Looking Around, City and Architecture Among Flâneur, Micro-récits and Paranarrative

Abstract

Provided that, as Paul Ricœur says, architecture means to space what narrative means to time, then it would be useful to question the condition of Lyotard’s grands récits in regard to the articulated phenomenology of the contemporary city. Moreover, there would be need for investigation into the reasons behind the increasing difficulty in implementing long-term strategies of intervention (namely linked to the lasting nature inherent in architectural facts) capable of transforming, if not even defining from their conception, the spatial and architectural qualities of urban places; of triggering narratives capable of constructing or reconstructing their memory; of “making the absent present”, taking charge of urban complexity and its incessant mutations. Bearing in mind the above issues, the role of temporary practices and site specific events, with their ability to affect urban narrative, is presently investigated, focusing on the opening of new chapters or the unexpected identities that are often produced. Tracking some particularly significant temporary events, which in some ways represent allegorical tales, some solid projects will also be looked into, with particular regard to the artistic ones, which have managed to trigger new narratives and, from them on, to affect the significance of some given places, to translate their meaning within a properly architectural frame.