Usos públicos / Public uses

María Melgarejo

 

 

Entre la calle y el edificio. Entre el exterior y el interior. Entre lo público y lo privado. Tratamos de encontrar una nueva definición del concepto de espacio público. Las nuevas condiciones de la vida en la ciudad, han motivado transformaciones en el uso y en la forma de estos espacios. De un modo espontaneo edificios con una función específica atraen otros usos para los que no fueron pensados. Aparece el concepto de Interior público, como una extensión de la vida urbana, como una alternativa a la calle, la plaza, el parque, heredados de los trazados de la ciudad del XIX. Áreas peatonales con tiendas, la Estación, el Museo, la librería del Museo, un café, la mega-disco, el centro comercial, el hall del palacio de la Música, la Biblioteca del centro cultural… son interiores públicos, usos no previstos que responden a la necesidad de lugares de encuentro, donde sentirse integrado en la vida de la ciudad, frente al aislamiento del ciudadano contemporáneo. Nos interesa la Arquitectura de estos nuevos usos. .
.		 'Inhabiting' means 'living in', and 'living in' means living with people and with and in the environment. Inhabiting, living, or at least being there, is what we do always and everywhere. It is such a vast concept that we could publish issue after issue under this title,  with different subtitles (you are warned - we might yet). However, the first place we live together, where we first live, is in a FAMILY - whichever its type: official, unofficial, singleparent, traditional - that lives in a HOUSE. The HOUSE, the DWELLING, HOME, is where living together takes place in its purest form, where we express our needs and demands. These can be as different as we are different as a result of our education, culture, habits, age, ideology, etc.

The subtitle of this issue, then, could be 'houses, dwellings, abodes'. In the first part, Lucien Kroll weites about building houses and towns with respect for the culture and habits of the place, both in the form and use of their spaces and in their building materials and methods. Pedro Feduchi talks about living and dwelling, and Grietje Lesage centres on the house and its limits, on how it has evolved over time and how it manifests itself in Mies var der Rode's Farnsworth house and Toyo Ito's Megomezawa house, taking us inside the Japanese concept of space and how it is reflected in the dwelling-place.

These ideas materialise in the second section, both from the point of view of public housing in the city, where we bring together woks and projects by Dutch and Sapnish studios, and that of the private house, with works by Japanese, European and Spanish architects.

The choice of the Netherlands and Japan as our references from abroad is no accident: the Netherlands have been chosen for their tradition of public housing and Japan for its contribution to the concept of fluid, unitary space, the relationship between the ground and the podium, the courtyard, etc.