Under Construction
About the space we look at and the pretty picture we see Stefanija Najdovska
For eighteen years I was living in the same house, in the same city. Little I knew back then, how much decisions can change the course of my life. Five years ago I moved from Macedonia to The Netherlands, and since then I’ve been on the move a lot. I’ve stayed for a while in Amsterdam, Leiden, Dusseldorf, New York, Florida, Skopje, Ohrid; spent few nights in Miami, Delft, Utrecht, Paris, Center Parks, Munich, Berlin,Vienna, Bratislava,Warsaw,Thessaloniki, Mavrovo, Lazaropole; and visited more. My idea of home has changed a lot. Home is where I go back at the end of the day, but also where I lead my life - the city. I am happy to say, moving away was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I learned and experienced so many new things, met a lot of great people, and most importantly found out who I am, what I want, and what makes me happy. As I was getting closer to the end of my studies , I felt it was only logical to round up this experience in my thesis and graduation project. I would especially like to thank Harrison Gorman for being my rock and always pushing me further; my dearest family and friends for the unconditional love, support and help when I was losing my ground or need a computer to work on; the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and all my teachers for helping me open up and ask annoying questions; and my designLAB classmates for keeping the lovely atmosphere and the level high for the past 3 years.We did it you guys!!! Stefanija Najdovska July 2010
Under Construction About the space we look at, and the pretty picture we see Thesis by Stefanija Najdovska Gerrit Rietveld Academie 2010
Outline
Introduction Inspiring quote “The map is not the territory” Alford Korzybski Points of interest 1. The way we see the space around us How is space seen? How can individuals influence in the way space is constructed and develops? 2. The way we represent the space around us How is space represented? Can information help or destroy space? 3. The way space is (de)constructed How to use the space more efficiently? What are the tools for better constructing of space? 4. My position on the space subject What are the reasons for the way I experience space? How can I contribute to better representation of space? Thesis statement What is our position in the urban environment? How does our mental perception and reconstruction, influence its’ existance?
Layers to consider 1. The conflict between what we see and what we think we see “Our gaze travels through space and gives us the illusion of relief and distance. That is how we construct space, with an up and a down, a left and a right, an in front and a behind, a near and a far” – Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Chapter “Space” Page 81
2. The real space and its’ representation “We say the map is different from the territory. But what is the territory? Operationally, somebody went out with a retina or a measuring stick and made representations which were then put on paper. What is on the paper map is a representation of what was in the retinal representation of the man who made the map; and as you push the question back, what you find is an infinite regress, an infinite series of maps. The territory never gets in at all. […] Always, the process of representation will filter it out so that the mental world is only maps of maps, ad infinitum.” - Gregory Bateson, in “Form, Substance and Difference,” from Steps to an Ecology of Mind 3. If representation of space and our subjective perception both create new spaces, why do we still build old spaces? “We live in space, in these spaces, these towns this countryside, these corridors, these parks. That seems obvious to us. Perhaps indeed it should be obvious. But it isn’t obvious, not just a matter of course. It’s real, obviously, and as a consequence most likely rational. We touch. We can even allow ourselves to dream. There’s nothing, for example, to stop us from imagining things that are neither towns nor countryside (nor suburbs), or Metro corridors that are at the same time public parks” - Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Foreword Page 5
Conclusion Communication is crucial. How do we talk to the city and how does the city talk back at us?
Extras Interesting cases and side research
Space analysis Georges Perec, Species of Pieces and Other Pieces, Opening Page 4
Introduction “The map is not the territory” Alfred Korzybski1
1 Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (1879 – 1950) was a Polish-American philosopher and scientist. He’s point of view was that humans are limited in knowledge they can gain. The only way we can learn the world is by abstracting it. However, by doing so we simplify therefore loosing sometimes important facts. He fought for awareness and what he called ”consciousness of abstraction”
It was 2005, and after eighteen years of looking at the same old city, I thought I knew it so well. But then, I flew for the first time and I was looking at a grid I could not recognize! Amazing to see how organized and systematic everything looks, I thought fascinated. Back on land, surrounded by buildings which block the view, the perception of that very same organized system, is completely different. The grid is not visible, but buildings and moving subjects surround us. We, being always the center of the environment, can only put the pieces together to create situations within the city. It is never the whole city space, because it is simply too big. However, we are always in a space, but the way we see it is never the same. The reason being, that no matter what we do, we are doomed to do it subjectively and intuitively, creating situations we can relate to. To make myself clear - there is only so much our eye can see, but what the brain can imagine, creates unique perception of each particular situation. No other medium so far can stimulate quite the same phenomenal space perception, because space is endless and very complex. We may ask ourselves – what is space then actually? It is everything and nothing at the same time. It is what we see and what we do not see, what we think we see, and what we want to see. We understand the space around us in relation to us we create the physical space1. 1 By physical space, I am referring to the environment that surrounds us: cities and their streets, the buildings, our houses and us as part of it.
However, as soon as one finds him/herself in an unknown environment, he/she needs a map2 to understand it. The map strips down all unnecessary details, issue of subjectivity, and offers the bare essentials of the area in question. It is practical representation of the real space. It all comes down to movement by following a line - a grid. I think this very interesting because even though we experience the environment as something much more than a simple graphical grid, the very same seems to be the only way we can start understanding space. Having said that, I realized recently I’ve been thinking more and more about the urban environment - having the need to understand the way it is constructed and the way it is reconstruct it in the mind. I get excited finding inter connections and reasons for why something is the way it is, and how it is communicated. My strong interest in representation and understanding of space, led me to this research. Urban environments are very intriguing, because even though they are entirely man-made they have developed through time becoming a living organism on their own and started shaping the people. Or is it the other way around? Eitherway, cities are soaked in memories and meanings, which raises very interesting questions about what is urban space and how it functions, how is it perceived and represented, and by that how it is, or can be influenced. 2 Simplified graphical representation of an environment, printed or digital, showing the grid and important landmarks
Thesis statement What is our position in the urban environment? How does our mental perception and reconstruction, influence its’ existance?
