Designing with Leftovers: The Aesthetics of the Unfinished

Luciano Crespi introduces the concept of 'avanzi' (leftovers) and 'non-finito' (unfinished) as a design approach for regenerating abandoned spaces worldwide. This method combines design, art, scenography, exhibition design, and cinema, treating decay as a 'gift' in the Maussian sense. It aims to create a new aesthetic through installation devices, producing hospitable environments that reflect contemporary conditions of transience, precariousness, and transculturality. Crespi cites Ricardo Bofill's reuse of a former cement factory in Barcelona (1973) as a paradigm. Recent examples include SASHIMI Architecture + Design's Where? House in Melbourne (2012), Paulo Moreira's A Sandeira café in Porto (2013) and Musa brewery in Lisbon (2017), Studio NADA's Old Mill Culture Center in Karpachevo, Bulgaria (2022), and Davidson Rafailidis Architects' Big Space, Little Space in Buffalo (2018). These projects signal a cultural shift toward frugality and sustainability, echoing Lacaton & Vassal's anti-demolition stance. Crespi positions this as an ethical and aesthetic attitude, not a style, rooted in memory and anthropological insights.