The systematic application of new digital technologies and strategies over the last 10 years has expanded the boundaries of architecture, bringing unexpected and new formal opportunities. Nevertheless, some fundamental aspects have been taken apart. There is a loss of materiality and denial of time in the digitalisation of architecture. Form and aesthetics are now the primary concerns. Generic and materially-undefined structures are the outcomes. Too often, there is a lack of regard for context and new styles are continuously being imposed. Forms created in this way quickly become obsolete and are replaced by new ones. They are not made to age or to blend in with their surroundings, so they cannot look old or ordinary enough as to become part of the urban background or cultural territory.

On the other hand, there are some architects and artists, such as Juhani Pallasmaa, Peter Zumthor and Richard Wentworth, who work with subjects such as place making, materiality, atmosphere and perception. In this context, new possibilities arise from the observation of the ordinary, of fragile and precarious solutions, as these are contextual and responsive; answers to a specific problem in a specific context. Informal artefacts, their materials, logics and details are either the expression of a constructive tradition, or a response based on chance-opportunity.

This research will explore the ground between the ordinary and the application of new technologies, as a process of manipulation and appropriation of specific structures and their material qualities. The stress will be placed on materials, as they constitute the basis of our perceptual exchange with the built environment. Every material has a specific memory and technique associated with it, thus creating an instrument for the perception of reality and our interaction with it.

From the observation of existing structures, a series of experiments will be conducted applying different methods of appropriation. Spontaneous, ephemeral, vernacular, low-tech, chance-opportunity, fragile, these are words that help to define the search for examples. Appropriation will be achieved first, through a process of observation and analysis of material qualities and formal and structural logics. Then, these isolated parameters will be translated into a new work of architecture. Both analogue and digital approaches will be used, the latter exploring its possibilities as a tool, not as a style in itself.

This will open up significant questions about the interpretation of traditional ways of building using new technologies, an opportunity to create original spaces loaded with familiar meaning, and a significant continuity between the contemporary situation and past models.