Layers to consider
1. The conflict between what we see and what we think we see
“Our gaze travels through space and gives us the illusion of relief and distance. That is how we construct space, with an up and a down, a left and a right, an in front and a behind, a near and a far” – Georges Perec3, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Chapter “Space” Page 81
3 Georges Perec (7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker and essayist.
Space is all around us. We live, move, do and feel through space. Therefore, we build the space around us so that we can benefit from it. As Georges Perec talks in his book “Species of Spaces and Other Pieces”4, in order to understand and use the space, we need something that catches our eye. Endless empty looking spaces are not something we can deal with. They might feel like a breeze of fresh air, but our lives and needs force us to surround ourselves with objects, subjects and buildings. These built spaces, known as urban environments, exist because we can only function in relation to something. We build homes, work and entertainment spaces, and build our lives inside and around them. We build cities. Depending on our needs, mental state and purpose, we create our own vision of the city space: sometimes seen as being inside (in the city), outside (going to the city) or inter space (walking through the city). Again, it is reasonable to say that in every situation we take our surroundings as something that surround us (as the word itself implies). We have a feeling of what is close in front of us, what is far, what is above and under. Our senses receive the information - visual, smell and sound - and from there on, our brain is able to imagine or predict how the rest looks like. It is because of that, once in a certain space, we are able to quickly understand it almost simultaneously as we go. I find it extraordinary this ability to predict and imagine space that the eye can not see. But it is because that ability that we can understand bigger spaces, and find our way. Memories and knowledge from previous experience, deeply engraved in our brain, always guide us. Once we grasp important characteristics of the environment, it gives us a feeling of relief - we are able to link it in our brain and foresee or guess how the landscape develops. That is how space turns into an environment we can grasp. To understand the bigger picture, we need to first understand how it is constructed, and once we do that we can orientate ourselves 4 Original title “Espèces d’espaces” (Paris: Galilée 1974), translated and edited by John Sturrock (London: Penguin, 1997)
in it. As we go along, we gather information about that particular space by being part of it and creating memorable situations we can relate to. Just like a puzzle - once understood the way a piece is constructed, you know the way it connects to the rest, thus you grasp the system. Indeed the puzzle has a lot more to it than just the pieces, yet you know how to continue from one to another. The same principle applies to the city - once able to understand or create situations, the space becomes an environment and that is how we get to know the city. “Don’t be to hasty in trying to find definition of the town. It’s far too big and there’s every chance of getting it wrong. First, make an inventory of what you can see. List what you’re sure of. Draw up elementary distinctions: for example, between what is the town and what isn’t the town” – Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Chapter “Town” Page 60 What Georges Perec says here is very much true. Understanding complex system by encountering all aspects that define it, won’t get us anywhere. In order to grasp what the environment is about and what is our position in it, we need to go step by step, systematically and consciously. Indeed, every single detail of it is created by us, but it is far too big of a collage that started a development on its’ own. Different architects, urban planners, different visions and trends, keep changing and shaping the city over time - it is a never ending process and it will never end. As we develop, the city image develops as well. Kevin Lynch5 made a good point in his book “The Image of The City”, where he defines the space of the city and the way it is seen through various eyes. “There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the overlap of many individual images. Or perhaps there is a series of public images, each held by some significant number of citizens. Such group images are necessary if an individual is to operate successfully with his environment and to cooperate with his fellows. Each individual picture is unique, with 5 Kevin Andrew Lynch (1918 - 1984) was an American urban planner and author.
some content that is rarely or never communicated, yet it approximates the public image, which, in different environments, is more or less compelling, more or less embracing” - Kevin Lynch “The Image of The City”, Chapter “The City Image and its’ Elements” Page 46 Despite being a creation of our own images, the big city sometimes feels alien. So, how to start understanding the growing creature? If we achieve mental and physical awareness within the space, we will consciously become one of the subjects - objects in it. By doing so, we gain new awareness of the environment being able to influence its’ layout, feel and perception. That is how situations are created, and situations create images. By sharing those images we come to understand and use the city space. Yet, by doing so, are we gaining better knowledge of what city space is all about, or only the way we, as humans, see it? Maybe the way we see it is the only way we can use it, but what if there is more to your city than what you know? What you don’t know won’t hurt you - denial is a blessing, but awareness is too. In the publication “The society of the Spectacle”6, Guy Debord7 stated that in modern society social life has been replaced with a representation of it. Everything that used to be lived has now become a representation - a fictional image of what it’s supposed to be, but might never be. The world that we know is the world that we have learned through different representations – stories, images and impressions guide our way. Debord describes the world as a spectacle. In the dictionary, spectacle refers to an event memorable in appearance, settings specially arranged for the purpose – a show. Having said that, the city is a spectacle by definition. It is a representation of our lives – our spectacle, which is representation of our being and so on. However, if individual situations are 6 Original title “La Société du spectacle” (1967, France), translated by Ken Knabb in 1981 7 Guy Ernest Debord (1931 - 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International
created, he says we can contribute or even create the show. The new spectacle will be open for personal perception and this will allow personal representation. Debord calls this “a sense of selfconsciousness of existence within a particular environment or ambience”. To change the way we look, we need to change the way we see. So how can we influence the spectacle? To be is to design, so whatever we do we create situations, we create spaces, - therefore we create a spectacles. “The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images” – “The society of the Spectacle” Guy Debord, Essay 4 Page 7 If indeed modern society is compilation of images that are representation of our view on society, how do these images influence the future society? Cities are host for the society. Our representation of both very much determines the way we build our future and change its’ course. Therefore, it means that the future is indeed in our hands, under our feet and around us, literally. The more we take the representations for granted, the more we let lose of the carriage taking us to the future. I have made three cities my homes and the images I have created of them are completely different from each other. They are influenced by way I perceive their space are closely related to the way I got to know them: Skopje is places – static, Amsterdam is routes – action, and New York is destinations – planning. I was born and raised in Skopje, Macedonia. The images I have from it are soaked in my own memories and promises. One who hasn’t traveled or moved around, can never imagine or understand the importance and luxury in this – the city is what you make of it. The choices and decisions taken, shape the city perception. Social life indeed is a big influence, but in Skopje, I tried just about anything. Different locations, different crowds, different phases, they all have
something in common - it is always inside, “in the city”. In Skopje it is always about being somewhere, rather than how to get there. It is in the hospital mentality and the city life. Orientating, not just for me but for everyone else there, is by venues. Signage is, if non, then very little existing but no one is ever lost. Everyone is always somewhere. This creates images of locations, rather than the city as a whole. The space between those locations is basically a lot of bad street system, annoying traffic jams and no public culture. Very little attention is put on the public space, where as the private is very well taken care of (the city probably has the fanciest venues and houses you will see). Through time, this attitude led to decay of the city space. Yet, somehow people have learned to live with this and make the best of it. With a little bit of imagination, people can inhabit anything and make it work. However that is not an excuse for public laziness. Skopje will always be dear to me, because the image I have from it is being cozy and safe - a home environment. There is something comforting in the laziness… “People can inhabit anything. And they can be miserable in anything and ecstatic in anything. More and more I think that architecture has nothing to do with it. Of course, that’s both liberating and alarming. But the generic city, the general urban condition, is happening everywhere, and just the fact that it occurs in such enormous quantities must mean that it’s habitable. Architecture can’t do anything that the culture doesn’t. We all complain that we are confronted by urban environments that are completely similar. We say we want to create beauty, identity, quality, singularity. And yet, maybe in truth these cities that we have are desired. Maybe their very characterlessness provides the best context for living.” – Rem Koolhsas8, interview for Wired Amsterdam on the other hand has the perfect looking public space. I moved here almost five years ago and I got to know the 8 Rem Koolhaas (born in 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urban planner and professor. Always working on the relation between architecture and urban planning he said “The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape.”
