The Everyday (Architecture)

Urban Geopolitics 8 Years on. Hybrid Sovereignties, the Everyday, and

by Sara Fregonese

Geography Compass, Volume 6, Issue 5, pages 290–303, May 2012

Urban events like 9-11 and the Arab Spring have deeply marked the first two decades of a century in which the majority... more Urban events like 9-11 and the Arab Spring have deeply marked the first two decades of a century in which the majority of the world population will live in cities. This essay reviews present and potential future debates about the relation between cities and geopolitics, particularly the work of urban geopolitics. I trace three debates centred on three relationships: that between city and sovereignty; between official and everyday urban practices; between violent and peaceful geographies. I point towards three avenues of potential engagement of geographers with the theme of geopolitics and the city. The first avenue leads to appreciating the complex relationships between the state and the non-state that are nowadays increasingly relevant and visible. The second concerns geographies of the everyday, the unofficial, and the unplanned. The third concerns the possibility for an urban geopolitics of peace and its inclusion, rather than focussing exclusively on war and its avoidance.

Of Bookworms and Busybees: Cultural Theory in the Age of Do-It-Yourselfing

by Kevin Melchionne

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 57, No. 2, spring 1999.

Argues that the leading models of cultural practice in Cultural Studies fail to account for quasi-artisanal consumer... more Argues that the leading models of cultural practice in Cultural Studies fail to account for quasi-artisanal consumer practices like do-it-yourselfing.

Living In Glass Houses: Domesticity, Interior Decoration, and Environmental Aesthetics

by Kevin Melchionne

originally published in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 56, No. 2, spring 1998.

Also in INTIMUS: Interior Design Theory Reader, edited by Mark Taylor and Julieanna Preston, Wiley, 2006 and The... more Also in INTIMUS: Interior Design Theory Reader, edited by Mark Taylor and Julieanna Preston, Wiley, 2006 and The Aesthetics of the Human Environment, edited by Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant, Broadview Press, 2007.

“The Language of Space and Practice, Camden Housing Estates 1965-1983” MPhil, University of Brighton, School of Architecture and Design.

by Luis Diaz

This is an unpublished MPhil dissertation using theories of structuralism and the everyday to explore the link between spatial forms and spatial practices in Camden housing estates built during the 1960s and 1970s.

“The Responsibility of Forms: The Spatial Form and Practice of Arrival”

by Luis Diaz

'Neither Here nor There: walking in forgotten territories'

by Luis Diaz

Updated paper delivered at the RGS with IBG Annual International Conference; session: Walking and the Everyday, London, 29-31 August 2007

'The Everyday and ‘Other’ Spaces: Low Rise-High Density Housing in Camden'

by Luis Diaz

paper delivered at the EAAE Conference, The Rise of Heterotopia (On Public Space and the Architecture of the Everyday in Post-Civil Society), Leuven, Belgium, 26-28 May 2005

'Urban promenades and fragmented space'

by Luis Diaz

presentation delivered at URBEUR (Studi Urbani e Locali Europei - Urban and Local European Studies), Milan, Italy, 27-28 January 2001

'Alexandra Road and Maiden Lane'

by Luis Diaz

paper delivered at the American Collegiate Schools of Architecture Regional Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 1998

"From the Unknown to the Known": Transitions in the Architectural Vernacular

by Mike Christenson

[2011]

Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum
Volume 18, Number 1, Spring 2011, p. 1-13

In this essay, I highlight ways in which the word "vernacular" can be used to distinguish between practices... more In this essay, I highlight ways in which the word "vernacular" can be used to distinguish between practices of structuring information about architecture, instead of as a label for specific kinds of architecture. This interpretation of the term is of course not wholly new, as I show: I develop the notion that the question of how information should be structured, disseminated, and made accessible to both scholarly and nonscholarly audiences is necessarily implicated in older definitions of "vernacular architecture" even when the implication is actively silenced. But it is especially in considering the effects of contemporary information technologies on the study of the built environment that I highlight an emerging validation of the transitory nature of the word vernacular as it applies to architecture. Specifically, I discuss Google Street View as an example of a contemporary information technology with potentially profound implications on an architectural understanding of the word vernacular.

