Contemporary spatiality: experiencing a multitude of cells

The Euclidean display and overall design of a room inside the MIT museum, Cambridge. Personal archives, 2024

Inside the MIT museum, Cambridge. See how the free standing displays have the same conceptual design as the displays on the wall. Note the shape of the benches as well. Personal archives, 2024.

 I have been thinking about current semiology in architectural spatiality. There is a new meaning based in our contemporary digital pre-conceptions, the different options of spatial relationships and representation techniques. We are becoming more skilled at abstracting the external stimuli, hence the qualities of the objects, since we have so much available information and optical devices to select, being the cell phone the most typical example that allows us to see the world filtered through cameras....

Spatial cognition depends on many factors: our culture, our experience, gender, age, social context, etc. I am particularly influenced by long years working on urban morphology with different mathematical software, but this time, I have also felt impressed by my recent visit to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Harvard museums. The architectural arrangement of the MIT technological exhibition captured my attention as unusual -due to my unconscious expectation of a typical exhibit- . At least in one room, the objects were enclosed by cubes defined by linear lighting. Every cube or rectangular prism, could be seen as a cell. So I missed the interior object in order to recreate the spatiality of the room, or even the wall, since it became a 3D Euclidean construction at a short distance, so pure and strictly mathematical.

Harvard Museum of Natural History. See the many reflections on the glass displays. Personal archives. 2024.

Harvard Museum of Natural History. See the many reflections on the glass displays. Personal archives. 2024.

Of course my mind is ready to understand and digest the contemporary exhibit, but when I visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History, I was walking among glass cells, which is quite different from the other Natural Science museums. All of a sudden, the 3D cells were conforming space, and progressively, there was this feeling of being dehumanized, one is immersed in a multitude of reflections (our own and the animals'), like a in mirror maze; the archaeology becomes part of the fantasy. 

Immersive Van Gogh, Los Angeles. Personal archives, 2021.

Immersive Van Gogh and the static experience. Los Angeles, personal archives, 2021.

Somehow, the historical composition in Harvard is a sort of prelude to the imaginary current immersive experiences, like Van Gogh's among so many others, with a substantial difference though, the cells and their contents are tangible, the person walking along the displays is lured by the animals, and the experience is dynamic, interactive, the space is re-created by the circulation towards a point of interest (a window, a staircase, an exit....), while the immersive art is realized with distant projections in an empty building, usually a warehouse, where people stand or sit still and the space is conceived by just one's mind perception of the moving images; the orientation is given by the location of isolated structural elements, like a staircase or columns.

Aerial view of Los Angeles Downtown and suburbs, California. Personal archive, 2024.

The spatial perception becomes completely different when we change the scale or the point of view.

I still remember the first time arriving to Los Angeles by plane, I was wondering where is Downtown? My first impression was the industrial flat areas with so little landscape, all of them rectangles. And a colleague of mine reminded me the great purpose of Los Angeles: the creation of movies in an extended city that sells lots of cars: in consequence, the industrial zoning is quite noticeable. 

This year, I had the chance to enjoy the aerial views that I am sharing here, and finally I have seen Los Angeles from above and afar, all blue filtered by the plane window and the residential low areas with lots of dark green. I made the effort to zoom my cell phone camera as much as I could, but for every capture, my impression was that I was looking at a pixelated city. Without history or social input, I was observing the result of Zoning codes, a map created with pixels, quite monotonous, even in its third dimension, and monochrome. While the plane was flying to destine, the view was still a multitude of little cubes and prisms like a projection on the ground where I was not immersed at all. For me was another version of the museums cells experience.

Aerial view of Los Angeles Downtown on the left and suburbs with a huge industrial area, California. Personal archive, 2024.

Antoine Picon, in his article "Anxious Landscapes: From Ruin to Rust" (2000) * on a similar idea, adds the concept of distance and texture, as explained in the following excerpts:

"...the anxious character of many contemporary landscapes is the indication of profound transformations affecting the definition of the subject who contemplates them,..."

"....this is not the first time that the look that we cast over our surroundings has been modified. Each time, such a transformation proves inseparable from a mutation of the ideal image we project of ourselves."

".... one cannot help by be struck by the extent of the mutations that already affect the category of vision."