“big unknown city” by cycling. It was in this city that I understood the true meaning of a city system. The fact that everything is just a bike ride away, creates action and awareness of the surroundings. Amsterdam is always an inter space – “through the city”. Because a trip is part of the city experience, to get somewhere one has to check the map and understand the way. After so many rides, I now have the map of Amsterdam in my head and it amazes me how little guidance I need now to find my way, anywhere in the city. Even if I avoid looking at the perfectly organized house façades, the signs, or maps, in the back of my head I have the map of the city. That is my image of Amsterdam – movement through a system of streets and canals, in a beautiful setting. I was biking through the snow the other day and it was cold and windy. I couldn’t look ahead or around me, so I started following the trace lines of the ones biking before me. Since I knew the way, I could let my mind go and started interweaving my path with the rest of the traces, trying to create a nice pattern. Before I knew, I was halfway home and had taken completely different route than the usual one. I looked back and saw that my pattern was now including not only bike traces, but street lights, pools, pits and, strange enough, the architecture I wasn’t even paying attention to. A thought came to my mind – psychogeography9! Guy Debord explained it as “a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities… just about anything that takes pedestrians of their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape”. Amsterdam, or the snow, did this for me somehow. There are only so many squares, streets and canals which can be taken as a reference. However, the routes taken through and to them being always different create more variations of the perfect Amsterdam image. I went to New York City for half a year in 2008. Traveling was big part of the city experiencing, being so big, and it always felt as an outside space – “out in the city”. Just Brooklyn alone, where I was living, is a bit bigger than all of Amsterdam. And then there is 9 Defined in 1955 by Guy Debord, psychogeography explored the connection between the environment and the emotions and behavior of individuals.
Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island, which make the total surface of the city almost five times bigger than Amsterdam. This leads to a lot of time spent traveling, which is the reason why it always felt like a big deal to me leaving the house. Many times, I would even have second thoughts about going out and taking the subway. New Yorks’ subway used to be private. The competitive spirit of different owners, led to todays’ poor connections and time schedules, especially at night. So, for everything I had to do, I had to plan an extra hour, or two. Traveling turned into waiting and action become static - strange I thought to myself. However, once out on the street it is all worth it, all the waiting and frustrations because every time it felt like a different world: very awake, very fast moving, exciting and unexpected. That is the thing about New York – neighborhoods have different look and feel, sometimes not so pleasant, yet they made such an immense impact on my city image. Blocks and intersections became the base of my orientation as well as neighborhoods, which was on much bigger scale and much different from any other city. I would not have survived it without a map as well, and strange enough, it was always the subway map.
Rene Magritte “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” 1928-1929 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA)
2. The real space and its’ representation
“We say the map is different from the territory. But what is the territory? Operationally, somebody went out with a retina or a measuring stick and made representations which were then put on paper. What is on the paper map is a representation of what was in the retinal representation of the man who made the map; and as you push the question back, what you find is an infinite regress, an infinite series of maps. The territory never gets in at all. […] Always, the process of representation will filter it out so that the mental world is only maps of maps, ad infinitum.” – “Steps to an Ecology of Mind”10 Gregory Bateson11, Form, Substance and Difference
10 Collection of Gregory Bateson’s short works, originally published by Chandler Publishing Company in 1972 11 Gregory Bateson (1904 – 1980) was a British anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields
I am not trying to deny the value of space representations, but make it clear that they are not the territories they display. Rather mapped out representations, they are colored in the promise of what they are supposed to be. Same as the work of Rene Magritte “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”12 , where what we see is indeed an illustration of a pipe, but it is not a real pipe – one can not touch it, fill it with tobacco, lit it and smoke from it. It is common for us to take things for granted, but it is very important to be aware that nothing is what it seems and truth is always relative. Especially when it comes to space representation because who says my vision of reality is better than yours? When Alfred Korzybski said “The map is not the territory” he meant that the map can never convey all the aspects that make space what it is. The rules and criteria of understanding certain space differ from one to another individual, which means that perception is always between reality and ourselves. However, representations, being a map, image, or signage are very useful because they give guidance, hope and comfort. They are very good base to start learning the space so that one can make it, hopefully, personal environment. When I first came to Amsterdam it was the new city I had to make my new home. This was a beginning of a different story and I was aware of it. Now looking back, I never really thought about it that much at the time. Somehow it came natural, not to expect anything and just go along - see what comes my way. Thus, I didn’t know any directions, nothing about the city life, the city mentality and customs, the story and where I fit in. I found myself in a city I didn’t know and it gave me some strange comfort. Leaving the house though, I would always checking the map. I would draw it for myself - the street I had to follow and the intersections. By doing so, I learned Amsterdam in perfectly systematic way – as a system of streets and canals. Very soon I had an idea about the city layout 12 “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”, meaning “This is not a pipe”, is a thought promoting work by the Belgian surrealist René François Ghislain Magritte (21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967)
Amsterdam, the Netherlands satelite and map view (screen shots source http://maps.google.com1) 1 Google Maps is todays most commonly used source for world, country and city maps.
by streets, squares and canals. Now, I am sure I can never get lost in Amsterdam. Knowing the city as a system, felt like a coloring book to me. I could color every street and location, with my own adventures and moments in the new city, I was calling my home now. That mind-set kept me open for what the city had to offer. It was fun and I felt safe. Few months after, I looked at the map of Skopje for the first time. I was surprised! I couldn’t recognize the space. I have never before looked at a map of my hometown and could not orientate myself. I kept rotating it looking for reference points. It was then that I realized there are more ways to get to know and understand a city. Yet, even though I got to know Skopje and Amsterdam in completely different ways they both gave me the freedom of creating my own perception. I always say to people Amsterdam is exactly what you think it is, because I truly believe that. In Amsterdam everyone can be who they want to be and be, where they want to be. Everything is made so easy and accessible. It is the low architecture and oldfashioned cafes, the signage, the use of English, the bike culture, well organized public transport and easy intercity connections, that make everything close by and friendly for locals and foreigners. Amsterdam feels open to the outside world and at the same time quite cozy within. The years I’ve spent here made me think of how would I define the city layout of Skopje. Size-wise it is not so smaller than Amsterdam, but everything about it felt so much different. Rather than a system, Skopje feels like nodes. Nodes of events, nodes of streets, nodes of styles, but no flow, nor connections - I just couldn’t grasp the city as a whole, the way I could with Amsterdam. It was strange to me that I found Amsterdam more comforting as a whole. Everything was working and functioning, as it should. It was like a walk on the bright side where everything is perfect – the perfect city - Disneyland13! 13 Disneyland is a theme park, firs opened in The USA (1955). The park is real life simulation of the fantasy world of Walt Disney, meant for enjoyment and entertainment of children and adults.
