Archive for category Como

The podcast of the project Rationalism in the Province of Como is online!

The podcast includes 33 audio files in Mp3 format produced until now for the project aimed to promote the main points of interest of Rationalist architecture in the area of Como, Cernobbio and Tremezzo.

You can now download for free and listen to the 11 points of interests, described in three languages (italian, english and german) by the speakers Luca Grandelis, Garth Kennedy and Birgit Röhricht, on any computer or portable player.

The Mp3s of the podcast have a better quality compared to the ones made for the app, available for iPhone and iPad since september 2013. The file size is actually about twice.
This should grant a better listeing experience to all podcast lovers.

I use the Podcast app made by Apple to manage the subscriptions to my favorite podcasts, but there are many other applications for PC and Mac to do it.
The Feedburner web interface, for example, is more than enough for that:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/razionalismo-in-provincia-di-como

The podcast is also available on iTunes, in the “Society & Culture > Places & Travel” category.
To quickly find it and subscribe, just search for the word “rationalism” in the iTunes search field.

Soon we’ll also add 3 new contents: the headquarters of the Unione Lavoratori dell’Industria, the Canottieri Lario and the House of Balilla with the adjoining Sinigaglia Stadium.

Listening to a podcast is like listening to a radio broadcast: you can do other things while listening, such as working on your PC, traveling, jogging, cooking, or whatever comes to your mind.
In this case the best experience is walking in Como, Cernobbio or in the Tremezzo area, among the rationalist buildings described in the digital tour. 🙂

Happy listening!

Architecture has to be lived in!

That’s what some architects who helped enriching the contents of the app Rationalism in the Province of Como told me.

You have to be in front of, or inside, rationalist buildings to appreciate spaces, volumes, colors, and notice the numerous details: from staircases to furniture.

And that’s what I actually did, first with inspections during the contents production phase, and then again these days to test the geolocation and geofencing features added in version 1.61, today available on the App Store.

To test it, I walked and rode on my Vespa around the town of Como, a real “open-air museum” of rationalist architecture.
Geolocation allows to track your position on the offline maps, while geofencing (a sort of virtual geographic fence) allows to get a notification when you’re 80-100 meters from a point of interest, even when the app is in background.

When the app is in background, a “hollow” arrow icon in the status bar indicates that geofencing is active.
But don’t worry, it doesn’t waste battery: Apple engineers optimized this feature at best.
Also, with iOS 7 geolocation works very well even with devices without an integrated GPS receiver.
A database of Wi-Fi access points is actually used to determine the location of your device.

The new version was demonstrated on the field during an interview by QuiComo, the daily online news website of Como.

Previously, I had the chance to talk about the project during the daily feature of Espansione TV, Angoli (corners): a pretty appropriate name to talk about rationalist buildings, the Novocomum in particular, the first of its kind built in Como and designed by the architect Giuseppe Terragni.
This video has english and italian captions: you can activate them by clicking on the icon in the lower right of the video frame.

Hotel managers and professionals often debate about initiatives aimed at de-seasoning the tourist flow in the town and on Lake Como, currently mainly focused during the “nice” season.

So, now being able to visit the open-air museum of Rationalism in Como with an app describing the buildings, with no entrance ticket, is actually a good chance to do it in any season, don’t you think? 😉

Since today, the app Rationalism in the Province of Como speaks german!

Subtitles in german for the english and italian audio have also been added.

This is an exclusive feature of the app, useful if you want to improve your proficiency in a language.
Personally, over the years I improved my english a lot by watching movies or by playing narrative videogames with original audio and subtitles in italian or english.

In the app, the translation of the subtitles isn’t literal, since we obviously gave priority to a fluid text for each of the three languages, but following them on the screen is pretty easy since they’re in sync with the audio track.

It will be useful to whoever will use the app from the comfort of their home couch, which means the vast majority of the users that will download it.

But why version 1.6, instead of 1.1?

