It is difficult to build a park in Seville, but relatively easy to get a permit to install a dumpster in a public space. These structures offer potential as mini-sites for architectural interventions; from playground structures, as they were used in 1997, to flamenco halls, giant flowerpots, and reading rooms. They demonstrate the ability of residents to shape the spaces they inhabit when faced with legal restrictions.
Santiago Cirugeda is an architect based in Seville who has proposed semi-legal strategies for housing and urban renovation under the name Recetas Urbanas, or “urban prescriptions,” since 1996. He inhabits gaps between laws, exploiting overlap and oversight to practice autonomous architecture.