The trash bin on stage: on the sociomaterial roles of street furniture

They are easily overlooked, but benches, trash bins, drinking fountains, bike stands, ashtray bins, and bollards do influence our ways of living. Street furniture can encourage or hold back behaviours, support different codes of conduct, or express the values of a society. This study is developed from the observation that the number of different roles taken on by street furniture seem to quickly increase in ways not attended to. We see new arrivals such as recycled, anti-homeless, skateboard-friendly, solar-powered, storytelling, phone-charging and event-making furniture entering public places. What are typical sociomaterial roles that these things play in urban culture of today? How do these roles matter? This article suggests a conceptualisation of three furniture roles: Carnivalesque street furniture takes part in events and temporary places. Behaviourist street furniture engages in how humans act in public. Cabinet-like street furniture makes itself heard through relocating shapes of other objects. These categories lead to two directions for further research; one concerning the institutions behind street furniture, and one concerning how street furniture shapes cities through influencing different kinds of ‘scapes.’ The aim of this article is to advance theory on an urban material culture that is evolving faster and faster. By conceptualising this deceptively innocent group of things and articulating its relations to the everyday structures of the city, I hope to provide a framework for further studies

Global cities: Global parks: Globalizing of digital leisure networks.

This paper proposes to understand the globalizing of online Social Network Sites (SNS) through the spatial metaphor of global parks. It builds upon a commonly accepted ideation of the city as socially-constructed and that which has been harnessed to understand the spatiality of the Internet. Over the decades we have learnt to conceptualize the Internet with the aid of metaphors, including that of the city to grasp its intricate information highways, networks and connectivity, the underlying logic that dictates movement within these spaces and nodes of concentrated social action. By equating the Internet to the city, we are compelled to extend our imagination by applying our understandings of urban planning and geography to current vital conversations on the shaping of Internet spaces. The persistence of this parallel has matured our thinking significantly from the utopic notion of the web as a frontier of limitless and depoliticized space to a more architected and socio-economic phenomenon of a propertied and contextual digital place. Given that the city has been a useful analogy for the Internet to confront its directionality and political intent in design and usage, this paper takes this parallel further, delving into a segment of the Internet that is currently in the midst of tremendous speculation- that of Social Network Sites (SNS) and its seemingly open, democratic, social and inclusive nature. If we narrow our attention to a domain of the city that is imbued with a similar rhetoric of being open, social and leisurely

Data and the city – accessibility and openness. a cybersalon paper on open data

This paper showcases examples of bottom–up open data and smart city applications and identifies lessons for future such efforts. Examples include Changify, a neighbourhood-based platform for residents, businesses, and companies; Open Sensors, which provides APIs to help businesses, startups, and individuals develop applications for the Internet of Things; and Cybersalon’s Hackney Treasures. a location-based mobile app that uses Wikipedia entries geolocated in Hackney borough to map notable local residents. Other experiments with sensors and open data by Cybersalon members include Ilze Black and Nanda Khaorapapong's The Breather, a "breathing" balloon that uses high-end, sophisticated sensors to make air quality visible; and James Moulding's AirPublic, which measures pollution levels. Based on Cybersalon's experience to date, getting data to the people is difficult, circuitous, and slow, requiring an intricate process of leadership, public relations, and perseverance. Although there are myriad tools and initiatives, there is no one solution for the actual transfer of that data

Behavioural Atmospheres and Vagueness in the Sharing of Urban Public Places

This thesis is an exploration of urban public places and social interactions understood as a sharing of place. Against the background of urbanization, migration, urban densification and new technologies, it can be assumed that our everyday ways of sharing place with one another are becoming more diversified. This calls for responsive theoretical tools and concepts to keep our understandings updated. This thesis unfolds theoretical considerations on vagueness in how we share place with each other. It is thus the subtle, peripheral and often unnoticed side of socio-spatial behaviour that is of interest here. How can vague place-sharing be understood? The notion of behavioural atmospheres is advanced to discuss vague place-sharing. Sharing of place happens in context, and there is an atmospheric side to this context. A behavioural atmosphere is neither good nor bad by definition, and all places have them, in the sense that we — often without reflection — behave differently towards each other depending on circumstances like location, time of day, and with whom we interact. Studies of a public park, a residential area and street furniture offer different entry points into the world of behavioural atmospheres and vague place-sharing. Theory on rhythms, territories, material culture and everyday encounters is mobilized. Field observations, interviews and autoethnography are the primary research techniques. The exploration leads to a theoretical discussion of the social, spatial and temporal aspects of vague place-sharing and behavioural atmospheres. The discussion is thematized as vague figurations, situated instructions and temporal thresholds, along with a range of tentative insights and terms for further research. Thereby, an alternative view on spatial use of and social interaction is suggested. It is a view that nuances preconceived ideas in urban design of how public places work

