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A Pioneering LISP Framework for Diachronic Urban Analysis
Get PDFThis paper describes a pioneering methodological innovation bridging computational tools and traditional urban morphology by introducing a LISP-based scripting framework for morphological and typological analysis of historical city formation. Developed in 2020 as part of the author Elham K. Hassani’s Ph.D. dissertation at Sapienza University of Rome and grounded in the Italian school of urban morphology—particularly the work of Caniggia and Muratori—it provides a replicable method to read and classify urban transformations over time. This was the first application of LISP programming to automate identifying and categorizing urban elements—plot structure, route alignment, and building typology—across multiple historical phases. The methodology integrates qualitative morphological principles with quantitative computational processes, enabling a deeper understanding of urban form evolution and building type variation within a diachronic framework. Using Kashan, a traditional Iranian city, as a case study, the method reconstructs historical phases of urban growth, revealing their spatial logic, typological patterns, and morphological shifts. This dual-level analysis moves the field beyond static visual mapping toward rule-based interpretive systems, contributing to current efforts to apply AI to resilient city-making. Its significance is shown by its integration into Sapienza’s curriculum
Teaching Architecture Through Film: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Get PDFArchitecture is central to understanding the built environment. The most common threshold for people to appreciate architecture is through sensual experience. In college, non-architecture students typically are exposed to architecture in a historical survey course as a series of styles. Survey courses are derived from art history as it catalogues styles. An alternative to the architectural style survey is an interdisciplinary course developed by architecture and cinema faculty that uses the students’ own architectural experiences. Through the medium of film, architecture is understood through six experiential elements: Space/Scale; Style/Ornament; Light/Shadow; Color; Sound; Landscape. The course is a weekly seminar showing 14 films in which architecture plays a key role. Each week a film is screened, with readings supporting class discussions. Students use a ‘Notes Worksheet’ to focus on the architectural experience in the film, then complete a ‘Critique Assignment’ that emphasizes architecture’s experiential aspects. Students build connections between what they learn about architecture through viewing, discussing, and critiquing each film, and their own personal experiences and memories of architecture. Student evaluations of the course indicate that this interdisciplinary course helps non-architecture students to formulate a greater awareness of architecture and appreciation for it, as well as a deeper understanding of the art of film