Kirsty Watt
Constructing Community: Re-Inhabiting The Urban Block
Moving-in as an event across the urban block
How can physical space support social interaction? How can this be integrated within modern cities in order for them to evolve into safe and inviting community spaces?
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How can physical space support social interaction? How can this be integrated within modern cities in order for them to evolve into safe and inviting community spaces? There are a series of gap sites and backlands within Perth, providing a real opportunity for these secondary spaces to be utilised in a way that provides a community infrastructure, whilst enhancing the existing spatial quality. Some of these backlands contain a lot of vacant and underused buildings, which can be used or replaced to encourage the “eyes on the street” (Jane Jacobs) to create more safe and inclusive environments. The concept of community is evolving, and so must the spaces for social interaction. Historically, communities would have related directly to faith and religion, involving a large majority of the population. Religious communities are less popular within a contemporary Atheist and Agnostic Western society, and there has been a perceived erosion of the historic concept of a community and its accessibility within society. I will be analysing and cataloguing the existing and historic networks within Perth - of faiths, societies, clubs, classes, etc - and by understanding the intertwined “semi-latice” (Alexander) of networks, will begin to form an opinion on what initiates a modern community infrastructure. The subsequent intervention proposal will compliment the utilisation of existing spaces to form a contemporary community within the urban block to support a progression towards independence for its vulnerable users.
Collaborators: Image 3 was done as a collaboration with Liam Cox's project.