MODULE 5: COMMUNITIES
COMPARE CONTRAST ESSAY: Communities and their relationship with the public and
private realms
What is the relationship between public space and the development
of community? To answer this question, these three authors, Whyte, Brill and
Schneekloth surveyed the relationship between the individuals (e.g families,
communities, neighborhoods) and the public and private spaces. They all
define the public and private realms by studying people’s actions and beliefs
but from different point of views.
In his movie The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces,
Whyte’s survey focuses on the variety of activities on the streets,
squares and parks in order to define the guidelines that make the public realm
successful or not. Brill, in his article Transformation, Nostalgia,
and Illusion in Public Life and public Space explains how the intrusion of
both realms within each other may be responsible for what people have feared:
the decline of public life. Schneekloth describes the public space as
“the space left over from the private articulation” and our private spaces as
what we consider “our region of concerns” and therefore our actions towards
that environment.
In their work, Whyte and Brill both look at how the
spaces, public or private, serve the individuals.
Whereas Schneekloth looks at how the individuals and
their actions serve the places whether they are public or private.
When observing public space provided by corporations
and public space provided by the government or a local non-governmental
organization, Both Whyte and Brill denounce that the built public environment
had been only the by-product of incentives for developers but has not served
wholly as public places. Instead it has been generally only an extension
of private places, for examples passages, forecourts and poorly shaped
underused plazas. These extensions are actually designed to keep the public
away. According to Whyte, by not providing trees and sittable areas and keeping
out kiosks and food vendors, these so called public spaces remain often empty.
Brill denounces the government’s decisions to create laws based on
“economic calculus” to the detriment of social causes and people’s values.
Both Whyte and Brill, mention the irony of the existence of fake living
centers where private enterprises try to cater the nostalgia of euro-urbanist
historicism by creating artificial and unauthentic “public life” via festival
markets or Disney World “town” in Orlando. Schneekloth also taps in and
described the apathy from land owners and government towards the people and
their concerns.
For Whyte the problem resides mostly in the fact that
public places are privately owned and consequently disengage the public from
civil liberties. Yet for Schneekloth and Brill public and private
intertwine and don’t matter, whether privately owned or public, if the future
of these places depends on the initiatives and actions of the residents.
Which begs the question “what matters”?
According to Brill people are taking action to create new models of public
spaces: Indeed the occurrence of a public life resides in the following
forms of public expression: local newspapers, anyone-can-broadcast cable
television, special interest groups, theater group, meet-up events
(skateboarding, acting, motorcycles…), and indoor malls that become a
destination as they become community centers for local groups and causes.
This is perhaps notes from Schneeklof’s stand point as
she develops on how actually community actions to whether dispose of trash or
clean up a toxic river, reflect our beliefs about the boundaries between
private and public.
The difference between private and public is actually
very blurry for both 2 essayists: In her article, Schneekloth describes the
dualist nature of public space and action in order to demonstrate the struggle
to perceive the boundaries between what is public and what is private. The
boundaries between private and public are moveable as some domains cross over
between the private and public. (i.e. block parties, shopping). She further
raises the question “Where the “self”, or I, stands in this cultural system”?
What is ours and what is outside our region of concern? How do we define
these Imaginary lines between private and public and how do they articulate the
areas that we care for or not? Schneekloth poetically calls this
relationship the “public/private dance” and reveals its choreographers to be
the people and the communities.
To conclude, in discussing the relationship between
people and public spaces, whether analyzing from the point of view of the
individuals of from the point of view of the space, all of these authors agree
in the idea that people can and do democratically define public spaces and
their functions. In a time of ongoing privatization of the public
spaces, it is important to recognize that in order to build coalitions to
support sustainability. It is paramount to have, as Schneekloth describes it, a
space for a new public world where we will enlarge the field of our “region of
concern”.
The survey begins at the Seagram building in NYC, a
typical privately owned public space in the heart of the City.
The Seagram Building is a skyscraper, located at 375
Park Avenue, between 52nd Street and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York
City. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Philip
Johnson.
In his survey he first notices that some places are
underused: most office building plazas are empty. Yet when building up the
record, a number of patterns start to appear.
First people like reading, talking, eating yet the
number 1 activity is “people looking at other people”
The numbers show a higher proportion of group of 2 or
3. On the street Corner we can observe how impromptu conversations start.
Most popular spots are under the trees because it’s like being under the
awning of a café and simple steps which are very dominant features that attract
people to sit down.
Overall his first observation is that “People sit
where there are places to sit.”
However, Whyte observes rapidly that some plazas are
designed to keep people off: the spaces are designed so they are not sitable
with high planters, beveled borders.
When raising the question “How many people is too
many” the team notices that even at peak times, in spite of heavy
turnaround, the number of people remains constant. We can conclude that
there is an instinctive feel that people have for the number that is right for
a place.
The observing team then further focuses on “the way”
people sit. Here some patterns also start to appear: around tables while
making sure the social distance is always comfortable. The most popular
is the presence of moveable chairs: people like manipulating where their chair
should be. On the other end, fixed single chairs are not attractive.
The survey moves to a different kind plaza: the
Paley Park (53rd Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues New York, NY). While
still a privately owned plaza, the space was designed with different features
and goals in mind by the owner, William Paley, former Chairman of CBS.
Located within Midtown's cultural district and
surrounded by high-rises, this celebrated "vest-pocket" park is a
welcome respite from the sights and sounds of urban living. During any season,
the park remains very successful and popular fir the following reasons:
it is located directly on the street so that people
are attracted to look in and enter. It has good, reasonably priced food, as
well as moveable chairs and tables that let people be comfortable and have some
control over where they sit. A waterfall provides a dramatic focal point and a
reason to enter the park; its noise blocks out the sounds of the city and
creates a sense of quiet and privacy. There's adequate shade in the summer from
the trees, though they allow a beautiful dappled light to pass through their
leaves.[1]
The next survey is in Houston where the streets are
designed for cars. There are no stores, no windows, no small shops. To
find conveniences, the pedestrian must go off the street level, up or down.
Houston represents the self-contain mega structures
where terraces are above the streets, isolated.
Back to NY, the survey continues with the Rockefeller
Plaza which functions like an amphitheater where people watch other ice skating
below, as well as South street seaport which offers nice space, places to sit,
nice view, plenty of people. Whyte makes a parenthesis to note that “Odd people
reassure us about our own normality”.
Another space in New York City is Brian Park which is
cut off from the street by fences – Whyte insists rightly that “to make it work
you must unfence it!”
While we find out that the Sun is not the ruling
factor, some guidelines are identified as being crucial for a public space to
be successful:
1. Water: to wade,
for white noise to cover conversation which conveys privacy – another example
is San Antonio with its river running in the heart of the town center
2. Trees: produce
a canopy. Places people like best
3. Food has its
social function: People attract street vendors, which in turn attract people.
