Local Cultures – Global Spaces

Abstract

Place can be defined as the achievement of an inclusive architecture that reveals and reinforces the nature of a specific locus, sustaining a sense of being and belonging through an enriched trace of collective memories of lived experiences. With the world population shift into urban spaces, the role of place in urban life is an important research avenue that can support the design of new urban spaces and the reconfiguration and revitalisation of existing urban spaces. The sense of being and belonging inherent in place is a foundation for social connective-ness and cohesion in urban communities. The design of urban space, supporting the emergence of place, is fundamentally focused on supporting a life largely lead as a pedestrian. This human-centric condition challenges the hegemony of the car as the critical determinant of urban form. The car as critical determinant so often results in an instrumental/functional urban form, while a human-centric pedestrian approach to urban form can shift space and urban form such that it nurtures a deeper social connection as well as a rootedness in place. This research project applies a human-centric perspective to the spatial analysis of the most dense urban neighbourhood of New York City. This analysis queries the spatial quality of daily pedestrian activity in relation to community identity and social cohesion and supports design interventions that explore opportunities for reconfiguring urban space seeking to generate new possibilities for social connection through gathering, celebrating, mourning, marking key community events in public urban space and incubating the future places of the neighbourhood.