Main theme from this week's investigation on Political Agglomerations:
Global Citizenship: Doreen Massey refers to global citizenship from her article "Global Sense of Place" defining time-space compression as a "compression of movement and communication across space geographically" and its social experiences associated (2). From this I can see how people feel included in this speed-up of a global village but also feel visibly different. Cities are privileged sites for its infrastructure, opportunity and connections, but also with privilege comes the politics of difference where as a designer I should ask: Who am I designing this space for?
Politics of difference: As most people are privileged to enjoy the elevated landscape, a homeless person has taken refuge under the Highline, but is excluded to enjoy such a beautiful park with other people.
In the case of the ever popular elevated urban landscapes of New York's Highline or Singapore's Henderson Wave Park, there is a familiarity among the two in materiality and exclusive nature of taking you 15 feet above buildings and the street with fashionable people mainly in business, tourists or residents, who are there to people watch and get away from the "undesireables"you may encounter if you dare walk on the street instead.
Right to the Urban Landscape: Vancouver's bold initiative of gives all residents access to a park within a 5 minute walking distance.
Part of citizenship is access to rights. Although some designed spaces can heighten identity politics among users of the space, US cities across the nation are including daring goals in their climate change action plans of giving citizens the right to access the landscape. In the case of Vancouver's bold plan of being the Greenest City in the World by 2020, the plan hopes to give residents access to parks within a 5 minute walk which outcompetes New York City's 10 minute walk to a park goal.
My critique of citizenship in the urban landscape and giving rights to the public landscape is that although cities are addressing accessibility to green spaces in action plans, they fail to address the quality of the spaces that are accessible (so just because I am near a park doesn't mean it is safe for children or families). As a concluding remark, the city has become a system of economic and social re-production and landscapes are part of this discussion in the way parks and green infrastructure are narrating the story of the landscape, hopefully in the future with more attention to the locale or genius loci of the place and the design for all types of people.
Access to Vancouver's Greenest City in the World by 2020 Action Plan: http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/Greenest-city-action-plan.pdf
Massey, Doreen. (1991). A Global Sense of Place. Marxism Today.
Global Citizenship: Doreen Massey refers to global citizenship from her article "Global Sense of Place" defining time-space compression as a "compression of movement and communication across space geographically" and its social experiences associated (2). From this I can see how people feel included in this speed-up of a global village but also feel visibly different. Cities are privileged sites for its infrastructure, opportunity and connections, but also with privilege comes the politics of difference where as a designer I should ask: Who am I designing this space for?
In the case of the ever popular elevated urban landscapes of New York's Highline or Singapore's Henderson Wave Park, there is a familiarity among the two in materiality and exclusive nature of taking you 15 feet above buildings and the street with fashionable people mainly in business, tourists or residents, who are there to people watch and get away from the "undesireables"you may encounter if you dare walk on the street instead.
Part of citizenship is access to rights. Although some designed spaces can heighten identity politics among users of the space, US cities across the nation are including daring goals in their climate change action plans of giving citizens the right to access the landscape. In the case of Vancouver's bold plan of being the Greenest City in the World by 2020, the plan hopes to give residents access to parks within a 5 minute walk which outcompetes New York City's 10 minute walk to a park goal.
My critique of citizenship in the urban landscape and giving rights to the public landscape is that although cities are addressing accessibility to green spaces in action plans, they fail to address the quality of the spaces that are accessible (so just because I am near a park doesn't mean it is safe for children or families). As a concluding remark, the city has become a system of economic and social re-production and landscapes are part of this discussion in the way parks and green infrastructure are narrating the story of the landscape, hopefully in the future with more attention to the locale or genius loci of the place and the design for all types of people.
Access to Vancouver's Greenest City in the World by 2020 Action Plan: http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/Greenest-city-action-plan.pdf
Massey, Doreen. (1991). A Global Sense of Place. Marxism Today.
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