Diversity in Everyday Urbanism
Margaret Crawford describes everyday urbanism as the intersection of people and experiences. Nothing is isolated, as in the example of the service garage/taco stand. Everyday urbanism seems to be made up of a series of contradictions because so many functions occur at once - as Crawford said, "banal and repetitive, everywhere and nowhere, obvious yet invisible." At Nemausus these everyday experiences collide on the terraces, verandas, and circulation. All the collective parts of the building are placed on the outside - both for the benefit of the community living there to create strong social ties, and to give the building a strong identity within the greater urban context.
Everyday urbanism seems to set the stage for a diverse, vibrant urban environment. However, to what extent does diversity exist in these conditions? In Nemausus, for example, there is likely little economic diversity because of the set unit pricing of social housing. At Cedar Riverside in Minneapolis, a social housing project of the 1960's, economic diversity was embraced with varied unit types rented to all economic brackets. However, over time that range of diversity decreased and it is now all subsidized housing.
So in the context of everyday urbanism, to what extent is diversity present? Is it just diverse groups operating adjacent to one another, or are there genuine intersections in people and experiences of seemingly different groups?
Everyday urbanism seems to set the stage for a diverse, vibrant urban environment. However, to what extent does diversity exist in these conditions? In Nemausus, for example, there is likely little economic diversity because of the set unit pricing of social housing. At Cedar Riverside in Minneapolis, a social housing project of the 1960's, economic diversity was embraced with varied unit types rented to all economic brackets. However, over time that range of diversity decreased and it is now all subsidized housing.
So in the context of everyday urbanism, to what extent is diversity present? Is it just diverse groups operating adjacent to one another, or are there genuine intersections in people and experiences of seemingly different groups?
Terraces at Nemausus
Public Plaza at Cedar Riverside
The thoughts on diversity, I agree, seem to become voided over time as people gravitate to those similar to them. This is not to say we should avoid diversity, but instead accept that in many cases you cannot create diversity. Opportunities for interaction by placing diverse communities together is a great start, but should not be expected to solve the issue of segregated people. It will be a very slow social change aided by the opportunities for contact that will increase diversity. In the meantime, we need to keep looking for different ways to create opportunities, realizing that it may not work in many cases, but in the ones it does, we will be one step closer to the goal.
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