Urban Lexicons

Unravelling the urban lexiconof our everyday environmentsA project by Rosanna Vitiello and Marcus Willcocksfunded by the Bright Sparks programme at Gunpowder Park

2 Unravelling the Urban Lexicons

SignS of CharaCter / BlandneSS: tottenham

Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 3

ContentsContents

Why do we instantly fall in love with some places...

While others make us want to get straight out of there?

Could it be down to the details in these urban environments?

Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 54 Unravelling the Urban Lexicons

This project begins to decipher how details in our city environments affect our perceptions of a place.

Through street workshops, interviews, and visual research we start to unravel an urban lexicon of signs and details that make us love or loath our urban spaces.

Contents

06 Part 1 Project Overview08 What do we mean by details? What is an urban lexicon?

20 How did we unravel an urban lexicon?

38 Unravelling the Urban Lexicon: Identifying signs

52 Learning from our spaces

54 Commercial

60 Greenspace

66 Residential

72 Transport

78 Part 2 Signs of Urban Lexicons80 Character / Blandness

114 Life / Lifelessness

140 Welcome / Exclusion

164 Security / Fear

194 Love / Neglect

232 What can we learn from unravelling an urban lexicon?

236 Appendix239 Briefing Tools

243 Maps and Response Forms

250 Further Information

250 About the authors

251 Acknowledgements




Part 1

Project OverviewPart one of this report captures the essence and workings of the Urban Lexicons project. It outlines our aims and methodologies and summarises our learning.

What do we mean by details? What is an urban lexicon?

People read meaning into certain elements in their public spaces: a broken window, a planted flower, a lone glove, or a graffiti tag to name a few.

Although these may appear as disparate details, we suggest that subconsciously they combine to create a lexicon, or vocabulary, that triggers specific emotional responses.

To use the metaphor of language, details are like words. As sentences make meaning from words, so urban details combine to give people particular feelings or interpretations of a space. Together they form an urban lexicon.

“ Every city shares roads, cars, crowds and buildings in common.What differentiates one place from another are the details that define them; the ‘clothes’ each place is dressed in.” Vitiello and Willcocks, 2006 Journal of Place Branding, 3-2 Palgrave

the potential of detail as a place branding tool and its impact upon our perceptions and responses.

The Difference is in the Detail

The origins of this project lie in a paper we wrote entitled, ‘The Difference is in the Detail. The potential of detail as a place branding tool and its impact upon our perceptions and responses.’ This project gave us the chance to delve deeper into how people really react to details in their city.

WhAT DO WE MEAN BY DETAiLS? WhAT iS AN URBAN LExiCON?

how would you feel here? Why?


... or how about here?


Urban details

We read meaning into our urban details.

But it’s not just the elements that are planned or designed into our cities that impact how we feel about them, but informal or unanticipated appropriations too; a hand painted sign or a graffiti-covered wall.

And details aren’t just visual. We pick up on smells, sounds and textures too.



Urban Lexicon

“Social Norms: public spaces are regulated through unwritten social codes where subtle rules, signs and symbols convey whom a particular space is for and what behavior is permissible.”

DEMOS/ Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2005

Each urban context projects its own alphabet of details – its Urban Lexicon. Our interpretation of these details combines to create a personal vocabulary of the city.

Each individual’s experience of urban environments is different, and therefore impacts the way they understand their surroundings. Although everyone builds their personal urban lexicon, we believe common interpretations do exist.


“ We never look at cities [in terms of] emotion and lived experience, and that’s important. When you go into the city is it saying yes or is it saying no? Asphalt for example says no.” Charles Landry, 2006

So what are the details that stimulate those ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses that we instinctively make? Does this scene say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to you?

The very details that attract some people are repulsive to others. One person’s ‘yes’ place is another’s ‘no’ place. But is there any common ground?

We have found there is common ground, even between diverse responses. This project highlights the frequent presence of differential attention. In other words, when people respond differently to a place, or even a small element within, it is often because they have focussed more on some details than others.

noyes

no yes


how did we unravel an urban lexicon?

Firstly, we spent time defining the scope of our research; consulting advisors and undertaking trials to shape our methodology; compiling a team of volunteers to give feedback, defining types of spaces to research, and scouring London for sites.

Secondly, we ran street workshops and interviews with our volunteers to gauge their reaction to four London environments.

Finally, an analysis of over 250 insights to spot patterns in people’s responses.


1. Defining the scope of our research

The aim of the first stages of the project was to frame a clear direction for the investigation and develop a methodology. During this phase we also conducted site scoping visits and trial run tours to prepare for the street workshops.

We set up a research blog to act as a running archive of our learning and process during these first stages. Additionally we used online image management and Google mapping to locate and archive our spatial scoping visits and trial run tours. You can access these resources via http://www.urbanlexicon.blogspot.com.

Our research efforts involved us working visually and experimentally, as well as feeding from more traditional data, literature and dialogue. It was important to extract and share our learning visually and graphically as well as via more traditional text based outputs. In this way we believe the material can be quicker to understand, easier to refer to and carry greater value for more people.


hOW DiD WE UNRAvEL AN URBAN LExiCON?

People

A broad cross section of volunteers to took part in our street workshops and gave generously of their time.

Each with different occupations and interests, some with a professional understanding of the built environment. Others with local knowledge of a particular site and some who were totally new to places we visited.

We wanted to ensure a good span of responses, and to be sure that any patterns we found couldn’t be attributed to demographic similarities. Additionally, we weren’t interested in statistics and drew from very personal feedback. We conducted in-depth interviews with this core group of participants to get under the skin of their urban lexicon. In presenting our results, we aim to maintain the integrity of their words and pictures. The collaboration, responses and contribution of these people became the definitive core to all we have learned through this project.

Alex Tom Marta Mark

Perla Steve Stefan Adrian

Luciano Kathy

Jon Caroline Simon Sam

Charlotte Andi


Spaces

Early on in the project we categorised the types of urban environments we wanted to look at. We defined the following four space-types as representative of typical spaces you might encounter in any town or city.

Transport interchangeBus, tube and rail stations, busy crossroads, fly overs

Residential Tower blocks, lo-rise social housing, conservation areas, cul-de-sacs and inner city mews.

Commercial Street markets, local high streets, city-centre shopping hubs, out-of-town retail parks

Greenspace Pocket parks, community gardens, town commons, playing fields



Covent Garden

Archway

Edgeware Rd

Tottenham


Places

We spent time scoping out various London boroughs to establish four research locations.

Although our wider interest is to understand peoples’ responses to urban details in any city, we focused our study within London to keep this first funded Urban Lexicons project feasible within timescales and resources.

Given the diverse nature of the city, we chose four areas which covered each of the space-types, creating a ‘tour’ within each borough that linked greenspace, transport, commercial and residential.

Between these sixteen sites and the spaces that linked them we were able to represent extremes of the urban environment.

How did wE unRAvEl An uRbAn lExiCon?


2. Workshops

From April to June 2008, we ran street workshops around London to find out how people felt, what details they noticed and to establish any connections between the two.

Prior to the workshops we prepared and sent a briefing pack to each participant, to explain more about the project, the workshops and to help them start thinking about the questions we wanted to address.

Each participant with provided with a map which laid out a tour of the area, a response sheet, as well as a digital camera, clipboard and pen. All they had to bring were their five senses and their opinions.

Detail Detectives

Workshop Pack

First, think about your instinctive feeling towards this place? Is is good or bad, or a combination of the two?

What do clues or details do you notice that might make you feel that way?

Record it and how it’s made you feel...

And let’s talk about it.


30 Unravelling the Urban Lexicons Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 31

We provided maps for each of the four areas, highlighting the locations of the four different space-types we wanted them to visit. We did not tell the participants which areas we were visiting until we arrived at a station or bus stop for each respective location. That way we could ensure their responses were as natural and instinctive as possible.

