Walking Thinking City

Walking Thinking City An exploration of the individual

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my feet and mind who have served me, most satisfactorily for 24 years and continue to act as my tools in exploring the city.

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Abstract

This essay seeks to explore the complexity embodied in the apparently simple position of the solitary individual walking in the city. The essay will deconstruct the term “walking” into a Triangular Dynamic of walking thinking and city. Within this triad the individual’s path will be traced through philosophy, literature and architecture.

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Contents Page 06-‐Prologue 08-‐Chapter One-Walking, Thinking. i -‐Doing nothing ii -‐Rhythm 16-‐Chapter Two-Walking ‘bout a revolution i -‐Walking for pleasure ii -‐A new type of walker

iii -‐The arcades: Rise of the flâneur’s domain 24-‐Chapter Three-‐Shopping as verb and noun i -‐The arcades: Fall of the flâneur’s domain ii -‐The Limitless phantasmagoria-‐A universe in miniature iii -‐Private, public space 34-‐Epilogue 35-‐Reference List/Bibliography 37-Filmography 38-Appendices

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Walking Thinking City Prologue

“Life is easy to chronicle, bewildering to practice.” (Forster, E. M. 1908. P.132.) The quote above serves as the deepest root to the following discussion; I began with a

wish to explore the absolute, incomprehensible, complexity of: Life. Background reading, an enthusiasm for modern theory and the philosophical ideas of Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze and Deconstructivism led me to a consideration of the city and the individual as complex entities rather than more purist and singular ideals of classicism and modernism. I wanted to use a seemingly base, simple act and demonstrate how; this appearance of simplicity can be deconstructed to reveal a multitude of meaning, complexity and significance. Thus expressing the complexity of the human condition and exercise of life. This dramatic ambition is translated into my primary interest to explore the position of the solitary individual in the city.

My aim was to take a simple act: a solitary individual walking in the city, and

deconstruct this act to reveal the complexity and significance that can be extrapolated from such a seemingly banal gesture. The objective of deconstructing this simple act is to discover a veritable support for walking as more than a basic method of movement and is to construct a wide variety of architecturally relevant observations. I held a belief that the simple situation of: a walking individual in the city could assist me to reveal the complex relationship shared between human and habitat.

As one walks through a city one’s relationship and interaction with the urban fabric is

in a state of flux (Careri 2004.) The surrounding city contracts and expands into one’s perception. One’s mind and body does not maintain an experiential plateau of awareness but moves between an architecture that is perceived as a background and an architecture that is perceived as a foreground. Whether one is experiencing the city as foreground or as background depends upon both physical and psychological states (Pinder 2001.) With this paragraph I identify my first significant decision-‐to deconstruct the individual into three elements: physical, psychological and interactive.

Variations upon these three elements appear in supporting texts, though the

vocabulary used to describe the three elements differs between sources; Rebecca Solnit (2002 p. 290) describes “the body, the imagination and wild open world” Francesco Careri (2004 p. 79) refers to exploration—with reference to André Breton—as exploration of “dream life and waking life” within “real space.” Though the terminology is different, each phrasing’s concern is the same: an individual’s physicality, psychology and architecture (interaction with.) These three elements form the primary framework, which I will use to analyse the position of the individual in the city. I will refer to as: The Triangular Dynamic. The Triangular Dynamic: Walking Thinking City.

My dissertation is structured as a whole, comprised of three progressive and interrelated chapters. The three chapters can be defined by differences in: base text, context of analysis, city, individual and content; these definitions are not rigid but provide each chapter with an identifiable theme. The chapters follow a clear narrative structure: Chapter One is an introduction to the subject; Chapter Two discusses the subject within a notable time and place.

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Finally, Chapter Three concludes with the current state of the subject as a consequence of the events described in the preceding chapter. The organisation of the chapters is presented below:

Chapter 1-Intro Base text: Ulysses-‐James Joyce Context of analysis: Classical Literature City: Imaginary Dublin Individual: Leopold Bloom Content: Rhythms, the individual’s fluctuating perception of the city and walking as social disguise. Chapter 2-Notable event Base text: The Arcades Project-‐Walter Benjamin Context of analysis: Political and economic City: 19th Century Paris Individual: The flâneur Content: Walking for pleasure, the flâneur-‐the original urban walker and the rise of the Arcade. Chapter 3 Consequences and modern situation Base text: Project on the city: 2-‐Rem Koolhaas Context of analysis: Behavioural and Social Science City: Modern City Individual: The Shopper Content: Commodity, spectacle and shopping as the contemporary prosthetic for urbanity.

As hinted at the end of the previous page there exists a comprehensive body of

literature, which addresses some interpretation of the relationship between walking, thinking and the city. This literature is the predominate focus of my research; Rebecca Solnit’s text Wanderlust: A history of walking acts as a literary anchor for the essay, being continually relevant for the discussion in its entirety. Further reading of literature builds upon the base text of each chapter and is additionally supported with specifically researched journals.

The volume and depth of reviewed literature is supplemented by observations,

reveries and ideas from my own personal perspective as a solitary individual: walking and thinking through the city…

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Chapter One: Walking, Thinking

In literature, cinema and theory concerned with exploration of the city on a psychological level it is impossible to avoid the dominance of one method of movement: Walking (Plate 2006)(Coverly 2010.)

The superiority of walking as a method of exploring the city is the absence of physical barriers. Cars, trains and buses may take one to the same destination, they may even follow the same route but the materiality of the capsules in which one is transported act as filters between one and the city (Robertson 2007.) Walking is a continuous process, one moves across the city, experiencing the spaces, which lie between origin and destination, rather than being transported from one destination to another (Solnit 2002.) To fully investigate the rapport between the individual and the city, we must take situations in which the individual is in most direct contact to the physicality of the city and at maximum potential to experience it’s every element (de Certeau 1988.)

Doing Nothing

Thinking is generally thought doing nothing in a production-‐orientated culture, and doing nothing is hard to do. It’s best done by disguising it as doing something, the something closest to doing nothing is walking

(Solnit 2002 p. 5.)

This quote forms an essential part of my research. To understand the synergy between: thinking and walking. The wavering balance between: physical exertion and mental exertion and the rhythms between: the feet and the mind.

Thinking is not a process that can be observed or verified (Dennett 1993); it is not a process, that has a tangible physical form, but free thought is important. Walking however, is a physical and visible process, Rebecca Solnit (2002) discusses the relationship shared by walking and thinking in terms of disguises, presenting the visible practice of walking as disguise for the invisible practice of thinking. In this way I would like to posit that walking could be argued to bare a similarity to another practice/social disguise: smoking.

The presence of a cigarette—much like the practice of walking—can drastically alter the appearance of the solitary figure; to be alone, outside a building can be perceived as odd or threatening but the presence of a small burning stick completely changes this perception. The cigarette gives a visible purpose to the individual; it defines the individual. The solitary figure is no longer an odd or threatening stranger, but is a Smoker.

Like the cigarette, walking can operate as a disguise for ones internal thoughts. Walking allows the mind to wander without social aspersions being cast upon the individual. Walking gives physical expression to a psychological process. The two practices of walking and thinking share a synergy and co-‐exist at all times, variations, change in rhythms and disturbances to either process has consequences and affects upon the other 1 (Proust 1988.)

The two processes of thinking and walking are in a relationship but this relationship has a third party. The “ménage à trois” is completed by the city. A Triangular Dynamic between: Walking, Thinking and the City.

The problem in exploring the Triangular Dynamic is: How can one find a reliable source for the thinking process?

1 Marcel Proust explores the souvenir involontaire or proustian memory, unconscious thinking stimulated by physical interaction.

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As identified already, thinking, as a process is invisible (Dennett 1993) so, how can one analyse it? A questionnaire could be proposed as an option, but one can never truly trust that the answer of a participant to be true. There will inevitably be editing of answers, participants hiding, manipulating or simply not being aware of their conscious stream. So, any attempt to use questionnaire answers as a data source for research is folly because the information could never be verified.

To solve this initial problem I used literary fiction. In my initial exploratory reading, noted architectural texts (Solnit 2003) (Careri 2004) (Coverly 2010) discussed the movement of the Situationist International, psychogeography and emotional cartography in reference to two particular fictional texts: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and James Joyce’s Ulysses. The relevance of these fictions is great, due to their content, narrative and visual style. Joyce and Woolf both describe the triangular dynamic, weaving physical experience with conscious streams of thought within the cityscape. The description of the internal conscious stream of the central characters is expressed even further than in content, both writers employ a technique of writing where the visual layout of the words is representative of the manner of conscious stream, so, quickly considered issues are seen as a bullet point arrangements where drunken incomprehensible thoughts are presented with long continuous paragraphs without punctuation of coherence. This style of writing is called “Peristaltic Prose” and it increases the two texts value by facilitating easier understanding of the characters thinking process.

