The Relational Space: Designing New Urban Hinges in Suspended Edge Places

Resumo

The research on tentative strategies for designing spaces which reveal themselves asrelational, choral, shared, participated, gains new meanings and renovated urgenciesunder the changing conditions of contemporary architectures, landscapes and cities.Object of inquiry is the complex whole of transitional spaces, intermediate places,suspended fragments hovering among different morphological, historical, socialcontexts, expressing unexplored potentialities as new urban hinges. These mediatedjoint-spaces – acting as relational devices – provide the opportunity to reflect on theovercoming of the traditional theme of public urban space. Therefore the sustainedhypothesis resides in the turning of the idea of "relation" from a conceptual device –for the interpretation of space quality – into a strategic tool with multiplemethodological values, whose implications may be investigated through the concreteexperience of the project.Keywords: Relational Space; Architecture of Connections; Superimposition of Levels;Urban Hinges; Edge-Places; Strategic Devices.