Many of the participants had never visited the areas before, while one or two knew selected parts very well. In each area we stipulated a start and finish point and allowed between 30 minutes and two hours for people to navigate between and explore the four space-types, but in no instance did we specify an order or particular route that should be taken between them.

For more examples of the maps see part two of the report, the Appendix..



Response sheets acted as a quick prompt to remind people how they had felt and what they had seen. Along with photos they became the basis of post tour interviews.



Detail Detectives Street workshops: tours, observations with participants and in-context interviews

After exploring each location, we reconvened with our participants so they could feedback their immediate responses. We asked them pinpoint how they felt about the places they had visited and what clues stood out that might make them feel that way. We asked more specific questions to understand why those details had affected them in that way. Our interviews provided an in-depth, personal response to each place and the way in which people were affected by specific details. We recorded the interviews which became an important part of our research material.



3. Analysis

The third part of this project has involved consolidating the material gathered from the workshops and scoping phases. This included well over 250 sets of data from our participants, in audio, written and photographic formats, as well as our notes taken from discussions and observations.

We transcribed the material from our audio interviews with each participant. These proved vital to understanding what stimulated people to focus on a particular detail, area or activity that they identified within the workshops. Simultaneously, we reviewed the responses they had made using the site visit forms and organised all the photos they had taken. Creating links between the interviews, photos and annotated forms, we drew out common themes and responses.

Rather than any presupposed outcome, common themes surfaced primarily from the participant’s interviews, their words and feelings shaping our conclusions. Our learning is presented in summary over the next few pages, and in-depth responses can be found in part two of this document.

Unravelling the Urban Lexicon: identifying signs

We’ve established that not everyone looks at the world in the same way, but there are some recurring themes in how we feel about our urban environments.

These themes are defined by combinations of details. We call these combinations ‘signs’ of a places’ identity and believe they form our urban lexicon.

Drawing on the analysis of the street workshops, we can group common threads from our participants’ responses into five types of signs...

Life / LifelessnessWelcome / ExclusionSecurity / Fear

Love / Neglect

Signs of ...

Character / Blandness

Love

Signs that make us love a place because they show someone else has loved it first!

People picked up on personal effort, thought, time and care as positive.

UNRAvELLiNG ThE URBAN LExiCONiDENTiFYiNG SiGNS

Signs of uniqueness create places with soul; A sense of history, tradition or local context; a clue towards the people who live in that area.

Memorable places that people reacted well to showed distinct signs of character.

Character


Terms such as decay, deterioration and depression have been used in response to some of the urban signals. In certain cases, attempts to increase security or create defensible space have impacted to reduce the emotional security felt by the passerby.

Conversely, spaces which built in trusting signs are perceived as more secure and command respect.

Security


Signs that encourage active rather than passive human engagement.

Welcoming features can encourage participation and physical and emotional involvement in a place.

Welcome


Life

Evidence of people, community, diversity buzz and activity.

Participants have, without prompt, repeatedly introduced the term ‘community’ as something that can be perceived through environmental details.


Signs of life, love, welcome, security and character are all indicative of a place that is used and treated well by others. We’ve honed our urban vocabulary to pick up on human presence, above all on the presence of individuals. Places that featured informal and undesigned details, often promoted more understanding, local engagement and use of a place than ‘top down’ spaces created through rigidly defined detailing.

The personal touch, a sense of individuality, call it what you will, we identify with these signs of society and humanity.

These are not strictly defined categories, rather a pool of perceptions and responses. The signs are drawn directly from our participant’s interviews, during which they highlighted words such as ‘life’, ‘love’, ‘care’, ‘fear’, ‘character’, ‘welcome’ etc.

In grouping our participant’s feedback we’ve acknowledged a level of crossover between each of the signs. A place full of life was often perceived as safer, more welcoming and better loved by the community.


Learning from our spaces

In addition to signs of the urban lexicon, certain preoccupations emerged amongst our participants in relation to the different spaces. Character was important in transport spaces; security featured highly in greenspaces; life in commercial spaces and love within residential areas.

Within each space we can also see the relationship between one sign and another. How signs of life can bring about a sense of security, for instance, or signs of neglect feed into a signs of fear. This chapter sets out the patterns that emerged in each space.

Commercial Greenspace

TransportResidential

Commercial Successful commercial spaces become hubs of exchange for the community. The place to go about day to day activities, meet and socialize with others, to bump into a neighbour, to chat with shop owners. Streets become a reflection of successful shops, the space for the community to mix in public.

People tend always to find the most positive features of a street or shopping environment to be those details which make it different from other places and specifically those that come from evidence of the character and care/ attention shown towards the area by those who live and work there. I.e. - Signs of unique character through signs of love, e.g. Handwritten notices, boards, individually prepared window displays, plants put out by the people in the shop.

There was a positive reaction to evidence of shops mixing happily with local residents, forming part of the overall community, providing for, rather than imposing upon, e.g. Few chain-brand shops or low-branded environments; more shops set up by those who live there to meet needs of the community; a ‘healthy mix’ of products and foods for sale from different stores (not one superstore or one type of business), that reflect the demographic of that place.

Housing close to commercial areas was seen as a positive sign of the community being involved in the streets. West Green Road and Church Street seen as most positive, with the community bleeding through.

A sense of community can come through in the way products are displayed, e.g. The honesty of pound signs in Church Street Market, the ‘family-like’ display of shoes and jeans. Or the variety of shops. “The usual Holloway Road experience of kebab grease and neon signs” wasn’t seen as positive when that was the only

“ That’s more like it. Yeah i like it. Small, independent businesses, bit of a mess, its really busy, there’s a lot going on.” Jon

“ The usual holloway Road experience of greyness and neon signs.” Simon

LEARNiNG FROM OUR SPACES


type of shop on the street, but more easily swallowed when mixed with other types of shops.

Signboards on the street, produce outside the shop, a bench to sit, doors open. Bringing the shop out onto the street was seen as a welcoming, even trustworthy, and brings colour and rich detail to the environment. It gives a reason to browse.

This is echoed by larger chains. Whilst the fruit in the market brings natural colour into the urban environment, the windows of Budgens use large pictures of fresh fruit and veg to entice customers and add a big swathe of colour to the street. Equally, the stall holders bring a human face to the street, as do the windows of Sainsburys with their oversize smiling portraits.

LEARNiNG FROM OUR SPACESCOMMERCiAL

“ They have some things outside it makes you go and see oh what are they showing. Like they have panels, or in another shop, the bread and cheese Marta

LEARNiNG FROM OUR SPACESCOMMERCiAL

Urban LexiconCommon Feelings

holloway Road- Dull, boring, Traffic dominated Lack of community and ownership Low quality shops Poorly maintained+ Diversity of population Churches

Church Street+ Community and Tradition Involving Serves the community Honest & real- Poor & Depressed Dirty

Monmouth Street & Neal’s Yard+ Plants and Seating Colourful walls and murals Elements of local history Mix of new and old- Can feel too forced - False Identity Too impersonal Exclusivity

West Green Road+ Fun and Variety Vibrant, Messy Mixed population Small scale and Permeable- Functional Depressing Not cared for

Space

Greenspace In all the greenspaces visited, people looked for signs that made them feel safe. The preoccupation with a sense of security was far greater than in commercial spaces, almost as if the default was that greenspaces were dangerous places.

Also important beyond this is being able to feel welcomed via evidence of a variety of activities being supported, which in turn are likely to attract a wide mix of users at different times of day. Our participants looked to for signs of different uses from the green spaces: for relaxing, for sport, for walking the dog, as a space to escape, for children to play, for meeting friends, or simply sitting to read a book or have a bite to eat. The perceived characters of different greenspaces were very much influenced by the life and activities that were seen to be promoted there.

