Academic literature on the topic 'Architectural Distant Reading'

Este artículo analiza conceptos relacionados con el signo arquitectónico, y presenta una reflexión sobre aspectos semióticos del lenguaje visual de una de las obras de arte más importantes de la arquitectura en la dinastía Qing (S. XVIII): el Palacio Yuanying Guan (Vistas a un Mar distante). Se han utilizado conceptos y estructuras semióticas para interpretar la expresión de sus formas arquitectónicas y formular una comprensión posterior de dichas formas, convirtiendo cada elemento en una herramienta de comunicación.This article analyses some concepts related to the architectural sign and presents itself a semiotic reading of one of the most important works of art of the architecture in Qing dynasty (18th Century): the Yuanying Guan (View of the Distant Sea) pavilion. Semiotic structures were employed to interpret the expression of architectural forms and formulate a subsequent understanding of these forms by turning each element into a communication tool.

Abstract This paper explores the role of knowledge visualization in facilitating decision-making in cultural heritage management. The paper addresses the issue in the specific context of stećci - the tombstones from medieval Bosnia inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list. Grounded in the distant reading paradigm, the paper introduces a series of visualizations of spatial, temporal, architectural, iconographical, epigraphical, and impact analyses of stećci data. Together, these visualizations should enable decision-makers to gain an enhanced understanding and knowledge of this important cultural heritage. In turn, this should help them make better decisions regarding their protection and promotion.

The subject of this paper is Taras Shevchenko’s attitude towards the key personalities – Mykhailo Shchepkin, Nicholas I, and Yekaterina Piunova – as reflected in his diary (also called “The Journal”). The goal is to focus on the author’s characteristics of these people, those that illuminate his own personality too. Although there are a number of studies on the poet’s contacts with them, quite a few important details still remain unclear and unexplained. Another pertinent issue is dubious theses and interpretations, which have become widespread in academic discourse. Thus, the article proposes possible answers to a number of problematic issues in the studies of Shevchenko’s biography. It covers the formation of an almost entirely positive image of Shchepkin, the expressions of the author’s respect and affection to him, that were misunderstood by researchers. The paper also emphasizes Shevchenko’s authorship of the bright expression “neudobozabyvaemyi Tormoz” [hardly-forgettable brake/slowpoke], the one attached to the most negative character of the diary, Tsar Nicholas I. It explains the accuracy of the author’s notes about the monarch’s influence on the architectural development of the cities in the Russian Empire. Particular attention is paid to the prospects of research of those events and plots that, for various reasons, were virtually never mentioned in “The Journal.” I propose an explanation for the fact why Shevchenko did not provide lengthier feedback on his train ride, this new experience for him. The article also talks about the most controversial figure in the diary, namely Piunova. I suggest an alternative reading and etymology for one of the epithets addressed to her, that speaks in favor of the poet’s linguistic competencies and creativity. The emerging result of the research is the clarification of a few episodes of the poet’s biography and his relationship with the mentioned persons. The article demonstrates the productivity of a comprehensive examination of the text both at its macro- and micro-levels. This novel approach combining “distant” and “close” reading can be successfully used for investigation of other Shevchenko contacts and personalities mentioned in his diary.

