RABIA ALVI - B.ARCH THESIS DISSERTATION

National College of Arts, Lahore Department of Architecture

Thesis Report

SOCIAL CONDENSOR A NEW ORDER OF THE THIRD SPACE By RABIA ALVI Roll no: 16

Thesis report submitted to the department of architecture National College of Arts, Lahore. In partial fulfillment of the degree of B. Arch

DEDICATION For all those breathing in a virtual space devoid of contact, relationships and experiences.

To the IMMEDIATE

I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The preparation of this thesis would not have been possible without soliciting support, encouragement and inspiration from various individuals and institutions. I, therefore, express my profound gratitude to all these sources.

The foundation was laid by my advisor, Mr. Azhar Saeed, who having known the vastness of subject, helped build our foundation, gave us timely advices on how to progress and conclude and kept us on schedule.

I am highly indebted to my external Mr. Qasim Ibrahim who ensured culmination of the project but more importantly who made me appreciate and enjoy architecture. His guidance was allencompassing and, indeed, very inspiring.

I would like to thank architects Mr. Asim Hameed, Mr. Waqar Aziz, Madame Nayyab for their expertise, assistance and valuable time. Their insight put together, are the real ‘unknown’ forces behind the making of this thesis. In my darkest hours Madame Rabia Ezdi rescued me from a tunnel, devoid of any sign of light and helped in building my foundation.

My special thanks to Mr. Usman Sami for always being just a call, text and e-mail, away with prompt responses and for blowing apart my juvenile beliefs and giving me reality checks.

I, also, wish to acknowledge the support of all the agencies and the individuals who responded to my request for data, interviews and informal discussions.

On the family front, I am thankful to my father Air Vice Marshal Shahid Alvi, who managed to take considerable time from his busy routine to put up with my frequent demands and introducing me to various authorities. My mother, Fareeha Shahid who stood by me in all those panic attacks and sent me frozen meals for my ever demanding appetite for home cooked food.

This thesis would genuinely would not have been possible without the countless discussions, gallivanting and late night sessions and moral support from Tayyaba Anwar, Naba Omer, Nimra Jawad, Amir Mahmood and Hasnain Salahuddin.

At the end, let me emphasize that all omissions, inadequacies and shortfalls of this project are the fallout of my own perceptions.

II

ABSTRACT In an increasing network society, the physical Public Realm or Third Space as we can now see is diminishing to a mere blur in its surrounding context. Public life has succumbed to closed blocks and surveilled societies which result in pervasive alienation from the physical present of the individual and from each other.

As opposed to nostalgic attempts to restore an impossible continuity of streets and plazas, this projects aims to create a new kind of third space, a physical domain by uniting the immediate and the virtual, potentially by architecture becoming itself an interactive medium connecting the inhabitants with all their surrounding spaces.

This is achieved by seeking alternatives that embrace connectivity and communication and this new communication flow into public view, refocusing attention on the surrounding space and passersby.

This new order of the third space will be a realm that becomes an urban playground providing a dynamic environment in which disconnected citizens of Islamabad have the opportunity to interact and to be engaged. ,

III

INTRODUCTION "The great thing about modern life is you can do so much," "and the curse of modern life is you can do so much."

The last century would always be remembered for having changed the way from what humans were accustomed to living for thousands of years. While these entirely new ways made its impact felt on rural life, however, it was the urban life that was significantly affected. The chief architect of this transformation is Wireless Communications that have become embedded in our environment and spawned a new kind of a city, a digital urbanism.

A new kind of urban life that consists of people of a ‘new media generation, tutored on digital media, marked by characteristics of digital media and having the expectation of immediate connection and prompt response. They operate in a new psycho-social state spanning and linking the physical and mediated environments. These people now think about places online as well as places on land; that cyberspace is as real as physical space. Mobile technologies, Internet access and social-media updates are becoming more and more empowering and fusing into everyday lives and distracting people from our surroundings and having a great impact on general social behavior and public space.

The social life of public space now competes with media technology that shifts interaction inward, away from less predictable public contacts. The social city is being reformulated by technologies that permit communication through connection rather than through traditional face-to-face contact. As a result the public space or the “third space” is moving from the physical realm into the virtual world such as online communities on social media like Facebook and twitter and countless blogs.

A common narrative is that smartphones, iPods, laptops, and other devices increasingly isolate us from our physical surroundings and neighbors, particularly in public spaces. We are sacrificing conversation for mere connection and We expect more from technology and less from each other. We may feel we're connecting effectively with others via the Internet, but too much electronic-relating paradoxically engenders a sense of social isolation and pushing us further apart All in all, the impact of media has entirely transformed our experience of space.’ At the urban scale, the sacred act of walking down the street is gone—or at least half gone, as one ear and one eye (and one brain?) becomes snagged in the device in our hands. At a more worrying level, these communication technologies are redefining the human-environment relationship and the way spaces are designed. Not only have these digital devices enabled new ways of communicating but also changed the way we behave and use the public space. Architecture now is made for a new generation, a new man, who operate in a new state characterized by both, the physical and the virtual environments.

IV

Thus a question is posed for architects and designers that ‘Does this also mean that they will change the way our public realm is designed? It, thus, presents the need to rethink the public paradigm and design for the new generation.

KEYWORDS         

Third space Virtual communities Media Technology Cyber Democracy Digital Urbanism Social Fabric Mediated Metropolitan Shock Adaptable architecture Digital augmentation

V

OBJECTIVES 1. To identify a new order of public space (third space) for contemporary media tutored generation/ pro literate society and their increasing new demands.

2. To implement this new order by creatinga physical domain for the people of the sector and adjoining areas. A place to nurture the larger community and bring disconnected public together to add up to greater community livability.

3. To create a place which encourages face-to-face interaction and offers means for communication and mutual sharing. A place where the people who live and work in a community experience their neighborhoods and each other.

4. To rejuvenate the role of a public space in a. which the members of a community can gather for social, group or cultural activities b. where social and economic exchanges take place and friends run into each other. c. An open forums for people to encounter art, to enjoy performances.

5. To discover the possibilities of a new space by overlapping the physical space and cyberspace and form a new understanding of a new experience phenomenon. To overlap technology into the physical domain in a way that it promotes social connectedness and acts as a social catalyst. ,

Table of Contents acknowledgement............................................................................................................................ I ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................... III VI

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. III Thesis architecture design project ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

KEYwORDS....................................................................................................................................... V objectives ....................................................................................................................................... VI research aspect one – public realm ................................................................................................ 1 2.1 PUBLIC, PUBLIC SPACE AND THE PUBLIC REALM .................................................................... 1 2.1.1 the Public space – historically ......................................................................................... 2 2.1.2 role and importance of public space............................................................................... 3 big city life and sense of alienation imposed on its inhabitants .............................................. 4 HISTORICAL ATTEMPTS TO ENCOURAGE SOCIAL INTERACTIOM ............ Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.1.4 evolution/transformation and near dissappearence of the public space/ Public space to public Realm ................................................................................................................................ 4 2.1.5 public sphere today and the new man ........................................................................... 5 2.2 Third space............................................................................................................................. 6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. research aspect 2 – virtual realm.................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Internet as the 4th space – THE NEW PUBLIC AGORA. .......................................................... 8 3.4 physical space vs cyberspace (physcial vs virtual) ................................................................ 9 Cyberspace as a PLACE ............................................................................................................. 9 STATISTICS ................................................................................................................................ 9 3.2 the Emergence of digital urbanism .................................................................................... 12 INTERNET AS A NEW AESTHETIC ORDER (AND A SYSTEM) ....................................................... 12 3.3 REDEFINED public space UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF cyberspace and media technology . 12 Placelessness and Cyberspace ............................................................................................... 14 Cyberspace as an Aesthetic Phenomenon - can cyber space provide a new sense of place? .. 15 3.4.1 case study – usman haque ............................................................................................ 16 3.5 advantages and flaws of cyberspace ................................................................................... 18 INTERNET – A SHALLOW SUBSTITUTE? .................................................................................. 18 ISSUES WITH VIRTUAL PUBLIC SPACE .................................................................................... 18 3.5.1 weakening of social fabric ............................................................................................. 19 Can Facebook make you sad? – the friendship paradox ....................................................... 21 WHAT SOME INTERNET USERS HAVE TO SAY ........................................................................ 22 VII

CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................................................ 23 research aspect 3 – new domain .................................................................................................. 24 4.1 the importance of contact – valuing the physical dimention ............................................. 24 4.6 rethinking the public paradigm - a new public domian (A NEW THIRD SPACE TYPOLOGY) 25 shock and surprise – a stimulus in the pocket .......................................................................... 29 case study ............................................................................................................................... 34 1.4

integrating technology ...................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

EYE ON TECHNOLOGY AND NEWER CONCEPTS (new technology and various ways to integrate technology) ............................................................................................................. 32 SOCIAL interaction istallation in public spaces ...................................................................... 34 (Design for social interaction in a public space ...................................................................... 34 1.5

experiential architecture ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

zumthor points .......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. precedent STUDY ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.6 conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 37 key concluding points / key points ............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.5.1 A NEW PUBLIC SPACE – DESIGN OBJECTIVES ...................... Error! Bookmark not defined. design brief ................................................................................................................................... 38 5. 1 site....................................................................................................................................... 39 islamabad – AS DESIGNED BY DOXIADIS – AN OVERVIEW ........................................................ 40 ISLAMABAD TODAY ................................................................................................................... 41 Why Islamabad? ..................................................................................................................... 42 SITE SELECTION CRITERIA ....................................................................................................... 43 5.1.2 introducing f-10 SECTOR AND MARKAZ ........................................................................ 43 PHYSICAL AND SPATIAL CONTEXT OF SITE ............................................................................. 44 5.1.3 ISSUES AND POTENTIAL OPpoRTUNITIES ......................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

5.1.4 SITE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................ 46 socio cultural context ................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. user activity ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. conclusions/ vision .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

5.2 program ............................................................................................................................... 48 5.2.1 program consolidation .................................................................................................. 49 5.2.2 program connections ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

VIII

5.3.3 building configuration ................................................................................................... 57 5.4.4 exploded axonometric ETC .............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 62 WHY COMMUNITY CENTER ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

OTHER THINGS TO READ .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

IX

RESEARCH ASPECT ONE – PUBLIC REALM 2.1 PUBLIC, PUBLIC SPACE AND THE PUBLIC REALM A public space1 refers to an area or place that is open and accessible to all citizens, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are places where there are no fees or paid tickets that are required for entry, nor are the entrants discriminated based on background.

The terms, public space, public realm and public sphere are often used interchangeably by various individuals to describe what is commonly understood as public place. In this thesis I will be using them to describe strictly the physical public domain.

The expression “public place” is characterized by the word “public.” The word “public”means “of, concerning, or open to the people as a whole; involved in the affairs of the community, especially in government or entertainment; done, perceived, or existing in open view” (Oxford English Dictionary 11th ed., 2014). This definition establishes the relationship of the term “public” with people and their concern.

