A+T Num. 31 "Hybrids"

Following the series Density, In Common and Civilities, we intend to present a new focus on life in common and on buildings that keep up society’s pulse. At this point, we aim to address our investigation on hybrid buildings, as they are structures able to combine different programmes and encourage the interaction of a disparate sequence of urban uses, combining private activities with the public realm. Furthermore, hybridation goes beyond mixing programs: the term refers as well to the combination of public and private interests in housing, public space and civic facilities and responds to three major concerns of our society: - The land scarcity and its high value. - The need of intensifying land use in order to contribute to sustainable development. - The need of densifying uses in order to revitalise urban centres or, in other words, the urgency to set up devices able to exert a strong centripetal force on their surrounding elements and activities, so that they counteract the effect of the centrifuge force produced by mainly private interests, that incite the city sprawl.