a+t No.39-40: RECLAIM - REMEDIATE REUSE RECYCLE

Extract from the article by Javier Mozas published in this issue:

"... In the West the bulk of architectural works currently focuses on intervening on the existing built environment. Several European and American cities have been forced to shrink, to fill in the empty gaps and to renovate the obsolete fabrics of their peripheral areas. The ex novo planned urban expansions are less and less frequent and it is unusual to find an architect who is not, as part of his or her everyday work, confronted with situations which require urban fabrics, infrastructures, constructions and found materials to be put to use..."

Extract from the article by David Goodman published in this issue:

"... The current series, in which this issue is the first, will deal primarily with leftovers, remnants, and waste. In many cases, however, the underlying techniques and arguments are quite similar to those described above: we remain in the realm of the tactical, of working on the margins, and of direct engagement. But in several instances, these techniques and arguments have been deployed entirely without architects; the work has been conceived and implemented by the interested parties themselves. We are thus confronted with what is perhaps the most extreme result of this sort of work, the utter erasure of the figure of the architect, and the suppression of the disciplinary architectural project in favor of direct action..."