Public life traditionally combined a number of facets: it was directed towards some common benefit; it was open and accessible to everyone for observation or participation; it was shared by a diverse group of people and thus required tolerance of different interests and behaviors (Sennett, 1974; Brill, 1989).

Furthermore, the public life was characterized by common tradition, coherence, and continuity; these transcended an individual’s life span (Arendt, 1959).

The public sphere, to put it simply in the words ofJurgenHabermas, a German philosopher, is a “network for communicating information and points of view …

Yet because they can be used by everyone, public spaces are frequently considered contested spaces; places where opposition, confrontation, resistance and subversion can be played out over ‘the right to space’ (Mitchell, 1995, 2003). These contestations may involve people from a range of social groups based on gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality, (dis)ability, social class and so on (Valentine, 1996; Malone, 2002).

.

1

PUBLIC      

PRIVATE Shared space Open and accessible Democratic Chance for interaction Exchange of ideas Open and universal social context

Brings the dividends of social coherence, acceptability and tolerance.

    

Shielded Controlled Fimiliar Intimate Shared with family and close associates

Often leading to: Iow acceptance for diversity resulting in gradual social aloofness and sense of alientation

2.1.1 THE PUBLIC SPACE– HISTORICALLY Public spaces have played a fundamental role throughout history. From the time that humans first designed private spaces, public spaces have served as places where people have come together to exchange ideas. From the ancient Greek's Agora to the Middle Ages' Commons to early 20th century American urban streets and parks, public spaces have been centers for free speech and public discourse.

Historically, the public spaces of cities have been centers of diversity were where people from all kinds of different backgrounds were exposed to each other. City streets, parks, and public transportation were melting pots of cultural differences.

Early in the 6th century, B.C the Agora became a public area.

This was the heart of ancient Athens, a birthplace of democracy where citizens discussed pressing issues and made decisions on the basis of popular vote. It was known for its splendid architectural presence. The site was occupied without interruption in all periods of the city’s history. After a series of repairs and remodeling, it reached its final rectangular form.

2

2.1.2 ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC SPACE ‘Public places afford casual encounters in the course of daily life that can bind people together and give their lives meaning and power.”

Public space is an indispensable element of urban space and urban life. It enriches the spaces of the city and encourages the establishment of activities, and in turn flourishes the everyday lives of the residents.

ROLE OF PUBLIC SPACE:    

Important for diversity and free speech (areas which are open to everyone) Places for the exchange of ideas and creative process.

Eye-opening, and lead people to new ideas and to see beyond their insular world. People from all kinds of different backgrounds are exposed to each other.

Serve as an important site of social interaction.

With historical roots in cities all over the world, public open spaces have been considered as a powerful component of urban fabric and means of transforming communities. When public spaces are successful, they will increase, opportunities to participate in communal activity. Public spaces become vessels to carry positive communal meanings. Square, which is one of the expressions of such public spaces, has been identified as heart and soul of the cities by giving them identity.

Besides allowing us to fulfil an extensive series of functions, public space, as a place, has had ―and still has today― a symbolic character which is indispensable to urban life. It is a referent in which the inhabitants, on the one hand, recognize themselves as members of a community and encounter and recreate their collective history, and, on the other, are confronted with change and innovation: essential elements in the city.

SINKING/DYING PUBLIC SPACES In Arendt’s Book ‘The Human Condition’ she says “A man who lived only a private life, who like the slave was not permitted to enter the public realm, or like the barbarian had chosen not to establish such a realm, was not fully human.” Such has been the significance of the public realm throughout the history of mankind.

She draws examples from history to endorse her argument that what the public realm considers irrelevant can have such an extraordinary and infectious charm that the whole society at large will eventually end up adopting it as their way of life. Public realm at its most basic is what we know as the common world, and it gathers us together and yet prevents us from falling over one another but unfortunately today’s common world has lost its power of being ‘pluralistic’ which is to be simultaneously the same, being concerned about the same.

3

The failure of the public realm for us lies in the failure of men who have become entirely private, that they have been deprived of seeing and hearing of others, and of being seen and heard by them. Increased individualism due to the consumer culture has resulted in a lack of concern of the public realm in the today’s contemporary society. They are imprisoned under the “subjectivity of their own singular experience.” With the loss of the common world our cities are comprised of events having not significant relation to one another instead of being locked into their own “self-referential.”’

Henry Sheftoe says 'without convivial (FESTIVE AND SOCIABLE) spaces, cities, towns and villages would be mere accretions of buildings with no deliberate opportunities for casual encounters and positive interactions between friends or strangers'.

2.1.3 BIG CITY LIFE AND SENSE OF ALIENATION IMPOSED ON ITS INHABITANTS Closed loop routines, life going in circles, being caught in the mix. These are all the typical characteristics of the urban jungle–the center of alienation, where most people belong yet they have the acute feeling of strangeness in the environment. (Brecht’s epic theatre and Lefebvre’s Theories of Alienation) Brecht and Lefebvre both managed to devise ways to play with this phenomenon, finding grounds and techniques to cater to the inhabitants of the city.The idea was to find a ground or to build a setting which helps the subject/participant to be captivated, or provide him an escape into the sublime reality.

According to Brecht, this was the state of isolation and being distant in a grand setup which harbored the true creativity of the being.

2.1.4 EVOLUTION/TRANSFORMATION AND NEAR DISSAPPEARENCE OF THE PUBLIC SPACE/ PUBLIC SPACE TO PUBLIC REALM The vital social life once offered by an urban environment, one replete with busy streets, markets, parks, promenades and squares, is being transformed. The life once characterized by increased opportunities to participate in communal activity where people from different cultural groups came together in a supportive context of mutual enjoyment, was transformed in the the latter half of the 20th century,that saw the rapid decline of intermingling in public spaces.

Slowly and graduallythe growth of the suburbs removed people from inner-city streets to lowdensity neighborhoods -- usually having a very narrow socioeconomic and ethnic make-up. The growth of the automobile removed people from the melting-pot of public transportation, and put them in an isolated metal chamber almost every time they left their homes.

4

Out of necessities pseudo-public spaces (resembles a public space with its diversity of people but spaces that are "sanitized" of certain elements.)Places like Malls, Theme parks, Sports stadiums were created. However, as a private space, Malls controlled speech and looks by sanitizing the environment andprohibiting activities that do not lead to their raison d'etre -- consuming commodities At the fag end of 20th century, social life of public space is forced to compete with media technology that shifts interaction inward, away from less predictable public contacts. The social city is being reformulated by technologies that permit communication through connection rather than through traditional face-to-face contact.

At the other end of the spectrum are virtual communities composed of widely and randomly scattered disconnected physical places together with many virtual places including virtual public places. In between are numerous possible hybrids, in which both physical and virtual places play significant roles, and in which linkages are formed both by transportation and electronic connections.

2.1.5 PUBLIC SPHERE TODAY AND THE NEW MAN Today - the public sphere has crossed all physical limitations and manifested itself into the media. The public sphere is seen in relation to the mass media because in today’s world mass media permits the circulation of opinion and offer the conditions in which democratic forum can functions.

The internet is arguably the most important development in contemporary communication where it has a produced a public sphere which in theory has granted access to every individual to the global forum.

Individuals re-entering public space are different people, making new demands and having new uses for those spaces. They are people of a new media generation, tutored on digital media, marked by characteristics of digital media and recent acquisition of multi-tasking talents and the expectation of immediate connection and prompt response, control of personal contact and information, access regardless of distance. They operate in a new psycho-social state spanning and linking the physical and mediated environments.

5

2.2 THIRD SPACE The term Third Space or Third Place was coined by the sociologist Ray Oldenburg in the early 90s in his book The Great Good Place in which Oldenburg calls one's "first place" the home and those that one lives with. The "second place" is the workplace. And third space is than a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace

Third places are a mix of home and work places, like cafes and community centers. They provide the neutral ground for people to freely socialize, forging community’s cultural values, what allows the community life to flourish.

OLDENGER ARGUES THIRD PLACES ARE: - A space where people meet to unwind, discuss and talk about things that matter to them, their -

neighbourhood and their community Where people let their "real" selves show. And where they can let down their guard, relax, be themselves, develop new friendships and deepen existing ones.

"Anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction Important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement Ways a community develops and retains a sense of cohesion and identity.

About sociability and not isolation.

EXAMPLES OF SOME THIRD SPACES TODAY: All sorts of social groupings can have aspects of a third space – clubs, book groups, , Community Centers, The Mall, The Gym, The Park,various Places of Worship churches and so on.

Informal spaces where people meet in less-defined groupings can nurture the sort of ambiance that people are looking for in a third space – the classic example is the British local pub. These are all marked by “easygoing conviviality and safety”.

6

It seems for many people the Internet is becoming a Third Place, although some argue that Television has become the de facto Third Place and the Internet ranks as the Fourth Place.

Conclusion In today’s world it is becoming evident that truly a public space or a place where all individuals are welcomed are increasingly limited, hindering us from building a harmonious, interactive and tolerant society/community. The preservation of public space ( also referred as third space ) in any setup in important because it welcomes the free exchange of ideas and promotes social interaction between diverse groups, allowing them to learn more about each other and rely less on stereotypes. Arguably some of the traditional public spaces have lost relevance on account of several reasons, lack of surprise and convenience being the foremost. The revival of such places by virtue of creative thinking thus poses a formidable challenge.

7

RESEARCH ASPECT 2 – VIRTUAL REALM IS IT JUST A VIRTUAL REALM? OR IS IT A NEW “SPACE” GIVING POSSIBILITIES FOR PRODUCTION OF NEW “PLACES”?

This new “place” should be discussed by designers, planners, urban designers, etc. in order to create a holsitic point of view through the design process in the context of existential experience and the notions of place and placelessness.

3.1 INTERNET AS THE 4TH SPACE – THE NEW PUBLIC AGORA. With the advent of online technologies third places are shifting to the virtual world or virtual third places and have been observed in online communities.

These spaces and communities are called virtual as they appear to be no longer tied to a particular place or time

“A virtual community is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face-to-face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer networks. In cyberspace, we chat and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, perform acts of commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk. We do everything people get together, but we do it with words on computer screens, leaving our bodies behind. Millions of us have already built communities where our identities commingle and interact electronically, independent of local time or location. The way a few of us live now might be the way a large population will live, decades hence”. (Howard Rheingold.1993)

LikewiseThe Internet has been identified as an information agora (Branscomb, 1994). The role of Internet as a public space for citizens is being shaped by two seemingly contradictory characteristics: Internet is both universal and personal. Cyberspace, unlike the traditional media types and public spaces in the physical world, enables the citizenry to find new ways to interact economically, politically, and socially. The public space, the private sector space, and the personal spaces now merge seamlessly.

As a result people now think about places online as well as places on land; that cyberspace is as real as physical space; that networked computing means we have moved beyond the single chatroom and into the interconnected “place-web”.This descriptive practice is easily adopted because of the similarities in descriptive characteristics found between the virtual and physical worlds. The characteristics observed in these communities vary from their physical application but meet the context of personalization, permeability, approachability, and comfortability and provides a holistic platform that also encompasses the essentials of a first space as well as a second space.

