scholarly journals The Tall Building and Urban Space

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minna Chudoba
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Tall Buildings ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Spatial Theory ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Urban Planner ◽  
Iconic Images

If public spaces in the urban environment are seen as extensions of one’s home, then what role do tall buildings play in this setting? In terms of space, they can have various roles. They are visible from afar and often act as landmarks, but at the same time they give one a possibility to see the urban whole in its entirety, from above. One of most iconic images of modern urban planning and modern urban space – Le Corbusier’s plan for Paris – is shown from such a vantage point, depicting an urban area dotted with individual buildings set within a continuous spatial field. This modern space has often been described as open and homogeneous. The simplified general interpretation has further been complemented by the concept of heterogeneous space, paving the way for a more diverse spatial theory. Heterogeneous space has brought much needed complexity to interpretations of architectural space. Modernist space is revisited in this article, explored through two particular cases. In addition to Le Corbusier, the study includes the work of another architect and urban planner of the early 20th century, Eliel Saarinen. The role of tall buildings in the designs and writings of the two architects is compared, with a specific focus on the spatial implications of these buildings in the cityscape. The comparison illustrates the fact that modern architects were not unanimous in their visions of urban space, although they shared the knowledge of a contemporary spatial theory.

scholarly journals Explicit and implied significance of contemporary public spaces. Part 1. Spaces of attractions

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 063-082
Author(s):  
Dariusz Dziubiński
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
Beach Bar

This text presents considerations encouraged by thoughts and conclusions gained from research on several beach bars and their comparison with other urban public spaces, run in Wrocław from 2018 to 2019. The similarities and differences between the two types of spaces provoke a question about the meaning of what we call „public spaces” today. The question is also asked, somewhat perversely, about the validity of following best practices based on proxemic principles and focused on attracting and retaining people in urban spaces. The paper examines not so much the rules but the purpose, in other words the type of space we receive/can achieve as a result of applying these principles, since people in the urban space (private or public) are only guests, while their choice is reduced to the top-down offer. The above doubt also results from the conclusion regarding the most important feature determining attractiveness of a beach bar space, which in my opinion, is the freedom of behaviour for users. In it we can see deficiencies of the prevailing narrative about our participation in space and, above all, the possibility of choice, or what should be called the limitations of choice – the lack of possession/self-agency. Such a situation, largely conditioned by politics (and economics), reduces public space to the role of a  “space of attractions” (curiosities), whose action and participation is based on experiencing – on a direct experience. The clash of these two forces – standardization and individualization, erodes the current model of common spaces based on the historical (nineteenth century) one, whose images are transferred only in the form of empty clichés. Thus, the limitation of choices, the need to fall into line and appearances of a community lead to an escape upwards – enclaves for the chosen ones (omnitopia) and downwards – niches for the rebellious ones (heterotopia), while beach bars represent both ways of escape. Against this background, the purposefulness of expert/ top-down creation of public spaces, carried out in isolation from other essential values and laws, appears problematic.

scholarly journals Empirical study of the mental representation of the image of the city (on the example of Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny)

2021 ◽  
Vol 274 ◽  
pp. 01034
Author(s):  
Maria Latypova ◽  
Elvira Mingalimova ◽  
Angelina Rubtsova ◽  
Arthur Tazov
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
The City

The purpose of the study is to identify the formed image of the territory in the perception of its inhabitants, using empirical research data for this. The main results of the study are that a comprehensive analysis of the mental representation of the urban space was carried out, on the basis of which the key elements of the image of the territory, the boundaries of the vernacular districts of the city, their urbanonymy were identified, as well as the significant role of urban open public spaces in the formation of the image of the territory. The authors come to the conclusion about the peculiarities of building images of cities, centered on symbolically significant elements and spaces that act as anchors for forming the image of a city in the perception of residents, attaching the population to the territory and constructing local identity.

scholarly journals The square, the monument and the re-configurative power of art in postmigrant public spaces

2021 ◽  
pp. 235-264
Author(s):  
Anne Ring Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Park ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Imagination ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Artistic Interventions

