ABSTRACT
A bench embedded in the base of a Renaissance facade prompts reflections on what lies beyond modern habits of architectural reading – and invention. Wall-sitting, which turns facades into backgrounds and urban monuments into mere furniture, suggests an intriguing tolerance both on the part of the monument builders, and in the monument itself. This paper examines the artefactual imaginary implied in the facade bench, finding illuminating counterparts in the constructions of diverse urban entrepreneurs in contemporary cities.
What perceptual attitude is at work in these creations? How would one have to think ‘site’ or ‘program’ to create – or engage – a facade/bench, a wall/barbershop, a soup shop/hair salon? In reflecting on these questions, the paper speculates on a tactical potential ‘hiding in plain sight’ for opening architecture in the increasingly exclusionary spaces of neoliberal development.
