Types and Fields Analysis article by Julio de la Fuente (ES) — Architect, urbanist and co-founder of Gutiérrez-delaFuente Arquitectos in Madrid www.gutierrez-delafuente.com
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…I lived in one of the most distinguished streets... In the
Types tackle the issue of implanting believable
house in which I was living, sugar was boiled, which
productive uses from hybrid artefacts associated with
created a lot of activity, both night and day… My next-
small-medium scale architecture and linked to the
door neighbor to the right was a goldsmith and, to
public and collective space to conclude mixed-use
the left, lived a coppersmith. It is easy to imagine the
urban fragments. Types are a strong device to host
frantic activities of the carpenters all day long, but the
innovative programs and stress the latent potential of
hammering and tapping… Right opposite me lived a
uses for a new dynamic to come in action.
spur maker…
Fields are related to frameworks of different kinds:
The German poet Johann Rist provided us with this
political, socio-economical, spatial, infrastructural or
description of urban life in Hamburg in the middle of
natural. The field condition of use is explored to generate
the 17 century.
coalitions to trigger prosperity and equity, negotiating
Nowadays, many territories are willing to take that level
the interest of owners, investors, and communities,
of intensity and real mix of uses, including productive
as well as creating new circular environments at
activities. But could we consider the artisan component
different scales.
th
of the pre-industrial city as the solution to improve our environments in the digital age? How to anchor the uses
TYPES
of the next economy to an existing urban tissue or a
Support and Infill
rural area adding local values and inclusiveness?
What are the specific uses to implant on a place as
According to Richard Florida, “the urban/rural economic
mediators between “the need and the wish”? The
success is associated with the 3T’s: Technology,
real need of a place versus the provocative wish to
Talent and Tolerance”. The proposals included in this
use ambition. Both poles are often included at the
paper try to define the processes to create a high
same time in a single proposal thanks to open and
degree of acceptance of new credible uses. But
flexible spatial configurations to drive a programmatic
which are the methods on the fabrication of these
evolution, following John Habraken’s ideas to separate
tolerance thresholds?
the physical infrastructure of buildings into “support
There are two main attitudes found betw een the
and infill”.
awarded entries to deal with this notion of tolerance:
Happy Valley (fig. 1), one of the runners-up in Innsbruck
types and fields.
(AT), draws a hub of dense activity along the river Inn,
1 — INNSBRUCK (AT), RUNNER-UP — HAPPY VALLEY > SEE MORE P.189
2 — OLIVA (ES), RUNNER-UP — EVEN A BRICK WANTS TO BE SOMETHING > SEE MORE P.194
