Kaegh Joshua Allen
Map : Lost : Meet Mapping the Change in Orientation. 28.01.2011
Introduction
A dissertation presented to the Department of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University In part fulfilment of the regulations for BA (Hons) in Architecture: Design and Practice
Statement of Originality This dissertation is an original piece of work which is made available for copying with permission of the Head of the Department of Architecture Signed:
Kaegh Joshua Allen 08071392
Druksland Physical and Social 15 January 1974, 11:30am - Michael Druks. Israeli-born artist applies the visual language of mapping for individual purposes. Flexible Geography. Charting our surroundings and ourselves.
The city is alive. A pulsating, breathing, growing creature. Nebulously adapting and being pinched and pulled to the correct shape. We are on the cusp of a new era. Current developments are giving us the ability to create ever more detailed approximations about our cities, and the maps and therefore the spaces we create are more accurate with new manifestations and implications. This paper hopes to highlight a few of the elements and key issues that arise from this metamorphosis. What are the intrinsic factors that make cities such exciting places to be in. What is it that gives them life?. Through the exploration of traditional mapping techniques and methodologies of orientating the city, and an appraisal of newer technologies that are being made available to us, this dissertation aims to highlight the positives and negatives of changes in contemporary urban perception. A focus on how we interact with our environment and how urban architecture can reflect our cultural identity. How should architecture deal with new technologies and the psychological implications that they carry? Is there a risk of these important elements of urban life being diluted by contemporary points of view and priorities? With extra levels of detail now being visualised it is making the previously ephemeral truly graspable. But conversely this new layer of information, which is controlled and essentially provides a singular viewpoint, is creating an internalised outlook. Our real vision is clouded by extra and perhaps superfluous information. Making us miss those serendipitous meetings that makes a city live. Is this being transferred to architecture, could excess and superficiality become more important than the soul of a space?
‘Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those that don’t believe in magic will never find it.’20 Roald Dahl - The Minpins. 1991.
This dissertation is divided into 3 chapters, each explaining a separate factor, but should be read together as a whole body of work followed by a Conclusion. MAP.
‘It’s Man’s Ability to Perceive, it’s the MAP.’17
TED (Technology, Education & Design) founder Richard Saul Wurman.
Exploring cartography as a discipline, its origins and various manifestations. As architects we need to use it as a tool, but not let ourselves become limited by the traditional, Cartesian rigidity of maps - especially in these times. Exploring new ways of mapping and what they allow us to see of the city. New technologies are creating more possibilities in terms of mapping therefore are we now able to perceive more clearly those unknowns about the urban realm?. LOST
‘We are the last generation that could lose themselves’ VIII Ed Parsons - Geospatial Technologist of Google.
A look at what these unmappable elements are. Looking at psychogeography and exploring the idea of leaving a trace on the city and how each individual has the ability to create their own map of the city, depending on their aims and ideas. Also examining newer technologies and analysing their effect on the true orientation of a city. Are we losing important elements of our heritage and perhaps our humanity by relying on modern technologies to guide us through the city? MEET.
‘It is not down in any map; true places never are’.XIII Herman Melville - Moby Dick. 1851
Focusing on ephemeral meeting events. Highlighting specific examples of artists, architects and also untrained inhabitants of cities who create temporary, movable and essentially unmappable meeting places. Places that bring people together, those that creates social interaction, but are officially unrecognized. Can we learn from these low-tech practices in these turbulent, techie times?
CONCLUSION. What is it that makes a city good? Through an analysis of the issues raised in the three chapters, this is a look at what factors help to make a city ‘good’, are new technologies aiding this goal? To have a holistic understanding of our world is something that we have always pursued. Through mapping the ephemera can we learn how to improve? Can architecture be used to aid this aim? The scratches and traces left by life lived inside this multifarious creature. Unplanned encounters with the unknown. The meetings that make life in a city so amazing. With spaces, other people and even ourselves.
Introduction References: 17. Amoroso. N (2010). The Exposed City. Routledge. USA 24. Dahl. R (1991). The Minpins. Puffin Books. UK VIII. Ed Parsons. (2010) www.edparsons.com XIII. MERIDIANS (2006). Jeremy Wood. (2006).www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery/land/merid- ians.html
Mapping The Meeting
Chapter : 1
Kaegh Joshua Allen
‘Mapmaking fulfils one of our deepest desires: Understanding the world around us and our place in it’5 Cartography and mapmaking from its origins has always been a way for us to control. A way for us to place a grip on reality, that have always been ‘tools of power, but also convey an inevitable romantic naivety’14(p. 1) They are strategic tools, for plotting crusades and preparing for battle. Navigational aids for adventure and discovery. Pieces of beauty to show power and importance. Visual representations of data, tangible of not. As Lynch explains in ‘Image of the City’: ‘Structuring and identifying the environments is a vital ability among all mobile animals.’12 and the most accessible and immediate way of doing this for us is through mapping. By identifying, grouping and setting to paper, we feel that we can define the spaces that surround us. Maps allow us to feel that we are in control.
‘It’s Man’s Ability to Perceive, it’s the MAP.’
TED (Technology, Education & Design) founder Richard Saul Wurman.17
The Ordinance Survey (Great Britain’s national mapping agency, and one of the largest producers of maps in the world) for example is by name a military operation (ordinance being mounted guns)14. It grew out of an attempt to control the Highlands of Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rebellion of 1746.14 (p.XIII) This exemplifies how maps begun and are still largely essentially a way of visually representing strategy and spatial orientation. A means of broadcasting control as simply and efficiently as possible. Maps are obviously an invaluable tool for architects. They explain the site, highlight infrastructure and used alongside site analysis can give information on weather, movement and many other factors. But inevitably as Katherine Harmon clarifies in her beautiful book ‘You Are Here’; ‘…the most important thing a map shows, if we pause to look at it long enough, if we travel upon it widely enough, if we think about it hard enough, is all the things we still do not know’.19 (p. 2) As architects we have a responsibility to consider as many aspects about spaces as possible. But often many of these are ephemeral, unpredictable phenomena. Every architecture student has gone through the monotonous experience of ‘site analysis’ – the basic and banal sun path diagram that plagues too many portfolios. We should be more creative and receptive to the way that we map our sites. This ‘balance between aesthetics (the art) and the empirical (the data)’17 (p. 117) is an important one to achieve, and if fused correctly can convey and help unravel elements of the city’s hidden landscape. The idea of ‘emotional cartography’ is something that originated with ‘La Carte du pays de Tendre’ FIG.1 (The Map of the Land of Tenderness). Created in 1654, by Madeleine de Scudery, it embodies a narrative voyage. 18(p. 2)
FIG. 1 - ‘La Carte du pays de Tendre’ maps an emotional journey.
