Residents and Space by Architecture+Philosophy

RESIDENTS AND SPACE

CONCEPTUAL COLOURING-IN BOOK / Resarc, Philosophies 2013 / Anna Braide Eriksson

CONTENTS Introduction

PART 1 5 Blog posts:

Theory in the Eye of the Beholder Agents and Revolutions Unseen Enemy Pliable as a Wind Vane

Conclusions on above blog posts

PART 2 15 Blog posts:

Society With Fading or Aleterd Putty? Human Limits? Affect My Home is My Castle

Conclusions on above blog posts

INTRODUCTION This conceptual colouring-in book is a compilation of exercises from the course Philosophies, Resarc 2013. Communication, dialogue and exercises were practiced on a blogsite and this book is a last exercise, summoning blog posts and concluding and relating subjects to my own on-going thesis work. The blog posts are paired and conclusions are made on two subjects; The role of the housing market and The meaning of home. Housing market prepossess conditions that makes major imprints on the subject of residential mobility and residential design. The situation on the housing market right now with many instigators acting with different agendas for own private causes and for a seemingly common best makes residents become wind vanes in a game where market rules. This situation influence residential design in new housing production and thus becomes a factor in my ongoing thesis work with flexible residential design and social sustainability. Home usually is described as a place of identity and belonging, being not only the space inside our homely walls but the extended space we comprise in a daily life, the grocery shop, the neighbors, the close-by park. Today, with major distances to span to daily work and social life and with a life-world extending on the internet, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;homeâ&#x20AC;? becomes more fragmented and the role of physical space can be questioned. The meaning of home, how we use it and length of time span living in one residence connects to my thesis work as closely related to the residential design and flexibility issues. I realise now, after having made conclusions, that I dwell on the edge of a large field of questions dealing with definitions of residential space. Physical and social space are two aspects of how we understand the home and the dwelling. This seems to me a wide, essential and interesting field. A study in this field might add many interesting reflections upon the subject of residences and residing. No time for this now though.

PART 1

The role of the housing market

a focusing on processes and not objects in the architects practice, as a more collective way of working with space.

ARC

HIT

ECT

THEORY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER PART 1 Foucault describes the informed people that possess knowledge and are capable of acting in the struggle for democracy and just power. But in who’s interest do we act? Tools for democracy discussed in the field of Critical Theory. The interdisciplinary way to work and embark new angles of reflection as is performed in Critical Theory is often performed within research work dealing with e.g. minority groups. The goal for this work can be regarded as a work performed for a better, more just society and can be seen as an action for democracy. The Critical Theory is also used in other contexts, military theorists embark new angles of reflection to conceptualize the urban domain and develop war strategies, where one aim is to destabilize democracy. The goal for this work can be regarded as a work performed for exploiting imperialism. The reflecting interdisciplinary method seems to me being a tool created for fostering democracy and also, at the same time, it is used for the empowering of imperialism and capitalism. To have a theory seems to provide a ‘legalised’ explanation to Your actions that can transcribe imperialism to something much more innocent. According to Foucault theory is by nature opposed to power, how does this match? Education in humanities is a weapon against imperialism. But is being appropriated as a powerful weapon of imperialism. ‘Empower the people’ says Foucault. PART 2 Can the Critical Theory be a tool for contemplating the conditions on the housing market where society fails and even becomes a tool for capital-surplus production? The housing shortage creates limited options of choice for many residents. Today these residents lack the possibility to adapt their homes for their everyday needs. Possibilities for life-style realizations and the individual´s influence on their own residence are almost completely lost. On the housing market the residence is considered as a commercialized lifestyle question and a commodity.

Education in humanities is a weapon against imperialism. But is being appropriated as a powerful weapon of imperialism. ‘Empower the people’ says Foucault. -

T O =N

ER S U

E SE

ND I Developers on the market and municipalities rewrite these actualities, the housing shortBL age, price levels on new housing and the production of residencies for a privileged group

in society is justified by so called ‘flyttkedjor’. New housing, providing high profitability when sold, supplies the market with capital. This acting makes a poor solution to the above stated situation. This process, which can be considered performed by society and market, can be regarded as a process feeding the capital-surplus production. The emperor’s new clothes…?