It’s a curiosity you probably noticed if you have an eye for detail, maybe by viewing the slide of the presentation in which the next steps of the project are listed. 😉

The version number will follow the golden ratio, phi, which is 1.618…
It’s a special number, knowned since ancient times.
In mathematics it’s the irrational number to which the ratio between two consecutive numbers of the Fibonacci series leads to, while in nature it’s present in a number of ratios, such as for example the ratio between the spires of a shell.
In arts, as well as in architecture, it always represented ideal proportions, the “beauty” in general.

Even in the app you can find it in different forms, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally, but never needlessly.
For example in the design of icons, in the spacing between elements of the user interface, or even in the lenght of the audio pause between a section and the next.
If something sounds good or looks nice and in harmony with what surrounds it, it’s thanks to phi, as rationalist architects also knew very well.

Regardless of subtitles or the version number, you’ll get the best experience when in front of, or inside, the rationalist building described.
So, I invite you to do it when you’ll get the chance: you’ll be welcome in Como, Cernobbio or in the Tremezzo area! 🙂

Visiting both the town of Como and the places in the Tremezzo area takes some days of stay: could this be a good incentive for the slow tourism, opposed to the hit and run phenomenon?

The app Rationalism in the Province of Como is today available on the App Store.

It’s the result of months of work, together with numerous collaborators, promoted and coordinated by the Culture Department of the Province of Como, the public authority administering the west branch of Lake Como.

It’s a multimedia tour about rationalist architecture in the Lake Como area, from Como to Cernobbio and Tremezzo.
The points of interests include the most renowned buildings designed by the architects Giuseppe Terragni, Cesare Cattaneo and Pietro Lingeri.

Is this yet another info-guide app? Or yet another audio-guide app?
Not at all!
The design concept is probably the most interesting aspect for fellow developers: I wanted to make an app that could be an “holistic” combination between these two different app types, info-guides and audio-guides.
A combination in which the end result were higher than the algebraic sum of the single parts.

Let’s start from the audio, the real core of the app.
After we completed the script, written in a simple and easy to understand language, I hired three professional storytellers who managed to literally “give life” to the contents with their voices.
Luca Grandelis is the italian storyteller, while Garth Kennedy took care of the english language.
Luca is a well-known voice-talent, while Garth is also an artist, an abstract mechanical sculptor.
German language will be soon added in the next update, thanks to the voice-talent from Berlin Birgit Röhricht.

Then there’s the interface, designed keeping in mind the keywords of iOS 7: clarity and transparency.
Experts of mobile technologies applied to education love to repeat the mantra “content is king“.
Well, I agree, but if “content is king“, let me add “software is queen“.
Quality contents are often negatively affected by mediocre software that should manage and present it to the user.
The work made in this direction will have its judge in users’ comments: if they’ll concentrate on the contents, it will mean that the software is actually “transparent” and the result optimal.

The app will be officially presented on sunday 29 september, at the Antiquarium of Ossuccio, in the Tremezzo area of Lake Como, and it will be one of the many events organized for the European Heritage Days 2013.
It will be the chance to shake hands with the people who collaborated on the project.
Although there isn’t a single pixel, word or line of code that didn’t pass under my eyes – and this includes the responsibility for eventual bugs 😉 -, this work wouldn’t have been possible without them.

So, the combination between mobile technologies and cultural heritage could really work?
I believe so, and I think it’s the only way out of the tunnel of the economic and social crisis the Belpaese has fallen into for too many years…

Also, the educational effects of this app can be measured in the medium term.
Many communication experts agree on the fact the we tend to overestimate initiatives like this one in the short term, due to their “novelty” character, while we underestimate the impact in the medium and long term.
A litmus test could be this: let’s count how many people of Como (but not only them!) think today that the Camerlata fountain was inspired by Volta’s battery.
Then let’s count them in a 5 years’ time… and maybe a good chunk of them, thanks to the app, will remember that it’s actually a sort of futuristic monument to the traffic!

The news doesn’t end here, as I’ll reveal during the presentation.
Meanwhile, have a nice listening and vision of the app Rationalism in the Province of Como! 🙂