At an UCL-based workshop with the Curating the City research cluster, November 22-23. Nice setting at Here East in the Olympic Park, London.
Sleeping in New York (Territorial quote 2)
On the border spaces of New York:
"The fire-escapes, which were made obligatory for multiple-family dwellings by the law of 1867, are often decorative objects, and their cumulative rhythm has its own extraordinary quality. Many visitors to New York remember the fire-escapes as much as skyscrapers. They were much used for sitting out, hanging washing, talking to neighbors, and sleeping in hot weather."
Girouard, M., Cities & People, 1985, p. 313.
Three presents: On the multi-temporality of territorial production and the gift from John Soane
By Andrea Mubi Brighenti and Mattias Kärrholm
Published in Time & Society
Abstract
Territoriality has primarily been seen as a spatial rather than temporal phenomenon. In this paper, we want to investigate how time functions in territorialising processes. In particular, we are attracted by the multi-temporality that is copresent in each process of territorialisation (i.e. processes in which time and space are used as means of measure, control and expression). The article is divided into two main parts. In the first part, we draw inspiration from Gilles Deleuze’s book Logic of Sense, as well as from authors such as Simmel, Whitehead, Benjamin and Jesi, in order to articulate three different types of the present (Aion, Kronos and Chronos). In the second part, we move to a short case study of the collector John Soane and the establishment of his house-museum. The case is used to exemplify how these three presents can be used to discuss temporal aspects of territorialisation in general, and the production of a specific sort of territory – the house-museum as a new building type in particular.
Keywords: Territorial production, temporality of the present, multiple temporalities, Aion, Kronos, Chronos, collectionism, house-museum.
Diagram of the three presents
John Soane's house: Looking up at the Dome from the Sepulchral Chamber (photo by courtesy of Jesper Magnusson).
John Soane's house: The Breakfast Room in No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Field. A series or mirrors and openings allow glimpses from adjacent rooms and museum spaces (photo by courtesy of Jesper Magnusson).
The Sewers of London (Territorial quote 1)
A small reminder from Michel Serres about the role of smell for territorial production:
"Since the invention of the flush toilet and the sewage system at the end of the nineteenth century in London, it has indeed become difficult and quite unusual to mark our nest with urine."
Serres, M. Malfeasance, Appropriation through Pollution?, 2011, p. 63.
London guide book, 1839
Some interesting facts about how many squares, libraries, gallons of milk, swine, etc. that can be found in London. From the somewhat peculiar guide book Description of London, printed in Gothenburg in 1839 (with text in English, French, German, and Swedish).
In Search of Building Types
In search of building types: On visitor centers, thresholds and the territorialisation of entrances
Now (2016-12-29) published in Journal of Space Syntax
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to contribute to an actantial approach to building type studies through a study of the visitor centre and its role in contemporary spatial production. The article takes its empirical departure in the (from a Swedish perspective) intense urbanization of the Scania region, in the southern part of Sweden. Looking at building types in terms of actants implies that different sets of buildings can be abstracted in different ways (and not just in terms of form or function) depending on the effect they have in a certain situation. The proliferation of visitor centers in Scania is by no means an innocent development, these centers have a part to play in the urbanization process of the region. In this article I discuss this role as a kind threshold actant or type, which I further divide into four different subcategories in order to show connections with other sorts of spaces in the urban landscape. The discussion is then used both to highlight the role of visitor centers in recent processes of urbanization, and to argue for a more open-ended, relational and pragmatic approach to building types studies, with a focus on the role that building types play in society and everyday life.
Keywords: building types, visitor centers, thresholds, material semiotics, territoriality
Domkyrkoforum, Lund (photo: M. K.)