structure that defines our collective conscience.
Localism however has
a robust and inherent resistance to a priori regimes; “places of social
space.. the local (or ‘punctual’, in the sense of determined by a particular ‘point’) does not disappear, for it is never absorbed by the regional, national or even worldwide level.”104
This social relationship
harks back to the founding concept of the Greek city, where the community
structures serve as the political, public life of the city, providing a counterpoint to the despotic economic regime of the contemporary city,
while the nation state acts as the Greek nomos, a regulatory framework defining the broader definition of society.
01 Context: Place Specific - Latent Communities and Instauratio Urbis. As with Geddes’ Outlook Tower and Halls of Residence in Edinburgh which;
“were a means of educating the young about social and cultural change
The place specific nature of
this new public realm is essential, the civic nationalism identified by Geddes as a catalyst for the cultural forces of social change is routed
in a community’s knowledge of, and identification with, its location, city, region and nation, and by extension that nations place in the world.
and making them more self-aware”100, the form of public space, advanced by this thesis, is an attempt to address the dormant communities within
the city and reengage them with their place, society and culture.
104
Lefebvre, H. The Production of Space. pg 88
Through investigation of, and experimentation with, the urban strategies
discussed in this thesis, redundant sites can be selected which serve as the “existing but latent monuments”101 Aureli suggests “strategically
highlighting”102
Urbis principle.
in order to reinvent the city through the Instauratio
This new concept of social space attempts to integrate
the Instauratio Urbis methodology for urban regeneration and the unitary urbanism devised by the Situationists in a place specific, Geddesian localism and sense of community.
The range of urban theories which have
been discussed all point towards the establishment of self-organised
social structures founded on communitarian principles, independently self reliant but not in isolation “from the state and the superstructures
of society”103 that Lefebvre recognises as the fundamental organisational 100 101 102
103
Meller, Helen.
Patrick Geddes: Social Evolutionist and City Planner. pg 79
Aureli, P. The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, pg 101 Aureli, P. The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, pg 101
Lefebvre, H. The Production of Space. pg 85
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