From drawing to space. The void of the places imagined by Álvaro Siza for Malagueira

From drawing to space. The void of the places imagined by Álvaro Siza for Malagueira

Submission ID:

156

Emptiness is as an intrinsic part of the city, as it is a path of continuous evolution or its reverse, stagnation. Because of the process, expectant spaces arise, between the opportunity and the discomfort of failed processes.
The neighbourhood of Malagueira in Évora is an example of a large urban area designed with a mixed plan that provided for housing, services and commerce.
Yet, most of the equipment was left to be built and the land that would accommodate it is now an expectant urban space. The desire to complete the Malagueira plan is opposed to the sense of emptiness and the incomplete, which condition the perception of the plan and of its quality, as well as the materialization of a city.
The question currently lies between the lack that these spaces make to the population and the consolidation of the urban space that remains to be realized. These lands are simultaneously a mixture of anguish and disorder that give rise to spontaneous and disorganized parking. These are nobody's spaces, not because of the absence of a cadastral owner, but because of the absence of an ordered possession. According to Marc Augé, we can only classify them as “spaces” by their distant morphology as “place”. The experience provided by the proposed programs would give them the condition of “place” for which they hope.
We intend to analyse these spaces, the drawings that defined them, the commitments initially foreseen by Álvaro Siza, and the unforeseen forms of occupation, in a continuous succession of will and desire, of expectation and collapse, of (re) use and perversion. It is an anachronic record of a city enclosed in folders, written in ink on leaves, the imaginary of a space that has never been experienced, but that now gains a new dimension with a research project that seeks to gather information and produce content that shows all entities involved the value that exists in the idea, the project and the materialization of this urban space.

Preferred Track

3. Terrain vague redevelopments

Second Preferred Track

5. Methods and technologies on architectural design and urban planning