Analyzing Spatial Form: ‘Seeing What We Don’t Normally See’ in Toronto.
Description This course asks you to become aware of how urban design can be read as an artifact, a reflection of a culture (beliefs, values, expectations, norms). To this end, this assignment requires that you observe, describe and sociologically analyze familiar urban spaces. This is not a research paper: do not use sources outside of the ones utilized in the course. The expectation is that you will directly observe, describe and analyze the space that you live in in Toronto, using the orientation of the course. Articles or material from the course must be properly referenced (see the Avoiding Plagiarism Guide, posted on Blackboard). Essays using material from external sources without proper sourcing will receive a grade of 0. What type of building is this, and how does the form allow you to identify it as such? What are the main visual cues that convey a sense of the building and its type? Consider the size of building, the placement of windows, the structure of the doors; what do these suggest? What is the building’s relation to the street? What sorts of pathways or sense of direction and movement have been generated? Are there markers of the private or the public? How do we see these? What are the most significant or important objects here and what do they ask us to think about or value? How does the design set up a sense of normal practice or use? What kinds of bodies are encouraged to move through this environment, and how are expectations of their ability or agility conveyed? Are there class dimensions to this structure? How does the design of this structure or immediate area show a relation to nature? What sorts of roles are set up through the form? Does the design set up a sense of this environment as public or private? Who is welcome and who is not welcome, and how does the design make this visible? Does the form create any hierarchies or power differentials? How does it set up social interaction? That is, how does this residential environment influence how you connect with family, relate to work, how you shop? Are these human activities completely separated from each other, or are there overlaps, ways in which they are interconnected? Remember that you want to ‘make the link’ – that is, to show how the spatial features / design details manifest a framework for thinking and acting. 2. In the next section of your paper, describe and analyze the form by which you usually transport yourself. How does this form of transportation shape the structure of your day? How does it set up how you relate to other city dwellers, or influence your relation to them? How does the city’s transportation structure shape the amount of time you spend at the locations you’ve analyzed above? 3. In your concluding paragraphs, reflect on the extent to which the city form that you live in now is similar to or different from earlier forms of urban space. Consider one of the periods examined in the first part of the course (ancient, medieval, early industrial) and think about what would be seen as familiar to that urban dweller. What in your living space would be the most unfamiliar or foreign to them? Is there something that was normal for early city dwellers that we might learn from as we continue to develop Toronto and the GTA?
Analyzing Spatial Form: ‘Seeing What We Don’t Normally See’ in Toronto