SPACES OF CONFLICTS
AT THE PERIPHERIES OF EUROPE
Essay on Palermo, Concrete
and Galapagos effect

For Classeur, magazine by Editions Cosa Mentale, we presented  a subjective reading of the situations encountered in the city of Palermo, we aim to render the complexity of a context situated both at the periphery of Europe and at the center of the global relations of power. This crucial position emphasizes the necessity and value of practices that elaborate alternative narratives for such areas, as well as design practice far from the mainstream fashions.

Southern Europe in general, and Sicily in particular, more than other places, represent with intensity the conflicts of contemporary society. As the connection between opposite worlds, there, the faults of Modernism become evident and are magnified by many absences, a paradoxical clarity that allows speculative thoughts to wonder.

Through the urban development of the city and symbolic function of concrete in the local culture we draw a line of struggles and questions left unanswered. We imagine and advocate a Galapagos effect of materials and architecture that have oppressed this and other cities in the global south.

CLASSEUR 02
MARE NOSTRUM

Espace-temps, espace-mouvement, la mer Méditerranée comme continuité nous positionne face l’histoire, à notre histoire commune. Ses contours, son paysage architectural nous la raconte et nous offre alors une grille de lecture du présent. Ce numéro de Classeur offre un panorama de cette sédimentation qui prend chaque jour passé plus de sens et d’importance.

Plus de soixante contributions passionnantes nous ont été proposées pour nourrir sur ce thème. La France, l’Italie, la Grèce, Israël, le Liban, la Palestine, l’Egypte, la Libye, l’Algérie, l’ Espagne dessinent les contours de cette compilation de Récits.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS