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  • Architecture and The City As A Contested Space

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    Eureka Khong
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    The document discusses the role of public spaces in cities and how they can become contested areas with competing interests between public and private sectors. It uses Mumbai as an example of a city with blurred boundaries between public and private spaces, where spaces are mixed-use and encourage interaction. While Dubai achieves materialistic development, it comes at the cost of human rights issues. The document argues that urban planning should not involve total segregation of living and work spaces, and that third places are important for social interaction, with the internet potentially filling this role. As architects and urban planners, there is a social responsibility to shape cities in a way that considers human needs and interactions.

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    Public space and the urban environment

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    Architecture and the City as a Contested Space

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    The document discusses the role of public spaces in cities and how they can become contested areas with competing interests between public and private sectors. It uses Mumbai as an example of a city with blurred boundaries between public and private spaces, where spaces are mixed-use and encourage interaction. While Dubai achieves materialistic development, it comes at the cost of human rights issues. The document argues that urban planning should not involve total segregation of living and work spaces, and that third places are important for social interaction, with the internet potentially filling this role. As architects and urban planners, there is a social responsibility to shape cities in a way that considers human needs and interactions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    96 views1 page

    Architecture and The City As A Contested Space

    Uploaded by

    Eureka Khong
    The document discusses the role of public spaces in cities and how they can become contested areas with competing interests between public and private sectors. It uses Mumbai as an example of a city with blurred boundaries between public and private spaces, where spaces are mixed-use and encourage interaction. While Dubai achieves materialistic development, it comes at the cost of human rights issues. The document argues that urban planning should not involve total segregation of living and work spaces, and that third places are important for social interaction, with the internet potentially filling this role. As architects and urban planners, there is a social responsibility to shape cities in a way that considers human needs and interactions.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    HUMANITIES-Toward Humane Architecture

    Module1: Architecture and the City as a Contested Space


    Concept of space and Place: City as Human Network; Public-Private sector interests: Public space as a Contested Domain

    ANALYTICAL ESSAY
    -Eureka Khong . Semester IX, 2011

    The richness of a city lies in its soul in the everyday activities of the lives lived in the city. Lewis Mumford thus, rightly says that the city is "a theater of social action". And the events of our day to day life, the politics, commerce and romance add layers to the richness of the drama that is staged. Without the opportunity of this drama, our theatrical act is mundane our life is mundane. When we are asked, Do you think that a city should be considered like a human theatre or should the city be just for commerce and functionality? It leads me to think of Mumbai. Is it not a city for commerce is everything there not centered upon commercial gain hence, the commercial capital? Yes, it is. Does it then, lack drama? No. In fact, its quite the contrary. So what is then, the cause of Mumbais Social drama? Much to the disappointment of many Urban Planners, it bizarrely lies in the total madness of the city - The order in its disorder. It is a city not for A given culture. In Mumbai you cannot decide who should be visible and what should not concepts of order and disorder, and uses of aesthetic justification for urban transformation will fail in the city. Spaces encourage mixed use (perhaps more so because of the value of the land rather than the success of its urban planning). It is thus, successful in creating a sense of security and safety in the presence of people. The boundaries in Mumbai are blurred - it has public spaces, that is, spaces that belong to no one and yet everyone and so, it has an interwoven spatial fabric. Mumbai thus I feel, is far (if not furthest) from following the American typology that most of our Indian Cities are falling prey to. If we get to Dubai, we might be awestruck at one level at how much one can achieve with technology A paradise on desert, but a materialistic one at that. And if that conscious hits us, we realize that each measurement we fuel our automobile with, is contributing to not just the melting glaciers but also adding to the wealth of Sheikh Mohammed in Dubai and fueling his ever increasing obsession with creation - The biggest, The largest, The most magnificent, at the cost of child slavery, sex trade and loss of personal freedom of the labors who are lured into this business that promises wealth. Such is the extent of our global network. I believe segregation of spaces in an individuals daily life, in terms of work space and living space, in todays context, in vital such is the nature of our workspace and its demand. But I disagree in urban planning that makes the entire populations work space one and living space another. This totalitarian attitude of zoning is what must be discouraged. The importance of Third Place cannot be ignored. Much more so, in todays context where our community lives have shrunken a great deal. The clich Man is a social animal is true, but man is also territorial, especially against strangers. With the increase in transferable jobs and temporary friendly associations, the need to encourage human interaction is increasingly important. Is the cyber space then, (like it or not) the new Third Place? Well, by characteristics it matches the definition of a Third Place rather well a neutral public place where one bonds with people beyond the realm of home and work place, discusses issues, grassroots politics, create habits of public association, and offer psychological support to individuals and communities. Does the paramount success of social networking sites lie in the failure of our urban planning? True, our cities are what each individual makes of it. But the role of the visionary has always been vital in the shaping of the city. Thus, as Architects and Urban Planners, we have a tremendous social responsibility. Our actions shape the world we live in, more literally than the general connotation of the phrase.

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