Civic Friche names a paradoxical condition: the institutional activation of abandoned or marginal sites. It describes a tactical approach to urbanism that differs from conventional models of reuse, privileging civic initiative, temporary and interim occupation, and public participation over permanence or programmatic closure.
The term friche—often reductively translated from the French as “wasteland”—resists easy equivalence. Within architectural, landscape, and artistic discourse, it has been reclaimed as a productive category: a condition of openness with latent civic potential. Like the landscapes theorized by Gilles Clément, a friche operates as a dynamic system, one in which spatial and social forms are allowed to evolve over time rather than be fully predetermined.
Approaching a friche as a design subject requires close attention to physical and cultural context, coupled with an acceptance of change. Programs shift. Uses accumulate and recede. Cultural and economic conditions transform. In this framework, the architect relinquishes the role of singular author in favor of enabling structures that may be partial, temporary, opportunistic, or even deliberately unresolved—allowing public life to emerge through use rather than prescription.
2010-2011
Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Support:
University of Michigan, Experiential
Learning Fund
Curators:
Anya Sirota, Jean Louis Farges
Collaboration:
Steven Christensen
Research & Exhibition (2010):
Ivan Adelson, Catherine Baldwin, Lauren Bebry, Jordan Buckner, Nathan Doud, Bruce Findling, Noureen Lakhani, KaylaLim, Erika Lindsay, Mo Harmon, Jacqueline Kow, Matt Nickel, Talia Pinto-Handler, Brittany Roy, Devon Stonebrook, Lauren Vasey, Tyler Willis
Publication (2011):
Melissa Bonfil, Virginia Black, Peyton Coles, Joe Filippelli, Brittany Gacsy, Chris Reznich,
Michael Sanderson, Jeeeun Ham, Jennifer Komorowski, Kyung Jin Hong, Jordan Johnson,
Brian Muscat, Ash Thomas, Catherine Truong
Publication Links:
Civic Friche Vol 1
Civic Friche Vol 2