8

3.2 PHYSICAL SPACE VS CYBERSPACE (PHYSCIAL VS VIRTUAL) 3.2.1 WHAT IS CYBERSPACE? Due to recent developments at the area of communication and information technologies new possibilities are arising for production of space. Cyberspace is the key term argued currently regarding the production of the new space.

The word "cyberspace" (from cybernetics and space) was coined by a science fiction cyber punk novelist, William Gibson, in his 1984 book Neuromancer. Cyberspace started to become a synonym for the Internet, and later the World Wide Web, during the 1990s.While cyberspace should not be confused with the real Internet, the term is often used to refer to objects and identities that exist largely within the communication network itself, so that a web site, for example, might be metaphorically said to "exist in cyberspace." According to this interpretation, events taking place on the Internet are not therefore happening in the countries where the participants or the servers are physically located, but "in cyberspace In the simplest understanding Cyberspace is the "place" where a telephone conversation appears to occur. Not inside your actual phone, the plastic device on your desk. Not inside the other person's phone, in some other city. The place between the phones.(Sterling, 1992) This new realm providing “space” for real communication in virtual space, includes many new tools for the possibility of “new space” experience.

3.2.2 CYBERSPACE AS A PLACE What happens at cyberspace? How do we dwell in cyberspace? Is cyberspace just a virtual realm or does it give possibilities for production of new “places”?

The virtual realm that cyberspace provides us has the possibility turning in to an actual place within in the notion of aesthetic experience. As one starts to experience the cyberspace (this experience might be as simple as talking on the phone, or reading news on the World Wide Web) the production of relationship with the subject defines the high potential of a space turning in to a place.

Your personal homepage on the internet your Facebook profile page, or the virtual realm you have created at second life (www.secondlife.com) has the potential to turn in to a place where you feel inside. In some games you can have an experience of cyberspace through the avatar (the virtual representer of the body) that starts to feel very real. This is your place in Cyberspace.

3.2.3 STATISTICS 75 % of world population has Mobile Phones

9

World Bank has announced that three quarters of the world’s population or 75 percent inhabitants on the earth have access to mobile phones, or out of the 7 billion population in this world, 5.25 billion people use mobile phone for communication and other needs.

Developing world has more mobile phone users than the developed world, the report said.

The number of subscriptions, World Bank noted, had increased by 5 billion over the last 12 years since 2000 when we had fewer than 1 billion mobile subscriptions. It also said that in 2011 alone, around 30 billion applications were downloaded worldwide.

3.1.1 GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHICS

DIGITAL LANDSCAPE OF PAKISTAN

10

The below infographic outlines the digital landscape in Pakistan – consolidating several studies that have recently been published in the market – including the Economic Survey for 2012-13 by the government of Pakistan; on which 2013-14 budget of the country is based

Figure 3

11

3.3THE EMERGENCE OF DIGITAL URBANISM Digital urbanism is an emergent understanding of city life shaped by the influx and pervasiveness of digital technologies including wireless broadband, GPS, Internet-connected sensors and devices, and an array of applications that change how we interface with the city and interact with each other.1 Digital Urbanism is also a term that architectural theorists use. While architects focus on the form of the city as a digital space, digital urbanism also sometimes refers to the people that inhabit the city and are experiencing the shift where everyday urban life is increasingly mediated by digital tools.

Wireless communications have become embedded in our environment and spawned a new kind of a city, a digital urbanism. Urban life is now significantly shaped by our use of smartphones, embedded sensors, and smart systems that guide our decisions and offer new types of experiences.

But these devices have done more than enable new ways of communicating, they have changed the way we behave and use public spaces and thus the way our public realm is designed?

INTERNET AS A NEW AESTHETIC ORDER (AND A SYSTEM) 3.4 REDEFINEDPUBLIC SPACE UNDER THE INFLUENCEOF CYBERSPACE AND MEDIA TECHNOLOGY Interrelations between communication media & other aspects of social and cultural life.

How technology is fusing into everyday life . . . . . How its Shaping cities and our lives Sherry Turkle, the director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, in her new book, Alone Together writes that “A ‘place’ used to comprise a physical space and the people within it,” and “What is a place if those who are physically present have their attention on the absent?”

“Within a short time mobile communication technologies have transformed the nature of city street life due to private electronic interchanges…Mobile and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are key interfaces through which many urban residents shape and experience city life…Saturation of the city with mobile phones and other personal mobile ICT technologies heralds a reconstruction of the way city spaces are used, appropriated and mediated. This changes public choreography of physical movement in the city”2

1http://www.urbandigital.ca/digital-urbanism/ 2Graham, S. (2004) Cybercities Reader. UK: Routledge.

12

In the digital age, the discussion about the public sphere has at the same time become increasingly relevant and increasingly problematic. The public sphere is subject to dramatic change; one might even argue that it is on the verge of extinction. Computer–mediated communication has taken the place of coffeehouse discourse.

At the same time, media culture and new technologies are vitally transforming every aspect of social life. Kellner argues that new technologies are creating a new public sphere, a new realm of cyberdemocracy3, and are thus challenging public intellectuals to gain technoliteracy and to make use of the new technologies for promoting progressive causes and social transformation.

As a result, The public sphere has changed in the following ways: 

In an electronic public space, the connection of individuals transcends physicality of the environment, thus exists a relationship between public space and mediated communication and on the impact of mediated communication upon the function and design of experiencing physical public spaces.



Communication technologies are redefining the human-environment relationship. Through the use of communication technology, individuals insulate and isolate themselves by controlling connection and exposure



New communications technologies are being used in ways that extend democratic communication practices. As networks become structurally decentralized, ever wider publics gain access to them in ways that lead to an increase in the rate and density of public exchange.



The conventional notion of a single, unified public sphere is is transforming into a more segmented, pluralist model: Something like a "complex mosaic of differently sized overlapping and interconnected sub spheres"4. The distinction between public and private spheres is blurring.



Human beings have always constructed their own sense of space as they enter a public place.

They have long erected ‘media walls’5. A newspaper, magazine or book raises a barrier separating the reader from place and signals a withdrawal from potential face-to-face interaction. Mobile telephony, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) and Wi-Fi Internet access are creating new media walls that allow people to be mobile and private at the same time.

These walls not only privatizes public space but its use has begun to alter the acoustical expectations and discourage potential interaction in public space.

3http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1280/1200 4John Keane, 1995. "Structural transformations of the public sphere," Communications Review, volume 1, number 1, pp. 1– 22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10714429509388247 5http://www.openspace.eca.ac.uk/conference/proceedings/PDF/Gumpert.pdf

13



A paradox of psychological disconnection is prompted by media connection. The ‘wired’ individual entering public space is physically located in immediate surroundings and simultaneously disconnected from that physical environment.



It is paradoxical that in the very moment when everyone can potentially reach every different place or being, in contact with numerous cultural realities, cities instead deny their original attitude and become places of avoidance.

3.4.1 PLACELESSNESS AND CYBERSPACE Although cyberspace provides many possibilities of authentic experience of space and a new place for our existential beings, the current conditions of cyberspace and methods of interacting with cyberspace might cause one to fall in to a deep Existential Outsideness (Relph, 1976, See Table 1) leading to placelessness.

One of the initial problematic of the current situation is the dualistic world we have. Cyberspace vs. Physical Space. The more someone experiences the cyberspace the less he or she interacts with the physical space. The more one feels inside the cyberspace the more he becomes outside the physical space.

ORGANIC VS VIRTUAL Of great importance today is the question whether computer virtual communities can compensate for “lost community”. Can mediated communication fulfil the same needs as face-to-face –communication?

Since the invention of writing, many virtual worlds have been created through the use of print, telegraph, telephone, photograph, film, radio and television. In network society organic communities still form a large part of social life, particularly in the countryside of urbanized developed countries, and in less developed countries generally.

A comparison of virtual with organic communities shows that they have common features, and that human elements such as moderation, leadership and structure are necessary in all communities.

Virtual communities will not be able to entirely replace organic communities, but if integrated and harnessed properly may be able to strengthen them.

14

TYPE OF COMMUNITY CHARACTERISTIC

ORGANIC

VIRTUAL

COMPOSTION

tight group (AGE)

Loose affiliation

& ACTIVITY

Several activities

Special activities

SOCIAL

tied to place

not tied to place

ORGANIZATION

and time

and time

LANGUAGE

verbal and

verbal and

& INTERACTION

Non verbal

paraininguage

CULTURE

Total singular

Partial plural

& IDENTITY

Homogeneous

Heterogeneous

3.5 CYBERSPACE AS AN AESTHETIC PHENOMENON - CAN CYBER SPACE PROVIDE A NEW SENSE OF PLACE? How does the physical space and cyberspace come together and within which possibilities they can co-exist.

In another way, can the pattern of relationship of these two spaces (physical space and cyberspace) extract a new understanding of space? And in the context of this new understanding of space, can we develop a new point of view for the architectural design problematic.

Many contemporary artists have made attempts to reflect this new sense of networked media and space, such as in the work of the architects David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang (practicing as The Living) and Eric Hรถweler and J. Meejin Yoon and well as Usman Haque.

Aesthetically, their work is most easily characterized by its illuminated surfaces and blinking lights. But conceptually, all three are making efforts to create architecture that engages the invisible networks 15

surrounding us, whether with a building skin that changes in response to air quality, or park benches that use RFID tags to interact with passersby and each other.

3.5.1 PRECEDANT STUDY – USMAN HAQUE USMAN HAQUE – CLOUD PROJECT (SKY EAR)

Figure 4

‘Usman Haque makes its voice resounding and makes use of his art showing what is invisible but still exists, reminding us that despite the estrangement caused the urban realities, the presence of each of us is influencing that of our neighbours and this reciprocal invasion of spaces can be turned into a point of strength.’6 Everything began when, still very young, Usman started by observing the way of living the space of his Asian family and the way that social relationships were intertwined with the space.. While getting older and studying he entered the communication society and, as everybody did sooner or later, he found himself engaged witH his cell-phone in a dowsing chase to the signal.

The key concept is interactivity exactly as in the IT systems , allowing people to become interpreters and designers of their own space, Here it is where the concept of ephemeral gets a positive and realistic connotation: architecture is not in fact something immobile and unmodifiable but something that can be adapted to the ones who live it, to the uses they make of it, and to the dynamics originated from it which are ever changing by definition.

"Why is there no art in space, why do we have no exhibitions in the sky? Up to now we have left it up to war to light up the sky..." - Otto Piene Usman Haque appears to be seeking an answer to this by temporarily occupying the sky with an installation based on the reception and the transformation of electromagnetic waves into light signals.

6Sansone,

Barbara. "The SoftspaceOf Usman Haque. Choreographies Of Sensations - Digicult | Digital Art, Design and Culture." Digicult. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2014.

16

The artist has set out to make explicit our interactions with this normally invisible territory by offering an event that allows a wide public to not only see and hear electromagnetic waves, but to actually interact with them. According to Haque, very few works using hertzian space as a concept in the social arena have actually seen the light of day.

Sky Ear is a one-night event in which a glowing "cloud" of mobile phones and helium balloons is released into the air so that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of the sky.

