ABSTRACT
Throughout this book the urban void is a conceptual construct devised to render visible a principle of absence that underlies urban space. It is a dual concept, both material – in spaces lacking physical conditions, purpose, design or function – and metaphorical – in those deprived of memory, symbolism or affective content. An idea of void allows approaching place-making as a mechanism operating in the in-betweens of presence and absence, which are already explored in Lefebvrean literature (Lefebvre 1983). A wide range of scholarship has shown interest in the spheres of possibility and potential that can be found in vacant or otherwise-indeterminate areas in the city from the standpoints of sociology, design or planning, among other disciplines. In spite of this increasing interest in harnessing phenomena of emptiness within the urban, their most fundamental workings remain to a great extent elusive to scholarly analysis (cf. Franck and Stevens 2007; Sassen 2013). This book represents an exploration of ideas of vacancy through the thorough study of a single space with a long and rich history. The case study described in subsequent chapters is chosen as a heuristic device for building theory that advances not only in the analysis of urban voids but also of urban spaces in a wider sense. This initial chapter presents and situates the notion of emptiness that underpins this approach, as a lacking space or a space of potential, as an entity traversed with political and emotional content, and in its complex rapport with materiality.
