and the city: the area is strictly non-buildable except for temporary, removable, precarious structures. Required, with attention to sustainability: identifying accesses; a pedestrian-path network with paving materials; a drinks-and-snacks kiosk; a bike shelter with an electric charging station; a playground; a small orchard; 10 urban gardens (at least 70 sqm each) each with a small temporary timber shed (max 20 sqm footprint) for tools. THEME 2 — residential recovery of an attic in a historic building in Turin's Central Historic Urban Zone (ZUCS, R4 use), where only conservation-oriented works are allowed: the regional law on attic recovery applies (reduced average heights, 2.20 m for habitable spaces) together with Building Regulation rules on minimum bathrooms, dormers and in-pitch terraces; special attention to heights, daylight/ventilation ratios and accessibility. Both themes require a report on environmental and compositional criteria, a quantitative-economic assessment and sustainability choices.

A sealed envelope with three alternative design themes (Section A, first 2025 session), published in synthetic form by the commission and paired with the first written test justifying the structural or settlement sizing of the practical exam. THEME 1 — the design of a permanent public pavilion. THEME 2 — the recovery and consolidation of a barn altered over time. THEME 3 — the masterplan and implementation-plan scheme for the Polyvalent Food Centre in the former Mercafir area of Florence. The three themes test very different registers of the profession: the new public building, the intervention on a rural existing structure between recovery and structural consolidation, and the urban scale of the implementation plan with its standards and facilities.

A sealed envelope with three alternative design themes (Section A, second 2025 session), published in synthetic form by the commission and paired with the first written test justifying the structural or settlement sizing. THEME 1 — the design of a public neighbourhood library, with the layout of parking, greenery and paths. THEME 2 — the recovery and consolidation of a Tuscan barn altered over time, with a new residential use. THEME 3 — an urban-transformation design in the Soccorso district of Prato, with the regeneration of the built fabric and public spaces. As in the first session, the three themes span the public building with its outdoor facilities, the recovery of a rural existing structure with a change of use, and the urban scale of a neighbourhood's regeneration.

A sealed envelope with two alternative practical-exam themes for the Junior Architect (Section B). THEME 1 — merging and functional reorganization of two stacked dwellings (5th floor and 6th-floor attic) in an existing multi-storey urban building, for a family of four. Required: an internal vertical connection between the two floors, respecting the existing structure; the redistribution of living and sleeping zones without external changes, obtaining a large living area, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms on the 5th floor and 1 in the attic, plus a remote-work room usable by both parents with furniture studied for privacy; artificial-lighting scenarios by room use. The existing-state drawings are provided (1:100 and 1:50 plans, section, floor scheme). THEME 2 — design of a demountable kiosk (max 25 sqm) in a historic-centre square of a Ligurian coastal town, a space born from wartime destruction and used by residents for shows, open-air cinema, parties and play: an assemblable/demountable structure serving, by occasion, as ticket office, kiosk, shop or store. Both themes require, in the technical report, developing one of a cost estimate, the design and verification of a structural element, or constructional/energy choices for sustainability.

A sealed envelope with four alternative practical-exam themes (Section A, "senior architect"). TRACK 1 — a single-family house in the hamlet of Chianni (Gambassi Terme, Florence), on a sloping lot in the historic fabric less than 300 m from the Romanesque Pieve of Santa Maria (a Via Francigena stop recorded in 988): after demolishing worthless outbuildings, a single 140 sqm dwelling above ground, 2 floors plus an optional semi-basement, max height 7.5 m, parallel to the white road to be kept, parking to the north-west, with attention to the context's typology and materials. TRACK 2 — the recovery of the ruins of a 16th-century coastal tower (referencing the Torre S. Giovanni la Pedata at Gallipoli), reading its decay and designing the consolidation and reuse of the historic structure. TRACK 3 — a temporary exhibition pavilion on the terracotta pavement of the Belvedere Franco Zeffirelli, below Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence, for a show on the history of the ancient walls: 90 sqm, max height 3.60 m, demountable and reversible, dry-assembled, without foundations, lasting three months, with visual permeability toward the city and the walls and accessibility requirements; the site must not be altered. TRACK 4 — the urban design of a residential block (a disused area fronting via Roma) through an implementation plan: an in-line building, private and public parking (850 sqm), total residential and commercial volume 2,500 cubic metres (20% commercial), max height 7.5 m, with the stages of the implementation-plan procedure and the regulatory references.