There is something very remarkable about Disneyland and its’ concept. It is city, a miniature, or slice of a city, or something that resembles a city. It’s a perfect show! The ultimate spectacle! The perfect real-life collection of images. Time does not exist, because the environment makes you escape reality. For children and adults, Disneyland is the ultimate dream environment - everything is happy and works without requiring extra effort. Strange enough, after a day in Disneyland the need to go back to reality is unavoidable. Why is that? How come enjoying perfection disappears so fast? Is it the balance that we need? In order to know and appreciate good, we need bad. The bad, all those imperfections, make real cities interesting, because reality is never black and white. It is about all the shades in between, and we are all about coloring them. With everything we do, we add color to the environment. Disneyland is already colored with what are supposed to be our favorite colors, and there is nothing left for us to do. It is a practical show, a spectacle to be enjoyed. But for us to enjoy something, we need to be engaged - we need to color our environment. The fact that we are being bombarded with perfect images, makes us desire them and gives us the feeling we know certain cities. They might be perfect, but can never be known unless experienced. I realized this when I stepped out of the subway and entered Manhattan for the first time. It is a kind of place everyone knows from movies, photos, videos and stories. Skyscrapers higher than the eye can see, no sun reaching the streets, people running, sounds of traffic and high heels marching down the avenue, smell of coffee and the opening track from “Sex and the City”14 running in the background. A real movie scene... or a concrete jungle, somewhat a city like the ones in the SiFi movies. Thought I would get lost in the crowds, feeling so small, surrounded by these gigantic blocks. It was nothing like that... The city from TV is real! I stepped out 14 “Sex and the city” is an American TV show (HBO) about the life of four single women in New York City. The first episode was shown in the late 90’s and since then has been a huge hit, starring the most famous designers and influential people, bars, clubs and memorable locations in New York
on 23rd Street and 8th Avenue. I still remember the awkwardness when my image of New York clashed with reality. Staring around in awe, I couldn’t believe I was in New York and it was going to be my new home!!! A lot of high buildings indeed, but nothing frightening - a city just like any other. Still, there was something about the way the sun was hitting the street, the architecture, the sounds of the traffic… it was new, different and I loved it. After a while everything became normal. In order to function, I had to let go of those fictional images about the city and start building my own. Most of the time New York was just a city I lived it: streets, crossings, buildings, day-to-day obligations and fun times, nothing unreal nor movie-like. However, certain buildings or the skyline at night, were bringing me back to the fiction of the city, and I would get very excited all over again. I wondered what was the cause for those moments, and why did the city feel so regular otherwise? The images I have seen before were so deeply engraved in my memory, they were dictating the way I perceived what was in front of me. The times I would get that unexplainable excitment about being in New York, was when I would make a link between my fictional image and what I was looking at. This discovery struck me! Is it possible that we are only aware of something if there is a story around? Do images soaked in stories promise knowledge or do they limit us? Either way, they work like branding defining the story of the city space. New York is called a concrete jungle for a reason, but “The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo”15. As Desmond Morris examines in his book “The Human Zoo”16 the civilized world can be easily compared to a zoo. As animals have their survival needs provided, we have ours too. Yet living in a limited amount of physical space we are both likely to have problems in developing healthy social relationships, suffer from isolation and boredom. In modern cities these are all existing problems and stories offer comforting images but also false knowledge. It works like fairy tale - by simplifying the 15 “The Human Zoo” - Desmund Morris 16 “The Human Zoo” first published in 1969 by Jonathan Cape
complex reality into mere images, pretty, simple and happy, it all seems so easy. We all grew up with Disney fairy tales that thought us how simple and wonderful life is - be good, fight bad and love. Fairy tales put a pink filter over everything and give us a peace of mind. Life is almost never simple and that is why even as grown ups we still appreciate fairy tales. The same concept is applied for representations of cities. Good parts are shown and the bad simplified to a level where we don’t find them frightening anymore. The representation is a safety net - the maps comfort us because we can never get lost; photos give the promise of something beautiful and worth the effort; movies and videos creates the illusion of being somewhere else… all these mediums stimulate the feeling of being in the actual environment. Even if it is false, it gives us a peace of mind and eliminates panic and frustration of not knowing. By having a story, the city feels better. We may question ourselves if the story about the city is representation of the city, or the city is representation of its‘ story? Either way, we are the ones somewhere in between, building links from what we see and the story we’ve heard. If the story of the city is not related to the story of the city space, the environment won’t engage us. We need to be able to relate what we want to see, to what is really there. In that way we can use the environment and be part of it. As mentioned before, we can only like and relate to something that engage us. The New Urbanism17, favours urban areas that are enjoyable and walkable. They promoted that by offering more than one possible route from and to a destination, and a variety of houses and jobs, the city will be enjoyed more. The extend to which an environment allows people a choice of access through, to and from it is a key measure of its’ responsiveness. They called this quality of the urban environment permeability. For example, small blocks give more choice of routes, and allow visual permeability, improving peoples’ 17 Urban design movement that started in the early 80’s in the United States, promoting walkable neighborhoods and urban designs based upon the ‘traditional’ street grid
awareness of the choice available: the smaller the blocks – the easier it is to see from one junction to the next in all directions. However, if everything is accessible for everyone physically or visually, there will be no privacy nor excitement in discovering new things. The key is in hiding and showing. The “Manual for Streets”, published in 2007 by the British Department for Transport, radically changed the designers’ and local authorities’ approach to street planning. On their website, the Departments writes “It emphasizes that streets should be places in which people want to live and spend time in, and are not just transport corridors.” 18 However, big not walkable cities exist, and they are full of transport corridors. In order to use them, a system of simplified grid was created. By using space manipulation, the simple representation can serve its’ purpose - explain the space. That is where map meets the space. For example, subway maps now-a-days have, most of the time, no relation to the actual space. The information is displayed in a grid with high hierarchy: color, type and form count a lot to bring clarity, but as for the rest, once underground one doesn’t really care about the landscape measures above. The London Underground map is a perfect example and standard for subway maps.
London Underground map (source www.tfl.gov.uk) 18 Source http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/manforstreets/
Despite this, New York City has mapped its’ subways differently, not following the London’s Underground standard. In the late 70’s, John Tauranac was the head of the MTA19 committee that designed the current NYC subway map. Instead of simplified schematics with subway lines running at specified angles, the map shows lines in their approximate geographic location. He reported for the New York Times at the time “Almost as soon as Mr. Vignelli’s (schematic) map arrived at stations, people started complaining about its failure to describe the city’s geography. Tourists were getting off the subway at the bottom of Central Park and trying to stroll to the top, for example, expecting a 30-minute walk.”