The cloud consists of 1000 extra-large helium balloons that each contain 6 ultra-bright LEDs (which mix to make millions of colours). The balloons can communicate with each other via infra-red; this allows them to send signals to create larger patterns across the entire Sky Ear cloud as they respond to the electromagnetic environment (created by distant storms, mobile phones, police and ambulance radios, television broadcasts, etc.)7.

7Haque,

Usman. "Sky Ear." Sky Ear. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2014 17

3.6ADVANTAGES AND FLAWS OF CYBERSPACE 3.6.1 INTERNET – A SHALLOW SUBSTITUTE? Do the new media like the Internet, then, merely offer a shallow substitute for "authentic" discourse, or do they contribute a new quality to the public sphere? Can virtual communities contribute to the revival of the public debate, theöffentlicheAuseinandersetzung— or are they merely distracting simulations?

The complexity and the flexibility in web-based communal interaction are endless; both oneway and two way but still mediated.

Habermas said the “use of the Internet has both broadened and fragmented the contexts of communication. This is why the internet can have a subversive effect on intellectual life in authoritarian regimes. But at the same time, the less formal, horizontal cross-linking of communication channels weakens the achievements of traditional media.”

Fernback and Thompson’s critique (1995) of the democratic potential of virtual communities interrogates the claim that online communications can actually strengthen civil society: "It seems most likely that the virtual public sphere brought about by [computer–mediated communication] will serve a cathartic role, allowing the public to feel involved rather than to advance actual participation."

Having said that, our contemporary society has been subjected to commercial imperatives of advertising, entertainment and mass media; our social relations are devoid of ‘interactive practice’ which was considered to be at the core of the public sphere. Physical spaces like coffeehouses, dhabas (local form of a tavern), parks, union hall.

3.6.2 ISSUES WITH VIRTUAL PUBLIC SPACE Although computer–mediated communication offers some advantages over face–to–face communication but the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Indeed, most of the ‘advantages’ could be construed as a disadvantage. Scholar mark Poster argues that since internet users can appear with abstract identities and the root of the public sphere is comprised of the identity, the internet cannot completely replace the physical public sphere.In chatting the social identification of users is dependent upon the avatar, not the actual person revealing identity through voice.

Where asRheingold (1998)8 believes that Electronic media do offer a unique channel for publishing and communicating, which is fundamental to democracy. Communication media while are necessary but not sufficient for self–governance and healthy societies.

8Howard Rheingold, 1994. The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. New York: HarperPerennial.

18

3.6.3WEAKENING OF SOCIAL FABRIC “It is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome,” Poet and playwright TS Eliot talking about the Television.

Sociologists Miller McPherson and Matthew Brashearsargue that the type of social ties supported by the new technologies like the internet and the mobile phone are relatively weak and geographically dispersed.

They depicted the rise of internet and mobile phones as one of the major trends that pulls people away from traditional social settings, neighborhoods, voluntary associations, and public spaces that have been associated with large and diverse core networks.

“We are lonely but fearful of intimacy” Digital connections offer the illusion of companionshipwithout the demands of friendship. We expect more from technology and less from each other”.

While one might feel being connected effectively with others via the Internet, but too much electronic-relatingparadoxically engenders a sense of socialisolation and pushing people further apart. If the quantity of friends online becomesmore important than the quality of the relationships, social ties are often weakened as a result.

Another sociological research indicates that most humans are just incapable of intimatelyknowing more than 150 people.9And so although our personal tribe of friend may be spread across the globe, “howcan we possibly feel a strong sense of community with all the millions of us on this earth?”10– As the social fabric in the modern world weakens, it is not surprising that more and more people define themselves as lonely. And thus, loneliness has become the most common aliment of the modern world.One of the possible reasons for this aliment is the online social network. People become addicted to virtual romance disguised by the socialnetwork, which which allows us to manage our social life mosteffectively. By doing so, we are sacrificing conversation for mere connection.And so a paradoxical situation is created, in which we claim to have many friends while actually being lonely.

9

REFERENCE TO BE ADDED Marshal Mcluhan

10

19

In the physical world a conversation takes place in real time and you can’t control what you’re going to say. While on the contrary texting, email, posting, all of these things let us presentthe self as we want it to be. We get to edit and that means, we get to delete. Instead of building true friendships, we’re obsessed with endless personal promotion, investing hours on then building our profile, pursuing the optimal order of words in our next message, choosing the pictures in which we look our best. All of which is meant to serve a desirable image of who we are.

And we inhibit real human connection when we prioritize our phones over the people right in front of us.

We are expecting more from technology and less from each other.

It’s shaping a new way of being. The best way to describe it is, “I share. Therefore I am”.

20

CAN FACEBOOK MAKE YOU SAD? – THE FRIENDSHIP PARADOX Facebook statistics are astounding. In just one decade, it has signed up some 1.3 billion people, half of whom log in on any given day and spend an average of 18 minutes per visit.

And yet Facebook’s effects on its users may not be entirely benign. Some researchers suggest that the ability to connect does not necessarily make people any happier, and it could in fact reduce the satisfaction they feel about their life.

When the diversity of people’s full social network was measured, we found the expected: that participation in traditional social milieus, such as neighborhoods, voluntary groups, and public spaces, accounts for much of the diversity in people’s social networks.

STATISTICS – survey report (see appendix B for details) The role of the internet and mobile phone in people’s core social networks and alienation. (under work)

In 2009, Sebastian Valenzuela and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin measured how life satisfaction varied among over 2,500 students who used Facebook. The team found that

the more people used Facebook over two-weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection.

However, the kind of contact Facebook

provides does not make people feel better over time, in fact, The opposite was true of face-to-face contact.

Rather than enhancing well-being, however, many studies suggest that Facebook may undermine it.

Since then, other researchers have discovered that this “friendship paradox” is a general feature of social networks and applies to other properties too. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140206-isfacebook-bad-for-you

21

3.6.4 WHAT SOME INTERNET USERS HAVE TO SAY With the interaction in the virtual realm most people argue that the internet cannot qualify as successor to the physical public sphere even though it has the ability to host conversations with multitudes of participants at a time. Face to face interaction still is paramount especially when consensus depends on the interpersonal trust “I agree with several readers here in that none of the social networking sites feel like a third place to me. For me a "third place" has to be somewhere that is both accessible and where I create friends. A third place should enable me to get to know someone on a "personal" basis. By that I mean each individual in that third place comes to take on a certain personality. That is hard to do when you have tiny fragments of comments spread out over months.”

Tayyaba Anwar, 23. Student of Architecture in NUST “Online and social environments are an interesting avenue for the online third place. I spend a lot of time blogging, reading blogs, newsgroup posts, and research... and while I don't think I can accustom it exactly to Cheers, it's amazing how... engrossed you get. We blog about everything --from our office achievements and challenges to the birth of our children and their celebrations. Our community, if nothing else, lives vicariously through each other. Is that even healthy? Maybe, maybe not... but it seems to be our current culture.”

Naba Omer, 27. Bachelors in Accounting I am worried about my son who has lost complete interest in any physical activity and is just addicted to computer games.

He has no real friends.

Mr Usman Ghani( A concerned father ) After all these years of wandering in the cyber world, I am getting bored but feels chained and entangled. Some body to help me get out of it.

Mr Naveed Minhas, IT specialist, Air Weapon complex

22

3.7 CONCLUSIONS KEY POINTS 

With the advent of online technologies third places or public spaces are shifting to the virtual world which are observed in online communities.



Computer–mediated communication has taken the place of coffeehouse discourse.



Email, PDAs, iPhones, laptops, and cell phones dominate our modern world. Our uberconnected lives have made us virtually available at any time, at any place. Media culture and new technologies are vitally transforming every aspect of social life



Within the span of a decade, the impact of media in our experience of space has entirely transformed. At the urban scale, the flaneur’s sacred act of walking down the street is gone—or at least half gone, as one ear and one eye (and one brain?) becomes snagged in the device.



Public interaction is being transformed into ‘disembodied private space’ by mobile technologies.The mobile phone not only privatises public space but its use has begun to alter the acoustical expectations.



In trying to connect effectively via the Internet, too much electronic-relating paradoxically engenders a sense of social isolation and pushes us further apart.



The more someone experiences the cyberspace the less he or she interacts with the physical space. The more one feels inside the cyberspace the more he becomes outside the physical space.



Private connection and public life illustrate the difficulty in fixing boundaries of publicness and privateness.

Communication media while are necessary but not entirely sufficient for sustaining healthy societies.By the advent of the internet and the rise of the digital public sphere it is imperative to realize the significance of face-face interaction to sustain the ‘imagined’ personalities of the cyber space.It is possible to understand face to face contact as an instrument to build positive effects of cosmopolitanism and diversity through the combination and encounter of individual resources and cultures. It possesses important characteristics such as rapid feedback, visual and body language cues, instantaneity, and simultaneity that define a multidimensional communication able to convey complex messages and unspoken knowledge. There is, thus, a dire need of creating spaces in the cities for providinghealthy physical interaction and exposure to largely forgotten and neglected aspects of human relationships in day to day life.

23

Research aspect 3 – NEW DOMAIN The innumerable transformations that have affected the urban environment for some decades are now leading to an apparently chaotic situation that seems to have changed several certainties. This global phenomenon also affects the perception that people have about cities and, consequently, the way they live in cities and those places that represent the very essence of the urban environment, which is to say the public space.

Starting from this observation, an interesting field of research is opened, exploring and investigating the new potential possibilities for the recognition and the generation of the public domain in the contemporary network city. Particularly relevant in this field is the capability to understand which characteristics of the physical urban environment allow and encourage the presence and even the emergence of a proper public domain and where, in the contemporary city, it is possible to find spaces that present those characteristics.

In order to pursue this scope, it is relevant to underline the importance of the physical dimension in the process of social interaction, this later recognized than become a very specific feature of the urban environment proposed.

4.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTACT – VALUING THE PHYSICAL DIMENTION [...] ‘Being close enough literally to each other allows visual contact and emotional closeness, the bases for building human relationships' (Storper&Venables, 2004) Jane Jacobs linked the decline of the city and the collapse of the public sphere, arguing that our sense of civitas and our zeal with urbanity depend ultimately on the built infrastructure that allows frequent, face to face interaction within the society. It is without a doubt that online mobilization has its own advantages that is impossible to replicate offline but having said that face to face gathering are imperative to sustain viable political movements over time. (should go here or the other place? ) In “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” Heidegger associates “Being” with dwelling (Heidegger, 1971).

He discusses the notion of dwelling and contends that “only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build (Bauen)”.Bauen, says Heidegger, relates to nearness and neighborliness and to dwell i.e staying in a place.(Seamon, 2000). Furthermore Heidegger discusses the –fourfold- and turning a location in to a place with the example of bridge. He argues the bridge as a being. A bridge is a thing turning a specific point of space to a ‘location’ and this location turns to be a site. The bridge is an outcome of human dwelling and dwelling is the way of our –being in the world- ,it’s a pure ontological issue. Heidegger tells that the bridge enables the space to gather the fourfold, the mortals, the earth, the sky and the divinities, it makes the space possible for the fourfold. As a result bridge is a “thing” giving space to fourfold. It turns a location in to a place, it is a product of our dwelling, our –being-in-the-world-. Here we might say 24

that we turn a geographic location in to a place by the means of dwelling and this is the way of our – being in the world-.