Signage at park entrances highlighting what could be done was understandably read as far more welcoming than signs which greeted visitors with a list of prohibited activities and “no” symbols. Some participants even questioned whether signs insisting on no drugs, for example, actually meant there were problems with drug-taking at that location, and made them less confident, or secure, about the space.

Perimeter barriers and fencing were also highlighted repeatedly as features which appeared to make or break participants’ feelings of safety or fear in the place. In many cases, higher barriers and metal railings were seen to make people feel excluded or uninvited from the space. Several participants suggested low hedging as a more welcoming alternative which allowed for good sight lines into a park and was in keeping with the natural setting.

“ My ideal garden. First of all it has to be clean. it has to have the right vibe, Open, lots of grass, just well looked after. Not so enclosed so that it brings trouble.” Alex

LEARNiNG FROM OUR SPACESGREENSPACE

The proportions of greenspaces also impacts how much sense of community and character can be read in each place.

While small scale ‘pockets’ of greenspace were appreciated and seen as important by some of the participants, preferences were regularly expressed of the desire for each person to be able to find their own personal space to occupy within a park or gardens. Where this proved difficult owing to the size of the place or the number of people, the scale was then seen as problematic. For many it appears that signs of a safe greenspace can be determined by how easily a person can find space to use the place in whichever way they prefer – some seek space for tranquility, while others seek spaces for sport, but both look to be able to use the space without conflict.

“ When people go to a park they want to carve out a little bit of space for themselves so they can chill out.” Jon

Participants had a bucolic ideal in mind in many of the greenspaces. When very straight paths were encountered, for example, it was seen to make the environment feel less natural, more lifeless and less useable. Conversely, ‘ramshackle’ details provoked positive responses and added a sense of life to greenspaces.

Clearly there were expectations that greenspaces should also present opportunities to encounter a variety of nature and wildlife. Wide ranges of natural colour beyond the standard green, different plants, trees, birds, insects were seen as signs that the space was loved and so could be loved back.

Signs of life via evidence of community activity around the greenspaces, also formed an important part of the features noted during the workshops. These ranged from details such as composting areas, to notices about events organised in the location, or volunteer groups working on improving the place. Beyond that community painted walls and other evidence of responsibility being shared for the care of the space. Surprise features, hand-painted and hand-made elements within greenspaces prove important signs of love. The greenspaces most often viewed as neglected and under used tend consistently to be devoid of such personal touches and were seen as ‘over-sterile’.

“ i don’t want my pastoral idyll ruined by some bloody building with bars on the window.” Jon

“ it was really warm and cared for, but not too cared for. it had a really nice feeling, to do with it being a bit ramshackle.” Sam

“ The flowers, the bright colours. it was a really nice space.” Simon


Urban LexiconSpace Common Feelings

Whittington Park+Engaged communitySense of improvementDiverse activitiesLow barriers-Restrictive layout

Broadley Street Gardens+Well looked afterPeacefulSitting & Lying-Restrictive layout

Phoenix Gardens+Ramshackle & CharmingLovedEngaged communityRelaxing-High fencing

Tottenham Green+Open and accessible-NoisyPublic drinkingAnonymousLack of seating


Residential Within residential spaces, people’s responses consistently came back to evidence of human activity; details that could combine to be interpreted as signs of life. In short, evidence of people equals positive and vibrant residential places, whereas no people equals negative and insecure spaces.

Participants often looked for very personal signals and unravelled complex social codes through a single detail; a Greenpeace sticker suggesting a deadlocked resident with a long skirt and Doctor Martin’s; “no net curtains, meaning people are posh.”

Participants positively noted opportunities for residents to use shared spaces surrounding residential buildings. Common gardens, open areas, opportunities to play, to sit and even places for people to work on their cars were seen as positive elements integrated within these environments. Where residential streets offered little to provide such features didn’t encourage people to use the public spaces beyond their front doors, responses were repeatedly more negative. Harsh divisions between public and private spaces were often seen to add feelings of hostility to an area. These instances were more closely associated to signs of fear within the area, and indicators that there may be issues with safety in the locality.

Signs of individuality, well-maintained historical elements and unexpected features, – such as the quirky stockings shop among housing near Church Street –, were all seen as important to defining the character of a residential place. Furthermore, the care or maintenance required in presenting such characteristic features - be they flowers planted in the pavement, colourfully painted woodwork, or carefully organised storage seen through a window- were often the clues that combined to define some of the signs of

“ Character is added by the different colours to the doors and adding details in different ways... it expresses the character of the people who live in. No two people are the same, which adds interest.” Luciano

“ The pale green colour suggests its up and coming, and the blinds. The middle classes are moving in.” Kathy

LEARNiNG FROM OUR SPACES

overall community, a sense of fitting in. Using lower quality materials on new developments made to look like old , for example was spotted as fake contributing a place’s identify. If anything, these cues were seen to infer some neglect in the approach to new developments, or those use them. Over-regulated or under-considered, squared or strictly ‘modern’ shapes in buildings and layouts appear to provoke impressions of blandness in respect to residential spaces.

‘Service installations’ – such as cable boxes, aerials, posts, masts, poles, warning signs etc- were highlighted a number of times, as if they had been installed without respect or consideration of the locals, and in such cases constitute signs of neglect.

Boarded-up buildings, windows and door-fronts are also seen as signs of decay or neglect. At times they also provoked associated impressions that the area is lifeless and feelings of uncertainty or fear about the place. Excessive signs that indicate authority control in the public environments –including prison-like fencing, CCTV cameras and ‘no games’ or unnecessary warning signage- were also noted to add to sensations that people should be wary about a residential area and that people’s individuality was not respected.

In keeping with the desire to find evidence of people in residential spaces, cars are appreciated to some extent as signs of life. However, where they are allowed to become dominant they tend to be perceived more as a sign that people have been forgotten or excluded from the space, making them want to get out of there.

“ Look at that they’ve matched the door colour to the shutters and the flowers…amazing.” Tom

“ it looks like a surveillance tower on a prison camp.” Kathy

love identified. Opportunities for individual residents to contribute to the shared environments via such gestures of care, were also repeatedly appreciated in this way.

Evidence of recently completed maintenance, pending improvements, and unique physical details in the street are all seen to help define character and show love for a residential place.

Both local authority and individual initiative were seen as having a role to play in the sense of welcome emitted by residential areas –be that in terms of ‘human scale’ buildings and open and comprehensible street layouts; ‘cared for’ property entrances; informal posters announcing community events posted along a street.

Sounds of life from houses and flats also encouraged a sense of feeling relaxed or secure among participants; Cooking, family activity and of music coming from properties were all indications of an active and engaged street.

Openness, easily perceptible spaces and cleanliness were all seen to help provoke a sense of security so long as these are not to the exclusion of human presence of the space. Uncollected rubbish and littered streets were clearly identified as signs of neglect. A clean street was seen as more important in residential spaces than any other space type, almost a ‘not in my backyard’ attitude.

However, at the other extreme excessive maintenance, rigidly repetitive dwelling designs or ‘sterile environments’ were viewed as key factors influencing bland or lifeless areas, which seem also to stimulate feelings that you are not welcome.

Some controlled variation in materials and colour – such as on door fronts – was seen as respectful to the

“ i don’t think you’d have too many rocking parties, the neighbours would tell you off. You cant exactly have a BBQ outside. it feels so clean that you wouldn’t want to.” Tom

“ it didn’t feel like the area was helped because it wasn’t particularly clean. You think, the council aren’t really helping. You’re not going to look after the area if its just left to get grotty.” Simon

LEARNiNG FROM OUR SPACESRESiDENTiAL

LEARNiNG FROM OUR SPACESRESiDENTiAL

Urban LexiconSpace Common Feelings

Tavistock Terrace- Lack of people

Too quiet+ Beautiful Loved

Full of character Clean

Edgeware Road housing + Integrated with commercial Brightly coloured- Over-controlled Deprived

Coleville Place+ Plants Colourful walls and murals Elements of local history Mix of new and old- Daily Mail readers Lack of Trust

hale Gardens+ Life outside Individual care

Music- Not cared for by the Council

Oppressive features Unused greenspace

Transport Attitudes towards transport interchanges were overwhelmingly negative. Many of the spaces were seen as inhospitable, impersonal or incomprehensible. Understandably, given the nature of these locations being about getting from one place to another, a large proportion of the reactions were centred around participants’ perceptions of orientation, place and direction. Importantly, the spaces outside and adjacent to the transport interchanges, were viewed as important in defining these factors, as the interiors of the stations themselves.

