Tentative

Nowadays, in a time of multifaceted crisis (ecological, social, and economic) and uncertainty, architecture needs to transcend the reductionism paradigm and work on real substance and complexity (Braidotti 2013; Morin 2016; Morton 2016; Haraway 2016; Latour 2017). How can architectural design face such complexity without reducing it? A key text in challenging a different understanding of space is Henri Lefebvre’s “The production of space”. His analysis, summarized as “social space is a social product” (Lefebvre 1974), places the production of space in a broader social, dynamic, and political context. Today, Lefebvre’s idea needs to be expanded by considering factors dictated by global, virtual, and ecological networks (Awan, Nishat, Till 2011). Because of such multiple interactions, each design’s spatial intention has no certain prediction. To contribute to effective actions, the spatial design might embrace the challenges of the complexity of the realm, by continuously “staying with the trouble” (Haraway 2016) and directly exploring the irreducible, unpredictable, and dynamic connections between a multiplicity of factors. The core of this conception emerges as a critique on considering spatial design as a univocal answer to a formulated problem. The design (and the related research) becomes a ‘tentative’ practice: questioning how to rethink and regenerate our cities and how to co-operate in shaping, “how will we live together”, referring to the last edition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Hashim Sarkis. The etymology of the term ‘tentative’ comes from the Latin verb tĕntare, which means at the same time tempting, feeling, and trying. Tempting outlines the triggering value of the word by aspiring and/or inducing to do something. Feeling points out the explorative value of the word: to know something by direct touch. Trying represents the experiential value of the word: to attempt to do something that has not been yet defined but has been made as a first step experience. The contribution of this text aims at exploring the tentative practice by focusing on process, forms, and approach, considering design as a tool to reveal the real conditions and to experience the spatial modification effects, by envisioning new futures.