Intestices and New Spaces of Urban Architecture

The focus of the contribution is on the void, as a fundamental organisational element of urban architectural design. Conceived as an interstitial and connective space, the void is examined in relation to existing structures and historical urban fabrics marked by testimonial, rather than monumental, traces. The adopted approach interprets the interstice as fullness: a dense field of meanings and latent possibilities, and a privileged domain for an in-depth investigation of place and pre-existing conditions. The contribution presents design-based research conducted in the cities of Trento and Milan. These studies identify areas capable of reconstructing meaningful connections with the consolidated city. Architectural structures and their immediate surroundings are conceived through a process of subtractive design. Excavation below ground level, the creation of voids within existing structures, and the activation of interstitial spaces reveal the potential for urban renewal. From these necessary morphologies, complex configurations and relationships emerge through interventions on stratigraphy and on the traces encountered, together with unexpected spatial dimensions of scale and distance. In contrast to additive construction, the existing fabric is reconnected to its testimonial value through the distinction and naming of spatial elements, the removal of superfluous components, and the archaeological proposition of a contemporary base, together with a focused attention on two configurative spaces: the hypogeal space and the enclosure. In the form of a new public space, this process establishes delicate and renewed equilibria with the contemporary, articulating relationships between inside and outside, above and below, and between visual and perceptual realms.