The Parking Garage Studio: Challenging the Language of Everyday Car Culture

by Alexis Gregory

2009 ACSA Southwest Fall Conference
Chang[e]ing Identities; Design, Culture + Technology
October 15-17, 2009 | Albuquerque, New Mexico
Host School: University of New Mexico & University of Texas Arlington
Co-chairs:
Tim Castillo, Phillip Gallegos, Kristina H. Yu
University of New Mexico
Brad Bell, Wanda Dye, Kathryn Holliday
University of Texas at Arlington

“Architecture is not about the conditions of design but about the design of conditions that will dislocate the most... more “Architecture is not about the conditions of design but about the design of conditions that will dislocate the most traditional and regressive aspects of our society and simultaneously reorganize these elements in the most liberating way, so that our experience becomes the experience of events organized and strategized through architecture.”

Bernard Tschumi, Six Concepts


Cars are an integral part of American culture and rule the American landscape; therefore, parking garages are a dominant American architectural typology.  Due to this fact the Parking Garage Studio was created with the goal of questioning societal norms that limit parking garages to ugly, utilitarian structures.  The creation of the assembly line and the mass production of automobiles by Henry Ford forever changed the American landscape and culture by placing the motor vehicle in the forefront of our lives.  From the development of the interstate system by President Eisenhower to the American domination of motor vehicle commerce, cars, trucks and SUVs have been seen as much as an American right as freedom of speech.  This attachment to our automobiles has led to a need to shelter and protect them as we do our other belongings and even family.  Parking garages for our homes have become an extremely important, even dominating, part of residential architecture.  So much so that residential parking garages tend to take up over 50% of the front façade of most new homes.

As the population in America continues to expand, so does the size of our cities and the space needed for car parking.  Due to this alternative transportation is being explored as an option to address this issue, especially in light of the current energy crisis and cost of gasoline.  However, this does not guarantee the diminished use of motor vehicles and the single car driver, especially as electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are being developed.  Therefore, architects still have a responsibility to design parking garages that challenge the current typology and its relationship to the evolving American culture.

Since we see parking garages “as necessities, not amenities”  they have become a modern staple in American life both as a convenience and as revenue generator for most cites.  This mentality is slowly changing in some areas as amenities are being added to parking garages as a necessity demanded by users who by default become consumers.  Nonetheless, the idea that parking garages are essential has typically not led to efforts to create architecture necessary for anything but functionality.

Certain negative connotations are associated with parking garages that a change in typology should address and could possibly even solve.  The stereotype of dark, dangerous spaces within parking garages has led to various characterizations of these structures as places of violence and crime.  Author Deane Simpson analyzes this issue in his article “No Exit: Why Do Bad Things Always Happen in Good Parking Garages?” on the use of parking garages for action films from the 1960s and 1970s.  Other various media such as television and literature also perpetuate this idea through the stories they promote of attack and ambush in parking garages.

This architecture of the everyday car culture must be challenged if we are to move forward in the design and development of buildings that not only function as part of our everyday lives but also become an integral part of the cultural fabric of our societies.

Google Street View and the transition from the unknown to the known

by Mike Christenson

[2010]

In Chang[e]ing Identities: Design Culture Technology (Proceedings of the 2009 ACSA Southwest Regional Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico), 76-81. Kathryn Holliday, editor.

This paper summarizes factors which contribute to identifying a particular building or environment as part of the... more This paper summarizes factors which contribute to identifying a particular building or environment as part of the "everyday landscape." In particular it contrasts historical factors with Google Street View (GSV), a tool which makes possible a new way of seeing the everyday landscape, but which also perpetuates practices of foregrounding exactly those interesting, attractive, controversial, or famous buildings which have always been foregrounded.