Edward Relphargued “place” as a fundamental aspect of peoples' existence in the world. He says “places are fusions of human and natural order and are the significant centers of our immediate experiences of the world" (Relph, 1970) Relphattempted to unravel and describe the essential experiential nature of place. Why and how, in other words, are places meaningful for people?(Seamon, 1996)

4.2 RETHINKING THE PUBLIC PARADIGM - A NEW PUBLIC DOMIAN (A NEW THIRD SPACE TYPOLOGY) FUTURE OF A PUBLIC SPACE IN A NETWORKING SOCIETY. How can architecture promote social interaction? How can it become a platform for communal gatherings in today’s networking society? How can a designed environment alter the way people communicate with one another?

Public spaces are being changed by communication technology creating new spaces. Thus making it possible to begin manipulating them and creating more possibilities for third space.

From a design perspective, there is a degree of tension that exists between the interactional potential of public (physical) space and that of an imposed sense of space. We could argue that the mobile telephone, for example, increases the number of people who psychologically can inhabit a space, but also decreases the number of people who can effectively communicate in that same space without creating noise.

Contemporary perception of public space has now branched and grown into a multitude of non-traditional sites with a variety of programs in mind.

According to architect and urban designer Jan Gehl, "living spaces" in the urban environment are not spaces with dynamic architectural effects or bright colours and lights. Opportunities for meaningful social interaction are key to creating meaningful spaces. This is also the case in virtual reality; social networking sites have no social value without human activity.

Figure 5

William Mitchells’ “The City of Bits Hypotheses” suggests a new urban typology with 25

traditional place-based communities made up of physical spaces and organized around traditional public spaces at one end of the spectrum. At the other end of the spectrum are virtual communities composed of widely and randomly scattered disconnected physical places together with many virtual places including virtual public places (Graham:127-8). In between are numerous possible hybrids, in which both physical and virtual places play significant roles The hybrid public spheres become meeting places for online and offline interaction and become more relevant to the new post modern condition of cities. These hybrids will form a new typology of public spaces relevant to site and all of its constituents (people, architectural infrastructure, environment, mobile and static elements from the surroundings)

4.3 CHARECTERISTICS OF A TRUE THIRD SPACE How to define ‘third space’ or the ‘shared space’ is very important. Traditionally it has been done only in terms of ownership and accessibility. Later on in the early 90s Ray Oldenberg put forward the following parameters to define what he thought to be a true third space to “host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.”

26

Oldenburg suggests the following hallmarks of a true "third place":11

Third places must be open and readily accessible to those who occupy them. They must also be accommodating.

Occupants of Third Places will often have the same feelings of warmth, possession, and belonging as they would in their own homes.

Playful and happy conversation is the main focus of activity in Third Places, although it is not required to be the only activity.

The inside of a Third Place is without extravagance or grandiosity, and has a homely feel. Third Places are never snobby or pretentious, and are accepting of all types of individuals, from several different walks of life.

11Oldenburg, R. (1999) The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and

27

Someone's economic or social status do not matter in a Third Place, allowing for a sense of commonality among its occupants. There are no prerequisites or requirements that would prevent acceptance or participation in the Third Place.

Occupants of Third Places have little to no obligation to be there. They are free to come and go as they please.

Third Places harbor a number of regulars that help give the space its tone/mood and characteristics of the area. Regulars to Third Places also attract newcomers, and are there to help someone new to the space feel welcome and accommodated.

The tone of conversation in Third Places are never marked with tension or hostility. Instead, they have a playful nature, where witty conversation and frivolous banter are not only common, but highly valued.

28

4.4 NEW DEFINITION OF A PUBLIC DOMAIN However, in this postmodern, rather pro literate networking society, the characteristics identified by Oldenberg lack some essentials traits demanded by this new media generation. For me, this forms as one of the major reasons of the decline of conventional public space. Therefore the present situation of the state of the urban public domain in the contemporary city can no longer really be considered as public space.

The challenge of the research now lies towards identifying new parameters and characteristics that can recognize new places belonging to the public realm. This would require redesigning the ‘third place’ paradigm and defining additional specific characteristics that are identifiable in the physical urban context, which will allow and encourage the spontaneous emergence of a real public domain and provide a platform for free expression, entertainment, and interaction.

The term ‘thirdplaceness’ can be used in conceptualizing the proposed third space, which accounts for physical and electronic elements but is distinctive and greater than the simple sum of its parts. An effectively designed ‘tetra domain’ (ie a new third space) would provide complementary physical environments.This new definition is then expected to lead to the constitution of the new urban society.

29

4.5 USING TECHNOLOGY AND INSTALLATIONS AS A SOCIAL CATALYST With modern lifestyle leading people’s socialization to deteriorate, technology can be used to support the creation of a third place sense, that I am calling ‘thirdplaceness’ evolving the critical role third places have in society. Thirdplaceness is independent of architectural constraints and provides communities the feeling of a neutral ground for gathering and self expression. With time, that would lead people to create bonds.

Third places can have an emergent nature and can happen in spontaneous, sporadic and even nomadic way in unexpected places, e.g., in a sidewalk [5][11]. by promoting technology-supported relationships, public displays can enrich the nature of existing spaces by enhancing place attachment and strengthening the sense of community through face-to-face human interaction and encouraging collaboration among community members Art is based in creating a relationship between spectators, and Before I die I want to… sing for where spectators participate in the artwork. Interactive public art millions, plant a tree, hold her one more time,straddle the installations such as “Before I Die” as seen in figure 1, created by International Date Line, see my Candy Chang [6] in an abandoned New Orleans house where a daughter graduate, eat more person could pick up a chalk and complete the sentence “Before I everything, abandon all insecurities, be completely myself… die I want to...” in the wall, can give people a space and a chance to express their individuality, thoughts and aspirations with their community promoting social interaction and a feeling of interconnectedness through art. Thus Thirdplaceness occurs in an abandoned social space supported by technology.

When Candy Chang first installed “Before I Die”, she had no idea that the project would become a global phenomenon. Over the last two and a half years, people have taken it upon themselves to create “Before I Die” walls in 62 countries around the world, in 26 languages. 12

12

Karen Eng, 2013, Ted Blog “My favourite 10 “Before I Die” responses” http://blog.ted.com/2013/11/05/my-10-favoritebefore-i-die-responses/ , accessed 7 november 2014

30

Connecting The virtual And the Physical "For as the new technologies become ever more central to every domain of everyday life, developing a progressive technopolitics in the new public spheres will become more and more important." 13 The new technologies and developments provides us possibilities to develop symbiotic places of cyber and physical space.

KishoKurokawa in his book Philosophy of Symbiosis discusses the problematics of the 21th century. One of the key principles Kurokawa was mentioning was the need to shift of paradigms from Dualism to Pluralism. The question is: How can these two worlds –the cyberspace and physical space shift from dualism to pluralism and get into a symbiotic relationship?

Overlapping the two spaces might be answer. We experience the world through our bodies.

Here body is not used only for the physical part of our beings. With a holistic point of view the “body” here includes both our minds and physical presence as philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argues in his book “Phenomenology of Perception”( Merleau-Ponty,1962). Merleau-Ponty discusses the concept of the body-subject as an alternative to the Cartesian "cogito". This distinction is especially important in that Merleau-Ponty perceives the essences of the world existentially, as opposed to the Cartesian idea that the world is merely an extension of our own minds. Consciousness, the world, and the human body asaperceiving thing are intricately intertwined and mutually 'engaged'. The phenomenal thing is not the unchanging object of the natural sciences, but a correlate of our body and its sensory functions.

In this point of view it can be told that cyberspace and physical space could be overlapped if only cyberspace could be experienced existentially through our bodies. With currently used technologies we usually experience the cyberspace through our computers and its surroundings like mouse, keyboard, and the screen. With this limited interface one can not experience the cyberspace as a whole as he experiences the physical space. Due to recent development of new technologies and increasing mobility with everyday growing wireless networks new possibilities arise to develop new 13 Douglas Kellner, 1997. "Intellectuals, the new public spheres, and techno–politics," athttp://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/newDK/intell.htm, accessed 8 July 2014.

31

methods of interaction with cyberspace. Some cybernetic upgrades for human body or new cyberspace interfaces developed allowing body interaction and various examples as 3d holograms that can be interacted through our bodies would develop new possibilities of space experience.

“The presence of ‘the Net’—by which I loosely mean all two-way, personal media—has become as much a factor in our experience of space as the play of light and shadow on a wall, or the cultural accretions that dignify local architecture styles.”14 When speaking of architecture of the next millennium one must consider two conditions: the physical space of architecture as we have always known it (enclosure, form and permanence) will without doubt persevere: and that it will exist alongside the virtual architecture, surfacing in the digital domain of the internet. This new architecture of liquidity, flux and mutability is predicted on technological advances and fueled by a basic human desire to probe the unknown. The path that both architectures, real and virtual, inevitably take will be of convergence.

4.5.1 EYE ON TECHNOLOGY AND NEWER CONCEPTS (NEW TECHNOLOGY AND VARIOUS WAYS TO INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGY) VIRTUAL REALITY Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computersimulated environment, be it a real or imagined one. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced, haptic systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback, in medical and gaming applications. Users can interact with a virtual environment or a virtual artifact (VA) either through the use of standard input devices such as keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, the Polhemus boom arm, and omni-directional treadmill. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world, for example, simulations for pilot or combat training, or it can differ significantly from reality, as in VR games.

INTERACTIVE ARCHITECTURE In the next few years, emerging practices in interactive architecture are set to transform the built environment. “Smart” design was once regarded as the preserve of museum exhibits or advertising screens, but ‘multi-mediated’ interactive design has started entering into every domain of public and private life as a spatial medium, interactive architecture is revolutionizing and reinventing our work, leisure and domestic spaces.

Fast-changing social contexts are dominated by the blurring of boundaries between work and play, information retrieval and use. Pliable and responsive digital environments raise the haptic and intuitive threshold of public and private space by harnessing physical and mental responses.

Interactive architecture is set to embrace a wider scope of functions and experiences- from 14Blum, Andrew. "Here but Not Here."

Metropolis Magazine. N.p., 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 5 May 2014.

32

sensing mechanisms, to the info-lounge, to the ambient home environment and the holistic hospital through customizable design possibilities.

INTERACTIVE DESIGN ENVIRONMENT A new breed of public interactive installations is taking root that overturns the traditional approach to artistic experience. Architects, artists and designers are now creating real-time interactive projects at very different scales and in many different guises. Some dominate public squares or transform a building’s facad-others are more intimate, like wearable computing. All, though, share in common the ability to draw in users to become active participants and cocreators of content, so that the audience becomes part of the project.

