ABOUT THE TERRAIN VAGUE. A contemporary conceptual reading of the urban void from its image

Abstract

Twenty-five years after the Catalan architect, philosopher and urban critic Ignasi de Solà-Morales coined the term terrain vague to conceptually delineate the physical dimension and spiritual essence of the different urban voids, expectant landscapes and imprecise confines of the contemporary city, we understand that the undeniable validity of the notion, its profuse disciplinary acceptance and, above all, its diffusion in the fields of urban theoretical production, merit a systematic review of its evolution. In this sense, this research is based on the appraisal of the cultural conditions that accompanied its original proposal and reconstructs a non-linear path through the references, works and authors cited, thus interweaving a galaxy of notions, relationships, and drifts that question, in the face of the prevailing uncertainty of our days, the very foundations of urban criticism.

Keywords: terrain vague, urban void, latency image, expecting landscape