Abstract:A Glossary of Urban Voids is a critiqued collection of over 200 terms regularly used to name the urban void, from terrain
vague to buffer zone. As the landscape architect James Corner has pointed out, a void cannot be labeled because
“to name it is to claim it in some way.” By listing existing terms, this book attempts to name the unnamable, to define
that which should have no precise definition. It records names and labels used to designate leftover spaces resulting
from processes of urban abandonment triggered by different types of obsolescence or loss. In addition to their obvious
consequences, these processes of abandonment open up space, liberating it from existing ideological frameworks (such
as financial, capital, or cultural frameworks), allowing for different spatialities to emerge, and ultimately offering opportunities
to imagine and conceptualize an alternative type of public space. Using the glossary as a theoretical tool, this
book presents the most relevant questions on the issue of the urban void and its potential role as public space.