The FogScreen™ projection screen, produces a thin curtain of “dry” fog that serves as a translucent projection screen, displaying images that literally float in the air. You can walk right through a FogScreen projection screen without getting wet. And yet with the interactive fog screen one can interact with the image flying through the fog. It might be a computer game, an interactive map or a hi-fi system in a living room, an information wall at a metro station and anything only limited with the imagination..

LIGHT ARCHITECTURE Light Architecture is an attempt to join two apparently irreconcilable worlds: the virtual and the real. The goal is the creation of a new branch of architecture in constant communication with the Global Village integrating the real and the virtual within a public communications strategy through the use of innovative technologies that expand the space in which images and ideas are presented. This architecture of vision evolves from both the special effects techniques deriving from cinema and from the principles of digital interactivity, resulting in projects that are highly spectacular and are the very foundation of Light Architecture: close interaction with the user.

Light architecture proposes a blending of the imaginary space, made of images and ideas and the solid reality of a world that wonders about its future, while maintaining a cohesive perception of reality within multidimensional spaces. Light Architecture is weightless architectural design.

MEDIA- BUILDING The media-building is a comprehensive and actual implementation of light architecture applied to a single building produces the fusion between the real and virtual in a way in which the spectacular streams of people and information blend onto a single glass medium. The mediabuilding allows people to interact on the visual level, appropriating freely, and at no cost, of public spaces.

The media-building, through the used of interactive media walls, is a new architecture structure in which the function of information prevails over that of living.

33

4.5.2 SOCIAL INTERACTION ISTALLATION IN PUBLIC SPACES.

PRECEDANT STUDY - DESIGN FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION IN A PUBLIC SPACE It is no longer about carving stones and casting bronze; it is time to sculpture the interactive experience with the public participation By incorporating installations our common realm becomes an urban playground that provides a dynamic environment in which people have the opportunity to engage and observe. Where public space asks its audience to re-imagine, re-experience, re-view and re-live.

On a similar lines Interactive spaces or mediums are often incorporated with exhibition spaces to increase the interest of a visitor, nowadays usually done with the help of electronic media, making use of audio and visual techniques building ambiences and creating visual unrest of a sort to catch or direct interest. It requires the artists and designers to construct their work from a system view and with a good understanding of human-system interaction In the same time face-to-face communication is better than virtual spaces communication (Mary Liebert, 2002).

(However I feel if such virtual spaces communication can engage and bring together multiple people ,previously unknown to each other, it is nearly synonymous to face to face communication)

4.6.2.1. Marketing ideas to engage customer There are many examples connecting between virtual and physical space, for different reason.

For example, McDonalds advertisement called “Pick n’ Play” in Sweden, at plaza in Stockholm there is an interactive billboard shows a multi-user pong video game. The game allows two people to interact with, using their mobile phones. It select players by random, where the game is competition for 30-sec, then the winner get a product from McDonalds as a prize. The advertisement takes attention of people in plaza, and leads them to McDonalds branch (Brain Osbrone,2011). In this experiment McDonalds connect between virtual (the game) and physical (McDonalds branch).

34

Another example is the very famous Apple app, video game ‘Angry birds’. In Barcelona, ‘T-mobile’ company implement a physical version of ‘Angry birds’ using mobile phone as control, thought it happen in front of public in life –size version. People like the connection between what they used in to do in virtual space and experiment it in real life. AytenPekermen the head of international marketing communication at T-Mobile said Angry bird is a game everybody knew, the idea of this advertisement is ‘Mobile for everybody’ as company strategy.

4.6.3 SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS AND INCLUSION

BY DIGITAL AUGMENTATION IN PUBLIC SPACES

a)

Moon rising from sea

This installation is designed for the city of Taicang, China. The installation is roughly 10 by 10 meters on its base and 8 meters high. On top of the base are constructions that give the impressions of a large sail, and the moon rising from the waves. On the surface of the sail are reliefs to Taicang’s sea culture.

Images, animations and videos can be projected onto the inner surface of sail in the evenings (Fig.1).

One of the concepts to utilize this platform is to allow the public to contribute their photos from social media, for an interactive photo show, to induce the feeling of social connectedness [5,7], and to reinstate the historical values of Taicang as port to the world.

35

b)

Leave your mark

With the installation “Leave your mark”, people can “draw” and leave their mark behind on the public space, to express themselves (Fig.2). The concept involves projection mapping to digitally augment buildings, A person walks by, grabs a piece of “chalk” and starts drawing or writing on it, leaving their mark. In some locations the installation will be provided with a camera. The feed of this camera will be projected onto the installation at another location. If a person possibly see someone, a the first installation. The goal is connectedness, of the citizens space they are in `[5].

c)

walks by this second location, she could complete stranger, leaving the mark on to increase feelings of inclusion and of the city to each other and to the public

CONNECT

Nowadays professional social connections are mostly maintained in the digital world using e-mail or social media. The use of these media is less personal and therefore less confrontational. CONNECT is a tool which a participant shows her attending by presenting a designed badge from an event to a wall and shares her professional connections in the digital social networks to other participants (Fig.3). By means of this information, it triggers conversations among the participants [8]. Sensors are used to detect the badges and projection mapping techniques are used to leave portraits and to create lines representing connections from social media.

d)

Strijp-T-ogether

Strip T is an old industrial area rebuilt to accommodated and foster creative industries.

However there is hardly any social interaction among people from different companies. Strijp-T-ogther is designed to stimulate the social interaction. It consists of a mobile platform and a projection in the main entrance hall (Fig.7). The photo of a space is used on 36

the mobile as the background and an addition can be made by drawing or adding other graphical object.

These additions will be projected into the space and will also be shown on the mobile of the others as background. People can then react other’s drawings and additions to trigger social interaction [12].

e) Delightia Next to providing social experience, public installations may also have a specific purpose for a target user group. Inspired by the lighting, music and reminiscence therapies, this design is to use light and sound to help the elderly to get rid of dull and passive feelings at an elderly care center (Fig.8). By interacting with the installation, the dementia elderly perceive the stimuli that resemble their memories of natural lighting and the sound of water drops with calm background sound of a brook [13].

Such design iterations explores the ways of increasing people’s feeling of inclusion and connectedness in a public space using interactive public art installations as media.

4.7 CONCLUSIONS Virtual communities will not be able to entirely replace organic communities, but if integrated and harnessed properly may be able to strengthen them.

It is possible to understand face to face contact as an instrument to achieve a constructive dialectic inside society and to build positive effects of cosmopolitanism and diversity through the combination and encounter of individual resources and cultures. It possesses important characteristics such as high frequency, rapid feedback, visual and body language cues, instantaneity, and simultaneity that define a multidimensional communication able to convey complex messages and tacit knowledge, fundamental for example in the creative process.

The rise of private space has been dominant but now public space may once again draw people at those spaces that are rejuvenated through substitutes of social media or even an extension of it by synergistic effect. A place that offer opportunities and ranges of diverse social interactions and most importantly a space that should also offer manifestation of itself for offering forms of expression , be it pleasure or serious reading or even expression of inner feelings.

37

DESIGN BRIEF

38

5. 1 SITE

39

5.2 ISLAMABAD – AS DESIGNED BY DOXIADIS – AN OVERVIEW Islamabad, new capital of Pakistan, was meticulously designed by Coastantinos. Doxiadis, a Greekplanner, in 1960 on the basis of his theory of dynapolis. Islamabad is a “unique” example of a large new city “planned for the future and built for the present”, respecting the long-term planning.Principals of ekistics - science of human settlement – guided himand provided him a descriptive framework for better human conditions in improved settlements.

(coined by Konstantinos ApostolosDoxiadis in 1942)

Influenced by Harrapa and Mohenjodaro.

Doxiadis uses 2 Fundamental Grids to organize the city.

1) The formal Grid of 2000 x 2000 meters dividing the whole city roughly into `84 sectors. The adoption of a pattern of principal roads placed 2,200 yards apart in bothdirections.  

forms a modulus in the town and maintains a unified scale for the whole metropolitan area facilitates the road traffic as well as the organization of the various land-use zones intocommunities of the same order.

2) The ‘Eco-Grid’ and the ‘Hybrid green’ The ‘natural’ grid created by ravines flowing through the entire site area. A strip of open space surrounds each sector to:  

He defined five ekistic elements, man, society, shells, networks, nature and their interrelationships, and sought to relate any study of human settlements to units of the ekistic logarithmic scale.



Build the city of optimum size which respects human dimensions.



The principles man takes into account when building his settlements, as well as the evolution of human settlements through history in termsof size and quality.



No point in resisting development, try to accommodate technological evolution and the needs of man within the same settlement

Allow everybody to reach strip in same amount of time.

Maintain balance between open landscape & urban dimensions.

The city is divided into eight basic zones: Administrative, diplomatic enclave, residential areas, educational sectors, industrial sectors, commercial areas, and rural and green areas.

40

HEIRARCHY OF FUNCTIONS AND SPACE “As a whole the city must have a hierarchy of spaces and volumes, and a hierarchy which corresponds to the hierarchy of functions.”

This means the larger the function the larger would be its volume and the space around it, the wider would be its connection with the rest of the city and vice versa. In each sector there is a designated space for three or four secondary schools. The same hierarchical planning exists for health, recreation, sports activities etc.

UNITY OF SCALE “The city is not a conglomeration of isolated and unrelated spaces, but one entity of interrelated spaces” Doxiadis adopted the Principal ‘unity of scale’ to achieve a cohesion between the various elements of the town. A scale measurement was determined to govern the elements composing the city, such as plots, streets, open spaces, squares, roads, etc.

5.3 ISLAMABAD TODAY Islamabad is Pakistan’s most diverse metropolis in terms of the population makeup of the city. It has the largest expatriate and foreigner population in the city mainly because of its reasonably temperate climate, its green scenery and good basic infrastructure.

All of the country’s diplomatic ties are maintained and exercised from Islamabad, as all major embassies, consulates and missions are operating from the city, as is the Foreign Office. There is a massive bureaucratic presence in the city as well, largely due to the fact that Islamabad, being the capital, is also the seat of the Government.

Administratively, the city is located within the Islamabad Capital Territory, which is federally controlled, even though historically Islamabad has been a part of the Punjab province; more specifically the Potohar Plateau Islamabad is the fastest growing city in terms of population, economy and urban development.

This is because there is an increased interest in the city from The President and The Prime Minister, as well as a renewed drive from foreign investors to invest in the city. This has caused a growth in the economy, produced employment at all levels and ensured development. Since the city has been growing into a major business and commerce centre, it has attracted a large highly skilled workforce from other major cities including Karachi, Lahore and Quetta As this trend continues, the city is shedding its reputation as a city without character, and is fast becoming truly metropolitan.

41

5.3.1 WHY ISLAMABAD? Unlike other cities that are developed over the centuries with peculiar culture and over the years developed places for interaction and entertainment, Islamabad, on the other hand was designed as a planned city to house the government officials. For decades it was termed as a city housing cold beaurocrats and restricted diplomats __ devoid of artists, storytellers, artisans and writers. It was termed a dead city with no culture.

