Garden
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Neightbours My project is in relationship to urban practices paper ‘urban ecologies’. I will try to find a way to incorporate ecology to humans relations and communication. I view humans as important components of eco-system. Especially in urban spaces where public settlement affect the ecological process. Functioning and the evolving spatial structure are intergrated. We as humans are always craving for natural elements in our surroundings.
Urban Practice Kamal Kaur
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neighbours. I will be focusing on the relationship between neighbours in the urban spaces. I want to discover at what point did we loose touch with the people who live closest to us and why? My aim is to design a community organization to improve the lives of people around us. I am mainly interested in improving communication between neighbours because it is beyond just exchanging words. Communication to me is about learning others stories, emotions and acknowledging their intentions. I think great relationships with your neighbours’ represent step towards ecological urban space. I am inspired by Lefebvre’s core understanding of humanism in which he critiques the conditions of alienation in our everyday life. Where we follow same soul-destroying routine of popular culture and consumer culture everyday. (Lefebvre, 1991) I also agree with his theory that an urban space is more than just capitalism because the public inhabiting the urban space has much more value. That is why I would like to consider aspects of everyday life and the surroundings of public as an important factor for urban space. I chose neighbours as aspect of everyday of life because I come from a place where my family had same neighbors since 1940s. I was born in Rajasthan, India, Since even my great-grand father was born in the same neighborhood as me, I have a different perception about the word ‘neighbours’ than some of the people in New Zealand. That is why i wanted to explore more about neighbours in relation to urban space.
What is the relationship with neighbours like in other countries compared to New Zealand?
In India, I think there is a special connection between neighbours. Because many generations have been living at the same location, around same people for many years. Neighbours in India not only share streets, walkways but also lanes of memories, which are as old as their historical houses. The neighborhoods are filled with great people who are kind to all living things. Everyone is really close to each other, as neighbours would always come to help in times of need. I came to New Zealand at the age of 9. That is why I think I have the understanding of both countries local customs. People of New Zealand are friendly, reserved and usually don’t like saying “no”. Unlike America, New Zealand gives a warm welcome with their heart open to newcomers. New Zealand has become more diverse, with cultures from all over the world, especially pacific. These cultures have created a strong bond between us. For me it was really easy to settle in when I first came to New Zealand. Both of the countries have very similar people, but the only thing that gave me a culture shock was that people in New Zealand did not interact when they get home from work or school, unless you host or invited to a gathering. After coming from their daily schedule people usually spend their time at home, ignoring the outside world. I felt that there is an invisible wall between neighbours, stopping us to interact with each other. (Wellman, 2001) The way we interact with our neighbours is the only difference that both countries have. In India people interact with their neighbours much more, even for unnecessary things. For example If you run out of things like sugar, ice or bread people are not afraid to ask their neighbours for it. Or if someone has cooked a special meal at home, it will be shared around with neighbours. But in New Zealand even today, I am not sure where are the boundaries lies between neighbours.