".... familiar forms seem to give way to luminous effects -scintillations, iridescence, reflections- as well as to textures often based upon contradictory impressions like smoothness, glossiness or graininess. Configurations, both immediately perceptible by the senses and more abstract, substitute themselves for the contours of the world that is familiar. Seen by satellite, Los Angeles doesn't look much different from a section of matter observed in a microscope. The importance of the dominion of lights and textures in the contemporary technological landscape could well originate from this transformation in the categories of vision . Such a transformation leads us to suspend, if only provisionally, questions such as those of "far" and "near." Who tells us that it's Los Angeles we're contemplating, instead of a piece of sidewalk?.... the contemporary urban landscape is organized according to textures that owe more to woven design than to form in a traditional sense."

* From Architectural Theory. Volume II. An Anthology from 1871-2005. Page 595. Massachusetts, 2010.

A partial detail of a tapestry exhibited at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It is similar to an aerial view of a residential neighborhood and a central district. Personal archives, 2024.

Urban Fractality and "The Concise Landscape"

 

Binary aerial picture of an area of Downton Buenos Aires

Binary aerial picture of a the historical sector of Downtown Boston

There are many publications about the analysis of the Fractal Dimension of different cities in the world. Each publication leading to conclusions about the methods used, and sometimes a projection of the city growth in the future, given a certain pattern.

I took a rest from writing about the subject, I traveled instead, and took notes and lots of pictures of the (visited) cities perceptions to open my mind to several urban morphologies, which at first where focused on Buenos Aires and Los Angeles. This year, I went to waterfront cities, among them, Buenos Aires and Boston, and I immediately realized their Fractal Dimension would be pretty similar. But the perception, the experience of said cities, are radically different.

I selected two downtown areal pictures of them, and decided to run a quick analysis of their Fractal Dimension, using the ImageJ medical software. As a side note, ImageJ has newer versions: Image J2 and Fiji. But I could not upload jpgs, pdfs and pngs files with them, so I returned to the original old version.

If it were a strict analysis, I would have drawn the buildings solids and streets emptiness with Autocad, but for the purpose of this post it was not necessary, and I even left the Google references and the trees, which we may be considered or not part of the urban morphology, depending on the research objectives.

Buenos Aires Fractal Dimension and Boston Fractal Dimension of the first two binary images

The results for the first two images were, respectively, Buenos Aires 1.8462 and Boston 1.8130

I have also considered inverting the solid and empty areas, to test if the results are quite different or not. Here we have two binary images inverted for both cities:

Buenos Aires aerial binary image, inverted.

Boston, binary aerial image, inverted.

Then I took the Fractal Dimension of both inverted images:

Buenos Aires, inverted fractal Dimension= 1.8402

Boston, inverted Fractal Dimension= 1.8654

There is not a significant change in the results, so I'm taking an average of 1.8. Now, let us see how different the plot surfaces are:

Surface plot of Buenos Aires, where we can read the urban orthogonal grid.

Surface plot of Boston, with more morphological irregularity.

When I was in Boston, one of my favorite urban books "The Concise Landscape", written by British architect and urban designer Gordon Cullen in 1961, came to my mind. It was the first book I have read on urbanism. Walking around Boston contained the perfect examples to illustrate the book, most probably due to its British origins, while Buenos Aires grid is Spanish.

For us who work on Urban Morphology based on science, (and sociology in my case), I think that somehow, Cullen has stated a visionary concept on page 8 of the 1971 edition:

.."we have to rid ourselves of the thought that the excitement and drama that we seek can be born automatically out of the scientific research and solutions arrived at by the technical man"....

And he takes into account the perception of the city, in general terms, and per my brief summary below:

. Element of surprise and serial vision.

. The relationship between urban buildings is different with added elements (trees, water, traffic, etc...).

. The relationship between our human body with space and scale.

. Content: colors, texture, scale, style.... -I will add the weather-.

In other words, even if we have the same or similar Fractal Dimension between two cities, our experience of them is not the same. 

For example, Boston has tunnels of traffic circulation, while Buenos Aires streets are wide open (it does not snow in Buenos Aires) with long -French- perspectives and monuments as focal points. We are not allowed to have such a view in Boston, when you walk or drive in Downtown, there is always a building or block intersecting the perspective, giving us the feeling of "being inside" the city.

I am posting some of my pictures for better explanation, they belong to my personal archives, dated 2022. Please do not share without my permission.

Let us begin with Buenos Aires:

A typical avenue in Buenos Aires and the infinite perspective

A street in Buenos Aires with eclectic styles (French, Spanish...)

The corner is usually designed as an important element. See the trees, the mullions, the light color. The British green is incidental, just for doors here.

More interesting corners of Buenos Aires. The beautiful corner cupolas everywhere.

A street of Buenos Aires which is slightly winding. The gray cement "medianeras" (demising walls), the cupolas and most of all, this morphology of "decayed teeth", which is a result of different zoning regulations along the years. The balconies, for residential and offices uses as well, add architectural articulation.

