TRANSITIONAL MORPHOLOGIES

The Transitional Morphologies (TransMo) Research Centre is concerned with observing and studying the dynamics of the transformation of city spaces and places over time, both from a retrospective and planning perspective. In studies on urban form, both Anglo-Saxon-derived geographical studies and Italian-derived typological studies recognise the morphogenesis of a settlement as the first step towards new models of management/description of urban form and new design experimentation. Research on urban transitional morphologies follows the tradition of studies cultivated at the Politecnico di Torino by Augusto Cavallari Murat and perpetuated over time by several other Italian and international scholars between the 1980s and the first decade of the new century. 

The TransMo Research Centre works to make the transversal interest in urban form studies visible at DAD and the University. 

In particular, TransMo:

-        Promotes basic and applied research in addition to feeding the activities of a group of PhD students at the Doctorate in Architecture. History and Project (DASP), TransMo proposes itself as an interlocutor for public administrations on the territory.

-        It forms research networks with national and international bodies and actors: TransMo is actively designing proposals for competitive calls (PRIN 2022, WIDERA 2023, Erasmus + 2023 and 2024, DUT 2023). From 2023 to 2025, it will participate in the Horizon Europe Twin2Expand project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P78ccgphiBU, kick-off 12.01.2023). TransMo is part of the ISUF cluster (International Seminar on Urban Form, https://www.urbanmorphology.org/).

-        It disseminates its research through publications in national and international journals and series: in 2021, it presented, as part of the ‘Notte dei Ricercatori’ initiative, the self-produced docufilm Urban Morphology in Transition, which includes interviews with important scholars of urban form. 

-        It proposes teaching activities in Italy and abroad, working on themes and strategies specific to urban morphology. TransMo organises annual workshops, design studios and seminars both at the Politecnico di Torino and at other national and international university institutions (with a particular commitment to the Chinese branch of the Transitional Morphologies Joint Research Unit (JRU), established in 2018 between the Politecnico di Torino and Southeast University in Nanjing and currently in its second five-year period of activity).

Due to the type and amount of activities underway, TransMo is growing and, therefore, open to new memberships from interested scholars.