Cristiano Tosco

Independent researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
c.tosco@chorusdesign.it

Architectural Chrysalises. Building Sites as Multipliers of Meaning

The paper faces the topic of the double in its implications with the visible and public surface. Historic buildings, large existing complexes, and social and cultural hubs of the community require, in their maintenance, restoration or repair phases, to be covered by a temporary skin, an exoskeleton for new temporary façades. Often, this new threshold bears an approximate mechanical reproduction of the façade behind it. We have all seen at least once a large European square with its Opera House or its Palace of Justice “wrapped” during works. These skins become temporary fronts for the architecture they protect, surrogate twins that produce a significant atmospheric and urban impact, altering the perception of the space and influencing the dynamics of the city. However, the visual effect of these clad scaffoldings, accurate as they may be, produces static simulations of what they hide and limits the passerby’s imagination of what will be the building reborn, like a butterfly from its chrysalis.
By focusing on these boundary surfaces, these fictitious enclosures, we can uncover insights that challenge us to rethink these physical systems. What if these “double skins” could represent something other than themselves, another architecture or differently scaled spaces? What spatial relationships could emerge if they became supports for hypertextual references? What if they were no longer temporary but could gradually merge with what they cover, with the city and the landscape? These and other questions are at the centre of this research experimentation. This exploration sees scaffolding and its coatings as the protagonists of a possible multiplication of meaning, inviting designers and researchers to engage and contribute to the field of architecture.

Keywords: façade; scaffolding; surface architecture; envelope; construction field.