Interstitial space

Abstract

We all know them - or more correctly, observe them. These discontinuous others that expose themselves in our diurnal environment, in the media, on the street, at our front door... These others that endow our space with threat. Our age is the era of the disintegrating public realm. Fear of the exterior world has produced new ideologies of privatization. Communities segregate themselves from other classes; virtual communications, most common the television replaces physical experience and alter our perceived reality. Unlike our time, 'the ancient Greek could use his or her eyes to see the complexities of life - the temples, markets, playing fields, and meeting places represented the cultures values in religion, politics and family values'. Richard Sennett. The Conscience of the Eye. The first part of this report focuses on how the modern community is perceived and constructed. 'The fortified metropolis' illustrates how since the eighteenth century an increasing amount of physical boundaries have being constructed at various scales from the house through to the city. Coinciding with this period in history, humankind has realised that reality is a social construct. The totalitarian regimes, which could lead to death at the stake, for suggesting there might be more than one reality have disappeared. In its place, are a undefinable quantity of beliefs, fields of knowledge, etc. Another dramatic change in the twentieth century has been in communications. Rapid speed transit to worldwide media dissemination have realigned our notions of proximity. Many would argue that this has allowed communication with previously unavailable individuals and groups. Other authors, such as Jean Baudrillard would see otherwise. Architecture, a discipline connected with the construction of physical space, must now contend with these non-real spaces technology is creating, in which the individual and society are increasingly staging their daily performances. How will these non physical communal spaces affect perceived reality, and connections with other social constructs?