NYC Subway maps in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s (source personal collection) Notice the organic dark colored thick lines and cluttered layout
19 MTA stands for Metro Transit Authority
NYC Subway maps in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s (source personal collection) Notice the clear colors and systematic grid based on the London Underground map
New NYC Subway maps (source personal collection) Notice the attention put on geographical position and the way of layering information
Because a map is a systematic simplification, it is fair to say it simplifies our experience of the space. But is that really possible? What we do in a space is completely the opposite - we consider more and more facts about what is there and make it grow by linking it to memories and stories. Lewis Carroll20 made a very interesting point in “Sylvie and Bruno Concluded” 21 that the only way to have a map fully functioning is to have it on one-to-one scale because only then the map will encounter all factors. To think this radical is wonderful, but how would that map look like? GPS22 is today’s most common way of orientation and guidance through urban environments as well as across country. It is a kind of a real time map. Connected to a global satellite system, it updates itself constantly, giving the user exact position and direction to the final destination. The system offers great deal of information about traffic, possible alternative routes, and venues. It can be customized for individual use and more advanced GPSs even give a 3d stimulation of the environment. Mostly used by drivers, it is now making its way to the pedestrians too. Almost every new phone now has the GPS feature, which eliminates the possibility of getting lost and endless wondering. As handy as it is, certain groups of people are against it, because it also eliminates peoples’ awareness of space. Drivers rely on it, and with the new voice feature, they don’t even have to look at the map or evaluate the surroundings. Both drivers and pedestrians are led on the same routes on daily base, creating traffic jams and crowding in certain areas only, while neglecting all those little side streets making the city permeability richer. 20 Charles Lutwidge (1832 –1898), better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician and a photographer. 21 “Sylvie and Bruno”, first published in 1889, and its 1893 second volume “Sylvie and Bruno Concluded” form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. The novel has two main plots; one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fantasy world of Fairyland 22 GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It is space-based global navigation system and provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services worldwide.
So, what compliments, and at the same time clarifies, the environment? Kevin Lynch first mentioned the term wayfinding in the book “The Image of the City”23, where he defined it as an ability of humans to recognize and orientate in certain environment. Since then, graphical representation of important landmarks and directions has helped wayfinding develop and become part of our everyday life. If we just look around the city, even outside of it, there are signs helping us understand and use the space more efficiently. Good signage takes a lot of research and understanding of human psychology and perception, and of course urban planning. The signage being for outdoors or indoors, for pedestrians or vehicles, for routes or locations, must always be recognizable in the environment and relevant to the purpose it serves – to clarify the space by informing the users. “Even in an ever-changing society with an ever changing environment, we learn how to cope with more and more visual input. The basics behind this visual input however – color contrast, field of vision, visual cues for building entrances and exits, categorization of messages, ets – remain the same. Human perception and psychology are remarkably consistent.” said Paul Mijksenaar, the founder of the information firm Mijksenaar. In modern times it is interesting to see how this approach has shaped the new environments being build. The Swedish furniture and home appliances store Ikea24 is a perfect example of this. The wayfinding is part of the stores’ concept and merges with the experience of shopping. I went there not so long ago, telling myself, this time instead of being a costumer I would be an observer and will try to understand how is works. How does Ikea manage to recreate this perfect image and keep everyone coming back? The layout, the communication and experience is 23 Kevin Lynch’s most famous work, “The Image of the City” published in 1960, is the result of a five-year study on how users perceive and organize spatial information as they navigate through cities. He reported that users understood their surroundings in consistent and predictable ways, forming mental maps with five elements: paths, edges, district, nodes and landmarks. 24 Founded in 1943, Ikea is a privately-held, international store for furniture, accessories and home appliances. All around the world, Ikea pioneered flat-pack design furniture and affordable prices.
all planed out from the moment you enter the store, up until the last moment you leave. Not even for a moment, you are left to wonder and maybe leave – one could spend easily hours and hours browsing, having a snack, doing some more shopping and leave home happy. The experience is divided in three parts: show room, restaurant and a magazine. At the beginning one has the choice of taking his/her own route, but even then, led by the interior and signage, it is almost impossible not to take the way that is already planned for you. The hierarchy in the signage forces you to follow the route Ikea planned. It is that route, that has bigger and more visible type and symbols, and even if one takes their own route, Ikea manages to drag you back into the colorful perfect looking showroom. It is hard and almost impossible to leave the store quickly or halfway through the shopping. It is a one way route and one must walk through the whole store to leave the building, even the shortcuts are not that shorter or visible. Not being able to get out fast is a very good marketing move, because Ikea really wants you to take your time, walk around, and even if you were planning not to buy anything, still get something. Once you start following the arrows, you are in a completely different world - bright colors, perfectly organized and clean Ikea world! Just like in the magazines, just like what you saw on their website, just like in the manual – user friendly, easy and pretty. All around the space there signs are usually in the local language and English. The graphics are simple and communicating, showing you where you are. Once you enter a new department, there are floor maps, but the route is so forced and easy to follow that one does not perceive the space as usual. The real distance in between disappears, therefore the map can look anyway and it would not make any difference. However, I noticed that the floor map of the Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NYC was showing a curved line, whereas the one in Delft, The Netherlands was a straight one. Makes me wonder if it can be related back to the differences in the subway maps between Europe and America.
Sign at the entrance of Ikea in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (source personal collection) Notice the visual hierarchy
Floor maps of Ikea in Brooklyn, New York and Delft, The Netherlands (source personal collection) Notice the difference in mapping the route
You may wonder if Ikea is meant for crowds? The answer is no. Once the store is crowded it feels like a chaotic zoo. Total mess of misplaced items, no price tags, trolleys left in the middle of the passage, loud people and screaming kids. The space cannot host this. There are more examples of spaces built on this concept of controlling people, some even meant for keeping whole crowds under control. It is not meant to be seen as a bad thing because we can learn a lot from it. Just look at Disneyland and other theme parks, Las Vegas25 and other holiday, entertainment and shopping resources, even airports. The possibility of total mess hangs in the air every moment, but signage and layout, among good organization, have helped keeping everything safe and running. On smaller scale than cities, airports still host big crowds of people on daily base, most of them coming for the first time. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is one of the largest airports in the world yet it is the world’s most user-friendly one. Many travelers refer to the airport as a “little city”. The signage is done so well, that the size of the airport does not frighten. The anxiety of arriving at a new big airport and finding your way are well taken care of by well placed and designed signs. Maybe it is because I started flying often since I moved to Amsterdam, but it is my favorite airport. Leaving to somewhere exciting, or coming back home was always through Schiphol. The very first time I flew, I landed at Schiphol. I was alone and found it amazing that I didn’t get lost.
25 Las Vegas is a major resort city in the middle of the Nevada desert, known as The Worlds’ Entertainment Capital. It is completely artificial environment, with huge hotels, venues and monumental architecture from all over the world is build, meant for enjoyment, gambling, shopping and leisure.
Maps of Schiphol Airport (source www.mijksenaar.com)
Since 1991 the international information firm Mijksenaar26 is responsible for the wayfinding at Schiphol Airport. The key to their success is clear and well presented information. From signs, routes, directions and maps, all two dimensional and three dimensional, they chose the information, position, colors and size so well that make Schiphol Airport easy to get around. Another layer of information distinguishes Schiphol signage from other airports and that is the time approximation. Every sign leading to the gates displays an approximated time it takes one to get there. All these elements of orientation guide the person step by step, systematically and consequently from one to another stage as they would follow logically. Being well incorporated in the space and easy to spot, the signs eliminate the anxiety of rushing, and leave the visitor undisturbed to enjoy the experience. This goes to prove that information is important, and it should always be well displayed, layered in importance.