This chapter explores how art in public spaces shapes, and is shaped by, disagreements and conflicts resulting from the need to tackle »togetherness in difference« (Ien Ang), and how contemporary artistic practices play out in postmigrant public spaces, understood as plural domains of human encounter impacted by former and ongoing migration, and by new forms of nationalism. The chapter focuses on two art projects in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first one is The Red Square, a part of the public park Superkilen in the multicultural Nørrebro district. Designed by the artist group Superflex (in collaboration with architects from Bjarke Ingels Group and Topotek1), Superkilen opened in 2012. The second project is Jeannette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle's collaboration on the sculpture I Am Queen Mary. Installed outside an old colonial Warehouse in Copenhagen harbour in 2018, it is the first monument in the country to commemorate Danish colonialism and complicity in the transatlantic slave trade. Borrowing a term from Chantal Mouffe, these projects could be characterized as »agonistic« interventions into public urban space. The chapter argues that they may provide us with some much-needed answers to the important question of the much debated yet crucial role of public art in democratic societies, particularly how works of art may form a possible loophole of escape from dominant discourses by openly contesting, or subtly circumventing, monocultural understandings of national heritage and identity, thereby helping us to imagine national and urban community otherwise, i.e. as postmigrant communities. The chapter examines what the re-configurative power of art might accomplish in postmigrant public spaces by considering the following questions: How can public art open up a social and national imagination pervaded by anxieties about (post)migration to other ways of thinking about diversity and collective identity? Furthermore, is it possible to identify a common pattern - i.e. a particular postmigrant strategy - that underpins and interconnects various types of artistic interventions into public spaces and debates, which, on the surface, present themselves as radically different kinds of projects?

scholarly journals The contemporary importance of the Old Canal area for the centre of Bydgoszcz and its influence on the city’s cultural landscape

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Iga Grześkow
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Canal Area ◽  
The City

European cities are centuries-old connections of social and cultural interrelations in which the history and heritage of generations have formed a specific model of collective life and culture. The nature, prestige and signs of urban life in these cities are best indicated by their public spaces and their structure and inclusion in the urban tissue. Being presentable areas as well as places of social intercourse and activity, public spaces form multipurpose areas which establishe the city’s cultural landscape. Simultaneously, the game for urban areas in the city and related economic interests, and market all activities promoting the city's image and interfering with the city’s structure, pose a threat to the sensible development of the most valuable parts of the urban space. Globalisation processes contribute to the unification and standardisation of any forms of life, including space. The need for maintaining the continuity of urban tissue requires that its historical traces be cultivated. In this context, the contemporary role of the Old Canal area for downtown Bydgoszcz and its influence on the development of the city’s cultural landscape are part of the current strategies for the cultureforming regeneration of urban space.

scholarly journals The Right(s) to the Hybrid City and the Role of DIY Networking

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Panayotis Antoniadis ◽  
Ileana Apostol
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Social Software ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
Urban Planner ◽  
Locative Media ◽  
The Right

We reconsider the concept of “the right to the city”, introduced by French philosopher  Henri Lefebvre, in the light of the new information space that ICTs create in contemporary urban environments. Such spaces include the use of global online social networks, locative media, e-participation platforms, online neighbourhood communities and so forth. Unlike the physical urban space that it overlays, this new and rapidly emerging virtual space has practically no capacity constraints. However, it is subject to inequalities in terms of access, representation, participation, and ownership. In this research note—an interdisciplinary collaboration between a computer scientist and an urban planner—we wish to study the role of wireless technology, which enables the easy deployment of local networks operating outside the public Internet, and the role of the free and open source social software, which facilitates the easy development of customized local applications, allowing citizens to shape their emerging hybrid space. We suggest that this sort of do-it-yourself (DIY) networking can be realised according to citizens’ values, objectives and the particularities of the environment, and could ultimately enable them to compete with large ICT corporations such as Google and Facebook for their “right(s) to the hybrid city”. We employ the urban sidewalk metaphor as an application that is subject to hybrid design and can profit significantly from the special characteristics of DIY networks.

scholarly journals Urban Connective Action: The Case of Events Hosted in Public Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 252-266
Author(s):  
David McGillivray ◽  
Severin Guillard ◽  
Emma Reid
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Public Space ◽  
The Past ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
New Public ◽  
Connective Action

