BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURETHEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2016) [5 MARKS]

NAME: MEERA NAZREEN ID: 0309630LECTURER: MS IDA TUTORIAL TIME: 2-4SYNOPSIS NO: 1 READER TITLE: LIFE BETWEEN BUILDINGS USING PUBLIC

SPACESAUTHOR: JAN GEHL

The Life Between Buildings: Using Public Spaces by Jan Gehl is such an eye opener. Who would’ve

thought by just sitting in a park alone, whether you’re observing or just plain looking around at the

people could be a form of contact? Not me, that’s for sure. Gehl’s writing of the book, with the help of

his team, is as if looking at society from a baby’s innocence eyes. He mentioned in the book that the

lowest intensity of contact is the “Passive Contact”; see and hear contact. That form of contact can

be seen as the birth of life in between the buildings. Having no sense of sight and hearing, a void

would take its place and float in between being by yourself, all alone as if you’re sitting in your silent

bedroom, and being with someone who you actually have connections since the start. Basically,

what I think Gehl is saying is that, any interaction happening between two or more people,

specifically outdoor (literally life between buildings) will give a city life. All of that may be possible

back then. However in my opinion, in this everything-is-one-click-away-era, we do not have to hold

the responsibility of going out and make connections in order to give the city a heartbeat. There is no

need to go out to make new friends. All of that is filled by the current technology. Sure we would

meet still meet people outside, not to be too anti-social, but the point is we do not have to actually go

out, make small conversations with strangers to make friends. I am not saying to overrule Gehl’s

idea of giving life to the city, to the public. I am just saying there are more innovative and alternative

ways in doing so and that today’s generation, most of them rely on social media as a form of contact.

However, they do still after making good connections on those platform, meet up and create their

own life between buildings. This is where our job, as the future architects for this generation, to

create public spaces which could be incorporated with all the technologies nowadays. In conclusion,

based on Jan Gehl’s interpretation of life between buildings, we could further develop it. Develop and

incorporate the current generation’s needs because they are the future users.

WORD COUNT: 385 DATE: 11th April 2016

MARK: GRADE:

ASSSESSED BY: