{"id":33,"date":"2021-01-24T12:22:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T12:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/?page_id=33"},"modified":"2021-02-23T15:37:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T15:37:42","slug":"portici-through-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/portici-through-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Portici"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Click the picture for an interactive tour of the portici around Bologna.<\/i><\/p>\n

The Portici<\/i> of Bologna are often the first thing to grab any first time visitor\u2019s attention. In a New York Times editorial from 1996, Robert Helenga states that \u201cit is these portici — more than its towers, more than its churches — that give Bologna its essential character.\u201d  <\/i>(Helenga, 1996)<\/p>\n

Portici<\/i>, or porticoes, were a common architectural element in medieval cities put into place initially as a means of occupying public space for private proprietors. Ground-floor porticoes were first commissioned by noble consuls in northern Italy starting in the late twelfth century and continued through the thirteenth, as nobles and citizens alike needed a space in which to enact \u201cshared rule.\u201d This visual proof of collective power was one of the main pillars of the popolo <\/i>movement. Public life mediated through these porticoes constituted from then on a new and desirable aspect of urban experience in Italian city-states. Architecturally, the portici were made to be an attractive element: contrasting building materials such as stone (piers) and brick(upper story) differentiated the porticoes from the rest of the building, focusing the people\u2019s concentration on the ground-level arcades. The broad openness of the facades also resonated with generic associations of good governance or conscientious lordship, especially in contrast to the narrow verticality of many contemporary private dwellings. The emphasis on symmetry of the porticoes favored assembly, passage, and visibility in designs that extended the reach of the portico in all directions, while the apertures on both sides increased illuminations and optimized two-side viewing. (Sexton, 2015)<\/p>\n

As cities expanded, and therefore became more populous, the construction of porticoes offered the possibility of more public space. In Bologna, however, the porticoes were a mandated part of private<\/i> buildings. In fact, in 1226, regulations were passed prohibiting citizens from creating obstacles in any of the porticoes and in 1289, a law was passed mandating the construction of porticoes in front of every private property (Helenga, 1996). The Bolognesi residents were willing to give up a portion of their private property because the portici inherently enhanced the quality of life on the street: they offered craftsmen the ability to construct larger-scale items outside of their shops, they provided protection from the sun and rain, the ability for vendors to display their products, for musicians to play their music, and most importantly, for people of all walks of life to meet and mingle. (Bocchi, 2018). <\/p>\n

What can the Portici, a creation of the Middle Ages, tell us about future urban planning outside the realms of Bologna? An interesting aspect to consider is many thousands of miles away in New York City, the hometown of both Louisa and Tara. New York, as some might know, seems to be eternally under construction. Beyond just construction and renovation is inspection, and according to Local Law 11, the city is required to inspect building facades every five years, which means there is almost always a scaffolding covering the sidewalks. “Unloved and janky, scaffolding is New York City\u2019s other architecture” says Penelope Green of the New York Times. Scaffolding in New York, in fact, was a solution to a problem, not an idea that sprung from a desire to mix the social classes, or enhance the quality of street life, like in Bologna. They were put into place as a mandated law after a young woman died in 1979 from being hit from a falling piece of masonry from a construction site. They were never perfect – in fact, ironically enough, an architect was killed in the same manner just 2 years ago in 2019. So what does this mean for the around 9,000 scaffoldings at any given time in New York? They need to be designed better.<\/p>\n

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Click on the photo above for an interactive map of active “sidewalk sheds” in New York City<\/p>\n

Over a decade ago, in 2009, New York City held an international competition for the best design for “A Sidewalk Shed for the 21st Century” – with the primary goal of renovating the “static” technologies of New York Sidewalk Sheds that since 1960 seem to never change. The City’s Department of Buildings, together with the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects named the competition “UrbanShed.” The Winner was something called “The Urban Umbrella” by University of Pennsylvania student Young-Hwan Choi. <\/p>\n

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The “Urban Umbrella” would cost about the same amount as any other sidewalk shed, and its long-term maintenance and installation costs are also expected to be lower. City expects believe it will potentially help businesses located beneath the scaffolding. <\/p>\n

Though the Portici may not have directly influenced the design concept of the Urban Umbrella, they are very clearly ahead of their time. For something designed many hundreds of years ago, the portici remain astonishingly similar to what the very best of the best architects have come up with now, in the 21st century. Portici, thus, might just be the medieval answer to our contemporary architectural problems!<\/p>\n

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References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Bocchi, Francesca. \u201cA Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Bologna, \u2018Shaping the City: Urban Planning and Restoration.\u2019\u201d A Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Bologna<\/i>, edited by Sarah Rubin Blanshei, Brill, 2017, pp. 56\u2013103.<\/p>\n

Hellenga, Robert. \u201cBologna Through Medieval Eyes.\u201d New York Times<\/i>, 10 Nov. 1996.<\/p>\n

Giannini, Vito. \u201cPratiche Di Appropriazione e Trasformazione Degli Spazi Urbani: Il Caso Dell’ex Caserma Massini Nel Centro Storico Di Bologna.\u201d Universit\u00e0 di Bologna<\/i>, 2016.<\/p>\n

Sexton, Kim. \u201cPolitical Portico: Exhibiting Self-Rule in Early Communal Italy.\u201d The Art Bulletin<\/i>, vol. 97, no. 3, 2015, pp. 258\u2013278., www.jstor.org\/stable\/43947740. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/gothamist.com\/arts-entertainment\/meet-the-urban-umbrella-8212-nycs-new-sidewalk-shed<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/08\/12\/a-sidewalk-shed-for-the-21st-century\/<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/02\/style\/scaffolding-new-york-city.html<\/div>\n
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 <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click the picture for an interactive tour of the portici around Bologna. The Portici of Bologna are often the first thing to grab any first time visitor\u2019s attention. In a New York Times editorial from 1996, Robert Helenga states that \u201cit is these portici — more than its towers, more than its churches — that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8721,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8721"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/archibo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}