In using the two texts I could assume a degree of reliance, though both characters of the novels are fictional, both authors sought explicitly to concentrate upon the manner in which consciousness and physicality interact with the built world. The fact that this was the intention of the authors, combined with the wide acclamation of the texts—in both literature and architectural academia—gives the texts a level of reliability.

Appendix 1 is an excerpt from Ulysses; the chapter is Lestrygonians, which will be the sole focus of my analysis of this novel due to it’s particular appropriateness and value within the discussion of architecture 2 (Chaplin and Stara 2009.) In this first figure the novel’s central character Leopold Bloom becomes close to stationary, lingering upon a bridge. In analysing the text, one can see how Leopold Bloom’s thoughts are in constant dialogue with the city.

Appendix 1 also introduces an architectural element of great interest to the Triangular Dynamic: The bridge. The bridge, in this case can be equated to walking and to the cigarette as—the previously mentioned idea of—a disguise for thinking. It is an anomaly within the urban fabric. Within cinema (Steel 2005), literature and photography the bridge is represented as a point for thinking. In contrast to the rest of the city it is a place where an individual feels comfortable in being stationary3 (Lynch 1960) and where one can submerge oneself within ones consciousness. In this way, like the cigarette earlier the bridge becomes a disguise for thinking 4 (Sinclair 1998.) This example of the bridge is complex in supporting the Triangular Dynamic of walking, thinking and the city due to Leopold Bloom’s minimal movement but it

2 Each episode (chapter) of Ulysses is attributed an art, a style of writing, an organ and many other allegories, the special interest of this episode is that Joyce defined the art of Lestrygonians to be architecture, this does not necessarily speak of literal representation but does add weight to this chapter within architectural discussion as it suggests that some link with the broad topic of architecture was considered from inception. 3 Though Lynch never explicitly cites the bridge as being a place of value with regard to solitary thinking space his discussions of borders and edges as areas of interest and personal relevance can go someway to suggesting the presentation and representation of this architectural element as a place of solitude and thought. 4 Iain Sinclair’s novel Suicide Bridge explores amongst other myths of London the notorious Kray twins, the bridge being where they offered their weapons of murder to the water. Here again-‐from a notable author within the field of urban walking-‐ we can glean information that emphasises the important and symbolic relevance of a bridge within not just the architectural landscape of the city but within the imagination of the individual.

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does illustrate how walking, which, here is temporarily exchanged for the bridge serves to disguise Mr Bloom’s internal thought process.

The text is fragmented and it is difficult to extrude coherent meaning from, this is an example of the previously mentioned peristaltic prose. The visual fragmentation combined with the content of the thought tells one that Leopold Bloom’s thoughts are disorganised and fickle. Daniel Dennett explains (1993 p.253) in specific reference to Ulysses that this is demonstrative of the human psyche:

There is no single, definitive “stream of consciousness,” because there is no central Headquarters, no Cartesian Theatre where “it all comes together” for the perusal of a Central Meaner.

Our internal thinking process is a series of layers or drafts continuously changing in direction, depth and speed; coming from a world of stimulations (Dennett 1993.) We see in Appendix 1 how Joyce intersperses physical stimulants (the city) with seemingly unrelated tangents of thought. The green highlighted text in Appendix 1 demonstrates how the simple presence of a sign on a boat can penetrate and affect the conscious flow of Leopold Bloom; the physical image provokes thinking about mortality and a doctor he knows.

Externally, from the perspective of a passing pedestrian Leopold Bloom is a man walking onto a bridge and pausing to feed the birds; this is his physical state. Internally, from the perspective of his mind Leopold Bloom is occupied with fragmented and loosely influenced thoughts of little relevance; this is his psychological state. Physically he is lingering close to stationary but psychologically he is active; jumping from topic to topic, memories or thoughts, which are stimulated by his external environment. The quality of this text as a reference for my research is that we, as readers are privy to both of these perspectives. We can see Leopold as he appears externally and simultaneously see what he is occupied with internally, by being privy to both of these perspectives we are allowed to explore the changing balance in the Triangular Dynamic and how the roles of the three elements of the dynamic can change.

The relevance of Appendix 1 is to demonstrate how walking can operate as a disguise for the thinking process. Bloom is walking to disguise his thinking, he then pauses, and the bridge assumes the role of social disguise. Mr. Bloom’s pretence of doing “something” continues as does his doing of “nothing.”

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Rhythm

In moving through a city we follow two paths at the same time 5.

One’s feet follow the first path; this path is a physical path. The physical path can be diverted and changed by obstructions in one’s intended route. These obstructions, like the path are physical, they can be holes or roads or streams or steps.

The second path is traced by one’s consciousness and is more commonly called a stream. The conscious stream weaves its way through one’s environment along a route. Like one’s physical path this stream is disturbed and altered by obstructions. These obstructions can be emotions or ponderings or sensations or memories.

We trace the physical path and the conscious stream at the same time; they are followed in unison with a correlation between the two. Changes in the flow of one path have an impact upon the flow of the other path 6 (Debord 1996 [1958].) Rather than paths, allow us to think of these as rhythms. The rhythm of the feet: Walking, and the rhythm of the mind: Thinking.

The rhythm of the feet can have an impact upon the rhythm of the mind. This, in part, is the reason why the above chapter is so important; it establishes the Triangular Dynamic and demonstrates the relationship between physicality and mentality, one having the power to affect the other. The two rhythms can converge or diverge. In converging they beat the same rhythm-‐harmonising, where walking rhythm agrees with the rhythm of thinking. Or they can diverge where an increase or decrease in the rhythm of one means a dwindling in the rhythm of the other7 (Vergunst 2010.) Again Ulysses is a perfect case to study the rhythms of walking and thinking and how changes in these rhythms affect the Triangular Dynamic and an individual’s relationship with the city (White 2009.)

Ulysses as a source of reference remains valuable in continuing to explore the link between internal thought, walking and the city. In this portion of the essay I have identified three stages (Appendices 1, 2 and 3) in Ulysses that illustrate different rhythms in the feet or mind or both. The text includes changes in rhythm both physically and psychologically. Using this text I will show how changes in these rhythms change the manner in which Mr Bloom interacts with the city’s architecture. Observations can be extrapolated and in a later chapter I will demonstrate how these observations are used in urban strategies and architectural planning.

5 Wide selections of texts, spanning multiple professions affirm walking as existing, not solely as a physical practice. Furthermore the accepted truth that the path—traced by the feet—also exist, not in isolation, but is twinned with a mental path that is simultaneously traced. (Lynch 1960,) (Careri 2004,) (de Certeau 1988.) 6 Guy Debord’s text Theory of the Dérive and his wider discussions of Situainalism and psychogeography are concerned with the relationship between physicality and psychology and how the two working simultaneously determine our navigation of urban space. The dérive sought to try and defragment the melange between impulses and emotional reasoning within urban walking. 7 Vergunst discusses walking rhythms in a slightly different context; that of the group rather than the individual. However, I believe Vergunst’s findings which, compare fluctuating levels of conversation with increased or decreased ease of physical movement in the city street can be extrapolated to support my discussion of fluctuating thinking and walking rhythms. Where—within a group example—discussion can be argued to represent the “thinking” component of the Triangular Dynamic, in the example of a solitary individual it is internal monologues or conscious stream.

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Rhythm 1: in the previous segment of writing we looked at a portion of Ulysses where Leopold Bloom is dawdling on the bridge (Appendix 1.) This segment is the first rhythm, Rhythm 1. It represents a time where the rhythm of the feet and mind are harmonising; they are both without direction or urgency and are lazily exploring the city. The feet in fact are close to stationary. From his almost stagnant physical state Mr Bloom’s consciousness is able to meander through various thoughts at his leisure, his interaction with the built environment is detailed and in a gentle state of flux. The text shows us how Mr Bloom is experiencing the city as both foreground and background. As a foreground, he notices elements; a brewery barge, gaunt quay walls and glazed apples, the physical observations stimulate his consciousness into various thoughts and the city (as reality) slips into the background. This gentle exchange between physical observation and unhurried thinking is linked to his physical state. He has a chance to observe the details of the city, his stationary (close to) position allows him to have multiple observations and thoughts thus one location becomes a place of richness and personal relevance (Hall 2009.)

Though this may seem pretty obvious to point out-‐stopping and being still allows for greater inspection of a place. It is a state, which is readily available through walking, walking allows for contemplation and inspection at will (Robertson 2007.) Where the speed and direction of movement on a bus is dictated, walking allows for moments of reverie and interaction with the city. It is worthy of note to register Mr Bloom’s mental state as well as his physical. At this point in time he is directionless in his thoughts. Through the peristaltic prose we (as readers) are delivered information about thoughts and observations, the text visually presents Mr Bloom’s thoughts as continuous reams which seamlessly and without punctuation intersperse with physical observation and content wise we spring from thought to thought without a clear theme or organisation this enforces the state of Mr Blooms mind as directionless. The mixture of city and thought is emphasised by the visual composition of text, Joyce wants to demonstrate how tightly the two are in coexistence, though the city is shifting between foreground and background it is not doing so as a conscious task but organically. The built environment enters Leopold’s mind freely and diverts him on whatever mental tangent it stimulates, this type of mental relationship to the city could be described as particularly receptive to stimulation in the built environment, recognition of this receptiveness or vulnerability will be discussed later within the context of commodity and shopping.

