At the bus stop. In the city.
INSCRIBING THE CITY
INTRODUCTION
My project looks at exploring the constituents of everyday life that make up the city.
By looking at the bus stop as a form of architecture, I address the how bus stops are a dwelling place, home to actors and spectators of the city. And how they architecturally shape the experience of their occupants. In my work, I have catalogued moments and documented movements I observed when studying two bus stops on Oxford Road, Manchester. I aim to convey the city as an accumulation of simple and ordinary actions that create a collective experience of everyday life.
BA2 HUMANITIES 2
TIOLUWLASE DELIGHT OLOJEDE
ARCHITECTURE THE BUS STOP IS
ExchangeI observed a lot of crossovers in space. There was a unspoken mutual agreement between people on how they used the space
1. Planes and boundaries
2. Volumes
3. Interior space, enclosure within the bus stop
4. Crossing over, common observed paths/ passages
*Note: This is my own interpretation of the boundaries defined by the structure of the bus stop. And for other bus stop designs and different contexts alternative boundaries would be created.
*The orthographic of the bus stop has been drawn to proportion but not to scale, I did consider measuring the bus stop in-situ, but my presence with the camera was already an obstruction :)
1 3 4 2 Dwelling point Planes Boundaries Motion Hand out Transition(s)Moving be-
bus
bus stop
tween
and
TIOLUWLASE DELIGHT OLOJEDE
THE BUS STOP HOUSES A FLOW OF MOVEMENTS
Occasionally, I would see people amid decision making, looking up at the bus stop pole, then either walking back into the 1st shelter, or out of the boundaries of the 1st and into the 2nd shelter
Some people, undecided, would stand in the middle of the two, making them better prepared to access both stops.
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and 1030, 10minutes
Using my field research, I approximately mapped out the general movement within the bus stop’s region. Noting flows, dwelling points, interactions and people’s visual focus.
The bus stop accommodates a sequential flow of movements, with multiple people taking part, engaging with the space and surfaces that the architecture provides.
For the first ten minutes recording the bus stop there was no action (see above). In the morning, most people would be heading towards the campus, instead of away.
The structure was unoccupied, this caused me to start filming and observing the adjacent bus stop. I noticed that two stops behaved as neighbours; architecture does not work in isolation but with its context. *The individuals that do
1 2
Unoccupied
not have movement lines- I met them there 1018
TIOLUWLASE DELIGHT OLOJEDE
He left to go to the other bus stop
THE BUS STOP DIRECTS THE FLOW OF MOVEMENTS
Friends standing together chatting
Two friends arriving with suitcases
Adjusting bag in ‘private’ before moving towards the denser area
This scene takes place at the 1st bus stop.
A bus has arrived, and the occupants of the bus stop transition into the bus.
Meanwhile, two girls use this bus stop as a route towards the 2nd bus stop.
Their path highlights how the architecture of the bus stop forms their path. Which is immediately broken out of once the 1st girl passed the pole.
It also suggests the unconscious interaction between the 2nd girl and the 1st girl- her path echoes the girl before her.
1634, ~10 minutes
This map depicts observed motion at the 2nd bus stop I observed (the adjacent).
It was interesting to witness how with different people the use of the space changed. Though the stop had its primary function: ‘a place where a bus regularly stops’ (Oxford Language), each coming, going and dwelling, saw the space re purposed.
I saw how some people allowed the bus stop to direct their motion due to the spatial boundaries provided by its architecture. And how some people chose not to be confined within the bus stop’s space but used its surrounding context.
1 2
The placement of the pole varies between the two stops. The second stop’s boundaries are extended.
Moments before 1634
TIOLUWLASE DELIGHT OLOJEDE
Leaning on the post
THE BUS STOP IS A REPOSITORY OF MOMENTS
0940
The man leaves the bus. The bus stop shelters him from the public, as he continues to use his phone.
Seat. Horizontal
Wall. Vertical
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In this scene, the bus stop is a space to store belongings, away from the main street. I presume that the man used this side of the bus stop because it had more space to dwell.
Even still, his load extended the boundary formed by the bus stop’s shields, possibly causing an obstruction to other users.
A women approaches in need of the bus time table; its access is restricted due to the man’s dwelling.
They exchange space, moving bodies, to adapt the use of the bus stop. A shared space was created, in that moment the space belonged to both of them, but for different reasons.
Looking up, turning head
Turning head, looking down
Waiting individuals
Leaning
Two interactions: One between human and architecture, the other between human and human, housed within architecture.
Laughter
Sheltered
Exposed
Bus stops
Bus stop
THE BUS STOP IS A COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE
Bibliography
Bachelard, G. (2014). The poetics of space. Penguin Classics.
Borden, I. (2001) ‘Skateboarding, space and the city: architecture and the body’. Oxford. pp.6-10
Boyer, M, C. (1996) The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments, MIT Press
Lucas, R and Walker, S (2022). BA2 Humanities-Inscribing the City Lecture series
Lucas, R (2016). Research methods for architecture. London, Laurence King Publishing
Graphical Inspiration
Kon Wajiro Modernology Drawings c. 1927
Peter Eisenman House II, 1969-70
Sarah Wigglesworth dining table 2002
Ray Lucas A Graphic Anthropology of Namdaemun Market and Sanja Matsuri
Robert Saywitz. Strange Attractors
Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Learning from Las Vegas, 1972
‘PRODUCTION AS DESIGN’
-For my field research, I used voice memos, photography, videos, note-taking and sketching. Using video meant that I could play back the moment and further analyse the moments I witnessed.
-I practised both emic and etic methods of research, allowing me to observe both general and personal levels of occupation. It did mean that at one point a bus driver stopped the bus for me!
-I took the approach of making multiple maps of the bus stop, to unpack different layers of information.
-Photographs have been included to further capture the bus stop as architecture and a place to house social and architectural interaction. The photos aim to romanticise the experiences of using the bus stop. Observing the qualities of space it produces and reproduced by its occupants.
-In 30-1 hour intervals between 10-11; 1-2 and 4-5, I observed the stops. Not all of the things that I observed, I included in this project; I came to realise that there was so much more depth and layers of information that could be unpacked with this theme.
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Pre, in, post-situ notes