The workshops revel a led a recurring need for a sense of arriving at a place – character – both within and beyond a station’s boundaries. In part, this was seen to be defined via unique combinations of details and signs of life specific to the area; a sense of locality. These included physical elements such as clear lines of sight toward and away from the station, but also architectural details that go beyond pure function but show some love for the place itself. Additionally a small selection of independent commercial venues such as fruit stalls, flower stalls and coffee shops at station exits, were seen to help welcome people to the area and get a grasp on where they were. The visual presence of ‘homogenized’ space designs, brands and venues on the Transport-Commercial frontiers, showed on several occasions to augment impressions of blandness about the transport spaces and areas around them. It seems important to locate locally distinctive features in close proximity to each hub.

“ its totally anonymous. it could be anywhere in the country.” Simon

LEARNiNG FROM OUR SPACESTRANSPORT

travellers, or signs of love. Where these were missing, e.g. The fast food litter and unrenovated buildings on the exit from Archway station, these show a distinct lack of love –neglect- and generate feelings of hostility and exclusion from the space.

New technologies, such as electronic displays and cameras, were not seen as integrated into their transport environments as sympathetically as older installations – e.g., clocks and lighting at Edgeware Road – love – but rather ‘plonked’ into the space – neglect. The dominant presence of CCTV was several times interpreted as implying a lack of security within a station.

The scale of some station buildings and those around them was seen as impersonal, and in some cases ‘over-designed’ or ‘hostile’ without much consideration for the people using that area – e.g. Archway and Tottenham Hale. There was little provision for people to step back and comprehend the transport spaces, let alone enjoy them – neglect and exclusion. The use of greys, beiges and neutral tones, which ‘hide’ the dirt, was not appreciated in the transport environments, but instances of transparent materials were seen to add safety as they helped orientation and visibility. The use of coloured or textured ceramics also express care or love in the place.

The discovery of ‘surprise elements’ in the connecting spaces between interchanges were received very positively. Artworks, interesting lighting, sculptural road forms and even subway gallery space, were seen as signs of love and character in what are essentially functional transport spaces.

The presence of people in adjacent spaces helps boost perceptions of security, up to a point. When densities of people increase to the point where ‘personal space’ begins to be restricted or invaded, the effect of the presence of people seems reversed. Accordingly, people gain a greater sense of confidence about a transport interchange when the can find a space to orientate themselves and visually take stock of where they are, in their own time. This helps with perceptions of welcome as well as security. Conversely, spaces and details which force people tight together and route them in a directions they don’t necessarily want to go, can have the opposite impact. They were found to increase tension among these environments, already full of people wanting to get quickly from A to B. Opportunities to find personal space alleviated people’s disturbance in the face of intense flows of noise, vehicle traffic or densities of people. In turn, that allowed a greater sense of personal safety.

Signage is essential in transport spaces. Significantly, signs and cues connecting transport hubs to unique features of the area were considered important in indicating the life and character of a place – e.g., the sign to Lee Valley Walk or seeing the red tiles of the building opposite upon exiting Edgeware Road.

Dominant roadworks and intense noise upon exiting a station were seen as disorientating and inconsiderate, and thought of as signs of neglect towards the users of the transport hubs. In general, details that increased a sense of chaos around a station, tended to also increase uncertainty or insecurity about a place.

Participants repeatedly looked out for evidence of maintenance and signs of improvement, as features that imply a level of ‘corporate care’ towards the

“ i immediately thought it was colourful. The station was trying to convey a feel of friendliness.” Steve

“ Noisy. Traffic. Noise. Speed. Le Man’s. horrible!” Luciano



Space Common Feelings

Archway Station and interchange- Dull, boring, Traffic dominated

Anonymous, no sense of place Overpowered by concrete Litter Dark and uninviting

+ Small shops and cafes Space to orientate yourself

Edgeware Road Stations &Marleybone Road Flyover + Epic urban scale Subterranean gallery Heritage features- Noise

Tottenham Court Road+ Fountain- Chaotic

Noisy Tacky

Tottenham hale Station+ Open, glass wall Waiting room- Grotty Anonymous, no sense of place Confusing

Urban Lexicon




Life / LifelessnessWelcome / ExclusionSecurity / Fear

Love / Neglect

Signs of ...

Character / Blandness

Part 2

Signs of Urban LexiconsThis second section represents a wider selection of our contributors’ responses. People’s feelings and photos group together to reveal themes or ‘lexicons’ that emerged in greater depth.


Signs of Character / BlandnessCharacter creates a sense of place, creating memorable and unique spaces. Stations were amongst the blandest of spaces, providing little in the way of a sense of arrival or suggesting nothing of local character.

Character can come through a sense of allowing nature to define the feel of the space rather than feeling overly manicured. Many participants used the word ‘ramshackle’ in describing some of the spaces they viewed as positive.

Signs of visual distinctiveness and independence were high on the list, as was a desire to find indicators of authentic initiative rather than ‘pre-fabricated’ industry or ‘chain’ solutions. There appears a demand for genuine entrepreneurialism to create uniqueness of identity, community and impart a sense of trust within these environments. Eclectic but cohesive environments proved the most popular.


SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSTAviSTOCK TERRACERESiDENTiAL

“ Even if the architecture is repetitive ...character is added by the different colours to the doors and adding details in different ways.” Luciano




How would you describe ‘character’?

“ Character! its diversity amongst the homogeneity. They are all the same but they are all different. it expresses the character of the people who live in. No two people are the same, which adds interest.” Luciano





“ There’s no net curtains, which means people are posh. Net curtains suggest a bit common. My parents have net curtains so that no one can look in and burgle your house.” Tom


“ This is a wealthy street. There are certain things that suggest that. The railings, the original windows and doors, t he wooden shutters. The fact there’s only one door bell, they haven’t been divided into flats. The smell of wood burning. The cars are not flashy like those you might find in Chelsea, not BMW’s and Mercedes. So maybe they’ve got better things to worry about. Maybe they’re more intellectual.” Kathy


“ The design is peculiar to this street. The triangular archway with the old man’s head. There must be a reference to a local character. Its nice, but who is he!? A head of developer? An old sailor who made a fortune and built these houses.” Luciano


“ The railings; They’re more interesting than modern railings, not because they’re decorated, but because they’re less utilitarian. Why’s it got to be just utilitarian?”Luciano


SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSWOOD GREEN ROADCOMMERCiAL

“ There was no sense of Great Britain plc that you get in every town in Britain where there’s Smiths, Boots, Tescos and Costa Coffee. There was none of those businesses.” Mark

“ I liked the feeling it had a sense of place about it, you felt you were on an alternative high street.” Steve


“ i don’t aspire to Costa coffee. But I found it very depressing on a very personal level. If I had to live there and that was how i had to exist day in day out, that would make me very unhappy.” Tom






“ it felt European, civilized, cosmopolitan, liveable, high spec: ‘London at its best’. The café culture makes you want to sit down, take time, but the area retains London identity, from the period details in the streets. “Steve

SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSMONMOUTh STREETCOMMERCiAL




“ The first thing that stuck with me was the road. The road was ridiculous. Its kind of faux cobbled new bloody stupid thing and the road really wound me it up. it was far too neat.” Jon

