Ruins and Ritual

"Ruins are buildings that have lost their rituals." 

 A query: What do ruins become when they acquire new rituals not envisioned during and after their creation?

The curious case of a Toyo Ito project that lies all but abandoned in the salt marshes of southeastern Spain is one of a building that was at once realized, then shut down for having been built in a protected environment. But there are signs of sojourners to the now deteriorating, derelict hulk. 

Decayed state of exterior cladding.

Including the Guardamar studio every summer, there appear to be suggestions of some kind of habitation; sofas, beer bottles, a smorgasbord of graffiti, just to name the most obvious ones. What is a ruin stands now testament to the power of the people architecture is supposed to serve; they who can turn a once bustling, robust structure into what is essentially an empty shell also have the power to revive it and steer it towards a new purpose.

Use and habitation of a different sort.

 What is architecture?  This most basic yet most difficult of questions regarding the field, the practice, and the study of building is yet again thrown into a loop.  We're heading into an answer I completely did not expect.

///Jeremiah Zamora ///