The in-between: the architecture of surface

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorna Ghorashi
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Vertical Plane ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Public Authority ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Civic Spaces ◽  
American Cities

Many North American cities are experiencing an intensive re-urbanization of their central cores. In Toronto, this phenomenon is at an extreme: rampant private development, and weak public authority, is shaping many communities. The mediocre civic spaces and infrastructure to support this burgeoning pedestrian, live-work population has predictably been addressed through the incremental integration of public spaces into individual architectural projects. This ad hoc strategy does not offer the breadth or consistency of language to create a clearly identifiable or contiguous public realm. If we cannot depend on architecture’s vertical plane to define public spaces, we need to reaffirm the domain over which the public has control — the horizontal — streets, sidewalks, and the existing but residual public spaces in-between. This thesis posits that within the existing public spaces of the city’s core we can expand the quality, continuity and accessibility of the public domain by the way we manipulate its surface

scholarly journals The in-between: the architecture of surface

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorna Ghorashi
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Vertical Plane ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Public Authority ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Civic Spaces ◽  
American Cities

Many North American cities are experiencing an intensive re-urbanization of their central cores. In Toronto, this phenomenon is at an extreme: rampant private development, and weak public authority, is shaping many communities. The mediocre civic spaces and infrastructure to support this burgeoning pedestrian, live-work population has predictably been addressed through the incremental integration of public spaces into individual architectural projects. This ad hoc strategy does not offer the breadth or consistency of language to create a clearly identifiable or contiguous public realm. If we cannot depend on architecture’s vertical plane to define public spaces, we need to reaffirm the domain over which the public has control — the horizontal — streets, sidewalks, and the existing but residual public spaces in-between. This thesis posits that within the existing public spaces of the city’s core we can expand the quality, continuity and accessibility of the public domain by the way we manipulate its surface

scholarly journals Activating Data through Eco-Didactic Design in the Public Realm: Enabling Sustainable Development in Cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4577
Author(s):  
Carmela Cucuzzella ◽  
Morteza Hazbei ◽  
Sherif Goubran
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Art And Design ◽  
The Public ◽  
Community Based Design ◽  
The City

This paper explores how design in the public realm can integrate city data to help disseminate the information embedded within it and provide urban opportunities for knowledge exchange. The hypothesis is that such art and design practices in public spaces, as places of knowledge exchange, may enable more sustainable communities and cities through the visualization of data. To achieve this, we developed a methodology to compare various design approaches for integrating three main elements in public-space design projects: city data, specific issues of sustainability, and varying methods for activating the data. To test this methodology, we applied it to a pedogeological project where students were required to render city data visible. We analyze the proposals presented by the young designers to understand their approaches to design, data, and education. We study how they “educate” and “dialogue” with the community about sustainable issues. Specifically, the research attempts to answer the following questions: (1) How can we use data in the design of public spaces as a means for sustainability knowledge exchange in the city? (2) How can community-based design contribute to innovative data collection and dissemination for advancing sustainability in the city? (3) What are the overlaps between the projects’ intended impacts and the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Our findings suggest that there is a need for such creative practices, as they make information available to the community, using unconventional methods. Furthermore, more research is needed to better understand the short- and long-term outcomes of these works in the public realm.

scholarly journals Sociotope mapping: perceptions of public space at Ryerson University

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Afonso Magalhaes
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
School Administration ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
University Campus ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mapping Tool

Sociotope mapping is a tool that has been used to identify values in public spaces, as defined by the public. By developing an original sociotope map using the sociotope map methodology, utilizing the technique created in Stockhom, Sweden, this research attempts to understand the values of public space within and around Ryerson University, while providing a critique on the utility of the tool in this context. The information collected from an online survey will be analyzed and visually displayed on a sociotope map. This may be utilized by the school administration, municipal planners, urban designers or landscape architecture professionals to understand what concerns may be provoked by the development of certain spaces and the resources valued by the public in the public realm. This project explores how different public spaces within the Ryerson University Campus are utilized and how useful is the sociotope mapping tool in inferring these values. keywords: planning; sociotope; parks planning; perceptions of space; engagement; public consultation.

