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WS.E
Renato D’Alençon Castrillón
with: Andrea Gritti, Marco Bovati, Franco Tagliabue
Renato D’Alençon Castrillón is School of Architecture of the P. Universidad Católica de
Chile, and M. Arch. graduated from Cornell University. He has taught Design Studios
and Building Technology at the Universidad Católica de Chile in the areas of architectural
design and building technology. He has been Guest Faculty at the University of Chile and
the Technical University of Berlin, where he currently is appointed as lecturer and senior
researcher and teaches design studios and research seminars. His eld of scholarly work
includes environmental design and performance of buildings, area where he published
the book “Acondicionamientos” (Ediciones ARQ, Santiago 2008) and several articles; and
other publications product of his research in the eld of construction history and of the
project Reclaiming Heritage www.reclaimingheritage.org.
Working in rubble designing the between state / 101
Working in
rubble
designing the
between state
In different contexts, urban continuity and change take on specic,
sometimes dramatic meanings.
In spite of these, architects and urban designers cannot overlook the
transformative potential of the city. The “continuous metamorphosis”
needs to be understood for specic locations and mastered towards
inducing a positive transformation.
In browneld sites, rubble and debris are constantly produced. Why not
reuse them as the main material for the creation of new public spaces
at minimum waste? This would be a way to give a concrete response to
the negative effects of urban abandonment.
The main problem addressed by the Workshop was to explore the
re-use of building materials and urban elements in this specic context,
underlining the economy of resources and architectural values of
building with them, as opposed to a reconstruction based on new, more
expensive materials.
The interventions for the generation of public spaces on the edge of
abandoned urban places may have other important effects:
a) demonstrating that the community take care of the places directly;
b) guiding future choices of recovery through the example of innovative
spatial practices;
c) producing effective interventions in low-cost/high-quality, knowing that
resources for massive interventions of rehabilitation of browneld sites
are limited.
The work was focused on the identication of these problems and
the exploration of the potentials they propose by means of urban
regeneration strategies leading to specic scenarios over time. The
elaboration of the strategies and the support they propose for the
development of the city is based on the recognition of the urban qualities
of the site and on their possible spatial implementations.
The Ex-Macello (former slaughterhouse) area is a 12 ha. urban
enclosure. It is placed south to the Porta Vittoria railway “Passante”.
The settlement has a facade that faces the city along the Viale Molise
where there are few Art Nouveau buildings (Palazzine Liberty); the other
sides are delimited by the streets Lombroso and Monte Ortigara. The
total perimeter is approximately 1,200 meters.
The slaughterhouse has been built from 1912 to 1924, the buildings
have remained in use until the early nineties, when it started the
dismissing process which ended in 2005.
This process has resulted in the abandonment of almost all of
the buildings and structures contained in the area, for a total of
approximately 400,000 cubic meters of built-up volume.
The Real Estate failure caused by economical default reveal a deep
question: could private high nance determine the future of the cities by
way of complete urban projects?
In the same time the city lies in lack of investors and the decline
damages urban area of de-industrialization.
The safety measures costing in this way ties with maintenance and
social costs of neglect.
Who takes care of the city?
Social actions, events, retail market and artisan business in the between
time create the condition for multiple stakeholders of the future.
What takes care of whom?
The area is aimed to transform the surroundings getting back facilities to
the population.
/ WS.E / Renato D’Alençon Castrillón 102
Which will the new congurations be in order to the choices that we
are doing today?
The support embodies an ever-growing process and it would merge
with the mutations of the state of economical and social conditions.
Evolution itself will determine the advantages and interests of the
proposal, accepting or refusing the options that it offer.
The support, foreshadows scenarios, drafts functions and grows and
develops involving citizen and different investors.
A kind of “Foundation act” for an uncertain future, opened to different
possibilities.
Moreover, identies the great symbolic and regenerating value of rubbles
and debris, as well as its general meanings of safe-money procedure of
reconstruction.
To work on the edge means to protect the areas not yet recovered,
producing a new relationship with the city. The progressive growth of its
physical body or his negative gradually lls the space introducing quality,
liveability and functions.
To depict the gallery counts as an acknowledgement of an element,
trace or building, able to order the development.
To reafrm the elds is a way to underline the relations with the city and
urban tissue.
Borders, Fields and Gallery aren’t dened and complete projects but a
sort of open shape.
103Working in rubble designing the between state /
Connecting hub
Phases of work Reuse Debris
The gallery
/ WS.E / Renato D’Alençon Castrillón 104
This strategy exploits an existing building to solve problems reusing the debris to dene
new borders and shape the space of the area. The Gallery becomes a connecting hub
not only for the area but also for the neighbourhood and the city.
105Working in rubble designing the between state /
Sequences
/ WS.02 / John Nastasi - Stefano Converso 006
GALLERY-Sequences
AREA
STRATEGIES
EVOLUTION
Reactivating the buildings
2017
2015
2020
2024
/ WS.E / Renato D’Alençon Castrillón 106
Gallery sequences propose to create an inner park,using old building’s rubble and re-
activating the gallery to prepare the area for a different future willing to receive public or
private investors.
107Working in rubble designing the between state /
Nature rebirth
vegetation
protecting
buildings
eco-system
within ruin
street cracks
as a connection
involve the community
Gilles Clément,
The third landscape
Gilles Clément,
natural exchange between
the third landscape and the articial one
generation of debris
create facilities
playgrounds
and paths
remove
asphalt
STRATEGY | elds
EXISTING SITUATION | area ex-Macello SUPPORT | nature expansion
reuse
rubbles
preserve
buildings
/ WS.E / Renato D’Alençon Castrillón 108
Our strategy creates layers of elds that work on the existing surfaces trying to establish
relations inside the area and outside, with the city. The support lets the nature expand
within asphalt “cracks”and generates a third landscape.
SCENARIO | the third landscape
109Working in rubble designing the between state /
Net of ows
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
CREATO CON LA VERSIONE DIDATTICA DI UN PRODOTTO AUTODESK
/ WS.E / Renato D’Alençon Castrillón 110
Net of ows linked to the existing paths goes into the dismissed area in order to
generate people interest and the beginning of improvement, using the preexistence and
rubbles resulted from the demolition of the old buildings.
111Working in rubble designing the between state /
Lymph
CONCEPT THE STRATEGY
THE SCENARIO
RECYCLING DEBRIS
1. Border’s marginalisation
Demolish the run down buildings Build the new border with the debris Build the new path: all the debris are reused
2. Open the border
3. New path
4. Let life expand
4. Social life calls investors
/ WS.E / Renato D’Alençon Castrillón 112
A new vital lymph from two actions: new borders and a new above-ground path built
with debris. This path is the matrix of new public spaces nearby the border: an interface
between the city and the area.
THE STRATEGY THE SCENARIO
113Working in rubble designing the between state /
Stain of chain
/ WS.E / Renato D’Alençon Castrillón 114
Stain of Chain: sees all this empty spaces as containers, ready to be given to the
people, be shared and used in a new way, without needing to attend great investments
from the public or the private sphere.
115Working in rubble designing the between state /