Theory
Terrain Vague
Explore in the Atlas →Ignasi de Solà-Morales's term for the obsolete, indeterminate, abandoned spaces at the margins of the city — vacant lots, derelict industrial land and residual ground — read as carrying a productive ambiguity of absence and promise, freedom and expectancy.
Ephemerality Memory
Details
- Introduced
- 1990s
Classifications
- Holder
- Individual
- Source of authority
- Lived experience
- Subject
- Human centred
- Mode of transmission
- Text drawing
- Knowledge type
- Relational embodied
- Epistemic cluster
- Western philosophical
Connections
- opposes Junkspace
Referenced by
- Ignasi de Solà-Morales proposed
Sources
- Ignasi de Solà-Morales. Terrain Vague (in Anyplace, ed. Cynthia Davidson). MIT Press, 1995.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "Terrain Vague." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/theory/terrain-vague/. Accessed July 17, 2026.