whereas quiet areas provide a place for students to refresh themselves, have a temporary escape, or quiet reflection, affording an enriched and enjoyable campus life (Kenney, et al., 2005).
Georgetown attempting green space with construction near Darnall. However, weird balance. Now prevents me (and other people living near construction) from having quiet place.
Empirical research using the ART framework has examined all modes of human interaction in indoor, urban and wilderness settings and suggests that in the absence of fascinating natural stimuli, humans miss out on the critical type of rest
Interesting research/concept that natural stimuli prevents some types of rest.
ntary attention
whole section has a lot of definitions cited from other sources. Shows an effective background section. Everything is needed for the discussion of the paper.
Campus construction was sparse during the Depression and World War II of the 1930s and 1940s. A dramatic post-war increase in student enrollment - 2.5 million to 7 million from 1955 to 1970
Interesting. I've never seen much information or research about students post-WWII. I have mainly only heard about the population as a whole or working citizens.
Although university culture places demands on students’ cognitive abilities, campus natural open spaces have not beensystematically examined for their potential in replenishing cognitive functioning for attentional fatigued students.
exigence- what has not been done (they say) (also the gap)
Questions of where, when, how, and with whom today’s college students learn, confront the traditional notions of how university spaces are designed and used for effectiveness (Hashimshony & Haina, 2006). Therefore, we propose that the natural landscape of a university campus is an attentional learning resource for its students.
Concept that students learn by surroundings. I believe that environment certainly plays a role into how knowledge is gained.
Both of these trends—thinking of space as apolitical and of politics as ageographical—have been mistakes. I hope the book that follows will help us see those mistakes for what they are and begin to correct them.
strong, clear goal for the book already set.
just outside the city centers but within their regional orbit, where they remained fi rmly integrated within the various socioeconomic inter-dependencies of modern urban lif
expensive areas just outside the city. Seems that they wanted to leave the area to avoid the inhabitants and scenery, but stayed close enough to have some control over how the city ran.
. The result was a severing of the university’s intellectual life from the public culture of its own city
Really interesting and powerful shift. This impacted education as we know it today as well as the culture of Baltimore.
all three arts rejected characteristically urban forms of human contact, based on concentration and variety, and advocated instead scenes of social order and quiet, constituted by sameness rather than difference, organized by separation rather than proximity, and governed by neutral procedures rather than argument, partisanship, and practical reason
Avoided conflict and stuck to "neutral procedures." Interesting background as one would probably assume that it was built with clear intentions/ biases in mind.
And I try to uncover—behind their facades, under their surfaces—the social meaning that is their simultane-ous motivation and result
I like the use of "uncover." It creates the concept that environments are physical and their meanings can literally be found.
This is not, however, a traditional work of social science, meant to test some theory of the world or of human society in it; nor is it an essay in cultural criticism or a brief for a particular ideological program. It is rather a verbal portrait of contemporary civic life in the United States
This work does not have the goal to prove or test a theory. Rather, it is a look at American life. This shows the goal of the writer/ thesis.
It is about how the physical organization of our neighborhoods, cities, and metropolitan areas affects our practices of political expression and debate—the ways we represent our histories to one another, render and negotiate our differences, and determine together our future.
This reminds me of "form generates function." Interesting how grammar can relate to the physical as well.
: to acquire these habits and dispositions, we need settings where they can be practiced, where we can literally see our diversity, where we belong but others belong as well, people who are different from us but with whom we are interdependent precisely because we live together. In other words, we need changes in our rhetorics that will help us practice better public problem-solving, and we need changes in our environments that will bring us closer together so that such problem-solving is unavoidable
I agree. This is an important citation which sums up the goals of Fleming's book.
lso attempts to resolve that confl ict
If we use Fish, can these conflicts ever actually be resolved? Or does Fleming mean that we should just strive for resolution, even if it does not come?
We remain physical creatures, inherently embodied, inextricably situated, resolutely sensitive to proximity; and the weakest and most vulnerable among us remain the most spatially dependent of all.
Key citation. This is interesting in how Fleming uses the concept of embodiment to show that humans are situated.
After providing historical background to the formation of the Chicago ghetto in chapter 4, I examine three options for revitalizing this particular neighborhood. Chapter 5 explores the idea that the problem behind inner-city, African-American poverty is the city itself; and the solution, suburban relocation. Chapter 6 considers another theory: that the best hope for Cabrini Green’s families is poverty deconcentration, best effected by “importing” higher-income residents to the central city and allowing some of the poor families to stay. Chapter 7, meanwhile, posits a very different idea: that urban African-American poverty is a function of social oppression and political marginalization, and its solution: helping low-income, inner-city blacks chart their own destiny and take control of their own neighborhoods.
I also appreciate how Fleming introduced these three proposals in the beginning of this introduction. At first, I was not sure why he chose to start the introduction with a specific case study, but it becomes much more clear here and in this section of the introduction.
