My favorite public space is parks. I love to sit in the invigorating breeze surrounded by greenery. It makes me feel energized, helps me think better and also because I love trees.
I feel that somehow cities across the world are more often perceived by the quality of their public spaces and food more than any other thing. For instance, when I talk about New York, USA, I instantly think of Times Square. When I talk about New Delhi, India, I am reminded of The India Gate or the central park in Connaught place which is one of the busiest and most famous public space in the capital city.
I found the observations made by William through ‘The Street Life Project’ to be really interesting. According to him, zoning, which is a technique of land-use planning, is certainly not the most ideal way to achieve better design of spaces. He mentions that the best-used plazas are sociable places, with a higher proportion of couples than you would find in less-used places, more people in groups, more people meeting other people, or exchanging goodbyes. The observation which I found to be most fascinating is quoted below. According to me, it does not stand to be cent percent true today.
“The most-used places also tend to have a higher than average proportion of women. Women are more discriminating than men as to where they will sit, more sensitive to annoyances, and women spend more time casting the various possibilities. Where there is a higher proportion of women, the plaza is probably a good one and has been chosen as such.”
I feel everyone is a little conscious about where they sit or where they are in general. People all around the world may not behave or react to disparate situations in the exact same way, but tend to behave in a similar manner. I wouldn’t agree that men are ignorant of their surroundings or that they would absolutely be okay in sitting in a dirty place or be absolutely unmindful of their surrounding environment. I wouldn’t agree either that women are more discriminating in the use of public spaces.
After reading the article on discrimination by design, I was shocked to learn through Moses’ design choices that how the physical structures and designs of our surroundings can be used to seclude specific groups of people. I felt very hurt to see the examples of ‘hostile architecture’ and ‘unpleasant designs’ which included benches to make sleeping impossible for homeless people, the practice of setting sprinklers to go off in the middle of the night and the practice of putting spikes on public spaces. While reading the article, I was reminded of the dirty public bathrooms in India, or for that matter anywhere, which makes a person think 100 times before using them. I can’t recollect any space I have come across till date which had a clean public toilet facility. I believe that it is difficult to truly experience any city or any part of the world without assimilating its public spaces.
The readings helped me to look and think of spaces around us in a different perspective. After watching ‘Breathless by Jean Luc Godard’, I understood the technique and essence of portraying a city as a character in a movie. I was able to understand with better clarity on how the characteristics of a character or a person in the movie can be used to depict & personate the attributes of a city.
For the project on ‘Instruction set for Strangers’, I would want to learn and explore more about the ‘Washington Square Park’. I love the space for obvious reasons I mentioned in the beginning, my love for the environment and parks. I was amazed to learn about its history and had never expected to discover what I did after reading about its history and the varied ways in which the space has been used in the past. I am excited to explore more about this space.
Thank You