4. Refreshments:
kiosks and cafes are amenities
5. Sittable space
6. Street level
Triangulation: Whyte also obverses that artwork
is useful to attract people: they like walking under it sit on it, touch it,
and argue about it. Bookstores and vendors also make a good attraction in
public spaces for people to gather.
Finally, Whyte concludes with the most important key
variable being scale: Proportions must be right. One successful example
is in Cincinnati. Fountain square is very popular because of close
relationship to the street, enclosed surroundings, different kind of sitting
space, places to eat, water, heavy pedestrian in the very center of the town.
Additionally, heavy pedestrian flows because the square is setup right in the
center of the town. All these combined features make it a unifying
place. In fact, the whole population of Cincinnati comes together here.
Brill, M. () Transformation, Nostalgia, and
Illusion in Public Life and public Space, Public Places and Spaces, Plenum
Press – New York and London
In his essay, where he introduces himself as a “Big
city dweller and intense city user”, the author develops on today’s blurred
distinctions between the private and public realms. He explains how the
intrusion of realms within each other may be responsible for what people have
feared: the decline of public life.
While he explains that the nostalgia for lost public
places is not a new thing, he also suggests that the archetype idea of public
life may only be an illusion because public places have very little in common
with the public places in Europe.
The author defines 3 strands of our image of lost
public life:
1. The citizen
of Affairs: Civility is involved, learn to act impersonally, silence on
public becomes the rule, decline of verbal expressiveness in public, but we
come together and act together.
2.
The citizen of commerce and pleasure: nostalgia of “life as a theater”:
bazaars, soukz, open marketplaces but lack of the entertaining discussion, no
interest is aroused for the spectators.
3.
The Familiar Citizen: family lie is its model, people are not really
strangers to each other, small scale neighborhood life,
The author further argues whether public life, as we
“nostalgically” describe it, ever existed, existed but is lost, existed but
instead of being lost we rejected it was safer this way or whether it was not
lost but got transformed.
The concept of streets as an urban pathology and the
absence of high local density and diversity, as opposed to European countries,
are responsible for the deprivation of public life as American people imagine
it. Yet, because it doesn’t occur in the 3 classic forms of the street, the
square and the park, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist at all. Indeed the
occurrence of a public life resides instead in the following forms of public
expression: local newspapers, anyone-can-broadcast cable television,
special interest groups, theater group, meet-up events (skateboarding, acting,
motorcycles…), and indoor malls that become a destination as they become
community centers for local groups and causes.
On the other hand, the built public environment had
been only the by-product of incentives for developers but has not served wholly
as public places, but only as extensions of private places, for examples
passages, forecourts and poorly shaped underused plazas. Therefore the problem
resides mostly the fact that public places are privately owned and consequently
disengage the public from civil liberties. There the author denounces the
responsibility of the government and its decisions to create laws based on
“economic calculus” to the detriment of social causes and people values.
Ironically, private enterprises try to cater this
nostalgia by creating artificial and unauthentic “public life” via festival
markets.
Intrusion of public life into the private life and
vice versa is the pathology.
Brill concludes that this traditional public life
we’ve been mourning may keep us from supporting and sustaining these new forms
of public life.
Jargon: euro-urbanist
historicism, socioeconomic stratification, segmentation, vernacular landscape,
common ground, public biographic, social oppression
Duncan, J. S. Jr.,(1973) Landscape Taste as a
Symbol of Group Identity: A Westchester County Village, Geographical
Review, Vol. 63, No. 3 pp334-355
The subtle disparities in the “landscape tastes” as
being clues to socioeconomic group association are the study area of this
paper. In his essay, Duncan elaborates on the “compare and contrast” of
communities in a rural village. The analysis of the social organization
describes 4 distinct landscapes: Village Center, Tradesmen’s landscape, Alpha
Landscape and beta Landscape. The author further narrows down his survey to the
last 2 landscapes and unveils that the 2 seemingly identical groups of residents
don’t have any other connection or common points than living in that same
village. Alpha landscape is most defined as the oldest residential landscape,
with authentic colonial houses owned by “old money”. The Beta landscape is
defined by a perfect reproduction of old New England colonial houses that
were recently built in the past 10 years, owned by “new money” , and defined by
the Alpha group as dubious taste (“That awful new building”). Through a
closest observation of the neighbor interaction frequency, the aesthetics of
the houses such as artifacts and size of fences, and the communities’
dissimilar social networks such as private/public schools, the author
demonstrates how they entirely differ from each other. “Members of the alpha
landscape would not want a house in the Beta landscape”.
Jargon: Rural, Landscape,
communities,
Leinberger, B.C., (March 2008). The Next Slum?
The Atlantic Online http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime
In his article written in the dawn of the great
recession in 2008, Leinberger studies the ripple effects of the “Sub
prime-mortgage crisis” and recession in the suburb’s real estate: the Single
family suburban house, stigmata of the trends in “American demographics,
construction, house prices and consumer preferences”.
Following the wave of foreclosures, the sharp decline
of the economy resulted in an epidemic of vacant homes and consequently a down
spiral of crime emergence and the intensification of social issues in these
communities.
But the car-based suburban dream transformation is not
something new and it started in 1946 after WWII, as G.I.’s returned home.
At the time urban life was seen as dangerous and expensive, pushing
people to move to the suburb. The author uses the example of Reston, VA for its
“lifestyle center”, or “faux urban center”, to illustrate the desire of the
American people to change the way they live and work. These centers were designed
to create and urban feel with healthier walkable developments featuring narrow
streets and small storefronts, reducing the use of cars. However, the
attraction for the city lifestyle has been back on the rise since the 90’s as
cities have gentrified.
The author concludes that while suburban lifestyle is
falling out of fashion there will be a better balance between “walkable and
drivable communities”.
Jargon: gentrification
Schneekloth, L.H. (1996). Confounding the Public
and the Private, Public/Private Issues
In her article, Schneekloth describes the dualist
nature of public space and action in order to demonstrate the struggle to
perceive the boundaries between what is public and what is private. Because the
boundaries between private and public are moveable, some domains cross over
between the private and public. (i.e. block parties, shopping) and consequently
makes the private and public relationship dialectic. The author defines public
space as “the space left over from the private articulation” and raises the
question “Where the “self”, or I, stands in this cultural system”? What is ours
and what is outside our region of concern? How do we define these
Imaginary lines between private and public and how do they articulate the areas
that we care for or not? Schneekloth poetically calls this relationship
the “public/private dance” and reveals its choreographers.
