Reading urban form as a studio teaching method: case study in Siberia

Quite often heritage monument is perceived as a separate domain in Russian conservation theory and practice. Teaching practice demonstrates the situation clearly: quite commonly studio regeneration projects are conducted in isolation from the context, or lacking the methodology for preliminary analysis. However, many international concepts attempt to avoid isolation of buildings as physical objects from a cultural environment with its multi-layered history of significances (Waterton & Watson, 2015). The paper presents a case study of the application of urban morphology as a research tool and a teaching method (Caniggia & Maffei, 2001), to the Siberian context. Research group of Siberian Federal University (SFU) organized the experiment, in which students worked on the two stages of a regeneration project for the old Military camp in Krasnoyarsk. Between the two stages, the workshop was organized for students of Sapienza University and SFU to conduct a methodological study. Then the research group continued the second stage of the experiment in which examined the applicability of morphological analysis in Siberia. The qualitative difference of regeneration proposals before and after the application of morphological analysis, as well as the level of subsequent students’ proficiency, proved the potential applicability of the method in Siberian academy and practice, and effectiveness of the workshop as the tool for its introduction.