Dear All
re-reading some earlier mailings I see that I should have been paying more attention.
Alan wrote “that its basic representations, convexity, axiality etc. carry social potential” which is what I was trying to tease out just now.
The question I remain with is HOW these aspects of place (or features in a representation) carry social potential.
Alan mentions 2 ways:
1) the visual (eg. if a can see b then b can see a)
2) and the cognitive: global pattern properties - (understanding where you are ?)
3) I would suggest that physical control of movement must be a factor - especially in the way a dense network of paths can invite vitality.
[actually Alan writes that “if a can see b and b can see c then c can see a” but this can’t be right can it? A may be in one room, C in an adjacent room, and B in a common hallway looking at each of them through their respective doorways.]
All these involve the ways people can move, meet and see each other. Do they all mush-up together to predict probable movement through particular areas?
And again, what is the mechanism that converts someone’s individual reactions to way-finding cues and to perceived overlooking into a predictable response in choosing directions to take? Is it a feeling that a place is publicly-open (controlled) or isolated from public life (deep)?
Perhaps the deserted city idea is relevant. People sometimes report ‘feeling that unseen eyes were watching’ in such places - perhaps the syntax remains with it’s implications of public oversight & control, even when that (virtual) community has abandoned the spatial shell of their activity.
If this is the case, then the details of the relationship between the ‘cues’ measured by S.S. (I can’t help feeling the acronym is unfortunate) and individuals’ perceptions of the ‘social potential’ would be an important area of study. Is this being done by anyone?
Perhaps S.S. is describing aspects of experience (as well as features of space) which have previously been ‘non-discursive’. I was tempted to use the cliché of ‘privacy’ in describing reactions to place above, but I felt that the ‘social potential’ described is both more precise and more general that the word allows. Any ideas?
Regards, Tom
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Thomas Everest Dine RIBA
Chassay+Last Architects
Berkley Works
Berkley Grove
Primrose Hill
London NW1 8XY
England
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