Characterization of the supports and catalysts

From the literature discussed so far, it can be determined that customisation broadly occurs when customers feel the need to modify or enhance a product. In an urban context, this translates to a situation where a street user feels the need to modify or enhance an urban space to best suit their individual needs, where self-organising principals explains how multiple interventions can harmoniously co-exist in most situations. These informal interventions cumulate to form a customised urban space or setting.

Writing in 1869, Charles Garnier states:

“[Big] streets that, although beautiful, are as cold as a stiff dowager…a man will be able to build his house as he pleases, without worrying about whether or not it fits with his [neighbour’s]. Cornices will shine with [colours] of eternity; gold

friezes will sparkle on façades…” (Kostof quoting Garnier, 1991, p. 262).

Kostof considers Garnier’s work as part of the 20^th century’s “new building code that condoned, indeed incited, surface novelty, and sculptural and picturesque effects” (ibid.). However, Garnier also impresses a sentiment that bland or monotonous fabrics result in an urge for creatively driven by frustration. Molstad looks at the effects of bland office environments and subsequent boredom. He notes that, when placed in a situation considered as boring, people engage in mentally stimulating activities (1986). Mason et al, build on this study by exploring the effects of ‘mind-wandering’ where they note that when people are engaged in

‘boring’ tasks or are situated in a boring environment, their minds wander as a means of providing emotional respite (Mason et al, 2013).

Building on the earlier works of Faber Birren (1978), colour theorist Frank Mahnke records that physiological responses can be manipulated through environmental colour renderings (1996). For example, red leads to heightened physiological response and blue leads to more passive levels (ibid.). Mahnke readily supports Garnier’s philosophy by broadly stating that people are happier in a ‘living environment’ instead of a ‘dull one’ (1986). However, Mahnke’s

research reveals that physiological responses towards bland or blank facades are heightened and cannot be controlled (Mahnke, 1996, p. 163).

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Referring to the earlier work of Epstein et al (2002), psychologists Shine et al acknowledge that hallucinations are partly attributed to the surrounding

environments, echoing the sentiments of Mahnke by affirming that the absence of stimuli in an environment can lead to illusions or misperceptions (Shine et al, 2009, p. 58). In contrast, too much colour may lead to situations of

overstimulation on both physiological and psychological levels, where too much sensory information results in stress and discomfort at least when applied to interior settings (Mahnke, 1996, p. 164; Kalia, 2013, p. 107).

When describing the atmosphere of a county jail, art therapist Hanes explains observed artistic responses to the ‘cramped and gloomy’ conditions typically found in such institutions where he emphasises the colours used as being a key factor that contributes towards this perception – the shades of grey found on the walls and doors (Hanes, 2005, p. 44). Hanes goes on to describe his primary experiences of behavioural responses towards these oppressive conditions.

Readily identified in Hanes’s paper is that prison cell art, or jail art, is typically found on the bland walls and doors that play the same role as a canvas in fine art (see Hanes, 2005, p. 46); an expected response within the context of Mahnke’s own observations (Mahnke, 1996). Although not measured quantifiably, a great portion of the art apparent in the cells allude to escapism and, even though mostly monochrome due to the limited availability of tools, often depict colourful scenes that sometimes allude to the cultural background of the prisoner(s) who occupy the cells (Hanes, 2005, p. 45 – 47). This example validates Mahnke’s findings in practice and determines that a typical human response to blandly themed environments is to actively decorate them to create interest and

relatability. Arguably, increases in appliance of post-design cyclical colour hues, clear distinctions between colours, in a bland urban environment are symptomatic of blandly coloured environments. Indeed, Mahnke’s theories are still valid in studies concerning the ‘look and feel’ of a place, where aesthetics – shapes, textures, and colours – are connected to specific psychological responses (Al Horr et al, 2016).

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Similar attitudes to those observed in the microcosm of prison cells are witnessed in the rise of Art Nouveau architecture in the shaping of urban morphologies as BBC’s Stephen Smith states: “smog filled cities were splashed with colour and vitality; as idealistic architects put nature at the heart of the metropolis” (Sex and Sensibility - The Allure of Art Nouveau, 2012). Witnessed throughout the rest of the Smith’s documentary is gradual growth in the over decoration and over stimulation associated with the Art Nouveau movement that succeeded the Arts and crafts movement, where eventually a strong emotional response is noted in its demise – a return to the practicality over decoration. Early criticism of Art Nouveau is instigated by Loos, a champion of modernist thinking, who sums up the extravagance of the form as being degenerate; the crime that Art Nouveau was guilty being the wasted effort as witnessed in the extravagant ornamentation, where Loos was keen to create buildings that were primarily ‘functional and

simple’ (Loos and Opel, 1998). Such attitudes from Loos, and eventually those of the former Art Nouveau critic, Otto Wagner, inspired the creation of modernist architectural and design schools including the Bauhaus (Sex and Sensibility - The Allure of Art Nouveau, 2012). The overall goal of the modern art was to simplify complexity and over stimulation with practicality.