 One of the many monuments in Buenos Aires, as seen from a car.

Nocturnal view of Downtown Buenos Aires. The endless avenue with aligned trees, the "decayed tooth" morphology.

Now, let us continue with some pictures from Boston:

Access to the underground train, a broken perspective, lots of materials together. The typical Boston brick (there are different colors), modern glass and classical gray finishes.

The British colors and the broken perspective. See that the green extends beyond the doors. The red is added for commercial purposes.

An open plaza among buildings. We feel "inside". Note the lack of balconies.

A broken perspective and lack of balconies.

This is pretty interesting for me, the building at the end of the perspective is rotated.

Broken perspective and the use of dark color.

The serial vision with columns on the front. The broken perspective while the urban lamps are perfectly aligned.

This is a picture of the Beacon Hill neighborhood, with the brick buildings combined with the English deep green. But, here, more textures are added with a climber on the left. This type of climbers are unusual in Downtown Buenos Aires (the Ciudad Autonoma) but the sidewalks are wider and with lots of trees.

To get to the Boston Tea Party building, on the waterfront, I had to walk through a park so covered in vegetation. It took me a while to find the water, but here it is, the element of surprise.

Of course I could find common elements between the two cities, but they would be isolated examples.

It is clear that a fractal urban analysis cannot get rid of The Concise Landscape basic but primary teachings. Any research should be completed with historical and social facts in order to deeply understand the urban shape, this is not only a matter of numbers. This is what makes us architects more extensive and less scientists in our points of view, compared with physicists and geographers who share our field of research.

Strange landscapes. An exercise with morphology, colors and reflections

 

As the title says, I´m creating landscapes with mountains that I create taking the advantage of reflections with different sources of color on Aluminum foil.

The exercise, apart from having interesting artistic results, has moved me to simulate organic architectural structures -that are so well known today- which I will analyze under fractal concepts and will define which is the best way to measure them. This will be part of another post or publication.

I´ve selected Aluminum to achieve a comparison with metals, specially Titanium.

Please do not reproduce without permission.

Interview with Dr Krzysztof Nawratek, author of Holes in the Whole. Introduction to the urban revolutions.

Dr. Krzysztof Nawratek. Photo by Joanna Erbel

I am pleased to interview Dr Krzysztof Nawratek who is lecturer in architecture, Master of Architecture programme leader at the Plymouth University, UK, who would like to describe himself as an urban theorist or meta-urbanist rather than architect.

Today, we will focus on his book Holes in the Whole Introduction to the urban revolutions, a book on a new urban ontology, the alternative vision of future cities development that combines subjects as criticism, analysis, and helps us to reflect about the cities of today.

1000. Are you afraid that culture is not produced any more in cities? In other words, did we become very popular in our “cultural”  tastes?

K. N. Culture definitely is still produced in cities, my concern is that there is nothing else produced in European cities. Most European cities are post-industrial, but they are only 'post', because there is nothing industrial about them anymore. For last 30 years urbanists and policy makers tried to fill the gap after industry collapsed (empty factories and idle working class) with cultural industry and services. I am afraid they failed. The other problem is, that – obviously – culture increasingly could be (and is) produced out of the urban context. Therefore, in my opinion, contemporary city (let's say – European city) lost its reason to exist.

1000. Do you think that the last developments based on New Urbanism theories have also failed?

K.N. Yes, I think so. New Urbanism was an interesting attempt to fix some failures of Modern Movements, but to be honest, I have much more respect to Modernism than to New Urbanism. New Urbanism created towns, not cities. This movement is – in my opinion – just a naive and reactionary attempt to turn back time. Obviously, I agree that humanistic agenda of New Urbanism still has something to offer, something to be discussed, but New Urbanism is not able to give an answer to the crisis of contemporary cities.

1000. In your opinion, which is the best example of localities? Should we say “racial localities”?

K.N. I am very suspicious about localities, especially any kind of ethnic districts or – even more – lifestyle communities. I am a 'prophet' of a city as an universal narrative, city as a polyphonic but coherent story, therefore I am against fragmentation. However, I do respect the value of local identities, local narratives but they must be in a dialog with others. Ghetto – it doesn't matter if we have in mind ghetto of poor or rich people – it is always a tragedy for the city.

1000. I see localities, fragmentations, beginning at High School, as natural processes. Is there any way to avoid fragmentations in cities with immigrants from around the world?

