An Active Parasitic Addition in The Built Environment

Abstract

Cities suffer from social, economic and physical challenges as a result of their exposure to urban obsolescence represented in the inability of the building to meet the requirements for which it was built, and its exit from service as a kind of urban deterioration and decay due to the causes, which are the inability to keep pace with rapid urbanization, the inability to accommodate buildings or during environmental conditions that affect structural durability. Therefore, the research problem is an abundance of obsolete buildings which lack of urban activation within the built environment. The research shed light on effectiveness of the parasitic addition in renewal obsolete buildings. A theoretical framework was built for the concept of urban addition and the concept of parasitic addition. The research hypothesis was the nature of parasitic addition is determined through its mechanism and its effectiveness is measured through the strength of the relationship with the host building. The research used the historical descriptive method and tested the hypothesis through three international projects. The research has determined the parasitic additive is linked with the host building by two physical relations (Formalism, transformational, functional) and symbolic relationship (consensual or artistic of visual attraction).