The author brings up these topics by focusing on our
society “Invisible landscape of away” which she illustrates with examples of
private/public rundown neighborhood and toxic river issues in 2 communities:
“trash and garbage” and “the friends of the buffalo river”. Here, both
communities fight for making their place (neighborhood and river) a “home for
themselves and their children”. She develops on how community actions
reflect our beliefs about the boundaries between private and public. But also,
in a world of rights, obligations and responsibilities asks what our
relationship to the world is. Further Schneekloth demonstrates the
complexity of the extent of these questions as they encompass social,
ecological justice as well as legal and economic clashes.
The author concludes on the ongoing privatization of
the public spaces and the consequence when public space is gone: a space for a
new public world where we will enlarge the field of our “region of concern”.
References: Nancy Fraser
Jargon: Dialectic,
imaginal, neighborhood organization, Community Action Information Center.
MODULE 4: PERCEPTION & COGNITION
Heschong, L. (1979). Thermal Delight in
Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chapter: Delight
In chapter Delight, Lisa Heschong describes
(beautifully) how our perception of the world depends on the variety of our
sensory experiences. She illustrates her thesis by emphasizing on the
description of our thermal sense. The thermal sense is usually not
considered as a spate sense. Though it is related to the sense of touch, the
author describes how different it is, “thermal sense is definitely a separate
sense”. She defines a sensory world through which we learn every
bit of information thanks to using all our senses together, giving it its
multidimensional value.
· Senses are very different from one
another and complementary to each other.
· The author introduces the concept of
variability in time: when the senses get saturated by stimuli and we don’t
“sense” anymore “We can only smell a rose for so long before the smell fades
away (…) our nervous system is much more attuned to noticing change in the
environment than to noticing steady states.”
· Sight is the most static sense
“we tend to remember visually only a fixed image”
· Hearing retains the sense of time
“song or memory to be remembered must be remembered in time”.
· Sense of smell retains the most
emotionally charged memories
· Touch: recalls a notion of
immediacy
· Thermal sense has a notion of
continuality (as opposed to hearing or seeing) in our whole body
· Fire has always been fascinating to man
probably because it stimulates all the senses at once giving it a
multidimensional quality: “The fire gives a flickering and glowing light, ever
moving, ever changing. It crackles and hisses and fills the room with the smell
of smoke and wood and perhaps even food. It penetrate us with its warmth”
Chapter: Affection
The author in his chapter affection describes man’s
relationship with the seasons and climate and specifically the thermal
qualities of a place or space. She illustrates her thesis by studying the
rituals and festivals of cultures related to the changes of seasons and the
thermal conditions as well as our affections towards objects and places that
have a certain thermal association.
Activities become seasonal and domestic patterns are
also adjusted according to the thermal qualities of the place.
However, there is a difference if the thermal source
is natural (shutters and fireplace) or artificial (HVAC system): when in the
built environment, men take the thermal comfort for granted, the affection for
an object that provides even thermal comfort does not happen. “When thermal
comfort is a constant condition, constant in both space and time, it becomes so
abstract that it loses its potential to focus affection.”
There is a strong correlation of our affection towards
anything that connects us to natural cycles whether it is the cycle of days and
night or cycle of plants and animal growth. It adds on to our attention and
affection of change of climate.
· Thermal functions of furniture or
places: Whether we are raising ourselves from the floor where the cool air is,
sit and sleep directly on the floor to benefit from it, go to a porch swing,
gazebo or inglenook, we look for thermal comfort.
· The author emphasizes on the thermal
associations of objects or places and our liking for them even when they are
not providing that thermal quality: “How hard it is to give up the old
misshapen sweater or the old shade hat that kept the sun off for so long”.
· “ We need an object for our affection ,
something identifiable on which to focus attention”
· Art as Insulation: woven carpets and
animal skins hanging on walls during winter and taken down during summer.
· Shutters vs. wall insulation:
Variability is the factor that enables us draw or attention to a device and
appreciates thermal comfort it brings.
· Reminders of the cycles of our day,
shades are also objects of affections “They remind us of that the earth is
turning and the day is ending”
· We don’t remember temperature in a
quantifiable way but based on the sense of comfort it provided.
· Some examples of places that contain
thermal “memories” connected to community or family connectedness: Mosques,
Baker’s shop, Cinema (movie House), Hearth, swimming pools, Japanese hot baths
and Jacuzzi.
Strength of the paper: the
subject itself is a very unusual approach of the qualities of a space or place.
Heschong describes the senses so beautifully; she invites the reader to
experience the world from a sensory perspective.
Weakness of the essay:
the author does not mention the sense of taste (?)
Jargon: Thermal, Thermal
Aediculae
Reference to work of:
· Yi-Fu Tuan
· James Marston Fitch
· Anthropologist John F. Embree, Suye Mura: A Japanese
Village.
· Anthropologist Lawrence Wylies
Gertner,
J. (2009, 19 April). Why isn’t the brain green? The New York Times.
In his article, Gertner develops on how our decision
making in situations of uncertainty depends on how imminent or not we think a
problem is. Gertner introduces the issue of Climate change and how it was last
on the poll after the president was sworn in. To support his thesis the
author interviews researchers at the CRED, Centre for Research on the
Epidemiology of Disasters, who have been trying to understand the “decision
making process in situation of uncertainty” and especially in regards to
climate change. Furthermore, researchers study how group dynamic
influence how our mind works and the progression of our decision making in the
event of urgency or a calamity.
· The essay develops on what are the
mental processes that shape our choices, behaviors and attitudes.
· The commons Dilemma is used as an
illustration of how collaboration is necessary to avoid failure: “so
cooperation is the goal that can be activated”
· According to researchers this is how our
minds works: uncertainty, time, potential gains, potential losses
· People will react to issues on climate
changes when they experience directly the negative effects of man’s carbon
footprint or until we experience “a Pearl Harbor moment”.
Jargon: Climate change,
Anthropogenic, CRED
MODULE 3:PERCEPTION & COGNITION
Kwok,
A.G., & Rajkovich, N. (2009). Addressing climate change in comfort
standards. Building and Environment, 45(1), 18-22
In their article Kwok and Rajkovich redefine thermal
comfort standards of the interior environment to reduce Green House
Gases. The authors suggest that Climate change policies are either
“mitigation or adaption”: Mitigation is defined as efforts to reduce GHG and
adaption is defined as the ability of systems to adjust to climate change by
enhancing our ecosystem resilience. The authors state that it is a false
dichotomy and instead these approaches should be should be seen as together,
written into codes and standards. The authors state that standards should be
based on the ability of a person to make adaption to achieve comfort.
· The paper specifically examines
adaptions from two models: Thermal comfort in the built environment
and Long term building design in response to climate change:
1. Thermal Comfort research is a
debate between static and adaptive models.