In the past decade, significant transformations have influenced the governance of urban public spaces. There has also been a growth in new public spheres associated with digital media networks, informing and influencing the production and regulation of urban space. In this article, we explore the role of digital and social media as a form of connective action supporting public campaigns about the privatisation and erosion of public space in the Scottish city of Edinburgh. We draw on analysis of Twitter data, interviews and observations of offline events to illustrate how a broad coalition of actors utilise online and offline tactics to contest the takeover of public space, confirming that that the virtual and the physical are not parallel realms but continuously intersecting social realities. Finally, we reflect on the extent to which digital media-enabled connective action can influence the orientation of urban controversies debates and lead to material change in the way urban public space is managed and regulated.

scholarly journals The capibaribe park project, Recife: using the river to reinvent the city

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-353
Author(s):  
Fabiano Rocha Diniz ◽  
Luiz Vieira Filho ◽  
Roberto Montezuma
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Past ◽  
City Hall ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Coherent Image ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Recife is an amphibious city whose urban development does not value its rivers. In the past, the city’s main watercourse, the river Capibaribe, was understood to play a key role in structuring urban spaces and providing connectivity. Since then, this understanding has dwindled, and the resulting situation is a cause of great concern. Recife City has turned its back on the banks of its rivers and neglected both their capacity to smooth and shape urban space, and their potential to create a coherent image of the city. Recife is one of those cities in the world that are most vulnerable to climate change, ranking 16th in the list of world hotspots. In order to confront these challenges and rethink the role of the river that runs in the heart of Recife, researchers, architects, engineers, and sociologists from Research and Innovation for Cities — Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (INCITI-UFPE) were invited by the Recife City Hall to draw up plans for a park stretching along the river’s banks. Capibaribe Park Project attempts to answer one key question: How can we use the river to transform the city? The park project is based on a structural approach to landscape and is guided by the precepts of sustainability and regeneration of public spaces, in line with the emerging paradigm that combines a cross-disciplinary and cross-sector approach with water-sensitive design and social participation. The present article presents an overview of the main characteristics and development of this project, its theoretical and methodological underpinnings, its contribution to society, and the results achieved so far. It shows how, in addition to the planned park, the project also envisages the installation of a much more extensive system of parks, as a first stage towards the creation of park-city by the 500th anniversary of the foundation of Recife, in 2037.

MEDIA AND MODERNITY: THE ROLE OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN THE MODERNIZATION OF WESTERN SOCIETY

1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-301
Author(s):  
Yuyun Sunesti
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Western Society ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Information Media ◽  
Printing Method ◽  
Important Milestone

One of the influential factors in the formation of modern society in the Westernworld and subsequently spread to over the world has been the discovery of printing presswhich can be found in the form of printing method, printing company and print media.Since it was firstly used by Gutenberg in about 15th century AD, information which waspreviously delivered through oral medium with a limited audience, then through a methodof printing can be reproduced in large quantities and can be read by more audience, acrossdistance and time. Printing method which encourages the emergence of large printingcompanies and then print media has contributed in transforming modern cultural life ofsociety.In addition, the advent of the printing industries which has transformed intotransnational corporations as well as the emergence of journals and regular newspapersalso contributes significantly in raising public spaces as a medium for discussion andcritical thinking amidst society. Ultimately, this information media transformation brings achange in the state system which is more open and leads to the emergence of ideas ofnationalism which becomes an important milestone in transforming traditional societiesinto modern societies.

Queering Gender Identity Work: A Life History of a Black Transgender Woman

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esethu Monakali
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Ongoing Effort ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

This article offers an analysis of the identity work of a black transgender woman through life history research. Identity work pertains to the ongoing effort of authoring oneself and positions the individual as the agent; not a passive recipient of identity scripts. The findings draw from three life history interviews. Using thematic analysis, the following themes emerge: institutionalisation of gender norms; gender and sexuality unintelligibility; transitioning and passing; and lastly, gender expression and public spaces. The discussion follows from a poststructuralist conception of identity, which frames identity as fluid and as being continually established. The study contends that identity work is a complex and fragmented process, which is shaped by other social identities. To that end, the study also acknowledges the role of collective agency in shaping gender identity.

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