SEEI T O N = IND

The architect becomes a special agent FOR WHAT/FOR WHOM?

C TE

C R A

a tool for capital-surplus production?

USE

AGENTS AND REVOLUTIONS In Harvey’s article “The Right to the City” he claims that cities and city-growth today is the result of capital-surplus production. This also, he negotiates, conveys the connection between development of capitalism and urbanisation. Results are gated communities, privatized public space and gentrification forcing underpriviliged from the central city. Conclusions are that the city-growth today represents democracy’s suppression. What role does the urban planning play in this context and can architects, as one of the disciplines involved in the urban planning process, be agents for other goals than the capitalism – urbanisation goal? Awan, Schneider and Till describes a focusing on processes and not objects in the architects practice, as a more collective way of working with space. The architect becomes a special agent. In the ECObox project in Paris in 2001 Petrescu also describes this way of working, understanding spatial production as a collective forming process. The process empowers architects and users alike. In urban planning today we can also see new types of user-involved planning processes. These are however still exceptions. But back to Harvey now, he describes the French Revolution and the 1960’s reaction in US towards modernism and large scale urban planning as two examples representing reactions to the phenomena ‘capital-surplus production’. Today we still have this situation, capitalism growth, on the expense of democracy, but now in a substantially larger scale due to globalisation. Does this mean that times now steer towards another “revolution”? How can the practitioner architect work ‘as an agent’ when the role very much today has become a tool for market interests? And finally, speaking from Harvey’s described former experiences, what foretells a change now, this time, of the capital-surplus production, since Harvey speaks of a condition started for more than 160 years ago and so many “revolutions” has passed since then.

So how can information be trusted.

impossible for externals to chose side and grasp truth and motifs.

BLIND=NOT SEEINGBLIND

UNSEEN ENEMY Wikileaks, the non profit media organization, targets on reporting on information and news to the public. They publish secret information and classified media from anonymous sources and has been working since 2006 WAR 1 Wikileaks published information about the Afghanistan war, corruption in Kenya, Baghdad airstrike, Guantanamo Bay detention camp. They collaborate with global media organisations to release information. Their goal is stated: â&#x20AC;&#x153;..//..to bring important news and information to the public..//..One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth.â&#x20AC;? Their action has of course caused collisions and created opposition from concerned states whereof USA is the most affected since they are the heaviest performer in world conflict situations.

WAR 2 The website, the main tool for action, is repeatedly eliminated from different domain systems and common is also service-denial attacks. As a result the website is available on multiple servers and with different domain names. Sweden is seen as a safe country to host the website. Julian Assange, founder and spokesperson, explains that the Swedish constitution gives the information providers total legal protection. It is forbidden according to Swedish law for any administrative authority to make inquiries about the sources of any type of newspaper. Of course, it is also important that the host compose a secure site. The safe hosting and Swedish laws make it difficult for any authorities to eliminate Wikileaks. The website is hosted under what is called bulletproof hosting; Wikileaks free speech online are protected by Swedish constitution. Maintenance of own servers at undisclosed locations, no keeping of logs and the use of encryption to protect sources and other confidential information are fundamental precautions to survive.

WAR 3 So how can this classified, state-secret information be trusted. Is this not an excellent opportunity to spread false information, working in the interests of various, powerful groups, both in state and concern interests, surveiling power and capital. In 2010 Assange states that submitted documents are vetted by a group of five reviewers, with expertise in different topics such as language or programming, who also investigate the background of the leaker if his or her identity is known. Wikileaks states that they have never released a misattributed document!!

