While I was eating in one of the many restaurants inside Im Viadukt in Zurich, I realized that, for everything we do, where you want to go is worth more than where you start. Let’s think about the Im Viadukt project, the old viaduct in Zurich, and let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that we have a graduated scale from -10 to +10 where -10 is the lowest point (from where we start or where we arrive) and +10 the highest. In this direction, we might have three different scenarios:
1) Value
Up to 2008, the viaduct in Zurich was totally unused, a -10 current value place. Now the city turned it into a +10 value place. Three years on from its restoration, it’s now a unique space for shopping and a cultural district.
2) Stall
Now, let’s think about a similar (to Zurich) starting point in Milan: the central station’s underpass. A -10 current value place (but with a +10 potential value), totally unused as it’s still abandoned (as are many other places in Milan).
3) Non-Value
In closing, let’s think about an opposite scenario from the first one (value). What was to have been a +10 value place by itself turned into a -10 value place. In Italy we have a lot of examples, but if we want to keep on talking about architecture we could think about Pompeii, no doubt a +10 value place. Nevertheless, the place is now abandoned by institutions, which is turning a +10 value place into a -10 value place.
Summary: Let’s hope the next archaeological site will be discovered in Switzerland.