Thinking In Time. Turin’s Digital Stories Originated by the Projects of Antonelli

The teaching and research project Thinking in Time applies ICTs to manage historical data and to visualise the dynamic process of the history of the city. The case study focuses on different areas of the 19th century urban expansion of Turin through the designs of buildings conceived by the architect Alessandro Antonelli. The research combines a traditional approach with new tools. His single projects, conceived over a period of several decades and not always actually built or existing, are studied within the educational experiment and visualised as a single body. Within the framework of these broader contexts of time and space, the reading of the single architectural event offers a narration of the urban history. The simulation gives an interpretative contribution to the understanding of the urban history. Projects for unbuilt public buildings reveal a significant shift in scape. Residential design is envisaged as a town planning strategy. The study combines traditional and digital tools transforming didactics into a form of research training. The team applies GIS and 3D modelling to visualise the architecture and the parts of the city as a key to access the broader history of Turin at that time.