Nowadays, references to childhood can be easily perceived in workplace, especially in companies that take as a model the innovative, relaxed offices in Silicon Valley, California (USA). Both the architecture and the decoration of these workplaces suggest new senses, different from those formed in traditional offices. The employees of these companies, in turn, construct imaginary representations about the office - and, consequently, about the company - using all this shown material, in addition to their own experiences, memories, sensations and affections. In these communicational interactions, the highlight is the non-verbal language (Ferrara, 2001), where that childhood symbolic objects produce senses (Orlandi, 2012), suggest interpretations (Santaella, 2008) and create emotional bonds (Silva, 2012) in everyday work life. Studying these relationships that involve all the human senses in the communication process within organizations is the main theme in this article. As the objective of this research, we seek to understand how these organizational discourses are constructed in order to involve employees emotionally using their own experiences, recovered by childhood symbolic objects. Summing up: how are these shown discourses, involving childhood memories, in the work routine, materialized? As corpus of our research, we chose to observe and analyze the workplace of three multinationals from technology sector, represented by their Brazilian offices: Google-Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais, OLX-Rio de Janeiro and LinkedIn-São Paulo. The material for analysis was collected from images available on the corporate websites of these companies and on the websites of the architecture firms responsible for the architectural projects created for these offices. Collected data as well as its organization and analysis were based on Lucrécia Ferrara's proposal of reading non verbal messages, contextualizing in time and space each researched places, searching for "estrangement" - non-homogeneous elements or situations - and find out the "dominant" - the conflicting element in the observed environment (Ferrara, 2001). The non-verbal reading are based on the memories recovered not only by the act of seeing something, but also for hearing, smell, taste and touch. And these memories can be used to create new sensations and emotions - positive ones - for new perceptions of the corporate 'world'. In the three companies researched, which hired architects and decorators to transform the work space according to the companies' world headquarters guidelines, we found the non-homogeneous in the office organization itself. In this innovative interior, the presence of childhood symbols appear as dominant. This is the case of the Google-Belo Horizons popcorn cart, the giant slide at OLX-Rio de Janeiro and elements such as a swing at LinkedIn-São Paulo. We understand that employees' perceptions of childhood symbols refer to distant and pleasurable memories, brought by remembrance to other contexts and situations. And these memories and feelings are activated not only by the sight of these objects, but also by smell, taste - like as the popcorn cart - and by touch - as in the act of slipping or rocking. It is essential to highlight that mental and symbolic representations have an emotional charge brought about by specific moments, lived in certain contexts and recovered by memory through associations by similarity. This reading of the non-verbal material transfers the happy memories of employees to the workplace, to the company, and can contribute to the formation of meanings of pleasure and well-being for corporate world. The bridge between employees and the organization, for this image formation, is the symbolic material.

Internet of Things comprises an increasing number of interconnected smart devices, where communication happens anytime, anywhere, reducing hardware costs and the complexity of the architectures. Reading Radio Frequency Identification tags using ultra high frequency is a high-cost activity because of its infrastructure and the radio frequency identification tag reading device for these frequencies. This work proposes an architecture that enables the cost reduction of Radio Frequency Identification tag reading equipment operating ultra high frequency in an infrastructure using cloud computing and microservices. The use of cloud computing and microservices was necessary due to scalability and the management of large volumes of data that can be generated by reading Radio Frequency Identification tags using ultra high frequency and the complexity of the architecture related to the theme of this work. The proposed architecture was applied in a real case study to verify its adherence and compliance. The proposed architecture can be used in any system that presents similar characteristics to the one proposed in this work. In scenarios where reading distance is a fundamental requirement, it is necessary to include an external antenna for better results. Other practical experiments will be carried out to evaluate the use of the proposed architecture in other contexts related to the use of Internet of Things and reading of Radio Frequency Identification tags.