· Static models are research that puts
peoples in a room (humid, hot, cold, dry…) and measure involuntary reactions
(sweating, shivering)
· Adaptive models based on field research
and considers responses people make in a building to achieve comfort. There are
3 main perspectives:
1. Behavioral:
Thermal comfort research is a debate between Static models (research climate
chamber: what to set the temperature/humidity to maintain) and Adaptive model
(field research: which considers peoples response to achieve thermal comfort;
for example Adjusting clothing)
2. Physiological
(involuntary body response): the equivalent of the static
3. Psychological
(expectations of the space, previous experiences…)
· The authors state the obvious that
thermal environments that promote productivity and reduce stress are part of
the responsible design.
· The paper points out how people are much
more tolerant to thermal conditions than climate chamber research (static
model) suggests. Therefore, the adaptive model research of thermal
comfort has potential to conserve energy.
· How do we move toward the model of
adaption? The paper raises the 3 questions:
1. How can
designers enhance adaptive capacities in buildings?
2. What range of
adaption is acceptable in buildings
3. How can
designers influence expectation and control in buildings?
The authors promote the idea of a “mesocomfort” zone
that includes our adaptive capacities as a model for the standards and
codes. It has not been defined. It is hinted at in ASHRAE and LEED but
can be better developed.
2. Long term building design in
response to climate change.
· The authors apply the same static and
adaptive models to discuss building designs promoting adaptive models. For
example: Occupant forgiveness: people’s outdoor climate awareness improves
their adaptability. People awareness and connectedness helps people to
overlook their discomfort.
Strength of the essay: The
topic is very well developed and organized with a lot of clarity. This is a
full-on academic research paper well written, concise.
Jargon: Climate change,
mitigation, adaptation, thermal comfort, Energy use, Adaptive capacity,
adaptive opportunity, mesocomfort zone, occupant forgiveness, Switch-rich
design.
Tonkiss,
F. (2003). Aural postcards: Sound, memory and the city. In M. Bull & L.
Back (Eds.), The Auditory Culture Reader (pp. 303-309). Oxford; New
York: Berg; Sensory Formations Series.
In her essay Tonkiss’ argument situates sound as the
primary sense used in the modern city. She illustrates her thesis on aural
experiences and sonic qualities of places by studying our “sensuous” relation
to the urban environment. She develops on how we attend to sounds and how we
use our auditory sense as different modes of listening, ways we relate sounds
to memory and finally by listening even when it’s silent.
The author supports her thesis with 3 parts starting
with the notion of Listening and not listening to the City:
· The sounds in the city are described as
“a general assault on the senses” (Mumford 1961:539). For Georg Simmel,
the urban experience is essentially and frenetically visual and for Walter
Benjamin, Urban sociality was more a question of looking at than listening to.
· BUT for the author the modern city is
not only visual it is also sonic: It “provides a soundstage for the drama of modern
life”
· Sound vs. Noise: engineered and
accidental - Muted interior and acoustics of the concert hall
· The City is a language and the confusion
of tongues: being an immigrants and speaking the same language: “A
strange city too can seem like a language you don’t know (…) walking we compose
spatial sentences”
2nd part: Sound Souvenirs: Memory and
the City:
· Walter Benjamin: “composed urban
vignettes as if they were aural postcards”
· In the moment of “recall” we remember
places with their sounds because they also tell the story: there is a relation
of sounds to memory: “Sounds threads itself through the memory of place”
· Concept of ‘Ear-witness” : hearing has a
relation to the truth: testimony, placing trust in words, to accept things that
are promised, etc.
· Author prompts the reader about own
aural experience: “Do you remember where you were, when you heard the news? “
3rd part: The Silence of Cities
· Quiet spaces and the relation of time
and sound: “a minute’s silence (…) reminds you how slowly even the shortest
time can pass”.
· Even when void of noise, we
listen: the sound of silence.
· Concludes with: is there such thing as
silence: even when “late at night the quiet creeps in (…)it is as though you
hear the city sleeps”.
Strengths of the paper:
the study is supported by the experience and point of view of essayist Walter
Benjamin who, aside from being a very important reference, was shortsighted and
relied on other senses to experience spaces.
The style of the paper has a poetic quality (reminds
me of the song the Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel!)
Jargon:
Aural, Sonic, polyglot soundscape, semiology, metaphor of language as sound,
urban idioms, metonym
Owen,
D. (2010, 25 January). The Dime store floor. The New Yorker,
pp. 33-37.
In his essay, David Owen develops on the experience of
places and how we engage places with the olfactory sense. The author tells us
the entertaining story of his quest of odors and his recollection of olfactive
“childhood” memories.
· He illustrates his thesis with examples
of the powerful scents of pines and rooms which bring back instantly memories
of younger years spent in summer camps, at the dentist’s office, smoky rooms or
with family members. “I experienced a form of time travel: the trees smelled
exactly like the summer camp I attended when I was thirteen and for a moment I
was transported to to (…) the tent I shared for six weeks with 4 other boys”
· On his journey, the author also
recalls certain smells which he expects to find back (at the museum) but can’t
find any trace once in the building. There the smell is simply gone while other
places still preserved “their” gratifying smells. “(..) As we drove
there, I could easily generate a mental simulacrum of its smell, a concentrated
essence of antiquity, brass polish, school shoes and institutional gravity.”
Another example is his visit to a place called the Dime store where he also
expects to find the peculiar smell but the store is now invaded by the
artificial scent of colorful candles. “ Scented candle displays, in
stores, are olfactory kudzu”
· The author recalls that not only places
but also family members have an olfactive identity: perfumes, deodorant,
shampoo and other hair products. “ I rode through the invisible trailing cloud
of their mingled shampoo fragrances (…) I also thought about how
different those girls’ hair smelled from the hair of girls I knew when I
was in Junior High”
The strength of the essay
lies in the author’s extensive visual descriptions of the spaces and his vivid
recollection of memories and lively language. (The reader is prompted to recall
similar smells he is finding there). This is great storytelling and the
humoristic tone is very appropriate.
Weakness: it is a bit lengthy and
it becomes repetitive at the end: places smell, peoples perfumes, place,
perfume… the paper loses it momentum by the time the writer describes the very
eloquent memory of his father. The organization is not great and examples get
redundant.
Jargon: Olfactory, mental
simulacrum
Lang,
J. T. (1987). Cognitive maps and spatial behavior. In Creating Architectural
Theory: The Role of the Behavioral Sciences in Environmental Design
(pp. 135-144). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
In his essay, Lang develops on how spatial orientation
and cognitive mapping provides environmental designers with valuable
information to design built environments. The ease with which people find
their way through the building depends a lot on the quality of the design and
the organizing element of a place. Extensive use of signs is not the answer to
clarity; some built environments are just not legible. By designing with
these challenges in mind, the designers’ goals are to enhance the ease of
experience for end users who are often challenged by new places where
way-finding is usually difficult.