A sealed envelope with two alternative practical-exam themes (Section A, 2024). THEME 1 — the new construction of a detached house on a lot of about 1,000 sqm in a municipality of Trieste province, for a family of four, with a pool and relaxation area in the basement and two possibly-covered parking spaces, complying with the B3 zone parameters of the town plan (floor-area ratio 0.8, coverage ratio 30%, maximum height 7.50 m, distances of 5 m from boundaries, 10 m from buildings, 5 m from roads); required are a 1:200 site plan with external works, dimensioned 1:100 ground-floor and basement plans with building and health parameters, at least one 1:100 section and at least two elevations with materials. THEME 2 — an urban recovery in Trieste's centre, at the edge of the walled city: a residual space left by unfinished works, at the junction between the pedestrianised Cittàvecchia district and the 19th-century Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia, to be turned into a public space. The urban-scale design defines a square — with a site-volume plan for the buildings to rebuild or complete, pedestrian and green areas, street furniture, traffic (including emergency access), disabled accessibility, rainwater management and lighting — and includes a small kiosk (florist, newsagent, small bar). Deliverables: a 1:500 site plan, a 1:200 plan of the square and one of its sections, and the kiosk's 1:50 plan, section and elevations.

An envelope with three alternative six-hour design themes and a linked first written test (technical report on design and construction choices). THEME I — a three-storey retail building on a roughly 7 m wide residual urban lot between two existing buildings of different heights (10 m and 4 m); accessibility for people with motor disabilities is explicitly required. THEME II — adaptive reuse: on a suburban lot of about 37 × 28 m with three existing concrete structures, design three temporary dwellings with shared spaces (kitchen and living, about 110 sqm total) reusing the existing volume and adding a solar greenhouse, with new volumes in brick and/or reinforced concrete and external works. THEME III — an urban-planning theme: an implementation district of Pescara's master plan (territorial index 1.00 cum/sqm, additional social-housing volume, max height 16.80 m), with road widenings, a new road link and continuous sustainable mobility (cycle paths) between public facilities; required outputs include a 1:1000 project plan, a 1:500 urban section and typological/aggregation schemes of the building types.

A sealed envelope with three alternative practical-exam themes (Section A, 5 hours): three small public or receptive buildings where architectural quality matters, each with its linked written test and an explicit request for at least one three-dimensional representation. THEME 1 — on a 30 m square empty flat lot, an artists' space hosting, on a yearly rotation, the winner of a call: a workshop of about 80 sqm within the visitor route, an exhibition space of about 200 sqm always open with half its area double-height, visitor toilets and a mini-loft dwelling (≤80 sqm); ground footprint max 200 sqm, height max 10 m, aiming at a neutral, flexible backdrop. THEME 2 — the new vertical access to the town fortress, the local tourist heart, on a steep slope: on an already-built foundation platform (8×8 m reinforced concrete) an iconic tower (max height 16 m, minimum floor-to-floor 3 m) with a panoramic ascent (stairs and lift), ticket office and services on the ground floor, an events hall ≥40 sqm, the keeper's dwelling, a café overlooking the town and a panoramic terrace from which an aerial link reaches the fortress. THEME 3 — a small receptive building in a continuous terrace (lot 8.5×14 m, abutting on both sides), with fronts west onto the pedestrian street and east onto a 10 m-deep inner court: at least eight rooms (4+4) with private baths over two levels, a ground floor for reception, services and breakfast, and a manager's flat (≥80 sqm) on the top floor; eaves height on the street 9 m (max 13 m), with attention to the stone context of the adjoining buildings. Shared deliverables: a three-dimensional representation, a significant section, elevations and plans 1:100, and the construction detail of the ground and roof nodes attentive to energy containment (1:20).

