Solà-Morales’s Terrain Vague: Text and Contexts: Formulation, Dissemination and Reception: Perception and Intervention Processes at the Turn of the Millennium

Abstract

Shaped by concern and curiosity for the state of indeterminacy in the public realm, the premise of this research is that questions of power, resistance and identity are mainly contested in undefined spaces within, as well as on the outskirts of, contemporary cities. The traditional concept of the city as a relatively contained and cohesive entity has been increasingly questioned by subsequent decentralization, suburbanization and fragmentation in the way the built-environment is perceived. The diversity inherent today in the concept of 'city' is greater than the capacity of the available vocabulary to define new emerging spaces. Within the contemporary diffused urban fabric, new globalized landscapes merge city and nature into an uncontrollable condition. Some of these indeterminate spaces are neither properly defined nor well situated within the urban discourse. In this respect, a need surfaced in the 1990s for innovative and alternative tools to delineate, represent and intervene in such indefinite spaces. The notion of terrain vague, which defines not only physical aspects of indeterminate spaces, but also how we perceive and represent these, emerged out of this context. Such a notion, which appears to combine seemingly antagonist meanings of both vagueness and territoriality, and of both fear and hope, holds a strong potential for urban change. It is capable of responding to multiple issues posed by the contemporary urban fabric made of fragmented diversified elements. Accordingly, approaches and reflections on terrains vagues have become increasingly significant in the last twenty years, and the notion has evolved in marked urban approaches towards a discourse larger than a mere idea. The term was coined in the fields of architecture and urbanism by Catalan theoretician and architect Ignasi de Solà-Morales in the mid-1990s through his essay of the same name: "Terrain Vague". He described spaces that fall out of the normal urban organization due to their inefficiency to serve a primary function in the systems of production, consumption, infrastructure, or recreation. He argued that these spaces possess particular qualities making them notably attractive to photographers and architects. Inspired by the urban transformations of Berlin after the fall of the Wall in 1989 and those of post- Olympics Barcelona after 1992, Solà-Morales first constructed and formulated the notion of terrain vague during the first half of the decade within the contexts of the Metropolis Master Program in Barcelona and his lectures of 1992-1993 at Princeton University. He then presented and published his essay, in 1994 and 1995, within a seminar at the Triennale di Milano and Anyplace at the CCA in Montreal, the fourth in a series of yearly conferences organized by the Anyone Corporation. After that, the essay and the notion were internationally influential, recurrently translated, re-presented, re-published, and received with great interest. From the notion’s history line, to the author’s trajectory and writings, to the urban transformations of the 1990s, many lines thus intersect through one essay that is consequently the central object and case study of this thesis. The present research seeks to understand how the notion of terrain vague thrived through the medium of Solà-Morales's essay. As both the 6 essay and the notion developed in concert, they are jointly analyzed throughout this research in order to understand the connections between the historical, political and urban contexts of the terrain vague notion on the one hand, and the contexts of the essay and its author on the other. The purpose is hence to verify the hypothesis that Solà-Morales’s “Terrain Vague” essay is a political statement and a hidden manifesto whose formulation, presentation and diffusion led to its status as a core reference for the subject of terrain vague, and to the vibrancy of the discourse from the mid-1990s to the present day. This dissertation embraces both the historic details of the notion, as well as its position in the intellectual history of architectural debate of the period. In conclusion, the present dissertation exposes how the terrain vague marked, on the one hand, a climax and a reaction against modernist and postmodernist ideals prevalent in the contemporary city at the turn of the millennium, and how it also acted on the other hand as a catalyst for change. Solà-Morales gathered, within one essay, notions and impressions theoretically pertinent to an increasingly important type of urban spaces that caught the attention of his contemporaries. Through his articulation of the terrain vague and the way he presented the notion to the world, he also had a strong impact on urban and architectural practices. Accordingly, the double innuendo within his essay, alluding to a narrative on the one hand and a hidden manifesto on the other, reflects this oscillation between a synthesizing narrative of a period and a catalyzing call for action and for raising awareness to the indeterminacy of the public realm.