Desire lines and defensive architecture in modern urban environments

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (13) ◽  
pp. 2980-2995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Smith ◽  
Peter Walters
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Productive Force ◽  
The City

Public space is being increasingly managed by defensive architecture, surveillance and other subtle filtering mechanisms to make it more palatable and attendant to the needs of capital. This reinforces social boundaries, making space inhospitable to those people whose presence is not welcome, and serves to ‘discipline’ city inhabitants into primarily consumption based modes of interacting with and in the city. However, disenfranchised urban populations still find ways to exist in and navigate these spaces. The purpose of this article is to highlight these ways by introducing the concept of ‘desire lines’ as a means of overcoming or re-imagining defensive space. We use Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of desire as productive force, combined with De Certeau’s notion of ‘walking the city’, to explore how individuals and social movements might practically, and in a metaphorical sense, create new collective paths, creating ‘desire lines’ of resistance and change within what is often an increasingly unforgiving and dominated urban environment, created by and for capital at the expense of a vibrant public realm.

CONCEPT OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF A KEY PUBLIC SPACE (USING THE EXAMPLE OF «ALLEY OF ARCHITECTS», VORONEZH)

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
С. Л. Подвальный ◽  
О. А. Сотникова ◽  
Я. А. Золотухина
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Territory Design ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Modern Technologies ◽  
Intensive Growth

Постановка задачи. В настоящее время формирование современной комфортной городской среды приобретает особое социально-экономическое значение и выдвигается в число приоритетных государственных масштабных программ. В связи с этим необходимо разработать концепцию благоустройства ключевого общественного пространства, а именно: определить основные и сопутствующие функции данной территории, создать эскизное предложение проекта благоустройства с учетом всех необходимых норм и стандартов, внедрить современные технологии. Результаты. Выполнен эскизный дизайн-проект «Аллеи архитекторов» по ул. Орджоникидзе г. Воронеж, включающий в себя основные элементы по зонированию территории, проектированию акцентных объектов и внедрению инновационных технологий «умного города», позволяющих повысить уровень комфорта горожан. Выводы. Благоустройство населенных мест приобретает особое значение в условиях дискомфорта среды. С выполнением комплекса мероприятий, направленных на благоустройство, и с внедрением современных технологий значительно улучшается экологическое состояние, внешний облик города. Оздоровление и модернизация среды, которая окружает человека в городе, благотворно влияет на психофизическое состояние, что особенно важно в период интенсивного роста городов. Statement of the problem. Currently the formation of the modern comfortable urban environment is gaining a special social and economic value and moving forward in the priorities of state large-scale programs. The purpose of development of the concept of improvement of public space is definition of the main and accompanying functions of this territory, design of the outline offer of the project of improvement considering all necessary norms and standards and implementation of modern technologies. Results. The conceptual project of “Alley of Architects” includes the basic elements of territory zoning, design of accent objects and implementation of technologies of a “smart-city”. These elements allow one to increase the level of comfort of inhabitants. Conclusions. Improvement of the inhabited places is of particular importance in the conditions of discomfort of the environment. Carrying out a complex of the actions directed to gardening and improvement, introducing modern technologies, the ecological condition, the physical appearance of the city considerably improves. Improvement and modernization of the environment which surrounds the person in the city influences a psychophysical state well that especially important during intensive growth of the cities.

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 Possibilities to Apply the Urban Acupuncture Concept in Kaunas: Social Aspect

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Aurelija Daugelaite ◽  
Indre Gražulevičiūte-Vileniške ◽  
Mantas Landauskas
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ecological Design ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The City

The concept of urban acupuncture, which has been gaining ground in recent decades, is based on the activation and revitalization of urban environments using small architectural or landscape architectural interventions in precise carefully selected locations of urban fabric. However, the rapid and unexpected design solutions of urban acupuncture, based on ecological design, nature dynamics, street art, material re-use, can cause different social and psychological reactions of urban population and these reactions may vary depending on cultural contexts. Consequently, in order to implement successful urban acupuncture projects in Lithuanian cities, it is very important to find out public opinion and priorities in the fields of public space management, aesthetics, and public art. The aim of the research was to analyze the opinion of Kaunas city residents regarding these issues. For this purpose, a sociological questionnaire survey was used. The questionnaire containing 20 questions was designed, with the aim to find out the trends of use of public spaces in the city, the attitudes of residents towards street art and other small-scale initiatives in public spaces implemented in the recent years, possibilities of creating landscape architecture based on ecological ideas in urban environment, the attitude of inhabitants towards community spaces and community space design in the city, etc. 100 residents of Kaunas participated in this online administered survey. The survey has demonstrated general positive attitude towards contemporary design trends of public spaces and public art; however, the surveyed population expressed preferences towards fully equipped public spaces offering possibilities for a wide range of activities.

scholarly journals Society, Space and the Public Realm: Beyond Gated Individualism

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary P. Corcoran
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Third Places ◽  
The Public ◽  
Know How ◽  
The City ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Late Modern

A feature of late modern society is the economisation and privatisation of social life resulting in a decline in the public realm. Judt has observed that we are drifting toward a society of ‘gated individuals who do not know how to share public space to common advantage’ (2010: 216). Similarly Oldenburg (1989) has expressed concerns about the sustainability of third places – places that occupy the space between the marketplace, workplace and home place – in the modern era. He argues that ‘third places’ are being replaced by ‘non-places’ – places where individuals relate to each other purely in utilitarian terms. Non-places promote civil disaffiliation rather than civil integration. This article argues for an exploration of the ‘spaces of potential’ within the public realm of the city that can help to promote relationships of trust, respect and mutuality. Acknowledging and promoting such ‘spaces of potential’ amounts to a challenge to the privatisation and economisation of social life. Moreover, it creates the possibility of a reinvigorated public sphere and an enhancement of civil integration.