In sum, as our political and rhetorical theories and pedagogies have become anti-urban; our cities have become antipolitical and antirhetorical
key citation with key terms/ concepts (anti-urban, antipolitical, antirhetorical)
And, therefore, when faced with seemingly intractable social confl icts, the most resourceful among us simply retreat to communities of the like-minded. By dividing up the landscape this way, we have made local politics irrelevant because difference no longer confronts us.
key citation
But for language to be this kind of practice, it needed a particular kind of setting: namely, an accessible, diverse, self-governing community, free from both external control (so that members could direct their collective future without interference) and internal domination (so that each member had an equal say in that future). It
Good they say, I say section. They say language is a political practice similar to how the Greeks used it. I say setting is important in order to make language political.
It needed a community that literally set aside time and space for the public rendering and negotiation of confl icts. It needed, that is, a polis—geographically bounded, self-suffi cient, and free—the kind of community that Aristotle called specifi cally human, defi ning “man” as in essence the “political” or city-living animal.
key citation with key concepts of polis and man being the essence of the "political"
“post-entitlement” era
key concept
Make no little plans.—Daniel H. Burnham1
Really interesting quote to start the chapter with. As I read, I wonder how it will shape what comes after.
introverts vs. extroverts
interesting: I never thought about how this personality type plays a role in structure.
design landscape is still deeply rooted in Modernism, a movement shaped by a predominantly male perspective.
Question: Why does design landscape matter? Speculative Response: Design landscape matters because it deals with inclusivity. Today gender is being evaluated differently, so design must catch up.
masculine and feminine
key concept
We are only at the very beginning with gender-neutral design, but having safe places for anybody to function and do what they need to do, no matter who they are, should be our first step.
key citation
universal design
key term
There are schools that are accepting of that, and, as designers, we can’t fall behind in embracing that, too.
key citation
architecture
keyword
Designers, who should focus a critical eye on society’s issues, need to work within this discourse and help promote acceptance and change.
Response
We are living in a time of gender revolution. Traditional masculine and feminine roles are being challenged through advances in science and technology, and by cultural shifts stemming from the evolution of sexual politics and media depictions of gender
exigence- they say roles are being challenged, I say designers should do the same
85 percent of tech workers at the top companies being male.
I agree that it is sad that tech workers are mostly male. However, I feel that there is a lot of work going in to try to change this. (e.g. GirlsWhoCode)
Identity is no longer clearly defined as female or male, but by increasingly visible manifestations of sexuality or lack thereof
key citation
in part to reduce confusion and increase access
Does technology like apps for traffic and roads impact this? For example, is it not as confusing anymore because most people can get directions from an outside source?
I-64 and I-77 through Charleston, West Virginia;168 the list goes on.
Interesting that all of the examples are interstates.
as attempting to cross a seven-lane highway to get to the mall where she worked.
It's sad to see the dangers that are experienced. Safety is clearly not considered a priority in certain situations.
“the Berlin Wall for black people
powerful wording. Shows the discrimination.
some cities have taken action to actively outlaw
Which cities have done this?
“to buy groceries at a Hamden shopping center three miles away,” the public housing residents would “have to travel into New Haven to get around the fence,
Did most people end up taking this trip or did they resort to other methods to find food? This reminds me of people not having access to health care because a trip might take as long.
one of the highest rates of car-pedestria
Concerning to think that this has not even been addressed. Clearly high rates show there is an issue.
e tend to view such bridges as innocuous fea-tures rather than as exclusionary objects
I think it's accurate that having the anecdotal background evidence changes the way we view the Long Island Bridge. For most other things it would take people longer to evaluate impacts if we did not have something to start the conversation or back up hypotheses.
made doubly sure of this result by vetoing a proposed extension of the Long Island Railroad to Jones Beach
This provides more evidence to show that Moses's decision had a clear intention to prevent certain people from reaching Jones Beach
the idea that architecture can regulate behavior, and more specifically,
This is interesting. The architecture can be constructed based on certain perceptions, but it then can regulate how people act. This is broader than just exclusion. The concept controlling actions is extremely powerful.
At the request of white residents, in 1974 the city of Memphis closed off a street that connected an all-white neighborhood to a primarily black one
This sentence's aim comes across very clear. It is a straight forward example of how architecture was constructed intentionally to keep out another race. Because the white residents requested that this street be closed, it shows that there cannot be an argument that this was not realized as being discriminatory. The abstract mentions that architecture can be a form of regulation "without their even realizing it," and this sentence shows that people can also realize it.
Although the law has addressed the exclusionary impacts of racially restrictive covenants and zoning ordinances, most legal scholars, courts, and legislatures have given little attention to the use of these less obvious exclusionary urban design tactics
Has anyone publically addressed these inequalities prior to this? And if so, who? Was the concern blatantly dismissed?
Resubjectivization and the body and the pain that the body goes through to traumatize and shatter it seems to have to do with the notion of counter-memory
What is meant by "resubjectivization?"