The emergence of cities, in between the urban morphological studies, the design poetic achievements and the ethnometodological social surveys

The morphological studies about the transformations of cities have been made in the last fifty years following different “morphological schools” according to countries, cultures and theories. We will present our own theoretical and practical view points, based upon a socio-physical dimension of architectural design following architectural and planning ideas by Spiro Kostoff, Alberto Magnaghi, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul Ricoeur, Bill Hillier, Rainer E. Zimmermann, and others, in the sense that, in between the design poetic prefigurative act, the morphological configurative studies of cities and the anthropological refigurative surveys of the users, specific emergent powers develop in the making of the cities, in a socio-physical and space-time structural chronotopic manner. Instate of a confrontation in between the prefigurative poetic views of architects and planners with the configurative outputs of the morphological studies or with the refigurative analyses of the social behavioral and cognitive social sciences, their dialogical interplays will help the three different spatial viewpoints to observe the city as a common study case. We will analyze some study cases in different countries that have been studied in recent PhD dissertations in architecture or that they are now investigated in this way. This chronotopic and dialogical holistic perspective opens new ways to a more refined human engagement, where the local to global confrontations can achieve in a positive emergence not always predicted, neither by the morphological studies nor by the ethnometodological social survey.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Spatial Syntax and the Poetic Spatial Link in Architecture and Planning

Can Space Syntax uncover the poetic spatial link in architecture and planning? In Lisbon in 2017 we uncover one emergent interest upon the not clear interrelation space syntax configurative structures, the design prefigurative power of architecture and the social science refigurative studies about of the environmental behavior of social human groups or cultures, (Ricoeur, 2003). Following Bill Hillier himself this interrelation is significant from the Space Syntax understanding and for architectural planning analysis (Hillier 2014: 214): «Cities appear to us as patterns of activity related to patterns of space. (...) But theoretically it is not like that, and this is not how cities become as they are. This is why good city form can adapt easily to new patterns of use.» Thus, according to Hillier the physical space is a link both between the type of activity that that takes develops in the urban scenarios, and social co-presence shaped by the physical space itself. This constitutes a key critique to Alexander’s pattern language. The present contribution shows an example in downtown Barcelona of the feedback between prefiguration, configuration and refigurative surveys (Authors). Methodologically, ethnographical surveys in the Raval neighborhood analyzed by Space Syntax tools confirm the need for the horizontal red lines by dwellers. Findings show that the proposal by Clotet, which was partially implemented, disregarded these accessibility links in contrast to the past and present situation. This is a poetic combination of morphological (Space Syntax) and ethnographical simulations linked by design processes

The Emergence of Cities, in Between the Urban Morphological Studies, the Design Poetic Achievements and the Ethnometodological Social Surveys

The morphological studies about the transformations of cities have been made in the last fifty years following different «morphological schools» according to countries, cultures and theories. We will present our own theoretical and practical view points, based upon a socio-physical dimension of architectural design following architectural and planning ideas by Spiro Kostoff, Alberto Magnaghi, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul Ricoeur, Bill Hillier, Rainer E. Zimmermann, and others, in the sense that, in between the design poetic prefigurative act, the morphological configurative studies of cities and the anthropological refigurative surveys of the users, specific emergent powers develop in the making of the cities, in a socio-physical and space-time structural chronotopic manner. Instate of a confrontation in between the prefigurative poetic views of architects and planners with the configurative outputs of the morphological studies or with the refigurative analyses of the social behavioral and cognitive social sciences, their dialogical interplays will help the three different spatial viewpoints to observe the city as a common study case. We will analyze some study cases in different countries that have been studied in recent PhD dissertations in architecture or that they are now investigated in this way. This chronotopic and dialogical holistic perspective opens new ways to a more refined human engagement, where the local to global confrontations can achieve in a positive emergence not always predicted, neither by the morphological studies nor by the ethnometodological social survey

Critical Pedagogies and the Design Methods in Architecture and Planning: their Retroactive Research Impacts on the Social and Natural Sciences Jointed Evolution

There is a holistic scientific evolution in our times. The Social Science, Cognitive Science and Physical sciences work together in order to build a better future for the humanity. The climate change is a good example, but there are other situations. The architectural research group GIRAS has been working in the last twenty years, to analyze how architecture and urban research produce retroactive research impacts

The emergence of cities, in between the urban morphological studies, the design poetic achievements and the ethnometodological social surveys

The morphological studies about the transformations of cities have been made in the last fifty years following different “morphological schools” according to countries, cultures and theories. We will present our own theoretical and practical view points, based upon a socio-physical dimension of architectural design following architectural and planning ideas by Spiro Kostoff, Alberto Magnaghi, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul Ricoeur, Bill Hillier, Rainer E. Zimmermann, and others, in the sense that, in between the design poetic prefigurative act, the morphological configurative studies of cities and the anthropological refigurative surveys of the users, specific emergent powers develop in the making of the cities, in a socio-physical and space-time structural chronotopic manner. Instate of a confrontation in between the prefigurative poetic views of architects and planners with the configurative outputs of the morphological studies or with the refigurative analyses of the social behavioral and cognitive social sciences, their dialogical interplays will help the three different spatial viewpoints to observe the city as a common study case. We will analyze some study cases in different countries that have been studied in recent PhD dissertations in architecture or that they are now investigated in this way. This chronotopic and dialogical holistic perspective opens new ways to a more refined human engagement, where the local to global confrontations can achieve in a positive emergence not always predicted, neither by the morphological studies nor by the ethnometodological social survey.Peer Reviewe