The names of the places without a name

Abstract

Objective

The contemporary city often generates places without name, spaces of diffuse identity that have received multiple names from the urban theory. The purpose of this work is to analyze to what extent the interpretation of these spaces associated with these names is convergent or divergent, that is, elucidate if they are different terms to designate the same urban reality or if, on the contrary, these names refer to different aspects of that reality, so they complement themselves as an explanation of it.

Methodology

The interpretation of the unnamed places associated with the most significant terms that have been proposed to identify them is analyzed in a comparative manner, regarding three main aspects: the type of concrete urban reality that they designate, the perspective from which this reality is evaluated and, finally, the proposed intervention strategies for these spaces.

Conclusions

The work identifies the group of terms that, within those that designate the places without name, have a greater relevance from the point of view of design disciplines, and that can be considered to a large extent as interchangeable, all of them associated to some strategy of intervention in urban waste spaces, a strategy that is in most cases linked to landscaping.

Originality

The comparative analysis carried out provides some reasons to discard some terms that can be equivocal to identify the places without a name, and to strengthen others because of their greater interpretative and instrumental value.