Risk Analysis for Smart Cities Urban Planners: Safety and Security in Public Spaces

Christopher Alexander in his famous writings "The Timeless Way of Building" and "A pattern language" defined a formal language for the description of a city. Alexander developed a generative grammar able to formally describe complex and articulated concepts of architecture and urban planning to define a common language that would facilitate both the participation of ordinary citizens and the collaboration between professionals in architectural and urban planning. In this research, a similar approach has been applied to let two domains communicate although they are very far in terms of lexicon, methodologies and objectives. These domains are urban planning, urban design and architecture, seen as the first domain both in terms of time and in terms of completeness of vision, and the one relating to the world of engineering, made by innumerable disciplines. In practice, there is a domain that defines the requirements and the overall vision (the first) and a domain (the second) which implements them with real infrastructures and systems. To put these two worlds seamlessly into communication, allowing the concepts of the first world to be translated into those of the second, Christopher Alexander’s idea has been followed by defining a common language. By applying Essence, the software engineering formal descriptive theory, using its customization rules, to the concept of a Smart City, a common language to completely trace the requirements at all levels has been defined. Since the focus was on risk analysis for safety and security in public spaces, existing risk models have been considered, evidencing a further gap also within the engineering world itself. Depending on the area being considered, risk management models have different and siloed approaches which ignore the interactions of one type of risk with the others. To allow effective communication between the two domains and within the engineering domain, a unified risk analysis framework has been developed. Then a framework (an ontology) capable of describing all the elements of a Smart City has been developed and combined with the common language to trace the requirements. Following the philosophy of the Vienna Circle, a creative process called Aufbau has then been defined to allow the generation of a detailed description of the Smart City, at any level, using the common language and the ontology above defined. Then, the risk analysis methodology has been applied to the city model produced by Aufbau. The research developed tools to apply such results to the entire life cycle of the Smart City. With these tools, it is possible to understand how much a given architectural, urban planning or urban design requirement is operational at a given moment. In this way, the narration can accurately describe how much the initial requirements set by architects, planners and urban designers and, above all, the values required by stakeholders, are satisfied, at any time. The impact of this research on urban planning is the ability to create a single model between the two worlds, leaving everyone free to express creativity and expertise in the appropriate forms but, at the same time, allowing both to fill the communication gap existing today. This new way of planning requires adequate IT tools and takes the form, from the engineering side, of harmonization of techniques already in use and greater clarity of objectives. On the side of architecture, urban planning and urban design, it is instead a powerful decision support tool, both in the planning and operational phases. This decision support tool for Urban Planning, based on the research results, is the starting point for the development of a meta-heuristic process using an evolutionary approach. Consequently, risk management, from Architecture/Urban Planning/Urban Design up to Engineering, in any phase of the Smart City’s life cycle, is seen as an “organism” that evolves.Christopher Alexander nei suoi famosi scritti "The Timeless Way of Building" e "A pattern language" ha definito un linguaggio formale per la descrizione di una città, sviluppando una grammatica in grado di descrivere formalmente concetti complessi e articolati di architettura e urbanistica, definendo un linguaggio comune per facilitare la partecipazione dei comuni cittadini e la collaborazione tra professionisti. In questa ricerca, un approccio simile è stato applicato per far dialogare due domini sebbene siano molto distanti in termini di lessico, metodologie e obiettivi. Essi sono l'urbanistica, l'urban design e l'architettura, visti come primo dominio sia in termini di tempo che di completezza di visione, e quello del mondo dell'ingegneria, con numerose discipline. In pratica, esiste un dominio che definisce i requisiti e la visione d'insieme (il primo) e un dominio (il secondo) che li implementa con infrastrutture e sistemi reali. Per metterli in perfetta comunicazione, permettendo di tradurre i concetti del primo in quelli del secondo, si è seguita l'idea di Alexander definendo un linguaggio. Applicando Essence, la teoria descrittiva formale dell'ingegneria del software al concetto di Smart City, è stato definito un linguaggio comune per tracciarne i requisiti a tutti i livelli. Essendo il focus l'analisi dei rischi per la sicurezza negli spazi pubblici, sono stati considerati i modelli di rischio esistenti, evidenziando un'ulteriore lacuna anche all'interno del mondo dell'ingegneria stessa. A seconda dell'area considerata, i modelli di gestione del rischio hanno approcci diversi e isolati che ignorano le interazioni di un tipo di rischio con gli altri. Per consentire una comunicazione efficace tra i due domini e all'interno del dominio dell'ingegneria, è stato sviluppato un quadro di analisi del rischio unificato. Quindi è stato sviluppato un framework (un'ontologia) in grado di descrivere tutti gli elementi di una Smart City e combinato con il linguaggio comune per tracciarne i requisiti. Seguendo la filosofia del Circolo di Vienna, è stato poi definito un processo creativo chiamato Aufbau per consentire la generazione di una descrizione dettagliata della Smart City, a qualsiasi livello, utilizzando il linguaggio comune e l'ontologia sopra definita. Infine, la metodologia dell'analisi del rischio è stata applicata al modello di città prodotto da Aufbau. La ricerca ha sviluppato strumenti per applicare tali risultati all'intero ciclo di vita della Smart City. Con questi strumenti è possibile capire quanto una data esigenza architettonica, urbanistica o urbanistica sia operativa in un dato momento. In questo modo, la narrazione può descrivere con precisione quanto i requisiti iniziali posti da architetti, pianificatori e urbanisti e, soprattutto, i valori richiesti dagli stakeholder, siano soddisfatti, in ogni momento. L'impatto di questa ricerca sull'urbanistica è la capacità di creare un modello unico tra i due mondi, lasciando ognuno libero di esprimere creatività e competenza nelle forme appropriate ma, allo stesso tempo, permettendo ad entrambi di colmare il gap comunicativo oggi esistente. Questo nuovo modo di progettare richiede strumenti informatici adeguati e si concretizza, dal lato ingegneristico, in un'armonizzazione delle tecniche già in uso e in una maggiore chiarezza degli obiettivi. Sul versante dell'architettura, dell'urbanistica e del disegno urbano, è invece un potente strumento di supporto alle decisioni, sia in fase progettuale che operativa. Questo strumento di supporto alle decisioni per la pianificazione urbana, basato sui risultati della ricerca, è il punto di partenza per lo sviluppo di un processo meta-euristico utilizzando un approccio evolutivo

