Hiding architecture: three strategies to erase the architectural object in XXIst century
Enia, Marcoa
a Departamento de Composición, E.T.S.A.M., Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
The paper discusses a way of understanding the relationship between architecture and surroundings in XXIst century. Over the last twenty years, an approach has become increasingly important, which consists in giving all the protagonism to the place and, at the same time, in submitting the architectural object to unusual renounces. This could mean designing a camouflaged building not to disrupt a beautiful, yet fragile landscape; or an anonymous one that fits naturally into its context; or even doing almost nothing, if the intervention site does not seem to need great changes or modifications. Camouflage, anonymity and minimization are the strategies that contemporary architecture uses more often when circumstances require for the quietest and most silent intervention; each one of them constitutes a different way to address the needs of a place and to make the architectural object disappear. This paper analyses these strategies through case studies dated to the last two decades.
Keywords: XXIst century; surroundings; disappearance; camouflage; anonymity; minimization.