A sealed envelope with three alternative practical-exam themes (Section A, summer session 2017), each with its linked first written test. THEME 1 — an urban-regeneration design for Transformation District no. 17 of Genoa's municipal urban plan (PUC), in Sampierdarena, following the plan's compliance rules (materials provided: PUC excerpts, Liguria Regional Law 16/2008 on usable floor area and settlement-use indexes, 1:5,000 mapping): an early-20th-century residential fabric with historic remnants (holiday palaces), the via Rolando shopping street, schools, the Sampierdarena railway station, via Cantore and the nearby Fiumara mall. THEME 2 — a civic library in an eastern-Liguria town, on a services lot next to a watercourse (15 m minimum distance for new buildings, no basements allowed), two storeys high, with lobby and cloakroom, reading and periodicals rooms, archive, staff and public toilets and a small café point, complying with rules on energy saving, renewables and architectural barriers. THEME 3 — the residential recovery of an old three-storey rural building (oven, stable and cellar at ground floor, two flats above, long used as a warehouse) into one or two units of the candidate's choice, with a possible 20% volumetric extension of the gross habitable area: attention to vertical circulation (internal or external), justified changes to structure and openings and the extension's choices; the report also asks for specification items for works on the existing structures and the technical specs of the extension.

A sealed envelope with three alternative practical-exam themes (Section A, 2015): all three sit on the same site — the former A.M.T. bus depot on via Maddaloni in Genoa, to be imagined fully demolished — asking for three different transformations, with the shared warning that the area is at flood risk and must be designed with suitable solutions. THEME 1 — an open-access library over several floors, with a detailed programme: lobby, a selection/consultation/lending area (450 sqm), a reading area (400 sqm), a periodicals room, a study area, an archive (300 sqm), a media library, offices, a refreshment area, toilets, a 100-seat conference hall usable outside the library service, and covered staff parking; the written test asks for the conference hall sizing at 1:50. THEME 2 — a multi-storey residential complex in one or more volumes, with a total volume no greater than 16,000 cubic metres; the written test asks for the typical-flat sizing at 1:50. THEME 3 — the residential urban development of the area under three alternative floor-area ratios (1.00 / 1.25 / 1.50), with the provision of planning standards (12 sqm/inhabitant of equipped greenery, 3 for common-interest uses, 3 for public parking, plus private parking): a comparative assessment of the three solutions and the chosen one developed as a 1:500 site-volume plan with 1:200 sections and elevations. Deliverables: 1:100 plans, elevations and sections for the buildings; a 1:500/1:200 site-volume plan and layout scheme for the urban study.

A sealed envelope with three alternative practical-exam themes (Section A, first 2014 session), each with existing-state cartography and a first written test justifying the choices and the sizing. THEME 1 — on a buildable lot owned by the Municipality of Sestri Levante, in the valley of the Gromolo stream, a residential building within a maximum volume of 2,405 cubic metres: no more than three storeys above ground plus a possible non-residential basement, a pitched roof and at least two different dwelling types, accounting for the given no-build constraints (cemetery buffer and river buffer) and addressing accessibility, visitability and adaptability under Ministerial Decree 236/89. THEME 2 — the recovery of a cluster of unremarkable rural buildings in open countryside at Amelia, Forano locality (a PRG agricultural zone): today stores and barns with a single two-storey rural dwelling, to be turned into a family-run farm-stay by defining the hospitality and social spaces (restaurant, kitchen, living room, bar, outdoor common spaces and the manager's flat), with modest volume increases and altered openings. THEME 3 — in a peripheral area of a small Piedmont municipality, the design of a vacant residential (and compatible-use) area through a privately-initiated executive urban plan: define uses, building type, the location of planning standards and the road layout, respecting the assigned parameters (territorial index 0.60, coverage ratio 0.50, maximum height 10.50 m, standard 25 sqm/inhabitant) and the obligation to continue the pedestrian route to the north. Deliverables: from the building's 1:100 plans and sections to the 1:500/1:400 site-volume plan and the implementation-plan scheme, depending on the theme.

