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An attempt to intervene in the historical centers is represented by the "neighborhood laboratory" project, presented in 1980 by Renzo Piano in Otranto. Here the laboratory was presented as a mobile and open structure: a large cube, which opens under a curtain, set up in the square. The idea, even if it represents "the egg of Columbus", is of extreme interest and deserves to be analyzed in detail. The first novelty is represented by a new figure of designer, the architect-craftsman, a sort of doctor-conductor, who is concerned with taking care not of people, but of buildings, of which he should know "vices and virtues". A first criticism, which could be made to Renzo Piano, is to have used the term "architect-craftsman" and not "craftsman-architect", considering that, as the school works in Italy, a craftsman is more likely to transform as an architect and not that an architect becomes a craftsman! As long as "craft schools" do not exist, we can safely say that "architects become" but "craftsmen are born". Craftsman is the one who "works while having fun" and starts working from early childhood. He is also an architect who at eighteen, after middle school, decides to enroll in the Faculty of architecture (often for fashion or earnings desire) and graduates by doing passively what the professors ask for! We must admit, too, that the neighborhood laboratory had come very close to the school-shop with the idea of ​​the outdoor laboratory, accessible to children. In ancient times the craftsman's workshop opened on the street and everyone could watch the work that took place near the door or, when possible, on the street. The work was done with passion and was a source of pride. There were many kids who stopped to observe and some of them, to learn, asked to be able to attend the shop, making themselves useful. Thus a productive school was activated in which the teacher taught and received the help from the student as compensation. It was a school with maximum performance, which today we would call utopian: the Master carefully chose his disciples and the disciples chose the Master worthy of esteem. When this failed, the Master was left without disciples and if the disciple did not produce he was fired. The learner-teacher relationship was to be the most beautiful. Think of the following scene: the Master finishes painting a picture and is worried that some fly may remain attached to it; calls the disciple and asks him to be careful of the flies; in response, in the absence of the Master, the disciple paints a perfect fly on the painting; the master returns, sees a fly on the painting, does not notice that it is painted and goes on a rampage, but then praises the disciple. Sure it was another time, but let's go back to our neighborhood laboratory. As can be seen from the image above, the laboratory was divided into four sectors: analysis and diagnostics, information and documentation, open project, work and construction. Here we are interested in analyzing the first sector, intended for analysis and diagnostics, in which the use of photogrammetry and thermography was envisaged, albeit with the logic of the project in principle. An aerial balloon was provided for aerial photogrammetry, equipped with a common camera equipped with a remote control. Of course, it could have been used for photogrammetric surveys, but between saying and doing there is the sea in the middle! I was present when some photos were taken with the balloon, actually not very static. After the development of the frames, I thought to clarify the concept of stereoscopy by showing the photographs taken from two different positions of the balloon, which had been moved by a simple gust of wind. In the documentary, which later appeared on television, the "random" stereoscopic shot had become photogrammetric and it is easy to imagine the comments of the experts. The introduction of a simple stereoscope in the neighborhood laboratory presupposes the desire to involve all the inhabitants in the use of the new instrument. If the primary function of the doctor-conduit is to create an indispensable cultural basis for the participation of patients in the preparation of their own medical records, the architect-conduit should carry out a consultancy work to help the inhabitants in carrying out or in any case, in the participation in the routine maintenance of your home. Of great interest is also the idea of ​​creating the neighborhood assembly, in which any proposal to intervene on the neighborhood itself can be addressed and discussed; but even in this case the problem is not a simple solution if a suitable cultural base has not been provided in advance. I believe