The map charts an emotional itinerary, designed to explain the journey of a character in her novel Clelie. Along with trees, rivers and lakes there is an expression of ‘emotion materialized an a moving topography’18 (p. 2). In Atlas of Emotion, Giuliana Bruno suggests that this map, and the many maps that it inspired form a ‘link between people’ and are not just a represention of geographical information. The iconic maps of the Situationists also explored the idea of showing more; their maps explore the ‘three orders of facts - class struggle, the quest for equilibrium, and the sovereign decision of the individual’16 (p. 92)
‘The disturbed grid lines of the ‘Guide Taride’ (Street Guide of Paris, 1951), still visible in the fragments composing The Naked City, emphasized the incompatibility of Cartesian logic with the real experience of the city’16 These maps were inspirational for all drifters and wonderers of the city. They made psychogeographers alert to the ‘feel of the city’ and urged them to find the ‘slopes’ (pentes)16 (p. 90) that would guide them through ‘the path of least resistance which is automatically followed in aimless strolls and ‘which has no relation to the contours on the ground’. 16 (p. 90)
FIG. 2 - ‘The Naked City’ a psychogeographical reinterpretation of Paris
They intellectualized a long established condition of urban living; the desire to lose yourself in the urban fabric. They described ‘an urban navigational system that operated independently of Paris’s dominant patterns of circulation’ 16 (p. 88) This was the beginning of ‘cognitive mapping’, an emphasis on individual experience rather than communal orienteering. Kevin Lynch’s mapping synthesis of Boston, Los Angeles and Jersey city also show the city through the eyes of the user. A map of perception from the inhabitants of the city. He asked volunteers (mainly middle-class professionals) who were familiar with the environment to draw sketches of the city based on memory17. These maps were then combined with interviews to test his idea of ‘imageability’17 The resulting maps were combined to make one main map for each city. These maps showed many things about each of the three cities, they showed how people perceived the city, its infrastructure and how they navigated through it – highlighting significant paths and monuments. Giving a more perceptual understanding to the city than regular plans.
‘The Lynch map is an attempt to capture the mental image’17 (p. 50)
FIG. 3 - Kevin Lynch : Mapping synthesis of Boston.
All of these maps tried to visualize the emotional experience of the user. They were trying to convey more than just geographical information – but love, wonder and memory. These ideas are perhaps most relevant now than ever as we enter an ‘…era when cartography has become a digitalized operation; when maps are constructed with apparently incontrovertible digital measure’14 (p. XIII) the importance placed on data is is ever increasing. We can show not only geographical information but also statistics about a city, giving an insight into the ‘urban flux’17
‘’The use of diagramming and mapping as a means of simplifying the complexity of urban flux (changes in urban form, i.e. the development of parks, streetscape, new buildings, etc.) in essence to review the complexities of the city.”17 (p.41) MVRDV, the Dutch architecture firm, has done some interesting work, especially their Metacity/Datatown from the late 1990s, which features ‘data-driven visualization as means of representing the ‘unacknowledged’ features of a city’17 (p. 68) ‘Datascapes’ is the term that describes these new virtualized mapping mechanisms, they are ‘visual representations of all quantifiable forces, which can have an influence on the work of an architect or are even able to determine and to steer them’17 (p. 69)
MVRDV founder Winy Mass explains that Datascapes came as a response and challenge to the architectural norm of the time ‘…in which architecture and urbanism was based on French philosophies about complexities, and observing and studying these complexities. Datascapes give a more mathematical answer towards the complexity’17 (p. 88) He also explains that there needed to be a move towards dealing with urban numbers and statistics and not simply objects. ‘Datascapes are more than just illustrations, they reveal urban influences.’ 17 (p. 85) In her thought-provoking book ‘The Exposed City’, Nadia Amoroso explains that Datascapes ‘ combine information in an interpretative manner and aesthetically powerful way. This is what makes Datascapes so compelling and distances them from traditional mapping techniques used by planners. These new maps are navigational and have a spatial presence, and offer new potentials for not only representing data but also dealing with architectural space and form. ‘Information Architect’ Richard Wurman claims that ‘we are on the cusp… of the New Map, often animated, showing patterns with greater clarity and singularity, combining scientific, physical structure, atmospheric conditions and showing these patterns over time, a day, a week, a month, a year or a decade. The focus is also interesting because the focus is basically on where people live on an urbanized globe’17
FIG. 4 : MVRDV’s DataTown, a landscape created purely from data.
With the growth of online tools like Google earth and general shared consciousness of information available to us, we can now more that ever chart our emotional journeys though our cities - and use them to predict outcomes and make wiser design decisions. Bruno further explains that ‘motion produces emotion, and that, correlatively, emotion contains a movement.’18 She goes on to explain that from its linguistic origins the word emotion speaks clearly about a “moving” force (it stems from emovere, an active verb composed of movere, “to move,” preceded by the suffix e, “out.”)18 She claims that through interpretations of its meaning ‘Emotion is, literally, a moving map.’18 The delicate, and very personal maps of Nigel Peake, among others, show a very emotionally responsive way of depicting the city. They break away from the idea that ‘the act of depicting a world is an attempt to posses it’ 14 (p. XIII). Instead they show that some depictions of our surrounding are reposes in awe and wonder that can be ‘playful, evocative and humane’ 14 (p. XII) There is an argument that ‘aesthetically pleasing mapping engages the cognitive faculties of the onlooker to an extent that perfunctory and visually unappealing mapping does not’ 17 (p. 118). Similar to a carefully constructed drawing, if the emotion and soul of an idea can be transported through sensory means, then that piece (be it art, technical drawing or map) carries intrinsic value, it carries a life of it’s own.
FIG. 5 - Nigel Peake’s very personal maps, add a tangible narative that delivers very strong messages.