In the article, the author reveals fragments of the study about repressions of the 1920s and 1930s against the churches, as an institution of society, against the clergy, church services, active parishioners of one of the settlements in Sumy Region(Dubovichi village). Self-identification and peaceful living under the laws of honor in the socialist regime led to the destruction of employed citizens and clergy who lived by vocation and by traditional moral principles. After all, it was they - conscious citizens, intellectuals, who "threaten" the terrorist plot of the Bolshevik authorities on the territory of Ukraine. Special attention was to the citizens who supported Tikhonovsk and Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox churches. The parishioners of these churches were in principle affirmative. "Tikhonovtsi" decided religious uncompromising, "autocephalous" were nationalistic. Those and others did not perceive the Bolsheviks. Both opposed the political regime. Everyone who was in contact or was attached to these groups was prosecuted and arrested with special severity. Under the repressions were relatives and neighbors. Blackmail of single persons and family, voluminous and falsification documents, taking hostages. That was happening with all who was not controlled during the formation of the Soviet power. Over the 50 people from Dubovichi village and their families fell under the pressure of repressions. Most of them were sentenced to death. Just few of them returned from exile and settled in distant places from their native village. Dubovichi village has a centuries-long history. Best known it is in the religious environment through the icon of Dubovytsi's Mother of God. The miraculous image of the Virgin was discovered in the middle of the 17th century. And the glory about it spread far beyond the then Russian empire. Church leaders from Kiev, from Chernigov gathered at the procession during the celebrations of 1861. The pilgrimage to the icon in Dubovich was round-the-year. Copies from the list of the Virgin Mary Dubovitskaya were in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Kyiv. Information about the icon was printed in church calendars and metropolitan directories of pilgrims. The grand stone church of the Nativity of the Virgin in 1777 in the center of the village, it was the pease of architectural art that was rare in the countryside. As evidenced by foreign sources, the parish church was kind of fortress. It was surrounded by a brick fence with four towers in corners. The entrance to the churchyard was through the gates that were under the bell. There were burials around the temple. Marble monuments were raised on the graves. Icons in the temple were in different kyots, precious stones. Church property included a number of priest clothing, silverware. In the village there were three temples. This provided the opportunity for the parish to have six priests, several clerks and psalms in the state. All were destroyed until 1940, despite the architectural value of the builders and the ancients. Dubovichi parish numbered more than three thousand people at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was glorified by the numerous, beautiful choir, active citizens. The church library was more than 2000 volumes. The priests performed not only the need. Archpriest Gusakovsky was the head of refuge. The village choir numbered more than 60 people. There was a spiritual orchestra, a theater group, a hut-reading room, a rural school and a parochial school, and a folk school in the village. Also there was paramedic station, veterinarian, pharmacy. The hospital unit numbered up to 10 beds. Tolerance and high moral consciousness were typical for the people of Dubovichi. Not only Orthodox lived in the village . Archival documents indicate that the daughter of the priest was offended with the Catholic. Jews lived in Dubovichi. The social group was represented. There were Gypsies among the participants of the school. Those were posterity of that who survived and took good place in life of theatre. Able to analyze falsifications of the campaign to destroy the Dubovichi parish, the destruction of church buildings- works of architectural art. Information from directories, archival documents and old people's buildings allows us to reconstruct conditionally events of those times. The author for the first time highlights this page of the Dubovichi life. As well as information from recently declassified documents from archives of higher authorities on the repressed residents of Dubovichi village. Human losses, disadvantaged families, tales of reletives about Soviet Union. All this make a mosaic of the historical stratum of our country. The coverage of this problem somehow outlines the massive crimes of Soviet politics in the 1920's and 1930's. It is a tribute to those who sacredly keep memories of the repressed.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">At present, the common meter reading method in gas meter reading system is manual. The meter reader enters the meter reading system to calculate the cost after getting the reading. This work is not only labour-intensive, but also inefficient. In addition, incorrect reading may occur due to human errors. With the development of the wireless communication technology, a wireless communication technology named LoRa for long-distance and low-power-consumption devices appeared. LoRa is a wireless communication technology with long transmission distance, low power consumption, low transmission speed, low complexity and low cost. It is mainly used in automatic control and internet of things. Through the comparison and analysis of several wireless communication technologies, a gas meter reading platform based on LoRa spread spectrum and wireless sensors is proposed. First of all, this paper briefly introduces the LoRa wireless communication technology and machine vision technology. Secondly, it gives a detailed introduction to the overall design of the system which includes system architecture design, information acquisition terminal, image acquisition module and wireless sensor module. Finally, an experiment is carried out in a residential area. The results show that the gas meter reading platform based on LoRa and wireless sensor network has a high practical value.</span>

