« VISUALISING SOCIAL INTERACTION IN COLLECTIVE ENVIRONMENTS »
The context of the modern business environment has dramatically shifted with technological advances, yet the physical design of public spaces has so far failed to adapt to the change in social behaviour. Individuals are now utilizing digital media to create social connections and networks that extend to areas that were not previously possible in the physical world. Geographical boundaries that once constrained collectives to local communities have now been circumnavigated via cyberspace, thus rendering them largely inconsequential.
As more and more of us are retreating to virtual communities, the physical spaces that are left behind are becoming more and more void of identity and purpose, and as such, it is important to see how physical spaces can be redesigned to reinstate functionality in collective engagement and reinstate a local community identity.
With the number of workers inhabiting and navigating through the City’s central business districts intensifying with the addition of several new large-scale buildings and developments, the demand for vibrant community orientated public space will quickly escalate, as spaces that can encourage and nurture discourse, social interaction, and creativity, become more of an incentive to prospective businesses and their employees.
In addition, with business orientated environments the majority of the local population is migratory making the understanding of the sociology of collective identity within the space all the more difficult to determine. During an early discussion with a member of the Department of Planning and Transport at the City of London Corporation, it was highlighted that it is not always easy in business environments to promote the identity of individuals within the collective as businesses like to keep a strong hold on the sociopolitical identity of the places they inhabit, which they are able to assert due to their financial influence, again strengthening the difficulty of fully understanding the true sociological interaction separate from the imposed or physically influenced. One such problem that is all to apparent in the design of public spaces that are situated in business environments is an understanding of who owns the space and what its purpose is.
Recently, a broad question of ‘what is community?’, was raised at a discussion during This Is Not A Gateway’s 3rd Annual ‘Critical Cities’ festival; in order to understand how cities have affected our understanding of community and its values. This discussion attempted to address the issues that surround a modern misunderstanding and blurring of the term community since the introduction of technologically orientated virtual communities. Although, not specifically related, this discussion proved valuable to this research for it was possible to discuss with a wide variety of individuals the understanding of business communities.
From the discussion it was clear that there was a general lack of consensus about what community means in a modern business context, and as a result other terms were suggested to identify that certain groups of individuals. Personally, the term collective was used to describe business orientated environment cohabitants, for unlike traditional village communities they were no longer working together for the greater good of their area, rather they are collectively connected through their like-minded experiences and routines.
In addition, it was understood that the term community was often used to segregate as much as it did unite. As in business environments, organisations traditionally liked to retain the power themselves, of how their premises are company were viewed. However, they have begun to realise that by utilising a degree of interaction in the design of public spaces, they were able to establish a dialogue with the public that, as mentioned by Fox and Kemp (2009), are ‘heightened by the constantly changing information exchanges’, and a key aspect of this research was to explore the sociological functions attributed to design collaboration of which dialogue is a central part.
Although there is a slight shift in widespread understanding of the functions of public space, the dominant identity of public spaces in inner urban areas are still prevalently connected with the temporal transient communities, tourists and others passing through, who subsequently displace the static population to privately managed environments as they are more capable of designing for their needs.
In response, public spaces needs to become more dynamic and accommodating to the shifting paradigms of social interaction that occur throughout the day. Public spaces that are designed to promote social interaction and engagement, as well as satisfy the working prerequisites of the immediate surrounding population, will be able to facilitate more fluid, spontaneous and creative environments that will become destinations in themselves, for they can identify with the ideals of the local community, and should therefore entice new businesses that reflect these ideals.
One of the primary concerns with the design of many modern inner-city public environments is that although the aesthetics of the space may be of prime interest to the developers and indeed the funding councils or bodies in charge of defining public space; the competing prerequisites of creating a formally structured social space that provides a means for users to interact in a controlled or restricted manner, often leads to the creation of transient non-place’s that can only sort the needs of those intent on only temporarily using the space. it is almost as if the architectural identity of each building that encapsulates a space, adds the contextual influences that affect the dynamics of the space itself. The uses, functions and expectations become embodied into the character of the space, and are as rigid as if constructed from ephemeral building blocks that are the residue of the city that now contains them.
Consequently, the resulting designated public spaces still largely feel transitional, as if brief pause-points that connect routes and journeys together and used by people to inhabit for a brief time-scale whilst navigating through or around. Unfortunately temporal inhabitants often fail to harness or capture the identity of the contextual environment and as a result do not reflect the needs of those that would benefit the greatest from having a place for them. By visiting these spaces we are able to gain a mild appreciation the flavour of the environment by observing those that use the space, but we do not gain an understanding of the value of the space to the permanent businesses and inhabitants.
A strong part of this lack of identity and visible benefits comes from the juxtaposition of having an open but heavily regulated space. Parkland and traditional ‘green’ spaces are far more flexible with what activities are permitted and encouraged. Many of these new inner-city spaces do not encourage creativity or experimentation. Part of the problem is clearly because of the financial cost of real estate in these areas, and because of the lack of clear financial benefits from dedicating space to no defined purpose, the financial devotion to designating and maintain theses spaces often will only be spared to enticing those outside the community.
As cities have evolved primarily because they are centres for commerce, I’m interested in exploring methods used to promote social engagement and inclusion, in the development of a community identity. Initially this journey began by looking at the concept of ‘public space’, or as Marc Auge, refers to non-place, and continued as an exploration of what this space is, and how they relates to the interconnecting points of activity, and purpose.
In conclusion, public spaces and more importantly facilitated pause-points within transitional corridors, provide urban environments with a necessary means to distinguish and connect other elements of our lives, whilst also providing autonomic barriers to separate conflicting activities and aspects. As such this research will set about investigating how in business orientated environments that are saturated with informational sources, and ever increasingly new methods to access them; the spatial opportunities to consider, reflect and process accumulated information are equally increasingly becoming important.
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