Similar to the Situationist maps and the Datascapes of MVRDV, that did away with the rigidity of traditional maps and were capable of ‘…not only redeveloping the urban milieu, but of changing it almost at will’16 we are now able to map our emotions, to create animated maps that live with our experience. Michael Batty, Professor of Planning at The Bartlett (UCL), explained his ideas for a reappraisal of how we view and map our cities. Inspired by the notion in ancient Greek maps of space as a system of relations, rather than an inventory of locations. He argues for a temporal understanding of the life of the city as a means for appreciating the profound effects of events that take place in cities over short periods of time. By focusing on the city as an ever-changing experience, we may begin to register it’s ‘ephemeral dynamics as significant mechanisms in the creation of urban space.’I New advances in Blogging and user integrative mapping sites, have added a new layer of data, where city users can almost simultaneously share their experience and adjust the framework to create a live vision of the city – this ‘Metaverse’, our collective online shared spaceXVI, is our Naked City. Like Lynch’s maps these new mercurial maps capture the mental images of the city’s population – our paths, icons and memories can be published and shared. These new maps are unlike any we have seen before, they ‘reveal a multidimensional view of their subject’ 17 (p. 154). They are almost as alive as the cities they depict, growing and adapting according to the ebb and flow of the city and its’ users. As these maps evolve and grow our dependence on them deepens – and we need to be wary. To look forward and embrace these new methods, but to be conscious of the means that got us to this point. Those practices that are part of our navigational heritage; if not we will forget them and then we will be truly lost.
MAP. Chapter 1 References: 12. Lynch. K (1960). The Image of the City. MIT Press. USA 13. Coverley. M (2006). Psychogeography. Pocket Essentials. UK 14. Peake. N (2008). Maps. Analogue Books. UK 15. Bunschoten. R (2000). Urban Flotsam. 010 Uitgeverij. Netherlands 16. Sadler. S (1998). The Situationist City. MIT Press. USA 17. Amoroso. N (2010). The Exposed City. Routledge. USA 18. Bruno. G (2002). Atlas of Emotion. Verso. UK 19. Harmon. K (2004). You Are Here. Princeton Press. USA Web Resources: I. Sant. A (2005). TRACE. http://www.alisant.net/alison_sant_trace.pdf II. anArchitecture (2010). http://www.an-architecture.com/2010/08/2010-architecture-biennale-venice.html III. SHOT BY ROBERT (2010). http://shotbyrobert.com/wordpress/?page_id=102 IV. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8041361/Man-diesafter-satnav-sends-him-into-a-reservoir.html V. Middle Savegery. (2008). Tactile Maps and Imaginaru Geography. http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/tactile-maps-and-imaginary-geographies/ XVI. Metaverse. (2011). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse#cite_note-0 Images: FIG 1 : Carte du Tendre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carte_du_tendre_300dpi.jpg FIG 2: Naked City: http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol6_No2_interactive_city_ sant.htm FIG 3: Synthesis Map [BOSTON] : (2010). The Exposed City. Routledge. USA FIG 4: Datatown: http://www.mlcstudio.co.uk/blog/wp-content/gallery/mvrdv/metacitydatatown-c-mvrdv.jpg FIG 5: Journey To Dunbar: http://www.secondstreet.co.uk/maps.html
Mapping The Meeting
Chapter : 2
Kaegh Joshua Allen
‘To calculate on the unforeseen is perhaps exactly the paradoxical operation that life requires of us’5 We have always wanted to have a holistic understanding of our world, and with the growing amount of information that is available at our fingertips we can understand the spaces we inhabit much more thoroughly and efficiently than ever before. As we have seen in the previous chapter there are ever increasing methods of recording and mapping quantifiable information, but what of those less tangible elements of city life. Mapping the ephemeral could add to our understanding of cities, but it may also detract from the mystery of the built environment – by trying to materialize the unknown are we in-fact destroying the serendipitous meetings that occur in the urban fabric. ‘Global trends affect cities and increase instability in local environments in much the same way as a rising river floods a house. The main structure may somehow remain intact, but anything loose is soon adrift in the currents: mattresses, pots, clothing.’15 Changing the houses form, giving it a ‘fluid identity’ morphing and accommodating for different needs but essentially growing around this skeletal structure. As Lynch explains ‘Moving elements in a city, and in particular the people and their activities, are as important as the stationary physical parts’12(p.2) As described in their compelling book ‘Urban Flotsam’; urban spaces are made up of ‘skins’ the ‘second skin is a diagrammatic inscription upon the first skin. The behaviour of the first skin affect the second. The second marks the first, inscribes its action onto it, marks it to evoke, provoke further action’15 (p.263) This second skin is in constant flux, and is the superficial life of a city, flowing and morphing around the concrete skeleton, the first skin, the solid infrastructure of the city. The 2010 Venice Architectural Biennale was titled ‘People Meet in Architecture’. The director Kazuyo Sejima explains; “The idea is to help people relate to architecture, to help architecture relate to people, and to help people relate to themselves.”II The biennale could be seen as a microcosm of how architecture can create spatial situations that invite interactions and meetings. The Belgian Pavilion was presented by architecture and anthropology firm ROTOR, they presented an exhibition titled ‘Usures’ (‘Wear and Tear’) they displayed materials and objects that showed the poetics of use; ’extraction and isolation of used materials in the pavilion…invites the visitor to question his or her tolerance of wear. These architectural fragments challenge the visitor to link these pieces to the uses and situations which marked them.’ VII These artefacts could be interpreted as miniature maps, showing the use of objects, displaying a history. The meeting between sole and carpet or pen and table. Perhaps this approach to mapping can be applies to the city – where the user is the marker and the city the paper.
‘ The patina of wear adds the enriching experience of time to the materials of construction.’ (Pallasmaa. 2005)
FIG. 1 - ‘USURES’ Work Table next to a photocopier in a copy shop. A map of Use
This very connection is what I fear we may be in danger of losing – as we digitize our experience of the city we are perhaps becoming detatched from it. Touch and emotion are slowly beginning to be overthrown by technology and a lust for information. The president of the British Cartographic Society was quoted as saying that ‘’ Internet mapping is wiping the rich geography and history of Britain off the map ‘’VI Mary Spence claimed that internet maps such as Google and Bing, which are used by millions of users every day, were giving people limited information – showing driving routes above historical sites or points of interest; “We’re in real danger of losing what makes maps so unique, giving us a feel for a place even if we’ve never been there.”VI This idea is further exacerbated with the growth of personal positioning devices in mobile phones. Undoubtedly very useful, these new phones can tell you information about places that you’ve never visited. And like Ed Parsons, geospatial technologist at Google, said in response to Miss Spence, ‘Internet maps can now be personalized, allowing people to include landmarks and information that is of interest to them. Anyone can create their own maps or use experiences to collaborate with others in charting their local knowledge.’ In March 2010, the Ordnance Survey and the Department of Communities and Local Government VIII announced plans to implement The Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA). This means that as of April 2011 ‘all the national mapping agency’s core datasets’VIII will be freely available to public sector bodies, local authorities and companies like Google.
