Symbiotic maintenance. The material care of space.

Abstract

The current urban and architectural conditions and the contemporary awareness of the materiality of these spatial entities oblige us to think of a design – in the Anglo-Saxon sense – that is attentive to the ecology of relationships: the devices conceived by designers (at any scale) actively contribute not only to the construction of the object itself, but also contribute to the construction of collectives, nurture relationships, pose questions and regulate controversies. The transformation of matter, urban intervention and all alterations of given spatial arrangements are forms of material stabilisation of a bundle of controversies with which multiple actors negotiate. From this process – which is neither an abstract fact, nor the outcome of a creative act delegated to a supposedly superior knowledge of the designer – an architecture or a piece of city takes shape. This form of stabilisation does not end when the project is realised: in fact,right at that juncture, another relational life of the designed entity begins, the flow of information between the different actors who co-construct the space and who live symbiotically with the design object. However, in order for cities, objects or architectures to function, it is necessary to generate maintenance processes that take care of the materiality of objects, the fragility of which, if neglected, would lead to material de-stabilisation and the undermining of relational systems: an infrastructure that does not function can create material discomfort, affect entire collectives with a certain precision, and even cause effects on the so-called natural environment. Modern architecture has generated a narrative in which maintenance has been erased, and with it processes, materials and people have been invisibilised. Design – especially architectural design – claims to resolve all material issues in itself and to consign objects destined for a kind of intangible eternity to posterity. However, their life depends on entanglement with other entities with which architectures are symbiotically and co-emergently intertwined. The subject of this contribution will therefore be an analysis of maintenance processes and their ‘design’ and political role in urban and architectural contexts, since issues such as the solidity, durability and material resistance of spatial entities depend incontrovertibly on care and maintenance.