The Architecture of Altering

Abstract

Shopping malls are failing around the world. This global process highlights relevant questions about the future of our cities and the inclusion of the shopping heritage. Are these places valuable? How can these places offer a spatial quality within the city? Departments stores are the consequence of an absolute process which does not establish a sensitive relationship with the physical and social context. With a similar condition of big infrastructures such as airports and stations, a shopping passage is a “non-space” since it consists in a mere place of transit. People are treated as individual and numbers. They are not human beings. They are their passports or credit cards. Even if this process has a global nature, the solution cannot consist in a methodological response. The rule of the Architect-Bricoleur refuses to apply a general idea or theory to a specific condition. On the other hand, his approach establishes a syntonic relationship with the urban fabric and starts with the art of seeing things looking for opportunities that are apparently invisible. The rule of the architect is to create something new with the physical and emotional materials offered by the site. It is impossible to overtake the ambiguities of the city. We need to deal with contradictions and inconsistencies trying to find their posture within the urban fabric. Our focus needs to shift towards the existing heritage. Demolition is not an option. New interventions need to alter existing conditions re-using materials, traditions, and techniques. Ambiguities can become qualities. Contradictions can become particularities.