"Limbo spaces are very generic, specific and designed according to some specific materialistic approaches and regulations" architects, artists and photographers, have argued at the Green House Talks in Venice Architecture Biennale. The debate offered a perfect warm up event to the Venice Architecture Biennale, decreeing the design of these in-between spaces as the real challenge for architects of tomorrow.

Image © Alberto Sinigaglia

The third edition of the Greenhouse Talks, curated by Aaron Betsky - president of the School of Architecture at Taliesin, has been held on May 25 at the InParadiso Café, in front of the Giardini della Biennale’s entrance in Venice. Aaron Betsky, who was director of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale and is currently the president of the School of Architecture at Taliesin, posed a crucial question:

"In the spaces where we wait, tarry, or just wile away the time, the strictures and structures of good architecture dissolve. What is the architecture of not-quite-free spaces, and how should we design what is meant to fade away?."

Nathalie de Vries (MVRDV). Image © Alberto Sinigaglia

Nathalie de Vries (MVRDV) illustrated her exploration of the idea of limbo space in designing an airport terminal. “I was fascinated by how in these spaces we are always evaluated, measured by our money or appearance by the presence of shops.” In her vision the limbo space in airports should be equipped with more identity and specificity, as a great deal of events take place here, while we wait.

Titled Limbo Space, the discussion focused on the vapidness of "in-between spaces" in many buildings such as airports, stations, hospitals, governmental spaces, or doctors' offices. All these spaces are sometimes described as "non-places" by the architects to seat, walk and feel comfortable.

Image © World Architecture Community

The talk, curated by Aaron Betsky, continued with different approaches coming from different disciplines, including world-renowned photographer Iwan Baan and architects Maria Claudia Clemente from Labics, Nathalie de Vries of MVRDV, Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Andrés Jaque from Office for Political Innovation and Marina Otero Verzier, director of research of Het Nieuwe Instituut.

By contrast, presenting the condition of the refugees as people in transit who are not valued, Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation) - who will be one of the creative mediators of Manifesta 12 in Palermo - recounted the story of Abel, a Colombian man who colonized the freespace between his backyard and the highway in Los Angeles to reconstruct the social compound of his motherland. “I love the idea of being in between, this limbo state, as it is a place to which other people pay little attention so that can be subversive to capitalism,” said the founder of the Office for Political Innovation. 

“Architects should really reflect on this theme. Limbo Space is a place of eternal transition, here for once we are not meant to arrive somewhere. It’s not heaven, nor hell. I don't like the word purgatory, I see Limbo Spaces as places to inhabit forever”. 

Image © Alberto Sinigaglia

Focusing on the negative effects of security systems in many limbo spaces, the architects evaluated "limbo spaces" as different from a public space and stated that "many public spaces are guided by different approaches but Limbo Spaces are always being watched by cameras or safety officers."

Marina Otero, curator of the Dutch Pavilion. Image © Alberto Sinigaglia

“Until some years ago we would have called it NON-space, but we have empowered this concept, by defining it LIMBO SPACE,” said Marina Otero, curator of the Dutch Pavilion. “The entire Dutch Pavilion is constructed as a limbo space, but maybe the room with the lockers embodies this concept at its best. The lockers are the place where we do transform in other versions of ourselves, where we can decide what to be, full of possibilities.”

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Considering their design principles in any aspects, photographer Iwan Baan stated that "Limbo Spaces are very generic to every country and they are very limited. They are juxtaposition of many collaborations," according to his personal experiences in many airports. 

Aaron Betsky emphasised that "Limbo Spaces are intensely used and they don't look like a public square. They are being owned by regulations."

"There is no freedom in Limbo Spaces", Betsky added.

The panelists also evaluated the design of Limbo Spaces as a paradox as they are always described as "non-places". "They don't want to be described as a space, that's why, they are not designed," they added. 

Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Image © Alberto Sinigaglia

"The efficiency of the spaces we live in today is very important," stressed Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. "There is some sort of a paradox and there is a kind of romance that space is accepted," she added.

"Culture changes so quickly that our buildings cannot keep up with it. We should develop the unprogrammed as the main quality for a building,” said Elizabeth Diller, founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the New York based architectural firm that has just been appointed by the Victoria & Albert Museum to design a new V&A collection and research center to be located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London, recalled one of her best known project - the High Line in New York. 

“We wanted to create a space where all we could do was not being productive, where you could only walk or sit. Now it has become one of the most powerful tourist attractions of the city, but still offers you a sightsee of the unapproved New York, looked through the alleys or from the back of the buildings”. 

Image © Alberto Sinigaglia

Maria Claudia Clemente added: "all airports, stations, or hospitals are, in fact, over designed, because they are all connected to the person directly." "Public spaces are different because they were the representation of power," Clemente emphasised. She added that “we should define the undefined - design spaces, especially public ones that can support the unexpected”. She added that we all could learn from the way Italy looks at its public spaces, as places of collision, places of life. 

Nathalie de Vries of MVRDV stated that "the boundaries are somehow blurred in the design of Limbo Spaces because they are subjected to the change anytime. But, we want to give a sense of place to the users."

Image © World Architecture Community

Photographer Iwan Baan expressed a more personal point of view, based on his daily experience. “My life may seem adventurous as seen from the outside, as I travel to all these places. But in the end, I think I spend most of my time in these limbo spaces, in airports, in waiting rooms. It’s very interesting to see all these different limbo spaces around the world, and how specific they may be in the various countries or even continents.

Aaron Betsky. Image © Alberto Sinigaglia

The conversation opens up many questions, that Aaron Betsky summarized with these words: “What scares me, but also interests me, is that what is between the designed and the un-designed has already been colonized and theorized through the notion of affordance, which has various dimensions. On one side it has scientific roots in the studies of animals and in biology - a scientification and engineering evaluation of these limbo spaces - and on the other one by data collection that through software can predict the dynamic interaction between crowds and movement in order to create more efficient in between spaces. The question now is: what is left of these limbo spaces? Should we resist of should we go with the flow? How to design these spaces? That is the real challenge to architecture.”

The Greenhouse Talks' Limbo Space took place on Friday, May 25, 2018 from 9 to 11am at the InParadiso Café, just in front of the Giardini della Biennale.

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