infrastructure | framing urban space by alana young
property ownership control intention engagement
the public realm of daily life ...urban space is a representational medium through which everyone’s social life is lived, where its values are continuously being both read and written, often in creative and unexpected ways. Playful acts show people’s continued capacity for the invention, dis- covery, appropriation, contestation, reappropriation and expansion of the meanings that urban spaces can convey. —Quentin Stevens street lingo – looking for people
if one wants to understand a city, one must first look to the street. It is here in the inherently public realm that the story of daily life un- folds, a place where every occurrence has the possibility of becoming property of the public domain. The most seemingly simplistic of public spaces, the street is often the most revealing in its reading of a city. Not only is it a form of civic infrastructure the street constitutes the shared space of the collective body. Nowhere was this made clearer to me than during my time spent living in Mexico City. There, the street formed a physical manifesta- tion of the city and its people, constantly re-asserting itself under the immense pressures of everyday life. In a state of constant flux and apparent chaos, the street was ceaselessly transformed by its inhab- itants into a multitude of unanticipated forms and uses. Not only a place for transit, the street provided a haven for vendors of all types to sell their wares, for performers to create spectacles of the most death defying acts, and for self-proclaimed artists to exhibit and sell their latest works. At other times the street was converted into an unofficial stage for soccer fans relishing their victories in the World Cup, an outdoor gallery for various art and photography installa- tions, and even as a temporary home for thousands of protesters during election disputes. Being able to attract and support such a great number of non- conventional uses, it immediately became clear to me that the street, as a valuable public space, was very much alive and thriving. The continuous adaptations and transformations the street would undergo and the equally continuous number of active participants was truly fascinating. The rhythm of activity exposed countless hu- man behaviours and social trends, ultimately instilling an identity of place. Many contemporary theorists, architects, and urban planners have also recognized the street as an extremely valuable public space, acknowledging its key relationship to both the micro-scale functioning of everyday life and the larger macro-scale elements that create the image and identity of the city. Frequently considered an essential outlet for both collective and individual expression, the street must be re-envisioned as a vital public space of encounter and happenstance–a place of possibility that facilitates and stimulates engagement in the public realm. These ideas are studied extensively by Sophie Watson in ‘City Publics: The (Dis)Enchantments of City Encounters’, who acknowl- edges the challenges modern ideals acquire in contemporary society. In a time when design promotes uniform, standardised space she chooses to analyse a series of marginal sites where differences such as ethnicity, age, race and gender are not only recognised, but also celebrated. She argues for a civic realm which, ‘will go some way to destabilize dominant, sometimes simplistic, universalized accounts of public space and help us re-imagine urban public space as a site of potentiality, difference and delightful encounters’. (Watson 2006: 19). Constructing ‘normative’ public spaces, she warns, will ultimately lead to failure in their inability to recognise and incorporate change.
below: weekend street market in El Zocalo, the historic city centre opposite top: tent cities emerged overnight as protesters blocked streets and government buildings during the 2006 presidential elections bottom: even weekend markets were appropriated as platforms for political outcry
onsite 19: street, streets and lanes, the straight and narrow, wide and busy
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