Rhythm 2: We rejoin Mr Bloom at a moment of change in rhythm (Appendix 2.) Previously Mr Bloom’s physical and psychological movements were without purpose but in Rhythm 2 we are introduced to a purpose: Leopold Bloom is hungry. As Leopold’s hunger grows his rhythm of movement, thinking and manner of interaction with the city changes.

Earlier in the text the brief narrative descriptions we are given to locate Mr Bloom geographically (O’Connell Bridge in Rhythm 1) show, he moves little in this period and Mr Bloom’s speed was leisurely. However, with his increased purpose and direction of thinking there is an increase in speed of walking, Mr Bloom’s walking becomes a practice of physical exertion requiring increased focus in order to attain his speed. The emergence of a purpose (hunger) to his mind changes the speed at which Leopold Bloom is walking, what was an amble becomes a walk with pace and purpose.

Leopold’s thinking, previously fragmented and idle becomes more cohesive and there emerges an increasingly clear theme of hunger and food. His observations and even his language becomes more emphasised upon eating. Vocabulary, even when describing unrelated items uses lexicon related to food. The text that represents the conscious stream allows us to visualise this change in thinking rhythm, we can see increased coherency in Leopold’s thinking and the content of the text is easier to understand, showing his increasing singularity and focus in thinking.

As the psychological rhythm becomes more focussed so the rhythm of the feet change to mirror it. The change in the rhythm of both walking and thinking effects Mr Leopold Bloom’s interaction with the city. The city, which on his amble is free and tempting with endless opportunities, becomes a more fixed space, which is navigated rather than explored (Lynch

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1960.) Navigation and more precisely to navigate in search of food changes the way that the city punctures the conscious stream of Mr Bloom. These punctures are possible to group with a theme; an increased noticing of food related signs, food words and buildings with food relevance enter Blooms thinking. Mr Bloom’s interaction with the city increases with the severity of his hunger until we are finally brought to a climax where Bloom submits and enters a place to eat. The change in the Triangular Dynamic with this rhythm serves to highlight an interesting point.

The city as an element of the Triangle increases its presence and dominance as the necessity for food increases. It also changes in its manner of interaction or perception, Mr Bloom begins to perceive the city as a collection of particular buildings and he is eliminating unnecessary information about the city. This is interesting because it shows how the discourse with the city can alter; the city is observed in a much more structured and objective way, the movements of Mr Bloom gain much relevance in the text of K. Lynch-‐Image of the City.

This image [of the city] is a product of both immediate sensation and the memory of past experience, and it is used to interpret information and guide action.

Lynch’s (1960 p. 4) statement above identifies the technique of interaction and recognition Mr bloom is implementing; his ingrained understanding of the city as a landscape to fulfil a basic need. Kevin Lynch calls this method of interaction with a city: Legibility. Legibility is ones ability to read the physical components of a city to make an overall understanding. The Triangular Dynamic goes on to another extreme where the balance between the three areas of exploration changes again.

Rhythm 3: towards the end of Lestrygonians after having eaten and returned to a more leisurely pace and state of mind (Appendix 3) Leopold Bloom sees a man who he knows to be having an affair with his wife. Eager/desperate to avoid a confrontation he quickly makes an escape.

This portion of text is visually, and in content different from the continuous writing of earlier rhythms. Visually, it is presented as a series of short points and in content it delivers precise snippets of information.

After the recognition of the man he wishes to avoid Leopold begins a fast walk towards Dublin’s National Museum. It is walking which forms the easiest element of the Triangular Dynamic to identify a change in rhythm. The change here is basic. He has a purpose to fly the scene and so uses his feet to carry him away at speed. The rhythm of Mr Blooms walking goes from one of ease to that of exertion. Mr Bloom’s walking, in trying to escape, no longer operates as a means to disguise his thinking as previously it did, but becomes a means unto itself. The walking becomes a physical act that requires effort this necessity for speed and exertion makes the walking a much more prominent element of the triangular dynamic (Vergunst 2010.)

As walking takes a more dominant role in the balance of the Triangular Dynamic the city and thinking roles diminish. Mr Bloom’s mental state at this point is completely singular with one thought: evading the encounter. His previously disorganised ponderings are eradicated in favour of a clear central desire to make a getaway Appendix 3 can almost be viewed as a “tussle” between thinking and walking. There are small sections where thoughts and ideas appear to try and establish themselves but are disregarded in favour of the dominating walking rhythm.

The most interesting change in the dynamic is with Leopold’s interaction with the city. The Museum (where he will find safety) becomes somewhat of a finish line or destination and the city, which lies between him and his finish line operates as gauges of speed and distance, markers which measure how close he is to safety. The city is described thus, noticed, as an objective foreground (Thompson 2010), Mr Bloom and the city are in direct discourse, but Leopold’s manner of experiencing the city is again different. The city is experienced not as stimulation for emotional responses, as in Rhythm 1, nor as a landscape to be read in search of

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food, as in Rhythm 2. This time the city is experienced as surfaces and dates that are recalled quickly in favour of the emotional responses.

The changes in rhythm serve to display how the city can alternate between background and foreground but also demonstrate how psychological and physical states alter the very nature of the city. In the three rhythms is source of food, provider of shelter and stimulator of thought and emotion.

Within a small time frame or distance the way we experience the architecture of the urban landscape can dramatically change, as does the Triangular Dynamic of Walking, thinking and city. If this relationship can be realised then it can be exploited (Benjamin 1999.)

The following chapter alters the angle of study and looks at architectural markers and building types, exploring what these can tell us about the Triangular Dynamic and how the architectural typologies were generated by this combination

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Chapter Two: Walking ‘bout a revolution

The second chapter of my dissertation is to identify how, the previously established Triangular Dynamic of walking, thinking and the city has influenced the development of the urban fabric. The chapter will attempt to identify how acknowledgement and development of the practices: walking and thinking, in relation to the city have been responsible for the creation of architectural typologies and have been an impetus for the contemporary image of the modern metropolis.

Walking for pleasure

Walking as a physical, anatomical act is long established (Solnit 2002), we humans have long since been the two legged, bipedal beings that graze the world today. However, walking as already attested is more than the utilitarian method of travel but is imbibed with meaning. The elevation of walking above being a method of rudimentary transport has developed slowly through physical, political, artistic and cultural changes. Changes in the meaning of walking has both “shaped and been shaped by the spaces it passes through” (Solnit 2002 p. 4.) A prominent figure in the discussion of walking’s changing meaning is William Wordsworth.

William Wordsworth is one of England’s most prolific and revered poets; he was also a prolific walker. Wordsworth is noted as being an influential literary figure in the emerging Romantic era of the mid 18th Century. Before the 18th Century walking was restricted in its purpose to that of a utilitarian practice, 8 Wordsworth-‐in conjunction with the Romantic era -‐was revolutionary in his advocacy and introduction of a new type of walking: Walking for pleasure (Solnit 2002.)

William Wordsworth was a catalyst for change with respect to walking as a means unto itself yet, the corresponding accommodation—within the built form—of this new; walking for pleasure, is not principally seen within the city but can be more clearly viewed with the evolution of landscape architecture and particularly, the popular “English Garden.”

Landscape architecture of the 18th Century was viewed as a sort of organic ornament, taking aesthetic inspiration from the Neoclassical movement; emphasising symmetry, grandeur and straight line perspectives designed to impress (Thompson 2010.) These gardens were to be viewed from the perspective of balconies in the large houses and mansions, surveyed as a whole from a distance but not experienced in close proximity. Gardens were private spaces used and owned by the wealthy upper classes. The private estates were isolated by large perimeter walls, which guard the internal space from intrusion. The regimented landscapes suggested, “nature was a chaos upon which men must impose order” (Solnit 2002 p. 89.)

Romanticism, Picturesque (an emerging strand of Romanticism) and William Wordsworth as a personification of both these movements; emphasised the beauty of an untouched and wild landscape, his poetry and literature describe thoughts and emotions that are evoked—by the surrounding stimulus of an untamed nature—whilst walking. Walking for pleasure introduces a new rhythm of walker and within the context of landscape architecture we begin to see how the regimented Neoclassical gardens mutate into the Picturesque to facilitate this new rhythm of walking.

Walking for pleasure was the impetus in changing garden designs of the late 18th early 19th century (Solnit 2002.) Rigorous gardens became more organic and true to natural

8 Until the latter period of the 18th Century city spaces were used predominately as utilitarian spaces and walking within them was largely restricted in purpose to that of functional. As the century progressed both England and mainland Europe began to see increasing interest and constructed provision for solitary walking as an activity in the city for pleasure.