BLIND=NOT SEEING

D=NOT SEEING

BLIND=NOT PR-war against Wikileaks PR-consultants: Wikileaks shall prepare for large resistance from shouldered governments Wikileaks disclose more and more powerful enemies. Swedish media risks being a useful dummy in the communication war between Wikileaks and resourceful enemies, says debaters..//..Despite that few governments indicates large concerns so far, Wikileaks sits in the middle of a communication war with counterparts conducting unlimited resources when it comes to economic resources and communication experts. Wikileaks on their behalf relay upon the single individual capacity to announce their message..//..We will see increased reports on down-sides of Wikileaks disclosures..//..Many communication medias nonexistent journalism on foreign fields will effect the reporting, resulting in risks for angled and affected information influenced by interest groups. This makes it impossible for externals to chose side and grasp truth and motifs. Aftonbladet 10 maj 2013

“I don’t speak for USA-acting but I am an opponent to Wikileaks. Wikileaks does not support world democracy. Some things we don´t have to be informed about. If a neutral investigation by the world nations would have come to the conclusion that this information shall be published, OK. But who knows Wikileaks actual agenda? No, I am more afraid of what organisations as Wikileaks can do to the world than what for example USA can do.” / BLOG, Happymtb.org

New organization helping Wikileaks out in a cramed situation A group of activists has now started an organization “Freedom of the pressfoundation” to help Wikileaks economically. It was in December 2010 that Visa, Mastercard and Paypal stated that they no longer accept transactions to Wikileaks. The blockade has lead to that Wikileaks today is economically cramed….. 2012-12-17 Flashback / www.flashback.se

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The following conclusion is a rendering of the blog posts: Theory in the Eye of the Beholder, Unseen Enemy and Agents and Revolutions

a tool for capital-surplus production?

a tool for capital-surplus pro

PLIABLE AS A WIND VANE The role of the housing market

Can Critical Theory be a tool for contemplating the conditions on the housing market where society fails and even becomes a tool for capital-surplus production? Today housing is seen as part of a commodified lifestyle-question. Essential long-term functions in the residence such as room configurations and usability of the rooms are not considered. Instead choosing the right surface-layers and kitchen utilities becomes the main chore when buying an apartment. Developers are happy to provide this in terms of offering a multiple of â&#x20AC;&#x153;personal choicesâ&#x20AC;? wherefrom the resident can choose to assure an individual product. With terms as user-involved process and individually-designed apartments a picture of high quality residences are obtained. The user involvement delivers participation and thus more likely an engaged and satisfied resident but the residential qualities obtained can be valued from different perspectives. A long-term perspective on residential design can involve the residenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s usability for a variety of households during a longer time-span. This perspective accentuates the residence as a societal asset, designed to enable maintenance and usability over a larger life-span. If this perspective was the one enfolded by housing developers or a knowledge existing among users the market would have another profile. As it is now the users would need enlightenment to request a more qualified residence. In the residential-design-process the architect design the floor plan and can lift forward particular qualities. Architects can survey long term qualities and broader perspectives than others involved. This is not often happening. Does this make the architect to a tool for the housing market? Experiences from my own work as practicing architect shows that the rules and regulations and the size of the residence constitutes a regulating frame in the design work with floor plans, long-term conditions are neglected. The floor plan area is minimized to reduce costs and current rules and regulations fulfillment becomes the standards for room-sizes. Spaces are designed down to their absolute limits of their designated functions, often determined through furniture layouts and with the nuclear

family as a starting point for the design.These apartments can to many residents appear as high quality apartments, providing long-term sustainability supplied by society (the participating actors; developer, architect, entrepreneur, community and so forth). Users sight are blurred. The markets power stays unseen and the users are fed the illusion of a well-designed, sustainable commodity. Between surface-layers and the belief of longterm qualities the users are left uninformed, pliable as a wind vane in a gale.

oduction?

a tool for capital-surplus production?

PART 2

The meaning of home

SOCIETY WITH FADING OR ALTERED PUTTY? Wikipedias definition of the term society is described, The term “society” came from the Latin word societas, which in turn was derived from the noun socius (“comrade, friend, ally”; adjectival form socialis) used to describe a bond or interaction among parties that are friendly, or at least civil. Without an article, the term can refer to the entirety of humanity (also: “society in general”, “society at large”, etc.), although those who are unfriendly or uncivil to the remainder of society in this sense may be deemed to be “antisocial”. Used in the sense of an association, a society is a body of individuals outlined by the bounds of functional interdependence, possibly comprising characteristics such as national or cultural identity, social solidarity, language, or hierarchical organization. In our history the building of societies has been a strong foundation providing welfare, peace and technical- and cultural development. Communication, being the meaningful exchange of information between people, can gather peoples individual skills, starting processes. Communication between civitas can be seen as the operative substance in the body of society, the tool and the glue or putty forwarding the process of development. This points at our mutual dependence. Society is a group project, developing and culturing aggregated knowledge, experiences and skills. But also a pending practice in apprehension of the other. Our possibilities to see other people and other needs than our own. Without this practice or group project, sustaining the insight of the other, society as we know it would not be possible.

