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- Title
FIVE POINTS OF "INFORMAL" ARCHITECTURE: TOWARD AN ARCHITECTURE OF ABUNDANCE.
- Authors
BIGHAM, ASHLEY
- Abstract
This paper interrogates the invocation and use of the term "informal" in architecture, particularly when used to describe non-Western cultures, peoples, and spatial practices. When discussing "informal" architecture, particularly open-air markets and bazaars, architects have too often conflated economic definitions of informality with definitions of architecture form. In post-socialist contexts, the complex history of retail spaces exposes how friction between local economies and global supply chains can create unique architectural experiences. Through an ongoing study of open-air markets and bazaars in Ukraine, this essay proposes five possible points of informal architecture in an attempt to change the narrative from scarcity to abundance: (1) localized formality, (2) organizational intelligence, (3) color material, (4) adaptation and disruption, and (5) experiential excess. This paper engages two examples of recent architectural projects in Ukraine, one designed by Outpost Office and one by Ukrainian architect Alex Bykov, both of which use Ukrainian bazaar culture and collective spatial practices to inform contemporary works of architecture. The case studies presented here provide useful examples of how architecture can serve an infrastructural role for the informal, providing a framework for the organization of objects, an attitude toward the use of materials, and strategies for utilizing informal economic and social networks.
- Subjects
UKRAINE; SOCIAL networks; BAZAARS (Markets); SUPPLY chains; INTERNATIONAL competition
- Publication
Dialectic, 2020, Vol 8, p24
- ISSN
2333-5440
- Publication type
Article