Log and the Practice of Building-with

A marginal worksite

Abstract

This article examines the spatial intervention Log as an inquiry that emerges in a condition where the conventional scripts of architectural practice—based on a predefined design and delegated execution—are suspended. By situating the work within the trajectory of Robida collective’s long-term engagement in the village of Topolò/Topolove, on the border between Italy and Slovenia, the text argues that Log arises from the embodiment of a relational method in which dwelling, designing and building form a single epistemic process. Traditionally framed as a site of blind execution, the essay portrays the worksite as a space of distributed agency, drawing on critiques of architectural labour and on debates around situated practices. Thus, a methodology is articulated which moves away from a condition of linear, top-down logic from conception to construction, by presenting the notion of building-with. In this case, this concept is instrumental in reclaiming a process of shared stewardship with context, materials, tools and others. The text concludes by reflecting on how such an approach—as marginal and modest as it may be—can help reconfigure the very understanding of architecture as a manifestation of heteronomous relations.