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development, the “Ha-‐Ha wall” eliminated the need for imposing boundary walls and allowed for a diffused view between the natural landscape and the grounds of the private estates. The gardens of the private estates began to be explored on foot in favour of the surveying perspective and a taste for serendipity and discoveries led to a more human scale design. The gardens begin to appeal to a more sensuous experience rather than viewing from a removed perspective the landscapes seek to touch the user in a more evocative manner and walking as a practice is viewed as something more than physical activity.

Garden evolution is hugely important because it represents a built response to a new kind of walking. By proposing walking as a viable activity unto itself it sees the beginning of walking as what Fransesco Careri calls an “aesthetic practice,” walking becomes a much wider term to include a process of thinking and experiencing.

The progression of “Walking for Pleasure” into the cities comes later at the beginning of the 19th Century 9 (Thompson 2010.) To accommodate the new rhythm of walking the city requires architectural intervention but William Wordsworth as a catalyst for “Walking for Pleasure” paves the way for a whole new category of urban walker…

9 Thompson discusses how ideals of Picturesque are translated into urban walking she demonstrates this by the analysis of city guides which increasingly seek to present the city (especially Paris) as an environment to be experienced emotionally rather than navigated objectively. However, she says this way of experiencing the city is only made viable with—the subsequently discussed architectural—interventions to the urban fabric. Walking for Pleasure is primarily a practice of garden and landscape because the city was too dangerous.

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New Type of Walker

After the preceding “Walking for Pleasure” revolution we return to the topic left at the end of Chapter One. Rhythm. In Chapter One I identified how changes in mental and physical rhythms alter the manner of interaction an individual shares with the city. I set out, in this chapter to explore how the Triangular Dynamic as the co-‐existing elements of walking, thinking and the city has influenced the developing image of urbanity and the position of the individual within it. The relevance of William Wordsworth in conjunction with the individual walker’s changing rhythms, is that he personifies a new philosophy of walking which in turn brings a new type of walker10.

The three rhythms in the feet and mind of Chapter One are all attributed to the same individual: Leopold Bloom. However, from the perspective of responding to these rhythms with an architectural intention they are in effect three different people or three types of walker. Each rhythm represents a different kind of individual and a different interaction with the city. Rhythm 1 is a casual and purposeless walker, easily tempted and influenced in their physical movement; their mental state is also unheeded by purpose and so in a receptive 11 (Wells 2007) dialogue with the built surroundings. Rhythm 2 is a hungry person who’s walking state is one of purpose and navigation. In thinking, Rhythm 2’s dialogue with the city is singular and occupied, looking for specific signs (in this case related to food.) Rhythm 3 is a person in a rush, again with a clear purpose. In this case; walking is a physical exertion requiring conscious thought and the city is an objective space, which must be traversed in optimum time in order to reach a destination. The manner in which each of these rhythms (individuals) perceives the city is different, thus the city, which is designed to respond to the individual, must also be different. Continuing this logic, we can see how architecture could seek to respond to a specific type of rhythm, individual or type of walker; even seeking to artificially create the specific rhythms of thinking and walking states (Benjamin 1999.)

The process of defining an individual as a specific type of walker with specific physical and mental rhythms, is similar to a fashion of early 19th century Paris. At the beginning of the 19th century in Paris there was a rise in popularity of cartoons called Physiologies. These physiologies were series’ of cartoon sketches or descriptions, which offered an observed analysis of the crowd (Tester 1994.) People across the city of Paris were branded with defined titles according to (superficial) analysis; these definitions gave information of purpose, class and wealth, also providing information of patterns (rhythms) in movement and thinking. Amongst the crowd of physiologies at the very specific time of 19th century Paris, arose one particular defined or rather undefined 12 individual: the Flâneur.

What exactly a flâneur is has never been satisfactorily defined, but among all versions of the flâneur as everything from a primeval slacker to a silent poet one thing remains constant: the image of an observant and solitary man strolling about Paris. (

10 Solnit (2002 p. 104) quotes: While others walked before and after him [Wordsworth] … For Wordsworth walking was a mode not of travelling, but of being.

The quote, I believe supports Wordsworth’s position in this essay as a revolutionary personification of a new walking philosophy. 11 Karen Wells within her discussion of commodity, spectacle and consumer culture discusses the mental rhythm of receptiveness which she—and later I—will explore in the context of shopping. She identifies a certain mental state of receptiveness, which, makes the individual particularly susceptible to influence, or stimulation from the physical surrounding. 12 The discussion of the flâneur is undeniably seminal in discussing the position of the individual walking in the city, but to the most dedicated of researchers the flâneur remains a slippery character. The flâneur exists as a symbolic and real individual and holds relevance in wide varying fields of study, thus I have only attempted to discuss his role as relative to my research.

17

Solnit 2002 p. 198)

The flâneur is a personified result of; the evolution of walking for pleasure into the urban landscape (Thompson 2010.) He is an individual found walking in the crowds of the city, but is enlightened with a new walking philosophy; he circulates amongst the masses, but is without the utilitarian motive to his movements that are retained by the Parisians of the early 19th Century. The flâneur is afforded his leisurely rhythms of feet and mind by social and intellectual status (Tester 1994) he, as solitary urban walker translates the Romantic ideals of landscape exploration and appreciation into the urban realm. Walter Benjamin (1999 p. 420) includes a snippet in his Arcades Project, which, in reference to Proust attests that “a new Romantic conception of landscape emerges-‐ of landscape that seems, rather to be cityscape.” The flâneur’s role within this newly defined cityscape is one of explorer/detective-‐observer.

Baudelaire: French poet and commonly noted sole authentic flâneur (Benjamin 1999) enjoyed the position of the flâneur and the practices of flânerie as observer of the mutating French capital 13. The city-‐Paris was a landscape, and Baudelaire (as the representing flâneur) perceives this landscape and its inhabitants while simultaneously contributing to it. The quality of the flâneur became this duality, marginality and contradiction, an individual within the crowd; he is internal to the crowd but retains an ability to gain an external perspective.

The man of [emphasis added] the crowd as opposed to being the man in [emphasis added] the crowd. 14

(Tester 1994 p. 3)

The flâneur as already mentioned is; the introduction of walking for pleasure into the city, personified. In terms of physical walking rhythm he holds a leisurely pace, a stroll15. This leisurely pace is due to the walk being an act unto itself. As outlined by the exploration of Wordsworth and Romanticism, walking for pleasure removes the idea of purpose or destination. In an above paragraph the flâneur is described as observer and explorer of the “cityscape,” the flâneur seeks to study the city and know16 it as one would a landscape: to “render the city meaningful” (Thompson 2010 p. 1.) As in the landscape discussion, Neoclassical terms of knowing the city which meant the learning of notable dates and the appreciation of historical sites gave way—in the flâneur—to the Romantic ideals which he symbolised of; places for reverie and memory (Thompson 2010.) Reverting back to Rhythm 1 of Leopold Bloom we see that Leopold’s interaction and relationship to the city is at its most intimate with an absence in direction to his walking rhythm. This draws attention to a similarity between the rhythm of the feet of: the flâneur and Leopold Bloom, suggesting a slow, casual rhythm of the feet allows for an increased receptiveness of the mind (White 2009.)

Thinking in the flâneur is, as to be expected (drawing from comments in Chapter One) harmonising with that of the feet. The flâneur is purposeless; his mind is without preoccupation17 he is free and more importantly receptive to thoughts and observations of his surroundings. In this state of purposelessness the flâneur again bares similarity to Leopold Bloom in rhythm 1, in that the he is receptive and open to the city, which can enter and stimulate his conscious path.

13 The comment “mutating French capital” is to try and hint at the changing face of the city. Paris at this time was being reshaped by commodity, capitalism and, of course the Revolutions. 14 The difference between of and in is a key understanding and will feature heavily in relevance to the later discussed building types of the arcade and shopping centre. 15 The etymology of the term flâneur derives from the French verb Flâner-‐To stroll. 16 Victoria E. Thompson discusses the term “to know” a city and explores shifting philosophies in “knowing” sourcing Parisian guidebooks of the 19th Century, she too highlights shifting ways of rendering a city meaningful, exchanging facts for personal/emotional relevance. 17 Here is where the relevance of the flâneurs social status is of value, the flâneur is not concerned with practical worries such as money so can be unheeded by the trivial preoccupations.

18

The flâneur is the link between routine perambulation, in which a person is only half-‐awake, making his way from point A to point B, and the moments of chiasmic epiphany that one reads of in Wordsworth or Joyce.

(Crickenberger, 2007)

We can discuss the interaction of the flâneur and the city within the framework of the Triangular Dynamic. Whether the idle rhythms of feet and mind are a result of the flâneur’s desire to observe a rich and meaningful relationship with the city or that he builds this relationship as a result of his idle receptive rhythms is not clear but, the flâneur as: a rhythm in thinking, walking and the city or as a physiologue, embodies a new type of walker. A walker who’s rhythms render him18 a level of receptiveness/vulnerability to the stimulants of his physical surroundings.