How the relationship between the neighbours has changed over time? “Community� can be translated in many different ways today but traditionally it is anchored in neighborhood interactions and manifests a code work for solidarity. Over the years, all the generations have been worried about loosing unity, cohesion and solidarity with their community or hoping the community to be saved. Older people tend to look back to the past nostalgic days when their communities and neighborhoods were strong. But overtime people have withered, remained or transformed in the process of world changing from premodern, modern to postmodern. Core reason of change in neighboring is due to modernism. For example the ideal style of houses changed from Shikumen to skyline apartments. Older generations were usually close to their neighbours. The meals were usually shared as housewives did houses chores side by side as their children played together. But the apartments have private kitchens and toilets. So people don’t get the chance to see each other. Nowadays it is really common to live around same people for years without knowing their names. (Piew Pow, 2009) That is why some people always recall the past of what things were like, while others are now drowned in technology. What i have found is that communities/ neighbours are too immersed in technology, social media and capitalism instead participating in actual groups. As part of this change, there have been many new ways developed like public spaces and community group activities to maintain the relationship between neighbours and communities. (Wellman, 2001)
Millennial Millennial or Gen Y tends to dedicate more time towards virtual entertainment through YouTube, Facebook, and Netflix etc. Compared to older generations, to whom communication and interaction was source of entertainment. Because the older generations were not embedded into technology like Millennials, they had more opportunities to interact with their neighborhood. Children played sports on street, Woman usually invited friends from neighborhood over for tea. Millennial can be narcissistic and involved into themselves more. For example even I like to spend my weekends at home without any interaction with human because I view weekend as time for myself. So if can reflect on past week and plan for week ahead. A research has shown that people born from 1970s to 2000 are most sensitive type of neighbours. Millennial are known to have most noise related pet peeves but instead of complaining they are least likely to confront their neighbours face to face. (Publisher, 2013). I think that relationships have changes due to travelling and migrating to other places. As travelling has become an important component of human lifestyle. Travelling became mostly accessible to everyone during the 1970’s as before travelling was considered as leisure that only wealthy enjoyed. Since then people have been moving around and no longer have sense of attachment to specific place or people. Which could be the reason why people don’t feel attached to people whom they are living around because mostly we don’t share same background as them anymore.
architecture. I come from the village where all houses arranged around a central area of village without major street running though, which gives them more opportunities to interact. In Rajasthan neighbours bond by having a shared communal space on the streets or center of the village. Consisting a routine in which they gather at that communal space every morning or evening. The communal space is as simple as having an elevation ground under the tree. That communal space is called ‘sath’. At sath neighbours usually gather together to read newspaper, share stories or even make decisions about their neighborhood regarding people or infrastructure. I think that architecture plays a huge role on whether we are able to interact with our neighbours or not. Because I think that the location, orientation and layout of your house or streets impact that way we communicate with people around us. Physical layout plays some part in influencing neighborly contact. Streets in New Zealand are usually filled with identically designed houses that are so soulless. These lifeless streets have a huge impact on how we perceive things around us. Spatial designers and urban planner purposely create world where we can either enjoy or not enjoy spending time. As some spaces are completed with phenomenon of uninviting, lack of contentment and eschew. (Holzer, 2017) This shows that built environment of architecture channels certain types of behavior, especially when using place that are designed to attract public. Built in environment also creates a social effects which had a crucial influence on our interaction. That way we can try to use social abilities to achieve desirable urban design that can help us bring the community together.
Auckland street plan
What can we do to improve the relationship between neighbors?
I think that communication is a key element to improve the relationship between neighbours. So it is important for us to engage in real conversations about today’s culture. We should communicate and engage with our neighbours through current affairs whether it is about trump, global warming or how to make cupcakes? We must tackle these topics with truth, hope and love. It is only possible if we create something collaborative. So we have to make sure that we communicate with people living around us. We must start including young people, elders who may be living alone, all the families including single parents, individuals with disabilities and those who maybe new to neighborhood. Collaborative activities such as community gardens can help the neighbours relationship. As community gardens offer residents of neighborhood a means of growing their own food and a sense of camaraderie and community. It should have neighborhood gatherings that should include workshops for teaching garden plots, offer organic gardening workshops which educate residents and offer opportunities to expand an understanding gardening. The gardens should offer organic gardening that could be shared around the neighborhood or used to cook at the neighbourhood meetings or parties. Community initiatives such as neighbor’s day are great way to bring local communities together. We can transform our own properties into welcoming spaces. I believe that our streets can be revived if we are able to educate, engage public to transform free space into multifunctional green gardens.