Although Doxiadis, in his master plan, made each sector in Islamabad a self contained and self supported entity with respect to every day life with a civic center that contains shopping, business, entertainment and other activities, the markaz instead of being a center of all activities ended up fulfillings its role solely as a commercial center with basic other amenities like hospitals, mosques and business activities. CDA despite a piece of land being designated for a community center in each sector fell short on developing it. Instead it auctioned those spaces for other commercial usages.

All this has resulted in further restricting and alienating the populace of Islamabad, which continue to long for a vibrant public space that could fulfill most of their social needs under one roof in contemporary environment. The need for such public space is all the more important for a city like Islamabad which is characterized by independent large homes and luxurious inward looking lifestyle.

The problem is further compounded as the city populace is highly literate with max reliance on social media as observed in a survey (xyz) .

In general, even if we talk of any big city, it is a known fact that urban lifestyle and its raised pace of life increases the need of entertainment, the lifestyle insists on fixed patterns binding people to routines and then they long for different activities or recreations to cope with the boredom.

Aforementioned, the educated and culturally diverse class that lives in Islamabad feel the need for a public space that can quench their thirst for meaningful and joyful face to face interaction. With all this at the hind side Islamabad is considered an ideal place where an effort should be made to bring these alienated people together and share a common space.

The idea is to build a place in the sector where all these people of the adjoining areas can come together and interact and share the same space effectively and for the markaz to act like a regular center.

42

5.3.2 SITE SELECTION CRITERIA 

A site in a region where the virtual interaction is very strong and where physical neighborhood interaction is very weak.



A site that was in the original master plan made by Doxiadis, already earmarked for the development of a civic or a public space for the people of the sector.



The sites near vicinity should consist of mixed land use and diverse activities already taking place.



The site should be easily approachable and highly accessible by the people immediately around as well as the residents of the sector.



A site in a sector where the markaz fails to act as a successful center that provides meaningful opportunities for leisure and interaction.

 A site that has the potential to become the key catalyst for the regeneration of the entire sector and even adjoining areas.

5.3.4 INTRODUCING F-10SECTOR AND MARKAZ Land use map of F-10

43

5.3.5 PHYSICAL AND SPATIAL CONTEXT OF SITE LOCATION OF THE SITE The site is located in F -10 markaz. On its north east is the F-9 park. On its north west are commercial plazas hosting various banks and real estate offices and Mr Cod and other restaurants, as well as the hospital Maroof and a mosque.

On Its south west are residential houses of typically one canal and hosing upper high class and the ellites of Islamabad. Finally on its south east are Apartments (Al Mustafa towers and Ali towers). Just next to the site is a Caltex petrol station as well a site that is currently under construction. A shopping mall by the name of Emporio is expected to be built within a year.

V

44

ACCESS TO THE SITE The site is easily accessible from all nearly all directions due to the Grid Planning of the Capital. It is accessible from north eastern side via Service road E that connects Khayaban-e-Iqbal with Nazim-u-din road that divides F-9 and F-10 sectors. On the south western side runs street 54 that separates the strip of the markaz from the residential area. The site is accessed from both these roads via a territiary road on its south eastern side. The site however is nearly inaccessible from north western side due to adjacent apartment buildings.

45

5.3.6 ABOUT THE SITE 

The selected site, in the original master plan made by Doxiadis, was already earmarked for the development of a community center for the people of the sector. It is a large land-bank in public (CDA) ownership.



In future, the site area, which is a part of the F-10 markaz, will eventually become part of the proposed Blue Area commercial belt. This explains the logics why this Markaz is placed on the far side of the sector instead of being centrally located like the remaining markaz in other sectors.



F-10 sector would be considered centrally located on account of future expansion of the city.



It is observed that out of all, the F sectors in particular houses the most affluent class with very restricted social circles hence vying for more casual and free places for interaction and entertainment that allows them to break free from their typical lifestyle and self imposed taboos. Hence this project it has the potential to become the key catalyst for the regeneration of the entire sector and even adjoining areas



Site has further potential because of an upcoming apartment project in place of the Margalla towers that fell in 2009 _ earthquake as well as an upcoming multi story shopping mall ‘Emporio’ just on its side. This by default will provides an ideal target market residing in its immediate context.



Ideal location for placement of a center bringing people together as adjoining areas are very diverse in terms of program ranging from residential houses on one side, apartments on another, commercial hub on a third side and a huge park on its fourth end. So the site area is thickly populated on all sides.

46

5.3.7 SITE ANALYSIS MESO

47

5.3.8 MICRO ANALYSIS

5.4 PROGRAM 5.4.1 CONCEPT VISUALIZATION - PHOTOMONTAGE The montage I made below presents the opportunity my third space is offering for overlapping of personal, social and public spaces.

48

5.4.2program consolidation The existing social nodes (Points of interaction/recreation/civic space) were studied and 30 people of various sectors belonging to different age groups were given a questionnaire to fill (appendix A). They were asked to rate the following places at a scale of 1-10 in on of various characteristics outlined by Ray OldenBerg that help make a successful third space.

The results are tabulated below.

It can be concluded from the pictogram above that most these places don’t act as good third spaces. They may be incorporate some characteristics well but fall so low on the remaining that they don’t act as successful third space social catalysts. For eg Hotel Sarena may be accessible does provide ample room for conversation in a fairly light hearted mood setting, it does not however become a place where people meet habitually/regularly and is catering to only a very limited affording class.

49

A sample of 30 people were questioned from F-10 sector, what sorts of interactions were they part of, how many of those opportunities were available locally in the markaz, or in the houses of the sector or adjoining areas and how often did they have to travel outside the sector and to where. (Questionnaire in appendix ___) The results are represented in form of an infographic where each colour stands for a similar kind of activity eg/reading/library/book store. The lines are the various journeys that the residents of F-10 have to take in order to reach their respective destination.

The result shows the markazs inability to sustain the sector in terms of __________ and how for basic necessities the people have to travel at far ends of the city. Many activities such as academies, jamming sessions, salons, clothes exhibition are catered within some of the resident’s houses. So at a small level the sector is working well and does provide good third spaces but these activities are dispersed, small scale many people don’t know about them which is why they fail to act as community building third spaces at a sector level.

50

Programming entails provision of rooms, facilities and services for the following activities.

-

Eating.

Resting/ Lounging.

Conversing and gathering.

Exercising and meditating.

Reading and watching books and other electronic media.

Studying and meetings.

Performing and practicing.

Gaming and participating in activities.

Playing.

Exhibiting.

Photocopying and scanning.

Parking.

The following spaces will be made Indoor Multipurpose space – Art/clothes/jewellery exhibitions, Chaand Raat/Melas, Fleece market on Sundays, flower exhibition, competitions etc.

Outdoor Multipurpose Space – Tambola, outdoor dining, Fleece Market, installations and public art.

Lecture Hall – NGOs, Darss, Health Awareness, Tutions.

Study Rooms – Academies. Discussion Forums.

Multifunction Studios – Yoga, Aerobics, zumba, dance classes, jamming sessions, Art studios.

Indoor Gaming Area – Snooker, table tennis, gaming consoles (Min of 2 people activities only.)

Library cum Book Store – Reading space + book shop.

Play Area for kids.

Rock Climbing Space Exercise Facility – Gym for Ladies and Gents Terraces and balconies – Food, barbque space, star gazing, movie watching.

Outdoor Cinema Outdoor Theater 51

Dining in restaurant and casual snacks food. (with Kitchen and storage) Toilets/ restroom.

Services – Space for mechanical operations. Stairway/ Elevator/ Air Ducts/Hvac/ Generator.

52

5.5 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS GRADATIONS AND TYPES OF INTERACTIONS The word ‘interaction’ or ‘social connection’ encompasses various nature and degrees of interactions some of which my building design and space has to be able to cater to and help enhance and provide meaningful opportunities.

I will be using the following levels and nature of interactions to connect the inhabitants with all their surrounding spaces and with each other.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Passive Contact – Visual connectivity Shared Common spaces Physical proximity – proxemics Stimulus Based Interaction – Triangulation.

PASSIVE CONTACT - VISUAL CONNECTIVITY Passive contacts, that is, simply seeing and hearing other people is the most widespread of all social activities. Gaze is in many ways primary––we look before we speak, and in our daily urban encounters with strangers, gaze is often the sole medium of communication.

According to Gehl, a social activity takes place every time two people are together in the same space. To see and hear one other, to meet, is in itself a form of contact, a social interaction.

The actual meeting, merely being present, is furthermore the seed for more comprehensive forms of social activity.

This passive and visual connection will be made part of the physical planning using the following strategies.

Although may not have a direct influence on the quality, content, and intensity of social contacts, but can affect the possibilities for meeting, seeing, and hearing people.

53

SHARED COMMON SPACED/ BUFFER SPACE/ COMMUNAL SPACE URAN SQUARES

“Successful urban squares are designed for people to walk in, stand in, sit in, dance in and to perform in, and to look at other people participating in these activities” Public

squares contribute hugely to the social cohesion and local identity. They act like social catalysts.

The main function of urban squares is gathering citizens together for various reasons and activities.

Dewitte states the public squares’ main function is to symbolize the archetype of human encounters and encourage urban contemplation15 SIZE OF SQUARE

Although the size should be determined according to the location, surrounding uses, and activities nearby and the concept of the square. Several researchers attempted to identify the ideal size of public squares. For instance according to Lynch 12 to 24 meters along each side and 100 meters for larger squares are ideal for successful urban squares, while Alexander suggests a maximum of 22 meters for small squares.16 On the other hand Gehl suggests a dimension of 30-35 meters for the optimum size of a square in order to enable people being able to recognize the other people in the space from one side to other.17 When determining the size of an urban square, visual perception should also be taken into account.

The scale and density of the surrounding buildings and structures of a square might affect the perceived size.

Building elevations and the cross-sections of public spaces should be scaled to foster a sense of enclosure so that streets, squares and parks are defined by appropriately scaled buildings and/or trees fronting onto them.

Squares surrounded by taller and dense buildings may appear smaller than they actually are. A ratio of 1:2 and a maximum of 1.5:2 between building height and space width can be successful to create a strong sense of definition of space.18 Edges are also important in creating the sense of definition of an urban square. According to Alexander et al. (1977) “if the edge fails, then the space never becomes lively”

15

Levy B. Urban Square as the Place of History, Memory, Identity, In : Dusica Drazic, Slavica Radisic, Marijana Simu (eds), Memory of the City, Kulturklammer, Belgrade, 2012; 156-173.

16 Zeka B. The humanistic meaning of urban squares: the case of Çayyolu urban square project. MSc Thesis, Middle East Technical University, Ankara. 2011.

17 Anonymous. Urban Squares. 2009. http://www.healthyplaces.org.au/userfiles/file/Development%20type/Development%20Type%20%20Urban%20Squares.pdf (accessed: 07.12.2014).

18Anonymous. http://predmet.fa.uni-lj.si/siwinds/s1/u2/ su1/ (accessed:01.07.2014)

54

PROXIMITY AND PROXEMICS Physical proximity can nurture a feeling of togetherness.

