Representing Spatial Hybridities

A Pragmatic Approach to the Representation of Emergent Figures of Public Space

Abstract

As the paper's title suggests, we will associate a number of terms among which the relations may not immediately be obvious. One of these is the "figure” – understood in the sense of figureground relations, derived from gestaltist psychology of form, as they appear in the field of architectural and urbanistic theory. A second term, no less important here, is that of hybridity; it refers to emergent spatial environmental conditions that can be defined in terms existing elements (or fragments of them) which recombine to produce new territorial figures that seem to resist classification within pre-existing categories. The objective of this presentation is to examine each of these terms separately in light of certain difficulties related to the understanding of the contemporary territory, and then to associate the two in a way that carries some implications for the study of and design within it.