This will further increase productivity, efficiency and ultimately control of mapping – there will be one mass body of homogeneous information, reducing the levels of errors and also limiting the number of options. As we hand ourselves over and become dependant on these technologically aided methods of orientating ourselves. We are losing something very human and primal. Our immediate connections to the places we inhabit are being blocked by those little screens that tell us to ‘turn left in…200 meters’. Although there are clear benefits from these advances, I suggest that too much reliance on them is dangerous. For example last year a man drowned after following directions on the GPS device, which had not been updated to show the creation of ‘La Serena’ reservoir at Capilla, near Badajoz in southwestern Spain.IV Blindly following the GPS to his death.
“According to the most up-to date investigations, the unconscious is a sort of cognitive ghetto a home for homeless thoughts. Alas, many thoughts are now homesick’ Karl Kraus (Carter, 2000) I personally have experienced this as an ex-iPhone user, I remember the freeness felt cycling around Cities, knowing that no matter how wrong the turn made I would be guided back to safety by that little blue dot. That is until the battery runs out. Then the dread that swept over me was unprecedented. I felt lost, disorientated and helpless. And this is a city full of maps and signs to point me in the right direction. It was only after a punting accident that left my phone dead in the water that I realized how dependant I had become. My inbuilt navigation system had been switched off. My understanding of the city had been numbed down by a guide with their own constant soundtrack leaving me completely disconnected from what was happening in my surroundings. For me the debate of mapping preferences can be explained with an interesting comparison between two types of hand held mapping devices. The three dimensional wood carvings of the Inuit of the East Greenland coastline, with the ‘details of inlets and islands in sculptural relief. These could be employed by at night in conjunction with the stars, feeling your way along the coastline, navigating at an intimate scale.’V And the smart phones of today, with their augmented reality applications, these can be used alongside street signage and wifi signals to navigate around the city. These two navigation tools exemplify the direction that we are taking in terms of our not only our mapping methods, but general outlook to life. We are integrating these new technologies, which are undeniably useful and powerful, but at the same time we are losing many of our primal navigational tools.
FIG. 2 & 3 - Hand Held Navigational Tools. Tactile vs Virtual.
Our sense of direction is being clouded. Although both are representations of reality, one accepts it for all of its imperfections, whilst the other tries to augment it to a state of perfection. This is something that could be transferred to architecture and the paradigm shift towards new digital form. ‘It is often through the immaterial renderings of the computer, the complex surfaces made prior to construction, that such architecture is understood as being made complete. Where the physical actions and processes of building do follow on, it is as an almost inevitable process of degradation from an ideal.’XI The immediacy that the inuit maps provided, the connection and level of detail and concentration that must be placed on tracking is very different to that created by using GPS devices. There is less need to pay attention to physical signals, because we are being guided. Our sensibility to subtle changes is reduced as we begin to view our world through this small window, the screen in our hand. The artwork of Robert Overweg embodies this for me. He is a photographer in the virtual world of video games, which he considers to be ‘the new public space of contemporary society and a direct extension of the physical world.’ They show the edge of maps, the areas that have not been programmed or designed. This slowly encroaching dependence on external mapping leaves us at a loss when we are without it, making those areas around us ‘terra incognita’. Herein lies my second point, that not only are we perhaps at risk of losing our ability to navigate unaided – but perhaps also the ability to become truly lost.
FIG. 4 - The End of the Virtual World. The ‘Terra Incognita’ at the edge of our knowledge.
‘We are the last generation that could lose themselves’ VIII As Italian avant-garde architecture group ‘Stalker’ explain, there are many areas of the city that ‘constitute the built city’s negative, the interstitial and the marginal, spaces abandoned or in the process of transformation.’ These areas of forgotten land where the archive of experiences is the only form of mapping possible for these “Actual Territories.” Stalker explain that entering this lost and unknown landscape and ‘perceiving the discarded territories’IX, these areas ‘between that which is secure, quotidian, and that which is uncertain’ creates a certain state of mind it ‘generates a sense of dislocation, a state of apprehension. This altered state induces a perceptual intensification unexpectedly giving the space a meaning, making “everywhere” a place for discovery, or instead a dreaded place for an undesirable encounter. The gaze becomes penetrating, the ear becomes keen to every sound.’IX In other words we become acutely aware of our world and our place in it. We become primal. Human. This is key in an era when how we relate to our planet is under ever more scrutiny. And our impact on it is often too far removed from our daily lives.
‘To be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery.’5
We tend to always focus on specific areas of our life and can all to easily become distracted, and forget other aspects. In his excellent essay ‘Shadow Society’ David Leatherbarrow describes the importance placed on Light by the architectural community, and the lack of attention placed on shadows. He explains that shadows have ‘cultural consequences, for it can serve as the setting for entirely public modes of occupation.’21 he explains when considering the modernist stress on sunlight ‘…that the physicalism this emphasis assumes severs the reciprocity between the material condition of a situation and its cultural sense, as if the provision of the first were sufficient for the cultivation of the second.’21 This is interesting because it highlights the importance of these unknown and serendipitous moments, moments that are fleeting and increasingly hard to find as we become more blinkered and singular in our outlooks. Perhaps this holistic and all-encompassing approach to understanding our cities is slightly flawed, perhaps we should consider “cities as being clusters of spatial events” I The world is encapsulated in our global consciousness and as our spectrum of perception grows, and people are able to travel and view any place in the world at the click of a mouse – then our sense of wonder and adventure becomes harder to satisfy. What is most important to understand is not that we can see the world more than ever before, which is debatable because it is a completely controlled view, but that we may begin to believe that we fully understand these places and are able to grasp their full dimensionality, by viewing them through these mediums – to believe that we ‘finally possess our world by having mapped it’ X
FIG. 5 - Growing Spectrum of Knowledge. Google Maps, capturing the serendipious.