Soft structures with rationally designed architectures capable of large, nonlinear deformation present opportunities for unprecedented, highly tunable devices and machines. However, the highly dissipative nature of soft materials intrinsically limits or prevents certain functions, such as the propagation of mechanical signals. Here we present an architected soft system composed of elastomeric bistable beam elements connected by elastomeric linear springs. The dissipative nature of the polymer readily damps linear waves, preventing propagation of any mechanical signal beyond a short distance, as expected. However, the unique architecture of the system enables propagation of stable, nonlinear solitary transition waves with constant, controllable velocity and pulse geometry over arbitrary distances. Because the high damping of the material removes all other linear, small-amplitude excitations, the desired pulse propagates with high fidelity and controllability. This phenomenon can be used to control signals, as demonstrated by the design of soft mechanical diodes and logic gates.

This study conducts an in-depth evaluation of imaging algorithms and software and hardware architectures to meet the capability requirements of real-time image acquisition systems, such as spaceborne and airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. By analysing the principles and models of SAR imaging, this research creatively puts forward the fully parallel processing architecture for the back projection (BP) algorithm based on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The processing time consumption has significant advantages compared with existing methods. This article describes the BP imaging algorithm, which stands out with its high processing accuracy and two-dimensional decoupling of distance and azimuth, and analyses the algorithmic flow, operation, and storage requirements. The algorithm is divided into five core operations: range pulse compression, upsampling, oblique distance calculation, data reading, and phase accumulation. The architecture and optimisation of the algorithm are presented, and the optimisation methods are described in detail from the perspective of algorithm flow, fixed-point operation, parallel processing, and distributed storage. Next, the maximum resource utilisation rate of the hardware platform in this study is found to be more than 80%, the system power consumption is 21.073 W, and the processing time efficiency is better than designs with other FPGA, DSP, GPU, and CPU. Finally, the correctness of the processing results is verified using actual data. The experimental results showed that 1.1 s were required to generate an image with a size of 900 × 900 pixels at a 200 MHz clock rate. This technology can solve the multi-mode, multi-resolution, and multi-geometry signal processing problems in an integrated manner, thus laying a foundation for the development of a new, high-performance, SAR system for real-time imaging processing.

Despite drawing being the first-hand work of the architect, there has not been enough discussion about where architectural drawings and models belong, and the ways in which they move and develop between sites of production, storage, and revision. It is often assumed that the mobility of drawings in the Renaissance period implied the possibility of action at a distance, allowing the architect to be absent from the fabrication site. Earlier Medieval practices of incised stone drawings and plaster drawings traced on floors determined the immobility of drawings, which made them integral parts of the building and assured the presence of the architect. However, an alternate reading is possible, which is that immovable drawings and the presence of models freed the architect, because the tools that guide construction were, in fact, in situ.

The conclusion of this book calls attention to the relationship between comprehending realist fiction and Aristotle’s claim that mimetic representation provides a form of aesthetic pleasure distinct from our response to what is represented. It also argues that, by demonstrating how much nineteenth-century novelists depend on the knowledge and abilities that readers bring to a text, cognitive research on reading helps us revisit long-standing theoretical assumptions in literary studies. Because the felt experience of reading is so distinct from the mental acts underlying it, knowing more about the basic architecture of reading can help literary critics refine their claims about what novels can and cannot do to their readers.

As a means of illustrating the central albeit conflicted place that issues of authenticity occupy in the French Caribbean, Chapter 3 examines Guadeloupean Maryse Condé’s canonical novel, Traversée de la Mangrove (1989). Consideration of the somewhat heated discussion of Caribbean authenticity prompted by Patrick Chamoiseau’s public reading of Condé’s novel, in evidencing the authors’ stark differences of opinion on the matter, also serves to further inform the fundamentally identitarian dilemmas surrounding the construction of French-Caribbean expression. Subsequent close textual analysis of Traversée de la Mangrove on two distinct architextual and architectural levels illustrates how issues of authenticity are divulged and addressed in the text. Additional consideration of the novel’s architextual properties—in particular with respect to Haitian Jacques Roumain’s Gouverneurs de la Rosée (1944)—leads, in conclusion, to an examination of the architectural significance of the house that Condé’s main character inhabits and in which he undertakes the (metatextual) project of writing a novel entitled Traversée de la Mangrove.

