‘Leave the back door open’

Void for the urban planer Stefano Boeri (GUST, 1999) is “a peculiar type of empty space that does not posses a clear or univocal identity and seems to lack any code”. Areas occupied by groups of diverse cultural backgrounds who infuse the place with their unique characteristics. The same phenomenon (usual to contemporary cities) is described by the geographer Doreen Massey with the term ‘power-geometry’ as ‘a global sense of the local, a global sense of place’ while referring to her own London neighborhood, Kilburn. “…the specificity of a place is understood as constructed out of a particular constellation of social relations, meeting and weaving together at a particular locus”. (Phil Hubbard et al, 2004). In that case void is understood as the locus defined not by lack of codes; on the contrary, the dominant feature turns to be the coexistence of multiple codes which attribute to space a ‘hidden’ dynamic ready to be expressed and give to space variable contents. “Boeri’s concept of polysemous urban voids ties in with a characteristically postmodern insistence that personal identity is not stable and singular” rather, it is organic as molecules stringed together “and it possesses –along the same lines- a liberating potential, a possibility of moving beyond established social values” (GUST, 1999).

Thus void obtains the morphology of an organic territory with open possibilities, unlimited opportunities, ready to be the locus of self-expression and provide differential interpretations through a procedure of mix-and-match, then void transforms to the contemporary match-point. As Adriaan Gueze stressed ‘We need to create surrealistic environments, we should provide anarchic environments and even subversive cities and green areas’ (GUST, 1999). Anarchy then becomes another crucial component of void space that entails the transformation of void to a vital space.

‘Leave the back door open’ in the context of breaking the boundaries of a space which is designed -on purpose- to be closed. As if a ‘mistake’ exists in the process of design which will allow spontaneous action and variety to find their place, so as some ‘fresh’ air will ‘accidentally’ trespass on the space and will establish new boundaries or no-boundaries in a process of recreating the space.