There are many lessons to be learnt from this view of the world. I personally believe that for architecture it shows that although as described earlier fashions and trends affect our built environment, those things that endure and speak to us loudest are thoughtfully and consciously crafted. Therefore, although I believe that attention should be paid to this second skin, we need to be sure to make the first as effective as possible. If we can do this effectively it will make people pay attention. It will make them put down their distractions and bask in the glory and beauty of the soul of our urban environments. Feel the sun on their face, touch the wall and feel the life and grain of that place. We need to be made aware that what we are losing is not only the ability to navigate and orientate ourselves unaided, but in doing so we are also surrendering the ability to become truly lost. To feel at ease with uncertainty, to be free in the unknown that is always around us. Even with all of this there still endure many examples in the city, of moments and situations that allow for serendipitous encounters– they may be fewer and far between, or perhaps their manifestations are changing. But if we look hard enough, they are there and they are waiting for us to meet.
LOST. Chapter 2 References: 2. Sommer. R. (1974). Tight Spaces. Prentice-Hall. New Jersey. 5. Solnit. R. (2005). A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Cannon Gate. Great Britain. 8. Pallasmaa. J. (2005). The Eyes of the Skin. John Wiley & Sons. UK 10. Pirsig. R. (1974). Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Vintage. UK. 12. Lynch. K (1960). The Image of the City. MIT Press. USA 14. Peake. N (2008). Maps. Analogue Books. UK 15. Bunschoten. R (2000). Urban Flotsam. 010 Uitgeverij. Netherlands 16. Sadler. S (1998). The Situationist City. MIT Press. USA 17. Amoroso. N (2010). The Exposed City. Routledge. USA 18. Bruno. G (2002). Atlas of Emotion. Verso. UK 20. Batty. M. (2002). Thinking About Cities as Spatial Events. Environment and Planning: Planning and Design l29, no.1. 21. Leatherbarrow. D. (2009). Shadow Society. Body. Unknown 22. Leatherbarrow. D. (2000). Uncommon Ground. MIT Press. USA Web Resources: I. Sant. A (2005). TRACE. http://www.alisant.net/alison_sant_trace.pdf II. anArchitecture (2010). http://www.an-architecture.com/2010/08/2010-architecture-biennale-venice.html III. SHOT BY ROBERT (2010). http://shotbyrobert.com/wordpress/?page_id=102 IV. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8041361/Man-dies-after-satnav-sends-him-into-a-reservoir.html V. Middle Savegery. (2008). Tactile Maps and Imaginaru Geography. http://middlesavagery. wordpress.com/2008/03/01/tactile-maps-and-imaginary-geographies/ VI. BBC NEWS. (2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7586789.stm VII. USURES. (2010) http://rotordb.org/projects/2010_Venezia/ VIII. Ed Parsons. (2010) www.edparsons.com IX. STALKER. (1995). Manifesto. http://digilander.libero.it/stalkerlab/tarkowsky/manifesto/ manifesting.htm X. Google Earth y la generación “perdida”. (2008) http://luis-r-alvarez.blogspot.com/2009/03/ google-earth-y-la-generacion-perdida.html XI. Drdharchitects. (2207) Eyes That Feel. http://www.drdharchitects.co.uk/images/Eyesthatfeel.pdf Images: FIG 1 : USURES. (2010). http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HjbZnIABUK4/TRifcOTX3xI/AAAAAAAACtE/ QyfNX9Q8890/s1600/Belgian_Pavilion_01.jpg FIG 2: Inuit Map. http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/tactile-maps-and-imaginarygeographies/ FIG 3: Augmented iPhone App. (2010) http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/best-augmentedreality-iphone-applications/ FIG 4: END OF VIRTUAL WORLD (2010). http://shotbyrobert.com/wordpress/?page_id=102 FIG 5: 9 Eyes. (2010). http://9-eyes.com/
Mapping The Meeting
Chapter : 3
Kaegh Joshua Allen
‘It is not down in any map; true places never are’XIII. Herman Melville - Moby Dick. 1851
Our cities are in constant flux. The ‘second skin’ as described before changes according to our trends and desires. Through installations and architectural interventions ‘there are many sequences of events that take place in cities over much shorter time periods than we are used to dealing with but which have important spatial effects. These spatial effects in fact may be long lasting even though the events which initiated them are short in duration’.20 By focusing on these serendipitous moments ‘it is possible to conceive of cities as being clusters of `spatial events’, events that take place in time and space, where the event is characterized by its duration, intensity, volatility, and location.’20
‘By overcoming the confines of prevailing passive experience of the city in order to explore their hidden potential, opens up the prospect of exposing new sematic levels in urban spaces and new ways of reading the city.’ Klanter. 2010
Architects and architecture should encourage people to be more connected with their environment and not distracted such that they fail to notice and learn things about their surroundings. Whilst it is true (as explained in the previous chapter) that modern gadgets are yet another distraction, there are plenty of other distractions and other reasons why people fail to notice the city around them. In a big city the most common reason why people fail to notice things and connect with their environment is because they are already familiar with their surroundings, or at least they believe they are. The most interesting places are those that no matter how often you visit you always see something new. Some buildings achieve this, and public places often change their exhibitions to encourage this. What is needed is the imagination to create a form of architecture that could always be changing, somehow like a stage in a theatre. And often we can find inspiration in the unlikeliest of places. Gestalten’s excellent book ‘ Urban Interventions’ highlights many additions to the urban landscape that facilitate the creation of chance encounters. ‘So-called public space is, in fact, public only by name, reflecting no reality except that of the dominant ideology’6 (p. 4) The interventions ‘uphold the traditions of how ordinary users and inhabitants of the city challenge and adapt civic spatial rules for their benefits’. Such as the work of French artist Arno Piroud, his project titled ‘Assises ephemeres’ (ephemeral seats) turns previously abandoned tree stumps into pubic seating. Similarly ‘Le Plan B’ by Damien Gires turns the hip-high ‘parking prohibited’ posts into ‘outdoor break rooms’ through the simple addition of a modular folded aluminium chair or table.
FIG. 1 & 2- ‘Assises Ephemeres’ & ‘Le Plan B’, changing unwanted objects into social meeting points.
