OTHERNESS
Birgit: “Being continuously exposed to the public eye can produce normed spaces, shaped by shared, implicit understandings of which uses, activities, and behaviours are considered possible or acceptable, and which are not.
Territorial depth is an essential quality in creating spaces that allow for difference, alternative practices, and forms of appropriation beyond dominant norms. This raises questions about the role of scale in enabling such otherness. How do different spatial scales contribute to creating room for ‘the other’? And how does the interrelationship between the spatial design of the metropolitan area and that of the local place shape these possibilities?”
Alex: “In my research on Territories-in-between, I found evidence to support the following hypotheses: Cities once offered space to escape traditional ways of thinking and living. Today, urban lifestyles have largely become mainstream. Territories-in-between may instead provide space for non-conformity and experimentation.”
Francesca: “Urban design can increase porosity by creating spatial conditions in which boundaries are not absolute, but allow for encounter, appropriation and unexpected uses. In increasingly commodified environments, this means paying particular attention to thresholds, edges, ground floors, passages and shared spaces: the places where different territories and people can overlap. Porosity is therefore not simply about physical accessibility, but about creating room for people who may not be the intended users or consumers of a space. Designing for ‘the other’ means leaving a certain degree of openness and indeterminacy, allowing spaces to be inhabited, interpreted and transformed in ways that cannot be entirely prescribed.”
