Violation in [your] public suburban space
In "The Uses of Sidewalks", Jane Jacobs romanticizes the idea of safety in our public sidewalks. While my apartment building breezeway is not nearly the same thing as an urban public street, a correlation began to emerge as I kept reading. You see, three weeks ago, I was walking up to my second floor apartment from the parking lot as I do everyday, but something was missing... unfortunately, what was missing was my mountain bike that had been locked beneath the stairwell since I moved in last August. Suddenly, this "gated" apartment community no longer felt as friendly and safe with this new knowledge that someone stole my property in our "shared" public space.
We all love the idea of safe, public sidewalks, and I think there's a great beauty in the shared public spaces that the built environment creates. But even when the built environment escapes from the urban setting in the name of safety, violation somehow still finds that "protected" space. I tend to chalk this up to the human condition - no matter how well-intentioned we are and the amount of safe-guards we create, the safe and caring utopian spaces we wish for will never be found.
Hey Sydney,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry for your missing bike. Actually my uncle lost his bike during the Lunar New Year several years ago. He locked his bike in the courtyard within the complex, and in fact, there were hundreds of windows facing to that courtyards. I definitely stand by your statement that safe and caring utopian spaces will never be found.
But at the same time, I think even though there is no 100 percent safe place, but a place normally have levels of safety. Based on my own experience, I feel relatively safe to walk along Clemson downtown due to many bars and restaurants. while I am so afraid of walking along an alley with brick walls and plants on both sides, especially during the night. This experience make me feel that designers can make a place safer through design.
Sydney, I am sorry to hear about your bike. It is through these non-confrontational interactions that speak volumes of how much we try as humans and as society to shield ourselves from the realities of caution needed on a daily basis. It doesn't matter how "safe" or "utopian" a place is, there is always the possibility for something to be tainted. It is the responsibility of the architect to minimize the potential and outcome of such acts. I once had a professor say that an individual is successful as an architect if they are optimistic, I prefer to be a realist of what highs and lows a place can bring for someone.
ReplyDeleteSydney, so sorry to hear about your bike. I often look at situations like this and told myself that others people are in much worst time compared to others. Though I would still feel some type of ways. I find it hard to think about this week topic without thinking that it has much more to do with human nature than it is to do with architecture. Architecture (or the public spaces that we created) does not, cannot, and will not control how human behavior. Urban spaces in a sense just happened to be spaces for all the good, bad, and ugly to occur. I agree with you that there is no such utopia.
ReplyDeleteI just witnessed (I didn't have a chance to video record it) a lady with a full shopping cart at Lidl market walked away with only paying about 1/4 of what she actually had in the cart. She was moving super slow, turning all direction, trying to confused people of what she was going to scan and not to scan, moving items straight from the cart into packing bags without scanning, swiping her payment with ton of items still not scanned, and walking out the door and driving away.
If you would to ask me how can architecture address such issue, I would say it cannot. The problem grows too big and too complicated.
Sydney,
ReplyDeleteSorry someone decided to take your bike without permission! I think the idea of safety on the public "sidwalk" helps when there is an actual public presence. I know I tend to feel more safe when I am in a crowd then when I am walking alone and no one is around, but that is probably more my own utopia. I do agree with you that we will probably never as a society achieve a safe and pleasant utopia.
Sydney,
ReplyDeleteUgh! That's so frustrating about your bike. You bring up an interesting idea about how the protection of a shared space can sometimes hinder the ability for that space to be occupied by the public. Giving the public ownership over the city again is not just about creating spaces for gathering. It is also important that within those spaces that the rules that govern them are also freeing. The regulation around sidewalks imposes itself onto neighboring spaces (i.e. setbacks). That is not to say these regulations do not have a benefit, but we should be aware that when a path is created, the boundaries of the path extends beyond the footprint.
Can there ever really be a place that is 100% safe but that doesn't mean that we should stop trying to design such spaces. Shared public space is an important aspect of our every day lives yet its where the most crime happens unfortunately but there is danger everywhere we go even in the most statistically safe places in the world yet its not like we stop going out. The most dangerous thing humans do on a day to day basis is get into a car yet does that stop us from driving? No. It just required car manufacturers to make safer cars the same way architects should strive to make safer public places. It's never going to be at 100% but we can design with that goal in mind.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't relate more Syd. My motor bike was stolen from the parking garage of my apartment complex in Charleston and it is an alarmingly violating feeling. Especially when it's within this "gated community" area. The terribly unfortunate truth is that there are bad people everywhere and shared space will never be truly safe space. I agree with Daniel though in that it shouldn't dissuade us from trying to fight for it. Unfortunately that comes at more of a human factor than simply a matter of design.
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