Modern cremation is often portrayed by archaeologists as a distracting antithesis of the open-air cremation practices encountered in the archaeological record from the prehistoric and early historic past. In some key ways, the process of burning cadavers within gas-fired ovens, followed by the grinding of bones to uniformly sized granules, offers a stark contrast to the varied multi-staged open-air cremation practices known from recent ethnographic studies, and from the increasingly rich data provided by the archaeological record. The cremation process is hidden, indoors and hence distanced from the survivors in modern cremation. However, there are also numerous connecting themes between modern and ancient cremation and this chapter hopes to shed light on how mortuary archaeologists can explore cremation today to better understand cremation’s memorials, spaces and materials in both the distant and recent past, including both shared themes and distinctive dimensions in relation to other disposal methods, like inhumation. For while the burning of the body itself is hidden from view in modern cremation, the deployment of space, architecture, and memorialization before, during, and after the transformation of the body by fire choreographs comparable, if varied, emotive and mnemonic engagements between the living and the dead. This argument certainly holds for the post-cremation disposal of the ‘ashes’ or ‘cremains’ (the burned, distorted, shrunken, dried, and fragmented vestiges of the body and the materials and fuels involved in the cremation process: although in modern cremation, all artefacts and artificial body parts are removed prior to the grinding of bones). Both ancient and modern cremation practices share in providing a wide range of options regarding the destinations and treatments of ashes. They might be left at the site of cremation (in the modern sense, dispersed by crematorium staff in the garden of remembrance), yet they are readily retrievable, transportable and partible, and can be dispersed and integrated into a range of spaces and materials unavailable to the treatment of the unburned dead (see Williams 2008). Some of the spectrum of opportunities for ash disposal are comparable to those available for the inhumed dead and involve a specific plot and memorial, yet others can take on other material and spatial dimensions far different from the traditional grave plot.

This paper attempts to provide a model for meaning by reading the overlay as potential in a banal – if not bizarre – contemporary project: a Chinese theme park in Orlando Florida. Proposed to prospective visitors as “Authentic” it is in fact an extraordinary collision of temporally and culturally distant spatial concepts and building practices. This paper uses an experimental ‘witnessing7 of the park to lay out a series of spacio-conceptual models for travel as power. These range from looking at the theme park as a Chinese propaganda tool, through Bachelard’s concepts of miniaturization and collection, empirical (Chinese) versus theoretical (American) standards for life safety, spatial strategies of 1 lth century Dream Journey Scrolls, and Feng Shui (the art of Placement) The changing nature of architectural practice instigates a movement from building representations of singular architectural ideas to the constructions of more complex ‘programmatic fields.’ We need neither despise nor formally caricature the polyglot programmatic shifts and collisions of our time. This paper takes a hopeful stance, maintaining that the overlay of resonant paradigms provides an opportunity not realized, perhaps, in the existing construction.