· Individuals’ feeling of security in the
built environment depends on how easily they can orient themselves and create a
cognitive mapping of the place. Cognitive maps are personal mental graphic
representations of a place which are partial, schematized and distorted, which
differ from one individual to another.
· Tolman’s definition of Cognitive mapping
is the process whereby people acquire, code, store, recall, and decode
information about the relative location and attributes of the physical
environment.
· Romedi Passini defines spatial
orientation as “a person’s ability to determine his position within a
representation of the environment made possible by cognitive maps”. He
describes how people who have grown up in cities and buildings orient
themselves differently than people who grew up in natural environments.
· Stephen Kaplan: 4 types of knowledge:
recognition, prediction, evaluation and action
· According to Lynch’s work, in cognitive
maps physical structure of cities contains 5 categories of elements that people
use to structure cognitive images: Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks.
According to David Strea there are only 4 basic features: points, boundaries,
paths and barriers.
· For cognitive maps to develop
individuals refer to buildings characteristics: some buildings are better known
than other according to their forms, visibility and use and significance
attributes. Cognitive maps show the individual differences based on how they
approach a space and emphasize or put in order the elements of that space:
boundaries, repetitive systems, districts, nodal points. It is relevant to
study how cognitive maps develop with different approaches: chain-type maps,
branch and loop type, network-type, sequential image maps
· Because they use other senses than the
visual sense, blind people take on a different approach as well to build their
cognitive map form sighted people: they use textures and geometries on
surfaces, sound of the environment, layering of air temperature.
· Culture plays also an important role in
how people approach environments to create their cognitive maps and their built
environment: “the people of some culture describe total impressions, others
focus on details; some pay attention to open spaces, others to boundaries and
edges.
Strength of the paper:
The topic is clearly defined and the content is well organized. it covers a lot
of approaches and refers to a large diversity of references. The introduction
and conclusion are clear.
Jargon: cognitive mapping,
Guiding Schemata, recognition, prediction, immediacy, Maslow’s model of human
needs.
Bull,
M., & Back, L. (2003). Introduction: Into sound. In M. Bull & L. Back
(Eds.), The Auditory Culture Reader (pp. 1-18). Oxford; New York:
Berg; Sensory Formations Series.
In this introduction to his book, the authors Bull and
Back, outline the hierarchy of the senses and argue how there should be a
democracy of the senses to fully experience the world. They emphasize on the
necessity to take a stake in Deep Listening: listening to sounds to make us
re-think.
· Though epistemologically understanding
is identified as seeing, everyday our learning experience is facilitated by
sounds
· The auditory world brings different cues
about the environment than the visual world alone. “knowing the world through
sound is fundamentally different from knowing the world through vision” Bruce
Smith
· Using only the visual sense limits us in
fully learning and understanding the world; we should broaden our use of the
other senses: touch, taste, smell and listening.
· The author uses the example of the much
mediatized attacks on the world trade center on September 11, 2001 to
illustrate how the experience was mostly seen but remained unrealistic: “ TV
screens acted like a sensory prophylactic”
· The authors are prompting the readers to
“think with (their) ears”, using our auditory sense to experience the world:
“we (…) point to the equally crucial role that sound plays in our experience
and understanding of the world.” Indeed the authors argue that using only the
visual sense will only make our knowledge of the social world flawed because of
our lack of information.
· The authors introduce the concept of
Deep Listening as a way of studying the world based on how it “presents itself
when we listen rather than look upon it.”
· To support their thesis, the authors
refer to the work of Bourdieu: “of the five senses, vision is the most
distancing one”, and Bishop Berkeley “sounds are as close to us as our
thoughts.
· Sound values and sonic bridges: here the
authors refer to sound vs. noise: who defines what is acceptable (Civilized) or
not: “who defines the nature of noise, sound and music”.
· More than just listening to music,
the users let “sounds manage (their)mood, feelings and sense of time and place”
· Authors refer to the work of Fran
Tonkiss and her reference to “social deafness” in urban life: users stop
engaging with others but instead prefer solitude “sounds transform public space
into private property”
· Sounds of the wind and Silence: sounds
can be comforting or a hindrance depending on the listeners.
Strength of the essay:
the authors bring up to both classic and contemporary references:
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” that describes how the way we may see and
understand the shadows on the wall does not mean it makes up reality, as well
as Tonkiss’ work about urban life.
Weakness: This introduction is not
organized effectively. A bit heavy-handed, the essay emphasizes
judgment over explanation: it is very clear that the authors are stating how
things are. There is no room for dialog.
Jargon: Scopic Metaphors,
sensory prophylactic, epistemology, acoustemology
Carpman,
J., & Grant, M. A. (2002). Wayfinding: A Broad view. In Handbook of
Environmental Psychology. Sage.
Wayfinding and disorientation are the main opponent
behavioral subjects in this essay. The authors define the complex issue of
wayfinding as a cost of disorientation and a widespread problem in many
environments “from city scale to site planning, landscaping, architecture,
interior design and graphic design”. Having a sense of direction is not enough;
the design of the built environment has to be conducive for the users. The
authors illustrate their thesis with the examples of the medical environment
design being poorly addressed by the architects and interior designers. While
suggesting design guidelines, the authors stress on the need to design with
careful examination and observation related specifically to each project.
· Wayfinding system is not signage. The
authors define wayfinding as: “Knowing where you are, knowing your destination,
knowing and following the best route to your destination, being able to
recognize your destination upon arrival and reversing the process to find your
way back out.”
· Good wayfinding is conducive to customer
satisfaction and helps an organization to market itself. The opposite is true
as well.
· Wayfinding behavior is rooted in
people’s own skills. Yet the author suggests that there are 4 strategies:
1-seing one’s destination 2- following a path 3-using environmental elements
4-forming a cognitive map.
· Design elements that support wayfinding:
facility layout with a good functional adjacency, architectural and Interior
Design differentiation, landmarks that are noticeable, signs at “decision
points”, maps and finally appropriate lighting.
Strength of the essay: organized
and well broken down.
Weakness: Redundant and lengthy, the
information gets diluted. Illustrations could have been equally about
successful design and not just ineffective wayfinding.
