International news

Limbo Space, interspace or transition space? Greenhousetalks 2018

text: Maria MĂNESCU

{alert_title}

Ariadne: Limbo?
Arthur: Unconstructed dream space.
Ariadne: Well, what the hell is down there?
Arthur: Just raw, infinite subconscious. Nothing is down there. Except for whatever that might have been left behind by whoever's sharing the dream who was trapped down there before. (http://inception.wikia.com/wiki/Limbo)

The definition of limbo space as a virtual space, an extension of the pure, infinite subconscious, derives from the computer games industry. Limbo is a place that has not yet been dreamed or imagined by anyone, but is shared with other individuals, a space in which the mind can make changes of any kind without limits or obstacles. Because of its apparent lack of constraints, limbo is, on the one hand, extremely permissive with the one who imagines it, letting him or her manifest his or her deepest desires here, but on the other hand it can become a trap in which the "dreamer" loses touch with reality.
As Inception unfolds, limbo appears as an infinite ocean, an idea that is by no means new. Stanislaw Lem's novel Solaris (1961), one of Lem's philosophical explorations of man's anthropomorphic limitations, takes as its pretext the impossibility of establishing proper communication between the human and non-human species, presenting mankind's failed attempt to establish a way of communicating with an alien life form on a distant planet, Solaris. Its surface is almost entirely covered with an ocean that turns out to be a planetary organism, a more evolved limbo space.

The theme of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, Freespace, brought limbo spaces back into the limbo, the definition of these indefinable spaces on the fragile boundary between the real and the virtual, whose "arrangement" is a challenge for tomorrow's architects.
The third round table in the series The Greenhouse talks, offered by the Dutch Embassy in Rome in collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut and organized by Image MEDIA AGENCY, brought together some of the most active protagonists of the current architectural debate, before the official opening of the Venice Architecture Biennale. The meeting took place in the historic café InParadiso, located near the entrance to the Giardini della Biennale. The almost 100-year old cultural tradition of this place once frequented by Klimt, Kandinski, Picasso, Rodin or Warhol, provided the setting for a light-hearted debate in a non-conformist atmosphere, with croissants and cappuccino.
The conversation was prepared and moderated by Aaron Betsky, President of the Taliesin School of Architecture and curator of the 11th edition of the Biennale. He invited to the debate renowned architects familiar with the theme of limbo space, which he sees as a transitional space, a kind of purgatory between the hell of everyday life and the endless sky of cyberspace and/or vice versa, a space whose potential is still under-exploited by architects.
Architects Claudia Clemente (Labics), Nathalie de Vries (MVRDV), Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation), star photographer Iwan Baan and architect Marina Otero Verzier (Het Nieuwe

Institut), curator of this year's Dutch pavilion, took part in the discussion and shared their experiences of the demographic, economic or dramatic technological advances that architecture has faced in recent decades.
Entitled "Limbo Spaces," the discussion focused on the generally dull treatment of transitory spaces in many public buildings, such as airports, transit stations, hospitals, government spaces or waiting areas in doctors' offices. These are all frequently described by architects as "non-places", where you can't sit, walk around and feel comfortable. But here a paradox arises: if limbo spaces are considered non-places, so they can't be described as spaces, does that mean they can't be designed and furnished?

Aaron Betsky:
"In spaces in which we wait, linger, or just hang out, architectural restrictions and structures dissolve. What is the architecture of not-quite-free spaces and how should we design what is meant to disappear?".
"Limbo-spaces are spaces marked by uncertainty, unpredictability, with limited possibilities, they are very much like refugee camps. They have no clear hierarchy or distinct center, no clear boundaries."
"There have always been transitional spaces, like porches, porches and hallways. In these spaces you're not quite in the middle of the world, but you're not completely at home either, and this status can provide them with multiple possibilities for development. In the last 20 years, these transitional areas have developed into something completely different, and the roots of their waiting-space appearance are conditioned by the development of public transportation, as well as the reception spaces of businesses. They differ from a theater foyer, where you wait with a clearly defined social purpose." Waiting is characteristic of the new limbo space, but Betsky concludes that "such spaces should be seen as the new purpose of architectural research, beyond the limitations of location, function, traditional social behavior, or physical construction."
"Limbo spaces are intensively used and have little in common with a public square. They are governed by rules, guarded and watched. There is no freedom in limbo spaces."
Presenting the condition of refugees as people in transit who are insufficiently taken into account, Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation) focused on the social aspect of interspace, telling the story of Abel, a Colombian who tried to settle in several places before Los Angeles. Throughout his nomadic journey and in various guises, he carried his hometown garden on his back. Using various methods, he managed to keep in touch with close friends and relatives. He decided to settle in Los Angeles and, in a desire to rebuild the atmosphere of his homeland, he colonized the open space between his backyard and the freeway with a Colombian garden: his own limbo space. An act of undermining capitalism and globalization?
"I like the idea of being in passing, this limbo state, a place that other people don't pay much attention to, hence its slightly subversive character."
"Architects really should reflect on this.