Project plan. The idea can executed through designing a community garden with plantation of mainly fruits and vegetables not only we will be able to bond over vegetation. It will also exercises in sustainability and community spirit. We can create a street community center. The garden plots can serve as a hub for gardening, education and arts for the community development for the residents. The gardening can be about bringing the neighboring community together and also raising awareness about eco-friendly food. This practice can help everyone understand that we can work together as a community for the environment, rather than individually. It can also help support and encourage people to buy or trade from their neighbors. I think that small actions like this can change the way we communicate with people living around us. As by trading vegetables and fruits can with our neighbors we spend less money but also getting rid of capitalism with small actions like this. New Zealand being so diverse, I thought that food is the best way to being people form different cultures together because food is the one language that unites us all, whatever our age, income, culture or ability is. This way we can so create a more sustainable society. It improves our local food security. Also intertwining architecture and nature and create a ecological urban space. In order to execute this project I would like to design planting blocks that would be placed front of every houses next to walk paths. Planted block would be linked to each other’s neighbours creating an urban gardening walkway on streets. Fruits and vegetables grown on plant can be used for multipurpose. As neighbours can trade vegetables from each other, it can be donated to people in need or used for meeting, where each house can bring healthy cooked meal. I would like the design to be a small scaled, so we can avoid create something that would be hard for public to manage. I also wanted to make sure that these planting blocks are front of the houses and accessible to the neighbours, so we can avoid the notion of invading privacy etc. Also because that way neighbours can help each other with gardening. For example if Mary is away on trip for a week. Her neighbours can water the plants for her. By create urban gardening we can create a facade that can be explored by neighbours. The small-scale space creates a notion that something interesting is around the corner. I think such intervention can help us to create unexpected connections with our neighborhood and community. As a designer I would like to create a space that creates a special and personal bond with a place.
The urban planning and cultural customs of my home country inspire me. Where homegrown vegetable are necessary in every household. I also wanted to include the elements of sharing with neighbours, as they are very necessary to feel inclusive. I would like all the neighbours to plant vegetables, fruits or herbs of their choice so their can have their own ecological impact in the neighborhood. By seeding the plants, neighbours will not only bring life to our streets but also unconsciously help design their own streets. Everyday, when people will stroll through their neighborhood, they will be constantly surrounded by nature and food. It would also help them have a better understanding of healthy life style, plants and they can also save money from food. Adapting this way will can promote a healthy path of urban spaces, and promote living with ecological lifestyle. Researches show that more than 70% population will inhabit urban spaces in upcoming years. Which will make food production and lifestyle very unsustainable. It best for us to find alternatives ways to grow sustainable food that can feed future populations. I think that adapting to the traditional style of growing food at home will be essential; it would also connect communities and reduce pollution.
Referencing Faubert, J. (2016). La Table | StudioXX. Studioxx.org. Retrieved 10 April 2017, from https://studioxx. org/en/evs/la-table Hindmarsh, N. (2016). Incredible Edible: How we can eat our landscapes. Stuff. Retrieved 10 April 2017, from http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/inspire-me/77459660/Incredible-EdibleHow-we-can-eat-our-landscapes Holzer, B. (2017). Architectural Interactions: Space – Architect – Humans. Holzerkobler.com. Retrieved 10 April 2017, from http://holzerkobler.com/process/architectural-interactions-space-–-architect-–-humans Incredible Edible Park - Irvine - LocalWiki. Localwiki.org. Retrieved 10 April 2017, from https://localwiki.org/irvine/Incredible_Edible_Park Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of space (1st ed., pp. 68-70). Great Brittian: Blackwell. Patheja, J. Jasmeen Patheja | StudioXX. Studioxx.org. Retrieved 10 April 2017, from https://studioxx.org/en/entity/jasmeen-patheja Piew Pow, C. (2009). Gated Communities in China: Class, Privilege and the Moral Politics of the Good Life (1st ed., p. 97). Routledge. Publisher, D. (2013). Hate thy neighbour! 60 per cent don’t get on with next door, with reasons including noisy children and late night parties. Daily Mail. Retrieved 6 April 2017, from http://www. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385106/Hate-thy-neighbour-60-cent-dont-door-reasons-includingnoisy-children-late-night-parties.html Wellman, B. (2001). The Persistence and Transformation of Community: From Neighbourhood Groups to Social Networks (1st ed., pp. 2-9). Wllman Associates. Wiki, L. (2011). Incredible Edible Park - Irvine. Localwiki.org. Retrieved 10 April 2017, from https:// localwiki.org/irvine/Incredible_Edible_Park