street matters

Dr Griet Scheldeman Lancaster Environment Centreg.scheldeman@lancaster.ac.uk

Street Matters

Matters of the street: life, movement: walking

Matter: surfaces, stuff, things

Street matters because...

Street Matters

Design anthropologyNew approaches to designWhat can other disciplines bring to it?

What is good design?

Context

‘User friendly’

Good design?

keep in mind

‘Glide through life effortlessly’

Funfair obstacle course

Westbourne road picture

PublicContinuous change

InstitutionalPeopleForces of non-human nature

Made, remade, learned, relearned, maintained, used, produced

A street: a strange choice?

Others – world- ourselves

intermingleThrough matter

friction

Street: where we meet

Event, happeningLived bodies belong to places and help constitute them. Places belong to lived bodies and depend on them

Casey 1996

Walking:Movement – surfaces – matterFinding/making your place

Street

‘User friendly’

Practitioner friendly:Skill - enskillment

Good design?

Westbourne road picture

Why?

Regulated, contain chaos ‘Pedestrian dressage’Reduced streets to one function:

transport: fastest, straightest route from A to B

Transport - planning