caption><img src= Limbo Space is a place of eternal transition, from where we have nowhere to go. It is neither heaven nor hell. I don't like the word 'purgatory', I rather see limbo spaces as places you can inhabit forever."

Marina Otero, curator of the Netherlands Pavilion1:
"Up until a few years ago, we would have called it a NON-space, but we have given consistency to this concept by defining it as a LIMBO SPACE."
"The entire Dutch Pavilion is built as a limbo space, but perhaps the (locker) closet room embodies this concept best. The lockers are the place through which we can transform into other versions of ourselves, into who we want to be, the possibilities are manifold."

Through their High Line project, Diller Scofidio + Renfro have transformed an abandoned urban thoroughfare into a major New York City attraction, visited by over 8 million people last year. They have, in effect, turned a limbo space into a kind of theater space that anyone can access. "We wanted to create a space where all you can do is not be productive, where you can just sit or walk around. It has now become one of the city's most powerful tourist attractions, and it also offers an unusual view of New York from the side alleys behind the buildings."
"The efficiency of the spaces we live in today is very important," emphasized Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. "There is a kind of paradox and, at the same time, a kind of romanticism in the way these spaces are accepted."
"Culture is changing so fast that our buildings can't keep up. We need to make our buildings more flexible, more adaptable to the changing context."

Maria Claudia Clemente:
"All airports, public transportation stations, hospitals are, in fact, over-designed, directly and explicitly connected to the people they serve."
"Public spaces are different because they are the representation of power". "We need to define the indefinable, to design spaces, especially public spaces, to deal with the unpredictable. We can all learn from the way Italy treats its public spaces, as meeting places, as places to live."

Nathalie de Vries (MVRDV) illustrated the exploration of the idea of limbo space in the design of an airport terminal. "I was fascinated by how in these spaces we are always being evaluated, measured by how much money we have or how we look, by the presence of shops". In her view, limbo spaces in airports need to be equipped with more identity and specificity, because there is a lot of noteworthy events going on in such places while we wait. "In design, the boundaries of limbo spaces are somewhat diffuse because they are always subject to change. But we need to give users the sense that they are also places." "Space should be valued as a place of memory."

Photographer Iwan Baan expressed a more personal point of view, based on his daily experience. "My life may seem adventurous seen from the outside, I travel to many places. But in the end, I think I spend most of my time in these limbo spaces, in airports, in waiting rooms. It's really interesting to see these types of spaces around the world, how specific they can be in different countries and even continents."

The conversation opened up many starting points for further discussion, which Aaron Betsky summarized, "What scares me, but also interests me, is that everything in between designed and undesigned is already colonized and theorized through the various dimensions of the notion of adaptation and relatedness to the environment2. On the one hand, it has scientific roots in animal studies and biology - the scientific and technical assessment of limbo spaces - and on the other hand, through the collection of data that through software can predict the dynamic interaction between masses of moving people and the environment for the creation of more efficient transitional spaces. The ultimate question would be: what is left of these limbo spaces? Should we resist or adapt? How to design these spaces? It is a real challenge for architecture.

NOTES

1. The theme of the Dutch Pavilion was "Work, Body, Leisure".
2. The term affordance was originally coined by the psychologist James J. Gibson, considered to be the world's foremost specialist in the field of perception. The term was first mentioned in his 1966 book, The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems (Allen and Unwin, London) and has reappeared in many of his later essays. His best-known definition is found in his 1979 book, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - HMH), Boston: "The affordances of the environment are what it offers to the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill. The verb to afford is found in the dictionary, the noun affordance is not. I have made it up. I mean by it something that refers to both the environment and the animal in a way that no existing term does. It implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment" Gibson (1979, p. 127).
Although other meanings of the term have developed in the meantime, the original definition in psychology includes all possible transactions between an individual and his environment. When the concept is applied to design, it refers only to those potential physical actions of which the individual is aware.