What do you mean by quality materials? Here in Covent garden it’s the brick, it’s the cobbles, it’s the fact that there’s some consistency between the streets. Its quality because its very highly maintained. Steve

.


heritage“ There were cobbled

streets off to one side so there was a sense of history.” Mark

“ The signs are in the same very old case and design. It says that you’re in high class central London.” Steve

“ You’ve got some real rich victorian bits and bobs hanging about, like the tile work outside Fred Perry is beautiful.” Sam

SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESS: COvENT GARDEN


“ I felt a lot of historical reference to it in the architectural features themselves. i felt a lot more effort involved in things, especially with the tiles, the individually cast tiles with pictures cast on them.” Caroline

SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSEDGEWARE ROADTRANSPORT


“ On the entrance to the park, there’s a bit of mosaic from something that was there previous. Its quite suggestive of the whole place. A detail of a flower. it’s a fragment of something really beautiful, i think that’s what the garden is in that bit of the town.” Sam

SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSCOvENT GARDENGREENSPACE




“ It was unkempt, and it was a bit mysterious and you didn’t know whether you were meant to walk here or there. What a really incredible place.” Jon

“ It had the touch of an allotment and a junk yard. I found it really charming because it was a bit of a mish-mash. There were so many pieces that were just thrown together and weren’t meant to fit.” Stefan


“ There was no sense of unity apart from the unremitting dullness of the road.” Mark


SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSARChWAYCOMMERCiAL




“ Archway station is really lacking any personality whatsoever. There’s nothing.” Tom

“ I felt separate and remote... a sense of it all being drab... of big block pieces of concrete and big tower blocks that have just been plonked there. is Archway actually there when you come out? i don’t know what it is.” Steve

SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSARChWAY STATiONTRANSPORT




“ The street furniture is out of a catalogue. The local authority’s got a bit of money and has bought some furniture for that section but there’s nothing that says this is London or this is Archway. ” Steve




“ The immediate environment was a bit nondescript. There was no sense of direction. My immediate reaction was ‘Where is Tottenham hale?’ i could have been anywhere-land.” Steve

“ I though ‘Ooh no, where on earth am I?’ A huge open space, there was no shops... it was a big load of nowhere. You couldn’t see anywhere. I’d have much preferred to be on some sort of high street where there’s lots of things going on that a huge open space looking into the distance” Mark

“ its totally anonymous. it could be anywhere in the country. Simon

SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSTOTTENhAM hALE STATiONTRANSPORT




“ i’ve been past it a million times and I would never consider sitting there and for some reason i’ve never thought about it. There’s nothing essentially wrong with the space, but if you live in an area like that like I thought, it becomes invisible.” Tom

SiGNS OF ChARACTER / BLANDNESSTOTTENhAM GREENGREENSPACE


Signs of Life / LifelessnessEvidence of people, community, buzz and activity creates spaces that feel alive. Diversity is at the heart it. With diversity comes a sense of inclusion, welcome and friendliness, allowing you to define your own space within that community, a sense that, ‘I can fit in here too.’

Public space is defined as a place open to everyone. Environments that support a broad span of activities and people were better used, and by a wider spectrum of the population. Greenspaces that offered places for people to carve their niche and areas for children, adults, pets and natural life were at the heart of their community. Spaces that prohibited or did not support certain activities were often restricted in use and felt dead.

People have repeatedly used the term ‘community’ as something they perceive through environmental details. At times that’s shown through a collective respect for a space, such as the unwritten respect for the streetscape in Tavistock Terrace. Other times through the simple fact the local population is out on the streets, ‘getting on with life.’

Life comes not just through evidence of people, but in locals actively using the street, having reason to bring their lives outside. Working on cars, shopping outdoors, stopping for a chat. These all became signs of life. Symptoms of transient populations (takeaway shops, to let signs) or those ‘hidden behind closed doors’ created lifeless places that no one wanted to hang around in.

Room for individual personalities and local characters to come through helped to define a place. Evidence of locally run shops, on street stalls with tangible, touchable goods that encouraged conversation between local people.

“ I really liked it. Its this thing of community and for want of a better word it seemed real. It was just everyone getting on with their lives.” Jon





“ What stood out to me first of all were the pound signs, because its not £1.99, they’re not like ‘buy this.’” Caroline

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESSChURCh STREETCOMMERCiAL




“ it’s very convenient for all the residents because they can afford it because its cheap. You look at the fruits. One tray is £1, whereas in Tescos you spend triple.” Perla





“ I liked the fact that it was a space of provision. A very family space. Things were sized from children’s shoes to adults shoes and they were all placed next to each other.” Caroline


Community




“ There’s a lot of people just hanging around which kind of gives it more of a community feel...You can see the community bleeding through into the commercial district and vice versa.” Jon

“ I feel like there could be a street festival at any second, i can see everyone going crazy. I think there’s a lack of order that suggests a sense of fun. It feels energetic through not being very ordered.” Jon

“ A real mish-mash of different people. Its quite vibrant. hustle and bustle.” Simon

“ It felt fun, I liked the variety. It was busy. It was a bit down at heel and I found that quite attractive at the same time.” Steve

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESSWOOD GREEN ROADCOMMERCiAL




“ A space for individuals to sell things rather than by a corporation. A mess of personalities rather than some hideously organised thing. Not branded.” Jon





“it felt alive.” Jon

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESSPhOENix GARDENSGREENSPACE


“ Largely the park worked because I thought there were all sorts of different areas to explore.” Mark

“ People seemed to be enjoying themselves, having fun in a sociable way. There was a sense of community owning the spaces. Mums and kids in the play area. Young lads playing football in the football area.” Steve

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESSWhiTTiNGTON PARKGREENSPACE




“ You cannot play, you cannot touch the grass, you cannot breathe in the gardens!

‘ No dogs’ ‘no skating’

no nothing’!” Marta

“ The space is really badly put together. I was trying to work out where I should try and sit. I couldn’t find anywhere ideal.” Jon

“ Everyone’s sitting down... People come here for their lunch but not necessarily at any other stage.” Caroline

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESSBROADLEY STREET GARDENSGREENSPACE




“ Lots of people going in or out but no one hanging around. There’s no cohesiveness to it.” Simon

Few signs of Life

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESShOLLOWAY ROADCOMMERCiAL


“ Who owns the street? People are passing by but where are they going and cars are travelling to other places. Its just a bit grim.” Steve

“ i saw a lot of places to rent, a lot of little apartments to rent. It made me feel like everybody’s leaving that place and they are going to another place.” Marta

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESShOLLOWAY ROADCOMMERCiAL




“ There were no people... I felt everybody was behind closed doors. I’m not sure that everyone would know their neighbours up and down that road.” Mark

“ Its not very lively. You don’t feel it’s that friendly and you imagine its ships in the night. Which is good and bad, you don’t necessarily want to be entangled with your neighbours all the time. i guess here its behind twitching curtains.” Simon

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESSTAviSTOCK TERRACERESiDENTiAL

“ Its lovely. I don’t want to be too loud. I don’t want to wake the posh people.” Tom


“ The fact that the whole place was really quiet, with no-one around, really threw me, at a time of day when there should have been people around...Which is why it felt run down to me, as if everyone had up-and-left.” Jon


“ One house I passed I could hear family noise and cooking. I thought that’s quite nice. People are just getting on with their lives. I would even consider living there, apart from the fact it was in the middle of a road.” Tom

SiGNS OF LiFE / LiFELESSNESShALE GARDENSRESiDENTiAL


Signs of Welcome / ExclusionSigns of active rather than passive human engagement. Elements that make people happier to engage with other people. Welcoming features can encourage participation and physical and emotional engagement with the area.

Some of these are also examples of commercial participation, where in bringing the shop to the street, or part of it, traders can engage in new levels of communication with potential customers.

Going beyond signs of welcome, details that encouraged active participation shone through. Allowing people to get involved in the space, make it theirs and leave their mark is a true sign of a successful space.

