Mapping a genealogy of the in-between the buildings starting from post war CIAM reflections

The paper deals with the concept of in-between and the way it entered the architectural discourse from the post-Second World War period through a series of specific occasions of its discussion. Positing the postwar CIAM cultural milieu as a reference one, the research identifies nodal moments of the concept’s emergence within a constellation of diverse professionals, disciplines, and audiences. Observing diverse but cross-contaminating platforms of knowledge production and networks of protagonists involved, the paper aims at retracing possible trajectories of a discourse in- evolution that can still have transformative potential, both in its utopian message for a city shaped for human encounter and in regarding the in-between as an element allowing cities’ transformations in time. Focusing on the experimentations of the British artistic collective Independent Group, the Smithsons’ research for a Relational Theory of urban forms, and Aldo van Eyck’s philosophical reflections, the in-between concept is regarded as one both having a specific meaning in relation to the socio-political and historical conditions of postwar Europe, and still being relevant within contemporary urban design discourse in dealing with psychological and symbolic needs of re-identification and belonging of communities. In its final part, as a first conclusion, or better as a way to catch a glimpse from the described events, the paper opens a reflection on the concept of liminality and the possible role of the in-between space in the contemporary city, questioning its contribution to cities’ adaptative capabilities and in engaging people in an active relational public life.