Launching of the new Cahiers de recherche du LEAP Research Notebooks (Du potentiel des grandes structures urbaines abandonnées / On the Potential of Abandoned Large Urban Structures) with heads of schools represented at LEAP. April 5th, 2017, AME room 1150, 18h00.
Abandoned building, modern ruin, urban ghost, skeleton property, deserted structure … these are some of the words used in an attempt to circumscribe the phenomenon of abandoned city fragments. This abandonment, whether partial or total, temporary or long-term, is examined through the “potential” that the survival of these structures would offer. This first edition of the LEAP Research Notebooks gathers 12 case studies, each structured around a common theme in the disciplines of architecture, art history, and semiotics. From Montreal to Berlin, from Detroit to Turin, the various contributions are structured around four tensions calling into question the status of these structures (monumental / monument), their scale (architectural / city planning), the figures they materialize (utopia / ruin) and the poetics they embody (resistance / potential).
As revealed by the authors, these large abandoned urban structures are far from being inert. Not only are they vectors of a collective memory, of potential projects, of multiple imaginations, but they also act as a trigger for a critical re-evaluation of our contemporary societies. Therefore, the large abandoned structure cannot be restricted to the fields of economy or land planning: such complex interweaving of material, technical, social and cultural dimensions calls for architects to reflect on its survival.Issue coordinated by Jean-Pierre Chupin and Tiphaine Abenia
- Texts by : Tiphaine Abenia, Georges Adamczyk, Denis Bilodeau, Pierre Boudon, Jean-Pierre Chupin, Jean-Louis Cohen, Anne Cormier, Camille Crossman, Carmela Cucuzzella, Louis Destombes, Cynthia Hammond, Bechara Helal, Jonathan Lachance, Alessandra Mariani, Louis Martin, Marie-Saskia Monsaingeon, Michel Max Raynaud, Nicholas Roquet, David Theodore