MENDING THE CITY FABRIC

Abstract

Identifying the City
Rule/Exception: The city defined by a constant that celebrates the difference:
housing as its “rule”. Void/Filling: The city as mass (rule), interrupted by its
lack (exception); the “void” as a deviation of the “rule”, but not of urbanity.
Useful/Useless: “Rule” and “exception” as “useful” if they promote continuity
in the urban fabric, and “useless” if they are opposed.
Past/Present
Continuous/Discontinuous: “continuity” as the transition between past and
present; “Discontinuity” as the absence of transition. Typology/Model: To
promote continuity is to use preexisting typologies; Typology as a search for a
repertoire of solutions. General/Specific: New relationships with the street,
new shapes, new housing cells, but not the total eradication of the original
typology.
Utopia/Reality
Surroundings/Background: The object wants to be “city” and “rule”: a gable or
rafter, a urban typology. Shape/Content: In the “Gable Module” his longest
facade is also the more important: it replaces a blind wall. It defines the “city”
by its external image and everyday life that leads inside. Ethics/Cosmetics: The
aesthetic solution as the Significant and Sign: their loss as Cosmetics with no
Ethics.
Public Virtues/Private Vices
Feasibility: regulations, construction process and comfort factors; Private
willingness and urban regulations.
Key words: city, housing, gable, typol