Jargon: wayfinding,
disorientation, signage, sense of direction
MODULE 2: BODY AND PLACE: BEYOND ANTHROPOMETRIC
Gayle Epp,
“Furnishing the unit from the viewpoint of the elderly, the designer and HUD”, November
15, 1980
The essay is a comparative analysis of the actual needs and
perceived requirements of a group of end users. In her paper, Housing Planner
Gayle Epp, illustrates her thesis by studying the divergences between
designer’s furniture arrangement planning and the actual need of the end users,
here the elderly. To further illustrate that notion, the author uses the
example of the elderlies moving to a subsidized home which is typically smaller
than their original residence and studies successively the amount of furniture,
the type of furniture and furniture arrangements.
· She first evokes the importance for the elderlies to
make their space a place that contains their lifetime memories (dining set,
photographs, knock knack, furniture…)
· Epp uses 4 different Data Sources to develop her
thesis: the MIT study of a 55 elderly-occupied units, the HUD minimum Property
standards (policy makers), a group of practicing design professionals
interested in housing issues and finally a group of beginning architectural
students.
· Furnishability requirements and HUD Minimum Property
standards: “Space shall be provided in the (living area, dining area, or
bedroom) to accommodate the following furniture or its equivalent with
comfortable use and circulation space”.
· The 4 data were compared on the amount of furniture,
the specific furniture pieces and their arrangement in the units. NOTE: all
group data underestimated by approximately 50% the amount of furniture the
elderly have.
· Student interpreted elderly’s choice of having a
rich environment (full of memories) as clutter (overcrowded) and chooses to
design the unit very sparsely: there is no attempt to understand and design for
the end user in mind.
· Additionally, HUD (policy maker) is the least
accurate in the representation of end user’s furnishing.
· Elderly arrange their furniture against the
wall and like symmetry
· Designers and students tend to define activity zones
and arrange furniture in center of rooms
Conclusion: Architects and designers should not rely only on their
personal experience. “The average architect does not think the same way
as the average person.”
The essay raises the following concerns:
· The question of whether the end user doesn’t know
better and should follow the designer’s instruction or the designer should
design to fit the end user’s approach of his space.
· Architects’ lack of understanding of the end user’s
needs
· Are nursing homes and elderly home care places are
not designed with the challenges of the end users in mind.
Strength of the paper: the issue of the lack of study and
understanding from the architects applies to other types of buildings/spaces.
Weakness: the paper lacks the point of view of the end user, only
graphs illustrate the end users final furniture arrangements but we only assume
eh reasons why the end user modifies the furniture arrangement.
Jargon: Furnishability, furniture arrangement,
furniture mapping, habitability
Peter
Monaghan, “Modern Play Spaces May Be Safe, but They’re Stultifying, Some
Experts Say,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 7, 2000, sec.
Research, http://chronicle.com/article/Modern-Play-Spaces-May-Be/6750/
In the Newspaper article Monaghan interviews cultural geographers
who study how children interact with their environment and how they deal with
establishing their role and place in society and how to they handle social
reproduction. To support the article, the Author focuses on and refers to
writers who have studied the children need to create liberating spaces.
One of the themes that are valuable in the article is the social reproduction
amongst a generation of children who don’t seem to have any natural
interactions with others and with the natural environment. The other
theme is the lack of the parent’s role and place to educate their children and
instead let TV and activity packed schedules do the job.
· Through Participatory research in a fast food
playground, the geographer “explores the changing nature of childhood as a
function of changing cityscape, patterns and styles of habitation, and everyday
live s while noticing the “erosion of children’s autonomous play”
· The article evoke social reproduction (perpetuation
of values form parents and grandparents) as the main concern when it comes to
today’s children who don’t have much experience with the developing “cognitive,
linguistic and – in geography – spatial skills” – what happens to the kids when
they don’t explore the nature around them, their neighborhood and its social
activities that are organized?
· Virtual reality
· The way social, cultural and political identities
children form? The journalist rises the concerns of what role are parents
playing to educate their kids.
· The geographer sums up his concerns by stating “we
are creating a generation that doesn’t know how to do nothing”
· Reference to D.W.
Winnicott’s approach: emphasizes on paly and affect over logic and reason –
introduction of the concept of “transitional spaces”: “emotional. Intellectual
and spiritual play and experiment in which children reconcile the external
world with their developing ego.
· Study by professor Ms. Kats on Sudanese children
after it was incorporated in to a state-run agricultural development project –
capitalist system – it “disrupted the age-old, unified way in which children
worked, played, and engaged in formal learning while assisting in their
families’ daily activities. The study shows that play “had previously
been “a creative means for the acquisition, use, and consolidation of
environmental knowledge” – children worked and play at the same time and it had
a positive outcome.
· Study on children in NYC where cuts in funds of
spaces such as playgrounds have disrupted efforts to make children
self-sufficient in spite of tight family structures.
· Katz concludes with: Disinvestment in spaces
correlates with criminalization of young people.
· In Susan M. Ruddick book “Young and Homeless in
Hollywood: Mapping Social Identities” point s out the positive outcome of
young people hanging outside and the impact on their public perception
The strength of this article lies in the great diversity of essays
and book references for the reader to understand the complex issues children
encounter to define their identity and status in society.
Jargon: Autonomous culture, social reproduction,
spatial skills, transitional spaces
Jon Lang, Creating
Architectural Theory: The Role of the Behavioral Sciences in Environmental
Design (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1987).
In his book written for entry level interior designer, urban
design expert Professor Jon Lang describes in Chapter 12 of his book,
Anthropometrics and Ergonomics and how these fields of study deal with the
relationship between physiological capabilities and metabolic processes and the
built environment.
· The author introduces the subject referring to Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs. (1-Physiological , 2-Safety etc.) The built
environment is here to provide certain levels of bodily comforts starting with
the basic need for shelter. However, anthropometrics and ergonomics are
here to define the environment as more than that: the environment should
provide also comfort to its user. Yet there is more than just comfort
that counts as the reasons why we’ve become more concerned with anthropometric
and ergonomics. There are energy crisis, accidents, catering people who are
impaired and legislation.
· Designers must study data that is specific to
building types whether domestic or office. Because people have different
physiological abilities to use the environment they evolve in. In fact,
amount and type of space is often underestimated because of assumptions of the
average person.
· The sense of a place being comfortable or
uncomfortable is very subjective and changes from one person to another.
New technologies have improved to give people more comfort. For example
temperature can be controlled more easily today in the built environment - the
idea of perception of temperature is supported by a visual graph: perception of
comfort of 845 office workers in NY.
· Another factor of comfort is illumination levels in
the design: Natural vs. artificial. The levels of illumination and contrast
determine a great deal of comfort for the eyes.
· Additionally color perception plays a role in the
sense of visual pleasure or not: the right amount of contrast in colors is key
for the psychological comfort. But the psychological effect of color
perception has been determined physiologically and culturally. This idea is
supported by a graph of level of appreciation and effect of colors: distance,
warmth & mental stimulation.