Today in Europe there is an enhanced hype for appraising the individual. This can be seen in life-style magazines, advertisement, working life career and demographic statistics. Our way of living is going through radical changes. The family is no longer the obvious base in society. Statistics show single households as the most common. Our way of residing is in a constant state of flux where friendship- and collective-living is becoming more common. Sloterdijk describes the one-room apartment as an architectural and topological analogue of the individualism of modern society. He also describes “..the setting free of solitary individuals with the help of individualized home and media technologies..” as a reality. Communication among individuals is more likely to take place through the telecommunicative integration of non assembled people than in physically meeting other people. He puts no moral judgment into this conclusion. The apartment as living cell represents the atomic level in the field of habitat conditions. The one-room apartment with its single occupant is the cellular nucleus of a private world bubble. The single bubble forms a container for the self-relationships of the occupant. The apartment serves as the stage for self-pairing. One can ask if this means that there is less or no need for meeting other people when the single life is described as an auto-symbiosis, meaning that the form of the couple is fulfilled in the individual, who relates to himself as the inner other. Does the individualism of modern society mean a progression in egocentrism? Implying a preoccupation with our own internal world, where self-relevant information is seen to be more important in shaping one’s judgments than thoughts about others and other-relevant information. The societal putty, communication and prac-

tice of interdependence of individuals, the recognition of the other, seems distant in this context. Reversing to the one-room apartment as a living cell, the built analogue of individualism and reflecting on Churchill’s often quoted words “We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.” Are the built, residential, one-room structures a negative agent, countering a good society or are we only facing another, differentiated way of communication and interdependence?

HUMAN LIMITS?

Distance is a major variable in societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development

THE WHOLE WORLD nr 1 Small distances In the first half of 20th century the city was a cluster of individuals mostly living and working within a limited area, developing a network of social relations also within this limited area. Daily life was often characterized of short distances both for work and purchase. Social network, relatives and friends often lived nearby. The near neighborhood was practicing social control; modeling values, norms and regulations. Meaning the closest district being a controlled, physical space. The physically lived world was a fairly concentrated district/city practicing social control.

THE WHOLE WORLD nr 2 Larger distances Urbanisation of today means people moving to live and work in the larger cities or metropoles. This means that more people live in the cities. Today also people socialising not necessarily lives in the same area, people are more spread out, commuting can mean travelling or contacts via networks. Social control, meaning knowing Your closest neighbors, is reduced. The social network, relatives and friends, place for work and the service we employ, conducts a number of physically spread out islands requiring travelling. The physically lived world is a spread out archipelago with little social control.

THE WHOLE WORLD nr 3 Unlimited distances? With network techniques continues developing, daily lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of many people are depending on contacts through network devices. In work it dominates the communication with colleagues or consultants. In leisure time it keeps contact with friends and relatives. It sometimes is a lifestyle conveyer (for ex. Face book) and it also is engaged for numerous services as queries and different type of entertainment. The network, providing possibilities of an almost limitless range in many aspects also presents entries into a larger world. Through media such as films, computer games and network-groups, possibilities of another reality can come closer and even sometimes dominate over what is the real, lived situation. Are we passing into hyperreality? The physically lived world might be without attendance, lacking social control. Hyperreality is seen as a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins. Reflection: The further distance we can span the more fractionate becomes our physically lived space and control is no longer on a local bases but maintained elsewhere.