Basic to flânerie, among other things, is the idea that the fruits of idleness are more precious than the fruits of labour… His eyes open, his ear ready, searching for something entirely different to what the crowd gathers to see. Larousse

(cited by Benjamin 1999 p. 453.)

18 The flâneur has been consistently referred to as a Him, this is due to the dominance of men as solitary walking individuals in 19th Century, the term “flâneuse” gains increasing complexity with connotations of solicitation, dangers of the city and social ideals regarding unaccompanied females.

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The Arcades: Rise of the flâneur’s domain

Until 1870 the carriage ruled the streets. On the narrow sidewalks the pedestrian was extremely cramped and so strolling took place in the arcades, which offered protection from bad weather and from the traffic. Our larger streets and our wider sidewalks are suited to the sweet flânerie that for our father was impossible except in the arcades.

This fragment of Edmond Beaurepaire’s included by Walter Benjamin (1999 p. 32) demonstrates the importance of the arcade as a built response to the needs of the flâneur. The idle rhythm of the flâneur identified in the previous segment, as attested above was not widely available in the cityscape of 19th Century Paris, the solitary stroller required a space to enjoy his newfound walking rhythm. Walking for pleasure was personified in the flâneur; in the arcade19 it found its architectural manifestation20 (Lewandowski 2005.)

In Chapter One, in reference to rhythm, I mentioned that we trace a path with our feet and with our mind through the city and that both these paths face obstructions. The idle rhythm of flânerie required a space in which it’s walking was not disturbed or interrupted by the physical obstacles of the city. Carriage traffic and unpleasant weather made for disturbances in ones physical path and the city offered no shelter. The arcade eliminated these physical obstructions and provided an environment within the city, which was protected from the traffic and sheltered from the rain; these initial physical provisions catered for the free walking of flânerie and are subsequently what led the arcade to be described as: the domain of the flâneur (Benjamin 1999.) The attributes of the arcade which established it’s inseparable bond to the movements of that one particular type of walker: the flâneur, are more complex than physical shelter from the rain. The arcade developed at the beginning of the 19th century and as with the flâneur, became instrumental and symbolic in discussions of the changing city image, modernity and a commodity culture.

Paris at the beginning of the 19th Century was a city in a state of mutation. In industry, commerce and philosophy the city was changing. The arcades arose as a built product of these many changing influences; they represent a turning point in the city image of Paris. Walter Benjamin, Charles Baudelaire and Karl Marx use the arcades as symbolic/illustrative tools in discussions of modernity, consumerism and capitalism; the arcade becomes symbolic not just of change in Paris but a shifting in values of the West (Benjamin 1999.) The discussion of commodity in particular is of huge relevance to both flâneur and arcade but will be suspended until a little later in the essay.

At this point I would like to concentrate upon the Triangular Dynamic and how the arcade facilitated the flâneur’s interaction to the city through accommodation of idle walking and thinking rhythms. The problem with flânerie within the city of Paris at this point is: increased industrialisation of the city has brought increased volume of traffic (carriages,) this traffic makes walking a hazardous pursuit (Solnit 2002.) The dangers of the street mean that the city is not a space where reverie can take place; the danger imposes itself upon the rhythms of walking and thinking; walking becomes a practice with purpose: avoidance of harm. This purpose transforms the desired rhythm of the flâneur (Rhythm 1-‐Chapter One) to something more resembling Rhythm 3 (Chapter One.) Walking becomes a conscious process requiring attention and exertion; the necessity, in walking, of mental as well as physical attention means that the mind—as in Rhythm 3—is no longer free or receptive to the city. Flânerie relies on idle thinking equal to idle walking, to achieve both the flâneur needs an environment of safety where obstacles to his mental and physical rhythms are absent.

A man who goes for a walk ought not to have to concern himself with any hazards he may run into or with the regulations of the city. If an amusing idea enters his head, if a

19 Arcades are covered passageways spanning the distance between buildings to create semi-‐internal corridors. 20 Lewandowski along with Benjamin discusses flâneur and arcade as a relationship of inhabitant and habitat, the arcade is the “drawing room” of the flâneur.

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curious shop front comes into view, it is natural that he would want to cross the street without confronting dangers […] If he tries to collect the whimsical thoughts that may have come to mind, very possibly occasioned by sights of the street, he is deafened by car horns.

(Benjamin 1999 p. 435.)

In providing protection from the danger of the streets the arcade is the provision of a space for the flâneur’s idle walking and thinking rhythms but, the third element of the Triangular Dynamic and a principle consideration—if not impetus—for the rhythms of the flâneur is a desire to observe and experience the city. The arcades facilitate this interaction with the city by mirroring the qualities of the flâneur: marginality and duality, a simultaneous existence understood by the quote: “man of the crowd as opposed to being the man in the crowd” (Tester 1994 p. 3.) This simultaneous existence is present to,o in the arcade in it’s relationship to the wider city. The arcade-‐as shelter, becomes an internalised area, it is covered from weather and external obstructions of the city yet, despite it’s provision of an internal-‐like space it also retains external characteristics and so a continuing relationship (both physically and geographically) with the external city. In these terms we could perhaps describe the arcade as of the city as opposed to in the city21.

The arcade existed in its temporarily maintained state between interior/exterior for a short time; for a limited period the arcades were the perfect architectural response to the rhythms of the flâneur. The harmony between flâneur and arcade is most delicately balanced by the duality of the arcade, which while maintaining visual and physical relationship to the external city allows the flâneur to continue his enriching dialogue that imprints personal experience upon the city and renders it meaningful (Thompson 2010.)

“now a landscape, now a room” (Benjamin 1999 p. 10)

“make the street an interior” (Benjamin 1999 p. 421)

The above quotes, taken from Walter Benjamin; further express the duality of the arcades and their ability to function as both external and internal spaces. The interior image is emphasised by the increasingly lavish aesthetic of the arcades: protection from weather permits the décor of the covered walkways to resemble the luxury, previously restricted to interiors. Panelled marble and fresco painted walls sat amongst the opulent swathes of textiles, furthering the distinction between the external and internal. The embellished “interior” of the arcade was welcomed, the passageways gaining the description of phantasmagorias22 of Paris.

The phantasmagoria of the building is supplemented by the wonder of it’s contents: the arcades were the result of financial coalitions between shop owners, the owners would combine funds to provide a sheltered walkway that ran between their enterprises (Solnit 2002.) The boutiques that flanked the vaulted glass ceilings of the arcades were luxurious and were adding to the reputation of the phantasmagoria with the developing ideal of: the commodity. Paris at 19th Century as already noted was in a state of mutation, this mutation was present in the worlds of economics and philosophy as much as in physical image of the city, the idea of buying and selling was changing; in the arcades we can see how. Increasing value could be placed upon an item beyond that of utilitarian worth23 (Lewandowski 2005), window

21 This quote is based upon the description of the arcade by Baudelaire and Balzac who celebrate the way that the arcade can act as both a continuity of the urban fabric-‐in that it is still physically open to the wider urban landscape yet due to it’s protected environment it has the ability to exist as a distinct other from the external city. 22 “Phantasmagoria n. a shifting series of real or imaginary figures as seen in a dream.” (Swannell 1995 p. 801) 23 The difference between “use-‐value and connoisseur-‐value” is put crudely as: the connoisseur-‐value of an object, which exceeds that of its basic usability and is justified (in value) by increased quality, presentation or beauty, Marx as referenced by Benjamin (1999.)

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displays sought to dazzle and amaze in justification of increased product value. The boutique owners become artists and the arrangement of their produce art.

An artistic display of textiles, shoes and clothes stimulate awe and exacerbates the internal vision of arcades as phantasmagoria. Where previously the flâneur and fellow walkers were interacting with the arcades as participatory users, the arcades begin to operate not as provision, but as spectacle24 (Kohn 2008) no longer catering the rhythm of the flâneur and existing as a realm within which he could operate. The arcade-‐as spectacle becomes a tool for the sale of goods, an extension of added value to products, the arcade is an overflow of the window display; and the participatory pedestrian is reduced to a role of spectator, with the arcade is the spectacle arresting their attention.

The position of the individual or flâneur within the arcade as a manifestation of the capitalist city is changing, the arcade represents a building type, which for a time facilitated: a walking rhythm of idleness, a thinking rhythm of receptiveness and managed to exist as a continuation of the city fabric while simultaneously providing the benefits of an enclosed space. “The passage is a city, a world in miniature” (Benjamin 1999 p. 15.) The delicate duality that endowed the arcades with title: domain of the flâneur begins to tip and the harmonious balance is lost…

Within the world of the arcades the idea of connoisseur-‐value is detrimental in expansion of the phantasmagorical state. Connoisseur-‐value is at the heart of increased artistic presentation of goods. “Art enters the service of the merchant” (Benjamin 1999 p. 3.) 24 Kohn’s paper explores the relevance of the spectacle in relation to public space; the spectacle represents a paradigmatic shift in the relationship and use of the masses or individual and public spaces. The arcade; as a spectacle, is identified by Benjamin (1999) as a direct result of commodity culture.