· Sound is a direct concern in architecture because
acoustical qualities play also an important part in the comfort factor: Sound
and noise are interferences with activities throughout the day and night.
· Finally the growing concern of designing a
Barrier-free environment is the most important in design today. The
barrier-free need for people with reduced mobility has to be addressed as well:
wheelchair-users, hard of hearing, blind. The author raises the question
of which degree environment has to be made accessible for all.
· Yet, overall personalities and social and cultural
environments influence the perception of our environment as well. There are
social and cultural norms that are to be taken into consideration when
designing.
· But more importantly the correlation between body
types and personality, diet/nutrition, physical development, health care access
and Socio-economic status has to be addressed.
“People are prepared to put up with physiological discomfort in an
environment or its furnishings when its symbolic aesthetic value is high or
when it is important for them in carrying out some activity.”
Conclusion: Lang
concludes on how what is considered as good sizes vary from culture to culture
but the designer’s role strongly remains in showing the user better ways to
carrying out activities with maximum ease and comfort.
Jargon: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Static
Anthropometrics and Dynamic anthropometric, Socio-economic status.
Roger S.
Ulrich, How design impacts wellness; The Healing Environment The
Healthcare Forum Journal (1992)
In his article, Ulrich focuses on how the built environment
impacts, whether positively or negatively, the wellbeing of its end user and on
how designers’ goals should be promoting wellness. The author develops his
thesis around the concept of Supportive Design and its advantages such as
stress reduction, marketing and demand from end users and employees, lower care
cost, lower construction costs.
To support the need for better design Ulrich points out how the
built environment is designed to accommodate a young population without taking
into consideration the importance of designing for an aging population.
· Bad design vs. good design: “Research has linked
poor design to anxiety, delirium, elevated blood pressure, increased need for
pain medication, and longer hospital stays following surgery.”
· Institutional characteristics of design in
hospitals: Little attention is given to the psychological needs of patients and
visitors
· Poorly designed facilities: noisy, invade
privacy, interfere with social support.
· Physiological response: increased blood pressure
reduced immune system functioning
· Behavioral response: verbal outburst, social
withdrawal, sleeplessness, alcohol abuse, noncompliance with medication regime.
· Design must foster a sense of control, access to
social support, access to positive distractions and that is access to visual
privacy for gown clad patients, gardens and grounds accessible to patients’
control of room temperature, better location of staff workstation to avoid
interruption.
· Access to social support: overnight accommodation
for family members, comfortable visitor waiting areas, areas that support
patient/visitor social interaction
· Positive distractions that produces positive
feelings: windows, nature elements (trees, plants, water), happy and
caring human faces and benign animals such as pets. The restorative
influence of nature scenes reduces worrisome thoughts. Also, visual stimulation
is key: fosters more rapid recovery for the brain impairment. Additionally to
natural features Wall Art can be used. But it must be chosen carefully:
there are examples of negative effects when art is not chosen thoughtfully and
increases stress in patients (example of abstract painting) Ulrich suggests
placing visual stimulation on ceilings for those who can’t sit/walk.
Ulrich concludes with the importance of integrating thoughtful
design early in the programming of design.
Margaret
P. Calkins, Designing for an aging population Ideas: Innovative Designs in
Environments for an aging society (1992)
In her short article, the author uses the example of the elderly
population to show the problems a group of people meet when in a space not
addressing their physiologic challenges. She suggests the following
design solutions:
· Visual: Use Larger letters, Avoid lighting
the background of signs, Avoid blues, greens and neutral colors, Provide higher
illumination, Diminish glares, Avoid uneven lighting, Ensure flexibility in
lighting options
· Auditory: Use sound absorbing materials and
minimize background noises
· Motor challenges: Make available
seating areas where excessive walking is expected, provide handrails
Jargon: Supportive design, Sensory deprivation,
wellness, healing environment, visual stimulation
Julius
Panero and Martin Zelnik, Human Dimension and Interior Space: A Source Book
of Design Reference Standards (Watson-Guptill, 1979).
The book is written for student architects, interior designer and
industrial designers. In the chapter Anthropometric Theory, the authors
point out the necessity for the designers to become more aware of the data
available and its applicability to the design of interior spaces.
· In 1940, the sources of data come mostly from the
military sector: this is the 1st time there is an actual
need for anthropometric data and it is for the industrial and aircraft
industries. The study aims at measuring the human body to determine
differences in individuals within a group.
· Body sizes vary with age, sex, race/ethnicity and
occupational groups. There are 2 factors that influence the body sizes: Age
factor: body dimensions peak in late teens and then decrease and Socioeconomic
factors: contribute to body growth freedom from childhood diseases and better
nutrition available those with higher incomes.
The authors organize the chapter as following:
1. Types of data: Structural (static) and Functional (Dynamic)
2. Presentation of Data is usually done in a graphic forms or
tabular form, both to indicate frequency.
3. Percentiles: designers deal with the 90% (average size) of the
population
4. Variability and reliability: “socioeconomic study has indicated
a significant difference in stature between people having different
occupations”. It was observed that the measurements of general body sizes within
a country may change over a period of time: Graph indicates a growth in the
stature of U.S. males from generation to generation.
Rachel N.
Weber, “Manufacturing Gender in Commercial and Military Cockpit Design,” Science,
Technology, & Human Values 22, no. 2 (April 1, 1997): 235-253.
In her essay, Weber uses the concepts of ergonomics and
anthropometrics to compare the treatment of gender as an ergonomic
consideration within military and commercial cockpit design. It is most
importantly about how to change that. To illustrate the gender-based exclusion
the author focuses on the example of how Cockpits have been built to
specifications based on male anthropometry “Cockpit design specifications have
protected what has traditionally been a male occupation.”
· Design bias is not
restricted to the military; commercial technologies such as aircraft,
automobiles, and architecture are also built to accommodate male anthropometry.
One of the main point of the article is the demonstration of how and why the
“interests of women pilots could prevail in the traditionally male preserve of
the military”. In fact historically “many scholars of gender and
technology have questioned women's access to particular technologies” (Wajcman
1991).
· To understand how women’s bodies
are excluded by design, the author traces “design bias” and “boundary makers”
to focus on the problem of technology itself and how it excludes women and shorter-statured
men. “How are cockpits designed to accommodate women's bodies? When
is a particular flight deck "gender neutral," and when is male bias
embodied in the actual design, in the engineering specifications? How can
biased technologies be altered to become more "women friendly"?”
One of the main themes is “the boundaries between men's and
women's social space.
Reppy (1993, 6) notes that it is not that women are not physically
capable of flying these particular aircraft or that they are not equally
exposed to danger in other aircraft; rather denying women access to combat
aircraft is a way of protecting a distinctly male arena.