“ There was this pole with 8, 9, 10 .. a thousand CCTv cameras, I don’t even know what they were monitoring as there was nothing worthwhile even vandalising …It was insane, so over the top...it made me feel it was a purely utile zone where you’re not meant to stay more than half a minute.” Jon


SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONTOTTENhAM hALE TRANSPORT




“ it sucks! It’s the grotty little cues. You come out there’s a big car park and buses coming towards you and concrete round things for no reason, metal railings and CCTv. its just all uugh. Its bizarre that’s its oppressive yet its really open at the same time so why should it feel? it’s not a pleasant spot.” Simon

“ horrible carpark and metal railings. Could have been in a borstal somewhere. i’d have been much happier if that had been green.” Mark



“ I liked the glass walls that made it feel open, and you sense the outside space that you were part of.” Steve

“ I liked the glass around, you could see outside. On the other side there’s some plants but at the same time its enclosed.” Mark

“ A sign to the Lee Valley walk. I thought that’s really good, all of a sudden there’s access to greenspace somewhere and I all have to do is follow this sign.” Mark





“ The pavement was wide...Several lanes all travelling somewhere else and you’re a bit player as a pedestrian in that whole scene.” Steve

“ i liked the fact that the pavement was wide so I could stand and get my bearings without people pushing into me.” Mark

“ You’re segregated by this big road from the other side of the road and by these big railings which are clearly there to protect you from the traffic, but the downside is that you can’t actually figure how you would get to the other side of the road.” Steve

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONARChWAYTRANSPORT


“ It felt very harsh. Clearly designed for functionality but without thinking about people. The walls were very hard, concrete-y, blank. My experience in coming out of that station was that it was a very unfriendly environment, with shutters. You just thought ‘would I want to come through this area at night?, No, I wouldn’t’, it was just absolutely appalling.” Steve

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONARChWAYTRANSPORT




A place to sit

“ Outside Monmouth Coffee Shop they’ve got a bench for people to sit on. Those are really friendly and inviting details.” Sam

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONMONMOUTh STREETCOMMERCiAL




“ That sign. I thought, that’s very inclusive: Euro, Afro, Asian, we’ll look after everybody. I thought ‘Ooh that’s good’.” Mark

“ Inside Neal’s Yard you’ve got fridge magnet poetry which invites everyone to participate, which is another friendly little detail. Then they’ve got blackboards with peoples observations and poetry and stuff.” Sam

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONWOOD GREEN ROAD/ MONMOUTh STREETCOMMERCiAL




“ I wasn’t sure what to expect. You’ve got the banks of earth and you cant really see in. i wasn’t sure if it was going to be teenagers drinking cans of lager on swings or what it was going to be.” Simon

“ The park seemed like an extension of people’s front gardens as the barriers were quite low.” Kathy

“ The embankments are a nice way to end the park. It forms a gateway. its protected but its open. There are no barriers.” Luciano

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONWhiTTiNGTON PARKGREENSPACE




“ There was a sign, no drinking, no drugs, but even that had a nice ramshackle look to it...i think the intention was to make it look more like a community ad-hoc look. It looked like it was in Louisiana, some swamp land.” Simon

“ The big sign. That’s the thing that bothered me. ‘Cause it said no drugs and i think that’s a given. You don’t sit down and start taking drugs openly do you? i expected to find little ASBO kids smoking cannabis.” Stefan

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONPhOENix GARDENSGREENSPACE




“ There was one unit with an entrance breeze blocked up. That’s a really strong signal that an area isn’t doing very well. If you breeze block up an entrance its not very easy to open and shut it again. There’s no point in using the space basically and its very negative.” Tom

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONhALE GARDENSRESiDENTiAL


“ That’s a car park for these flats. It’s very, very dark. If it was in the winter at 4 o’clock when its already dark i wouldn’t go near there. it’s not inviting. You have that reluctance to go in the place. I wouldn’t hang around in that area. I wouldn’t go about in the dark.” Perla

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONEDGEWARE ROADRESiDENTiAL


“ I don’t think you’d have too many rocking parties, the neighbours would tell you off. You can’t exactly have a bbq outside. It feels so clean that you wouldn’t want to.” Tom

SiGNS OF WELCOME/ExCLUSiONTAviSTOCK TERRACERESiDENTiAL


Signs of Security / FearBuilding a sense of security is about building trust. CCTV, metal shutters, high railings; It seems that none of these ‘deterrents’ are a substitute for people in creating safer spaces, rather they make for untrusting environments.

Legitimate human activity, time and again, made a place feel more secure and encouraged our people to use that space. Empty environments or, ironically, those with prominent security features, often provoked responses of fear and doubt amongst the public. In certain cases, attempts to increase security or define defensible space actually made people feel more uneasy. However, where someone was present who cared for that space (e.g. a park warden, a community gardener) they made our contributers feel much more at ease.

Details that made a place feel enclosed often encouraged fear. Surprisingly, greenspaces brought about a high number of feelings of uncertainty. High fences or barriers and poor sightlines across the park threw up notions of ‘an open prison’. In transport spaces, dim lighting, old-fashioned interiors and small, enclosed spaces left people feeling wary and fearful of using those stations at night, especially amongst females. These negative details could always be combated by the presence of people, creating places that people responded to as safe and secure.

“ Steel shutters which are there for security purposes actually create an environment where it doesn’t feel safe or friendly or attractive so you don’t want to be there as a person.” Steve


SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARARChWAYTRANSPORT




“ At the beginning part of the road you may feel fearful. It was very scruffy and dirty. A lot of metal shutters outside the shops. They give you a sense of hooliganism; you fear you’re shop front’s going to be smashed in.” Kathy

“ What I didn’t like. There were steel shutters, and one or two had their shutters down. I thought if they all had them down at night it would feel quite hostile.” Steve

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARWOOD GREEN ROADCOMMERCiAL




“ Instead of putting up an unfriendly closed sign in the cheese shop, they’ve stacked their bins outside which is a nicer way of saying were closed than a big abrupt sign.”Sam

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARMONMOUTh STREETCOMMERCiAL


“ The bars. It just felt like an open prison. Negative vibes, negative vibes all the way.” Alex

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARPhOENix GARDENSGREENSPACE




“ The graffiti’s quite optimistic as well, you know, “Resistance is never futile. have a nice day.” You don’t get that everywhere, do you?!” Sam

“ it was nasty. There was a pond, there was more graffiti then there’s more bushes. Then you see the odd person on the corner, and you think, woah, this is creepy. At night, this is one place you do not want to be in... it would be very awkward and dangerous.” Alex



“ if someone went in there to attack you, there’s no people around to notice you.” Perla

“ It felt safe, because it was close to the pavement and close to the road because there were a lot of people about.” Steve

“ The other thing that made me feel alright about going in, because I was quite apprehensive, was that you can see people relaxing. Seeing people doing that makes it feel like a nicer place.” Tom

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARTOTTENhAM GREENGREENSPACE

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARWhiTTiNGTON PARKGREENSPACE

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARBRAODLEY STREET GARDENS-GREENSPACE


“ it was like someone’s garden. I felt like it was a place of trust, there were things hanging on the trees. I thought, the place is open, they’re trusting you not to run off with stuff and they’re respecting you and you end up respecting them.” Jon

“ Phoenix Gardens to me was more of a person’s backyard, not a public thing, to me. They had loads of things on the trees than hang down. To me it doesn’t fit in with my conditioning of a public park. It just seemed too much.” Adrian



“ The trees are chained up in the streets next to people’s houses, which I find slightly strange. I can see they don’t want to have them nicked but it didn’t give a very trusting feel.” Sam

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARCOLEviLLE PLACERESiDENTiAL


