RESEARCH ARTICLE

Reducing architecture: Doing almost nothing as a city-making strategy in 21st century architecture

  • Marco Enia ,
  • Flavio Martella
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  • E.T.S.A.M., Polytechnic University of Madrid, Av. Juan de Herrera 4, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Received date: 26 Sep 2018

Revised date: 23 Jan 2019

Accepted date: 27 Jan 2019

Published date: 15 Jun 2019

Copyright

2019 2019 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.on behalf of KeAi. This is an open access article under the CCBY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Abstract

This paper discusses a contemporary design strategy to deal with urban spaces. In 21st century architecture it is possible to recognize the existence of several projects that consist in doing almost nothing, carrying out only minimal modifications to their sites of intervention. In present-day architecture, this approach is considered useful sometimes to respect the surroundings and sometimes to improve them through the smallest and tiniest actions. Doing almost nothing is a strategy that can unfold in many ways. It can mean opting for inaction and thus not modifying a place at all; or designing a temporary project intended to occupy it only for a limited period of time; or also carrying out a particularly small but permanent intervention. Depending on the circumstances, it is an approach that can help architecture protecting a place, reclaiming it or reactivating its latent qualities. This strategy can be implemented both through a single intervention on a specific place, or through a network of coordinated projects in different locations. The purpose of the paper is to present this approach in the context of 21st century urban architecture, through cases studied from the last two decades.

Cite this article

Marco Enia , Flavio Martella . Reducing architecture: Doing almost nothing as a city-making strategy in 21st century architecture[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2019 , 8(2) : 154 -163 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2019.01.006

Outlines

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