· Weber’s research then develops on
the prospect of regulating accommodation which is a decision to standardize any
technology: it is often contested because it can be very costly to retrofit
existing technology but the economic benefits can be appealing. Here pursuing
to design for man of smaller stature opens up to other markets: “Pragmatists also
pointed to the prospect of foreign military sales to countries with
smaller-sized populations, which would make design accommodation an important
economic consideration as well.”
· The author concludes that there is
a need for a change. “In the same way that design specifications can exclude
women, they can also be redrawn to include them--given the political momentum.”
The two examples (military vs. commercial cockpits) show how regulations
can enact changes.
The strength of the essay lies in how using regulations to make
changes is possible. The same can apply to sustainable design and extend to
changing the mindset that is needed in design practices. As a general
rule, a project has to be economically viable for changes to happen.
Economic benefits and political special interest groups are what finally push
new standards through.
Jargon: symbolic markers, social space, Ergonomics,
anthropometric
MODULE 1: SENSE OF PLACE
Colson Whitehead (2001, November 11). The Way We Live Now:
11-11-01; Lost and Found. New York Times.
The essay is about the memories of long gone places in NYC and how
they still exist through the eyes of its citizens, New Yorkers. It is
written from a very personal point of view, in a very emotional way.
In his short article written 2 months after 9/11 attack, the
writer connects with the readers very powerfully by describing that one is a
New Yorker the first time they say ''That used to be…”. The essay grabs
our attention by using the expression “private New York”: He prompts the
reader to recall memories of their city, by triggering intimate images of the
“1st experience”, the first moments they were in NY and “tried to make those
new streets [theirs]”.
Romantically, Whitehead humanizes the city: he associates the City
to a person who knows each of its inhabitants just like each inhabitant knows
the city. To further his point he mentions that he “never got a chance to
say goodbye to the twin towers”; a feeling that all New Yorkers share. He
further humanizes the apartments in whimsical description: for example:
“They could piece together the starts and finishes of your relationships.”
The main point of the essay is that the city exists through the
eyes and memories of specific places by its people, regardless of the
generations passing by.
Whitehead concludes the article on the fallen twin towers still
standing in our memories and therefore still existing: “the twin towers still
stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows (…)”
Proshansky (1983) Place-identity: Physical World
Socialization of the Self. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
In his academic paper Proshansky aims to describe how people’s
identity is closely connected to the places where they are from and/or live in.
He defines the self-identity in connection to the place-identity
and how the environment we live in influences our sense of self. He
describes how, first as a child, we define ourselves in the following
environments: School, home and neighborhood. Later on, as adults we continue to
define our identity and social role in the working environment as well as the
place we live in with an emphasis on the urban setting. The author points
out the risk of loss of individuality when a person is displaced to a new
setting that is lacking of his cultural heritage.
He concludes on proposing to redefine the concept of
place-identity to urban-identity.
Unless I did not understand well, I disagree with the author
regarding a “loss of individuality” when a person is displaced. Proshansky
article is more in line with how a new place may initially create self-turmoil
but it can ultimately both strengthen and contribute to our sense of self.
The paper is written in an academic style
Jargon: Place-identity, self-identity,
social attributes, human privacy, territoriality, personal space, crowding
behavior, setting interaction.
Michael Chabon (2009, July 16). Manhood for Amateurs: The
Wilderness of Childhood. The New York Review of Books Volume 56,
Number 12
In his essay Chabon describes his childhood memories growing up
running free. In the first part he explains how autonomy leads to knowing
your surroundings and develops the imagination. The author grabs the attention
of the reader by describing his personal experience as a kid in a very poetic
way full of great imaginary.
In the second part of the essay Chabon points out how today’s
generation of parents don’t let their children free to discover on their own their
surroundings. He makes reference to the increased anxiety and
irrational fear of parents over possible accidents and abduction “product of
the consumer reports mentality”. While he develops further the loss of
development of children’s imagination, the author concludes on the sad
realization that kids just don’t play outside in the wilderness together
anymore, away from adult supervision, like he used to.
The main point of this essay is we are experiencing the end of
“free range children”.
I would take it further by describing the reasons why concerned
“helicopter parents” today are groundlessly hovering over their kids. The
author could also perhaps come up with ways the parents of today could be
educated on value of “running free.”
Andre Aciman (May 5,2000) Shadow Cities . Letters of Transit:
Reflections on Exile, Identity, Language, and Loss, The New Press New York,
Published in Collaboration with the New York Public Library.
This essay is autobiographical. Andre Aciman, an immigrant from Egypt
based in New York, starts telling us this story by describing his feeling of
loss of stability, when he witnesses a familiar place, Straus Park, in his NY
neighborhood, seemingly being demolished. He further explains that this fear
relates to all people who are in exile, who have no more roots. The
author tells us the story of how the park is the crossroad of many places
coming together and shares his memories about the people and how his
imagination could run there. This is the place where other inhabitants of
the neighborhood gather together creating the wonderful sense of
community. Strauss Park is located on an actual crossroad but it is also
the crossroad of foreigners and languages, generations and social status.
For Aciman, Travelling elsewhere in time is the most compelling
attribute of places, like Straus Park, that make our environment. He
further explains that the beloved place actually represents his home town,
though based on a fantasy.
He concludes with an unexpected denouement: Strauss Park was not
being demolished but only being improved/renovated.
The major point of this essay is the importance to achieve
stability by adjusting to and fitting in our surroundings by making them
familiar.
Jargon and
main ideas: Exile, Identity, language and Loss.
This was my favorite reading because I relate to it.
Clare Cooper (1971). The House as Symbol of the Self. Berkeley,
CA: Conari Press.
The major point of this essay is how the house reflects how man
sees himself. In her paper, Cooper doubts the conventional meaning of the
house.
First she uses Karl Jung’s theories as another way to understand
the house function. The author uses 3 main following concepts and jargon
from Jung: the collective unconscious, the archetype and Symbol as well as
identity, psychic mesh, anthropomorphizing (house with eyes, etc…). For
instance, she uses examples from contemporary architecture, poetry, and
literature and dreams to show how houses are invested with human qualities.
Finally Cooper uses Jung theory of dreams as a way to interpret
the symbolic meaning of house in people’s dreams.
Overall the house is discussed as something sacred to people, a
point of reference to structure the world around them. (For the child first
there is the womb, then the mother, followed by the bedroom, then the house).
The success of the article lies in using Jung’s concepts as a way
to describe the relationship between the House and the Self.
One of the weaknesses is that the article forces the reader to
accept Jungian ideas of self. The article depends on the viewer accepting this
idea in order for it to work. One way to take it further would be
considering other ways of understanding “the self”.
