Research project Buildings that have lost their original function, machines to be inhabited again, empty areas and complexes that have lost their original purposes are more and more central to the current architectural debate. This research project explores architectural strategies to re-use and re-activate empty buildings and areas in the context of the new practices and dynamics development of contemporary cities.
The investigation focuses on the contemporary city (in Europe and in Sweden) as the main laboratory of experimentation. The study of spatial and material relations between the main elements of the urban composition intersects a multi-disciplinary investigation on the city as the confluence of the energy and culture communities. The architectural intervention, through adaptive reuse and transitory actions, artistic installations and performances enrich the project allowing for unexpected results on the reflection on current crucial global challenges.
In analogy with a living organism the contemporary city is capable of regenerating itself though the reuse and reactivation of urban voids, empty areas and buildings as agents of this transformation.
Considering Ecology as the relationship between the living organism and their natural environment, we look at the urban context as the natural environment for human beings.
It is well acknowledged that in the framework of a sustainable development of our cities, an important role is played by the reuse of vacant buildings and areas as a form of sustainable urban regeneration, encouraging the reactivation of the space through the potential embodied energy of the places: this aspect is not only important in the field of the urban and architectural design, but it provides significant effect from a social and cultural perspective from which the society can benefit. Thus, it embraces multiple dimensions in terms of scale, spatial and material exploration.
The EU Urban Agenda Policy underline how circular reuse and new eco-systemic relations can represent an opportunity for citizens and urban authorities to rethink their cities.” In a circular vision of the city, abandoned or unused buildings are recognised as opportunities and valuable resources. They are seen as places of interaction that support their neighbourhood and allow for the re-use of existing buildings and spaces”. (Urban Agenda for the EU - Re-thinking cities by reusing buildings and spaces, pag.27).
However, the debates over the processes of regeneration and reactivation of the underused buildings and vacant areas it’s a key issue to be still investigated. In this, cultural actors and institutions can play a major role. Architecture as an expression of different forms of culture and as a reflection of the social contemporary context, can be a driver to fill in the gap between the notion of function (established and fixed over time) and the notion of temporality and use of the urban fabric and vacant areas from a different perspective.
This project aim is to test and increase the knowledge on the topic of re-activation in architecture, focusing on the specific topic of experimentative and innovative forms of re-use and re-activation through performative actions and therefore developing an alternative method.
Publications linked to the research:
Nobile, M. L. (Ed.). (2021). No 01: COMMONS (1st ed.).
Nobile, M. L. (2020). Verso una nuova ecologia dell´abitare: Un´utopia possibile: ri-abitare il moderno. In Costruire l´abitare contemporaneo: Nuovi temi e metodi del progetto (1st ed., pp. 352-356).
Other Projects linked to the research:
Retake a place / Reuse a space. Artistic residencies project in collaboration with Circolo Scandinavo.
The Short Term City: a Research Project of National Relevance funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.
