The Continuous Present of the Contemporary City, Ideas and Practices

The theory herein proposed that today’s city is nothing but the superimposition of ‘texts’ of varying nature, belonging even to other worlds which, when necessary, take us well beyond the realm of architecture. This is a composite reality where all its pieces are placed on a single plane of perspective that cancel out time and space, like a vast plankton of different styles and shapes, customs, places, environments, enclaves, technologies, services, information, languages, images scenes, spatial control, brands, publicity and economy. Physical space is eroded in favour of new lands to conquer that are heterogeneous, transversal, multidisciplinary, spread-out, introverted and at times immaterial, corresponding to specialised uses, perceptive frameworks, information networks, artificial climates, commercial information, various communication systems, all dimensions contained within architecture, yet hard to describe using formal classical codes of architecture itself. The described examples should be read in this sense, that is, in the sense of good practices that outline partial solutions which can be considered strong fractions often marked by weak connections, but which show exceptional perspicacity.