Fissiform Territory

Cidália Ferreira da Silva

The purpose of the present text is an exercise to reflect on the term ‘fissiform’, which is a metaphor to interpret the contemporary territory. This proposal seeks to counteract the pessimistic visions that consider the territory has been suffering from a progressive process of loss, which puts into question even the possibility of being recognized any ‘form’ to it. Thus,  having the premises that the discourse of ‘mischaracterization’ acts as a mental block to the experimental exercise of architecture, and that going to a ‘merely celebrative’ side gives to the act of designing an apparent creative freedom disconnected from the contemporary places, here I present an experiment and interpretation which, looking to the ‘real territory’, selects its ‘fissures’ as a motto, simultaneously critical and propositional.

Following the first topic, where it summarily explains the ‘why’ of the first word in the title of this text — ‘territory‘ — I turn to explore the second word — ‘fissiform‘ — having as a starting point the confrontation with another word already present in the disciplinary vocabulary: ‘fragmented’. Then, I discuss the main generator factors of ‘fissures’, in which ‘time’ has a key presence, becoming thus the final point of the text.