Leisure Commons: Spatial History of Web 2.0

__Abstract__ The Internet has matured. It is now characterized by a new generation of websites popularly termed as Web 2.0. The nature of this transformation is predominantly social versus technical in nature, and is marked by the rise of social network sites and user generated content. In particular, Web 2.0 is defined by its leisure properties. These leisure properties, this book will argue, are by no means completely novel. In the coming pages we will explore how these leisure properties are deeply rooted in historical, socio-economic and cultural spaces. They are intrinsically tied to offline practices. In essence, to understand the nature of cyberleisure spaces, we need to examine closely their offline/online, transnational/transcultural and historic/contemporary relationships. This book proposes to use the metaphor of ‘public parks’ and its multiple forms to illustrate different dimensions of the digital commons. This metaphorical tool is used as a critical and comprehensive instrument of analysis. It is used to make the argument that public parks share the rhetoric of Web 2.0 spaces–that of being open, democratic, non-utilitarian, and free for all. However, rhetoric confronts a reality that always comes with a rich and contentious historical struggle. By revealing the spectrum of tensions in the makings of the public park, this book draws parallels to persistent political and socio-economic challenges surrounding digital leisure architectures

The leisure commons: A spatial history of web 2.0

There is much excitement about Web 2.0 as an unprecedented, novel, community-building space for experiencing, producing, and consuming leisure, particularly through social network sites. What is needed is a perspective that is invested in neither a utopian or dystopian posture but sees historical continuity to this cyber leisure geography. This book investigates the digital public sphere by drawing parallels to another leisure space that shares its rhetoric of being open, democratic, and free for all: the urban park. It makes the case that the history and politics of public parks as an urban commons provides fresh insight into contemporary debates on corporatization, democratization and privatization of the digital commons. This book takes the reader on a metaphorical journey through multiple forms of public parks such as Protest Parks, Walled Gardens, Corporate Parks, Fantasy Parks, and Global Parks, addressing issues such as virtual activism, online privacy/surveillance, digital labor, branding, and globalization of digital networks. Ranging from the 19th century British factory garden to Tokyo Disneyland, this book offers numerous spatial metaphors to bring to life aspects of new media spaces. Readers looking for an interdisciplinary, historical and spatial approach to staid Web 2.0 discourses will undoubtedly benefit from this text