Rediscovered times

persisting structures

Abstract

The fate of idle structures, which have had their original functions interrupted due to social, historical, or economic-productive changes, presents an opportunity to debate the architectural heritage value in cities. It is through the distorted return, stemming from the resignifications of these structures, that new paths can be opened. The dimension of property as something that is inherent and intrinsic is broken. Idle structures existing in urban areas cease to have their own characteristics, opening up to new possibilities and being available for inventive rehabilitations. In this process, an aesthetic based on addition through architectural couplings is highlighted, suggesting another ethic in the way of building sustainable landscapes and urban dynamics. The idea of reactivating obsolete and abandoned structures, ruined and not simply erased, becomes, around the concept of assemblage, the main vector of analysis and problematization of this article. We will start from the analysis of two works located in Paris for a critical problematization around the defense of the maintenance and reactivation of abandoned and ruined structures, namely the Cité de la Mode et du Design and the Entrepôt Macdonald.