26 Mijksenaar is an international information design firm with offices in Amsterdam and New York. Their in-depth approach to wayfinding and visually pleasing outcome makes them the best in the business, with project worldwide
Signage at Schiphol Airport (source www.mijksenaar.com)
Wayfinding is impossible if nearly every detail is stated with the same importance. To go back to the urban environment, imagine if every possible venue, house number, street, neighborhood, city, village, region and to go even more radical: country in the neighborhood, or even every country in the world, and their own regions, cities etc, were stated on every sign. Only information relevant for that particular situation should be displayed, always in a legible manner. Pedestrian signs are different from vehicle signs, indoors from outdoors, long distance from short distance and so on. Having said that it is reasonable to conclude that signage is useful if used properly.
Visual clutter of signage mixed with advertising Warsaw, Poland (source personal collection) Note the lack of hierarchy and legibility
Representations of space, being maps, images, or stories; and guidance being signage or GPS help us understand and use it to its’ best. The representations might create fiction of the reality, but gives us hint of what to expect - something very valuable to start understanding (in one way or another) what certain space is about. Guidance in space helps us find our way through it. Either way, no matter how forced or predetermined they make our route, we won’t be able to find one otherwise. The question we are left with is how can we use them best, or could there be other ways to achieve what they do and at the same time eliminate the restrictions.
3. If representation of space and our subjective perception both create new spaces, why do we still build old spaces?
“We live in space, in these spaces, these towns this countryside, these corridors, these parks. That seems obvious to us. Perhaps indeed it should be obvious. But it isn’t obvious, not just a matter of course. It’s real, obviously, and as a consequence most likely rational. We touch. We can even allow ourselves to dream. There’s nothing, for example, to stop us from imagining things that are neither towns nor countryside (nor suburbs), or Metro corridors that are at the same time public parks” - Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Foreword Page 5
It might be that a lot of people do not realize, but we keep influencing the city every day. The city has changed so much and got its’ roots shaken, leading to loss and questioning of its’ values. The public domain where poor, sick, rich, and middle class could encounter each other and become aware of their own position has to some extend died out. Nowadays, with the growth of cities, natural or forced selection has been created. The dream for the perfect future society turned our cities into safely fragmented systems. The social structure only becomes visible in the bigger picture – the city region. The public domain is cleared of the “unwanted” so the city can become the perfect image of the perfect city. However, this image differs from location to location. Growing up in European cities, I remember the weirdness felt when I first visited Florida. Everything looked so perfect and unreal. Maybe it is because the cities I have seen before have history and certain continuity in the way they developed through time, but what I saw in Florida was anything but a city. The idea of these pop-up Polly Pocket27, Disney-like communities was abnormal living environment for my standards. It looked like the perfect holiday get-away – a place where I would relax cut off from my reality, but never lead a life. They prevent any kind of spontaneous moments, unpredictable experience, and exploration. The public space is almost non-existing and the landscape – monotone. Later on, I found out that was suburbia… Welcome to the land of perfect middle class living!
27. Polly Pocket is a 90’s pocket size toy. It is a clip shell - shaped miniature situation, such as a house, a garden, or a venue, perfectly colored and arranged with mobile props.
Smith Brooke, Lake Worth, Florida (source personal collection) America is the homeland of suburbia. After the Great Depression28 in the beginning of the 30’s, the dream of affordable and attractive middle class housing was born. “A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage”29 was the promise of a better, simpler life. Outside the big city and into a flawless, safe environment, scattered and dispersed private land with vast empty landscapes in between, shaped the new idea of what city could be. People started turning towards their safe home environments and the city grew alien. It is because of that, public space became unappreciated. It is closely related to economy and commerce, but the concept of suburbia is to simplify visually and mentally the experience of being in an unstable environment. Far from pollution, far from noise and far from danger the idea of living in suburbia emerged because cars and 28 The Great Depression started on October 29th 1929 in the USA with the stock market. Soon it spread around the world making poor and rich countries suffer, until the end of the beginning of the 40’s when it ended. The Great Depression was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century, and is used in the 21st century as an example of how far the world’s economy can decline 29 Herbert Hoover 1928
Suburbia in the USA (author unknown)
oil became very affordable. However, with the recent decrease of oil resources, the American dream is dying out. People move back to the cities making them grow, and suburbia will shrink. Trends change, and from calm we move to visually challenging environment. We can never know for sure what the future will bring, but one thing is sure: by avoiding the problem, nothing is being solved. After the American dream of suburbia, there is going to be another one. So instead of constantly creating new dreams, we probably need to start recycling. Otherwise we will continue creating problematic neighborhoods, dysfunctional urban nodes and generic dreams that will never become the perfect city. Even if it is non existing, the dream for the perfect city will always be there, pushing urban planners and architects to get there. But in the meantime, real cities have real problems, we better start acknowledging them. Skopje, as called by many “the city of the dreamed future�, is an interesting case to look into about how attempts to fix an environment, without encountering the current social, urban and economic structure, cannot have positive outcome. In 1963, about 80 percent of the city was destroyed when a big earthquake hit the valley of Skopje. The city was physically and emotionally destroyed.
Skopje became “a name without a city”30. At the time, supported by Yugoslavia, a plan was made to rebuild the city, better and prouder than it ever was. “The beautiful city will rise again, through songs sang together, again it will shine as the sun [...] Skopje you will be joyfull again, Skopje you will be a world, and you will be an image, of everything human in this world [...] you will start counting a new age, you will be a joy” - Macedonian song about the city of Skopje Architects from all over the world sent their proposals, and the one to be chosen was the most futuristic one by the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. His proposal was inspired by the metabolic city, with big boulevards and futuristic buildings. By making Skopje the city of the future, he wanted to express the new strength the people and the city itself gained, from this big disaster. Everyone was excited about “The New City”, but the project was almost immediate failure because it didn’t encounter the current state of the urban planning, nor the economical possibilities. The fiction city was partly realized, creating new nodes in the urban scape. Since then, new buildings and streets popping up uncontrolled, messed up the continuity and consistency of the city, leading to Skopjes’ public domain decay and loss of identity. Today, Skopje is a city with more promises of brighter future, but never gets there. The strange thing is that from a city full of history Skopje became collection of more and more ruins. The new city planning proposed for the year 2014, involves building of just about every monument around the world, turning Skopje into the future Las Vegas. The public opinion is split, again because of the promise of a better future, on one hand, and the loss of the city identity, on the other.
