In-Between Spaces
Awarded Best Research Thesis in 2016 by Institute of Architecture, H.N.G. University| Traditionally spaces are defined as indoor-outdoors, private-public, exterior-interior etc. But on closer inspection, however, this distinction is not as clear cut as usually assumed. All urban situations have conditions where the buildings create planned or unplanned in-between spaces which eventually become a part of the civic landscape. Some areas are physically wedged between distinct, recognised and carefully-designed places. When an urban transition occurs between place to place. These transitions span various urban scales. These are the spaces between places. They provide distinctive opportunities for social mixed together, how does it create possibilities for a wide range of new unplanned activities? These are unorganized areas of continuous movement and change, their physical and legal boundaries are often uncertain and contested and they do not usually have an obvious client. The quality of life in these spaces is directly affected by the way it is designed, conceived, constructed and used. The way a space is used cannot be controlled as it mutates socially over time however the architecture of the space remains in its elements so how does, form, material, details, joints and colours control these transitional experience for a person?. There is a sense of freedom in these. These are the left over spaces which are forgotten on daily basis. How are they the spaces with synergy of activities? How is the dialogue between the space in between and viewer/user ?
The space may be in between:
2(two) destinations
Exterior and interior
Mixing uses is one approach in architecture that assists in making lively thresholds. So I project the idea of a deliberate heterogeneity in my study, where opposing objects are placed together as a part of a strategy to create complex and compelling buildings and their in-between spaces. When residential and commercial uses combine and coincide, there are several transitions and resultant thresholds which are naturally and artificially formed. The study combines residential spaces with commercial establishments creating a mixed use condition in a city block which constantly alternates between the public and private realms. The residential-commercial establishment relation is a dynamic one. It is a transition from private to public and vice-versa.
The resultant spaces between the buildings are spaces which are a combination of the planned and the improvised, in a constant state of flux forming the “passing place”. The spaces could create subtle interconnections which can be exploited and temporal experiences could be defined through architectural interpretation of transitional spaces. The idea is to study the blocks with varying density of built forms hence the formulation, quality and scale of the in-between spaces changes and a comparable notion be established.
Research questions
1. What is the formulation of an in-between spaces?
2. What is the importance of an in-between space between two well defined places?
3. How is the dialogue between the space in between and viewer/user?
4. How are the transitions in the public-ness of a in-between space?
5. What a in between space adds to a building?
6. How to read an in-between space?
7. How can a space which is not a place be so familiar and have a sense of belonging to it that a person wants to spend some time here?
8. How does the density and formulation play a role in the vitality of the in-between space?
9. How are these spaces are a transition between designed to natural dictation/managed and unclaimed spaces/social and anti-social behavior/control and freedom/passing and pausing moments?
10. How are they the spaces with synergy of activities?
11. How does the in between space provide an opportunity to interact and choreograph activities in it?
12. How is a formulation and the dialogue between this space related?
13. What effect does an urban transition have on an in-between space and its elements?
14. How is the interaction of in between space of exterior to interior and the two in-between spaces between two destination?
As mentioned earlier that for diversity in the study and for providing ore opportunity for studying the study areas are taken such that there is a heterogeneity. It provides a vast range to study if two contrasting elements are put together and their space in-between is studied as it would be a complex space. Secondly density in terms of number of built houses or building in a unit square area has also a major impact on the study as the question lies in relation of the formulation of the space and the human dialogue with it.
Thus keeping these in mind i have chosen a high density area in the city of Vadodara, Narsinghji ka pol. The area is on in one the oldest part of Vadodara city on the main axial street the M.G. Road connecting Mandvi gate to Sursagar lake. This area is called the Narsinghji ki pol named after the temple located in the area. This area is mostly famous for its temple, deep maad, utensils store and old traditional houses. This area gives a complexity as there is varied nature in each of the places put together like the temple the stores the residences and the space in between these places are very complex and varied the transition in the both the formulation enclosure of space and the hierarchy of spaces along with the memories and associations of this place as this is one of the oldest formed pols of the city and the activities afforded by this place will help in exploring the transitions of the in between spaces.
The second area is the market area near the Lehripura gate which connects Mandvi gate to Lehripura gate to Sursagar lake. This is a very hustle bustle market area part of the Mangal bazaar. Here there is a mosque, the old gate, shopping complexes and the flexible market area. The Nyay mandir is right opposite to it. Due to the synergy of so many activities always taking place at different time of the day it provides a good platform to study.
The area is on in one the oldest part of Vadodara city on the main axial street the M.G. Road connecting mandvi gate to sursagar lake. This area is called the Narsinghji ki pol named after the temple located in the area. This area is mostly famous for its temple, deep maad, utensils and old traditional houses.
150 houses on ground
60% 3 storeys
40% 2 storeys
Total area of study : 20000 sq.M
Built area:12900 sq. M(65%)
To answer the questions.