K.N.I think we need to clearly define the difference between fragmentation and differentiation in cities. There is nothing wrong with fragments of the city having different identity, based on different values (ethnic, esthetic etc.). The problem starts when these fragments are clearly separated from other parts of the city. In my book I often talk about hybrid subject. I define it as an autonomous subject, but strongly conditioned by external factors. So we need to see localities as hybrid subjects – they have their own identity, but they are not separated from the rest of the city.

1000. What’s your own definition on Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid city?

K. N. My main concern is a diminishing of cities subjectivity – contemporary cities are mostly pools of labour, they are fields to be exploited by global corporations, they are not political subjects, they are not able to govern their own territory. There is an obvious conflict between fluidity of deterritorialised global capital and locally fixed cities. They can't go anywhere – people can migrate (however in many cases they don't want to) but buildings, roads, infrastructure - can't. It makes cities a potential frontier of anti-capitalist struggle.

Above: Dr Nawratek with students. Photos by Plymouth University.

1000. What’s the role of social networks in the liquid city?

K. N. It is a very interesting issue, because I see social networks (I mean social networks in much wider meaning than just facebook or any online community) in some kind of contrast to social capital. Social capital is based on traditional, strong social bonds, social networks are much more flexible. Being member of any church or trade union really strongly define who you are and with what kind of people you interact. Social capital is often very exclusive. Social networks are in general more inclusive and 'weaker'. But I think they provide a similar to social capital safety net in contemporary liquid city. I think it is too early to say, but maybe our future society will be much more flexible and fluid, based on weaker, more inclusive social connections. If so, we will need probably much stronger institutions to support this society – as we need facebook to support a particular set of social networks.

1000. Sometimes I feel that we, architects do not have enough freedom for our creativity, so restricted we are under the “design guidelines.”  How do you feel about it?

K. N. I do love restrictions! I do believe norms and guidelines could play extremely positive role. It is an illusion that guidelines are architects 'enemies'. Architects are first of all slaves of clients, very often of 'shark-developers'. Design guidelines could help architects to defend a fundamental quality of their design. Design guidelines or norms are also part of our modernism's legacy, they represent the belief in universalism. I am an universalist, so I like them.

1000. There are many cases where planners do not work with architects as a team. Should planners restrict architects’ criteria?

K. N. Yes and no. The tension between different actors during design process could be helpful, it  could make design stronger and better. But as I said, I would rather prefer universal guidelines over strong planners. Planners and architects should work together, as equal members of a team.

1000. Is it a real advantage for planners and architects to work with participative design?

K. N. Participative design is a very difficult and challenging way of work, but if we believe that democracy is better than authoritarian system, then we should work towards fully participative design model.

1000. And what is your solution to help in each other’s understanding in participative design?

K. N. In my book I introduce an idea of 'border/institution'. It is a special type of institution, defined solely by its function which is to – in the same moment – to protect and support a local subjectivity and to negotiate between different subjects, different interests, different needs. This type of institution has power and is absolutely powerless in the same time. I do trust people but I strongly believe that an institutional context must exist to support (sustain) mutual understanding needed in participative design.

1000. Can we isolate ourselves and have our own private space in the public space? I mean, in a psychological context?

K. N. In my book I challenge the idea of public (and also private) space. This idea is too strongly connected with the idea of ownership. Our existence in space is based on different principles – we are using a space, we are attached (also emotionally) to certain spaces. Ownership is not fundamental here. I prefer to talk about space or interaction and intimate space. When you sit in a park on a bench (public park and public bench) the space you occupy at this particular moment is your own intimate space. So where are you? In public or private space? Or if you in your own bedroom browsing an internet and breathing fresh air from the park nearby – are you really in absolute private space? I think this typology of private-public spaces is just useless to really understand contemporary urban condition.

1000. In this context, what’s the function of the body in the city?

K. N. Well... First of all we, as humans, exist in our bodies, therefore any city, as a material entity, must be designed to fulfill our bodies' needs. But there is something more about bodies in a context of knowledge based economy and city – I think that bodies produce and transfer knowledge. Production is obvious, but I think it is interesting to see human body as media  – like newspapers or internet – to transfer information. In a context of 'smart city' idea, I think it would be an interesting direction to investigate.

1000. You remind me of a Bradbury’s story, “ No particular night or morning,”  where the main character wanted too much space, nothing above, nothing on top, that’s why he travels to the outer space; for him, cities were not real if he couldn’t live in them, and when he thinks his body is the only proof of his existence, he decides he won’t exist anymore… So, do we need proof of our existences in the material cities? Or our memories and information are enough?

