The Cyclicality of the Anthropic Space in Urban Morphology: an architectural perspective.

This paper intends to offer a systematic reflection on the significance of “cyclicality” in the processual development of the anthropic space, ranging from the territorial to the architectural scale. The reflection will essentially focus on those theoretical contributions emerging from the disciplinary field of architecture and urban design. Among them, three outstanding research positions can be clearly listed over the last century and will therefore be analyzed in-depth:  Saverio Muratori’s definition of “Storia Operante”; John Habraken’s system of “Support and infill” and the Re_Cycle Italy research network program on “Recycle”. Beyond those stances, modern precedents can be traced back in some Neo avant-garde movements, especially Japanese Metabolism and Radical architecture. The topic rapidly assumes nowadays an increasing interest because of the financial crisis which is still affecting the world on a global scale and the subsequence necessity to critically reflect on the responsible reuse of heritage to face the challenging demand of a sustainable approach in the building market. The reflection is intentionally limited to the western country panorama, since there is an historical evidence of its long-lasting legacy in the transformation of the city form over the millennia. One of the expected results of the paper is to contribute to the definition of a new design strategy, in order to profit from the increasing presence of waiting lands and vacant buildings to drawn the society of the near future, offering room for experimentation to the emerging driving forces which claim a role in its deployment.