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall, in his book ‘The Hidden Dimension’ describes four levels of social distance that occur in different situations. Social distance between people is reliably correlated with physical distance: intimate, personal, social and public.

Interpersonal spacing in public space For social behaviour in public spaces, A person's personal space (and the corresponding physical comfort zone) is highly variable and difficult to measure.

Other Factors in Personal Space 2) Personality Individuals with high anxiety level, typically introverted, take a greater distance between themselves and others.

3) Cultural norms The size of desired personal space is cultural dependent. Those living in a densely populated places tend to have a lower expectation of personal space.

Residents of India or Japan tend to have a smaller personal space than those in the Mongolian steppe, both in regard to home and individual spaces.

4) Age Regulation of personal space is learned and developed only through social interaction, along with other social skills and norms.

5) Gender It is anecdotally believed that gender influences the size of personal space. For example, females tend to take less personal space from each other than men.

6) Situational factors size of personal space varies depending on the act ion the involved individuals are taking and the environment. For instance in case of common danger or emergency, the size of personal space shrinks dramatically.

7) Number of individuals involved in the interaction For instance, when a doctor and a patient are engaged in a conversation, optimal conversation distance is between 90 and 150 cm, falling into personal distance.

Under certain circumstances, when normal space requirements simply cannot be met, such as in public transit or elevators, personal space requirements are modified accordingly.

The size of the personal space is influenced by various factors, such as to cultural differences and personal experiences. interpersonal relationship being one of the most important factor.

1) INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS Hall has described the most important fact s about the personal space between people. He differentiates between four distance zones: intimate, personal, social and public speaking distances depending on the interpersonal relationship between the subject and the other.

PROXEMICS IN PUBLIC SPACE DESIGN The function of proxemics is to maintain socialorder.

Lack of consideration of proxemics in environmental design leads to discomfort and conflict. Environmental designers have been intuitively sensitive to personal space mechanisms in furniture design, layouts of public space areas among others.

55

TRIANGULATION. In 1970, William H. Whyte, a sociologist, formed a small research group, The Street Life Project, which observed many plazas and small parks in New York City to find out why some city spaces respond well to needs of people but others do not, and then document what might be basic elements of a successful small urban space. This resulted in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980) and a film based on that book.

One of those elements was what Whyte called “triangulation�. According to him it is the process or phenomenon by which some external stimulus provides a social bond between people and prompts strangers to talk to one another as if they knew each other. People tend to gather around the eccentric individuals and side conversations begin to form.

In public spaces, many things can serve as the external stimulus. It could be a view of something outside the public space such as a sunset or another irresistible dramatic view. It could be a water feature or a sculpture. It could even be other people or an event, maybe a street performer or a musician or a band giving people something in common to talk about.

Features in a public space are more than just features, they can also serve to bring people together.

Knowing this should influence the placement and configuration of features so that opportunities for socialization may be maximized.

It is this idea of the plaza being triangulated between other things that make people want to enter, and participate in what is going on, that makes it successful. While anything can be a point of triangulation he mentions, public art works, esthetic appeal of the architecture itself, and spectacles (like live music or performers) as being seminal to the Seagram plaza’s success as a.

56

DEVELOPMENT SKETCHES AND IDEAS

57

PROGRAMMATIC DESIGN APPROACH CREATING SPACES FOR INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLGY While some architectural process starts with programmatic relationship that lead to a floor plan, this interaction oriented design process starts with ideas about what individual spaces need to be like and how generic spaces can be made for various technological environments to be built on. Once these spaces are there, the rest of the building program is placed in relation around it.

While these spaces are primarily designed independently, they are brought together and begin to influence and inform each other, creating a very non-linear design process.

Space type 1 The idea is to create a shared space, that is multifunctional, invitational and secular and allows various kinds of interactive technologies to be integrated.

1. A square/ platform

2. Motion Sensors

Kinect X box motion sensor Used for full body gaming Kinect Tracking range 13 feet Can be placed on ceiling too.

58

3. Interactive Screen Projection from ceiling to screen

20:12 Wide screen proportion Ceiling Projector.

4. Interactive 24:13.5 Floors – Wide screen proportion Floor Probasjection

5. Energy Floors – Piezo electric Floors

SEF – Sustainable Energy Floor Modules SDF – sustainable dance Floors.

Used in dance or interactive floors or pedestrian walkways or entrances or main points of pedestrian traffic.

Make people walk over a ramp or use energy floor modules in dance/aerobics studios or kids play room and generate power. such as charging phone slots or lighting in building or 59

music, or in digital screens or touch screens.

Each modile produces upto 35 w of sustained output. (b.w 5-20 watt per person) 6. Group Games Gaming setup such as energy battles between two groups. Where certain moves have to be made and energy generated as a result.

On the screen scores can be displayed such as a graphic of a battery sigh being charged.

7. SDF – sustainable dance Floors.

Or Activity Interactive Floor

60

Space type 1 - exploded axonometric

Similarly by overlapping other kind of technologies and using the principals of proximities of proxemics and personal space, other such space types are constructed.

61

BIBLIOGRAPHY                          

Virillio, Paul, (1993) Architecture in the age of virtual disappearance. In Beckmann, John. (1998) the Virtual Dimension, Princeton Architectural Press.

Lefebve, Henri. (1974) the Production of Space.

Online Lecture / Interviews Pahlka, Jennifer. (2012) Coding a better Environment. TED talks.

Ubayasiri, Kasun, Internet and the Public Sphere. Ejounalist.com.au/v6n2/ubayasiri622.pdf Gumpert, Gary, and Susan Trucker. Plato’s Cave: Public Space Transformed(n.d.): n. pag. Web. Soja, Edward W, Thirdspace. Malden (Mass.): Blackwell, 1996. Print. P. 61 Oldenburg, R. (1999) The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Graham, S. (2004) Cybercities Reader. UK: Routledge.

Blum, Andrew. "Here but Not Here." Metropolis Magazine. N.p., 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 5 May 2014.

Sansone, Barbara. "The Softspace Of Usman Haque. Choreographies Of Sensations - Digicult | Digital Art, Design and Culture." Digicult. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2014.

Haque, Usman. "Sky Ear." Sky Ear. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2014 Jacobs, Jane. (1992). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, New York: vintage Books, Tschumi, Bernard. Cinégramfolie, le Parc de la Villette / Bernard Tschumi. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1987.

Calhoum, Craig ed. (1992) Habermas and the Public Sphere, Cambridge (US): MIT Press.

Habermas, Jurgen. (1962, trans. 1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: an inquiry into a category of bourgeois society, Cambridge: Polity, 33,35,41,51,171,212 Poster; Mark. (1995). CyberDemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere. University of California, McDonough, T. (2004) Situationist Space. Guy Debord and the Situationist International, 241265.

Debord Guy, (2002) the Society of the Spectacle, Treason Press.

Eisenman, Peter. (1996) Visions Unfolding: Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media.

Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture.

Information Age,>>The Cybercities reader, Routledge, London.

Douglas Kellner, 1997. "Intellectuals, the new public spheres, and techno–politics," athttp://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/newDK/intell.htm, accessed 8 July 2000.

Jan van Dijk, 1999. The network society: Social aspects of new media. Translation of Netwerkmaatschappij by LeontineSpoorenberg. London: Sage.

John Keane, 1995. "Structural transformations of the public sphere," Communications Review, volume 1, number 1, pp. 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10714429509388247 S.A. and Pinilla Castro, C., “Visualising the invisible; towards an urban space,” Amsterdam, Techne Press, 2006.

62



(Pallasmaa, Juhani (2005) The Eyes Of the Skin – Architecture and the Senses , Great Britain; Wiley Academy)



Wiley, D., “The urban Square: remediating public space, Graduate Journal of Communication,” Vol.1, No.1(2008).



Arendt, H., “The Human Condition,” Chicago, The Chicago Press, 1958.



Jean Camp. "The Internet as Public Space:." Public Virtual Spaces. John F. Kennedy School of Government, n.d. Web. 15 Aug. 2014.

 

Islamabad The Capital." Islamabad The Capital. N.p., n.d. Web. "Demographics of Islamabad." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 07 May 2014. Web. 15 Aug. 2014.



"Importance of Public Spaces." Importance of Public Spaces. UK Essays, n.d. Web. 15 Aug. 2014.



Adhya, Anirban. "THE PUBLIC REALM AS A PLACE OF EVERYDAY URBANISM: LEARNING FROM FOUR COLLEGE TOWNS." The University of Michigan, 2008. Web.



P. Sulis, M.V. Grimaldi. "INBETWEEN SPACES FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION – NEW PUBLIC REALM AND THE NETWORK SOCIETY." INBETWEEN SPACES FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION – NEW PUBLIC REALM AND THE NETWORK SOCIETY (n.d.): n. pag. Amsterdam/Delft, 2009. Web.



Gary Gumpert and Susan Drucker. "Plato’s Cave: Public Space Transformed." Hofstra University, n.d. Web. 15 Aug. 2014.



"Design for Social Innovation through Social Computing." TU/e DESIS Lab. WordPress, n.d. Web.



ZahiAlrayyes. "Between the Virtual and Physical Spaces ; How Does Decentralization on Virtual Space Affect Social Gathering in the City?"Academia.edu. University of Brighton,



M.V. Grimaldi* & P. Sulis**. "INBETWEEN SPACES FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION – NEW PUBLIC REALM AND THE NETWORK SOCIETY." (n.d.): n. pag. 2009. Web.



Jun Hu, JoepFrens,. "Design for Social Interaction in Public Spaces." Eindhoven University of Technology, n.d. Web.

63

UNPUBLISHED THESIS 

Nadir, Fawad. 2012. The Post Digital Matrix Of our Common Realm. Lahore. B Arch. Thesis.

National College of Arts, Lahore.



Javed, Hafia. 2010. The information Bazaar. Lahore. B Arch. Thesis. National College of Arts, Lahore.



Hameed, Acim. 2007. New Babylon: Architecture in Flux. Lahore. B Arch. Thesis. National College of Arts, Lahore.

ONLINE THESIS 

S. Brenny and J. Hu, “Social Connectedness and Inclusion by Digital Augmentation in public Spaces, “in 8th international Conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSF or M 2013), Wuxi, China, 2013,pp. 108-118.



D. Le, M. Funk, and J. Hu, “Blobulous: Computers As Social Actors, “in Experiencing interactivity in public Space (EIPS), CHI’13, Paris, 2013,pp.62-66.



M. Funk, D. Le, and J. Hu, “Feel Connected with social Actors in public Spaces, ”in Workshop on Computers As Social Actors, co-located with 13th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IV A 2013), Edinburgh , UK, 2013,PP.21-33.



T. Elfferich, “Design for Social Interaction in Public Space, “Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Report M 11 2013.



Y. Arslan, “Flink!, “Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Report M11,2013.



J. Hu, Le, M. Funk, F. Wang, and M Rauterberg, “Attractiveness of an Interactive Public Art Installation, “in Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions, N. Streitz and C. Stephanidis, Eds., ed: Springer,2013,pp.430-438.



J. Janmaat, “How to stimulate social interaction within a working area, “Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Report B32 2013.

64