Evaluation of the external mass transfer limitations

More often than a single product or a building, urban spaces are inevitably subject to modifications after they have been built. Also, urban spaces

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conceptually incorporate customisations as they naturally present designs that fit a specific site in a specific way. However, the context of customisation in this research concerns the impacts of additions made to a design following its construction, by the users of that design – local business owners and local

residents; once a product has been built, subsequent modifications are made to it by the end-user. It is this later portion of the definition that relates to the

‘phenomenon of customisation’ taken forward throughout the remainder of this thesis. Although types of customisation can have both negative and positive effects on a design, this thesis focuses on those that enhance the quality of urban spaces.

Although spaces are often modified post-construction, street user expression can be controlled or supressed through the introduction of rules and regulations.

Similar to discussions concerning cybernetics (Magnani et al, 2016), Shaftoe highlights that rules are embedded in the function of urban spaces to ensure the safety of their users. However, he also states that these rules can unintentionally reduce the opportunities for convivial encounters among their users (2008). It can be argued that spatial problems can be theoretically managed through norms understood as socially expected modes of behaviour (Welch, 2013). This

perspective is reinforced by authors who compare group situations without rules of supervision to panicked people running though the same door and trampling each other without considering a means of escape (see Degen, 2009; Gillin and Moore, 2009). Although they acknowledge that complex systems can self-organise, they go on to suggest that the behaviour of crowds can be

unpredictable and prone to collapse (ibid, Magnami et al, 2015). According to Marshall, both planned and unplanned urban forms incorporate rules, which are

“distinguished by the scale at which they are designed”. Kostof points out that formalised rules, like building codes, have specifically contributed to the

appearance and functionality of urban spaces (Kostof 1992; Magnami et al, 2015, p. 30). Rules play a role in how an urban space is developed and/or how it is used. However, when rules are lax, a space becomes looser and more pliable to informal interventions that potentially optimise it and allow it to live. It can be said that “self-organisation has nothing to do with chaos; it is in fact a higher level of order that. And that most if not all the most lively and successful parts of our

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cities are in fact those less planned…” (Porta and Romice, 2014, p. 86).

Subsequent discussions within this thesis concerning rules concern the impact of freely designed environments on perceptions and actual levels of liveliness in urban spaces.

Although a clear gridiron was installed by the French colonial rule in the early 20^th century, Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso represents extreme urban forms that are clearly informally influenced by the cultural ideals of their users within the

established grid. Hence, they deviate from the template of uniformity and order associated with grid designs (see Figure 9) – every quadrant is unique, each configured to optimise accessibility for those served within. When discussing the current growth and development of Bedouin settlements in Israel, Rosner-Manor and Rofè note that while on one hand traditional laws/regulations are accepted by communities in the layout of new spaces, “day-to-day decisions are made

gradually and in accordance with changing needs – a dynamic and organic process of creating places” (Rosner-Manor and Rofé, 2015, p. 333).

Figure 9. An aerial view of Ouagadougou in the 1930s (Mittelhozer, 1932)

A similar situation is described in Jacob’s depiction of North End in Boston (Figure 10). Jacobs describes the region in planning terms as a megalopolis

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which, according to planners, is “badly cut up with wasteful streets”, essentially dysfunctional. However, over the course of time, the region transformed from squalor into scenes of “venetian blinds and glimpses of fresh paint…neatly repointed brickwork, new blinds” (Jacobs, 1961, pp. 18 – 19). In a study that sought to test the testable principles of architecture and planning, Hollander and Foster used Electroencephalography (EEG), a process involving the measuring of neurological activity, to determine the level of attention and meditation of walkers through Boston’s North End and West End. The North End still bears the informal interventions noted by Jacobs in its narrow streets and dense blocks, and the West End is a renewal project that occurred during the 1960s (2016).

The principles accounted for:

1. Edges – activity/stimulating scenes along the edges 2. Patterns – appearance of face-like facades

3. Shapes – Bilateral symmetry in building design and layout, curves, and fractals

4. Narrative – sense of story, clear sequencing…(purposeful shift in experience)

Each principle is scored between 1 and 3 based on the frequency and presence;

a score of three results in a principle being present throughout a route, while a score of 1 translates to a principle being rarely seen along a route (Hollander and Foster, 2016). Their study shows that higher scores are associated across the principles tested in North End, while the West End low scores along walked routes (ibid.). Although the samples presented by this study are small, and the characters of the case studies non-comparable (residential vs. commercial), it offers insights into the Jacob’s idea that life is synonymous with unhindered informal interventions, and also gives credibility to arguments for giving a space a chance to self-organise through small acts of street user customisation.

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Figure 10. A romanticised view of North End, Boston (Cain, 2017)

In London, Bonnington Square Gardens (Figure 11) is a neighbourhood that was flagged for redevelopment following heavy damage sustained during the Second World War. The council pulled away and residents, transformed the dwellings into self-help housing and, through place shaping, transformed the condemned area in South London into a highly sought-after neighbourhood for young

professionals. (Mullings, 2010).

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Figure 11. A view of Bonnington Square, Vauxhall (Source: Author)

Examples of customisation within the context of this research cover informal interventions by street users ranging from the unexpected to the expected.

Within this research, the term ‘street user’, not only covers pedestrians visiting a site, but also residents who occupy buildings which immediately surround a respective urban space. Expected interventions are coupled with the residents (businesses or home-owners), and cover informal interventions such as the

• Repainting of walls

• Alterations to facades.

• Guerrilla Gardening

Unexpected informal interventions are those whose source cannot be categorically traced; these include:

• Informal public art, street art, graffiti, pavement art

• Performing arts

• Street vendors

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• Yarn bombing/urban knitting

Within the literature of both the architectural and planning disciplines, very few studies discuss the ‘phenomenon of customisation’ within the context of a final design’s enhancement, in ways comparable to observations made by product design studies. Typical applications of customisation within these disciplines are usually in the form of alterations to the known analytical and methodical

approaches utilised by the urban planner or architect, in order to deliver a development with an increased chance of successful use by their end-users.

Principally applied to the production of prefabricated construction materials during the design processes (Piroozfar et al, 2012), the term ‘customisation’ is normally discussed within the context of ‘mass customisation’ (Pine II, 1993), where it is discussed in relation to the functionality of delivery processes within the context of product manufacturing.

Although we have a working definition for customisation, to understand how customisation presently occurs in the urban planning system, it is worth understanding the popular methods of ‘mass customisation’ process that are reminiscent of parts of established urban design process. In a study that tested the viability of master planning in respects to persistent failures in the planning system, Romice et al conclude that, to be successful, master plans must be completed ‘in pursuit of resilience over time’, where optimal approaches will prove to be flexible and able are able to ‘self-adapt’ over time and in response to the changing requirements of the communities they serve (see Romice et al, 2017, p. 205; also see Barbour et al, 2016).

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