To read the space in between and all its characteristics and to link it to each other following things needs to be worked out of each space in between hence some tools are also given by architects, urban designers and analysts to read the same. To understand any space we need to understand its setting as in physical the associations to that space, how it is been used and how it is being perceived by viewers/users.
TO UNDERSTAND THE ENCLOSURE OF THE SPACE IN BETWEEN THE PLACES
Many record urban design variables that are hypothesized to relate to either walking (Borst, Miedema, Devries, Graham, & van Dongen, 2008; Cerin, Saelens, Sallis, & Frank, 2006; Ewing, Clemente, Handy, Brownson, & Winston, 2005; Ewing, Handy, Brownson, Clemente, & Winston, 2006; Gallimore, Brown, & Werner, 2011; Guo & Loo, 2013; Park, 2008; Schlossberg, Weinstein Agrawal, & Irvin, 2007) or physical activity in a space in between two places. (Boarnet, Day, Alfonzo, Forsyth, & Oakes, 2006; Boarnet, Forsyth, Day, & Oakes, 2011; Clemente, Ewing, Handy, & Brownson, 2005; Day, Boarnet, Alfonzo, & Forsyth, 2006; T. Pikora, Giles-corti, Bull, Jamrozik, & Donovan, 2003; T. J. Pikora et al., 2002). With no standard definitions for qualities such as enclosure and human scale, it is difficult to measure them with the consistency and precision necessary to include them in built environment models. Nonetheless, the ambiguity of streetscape design is no excuse to ignore its potentially large contribution to the perceptions and associated behaviour of street users.
The arrangement of buildings along either side of the space in between has been the most fundamental pattern of urban design throughout millennia of development. Resulting enclosure may be the sensation which, from the ground, most visibly separates country and city (cullen, 1971). In this way, enclosure may be essential to the “imageability”—
Visual memory—of cities and places within them (lynch, 1960). Enclosure also. Compresses the space in between, bringing stimuli closer to users and intensifying the effects of visual complexity. Ewing & handy (2009) catalogue recommendations of minimum. Height to width proportions ranging from 2:3 to 1:6. While there is no theoretical or
Scientific consensus on which proportion is most appealing, it is clearly an important. Measure to evaluate.
Proportions and scale also contribute to what Ewing & Handy (2009) describe as transparency—whether spaces and activity beyond the space in between wall can be viewed, or at least imagined—and complexity—the variety of sensory stimuli provided by a streetscape. Both are heavily affected by micro-scale details such as window arrangement, architectural decoration, signs, and street objects that are not yet consistently recorded in spatial data.
TO UNDERSTAND THE CONFIGURATION OF THE SPACE IN BETWEEN THE PLACES
Space syntax is a method for describing and analysing the relationships between spaces of urban areas and buildings. The earliest space syntax work took real environments, such as organic settlements, and vernacular buildings, and tried to identify the formal, spatial and functional forces that generated their characteristic spatial forms. Space as configuration
Encountering, congregating, avoiding, interacting, dwelling, conferring are not attributes of individuals, but patterns, or configurations, formed by groups or collections of people. They depend on an engineered pattern of copresence, and indeed co-absence. Very few of the purposes for which we build buildings and environments are not ‘people configurations’ in this sense. We should therefore in principle expect that the relation between people and space, to take the first steps towards understanding how this happens, we must understand how, in principle, a configuration of space can be influenced by, or influence, a configuration of people.
• Convex space is a space where no line between any two of its points crosses the perimeter.
A concave space has to be divided into the least possible number of convex spaces.
• Axial space or an axial line is a straight line (“sight line”), possible to follow on foot.
• Isovist space is the total area that can be viewed from a point.
• Connectivity measures the number of immediate. Neighbours that are directly connected to a space. This is a static local measure.
• Integration is a static global measure. It describes. The average depth of a space to all other spaces in the system. The spaces of a system can be ranked from the most integrated to the most segregated.
Control value is a dynamic local measure. It measures the degree to which a space controls access to its immediate neighbours taking into account the number of alternative connections that each of these neighbours has.
• Global choice is a dynamic global measure of the “flow” through a space. A space has a strong choice value when many of the shortest paths, connecting all spaces to all spaces of a system, passes through it.
The accessibility to in between spaces and the building. Through windows, doors, balcony etc. (Mentioned before) these are interactivity between one building to another and in between spaces and elements.
The accessibility to in between spaces physically as well as visually interlinking them with circulation, flexibility of spaces as well as activities over here.
The accessibility to in between spaces physically as well as visually thus affecting the nature of perception by the viewers/users. It changes or transits one from to the other depending on the following criteria and setting as well as functionality and usage of the space.