30 In 2008 Ivan Mirkovski made a movie about the rebuilding of Skopje after the earthquake called “A Name Without a City”
The centre of Skopje, before and after the earthquake (source architecture university Skopje, Macedonia)
The new plans for the centre of Skopje by Kenzo Tange (source architecture university Skopje, Macedonia)
The centre of Skopje today (author unknown) The centre of Skopje planned for 2014 (source video
“Visualization of the Skopje center in 2014� project initiated by the Center Municipality of Skopje)
Conclusion
“The Manhattan Transcripts”, Episode 1 – The Park, MoMa, NYC
The question now, is how can we find our way mentally and physically through all these promises and stories? Because it is these promises that build links between what the environment is and how we see it. Our perception of it always lies between reality and fiction. It is impossible to separate them, because our being is interwoven into the fabric of the environment. We are the ones creating it, with our perception of the space and our stories, memories, and dreams that give it shape and meaning. But to consciously understand it we need to learn how to communicate with the environment. We need to bring the communication one on one – it is I, and the city. It has to be an personal approach that we can relate to and be relevant for the environment. So even if I manage to find what is the absolute truth about environment experience for myself, that might not apply for the rest of the almost seven billion individuals on our planet. What I am trying to say is that urban environments are not just any space they are much more complex and require openness for various interpretations. There is more than the physical aspect to the city and there is more to us than being a crowd. Bernard Tschumi was suggesting this in his project “The Manhattan Transcripts”31. Through drawings he tried to represent the environment, by representing our existence in it or at least acknowledge it. Spaces and objects relate to each other and to us, creating three aspects on how space can be seen and represented: space (the fabrication of physical spaces); movement (the movement of bodies in space); and event (program, function, or use). 31 Bernard Tschumi’s Manhattan Transcripts is a theoretical proposition executed through drawing. Made between 1976 and 1981 for consecutive exhibitions, its four episodes transcribe imagined events in real New York locales. Episode 1: The Park uncovers a murder in Central Park. Episode 2: The Street (Border Crossing) chronicles the movement of a person drifting through violent and sexual events on 42nd Street. Episode 3: The Tower (The Fall) depicts a vertiginous fall from a Manhattan skyscraper. And Episode 4: The Block illustrates five unlikely events occurring in separate courtyards within a city block.
“The tripartite mode of notation [used in The Manhattan Transcripts] . . . proceeded from a need to question the modes of representation generally used by architects: plans, sections, axonometrics, perspectives. However precise and generative they may have been, each implies a logical reduction of architectural thought to what can be shown. . . . They are caught in a sort of prison-house of architectural language, where the limits of my language are the limits of my world. Any attempt to go beyond such limits, to offer another reading of architecture, demanded the questioning of these conventions” — Bernard Tschumi Bernard Tschumi took each of the aspects and related them to different representation, giving a broader view on the actual situation: architectural-drawing conventions (plans, sections, perspectives, and axonometrics) outline space, a modified form of dance notation diagrams the movement of different protagonists and photographs direct or witness events. The fact is that, graphic representations have to include more information because they are the language between the space and us. Mere redrawing of the actual space floor plan, offers less spatial communication, but allows self exploration. The solution might lay in representing the space in a way that tells more about the way it is build, rather than the way it is seen. I would like to mention a very interesting project “Here & There” from Jack Schulze32 . About a year ago, he started the project together with James King33 and Campbell Orme34 trying to build up a map of Manhattan, New York City as one of the densest urban areas. His firs attempt was when he made a three-dimensional maze map of London. This turned out to be not so easy to get around and the viewer could find himself lost in the complex system. To make things better this 32 Practicing designer and design consultant, working for Workplace 115, based in London, UK 33 Young speculative designer working in the fields of biotechnology and interaction design, based in London, UK 34 Young cross-disciplinary designer, working mostly illustration and animation, currently based in London, UK
time, he took inspiration in video games where the viewer can see the environment from different perspectives depending on the needs. From there on he continued with the idea of having few perspectives at the same time – eye level and bird view of the city. The map looks like an endless loop and the horizon is non-existing. This puts the viewer in a very interesting position of looking at the street and at the same time over the rooftops. By that, he managed to put the best of both worlds into one - the overview of a map and experience of real space.
“Here & There” horizontalness view of Manhattan, New York City seen from downtown and uptown (left to right). Berg, the company where Jack Schulze is working, claims that in print is the best way to see it, because of the detailing and the feel of holding an actual map, available on their website www.berglondon.com
At the end, environments and their representations all combine human psychology, which even predictable it is still ever changing; and planning, as always strictly determined. It might seem that they exist parallel to each other, but the constant need of understanding urban areas and improving their usage, talks differently. We need to find ways to build cities that one day won’t need to be represented, but will be what they are supposed to be. We cannot go back in time, nor reverse our human nature. Instead we need to look at the urban environment as an individual, just like us, and try to communicate. So, what do we say back at out city – “You are complicated and I don’t get you! You are not good enough, so I will have to prettify you!!!” The city is not the growing monster anymore, because it replays yet again – “Reinvent me!” The growing monster is within us. Our needs, goals and wishes for something that is not there, or might never be there, keep forcing the city to change. I sometimes think we don’t even know the end goal, the ultimate perfect city, because even if we get there one day, we will be already on our way to the next dream. The city says – “Like me, and I will be there for you” and we replay yet again – “Wait, you are still under construction. But one day...”
Extras: Interesting cases
Geocaching - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching Invented shortly after the removal of Selective Availability from GPS on May 1, 2000, because the improved accuracy. It is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called “geocaches” or “caches”) anywhere in the world. The game is similar to the 150-year-old letterboxing, which uses clues and references to landmarks embedded in stories.
Waymarking - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waymarking Activity in which people can locate and log unique and interesting locations around the world, usually with a GPS receiver and a digital camera. Waymarking differs from geocaching in that there is no physical container to locate at the given coordinates. Waymarking identifies points of interest for GPS users. There are many categories of waymarks, from pay phones through various restaurant chains, covered bridges, churches, places where one can take a factory tour and places of geologic significance, to name only a few. It leads some to become more knowledgeable of their own areas and to become interested in local history. Others have developed games (such as “What’s in a Name?”) that require the assistance of other players in remote areas.
7 scenes source http://7scenes.com A project for new city experience based on GPS platform they work for all organizations that want to deliver new mobile experiences to their audiences. Scenarios from indoors are created outdoors, by linking locations to content - photos, videos and sounds -, adding challenges and choosing from a range of (game) rules, together shaping what we call a scene.
Map alterations Disneyland and tourist maps are different from the usual ones. On the flat grid they visualize important buildings and famous locations in 3D.