A sealed envelope with three alternative practical-exam themes (Section A, November session), each with its linked first written test. THEME 1 — on an elongated peripheral lot along a secondary street (54×20 m), an in-line residential building with a ground floor usable for retail and tertiary activities: depth no more than 13 m, eaves height no more than 13.50 m, at least 12 dwellings, two entrances with their stairs per group of flats, a pavement on the street and a possible rear pedestrian path; the written test asks for the structural sizing of some parts. THEME 2 — on a 120×60 m lot at the crossing of two neighbourhood streets, a small neighbourhood culture centre of about 900 sqm covered: entrance hall with info point, an events space of at least 150 sqm, a large library reading room, two offices, a screening room and internet corner, media consultation, storage and plant rooms, toilets and an automated café; an outdoor area with a rack for at least 20 bikes, five disabled parking spaces, a garden, a paved open-air reading area, a portico and a roof terrace accessible to all; the written test asks for an approximate bill of quantities. THEME 3 — on a large peripheral lot of about 15,000 sqm between three streets, a layout of collective functions and public greenery: at least 70% holds a sports centre, fenced and 50% covered with wide-span structures (hall, info and public services with a café ≥80 sqm, two pairs of changing rooms, two five-a-side pitches and a covered multi-purpose court or a gym), with greenery and pedestrian routes, taxi and bus stops, a cycle path, disabled parking and car parking; the written test asks for the sizing of the main structural system. Shared deliverables: general site plans and details at progressive scales (from 1:5000/1:2000 to 1:500), a 1:200 project extract with plans, sections and elevations, technological details and three-dimensional drawings. Transparency note: the university does not publish the exam texts; this sheet is reconstructed from a preparation archive (source below), with the usual editorial summary.

The practical exam of 26/06/2008 (Section A, old system, 8 hours): three alternative themes, each developed with preparatory sketches, plans, elevations, sections and details at suitable scales. THEME 1 — on a flat area 75 m up, on a cliff over the sea, a church of 200 usable sqm with a 60 sqm sacristy (WC, parlour) and a bell tower, plus a pilgrim house of about 80 sqm (meeting room, refreshments, toilets, assistance), joined by an open-air churchyard; masonry or reinforced-concrete structures, roofs in RC, steel or glulam, with possible outdoor spaces for open-air rites. THEME 2 — the landscaping of an enlarged neighbourhood park: resolve the link between the existing park and the new area, separated by a 10 m level change (altering or removing the retaining wall), create equipped greenery with an open-air theatre for about 200 seats screened from the street, a green area for pedestrian access and a car park, specifying paving, trees and fencing. THEME 3 — in an existing district, on a 20×30 m site surrounded by streets, a residential service (civic centre) with a 150-200 seat multipurpose hall (assemblies, conferences, screenings, theatre, exhibitions, library and newspaper room), an office for social services, a group meeting room, a soundproofed music room, a lobby and rest area, services and a heating plant, stating the main planning indices. Deliverables per theme: from the 1:500/1:200 site plan to 1:100 plans, elevations and sections, with construction details and a statement of structures and materials. Transparency note: the university does not publish the exam texts; this sheet is reconstructed from a preparation archive (source below), with the usual editorial summary.

The practical exam of the first 2007 session (Section A, old system, 8 hours): a single strong theme — starting from the debate on the multi-ethnic city and the “places and spaces of dialogue” among the three monotheistic religions, the commission asks for design ideas able to combine cultural differences and convergences. THEME 1 — a new architecture conceived as a synthesis of interfaith dialogue, placed in a site chosen and described by the candidate through preliminary sketches: a hall space of no more than 600 sqm covered within an enclosure of no more than 2,400 sqm, with functional, formal and structural solutions that heighten its symbolic representativeness. THEME 2 — the recovery of a rural building (drawings provided) as a place of interfaith dialogue, with functions allocated across the covered areas and an external layout consistent with the theme. THEME 3 — a new neighbourhood for 500 inhabitants as a response to multi-ethnic and multi-religious needs, sited in an urban-territorial context chosen by the candidate: positioning and sizing of roads and facilities per D.M. 1444/68, with indications on the neighbourhood's morphology and on the type of residential buildings. Deliverables: preliminary sketches describing the area, plans, elevations and sections at suitable scales, showing the architectural and urban elements that define the space. Transparency note: the university does not publish the exam texts; this sheet is reconstructed from a preparation archive (source below), with the usual editorial summary.