Creole in the Public Eye: Written Instances of Creole in Public Spaces in Guadeloupe

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-302
Author(s):  
C. L. Pooser
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Majority Population ◽  
Maternal Language ◽  
Written Form

Creole is the maternal language of the majority population of Guadeloupe, but French is the language of education, commerce, government and most written communication. Although the vast majority of Guadeloupians are bilingual and educated exclusively in French, Creole is also found in written form in the public domain in advertising, the public service sector, tourism, graffiti and political posters, among others. This article explores the various domains of written Creole usage with an additional focus upon the purposes and/or motives behind its use. It is argued that Creole is used variously to add local colour, to solidify connections with the creolophone community, to reinforce pride in one’s heritage and identity, and to exclude certain parties from political and social discourse.

scholarly journals Interstitial place

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Melnichuk
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
North America ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Adjacent Buildings ◽  
Landscape Urbanism

The fabric of many post WW2 campuses in North America, can be described as a collection of independent buildings rather than as infrastructure that shapes and connects a network of public spaces with character, sense of place and social amenity. The same can be said for our late modernist cities. A re-examination and design of these interstitial leftover spaces can provide much needed public domain for students and faculty while also improving the ambiance and connectivity of adjacent buildings. Through analyzing and intervening within an existing underutilized circulation plaza within Ryerson’s urban Toronto campus, this thesis project asserts the importance of public space by creating new connections and relationships between building, landscape, and people using strategies of landscape urbanism and infrastructural urbanism. The synthesis of architecture, infrastructure and landscape has the potential to create public realm by intensifying and uniting new and existing flows within existing urban and social networks.

Rhythms of being together: public space in Urban Tajikistan through the lens of rhythmanalysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 533-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wladimir Sgibnev
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Housing Estate ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Central Asian

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify, describe and critically assess public space in the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, recurring to Henri Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis. Design/Methodology/Approach – The empirical findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork on a courtyard in a housing estate in Khujand in northern Tajikistan. Findings – The paper argues that an analytic dichotomy between the private and the public realm conceals more than it reveals, for the Central Asian case at least. The rhythmanalysis framework is presented as a possible solution to the deficiencies of dichotomic categories. Originality/value – Even if we find a series of scholarly works dealing with (post-)Soviet and/or Central Asian public spaces, they very scarcely provide a critical assessment of the roots and the usefulness of this concept for the regional setting they work in. The paper strives to close this gap and to present Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis framework as a possible solution for overcoming dichotomic categories.

scholarly journals Interstitial place

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Melnichuk
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
North America ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Adjacent Buildings ◽  
Landscape Urbanism

The fabric of many post WW2 campuses in North America, can be described as a collection of independent buildings rather than as infrastructure that shapes and connects a network of public spaces with character, sense of place and social amenity. The same can be said for our late modernist cities. A re-examination and design of these interstitial leftover spaces can provide much needed public domain for students and faculty while also improving the ambiance and connectivity of adjacent buildings. Through analyzing and intervening within an existing underutilized circulation plaza within Ryerson’s urban Toronto campus, this thesis project asserts the importance of public space by creating new connections and relationships between building, landscape, and people using strategies of landscape urbanism and infrastructural urbanism. The synthesis of architecture, infrastructure and landscape has the potential to create public realm by intensifying and uniting new and existing flows within existing urban and social networks.

scholarly journals Penalising Presence in Public Space: Control through Exclusion of the ‘Difficult’ and ‘Undesirable

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Exclusionary Practices ◽  
The Public ◽  
Recent Reform ◽  
Mere Presence ◽  
Preferred Solutions

Over the last two decades and across a number of jurisdictions, new measures enshrined in criminal law and administrative codes have empowered authorities to exclude unwelcome groups and individuals from public spaces. Focusing particular attention on recent reform in Britain, this paper traces the evolution of contemporary exclusionary practices, from their initial concern with proscribed behaviour to the penalisation of mere presence. The latter part of the paper offers a critical assessment of what has driven these innovations in control of the public realm. Here consideration is given to two possibilities. First, such policy is the outcome of punitive and revanchist logics. Second, their intentions are essentially benign, reflecting concerns about risk, liveability and failures of traditional order-maintenance mechanisms. While acknowledging concerns about the over-eagerness of scholars to brand new policy as punitive, the paper concludes that any benign intentions are overshadowed by the regressive and marginalising consequences of preferred solutions.

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