Walking as choreography and the city as scenography 'Walk the City' and 'The Unnoticed'

Maska ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (157) ◽  
pp. 96-111
Author(s):  
Zala Dobovšek
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
The Core ◽  
Ground Plan ◽  
Michel De Certeau ◽  
The City

With their interventions, the art projects 'Walk the City' and 'The Unnoticed' penetrated the core of urban environment and selected the centre of Ljubljana as the stage for their performances. Both projects bring art into a public space, where anonymous, coincidental and 'undirected' passers-by, knowingly or not, become viewers and at times even participants within the performance. Regardless of the numerous possibilities, the two art interventions will be primarily looked at in terms of the conceptualization of space and the diverse definitions of walking, while we will lean upon the theories of Michel de Certeau. We will also look at the interventions through the perspective of the ground plan, which will lead to a new understanding and meaning.

scholarly journals Design Strategies for Safer and More Inclusive Public Spaces

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Anton-Barco ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Public space in the city is being continuously contested. The most compelling of these challenges comes from the recent terrorist attacks on cities across the world. While the awareness of the need to ‘design against terrorism’ and a demand for greater safety in public spaces has entered into citizen’s consciousness -given the perception of fear due to recent attacks- drastic security and surveillance measures usually go against a more open and inclusive public realm.

scholarly journals Espaços públicos como lugares da política/Public spaces as spaces of politics

2018 ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Paulo Cesar Da Costa Gomes ◽  
Letícia Parente Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The City

RESUMOA ativação política dos espaços públicos é comumente associada à sua mobilização extraordinária por grandes movimentos sociais. Ao seu uso cotidiano e ordinário, ao contrário, raramente é atribuído um significado político forte. A partir de uma discussão sobre a estratégia de manifestação política conhecida como “ocupação”, e de exemplos oriundos de pesquisas realizadas em espaços públicos da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, este artigo propõe uma nova perspectiva sobre esta oposição, ainda dominante na bibliografia.Palavras-chave: espaço público; ocupação; sociabilidade. ABSTRACTThe political activation of public spaces is commonly associated with their extraordinary mobilization by large social movements. On the contrary, a strong political significance is rarely attributed to the everyday and ordinary use of these spaces. Based on a discussion about the strategy of political manifestation known as “occupation” and presenting examples from research carried out in public spaces in the city of Rio de Janeiro, this article proposes a new approach to this opposition, still dominant in academic literature.Keywords: public space; occupy; sociability.

scholarly journals The Contested Gallery: street art, ethnography and the search for urban understandings

AmeriQuests ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Cultural Characteristics ◽  
The Road ◽  
The City

This is a paper on street art and its role as a form of artistic insurrection that challenges popular understandings of public space and urban visual culture. I would like to think of it as a field guide to urban seeing, a means of revising the way in which we view the cityscape and its imagery. It is a way of imagining the city as a canvas onto which ideas may be inscribed and reinterpreted, where resistance percolates up to those who look for it. It is here, in what Kathleen Stewart has called a “place by the side of the road” that the work of the street artist exists, slowly gurgling up through the cracks in the sidewalk and briefly illuminated by the yellow-white glow of the street lights. Street art most often takes the form of adhesive stickers, spray-painted stencils, and wheat-pasted posters, and while it shares many similar aesthetic and cultural characteristics with graffiti, street art embodies a unique ideology. Graffiti represents a territorialization of space (‘tagging’, or reclaiming urban spaces through the use of pseudonyms as territorial markings); street art represents a reterritorialization of space. Rather than taking space, street art attempts to re-purpose the existing urban environment. This paper seeks to reflect the changing dynamic of urban space through an analysis of the practice of street art. By examining the roles that street artists play in disrupting the flow of visual noise in the city, I will illuminate the cultural value and significance of this form of urban artistic resistance.

scholarly journals Importance and planning of pedestrian streets in urban environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 80-86
Author(s):  
Elizabete Mendzina ◽  
Kristine Vugule
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Educational Material ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
The City ◽  
Pedestrian Street

An increasing problem in cities is the growth of the number of motorised vehicles making the urban environment unsafe and unattractive and reducing residents’ willingness to walk. The study explores the problems associated with the development of pedestrian-friendly infrastructure in the city. The importance of pedestrian movement in the urban environment was studied and several pedestrian streets in Latvia were analyzed. The method for evaluation of the quality of a pedestrian street was developed based on the summarizing and analysis of the information from the available literature sources. The method includes criteria that make a pedestrian street high-quality and easy-to-use public space that is suitable not only for walking but also as a multifunctional place for various activities. The authors have worked out recommendations for creating a spatial structure and landscape design in urban environment focusing on the necessity to install good quality and sustainable outdoor design elements, to provide environmental accessibility as well as to include pedestrian streets in the city’s overall green infrastructure network, based on both social and environmental aspects. The recommendations provided can be used for the development of design guidelines and as educational material for landscape architects and urban planners

Mental Health, Public Space, and the City: Questions of Individual and Collective Access

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hester Parr
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Critical Geography ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City

In recent revisionings of disablement and geography, conceptions of the body, of devinney, and of the social construction of difference have been interrogated. The author argues that it is important not to neglect a critical geography of mental health in this broader rewriting of disability and ableism. Empirical examples are drawn from research in Nottingham, UK. These examples show how people with mental health problems access the public realm through individual (and often disruptive) use of urban spaces, possibly as strategies of resistance to imposed medical identities. In the second half of the paper the author documents a more collective political process occurring through ‘user movements’ which have facilitated patient power and patient influence in the places of therapy spread across the city.

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