Uncontrolled not being under control; out of control extravagant or extreme

AFFECT exactly what is it understandable or not is the not understandable tangible can it be controlled how can it affect the individual who is in control how can it affect society is there a society of affect

tyda.se

abandoned, independent, unbounded, unchecked, unconstrained, undisciplined, ungoverned, uninhibited, unsuppressed, wild thesaurus.com

en.wikipedia.org

Invisible

Force 1. physical power or strength possessed by a living being: He used all his force in opening the window. 2. strength or power exerted upon an object; physical coercion; violence: to use force to open the window; to use force on a person. 3. strength; energy; power; intensity: a personality of great force. 4. power to influence, affect, or control; efficacious power: the force of circumstances; a force for law and order. 5. Law. unlawful violence threatened or committed against persons or property.

Is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be invisible (literally, “not visible”). The term is often used in fantasy/science fiction, where objects are literally made unseeable by magical or technological means; however, its effects can also be seen in the real world, particularly in physics and perceptual psychology. Invisibility is often considered the supreme form of camouflage, as it doesn’t show any kind of vital, visual, nor any of the frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum such as radio, infrared, ultraviolet, etc. en.wikipedia.org

Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. More broadly, it is the state or quality of being aware of something. In biological psychology, awareness is defined as a human’s or an animal’s perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event.

dictionary.com

Understandable acceptable, clear, coherent, comprehensible, intelligible, justifiable, logical, lucid, pellucid, plain, reasonable, recognizable, simple thesaurus.com

Act Act/Power is a philosophical notion defined by Aristotle and known as entelechy en.wikipedia.org

Control

1. to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command. 2. to hold in check; curb: to control a horse; to control oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emotions. 3. to test or verify (a scientific experiment) by a parallel experiment or other standard of comparison. 4. to eliminate or prevent the flourishing or spread of: to control a forest fire. 5. Obsolete . to check or regulate (transactions), originally by means of a duplicate register 6. the act or power of controlling; regulation; domination or command: Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in control here? 7. the situation of being under the regulation, domination, or command of another: The car is out of control.

society often evinces stratification and/or dominance patterns in subgroups..//.. A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology. en.wikipedia.org

dictionary.com

Society

..//..Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger

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The following conclusion is a rendering of the blog posts:

Human Limits?, Society With Faded or Altered Putty and Affect

MY HOME IS MY CASTLE The meaning of home

The word home is used in a plenty of contexts and the meaning of the word can differ a lot. The word represents a social space as well as a physical space. Home constitutes a place of belonging and identity. In this way it can also be seen as a milieu shaping us as humans. What we think of as home does not have to be limited by the walls in our apartment but can also be the social context of known and less known people spanning from our own family to a neighborhood area. It can be the closest rooms but also the common stairwell, the yard in front of the multiple dwelling or the area we live in. The social context and continuity of housing in neighborhood areas can thus be seen as conditions defining home. These conditions also constitute major factors and fundamental building blocks in a sustainable urban fabric. Development is challenging this definition of home. Changes in number and distances of our daily transports have escalated during the last century. The development implies longer distances to daily work and social life for the individual. Other distances covered today is represented by a life-world extending on the internet. We might not commute with our closest neighbors anymore but with people far away that we haven’t met.

mographic transition in the western world, perspectives the small, individual apartment as an isolating home-container where the word home not relates to the closest neighborhood but to the apartment walls. Within this isolating home-container social space might no longer be a physical space but replaced by contacts through network devices. This scenery is of course an extreme perspective. The tendencies towards a restructured “home” cannot be seen as absolute. Instead of black or white we rest somewhere in-between, in a grey shade. One conclusion to the above described process could however be that the social space of home is transforming towards a more introvert process not reaching a neighborhood, and that the physical home-space is reducing in size as well as safety, implying that essential significances defining home is diminishing. This can in the future question the design of residences and residential-areas. The small apartment will no longer be the optimal or most practiced way of residing and housing in the neighborhood areas might no longer constitute the smallest building block in the sustainable urban fabric.

The home, meaning a socially- and physically known lifeworld, is restructured into islands of “homes” and in-between is left an unsafe, unknown world. This scenario coupled with today’s individualism and the on going de-