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Chapter Three: Shopping as verb and noun Chapter One introduced the Triangular Dynamic. Three co-‐dependent and

interconnected practices: Walking, thinking and the city (interaction with.) I identified how walking and thinking exist in non-‐hierarchal, polyrhythmic symbiosis25; I described how walking can act as social disguise for the thinking process of the individual and how it gives physical expression to an invisible process. I also described how the rhythms of both walking and thinking are influenced and influence interaction, of the individual with the city. Chapter Two identified a new philosophy of walking: walking for pleasure. The chapter introduced a new type of walker to the city: the Flâneur, a personification of rhythms in the Triangular Dynamic. In the first discussion of the arcades I described how a building typology responded to the particular rhythms of an individual.

Chapter Three will highlight how the arcades as “Temples to commodity” (Benjamin

1999 p. 37) seek to exploit the rhythm of receptiveness and capitalise upon the rhythms of the users that it affords. The chapter will trace how this exploitation led to the arcades demise as domain of the flâneur. The commoditisation of arcades as public spaces is further investigated in the evolving shopping centre-‐as a decedent of the arcade (Jewell 2001) and shopping-‐as a verb, becoming synonymous with public activity (Kärrholm 2009.)

The Arcades: Fall of the flâneur’s domain

They [the arcades] created a framework in which their use-‐value receded into the background. They opened up a phantasmagoria into which people entered in order to be distracted…”

(Benjamin 1999 p. 18.)

The use-‐value, which is indicate—in the above featured quote—as receding into the background is the practical provision that the arcades originally offered to pedestrians as a safe refuge from the hazardous industrial street of Paris. The dwindling presence of the arcade as domain of the flâneur can be attributed widely to this recession of use-‐value and the new found place of the arcade as: Spectacle, a link between city and capitalism (Wells 2007.)

Capitalism, commodity, consumerism, spectacle: whatever political or economic impetus we decide to rest upon in this part of the discussion is to some degree irrelevant. The consequence of this impetus is a mutation in the arcade that renders it no longer the habitat of the flâneur. Walking, as one element of the Triangular Dynamic remains well catered for within the arcades, in fact the arcades continue to facilitate ease of movement. However, it is in the two other components of the Triangular Dynamic that the arcade looses its position as a superior environment. The decline or rather manipulation/exploitation of thinking and interaction with the wider city within the arcades can be attributed to the ownership and thus purpose of the arcade26 (Kohn 2008.)

The opening quote of Walter Benjamin is indicative of a key point, which was initially described in Chapter One and subsequently elaborated upon with analysis of the flâneur as a new type of walker: the rhythm of receptiveness27 (Shove and Pantzar 2005.) The idle rhythms

25 The term “polyrhythmic” is used by Mattias Kärrholm (2009), it describes a state where multiple rhythms co-‐exist at the same time. 26 Margaret Kohn discusses the spectacle and public space. Public space can be identified or analysed within the framework of three axes: Accessibility, intersubjectivity and ownership. Ownership is described as either public or private, shopping establishments are private; the private ownership is inclusive of a private motive to the space provided be this a political, social or financial motive. 27 Shove and Pantzar describe the rhythm of the feet when walking as the most receptive method of exploring the city claiming that it gives unique “engagement with nature” I believe,

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of walking and thinking are necessary to achieve the increased emotional interaction with the city that the flâneur desired to build an increased knowledge of his environment, observing and relating to the urbanity in a way that transcended destinations. It was this very need for the receptive rhythm, which made the arcade the “drawing room” of the flâneur; ironically it was this rhythm of receptiveness that led to the flâneur’s alienation from it. Ownership of the arcades belonged to the collaborating salesmen who funded them (Benjamin 1999,) the salesmen—with increasing realisation of the connoisseur-‐value—seeks to utilise the arcade, window displays and artistic presentation of produce, to insight his one purpose in the individual-‐BUY. The dreamscape quality of the arcades assist the salesmen as a method of selling “people entered in order to be distracted” (Benjamin 1999 p. 18), the intention of the salesman were to ensure that his products were the distraction. It is here that the exploitation or attempted exploitation of the flâneurs rhythms can be seen: the rhythm of receptiveness enjoyed by the flâneur aims to achieve a state of being that can be influenced, penetrated and receptive to the surroundings. However, in the arcade stimulants of the city begin to be replaced with stimulants of the commodity. This receptiveness could be called vulnerability; the shopping architecture of the arcade seeks to harness the power of this vulnerable rhythm trying both to create the susceptible state within all arcade users and simultaneously ensure that the penetrating stimulants to the users consciousness are solely those of the commodity (Benjamin 1999) (Kohn 2008.) Flâneur=Spectator, Arcade=Spectacle.

The arcade—as spectacle—attempts to evoke the rhythm of receptiveness in its spectators through an increased internalisation (Jewell 2001.) The arcade as an architectural model evolves into an increasingly internalised building and a template from which will develop department stores and the shopping centres of the contemporary city (Solnit 2002.) The internalisation results in the dwindling characteristic of duality, which originally was attributed to the typology. The simultaneous state maintained between external and internal space begins to favour the internal, the external city recedes into the background more and more until the arcades are removed as a continuation of the urban fabric; instead of the city (as external) influencing the individual’s thoughts, stimulations are taken from shop signs and coloured shoe (Benjamin 1999.) The arcade becomes a false reality, which is geared to puncture the idle thought—that it allows its users—and stimulate their thinking onto thought with one clear purpose: BUY. The increased interior space of the arcade develops into an increasingly controlled environment, independent of the imposed conditions of external cityscape; rain and traffic had already been eradicated, gas lighting meant that the limits of daylight no longer applied. The microcosm of the arcade was earlier described as a world in miniature, this prophecy is fulfilled: the arcade/department stores exist as other to the city: A world in miniature.

The flâneur; as a type of walker, no longer exists. He existed, solely in the specific time and place of 19th Century Paris (Tester 1994), however, the contemporary city is scattered with varying variety of descendent: the window shopper, the tourist and the modern urban walker. In the next segment we will explore the walking, thinking, city relating individual and the position that he/she holds within the contemporary cityscape…

in conjunction with evidence cited in previous chapters it can be posited that there is a certain rhythm in the feet and mind; that were embodied in the flâneur, that allow for a particular level of interaction with the surroundings of the individual-‐I shall forthwith refer to this as the “rhythm of receptiveness.”

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The Limitless Phantasmagoria-‐A universe in miniature

The relationship between shopping and the city has, over the last half century, inverted from shopping as a component of the city to shopping as the prerequisite to urbanity. Rather than shopping (as an activity) taking place in the city (as a place,) the city (as an idea) is taking place within shopping (as a place.) (Koolhaas 2001 p. 194)

In the lineage of shopping architecture I will leapfrog the department store and

progress directly from arcade to shopping centre. The shopping centre as a building typology is a clear progression of discussed ideas from the arcade (Kohn 2008) but further to shopping as a genre of architectural structure, shopping as a social activity begins to emerge in the contemporary cityscape. In exploring the contemporary cityscape and discussing the deep ingrained presence of shopping as an urban activity-‐ if not the urban activity28, we can appreciate difficulties facing the individual in the city; how, through shopping and shopping architecture, interaction with the external city—as an element of the Triangular Dynamic—becomes more difficult to establish, as the cityscape recedes into what could be called: Shoppingscape (Kärrholm 2009.)

The discussion of shopping is divided into two segments; “the shopping centre” as a

noun and “to shop” as a verb. The shopping centre is discussed in terms of evolution of the arcade as an architectural typology in the following paragraphs. Shopping as a verb is picked up on towards the end of the essay within the context of urbanity and Koolhaas’ proposition that shopping now exists in the city as surrogate for urbanity.

In the arcades we were introduced to the concept of a world in miniature, to continue

this metaphor the shopping centre represents a universe in miniature. The internalisation process that was described in the previous passage emphasised the attempts of the arcade to exist as a false reality; the arcades pursued internal conditioning and independence from climate and environment as a commercial attempt to capitalise upon the recognised rhythm of receptiveness, seeking to harbour and create this state of susceptible being to increase sales. The arcades rapidly29 evolved—as did its technologies of internalisation—into: the shopping centre. Arcades rather rudimentarily by comparison with the shopping centre managed to eliminate the external undesired conditions of the city such as: traffic and rain and this was sufficient to claim them the title of dreamworlds (Benjamin 1999.) The dreamy arcades functioned as covered walkways, open ended urban connectors flanked by commerce; the shopping centre became a completely sealed and internalised space of commodity; any means of urban connection was lost as advances in material, services and lighting enabled: an artificially lit, heated and ventilated space capable of staggering depths and exponential expansion, stretching far beyond the constraints of the arcade. Despite the internalisation and isolated microcosm of arcades they continued to retain some relationship to the external urban environment described as “instrumental in linking the experience of the urban with spaces of consumption” (Koolhaas 2001 p. 195) The shopping centre seeks to sever this link continuing the isolation of the arcade to become a completely internalised environment where any distraction in physical or psychological rhythms are constructed, manipulated and moderated by the commodity (Jewell 2001.)