These pieces work against the hard and all too anonymous skin of the city to create inspiring and softening moments of delight. By blurring the boundary of what is private and public, in a very direct and physical way, it is the perfect remedy for the less desirable loss of privacy that is arising from new technologies – we have the choice, to open ourselves and meet. Similar to the Situationists, they wanted to reveal the playful side to city life, they wanted to ‘bring art out of the museum and into the bars, open up metro tunnels for nightly festivals, and falsify times of departure at stations to create random interpersonal encounters. Play was central to their theories’ 6 (p. 5)
‘Man is only fully human when he plays’ Friedrich Schiller 6 (p. 5)
This subversive attitude to city living is ever present, as seen every weekend in squat parties and free events held all over the world, and in the protests that are becoming ever more popular. They are a reaction to the homogenizing of our cityscapes, with global brands on every corner and nondescript architecture becoming an all too common occurrence. But sadly much of our public space, is being sold off to the highest bidder. And with increased security measures, rising health and safety concerns and general loss of individuality our cities are becoming the same worldwide. ‘The result is that architecture is designed to be strong and resistant to human imprint’3 and leaves us emotionally neglected and ultimately resentful.
As humans we have inhabited to almost all situations around the globe, and this comes with our ‘ability to become familiar, with even the most unfamiliar situation’. As the saying goes ‘Human beings are creatures of habit’ and we need instances that break us out of our routines and make us notice our surroundings. Furthermore these instances of spontaneous space creation seems to be ‘encouragement of community ownership of public spaces previously occupied by the city municipality or corporate forces of globalization’ 6 (p. 133) “Global Street Food” was an exhibition in Cologne, Germany for Dornbracht ‘Edges’ series in January 2009. It showed ‘objects and street kitchens from various parts of the world. An exhibition that portrays the sculptural quality of the authentic objects and their cultural identity.’XII These object delight and sing to me. They show that simple and humble design is often all that is required to create a meeting place. It could be argued that these pieces are the bourgeoisie art establishment’s glorification of poverty. But as Mike Miere, curator of the ‘Global Street Food’ exhibition questions, do ‘we really need new things designed when beautiful, natural designs are already part of our everyday life’XII These visceral and pure pieces of design surely are much stronger than much of the disposable, and manufactured objects that flood our cities everyday.
FIG. 3- ‘Lollypop Stand’, a broomstick and a drilled block of wood makes for a portable confectionary.
FIG. 4 - ‘Playing in The City’ - Collective greyworld tuned railings to play ‘the Girl from Ipanema.’
This is something that is especially relevant for architects in these technologically obsessed times. In a practice when we are pushed to explore ever more abstract and complex forms, and complicated ideas (which ultimately result in a homogeneous ‘international style’) – I find it inspirational and reassuring that there are examples of this kind of space making all around us. Vernacular and culturally relevant objects that excel in their functionality and inspire even the most design conscious. These simple handcrafted object are what for me we are in danger of losing, but they highlight so much about what is important about our humanity. As Anne Cline described in her inspirational book ‘A Hut of One’s Own’ the need for us to have architecture that allows for reflection, bare human emotion and contact is vital, and thus will always remain a part of our culture.
‘‘Even if this hut is only one‘s normal abode inhabited in a different way, here in a hut of one‘s own, a person may find one‘s very own self, the source of humanity‘s song.’ (Cline, 1997)
New generations of architects are seeing the importance of minimal and thoughtful interventions and demonstrating that we should stop and think before trying to solve a problem with a building. As the title of November 2008 issue of ICON magazine claimed ‘If you want to change society, don’t build anything’.
FIG. 5 - ‘Activist Architecture’ ICON Magazine 2008. An important idea from emerging architects.
This issue was published in the wake of the 2008 Venice Architecture Bienalle, which was titled ‘Architecture Beyond Building’. It explains how new firms are straying from the conventions of architecture and ‘feel much more effective writing, researching, campaigning, occupying and performing than they do at the drawing board’. Firms like Estudio Teddy Cruz with their work addressing the problem of self built housing on the border between USA and Mexico, by campaigning against planning laws and educating locals they have improved the state of the community in the area. Urban Think Tank have also been doing some very constructive work in the slums of Caracas, Venezuela. Here they explain that ‘ninety-eight percent of the world’s housing is built without the direct involvement of an architect’ 23 (p. 106), they suggest that the problem in Caracas at least, could be improved with education and tactical infra structural solutions. Other groups featured were Italian collective, Stalker and German Duo, International Festival – who though thorough research and humorous art pieces respectively, add their own inventive solutions to the issues of urban living. Ultimately what is suggested is that these architects ‘at it’s simplest, care more about people than they do design’ 23 (p. 99)
“Man is a social animal: he collaborates with others to pursue his goals and satisfy his needs. It is well known that relations with others can be the source of the deepest satisfaction and of the blackest misery.”1 (p. 3)
FIG. 6 - ‘Intimate Mobiles’ Augmenting digital content to create physical responses.
FIG. 7 - ‘D-Tower’ by NOX. Shows the city’s mood Love, Happyness, Fear or Hate through colour.
Another project of interest is the work being done by Fabian Hemmert. His various designs for ‘intimate mobiles’ is bringing life to technology. These prototypes for GPS mobile phones add a physicality and a new level of intimacy to the process. By altering the way that data is delivered, with shape changing, weight shifting and even breathing mobiles, these new guidance tools augment our view of the city in a tactile way. We can literally feel where we are going. Keep our senses open to the city, but still have a guiding force. The virtual becomes actual. Similarly, many other architects and designers, through ‘interactive architecture’ have created spaces that can adapt to their environment and also raise awareness to many important issues of how we live in our cities. They have created installations that physically manifest invisible but vital information; How much power are we using?, How many people used the train?, How happy was everyone today?. ‘While the architecture can adapt and learn from our actions and adjust itself accordingly, it also has the capacity to teach us how to live and how to work.’27 (p. 342). These architects and designers similar to the Situationists ultimately want to reconstruct cities, physically or psychologically. But more immediately they want to ‘create situations’, moments in the city that would be ‘ephemeral, without a future, passageways’16 (p. 105) and this is what we need now more than ever. Moments and actions that shock us into consciousness. That make us put down our distractions and laugh, touch and feel the beauty of the city and the people that live there. Considering the importance of a spontaneous and unintended meeting, perhaps it is time for us to allow them to occur. We need to allow the city to guide us and speak to us, allow it to mark us and in turn leave a mark on it.