There are increasing concerns and regulations regarding the emission of pollutants from shipping. Therefore, regulations such as the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) and Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) have been made mandatory to cope with climate change concerns. To put these efforts into practice, the Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator (EEOI) was introduced in 2009 to account for the fuel consumption, distance travelled by the vessel and cargo mass. However, it is stated that these do not apply to ships that are not engaged in transport work such as research vessels and tugboats. These short sea shipping vessels have been neglected under current indexes and it is not possible for their properties to be quantified since current indices are for vessels carrying loads. The numbers of these specialised vessels are increasing in local waters, and are closer to coastal communities where concerns and impact from these pollutants would be more direct. In the IMO greenhouse gas study, options for improving energy efficiency in terms of design includes the concept, design speed and capability, hull and superstructure, power and propulsion whilst the principle of energy efficiency in terms of operation includes fleet management, logistics and incentives, voyage optimisation and energy management. A reliable energy flow breakdown architecture and diagnostics for these smaller vessels is important and will contribute to an understanding of the energy production, distribution and consumption on-board. This feeds into the IMO plan to encourage energy management. A systematic approach consisting of five distinct stages is recommended to accomplish a holistic approach for energy efficiency management. This includes understanding of energy flow breakdown architecture, vessel survey to understand operation and conduct, review existing sensors and new sensor installation, sensor communication and data processing, and finally data analysis. These stages are addressed in this paper to provide an overall understanding of a robust energy efficiency audit procedure and sensor matrix. This includes unifying the existing on-board sensors with the proposed new sensors for additional data collection where primary parameters are not readily available. Inferred secondary parameter calculations are also applied where direct data collection is not possible. This will allow information from the vessel to be transmitted to a common platform to enable detailed data analysis. The aim of this work is to improve energy management and monitoring, which leads to understanding and managing consumption of energy. A case study of this methodology has been carried out on the Princess Royal, a Newcastle University research vessel. Recommendations for further testing and optimisation of this methodology will be applied to tugboats and Offshore Supply Vessels (OSV).

Since the inception of microfluidics, the electric force has been exploited as one of the leading mechanisms for driving and controlling the movement of the operating fluid (electrohydrodynamics) and the charged suspensions (electrokinetics). Electric force has an intrinsic advantage in miniaturized devices. Because the electrodes are placed cross a small distance, from sub-millimeter to a few microns, a very high electric field is rather easy to obtain. The electric force can be highly localized with its strength rapidly decaying away from the peak. This makes the electric force an ideal candidate for spatial precision control. The geometry and placement of the electrodes can be used to design electric fields of varying distributions, which can be readily realized by MEMS fabrication methods. In this paper we examine several electrically driven liquid handling operations. We discuss the theoretical treatment and related numerical methods. Modeling and simulations are used to unveil the associated electrohydrodynamic phenomena. The modeling based investigation is interwoven with examples of microfluidic devices to illustrate the applications. This paper focuses on detailed physical simulations of component-level operations. Since the components must be integrated to form a functional system in order to provide desired services, system-level complexities in both architecture and execution also need to be addressed. Compared to the state of the art of computer-aided design for microelectronics, the modeling aid for microfluidics systems design and integration is far less mature and presents a significant challenge, thus an opportunity for the microfluidics research community.