28 The inserted quote from the Koolhaas text is one example, which illustrates the current theoretical position, which claims that shopping is defining the physical and social identity of the western city taking the primary if not sole role of public activity. 29 In comparison with other genres of architectural structure that of shopping has evolved rapidly, within 150 years the architecture of shopping has developed and adapted at an alarming and unprecedented rate (Kärrholm 2009.)

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A key advance in the internalisation and expanding scale of the shopping centre was the development of air conditioning (Koolhaas 2001.) It seems perhaps trivial to attribute such a seemingly meagre technological advance as having a monumental effect upon the built image of the modern metropolis, but the ability to condition the air, temperature and climate of the mall led to increased possibility in form, scale and depth. Evolution of air conditioning eradicated the need for windows as ventilation; mechanical equipment could ventilate a space without need for openings, so increasingly the shopping centre became closed boxes containing self-‐moderated and controlled environmental conditions that can be stabilised and independent of external influence30.

The method of internalisation and the level of success in the shopping centre has

evolved since that of the arcade but in its impetus it remains the same; central to the shopping architectures design is the desire to create and maintain in the individual, a rhythm in walking, thinking and city (interaction with.) In Chapter One we attribute this state to Mr Bloom and call it Rhythm 1 and Chapter Two we called the state the “rhythm of receptiveness” and attributed it to the flâneur. Chapter Three discusses this rhythm and the individual as exploited by the world of commodity, this “exploitation” is often painted in a negative light yet positive effects have resulted from the provision of both shopping and the shopping centre.

Most notable of these positive effects takes us back to a previously mentioned idea of

social disguise. Social disguise (Solnit 2002) is a term which was attributed to walking as an action which afforded somebody a “state” or manner of “being” in the city which otherwise was uncomfortable or not possible; I earlier cited smoking and standing on a bridge as social disguises, in their cases disguise for free thought, emotional interaction and exploration with the built surroundings; at this point in the discussion it is shopping that I posit as the social disguise and women as the subject.

Discussion of the solitary walker thus far, has only specified a single sex: male. Both academia and public society of 19th century existed as patriarchal systems. Thus the role of the individual female held within the city is somewhat oppressed.

Women shopped in there nearby towns for household items; but this unprecedented type, the trip into the city, with its related recreations […] only manifested with the construction of the new urban configurations. Shopping transformed from a practical task of providing for family needs into an activity encompassing ever more complex and social interactions” (Koolhaas 2001 p. 506)

A solitary female in the city was cast with social aspersions ranging from behaviour unbefitting of a “well to do” lady to soliciting, the social restraints of females imposed by convention were supplemented by the remaining image of danger in the city (Solnit 2002); to walk alone in the city, exists still with suggestions of increased personal danger for a solitary female over the solitary male31 “women are the primary targets for sexualized violence” (Solnit 2002 p. 240.) The shopping centre provided a controlled and protected environment and shopping as an activity provides a social disguise for being in the city. “Thus women legitamized their presence [in the city] by shopping.” (Solnit 2002 p. 237.)

Consumerism—as a social disguise—is so dominating and deeply ingrained within modern society that it goes further than a singular disguise-‐as walking does for thinking.

30 The relevance of air conditioning and the creation of an artificial environment of commerce is a continuation of the earlier identified idea of obstructions; the shopping centre is aiming to eliminate anything that would disturb the mall users from the comfortable rhythms, which make them receptive to commercial temptations. 31 Solnit further explains the sexualisation of the solitary female in the urban landscape and discusses more subtle but no less threatening aspects of street life that are the primary concern of women over men.

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Think of shopping as a two-‐fold disguise: it gives a physical disguise in the purpose of walking, allowing for free exploration of the city under the assumed task of shopping but also, it allows for the same opportunities of free thinking and reverie that are attributed to the rhythm of receptiveness. Shopping hides walking, which, in turn hides thinking. In this case the consumerist culture of shopping has acted as a liberating force.

Shopping is —though less and less— viewed in contemporary society as a female occupation (Koolhaas 2001) I posit, this is due to the opportunity in urban exploration that can be accommodated under the guise of shopping as a verb. This secret motive to shopping, which is present in both men and women is supported by statistical evidence sourced from figures of sales relating to the shopping centres retreat from city to suburb.

In their increasingly aggressive attempts to remove all external, non commodity obstruction from the manufactured rhythm of receptiveness—now referred to as the “the commercial rhythm”32 (Kärrholm 2009 p. 426.)— the shopping centre makes the ultimate gesture of internalisation and rejection of the cityscape, internalisation continues beyond physical and architectural methods of isolation and eventually geographically dislocates itself from the cityscape: the shopping centre abandons the city location and migrates to the suburbs33 (Solnit 2002.)

The suburban artificial centres of public life are available only through driving34 their

peripheral location means that they cannot be reached as a continuous progression of the urban fabric the suburban shopping centre operates as an independent destination outside of the city. When reaching the peripheral shopping location the traveller has lost all element of spontaneity or serendipity 35(Thompson 2010) the act of undirected walking and stimulated reverie has been replaced for a clearly defined purpose and destination. The result of the shopping centre in suburbia is that the individual —on entering these vast buildings— are now completely without escape, trapped by a multitude of consumptive pressures (Koolhaas 2001.)

The individual, as existed in the city, is now not a walker, but a shopper. His/her

thinking rhythm is not stimulated by the cityscape, but interrupted only by advertisements to buy. The city is now either: removed entirely (in the case of the traditional city centre) or: entirely fabricated (if we now accept that the city and the shopping centre are not two separate entities but —as was imagined by Victor Gruen and suggested by Rem Koolhaas—the city is the shopping centre.)

32 This term is cited in Kärrholm’s essay discussing rhythms and synchronization of rhythms, he attests that shopping’s singular motivation: commodity, is mirrored by an iso-‐rhythmic environment-‐ the commercial rhythm. 33 Rebecca Solnit identifies the migration as alignment with social migration in Europe and the United States of the 1960’s, which saw mass movement of inhabitants from city to peripheral living. The suburban shopping centre follows or leads this departure from the city and inserts itself into the ready made suburban landscape, not as commercial facility but as entire central focus: the shopping centre as suburbia centre. This idea is credited to Victor Gruen whose ambition through the suburban implantation was to redefine the city, “for Gruen the mall was the new city” (Koolhaas 2001 p. 381.) 34 Fordism and Suburbanism formed part of “The American Dream” walking at this time-‐especially in the United States had an image of “powerless and low status” (Solnit 2002 p. 253) the suburbs were designed for the motor car and it was the car that was the expected method of arrival at the suburban shopping centre (Solnit 2002.) 35 The relevance of the earlier referenced Victoria Thompson that the shopping centre as out of town isolated destination alludes more towards the Neoclassical method of architectural experience rather than that of Romantic ideas of surprise and discovery, this is an interesting note because the difference between Neoclassical and Romantic city description is a root to the discussions and emergence of the commodity and thus, the shopping centre.

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Not only would malls [shopping centres] become the urban centres but, moreover, malls would become the template for urbanity itself-‐from the scale of the neighbourhood to that of the metropolis. (Gruen 1960.)

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Private, public space

The 1960’s migration of the shopping centre to the suburb is a vital turning point in both city image and shopping centre design. The peripheral shopping centre was highly populated and was criticised for vacuuming people and commerce from the city centre; the interesting but in this shift is that despite the volume of shop, out of town shopping centres saw a decrease in sales compared to that of city shopping centres-‐most significantly in the female demographic (Koolhaas 2001.) Here we see how the retreat to suburbia supports my previously unresolved hypothesis of shopping centres providing a guise under which women—and though with less relevance-‐ men—explore and experience the city. The isolated über-‐architecture of shopping in suburbia had become so removed and negligent towards the relevance of an individual’s interaction to the cityscape36 that it had manufactured it’s own defeat.

Spectacle is a critical term in describing the effect of shopping in the modern metropolis (Debord 1996 [1958]), the term represents the 19th Century shift from “a culture-‐debating to a culture-‐consuming public” (Kohn 2008 p. 479), the spectacle changes the dynamic of interaction between built environment and individual; previously the individual—as in Leopold Bloom (Rhythm 1) and the flâneur— is in a dialogue with the city, both influencing and being influenced, Margaret Kohn (2008) in relevance to Rousseau calls this intersubjectivity. Intersubjectivity and dialogue —in the society of spectacle— becomes a relationship between individual and cityscape of: subject-‐object, again Rousseau as referenced by Kohn (2008.) The singular perspective of the spectacle was a driving desire behind the phantasmagoria of the internalised shopping centre-‐an attempt to create a single spectacle, which was the sole arrest for the attention of the spectators (shoppers.) This was done in creating singularity of experience, rhythm and finally singularity in location (Kärrholm 2009.) The rapid decline of the suburban shopping centre37 (Koolhaas 2001) represents a limit of the spectacle and from this point, attitudes towards the shopping centre and shopping are reversed: a realisation of the importance of city as the third element of the Triangular Dynamic.