“ The people there, as far as I can see, look imprisoned. They have basements in the houses, they have railings so you cant get down into the basement, and some people have put perspex up so they can get the light but no one can see in. They all had net curtains, then there was one window with slatted blinds, and they were all perfectly horizontal, and then there was one bit that was a wee bit open where someone had peeked through. So it did feel like they felt they were being watched, and i felt i was being watched by them because i couldn’t see them. That and the helicopters were very noisy. A feeling of observation.” Caroline



“ The school I think was a bit over the top. It was like an industrial unit. it felt like a prison. The galvanised bits of metal. At first I saw it and thought it was an industrial unit. I caught the sign in the corner of my eye that said primary school. I thought, ‘oh’.” Tom

“ The metal entrance on the school is incongruous. The school barriers make it look like a prison or depot.” Kathy

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARhALE GARDENSRESiDENTiAL


“ Limited access with the houses. You can only get into the building if you’ve got a code, you can only get into a certain alleyway if the gate is unlocked. In the playground they had barbed wire all over the playgrounds and they and more fencing up and more, ‘get out, this is my place’ It’s more like a fortress, they’re defending their right to own this thing and there’s a suspicion that someone will take this away. “ Caroline





“ Usually a subway is a daunting place. They made the subway inviting, by adding different levels, flowers, lighting. it took away the threat. Usually when I think of subways I think of Tottenham Court Road. Yuck!”Kathy





SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARARChWAYTRANSPORT

“ The actual station is uninviting... the poor lighting, drab décor, especially the old tiles, and at the back a dark entrance. i wouldn’t feel very safe.” Kathy


“ I noticed the bike racks. Its just maintenance. A lick of paint over the rust, but then some of the locks were cut open. And it doesn’t really bode well. A lot of them have been twisted. I don’t really feel safe with my bike being here.” Tom

SiGNS OF SECURiTY /FEARTOTTENhAM hALETRANSPORT


“ Walking into it on my own being a female with a camera and a clipboard, I didn’t exactly feel I was in the best position, especially once you heard all the windows open and the music blaring and the cars going and young fellas walking around. It was a wee bit intimidating to begin with and then the more I walked around it the more I thought, ‘it’s all in your mind.’ Caroline



Signs of Love / NeglectSigns that make us love a place because they show someone else has loved it first! Within the diverse spaces passed through, many examples of personal effort, thought, time and care (and trust) were spotted.

Contrasting examples of neglect were also found, showing a distinct lack of love and portraying far more impersonal characteristics.


“ Loads of plants, loads of green things show that people really care about that area.” Sam

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTMONMOUTh STREETCOMMERCiAL


SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTTAviSTOCK TERRACERESiDENTiAL

Love


“ Somebody had taken the trouble to paint a mural of flowers and plants, so what looked like a dark, dank little space when you were once in it was quite attractive.” Mark


“ Round Neal’s Yard, there’s lots of evidence of people caring for their stores and the area. Down to the hanging baskets and lots of hand done bits of type. Attention to detail but not in a ‘brandy-brand’ type way. its all quite personal.” Sam

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTMONMOUTh STREETCOMMERCiAL




“ A weird sign of love. In a shed someone in the house had wrapped up their bits in plastic bags, and that’s what my mum does. She doesn’t pay for boxes because bags are free and watertight. My mum comes from a really poor background and i can imagine who that kind of person was because i can relate to it.” Tom

“ The mosaic of the step was very interesting, that was unusual, the mosaic of the house number. Because i think that would have taken some special effort.” Mark

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECThALE GARDENSRESiDENTiAL

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTCOLEviLLE PLACERESiDENTiAL


“ Little things I liked about it. The bollards. The full length of the street has the same design of bollards. What that says to me is that somebody has thought about the whole space, the whole street, the whole urban design of that in a detailed way. it’s those sort of touches that make it feel like a quality area. Thought’s gone into it.” Steve





“ I liked the tree mural... if i was a kid i would have gone looking for them. it spurred you on to go and find the real thing.” Kathy

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTWhiTTiNGTON PARKGREENSPACE




“ These wonderful beaten up old benches. They don’t have a speck of graffiti on them, people obviously care about them...You can tell where the grass has worn out in front of them where everyone’s sat.” Sam

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTPhOENix GARDENSGREENSPACE




“ ONLY ONE BENCh!

...And when I sit down, look what I see! This bench is just used by alcoholics and look how ingrained all of the bottle tops and ring pulls are. This has been going on for a while...” Luciano

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTTOTTENhAM GREENGREENSPACE



Neglect

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTTOTTENhAMRESiDENTiAL






“ The walk going down to Hale Gardens...i was building myself up to something that wasn’t very nice because outside there was a bench that had been totally eaten by rot and I couldn’t imagine anyone sitting there. There was litter in the foliage. If you live there it’s a total disregard to your living environment.” Tom





“ It’s easier here to someone to take care of their bit. Englishman’s castle. And you can tell that people really do take care of their bit...

...that’s the difference. You can’t really take care of a whole tower block. Hale Gardens had a big stain at the side.” Tom





Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 219Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 218 219 Unravelling the Urban Lexicons



“ It’s preconceptions of a tower block. It’s quite anonymous, not particularly individual attention in the actual architecture, but you’ll see window boxes and little balconies and people have spent quite a bit of time individualising their own space as much as they can.” Simon



Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 221Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 220

“ Even the simple thing of the guy working on his car out in the open, that really changed the ambience of the place for me and made me think my immediate reaction was not valid. There was also some music. So my initial reaction was negative but by the time i left, it was a lot less negative.” Jon

“ The music blaring, cars going, young fellas .. that began being negative completely flipped and became quite positive.”Caroline



Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 222 Unravelling the Urban Lexicons 223

“ The first really good sight was that great car. That was like ‘oh wow’ that’s the best car I’ve seen all day. “ Simon



“ It was filthy. There were chips, there newspapers, it could only have been worse if someone had vomited.” Mark

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTARChWAYTRANSPORT

“ On top of the tower block there was lots of mobile phone masts. If this was a middle class area they wouldn’t be there at all. it’s like you’re not valuing the people there in the first place.” Simon

“ Beam me up scottie! It looks like a surveillance tower on a prison camp.” Kathy




“ The whole experience is slightly depressing. On a wet Wednesday afternoon it must be really soul destroying walking down that street.” Steve

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECThOLLOWAY ROADCOMMERCiAL


“ Its like moving into a new house but no one’s cleaning up or taking care of it, so it quickly gets into a state.

... There is no sign of love. A sign of love is a clean place. it doesn’t need to be a pot of flowers.” Tom

SiGNS OF LOvE/NEGLECTTOTTENhAM hALETRANSPORT


“ It was the flowers, the very fact that there were flowers, the door was well painted, and that it was clean. it felt loved. More than next door, although it’s not much different to next door. it’s the flowers that do it.” Kathy




“ Only very small things would made a difference. If only the grass had been cut that would have said to me that someone was taking a bit of interest. There were signs of disinterest all round, the grass wasn’t cut, the fence was in disrepair, there was rubbish outside the houses. Just cutting the grass and some flowers would have made a lot of difference to me.” Mark

What can we learn from unravelling our urban lexicon?

This project reveals a better understanding of how people react to city spaces, and how small things can make a big difference. Want to change the public’s perceptions of a place, or even how they use it? Try changing the little things first. Can a few more bins bring about greater pride in an area? Can a thoughtfully-placed bench encourage community life? Can a low hedge keep a park safe?


photo: Luciano Vitiello


You can’t design a place that keeps everybody happy, but there are plenty of common denominators that can help to create places that most people love. Signs of society and humanity were seen as universal signs of successful and well-loved spaces. Although ‘love’ from the local authority is important, allowing space for individual personalities to come through really says, ‘this place belongs to people.’ Social housing with opportunities for people to personalise and make the space theirs; a station that welcomes visitors with a sense of local character and community; a park with places for many different activities and the chance to get involved in caring for the space. This goes beyond passively using a place towards actively participating and shaping it. New places especially should encourage these opportunities to help create a sense of place.

