PERFORMA. Industrial voids as support for the event city

“Architecture is as much about the events that take place in spaces as about the spaces themselves. [...] The static notions of form and function long favoured by architectural discourse need to be replaced by attention to the actions that occur inside and around buildings - to the movement of bodies, to activities, to aspirations.” Bernard Tschumi Theatre architecture has developed over the centuries in response to the need and desire for technological and engineering renewal, mainly with regard to the improvement of the scenic machine. According to each culture, it has taken on and bent different forms of language to functional needs, to the point of becoming propaganda. Theatre architecture has bent itself so much to cultural ferments that for a moment, in the second half of the twentieth century, it took place in unconventional, non-prepared spaces: a garage, a shop window, a factory, a churchyard. It was in these types of spaces that cohesion was found among the participants in the collective ritual, free of barriers that obstructed their concentration, perhaps rediscovering the ancestral role of the theatrical ritual. The thesis reflects on the design context of unconventional theatre spaces, which stems from the experiences of twentieth-century performances, and transposes it into the design reflection of an industrial architectural reuse. Emptiness and informal as a supporting space are the key to freely colonise places and their architectural formalities. The design of weak spaces that are grafted into existing heritages, as well as the design of voids in the city, makes architectural the concept of supporting spaces for collective practices. These can be rethought in terms of non-aggressiveness, allowing them to be shaped by the event that takes place. Such a defined culture of non-aggressive reuse can coexist with the architectural gesture given by necessity. In Bergamo, an abandoned industrial complex and the lack of a theatre hall for the city’s programming become an opportunity to imagine a theatre project under this lens.