Shopping centre architecture increasingly tries to emulate the distraction, diversity and

chaos of the city within their constructed spaces. Architects such as John Jerde and urban theorist Jane Jacobs have both been hugely influential in the re-‐evaluated image of shopping (Koolhaas 2001.) Jacobs believed integration of shopping within the cityscape must seek to achieve diversity, she was critical of “massive single use cities” (Jacobs 1961 p. 257), which isolated activities and created zones, restricted by barriers (figurative) of isorythms (Kärrholm 2009) more integrated shopping would create varied patterns of use and movement creating spaces of increased excitement and interrelation, simulating city activity within a shopping domain (Jacobs 1961.) John Jerde also sought to simulate the city within the artificial environments of shopping through “experience architecture.” Experience architecture exacerbates the disorientating and surprising characteristic of the city, Jerde—within his manipulated shopping environment— seeks to manufacture almost every single attribute that I initially recognised in reference to the rhythms of Leopold Bloom and the flâneur, this can be seen in his architectural language; he identifies the possibility of the commodity as obstruction-‐not just visually but psychologically; Jerde describes a desire to penetrate the conscious stream of the users and stimulate thoughts and memory. The architecture of Jerde farcically mimics

36 Walking and thinking as two elements of the Triangular Dynamic have to an arguable degree been retained in some form by the shopping centre; free and protected perambulation has been created and—though singular in purpose—stimulation of thinking is constantly chased, however city as the third component has been neglected and it is this oversight that emerges as the reason for the out of town shopping centres decline. 37 Koolhaas (2001) identifies—already a decade ago— the presence of dead suburban malls, rejected and empty architectural giants that lie in their isolated geographies abandoned by shopping which has returned to seek its fortunes in the cityscape from which it fled.

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the complexity, juxtaposition and contradiction of the cityscape “But this isn’t urbanism, this is Oooohh Aaaahhhhrchitecture. This is mass spectacle” (Koolhaas 2001 p. 407.)

Necessity for integration with the existing traditional city is identified; shopping of the

suburbs re-‐enters the urban fabric… “Ironically, this return of shopping to the city has been nothing short of triumphant, in the sense that shopping, after decades of sucking the public away from urban centres, has proven to the city that it can now create all the qualities of urbanity—density of activity, congestion, excitement, spectacle—better than the city itself has been able to do in recent memory. Once shopping needed the city to survive. Now, the urban has been reduced to a theme of shopping. Yet this revival of urban centres is a death knell in itself. The urban marketplace—once a forum of ultimate liveliness—has been replaced with a dull avalanche of imperceptible transactions. To be saved, the downtowns have had to be given the suburban kiss of death. (Koolhaas 2001 p. 153) The quote above illustrates the paradoxical nature of the return to the city of the

shopping centre; the problems of decline within the city are direct consequences of shopping’s migration to the periphery-‐ yet, it is shopping that is re-‐introduced as the saviour for the failing urbanity-‐that it caused! The regenerative aspect of shopping (referred to now as verb rather than noun) is a sign of a cities vitality and renewal. In this way the difference between shopping and urbanity is increasingly blurred. An area is deemed as lacking due to an absence in people, life, shops-‐ shopping is introduced to the area and brings the previously absent urbanity: people, life. Thus, shopping is urban renewal and in fact becomes urbanity itself (Koolhaas 2001.)

I present the ubiquitous image of shopping as urbanity as neither positive nor negative but offer examples of both. Rebecca Solnit (2002) in her expansive discussion of walking concedes that whatever may be the consumerist motives of the shopping centre it is the activity in the modern metropolis that continues to offer protected space for free walking and thus, thinking. Shopping as an activity in the city drives the provision of pedestrianised areas and large expanses of the urban fabric dedicated solely to pedestrian movement. Kärrholm (2009) reports how Malmö city in Sweden has experienced commercial success and growth as a result of an inserted pedestrianised shopping area “Malmö-‐Shopping city… Re-‐discover shopping, Malmö style!” (Kärrholm 2009 p. 427.) Through shopping and psychogramming38 we have the richest access to data of peoples habits in movement and patterns of interaction with surroundings. Shopping has played its part in liberation and movement of women within the city environment (Solnit 2002.) The positive aspects of shopping upon the individual and the city on a wider scale are numerous, yet; both individual and city are threatened by shopping for the same reason.

Motive. The provision of space, beauty and protection of shopping is all imposed for

one singular reason: commodity. Kohn (2008) defines a public space within a framework of three axes: accessibility, intersubjectivity and ownership. A park is a public space; it is owned by the government,39 it is freely accessible and encourages interaction between people. A shopping centre is a private space; It is owned by an industry, it’s accessibility is restrictive-‐ in

38 Psychogramming is a term, which describes the collection of data referring to patterns of human movement and purchase. In its definitions of people as particular rhythms psychogramming bares similarity to the physiologies of 19th Century Paris. 39 Democratic governments are representation of the people and idealistically seek only the representation and betterment of the public, in ownership there motive is egalitarian… idealistically.

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that it must support consumption and the shopping centre—as spectacle—desires not to encourage interaction between people but only one way interaction between the individual (subject) and itself (object) (Kohn 2008.)

Rousseau as referenced by Kohn (2008) discusses the difference—pre-‐capitalist society—between the festival and the theatre, he explained how the purpose of the theatre was to accumulate a large group of people together but not for them to relate to one another. The focus of the group rests upon a singular stimulant-‐the play; the festival (as in fete) is a gathering of a large group of people but with the intention of people being participatory individuals; not spectators but are the attraction. Kohn (2008) equates this to the discussion of shopping as urbanity she argues that though shopping—baring similarity to Rousseau’s theatre—gathers a large mass of people, may provide quality of space and be largely viewed as a public space but it is not. It is only an illusion of togetherness, the shopping centre— due to it’s singular motive—is an illusionary external object and the public it’s spectators.

Public space has become a commercially aggrandized, hyperbolic surrogate of urbanity. And as a result public life has become a lavish, monetarily propelled, re-‐enactment of social interaction. (Koolhaas 2001 p. 520.)

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Epilogue

Through the course of this essay I have deconstructed the superficially simple act of: an individual walking in a city, and proven it to be an act of complexity and symbolism. The deconstruction of walking—as a physical verb—into the Triangular Dynamic; a triad of co-‐existing practices between; walking: physicality, thinking: psychology and city: interaction, is a theoretically supported triplet and a framework in which I have further understood my hypothesised complexity of: the solitary individual walking in the city.

The Triangular Dynamic as an analytical framework allowed me to trace the path of the solitary individual through themes as diverse and vast as: capitalism, commodity and urbanity. The essay has offered original and established insight into the development of architectural typologies and the larger scope of city planning. More intimate minutiae within the discussion have revealed walking as comparable with smoking, in a form of social disguise for thought.

The chapters have demonstrated the complexity that lies behind the appearance of simplicity, when viewing the individual in the city. Due to this I would be dubious in demonising the shopping centre as the destroyer of urban life of which it is often cited (Jewell 2001) and be equally hesitant in assuming the state of the everyday “shopper” being one of constant yearning for consumption. I would rather posit that just as walking was earlier attested as a disguise for thinking so too can shopping act as a disguise for walking… and thinking.

The concluded presence of shopping as defining urban identity within the contemporary cityscape leads me to what I believe to be an interesting juxtaposition of pre and post capitalist conditions for the solitary individual, walking in the city: Pre-‐capitalist cityscapes were prohibitive to the individual’s Triangular Dynamic in the practice of physical exploration and freedom-‐the city being dangerous and without provision for idle walking; the juxtaposition lies in the contemporary cityscape’s current existence as private shopping space-‐the city as an environment of manipulated stimulation, which is prohibitive to the individual’s Triangular Dynamic in the practice of thinking. Where the pre-‐capitalist city was physically restrictive to the walking individual the post-‐capitalist city is psychologically restrictive.

The solitary individual entered the 19th Century in search of an urban sanctuary for free walking; perhaps the individual of the 21st Century is searching for an urban sanctuary for free thinking…

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Filmography

Crash. 2004. [film.] Directed by Paul Haggis. USA: Lions Gate Films.

Critique de la séparation. 1961. [film.] Directed by Guy Debord. France: Dansk-‐Fransk Experimentalfilm Kompagni.

Derrida. 2003. [film.] Directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering. USA: Jane Doe Films.

London. 1994. [film.] Directed by Patrick Keiller. UK: Koninck Studios.

Robinson in space. 1997. [film.] Directed by Patrick Keiller. UK: Koninck Studios.

The bridge. 2005. [film.] Directed by Eric Steel. USA: Easy There Tiger Productions.

Documents

Walking Thinking City