However, changing details isn’t necessarily the easy option. Time and again our participants picked up on standardised solutions, the obvious options that created bland places. Details that had taken time or effort to create were overwhelmingly seen in the places that people reacted well to to. People notice that effort and appreciate it. We love places that others have loved first, and a small detail can help to kick-start that turnaround, changing a place that says ‘no’ into a place that says, ‘yes.’

We hope this research proves enlightening and useful for anyone involved in improving their public spaces, from residents groups to planning professionals to an individual who cares about their city. Keep these signs in mind when considering the city that surrounds you and see what a difference a detail can make.

Rosanna Vitiello & Marcus Willcocks

WhAT CAN WE LEARN FROM UNRAvELLiNG OUR URBAN LExiCON?




Appendix

237 Briefing tools

242 Maps & Response Forms

246 Further information

246 About the authors

247 Acknowledgements

DETAIL DETECTIVESUnravelling the Urban Lexicon

Rosanna Vitiello & Marcus WillcocksA Bright Sparks funded research project

Briefing tools


DETAILS AND THE URBAN LEXICONWhen you first come across a new place in London, you often get a gut reaction as to whether you like it or not. That’s the city ‘speaking’ to you, and you understanding the city around you; an urban lexicon or language. We believe this communication between people and the city is down to the details; a freshly painted door, a graffiti tag, the smell of cut grass or spilt petrol, the feel of broken glass or cobbles underfoot. Details can be seen, and to a lesser extent heard, smelt and touched. Maybe its easier to show you what we mean by ‘details’ and the images below give you some examples. You can see more at our project blog:http://urbanlexicon.blogspot.com/2008/04/image-cloud.html

CITY CLUES TO AN URBAN LEXICONDetails act like clues left around our environment. We interpret those clues and understand the places that surround us through them. It’s like reading the city, or its lexicon, with the clues building up a story in our heads of the place. They hint to activities that might have happened there, or might be about to happen. They help us to work out whether we want to stick around or get straight out of there.

We’re running street workshops called ‘Detail Detectives’ over the next week to find out more about these details.

EMOTIONAL CITIESSome places immediately make you feel good and want to stay there longer, whilst others make you want to get out of there straight away. We’d like to know what your instinctive reaction is to a place, then will help you breakdown how details you’ve seen, heard, smelt or touched might have encouraged that feeling.

+ When you have a positive reaction to a place, it might make you feel:

Excitement / Calm / Curious / Energetic/ Comfortable / Amused / Clear-headed / Delighted / At ease / Energized / Empowered / Focused / Loved / Respectful / Proud / Close / Patient / Content / Thrilled / Surprised / Warmed / etc …

- When you have a negative reaction to a place, it might make you feel:

Scared / Disgusted / Nervous / Frustrated / Bored / Confused / Lacking control / Threatened / Hurried / Angry / Unwelcome / Ashamed / Disappointed / Apathetic / Distant / Stressed / Sluggish / Dullness / etc …

Detail Detectives | Unravelling the Urban LexiconDetail Detectives | Unravelling the Urban LexiconWHATWith this project we’re attempting to unravel how details in an urban environment affect the way you feel about a place, and which details might trigger certain emotional reactions. We’d like to know what your instinctive reaction is to a place, then will help you breakdown how details you’ve seen, heard, smelt or touched might have encouraged that feeling. We’re trying to piece together those clues and see how they combine to create an ‘urban lexicon’ or a language of the city.

WHYWe believe that details, although small, could have a big impact on how people feel about a place, and that this will ultimately affect how a place is used. If we can understand how they affect us, details could be managed in ways that transform an inhospitable place into somewhere lively and well-loved.

WHENThe street workshops, ‘Detail Detectives’ will run on Friday 2nd, Sat 3rd, Sun 4th and Thursday 8th May. We suggest allowing two half days or one full day. Let us know when suits you best during those times and how long you’re able to spend with us, and we’ll aim to tailor the workshops to suit you. We’ll be in contact via email to confirm where and when to meet.

HOWWe’ll be visiting four diverse areas of London with you where you’ll play the role of ‘Detail Detectives’. We’ll give you a Detectives Investigation pack, a trail to follow and a digital camera to document the details you find. Once you’ve finished the tour, we’ll talk to you to work out what you felt and what details might have affected that.

We'll cover travel expesnses, food and drink for refueling and pass you a small fee for your commitment.

The results will form a series of visual stories documenting your journey, published and distributed on the project website and as part of the Bright Sparks seminar on public art and public space research in September.

WHEREWe’re visiting boroughs across north east, north, west and central London. We’ll meet in a central location and travel together to our destination, when you’ll find out where we’re going, as we’d like to keep an element of the place being unknown.

WHOMarcus Willcocks and Rosanna Vitiello will be taking you on the street workshops.They are designers and experts in how people use public spaces and work internationally,There will be anything between two and six people taking part at one time.

If you want to know more or would like to take part please get in touch with us on 07966 505673 or at [email protected] by Thursday 1st May, and we can work out which days suit you best.

You can see more about the project at http://urbanlexicon.blogspot.com

To find out more about the project’s sponsors and where the final work will be showcased, go to:www.gunpowderpark.org/brightsparks

Detail Detectives | Unravelling the Urban Lexicon





Workshop Maps & Response Forms




Seven SistersStation

Tottenham Hale Station

HaleGardens

W GreenRoad Shops

Town H

all Approach

Monument Way

Tynemouth Rd

Tynemouth Rd

Antill Rd

Ant

ill R

d

Montague Rd

Talbot Rd

Springfield Rd

Station Rd

Broad Lane

Broa

d La

ne

W Green Road

Hale Road

TheHale

Ferry LaneSHOPPINGCENTRE

Wat

erm

ead

Way

High Cross Road

Hig

h Ro

ad

Hig

h Ro

ad

TottenhamGreen

TOTTENHAM

Initial feelings towards this place? What makes you feel good about it? What makes you feel bad about it?

YOUR INSTINCT POSITIVE DETAILS NEGATIVE DETAILS

TottenhamHaleStation

HaleGardens

West GreenRoad Shops

TottenhamGreen


Thank youThis project could not have existed and developed without the contributions of:

Project advisors and consultants Bright Sparks/ Gunpowder Park team plus mentor Andre Dekke

Calum Storrie – Author/ artist and writer on situationism.

Prof. Lorraine Gamman – Director Design Against Crime Research Centre

Joyce Rosser – Tottenham Residents Association

David Cottridge – Photographer

Johanna Reich – Video artist

Saga Arpino – 3D installation artist

Chris Leung – Architect/ UCL doctorate responsive architecture,

behaviour measurement

Luciano Vitiello – Architect

Workshop participantsCharlotte

Perla

Simon

Jon

Caroline

Steve

Mark

Sam

Stefan

Kathy

Luciano

Adrian

Alex

Marta

Andi


Further information

The project web site contains more research

material, interview transcripts, maps and background

information www.urbanlexicons.com

The project blog tracks the setting up process of ideas,

inspiration and experimentation http://urbanlexicon.blogspot.com

About the authors

Rosanna and Marcus are both trained designers who cross traditional discipline boundaries to focus on design in the public realm. Rosanna, based in New York, brings experience in strategy and communication, while Marcus, based in Barcelona and London, specializes in user-centred and socially-centred design. Both share an interest in uniting expertise from commercial design experience to engage in innovative ways with issues of public space and daily life. They work with designers and architects as well as local authorities, social scientists, anthropologists, academics and real people to explore this field.

[email protected]

http://urbanlexicon.blogspot.com

www.urbanlexicons.com

December 2008

http://www.urbanlexicons.com

http://www.urbanlexicons.com

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Urban Lexicons

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