Extras: Side research
Street decals
School research and design project, Information Architecture, Pratt Institute Brooklyn, NYC 2008 Canal Street cuts through the lower part of Manhattan, connecting the Holland Tunnel and the Manhattan Bridge (east-west). There are five subway stops (1, ACE, NQRW, 6 and JM) and arriving to Canal Street by subway is very easy. Yet, once out of the subway, one is face to face with either overwhelming crowd of cheap goods, or an empty corner on a side street. Either way, there is no map or sign to guide people which way to go. After my research I’ve come to a conclusion that people getting off the subway at Canal Street know exactly why they are there. It is a ridiculous, exciting, colorful and loud.... tasty and smelly, it’s Canal. Along the street there is a market running every day, where fake cheep bags, belts, perfumes and sunglasses are sold. Selling and buying gold is big thing there as well. It all happens outside on the street! Northwest from Canal is SOHO. Home of the good stores and restaurants, bars and clubs, SOHO is one of the hippest areas in Manhattan. Northeast is Little Italy. Small cafes, bars and good restaurants, this neighborhood offers “sounds and smells of Italian cuisine and culture”. Southwest is TRIBECA – big lofts, quiet streets, and good schools – it’s the fancy area of Manhattan. Southeast from Canal is Chinatown. Lots of small Chinese shops, supermarkets and real Chinese food. Broadway is the major crossing street, with even more stores and shops, bringing even more people. Because of this, Canal is one if the busiest streets in New York, where locals, foreigners and tourists and mixed together on daily base, most of them with no sense of direction or knowledge of landmarks. All the signs pointing at certain directions are for the vehicles, leaving the
pedestrians to flow unguided in the river of people and goods down Canal. If one gets out of the subway, he/she needs to look for those signs, and even then, they are not helpful since pedestrians go to certain location/ street/neighborhood. Pedestrian signage is missing, that gives you an idea as a pedestrian which direction you are facing. Because Canal is the border between four very popular neighborhoods, and the street itself has a lot to offer, people arriving on any of the stops down Canal will either wonder around exploring the market, or go to one of the neighborhoods. My proposal was to make signage that refers to something relevant for pedestrians. The decals were showing the name of the street, and then the neighborhoods to the left and the right.
This was the first research project I did where I started thinking about how space is perceived and used. Extensive research on spot and observing the environment carefully, brought new awareness to my understanding of the urban space. I remember going to Canal Street numerous times, getting out on different stops, through different exists, trying to explore losing and finding my way when there is no map. These exercises taught me a lot about signage and what wayfinding means.
Personal analysis of the area around Canal
The space of the border
School research project, Warsaw trip, Gerrit Rietveld Academie 2009 On a map, the border of a city is indicated with red line. Fine curve wraps around the city, forming the border. Border is defined as a closed line forming the outer edge of certain space. But line is one dimensional object, so how does one see a line in real space? In reality, there is no such thing as one dimensional object; therefore the geometrical quality of line is instantly transformed into a space with 3 dimensional values. In my research I discovered that the border is not just a line, but a space that spreads in and out of the city, making the space of the border vary in size in different areas. On every main road in Warsaw, there are many small car businesses. The look of them and the atmosphere they create sends out the message that this is the end of the city, but it is not the countryside. They make the border space grow. In Warsaw, where transition is in its highest point, differences and borders are very much visible. The face of the old and new stand next to each other, and the old is slowly disappearing. The borders of the city, not interesting enough yet for investments still have the spirit and language of how things are before capitalism. Marks of small and private businesses, existing or waiting to die out, are all over the border. In few years with the new investments and companies coming into Poland, as being new country to the European Union, a lot of things will change along the border as well. Car companies will offer longer service and warranty, therefore all those small businesses will start going down, one by one. Will this make the border thinner?
The language those small business use is very typical and nostalgic. I wanted to keep it. All those signs filled with clutter and not visible information for car speed give special charm and atmosphere to the border area. It is bad signage, but charming atmosphere. My project was about how the border is defined. In this landscape, the signs indicate the end. In future Warsaw, when the signs are no more there, no more small car business‌ how can this typical transition from the city and outside the city be saved in the new future landscape of Warsaw?
The space of the border, scale model - self made
It was due to this research findings, that I now understand better the relation between a map and space. The difference I discovered between them, still leads me into new experiments on how this can be turned into a benefit.
My personal map of Amsterdam with my home as the center
public transport route biking route destination/place
starting point/my center
my zones
close
far
undefined
My Room
School research project, Love in The City, Gerrit Rietveld Academie AMS, NL 2009 I love the city! I like being outdoors and being part of whatever is happening there. I see the city as my home. Even though I am not from Amsterdam or Holland, Amsterdam is my home now. Amsterdam is the place where I formed my own life and where I am currently living. I started thinking about my life in the city and my perception of it. It turns out everything is purely based on context – my center is my home. My first zone is the places I go the most and enjoy my time. Second zone, places that are a bit further, but still pleasurable, or places I don’t really feel special excitement about visiting. Third zone is far places. The rest is undefined. With this being said, thinking about love in the city, (if it exists and where) the first thing that came to my mind was the feeling of home. Our homes form the city, yet the city sometimes feels not as loving as our home. Love: A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, belonging. Home: A place in which one’s domestic affections are centered, belonging.
This project made me think about my position in the city and how I relate to the environment. By looking at the city and making this map, I realized that the places that engaged me visually and emotionally are the ones creating my image of the city. My map is indeed based on the regular Amsterdam map, but I’m sure the center and the zones apply only to me.
2D-3D School project, Icon, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, AMS, NL 2009
Two-dimensional work manipulating the perception of a space
This was a rather small project, but it had a big impact on me. I used to struggle a lot trying to find bridges between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional world. In this project I managed to find a way to link them. This opened a whole new world of exploring how they influence each other and how I play with that.
Reference
Books and Publications “Species of Spaces and Other Pieces” – Georges Perec, Penguin Books (1997) “The Society of the Spectacle” – Guy Debord, AKPress (2006) “The Image of the City” – Kevin Lynch, The MIT Press (1960) “Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space” – Michael Sorkin, Hill and Wang (1992) “The Manhattan Transcripts” – Bernard Tschumi, Academy editions (1981) “Form, Substance and Difference” – Gregory Bateson, Chandler Publishing Company (1972) “The Human Zoo” – Desmond Morris, Jonathan Cape (1969) “Odd Lots: Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark’s Fake Estates” – Jeffrey Kroessler, Cabinet Books/ The Queens Museum of Art (2005) “Sylvie and Bruno Concluded” – Lewis Carroll, Macmillan (1893) “S,M,L,XL” – OMA and Rem Koolhas and Bruce Mau “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, From A to B and Back Again” – Andy Warhol, A Harvest Book (1975) “Networked cultures” – Peter Mortenbock and Helge Mooshammer, NAi Publishers (2008) “The Philosophy of Space and Time” – Hans Reichenbach, Dover Publications (1928) “Fun” – Tracy Metz, NAi Publishers (2007) “The Feltron 2008 Annual Report” – Nicholas Feltron, Feltron Anual Report Fourth Volume (2009) “The Brand Book” – Wally Olins, Thames and Hudson Ltd (2008) “Logo Design 2” – Ed. Julius Wiedemann, Taschen (2006)
Projects “Here and There” – project by Berg London (2009) Wayfinding at Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam – project by Mijksenaar (1991 - present) Celebration, FL – project by Disney (1990)
Theory
Complex system theory Map-territory relation Urbanization and urban planning Neoro-linguistic programming Psychogeography
Movies “Name without a city” – Director and Writter Ivan Mirkovski (2008) “The Truman show” – Director Peter Weir, Writter Andrew Niccol (1998) “World builder” – Director and Writter Bruce Branit (2008)
Websites Mijksenaar: www.mijksenaar.com Here and there animation: http://vimeo.com/4525678 Breg London: http://berglondon.com/
Artists and Designers Christian Nold – (1976) Artist and designer Paul Mijksenaar – (1944) M. C. Escher – (1898 – 1972) Superstudio – (1966-1978)
Amsterdam 2010