K. N. As long as we have bodies we need the material cities. In this story the main character is rejecting his body as he is rejecting cities, stars, other people. It is kind of solipsistic fixation, it is interesting and sometimes could be intellectually inspiring, but for urbanists it is rather useless or even dangerous. It doesn't mean of course, that our memories are not important – on the contrary, they are, but they are also, very often, connected with material artifacts, with other bodies... We are not angels, we need roads, buildings, sewage systems...

1000. Would you briefly explain the metaphor of “Holes in the Whole” ?

K.N. Firstly, it refers to the intuitive understanding of space without clearly defined purpose, a left-over space, an in-between space like belt of grass by the roadside, remnants of an unfinished investment, abandoned amusement park, bankrupt mall, etc. It also refers to potentiality of these spaces.

Secondly, it refers to the Emil Cioran's understanding of 'void' as a no-being interrupting the continuity of existence. For Cioran 'void' has rather functional than ontological significance – it is important what void does (it interferes, interrupts and blocks) rather than what it is.

Thirdly, 'hole' refers to the idea of 'void' within the meaning of Alain Badiou, as the Real beyond Representation.

Therefore the 'hole' is an excess, not an absence. Excess/surplus without a language to be described – included into any narrative. 'Hole in the whole' is then (partially) virtual space awaiting for its actualization. This 'hole' is a very real space, no one could call it the hole until the new language is able to include it into the urban narrative. However, we are not dealing with a passive waiting for the event, which we will be able to 'entrust', but rather with the challenge of 'creative freedom' – the language for which must be created. Excess/surplus of the 'hole in the whole' is therefore the task of finding a new narrative and the new application. One can imagine the 'hole' as a limited territory - a special economic (or social or political) zone, or maybe a city - as an experiment.

1000. Which are your best expectations for a “good city” ?

K. N. Good and full life for everybody! It should have elements of security (also economic security – I do believe in right to accommodation/house as a basic human right) and excitement, it must help people to be together but in the same time it must protect their privacy. It should be a territory where different subjects are in constant dialog, territory open for experimentation. Good city is a polyphonic universal narrative and all its inhabitants are part of it.

M. Thank you so much Dr. Nawratek, it’s been a pleasure.

Art pictures through Google Street View

Harbor View Elementary School. Digital intervention by Myriam B. Mahiques

I´m one of those who are tempted to use Google Earth, Google street view, Google maps, for my publications on urban morphology, and sometimes for digital art and exercises of urban forms and colors.

It seems that the tools in Google Street View has also generated a new type of photographers, and I´m not saying ¨American,¨ because I´ve read that similar techniques are used in Canada, for example.

Let´s see the work of Doug Rickard, pictures and text from the article by John Foster:

http://observatory.designobserver.com/johnfoster/feature/a-new-american-picture-doug-rickard-and-street-photography-in-the-age-of-google/32028/

New Orleans by Doug Rickard, 2008/9

Detroit by Doug Rickard, 2009/10

¨Rickard, an artist as a child (his teachers would exclaim to his parents that he would surely “do something special” with his artistic talent), discovered photography in adulthood — a discovery that would become an obsession. He began to codify this obsession in early 2008, when he created the now highly popular websites American Suburb X and These Americans. These sites, largely extensions of his personal journey, obsessions and self-education, are now highly regarded by photography aficionados, educators and historians for their high quality of writing and massive visual archives. ASX receives approximately 80,000 unique visitors a month and is “Liked” by 38,000 Facebook “fans.” 

These Americans is known in part for being a view into Rickard’s personal found-image archive. With such a strong interest in history, Rickard was used to looking at the past. But for these new web projects he turned his attention to the present, exploring the statistics, demographics and socio-economics of contemporary America’s neglected communities. While doing this he began to experiment with ordinary and static images resulting from keyword searches on Google. 

But by the next year — in mid-2009 — he discovered Google Street View. In a telephone interview that lasted well over an hour, the 43-year-old-old Rickard told me that the idea for his recent photographic work emerged as a sort of “epiphany” within 24 hours of using Street View. The project was, he explained, the result of a sort of “perfect storm,” in that it combined his love of photography and its history with his background in American history and sociology. Also, practicality was a component in the form of his inability to travel America, a restriction of the scenarios in real life — a demanding day job and a young family. According to Rickard, this epiphany fused immediately into a crystal-clear idea: He would use Street View as his camera and, working from a room in his home, travel the roads of neglected American cities and neighborhoods in a 21st-century “road trip.” This single idea would utterly consume his life for close to two years, resulting in the important body of work “A New American Picture,” a selection of which hangs today in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.¨