Title: Towards an Architectural Anthropology. Residual Urban Spaces, Blanks in the Identity Memory
Abstract: ABSTRACT. As a result of certain urban operations meant to remodel the city structure, one may notice that the old tom urban fabric and the desired objectives are in no way connected and the spatial coherence between the two entities is nonexistent. This approach shortcoming comes from the neglect of the social and cultural issues that need a spatial expression, and leads to the emergence of hiatus spaces with disastrous impact on the city, let alone that they replace some elements invested in time, with an identity value. We will further present such situations in Bucharest and in opposition, how they have been dealt with and solved in other happy-end cases.Keywords: waste land; residual urban space; urban landmark; heritage1. Definition of the termThe built space complies with the present material requirements in terms of aesthetical value and is an identity landmark for a community, time interval, lifestyle.The building incorporates the 'savoir faire' of the community that is specific to certain times and expresses the 'savoir vivre', clearly expressed and displayed. The residual spaces lost the latter half of the statement.They are mainly characterized by the administrative jurisdiction to the city, a vacant function and unclear legal status - claimed or claimable land and buildings; land and buildings that are in the property of state (ours, everyone's, in other words nobody's).The residual spaces may be:land and buildings with an obsolete previous functionality, with no ways of re-functioning being identified.Examples in Bucharest: industrial platforms (Malaxa, Moara lui Assan - Assan Mill, Bragadiru, Fabrica de bere Grivifa - Beer factory, Obor Platform, etc), railway stations (Cotroceni, Titan, Progresul), land and buildings, former decommissioned military barracks, research institutes;- waste land, result of unfinished urban operations.Upon performing extensive urban operation, the recovery of the relation between the two entities (the old urban fabric and the new structures) has not always been a concern, and the result is seen in obvious spatial and identity gaps. Should the front of blocks built in alignment provide a reasonable extension towards the boulevard, the spaces blocked by them are residual spaces, unsupervised from the point of view of compliance, ability to communicate with the rest of urban spaces, maintenance or interest showed by the local administration. The examples in Bucharest are various: Titulescu Boulevard, Dorobanfi, Mihai Bravu Avenue, §tefan cel Mare Avenue, Mocilor Street, etc.The same situation occurs for the collective housing in the interior, widely spread in the 80's, when the approach was similar: the front towards the street was studied, carried out and satisfactorily modelled and whatever was generated inside has been neglected ever since performing the designed remodelling, later on abandoned, thus becoming residual spaces;vacant land, a consequence of the tentacular expansion of the city into the territory. This is a special category of spaces, not affected by city planning (hereinafter called interstitial spaces), land that may be bearing the development by densification (one of the examples well-known to the public is Baneasa forest, the green belt of the Capital)-,land and buildings for which the owner (or municipality authorities) wishes to change its purpose, for a functional or financial one, therefore called spaces in waiting-,land and buildings affected by natural phenomena (earthquake, flooding, landsliding) or human aggression (bombing, abandoned querries or mines, etc.)...by extension, we may include in this category a large part of the urban public spaces, which are affected by the same amount of lack of interest and maintenance as well as excess in remodelling.Two examples will bring some explanations to the statement:a) the few city squares are either completely neglected and turned into landfills, or the interventions are irregular and inappropriate, thus their identity load is being rendered void (see the Izvorul Rece square);b) the latter example concerns the street, the main form of expressing the public urban space, at least for Bucharest. …
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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