On Margins and Absences: Notes on how Enric Miralles engaged with "Place"

Abstract

In this essay, I explore a text written by Enric Miralles which was first published in a earlier form 1987 and later republished in 1995 under the name "Place". In it, he reflects on his particular attitude towards the site, or more precisely, a particular understanding of what a site is and how architecture relates to it. I observe that Miralles's sense of place is drivin by design as a form of discovery and encounter with the unexpected, where architecture not only adds something new to the site but must also express the absence of what is not there any longer. I then shift these ideos of "Place", to discuss the unrealized project by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue for the new building of the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV), the prestigios school of architecture of Venice.