MEET. Chapter 3 References: 1. Argyle. M. (1967). The Psychology of Interpersonal Behaviour. Pernguin Books. UK. 2. Sommer. R. (1974). Tight Spaces. Prentice-Hall. New Jersey. 3. Carter, P (2002). Repressed Spaces : The Poetics of Agoraphobia. Reaction Books. London. 5. Solnit. R. (2005). A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Cannon Gate. Great Britain. 6. Klanten. R. (2010). Urban Interventions: Personal Projects in Public Places. Gestalten. UK/Germany. 7. Borden. I. (1995). Strangely Familiar: Narratives of Architecture in the City. Routledge. UK 9. Ann Cline. (1997). A Hut of One‘s Own : Life outside the Circle of Architecture. MIT Press. USA 15. Bunschoten. R (2000). Urban Flotsam. 010 Uitgeverij. Netherlands 16. Sadler. S (1998). The Situationist City. MIT Press. USA 20. Batty. M. (2002). Thinking About Cities as Spatial Events. Environment and Planning: Planning and Design l29, no.1. 21. Leatherbarrow. D. (2009). Shadow Society. Body. Unknown 22. Leatherbarrow. D. (2000). Uncommon Ground. MIT Press. USA 23. ICON. (2008). Issue 065. November 2008 ‘Activist Architecture’. UK Web Resources: I. Sant. A (2005). TRACE. http://www.alisant.net/alison_sant_trace.pdf II. anArchitecture (2010). http://www.an-architecture.com/2010/08/2010-architecture-biennale-venice.html IX. STALKER. (1995). Manifesto. http://digilander.libero.it/stalkerlab/tarkowsky/manifesto/ manifesting.htm XI. Drdharchitects. (2207) Eyes That Feel. http://www.drdharchitects.co.uk/images/Eyesthatfeel.pdf XII. Wallpaper Magazine. (2009). http://www.wallpaper.com/lifestyle/mike-meire/3031 XIII. MERIDIANS (2006). Jeremy Wood. (2006).www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery/land/meridians.html Images: FIG 1.‘Assises ephemeres’ - Arno Piroud. Klanten. R. (2010). Urban Interventions: Personal Projects in Public Places. Gestalten. UK/Germany. FIG 2. ‘Le Plan B’ - Damien Gires.Klanten. R. (2010). Urban Interventions: Personal Projects in Public Places. Gestalten. UK/Germany. FIG 3.GLOBAL STREET FOOD. (2009). http://www.dornbracht.com/en/index.htm?nav=1219 FIG 4. ‘Playing in The City’. (1996). http://greyworld.org/archives/35 FIG 5. ICON. (2008). Issue 065. November 2008 ‘Activist Architecture’. UK FIG 6. Tactile Mobiles. (2010) http://www.fabianhemmert.com/projects/shape-changing-mobiles FIG 7. D-Tower. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AKvVOkaj8uY/SiqdF6I4bwI/AAAAAAAAE5E/PmMG9VQlLug/s1600-h/d-tower_kolory.png
Conclusion
'Love, wisdom, grace, inspiration - how do we go about finding these things that are in some ways about extending the boundaries of self into the unknown territory, about becoming someone else?'’5
Kaegh Joshua Allen 08071392
We are in unknown territory. As we move forward at breakneck speed, perhaps there needs to be a reappraisal of what we carry with us. Perhaps we need to look back to be able to move forward successfully. My fear is that as we become wide-eyed and greedy for more information, more data, more control, we may actually be losing more than we realise. The way that we view our world, make our mark on it and map those changes are entering a new era. We now have more control than ever before, and more ability to see the effects that we are having. And with more power comes more responsibility. The idea of a belvedere or place of self-reflection is extremely fashionable in architecture schools at the moment. Similarly it was the main idea at the Architecture Venice Bienalle of 2010 – how can we as humans connect to our surrounding and ourselves.,This comes as a reaction to raised awareness of the technological over stimulation that is becoming part of our everyday life. This seems to be the topic of our time, with an ‘intellectual backlash’ occurring as we speak, making waves and raising questions. There seems to be an intellectual backlash to this digital orientation which ‘make us less human and isolate us from the real world’XV. This lack of ‘real’ human intimacy and disconnection from our immediate environments is ‘a behaviour that has become typical may still express the problems that once caused us to see it as pathological’XV as explained by MIT professor Sherry Turkle in her book, Alone Together. This and many other publications are charting the shift in behaviour that has risen from our dependency on these modern ways of interaction. Facebook, Twitter, iPhone and GPS, they are all more part of our lives than we would like to accept, “We have invented inspiring and enhancing technologies, yet we have allowed them to diminish us”XV. The idea of the agoraphobic was interesting to me at the beginning of this study. That idea of being ‘Alone Together’ of being completely detached and alone in a place of millions, the cities of today. I wanted to explore the idea that perhaps there needed to be a shift in the way that we were viewing our public spaces, to encourage more meetings, perhaps ‘A different design on place making is required to transform places of gathering into meeting places’3.
“Are building and urban spaces ‘empty husks to which repressed pathologic (sic) behaviour attaches itself‘, Or is there some underlying reason that leads victims of agoraphobia to cast their scenarios of fear and foreboding in architectural term”3
FIG. 1 - ‘Alone Together’ Self inflicted agoraphobia.
This study began as a critique on the ‘boxed mentality’ that I felt was becoming part of our modern lives, but as it has developed it has become more of a study at those parts of our culture that remind us about what it is to be human. As it has developed I have found a shift in my thoughts, a realisation that I felt perhaps there did not need to be a development in the way we designed, but conversely, a reversal. It would appear that the plausible reactions from architecture, are a rejection or an inclusion of these technologies. We either work with them or work against them. Acclaimed contemporary Japanese and Portugues architecture for me deals with this issue very well, especially that of Tokyo. Which seems to have a very methodical and respectful attitude to its surroundings, and the formation of the building. Although perhaps considered extremely minimalist, it strips away much of what is unnecessary. Form follows function, to the point that form is function. When looking at residential projects this is evident, but obviously harder to achieve with larger projects where the amount of variables and factor of consideration increase. Perhaps this is more a reflection of my architectural orientation, but there are lessons to be learnt about removing this superfluous layer of contemporary, digital distraction. Comparably the ideas of the urban design practices such as ‘Shared Space’, that was created as an alternative method of dealing with road traffic in cities, where ‘user behaviour becomes influenced and controlled by natural human interactions rather than by artificial regulation.’ By removing the superfluous we can see clearer.