The accessibility to in between spaces physically as well as visually also depends on the elements that becomes a part of the in between space and sometimes they transit from indoors to the exterior and then guiding on to the next for example columns, verandahs, continuity of wall in short transparency and the enclosure quality.
TO UNDERSTAND THE STATESOF THE SPACE IN BETWEEN THE PLACES
Arnold Van Gennep and Victor Turner- an in-between condition that has obvious starting and ending points of which each must be dramatic enough to mark that a transition has occurred. The ‘in-between state’ between those points is odd, in that it is the stripping down of previous associations, and it is disorienting because it does not offer a sense of future identity or a known sense of direction. In between space has the following experiential states: transition, separation, integration, aggregation, layering, dissolution, dissociation, blurring and abstraction. From here, the architectural representation of each state is conceptually defined in the Forms in which it can exist.
Space is a central concept in architecture, used in the form of absolute, relative and relational(cognitive) space:
Absolute space is an understanding of space as a distinct, physical and imminently real or empirical entity. Traditional regional studies the empirical entities, dependencies or vertical connections between humanity and the environment within the ‘container space’ of a particular region. Relative space has the location of, and distance between, different phenomena (horizontal connections) as the focus of architecture inquiry. Distance as measured in terms of transport costs, travel time and the mileage within a network, as well perceived distance, is given explanatory power (holt, 1999, p. 216-227).
The meaning of relational (cognitive) space is that space and place are intrinsic parts of our being in the world – defined and measured in terms of the nature and degree of people’s values, feelings, beliefs, and perceptions about locations, districts, and regions. Relate to other people and the physical environment. Thus relational space is consciously or unconsciously embedded in our intentions and actions (knox, 2004, p. 505). Space is organized into places often thought of as bounded settings in which social relations and identity are constituted. Such places may be officially recognized perceptual entities or more informally organized sites of intersecting social relations, meanings and collective memory. The concept of place, the uniqueness of particular places and place-based identities are hotly contested concepts in the contemporary context of increasing globalization and the perceived threat of place lessens. Place was seen by positivists as more subjectively defined, existential and particular, while space was thought to be more universal, more abstract phenomenon, subject to scientific law. The
Humanistic concept of place, largely drawn from phenomenology, was concerned with individuals’ attachments to particular places and the symbolic quality of popular concepts of place which link events, attitudes, and places and create a fused whole. It was concerned with meaning and contrasted the experienced richness of the idea of place with the detached sterility of the concept of space
Idea is that place is an emotional bounded area, often the dwelling-place, to which an individual or a group has a strong emotional relationship. People can even derive their personal identity from it. So place is a portion of urban space, sometimes defined as 'territories of meaning’ (holt, 1999, p. 224). Outside this place starts the immeasurable space, of which the individual or group has some knowledge but does not feel at home at or have any affectionate feelings towards. The way in which people identify with a place is very different from individual to individual. Humanistic studies show that people alternately associated place with safety and security (feeling at home) but also to imprisonment and isolation.
OPEN SPACES OVERALL BUILT SPACES BUILT ON AREA OF STUDY BUILDING USE PLAN AXIAL GRAPH
CONFIGURATION OF ROUTE
Natural entrance to Narsinghji Ki pol from gate the density suddenly changes drastically and the in between areas become more safer to pass for the users the spaces are closed forms by buildings
It is the first registration or indication of a change and orients the person the most and gives a sense of place there is a sense of belonging to this Place as there is a distinctive contrast from the previous stage.
The in between space continuity with the secondary road.
It has good accessibility with roads and also there is possibility to make silent place toward building side. This is used for passing.
The in between space is here between the residences and stores. The in between space in itself transitions physically as well as socially.
TABLE OF FINDINGS: NATURE OF ENCLOSURE OF IN BETWEEN SPACES
TABLE OF FINDINGS:SYSTEM OF SPACES
The In between spaces give a sense of freedom, a room to use non-privately. It is a by product of dense development which justifies every space and its vitality is maximized. They can be physically wedged between distinct, recognized and carefully designed places.. They are diverse, overlap activities and are a synergy of combined activities.in between space provide opportunity to choreograph which re-engages through repetitive distractions. Since medieval tie the narrow alleys which are self evolved or carver out spaces very vital. They are different than modern outdoor plazas. As the density is more it is more social and self mutating with time. There is absence of focus on the individual and his private space. These create sense of place to relate to as against huge span spaces which are often go unused. There are certain relations which the design formulation of in between space and a human associations have which have been depicted in this thesis.
These large open spaces are mostly not occupied and a generation of activities on purpose is need contradictory to the dense spaces in between. Between house to house in between space there is a constant merging of private and public space. The borderline between is shifted and sometimes even erased and it constitutes the in between space. The covered walkways allows people to assimilate. These spaces should be motor free, create mix of people and it is self generating of local employment. There is interaction of each element of space in between to the viewers and users.