This paper offers insights about the otherwise limited NLM-driven methodologies, supporting an examination of design creativity following the ‘process’ approach. [Abraham 2018] Recent application of AI models which rely on natural language processing (semantic references) is increasingly popular because of their directness and ease-of-use. Neural Language Models (NLMs) like VQGAN+CLIP, DALL-E, MidJourney) offer promising results, [Rodrigues, et al. 2021] seemingly bypassing the need for expensive datasets and technical expertise. Naturally, such models are limited because they cannot capture the multimodal complexity of architectural thinking and human cognition in general [Penrose 1989]. Alternative approaches propose the combination of NLMs with other artificial neural networks (ANNs) i.e. StyleGAN; CycleGAN which are custom-trained on domain-specific data. [Bolojan, Vermisso and Yousif 2022] Architects seek to expand their agency within such AI-assisted processes by controling the input encoding, so they can subsequently convert the generated outcomes to 3D models fairly directly. Still, AI models of computer vision like NLMs and GANs offer 2-dimensional output, which requires extensive decoding into 3-dimensional format. While this may seem severely constraining, it presents a silver lining when it comes to furthering design creativity. Designers are asked to scrutinize their methods from a cognitive standpoint, because these methodologies not only encourage, but demand thorough interrogation of the design intentionality, the design decision making factors and qualification criteria. Text-to-image correlation, on which NLMs rely, and their 2-dimensional output, ensure that certain important considerations are not circumvented. Instead of obtaining a 3D model, multiple possible -fragmented- versions of it are separately implied. Often, ‘fake’ images generated by the ANNs promote contradictory inferences of space, which require further examination. The hidden opportunity within the limited format of AI models echo Neil Spiller’s comments about the advantage of drawing over animation techniques twenty years ago: “Enigma is a creative tool that allows designers to see bifurcated outcomes in their sketches and drawings; it plays on the inability of drawings to faithfully record the distinct placement and extent of architectural elements”. [Spiller 2001] Comparing animations to static drawings, Spiller praised the drawing’s ability to hold “…an imagined past and an imagined future”. ‘Reading’ these results involves the (human) disentanglement of high and low-level features and consciously allocating their corresponding qualities for curation. The process of evaluating ‘parts-to-whole’ visual relationships is noteworthy because it depends on shifting our attention away from certain features, and an unconscious binding of visual elements. [Dehaene 2014] The philosopher Alain wrote that “The art of paying attention, the great art,…supposes the art of not paying attention…the royal art”. [Dehaene 2021]. According to neuroscientists, the brain uses attention as an amplifier and selective filter, during one of the three major attention systems (Alerting; Orienting; Executive Attention). [Dehaene 2021] Orienting our attention addresses what we focus on and what we don’t. Suppressing the unwanted information, through interfering electrical waves, is useful for processing the object of attention. Considering the ANNs’ results at ‘Gestalt’ level, we can structure the AI-assisted process to ensure low-level features (composition) is retained while enhancing high-level (detail) features (Fig.1a).

El proyecto del Slussen en Estocolmo es hoy una ruina del movimiento moderno. Aquella visión optimista y eterna de la arquitectura funcionalista se presenta incierta y desproporcionada tras menos de un siglo de pervivencia. Paredes desconchadas, metales oxidados por el salitre, azulejos rotos, tiendas en decadencia y paseantes en sombra muestran un espacio hoy muy distinto de aquella “elegancia” que pregonara en 1935 el periódico Svenska Dagbladet ante el proyecto de Tage William-Olsson. ¿Cuáles son las causas de la decadencia de ese intersticio urbano? ¿Es en origen un proyecto erróneo, una historia malograda? Las respuestas se argumentan desde un recorrido intencionado por algunos momentos clave de su transformación: en el rastro de esbozos nunca realizados, en las vacilaciones del proyecto original, en las instantáneas de su inauguración, en sus detalles de acabados y comercio o finalmente en las imágenes presentadas al concurso internacional de 2008. Quizás puedan argumentarse ahí las futuras intervenciones que se ciernen sobre el Slussen moribundo: ¿mirada nostálgica, oportunismo, tabula rasa? The Slussen project in Stockholm is today a ruin of the modern movement. After less than a century of life, the place appears in an uncertain and disproportionate way, far from the optimistic and eternal vision of functionalist architecture. Flaking walls, oxidized metals, broken tiles, decadent shops and pedestrians lost in the shadow of the infrastructure show a very different space of that "elegant" prototype declared by the Svenska Dagbladet in 1935 on the built project of Tage William-Olsson. Which are the reasons for the decadence of this urban interstice? Is the original Slussen designed by Tage William-Olsson a wrong project, a failed story? In this article, answers are argued following an intentional trip through some key episodes of its existence: through the traces of sketches ever executed and the variations of the original project, through some images of its inauguration and the subtle details in the bright shopping stores and, finally, through the reading of the proposals presented to the recent international competition in 2008. Perhaps the future transformation of the dying Slussen could learn some arguments from the experience of its own past. ¿Nostalgic view, opportunism, tabula rasa?