Urban Catalysts: Towards a New Environment

Multi-program buildings nowadays are commonly under the name 'Hybrid Buildings'. Those constructions have become a trend and an architectural object under speculation. The need for branding things in our society is even more present and denominations are given just for the sake of selling things out, no matter what is the real meaning of some given names. Due to their constant presence in architectural means even more people are trying to understand the role of those buildings. Many theories have been written over those multi-program buildings. A variety of classification had been made. Probably the two most remarkable works about this topic are the theory of 'Bigness', from the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, and 'Hybrid Buildings' by Joseph Fenton. They become very important when they get together because they encompass the biggest amount of multi-program buildings known as possible. One deals with the consolidated city or the historical city, while the other deals with the sprawl.