The Spatial Features and Temporality of Urban Alternatives

In this chapter, we define “urban alternatives” as the ensemble of conditions that propose and achieve original ways of using space, alternatives to the mainstream, and the processes for constructing them in a manner that mobilises actors other than those conventionally and institutionally recognised. Any discussion about urban alternatives thus defined must be built upon a conceptual and operational foundation that necessarily defines the territory and the city in complex and multidimensional terms. This foundation is the necessary precondition for the observations regarding the practices and cases addressed in this chapter, that focus upon the role of Space as an Activator of Possibility; the role of Space in influencing the Uses and the different Ways of Changing, according Different Temporalities. with a peculiar attention to Temporary Uses and Duration. The chapter investigates, trough milanese study cases, the nature and the implication of the so called "Instant projects", "pioneers", and "triggers" aiming at understanding the different ways of role of the duration of interventions with respect to urban transformation.