Figure 12. Mural at Brondesbury Station, Kilburn (Source: Author)

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When seeking to determine why graffiti appears where it does, Dovey and colleagues provide evidence that the rogue form of this artistic expression is principally observed on blank walls and facades and are often attempts to transform that façade into something more exciting (Dovey et al, 2012, p. 32) – attempts at creating place identity (ibid, pp. 35 – 36). When commissioned to create a mural at Brondesbury station in Kilburn, the artist group ‘Signal Project’

sought to transform a local eyesore into a ‘welcoming landmark’ (Signal Project, 2004) a feature that still draws public interest today (Figure 12). Dovey and colleagues also note that deliberate attempts to promote or protect such artistic interventions, lead to further urban problems concerning the placement and purpose of the murals. This observation is echoed on a larger-scale by Chapman who claims that deliberate interventions or “small acts and omissions” (Chapman, 2011, p. 511) to a design by urban planners are more likely to diminish the quality of an urban environment (ibid), due mainly to the failure of urban planners or designers to fully grasp the social or physical complexities of how localities actually function (Chapman, 2011, p. 528).

Alexander in his ‘nature of order’ essays provides what can be regarded as a justification of Chapman’s own conclusions. Within the last volume of his ‘nature of order’ essays Alexander subjectively explores the possible inspirations behind the creation of meaningful design by aligning to the spiritual states observed throughout the creation of successful architectural and urban environments.

Alexander acknowledges mutual human feelings towards design attributes including colour, light manipulation and patterns as apparent in design (Alexander, 2005, pp. 231, 247).

Focusing on the goal to create life in architectural outputs, Salingaros attempts to quantify Alexander’s approaches towards creating harmonious design that in turn holds high emotional values by applying an analogy of physics’ model of

thermodynamics in order to create optimal architectural environments, where classic thermodynamic models are tasked with creating optimal work and energy outputs frequently referred to as ‘exergy’ (Perrot, 1998, p. 107). Applied to architecture, the goal is the entropy of architectural element arrangements in

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order to produce an optimal design – one that solicits a desirable emotional response, and effectively causes the design to ‘live’. Salingaros translates the traditional thermodynamic term of temperature (T) into architectural temperature that denotes the degrees of detail, curvature, and colour; and heat (H) into harmony that refers to the coherence and internal symmetry or patterns. He formulates life (L) by multiplying harmony against architectural temperature – where life is measured by the emotional connection of a building to its users (Salingaros, 1997, pp. 1 – 2). In essence the higher the architectural

temperature, the more complicated and intricate a design element becomes as evident in its curvature of lines, intensity of colour hue, and contrast amongst colour hues (Salingaros, 2006, p. 108). The higher the harmony, the more symmetrical and coordinated a building’s applied colours schemes are

(Salingaros, 2006, p. 111). Using these measures to determine life, Salingaros scores and ranks buildings based on their architectural features as pointed out by Alexander (2004), where he is able to demonstrate that some modern buildings can potentially achieve the same level of emotional response as their traditional predecessors whilst not being a direct mimic (Salingaros, 2006, p. 109).

Salingaros goes on to suggest that buildings constructed using traditional design methods are therefore likely to capture the same levels of emotional responses and concludes by emphasising the ‘basic human need to raise the architectural life of their environment’ (Salingaros, 1997, p. 16).

Although Salingaros’ work can be argued as being based on subjective ideals and subject to inconsistent results (Tucker et al, 2005, p. 523; Gero and Kazakov, 2003, p. 3), where his own inclination towards traditional design approaches can be highlighted in the overall assessment and scoring system for the buildings, his conclusion is consistent with Mahnke’s observations to patient responses in psychiatric hospitals (1996, p. 163 – 164). Salingaros’ conclusion of ‘a human need to raise the architectural life’ of an environment is apparent in Stevens’

(2007) and Shaftoe’s (2008) who independently note the creative use of public spaces in order to generate or heighten levels of interest. Wunderlich records this empirically by noting the changes in walking rhythms as based on the presence of street art inventions that raise curiosity (Wunderlich, 2008, p. 133).

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Similarly, Kellert et al note that in spaces devoid of greenery or other natural elements, people are inclined to add this informally as part of a phenomena associated with the biophilic hypothesis (2010). The biophilic hypothesis

assumes that people are attracted to nature and natural forms (ibid.). In the case of ‘guerrilla gardening’ or ‘seed bombing’, where people informally create gardens of varying sizes in public settings, are spawned as a response to the lack of inaction of bureaucrats in dealing with pressing landscaping problems (Finn, 2014, p. 390). The perception of a lack of greenery or landscaping creates the need for people to customise an existing design to incorporate such features.

In each of the highlighted instances community engagement, as a procedural step in the planning process, is considered as an embodiment of adaptive

customisation in an urban design context. This form of customisation is engaged when conventional participatory planning approaches are not able to result in the development of a successful or vibrant setting. Evidence suggests that collective individual works of customisation such as street art, guerrilla gardening, even urban knitting, can potentially lead to environments that street users find

interesting. Urban spaces are subsequently subject to customisation in the DIY sense, where a deeper acknowledgement of emotional responses towards unaltered and modified environments will be able to predict potential responses to spaces that deliberately incorporate or allow for adaptive customisation.