As we strive ever harder to move away from traditional shapes and ideas, in terms of design, we are learning much about modern techniques and processes. These can improve efficiency, lower costs and improve construction. The realm of science fiction, although often cliché and exaggerated has portrayed the future of acceptance and integration. Films such as Surrogates, Minority Report and The Matrix alongside many other books and films depict this future world. A world where robotic surrogates replaces our fragile human bodies, controlled by us, but essentially leaving us out of harms way. Or customer specific architecture surrounds us at every turn, the city adapting to our personalized desires. And even a completely parallel world, where we project the ideals and dreams of our perfect world, and are allowed to live out our fantasies. This idea is also relevant in terms of contemporary architectural representation. New methods of data portrayal, of geographic locations or digitally created architectural forms are now more like those of science fiction sets than ever before. Bio-mimicry and user responsive elements of architecture are being showcased around the world. But when reproduced in reality are still essentially based in the digital realm or the imagination, but how long until they are fully operational?. ‘What we are witnessing here is the emergence of profoundly new city typologies that are shaped by creativity and curiosity beyond the blueprint’ 25 (p. 144) What makes a city good? - Even Kevin Lynch, after years of investigation resolved that ‘cities are too complicated, too far beyond our control, and affect too many people, who are subject to too many cultural variations, to permit a rational answer’ 17 (p. 51). There needs to be a shift in consciousness, that can transcend into all parts of our lives, and perhaps this can begin in how we view our public spaces. How we approach them and interact within them. This mind-set can be achieved by looking at our past, at our mistakes and using them to consider more effectively the future; ‘There are two ways of being mistaken about history: one is to see it as something outside the present, what once was and is no longer, and the other is to view it as something which constitutes the present, what we are now within. The truth of the matter is neither so far off nor so near. Similarly the present is neither so empty nor so full...the latency or potentiality of settings in shadow is nothing other than the present force of past events.’ 22 (p. 238) These technologies provide us with power and a sense of reassurance, a safety net but it now seems that this net is keeping us captive, unable to leave. We are in too deep.
FIG. 1 - ‘Some Channel Deepening Seems To Be Called For’ 10 (p. 8)
As explained in the reassuring book ‘Strangely Familiar’ -‘To concentrate exclusively on the making of architecture is to miss the point that architecture, like all other cultural objects, is not made just once, but is made and remade over and over again each time it is represented through different medium, each time its surroundings change, each time different people experience it’ 7 (p. 5) There are part of the city that is in constant flux, the ‘second skin’. Where marvellous urban interventions can occur, interventions that create serendipitous meetings and moments of wonder. But there needs to be a good base. This ‘first skin’, the foundations, the bare architecture has to be versatile and thoughtfully implemented, especially in terms of public spaces. It should at times work like a canvas, allowing us to paint our ideas and emotions onto it and at others like a guide, showing us the way.
‘To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world - and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity, of class and nationality, of religion and ideology; in a sense, modernity can be said to unite all mankind. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity; it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. To be modern is to be part of a universe in which, as Marx said, ‘all that is solid melts into air’ 26 (p. 15)
The idea of the strict Cartesian grid that made the base for traditional maps serves as a useful metaphore. As we discard the paper maps of old, with their rigid ‘birds eye view’ and limited information spectrum, we should remember that it was these grids that built the cities in which we live. Even though we begin to believe that we may no longer need them, they still govern what we are dealing with. Architecturally speaking I think that we have to be receptive to these changes, but also wary. Architecture is a public art, so should strive to amaze and inspire - showing the capabilities of modern technologies is an excellent way of achieving this. But architecture is also a public service, so the importance of visceral design that overcomes trends is ever relevant and of upmost importance. To address this situation through a physical manifestation, which is what as architects we can do most tangibly, is difficult, because it is essentially a psychological issue. It is an internal mind-set; the way that people view the world. Throughout this paper I have tried to find solutions, but have come up with many more questions and highlighted the limitations of architecture to completely solve the problems raised. But what I have found are few examples of beautiful, soulful and very human design that shine brightly - like beacons showing us the way to the light. To conclude I would like to end on a quote from Robert Pirsings thought provoking and inspirational novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; ‘‘Perhaps because of these changes the stream of national consciousness moves faster now, and is broader, but it seems to run less deep. The old channels cannot contain it and in its search for new ones there seems to be growing havoc and destruction along its banks. ...I would like not to cut any new channels of consciousness but simply dig deeper into old ones that have become silted in with the debris of thoughts grown stale and platitudes too often repeated. ‘What‘s new?‘ is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question ‘“What is best?”,‘ a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream.‘‘ 10 (p. 8)
FIG. 1 - ‘Some Channel Deepening Seems To Be Called For’ 10 (p. 8)
Conclusion References: 2. Sommer. R. (1974). Tight Spaces. Prentice-Hall. New Jersey. 3. Carter, P (2002). Repressed Spaces : The Poetics of Agoraphobia. Reaction Books. London. 4. Wernick. J. (2008). Building Happiness : Architecture to Make You Smile. Black Dog Publishing. London 7. Borden. I. (1995). Strangely Familiar: Narratives of Architecture in the City. Routledge. UK 10. Pirsig. R. (1974). Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Vintage. UK. 12. Lynch. K (1960). The Image of the City. MIT Press. USA
25. Feireiss. L (2009). Beyond Architecture. Gestalten. Germany. 26. Berman. M (1983). All That is Solid Melts Into Air. Penguin. UK 22. Leatherbarrow. D. (2000). Uncommon Ground. MIT Press. USA
XV. Guardian Online. (2011). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/22/social-networking-cyber-scepticism-twitter XVI. Atlantic Magazine. (2008) http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/ FIG. 1 - Tokyo Up, Down. http://www.lensculture.com/comas.html?thisPic=14 FIG. 2- Mapping the Mississippy. http://soa.utexas.edu/vrc/blog/wp-content/Mississippi.jpg