Chapter 13: Cities and Cultures - The Hidden Dimension by Edward Hall

7/23/2019 Chapter 13: Cities and Cultures - The Hidden Dimension by Edward Hall

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CITIES and CULTURE

“…city is in addition to everything else an expression of

the culture of people who produced it…”

What Edward Hall quoted above is so right in the

context of urbanism. While there are these ethnic tribes

who remain on their traditions and way of living as an

expression of their culture, maority of the rest aims to be

more civili!ed, more developed and advanced and so as to

provide the means to circulate this aim was the growth ofurbanism, the birth and expansion of more cities. "n line

with this is the continuing growth of population and its

diversity which Edward Hall emphasi!ed in this chapter of

what and how it could possibly a#ect the designers

architects, urban planners, and other experts and

personas on the $elds it could touch.

%merica is &nown as a habitat of di#erent ethnicities

therefore also having diverse cultures mixed together as

members of one holistic society, idiomatically called asthe 'elting (ot. )ut despite that, we are used to seeing

%merica in that state, and there weren*t too loud a case in

the history that protests about this diversity +this is

another case from racism- seemingly no maor problem

that arises from it- in contrary to the sense of the so-

called “Sink ” which tells that if there are great cultura

di#erences, there would be great social distress. )ut

according to the profound demonstration of the

sociologists la!er and 'oynihan in their boo& )eyond the

'elting (ot, there is not really a melting pot in %mericancities/ made evident by the sequence of generations

&eeping their distinctive ethnic identities throughout the

years- 0ay for example the 1egroes, although we now

often see in the television that the blac& people are now

equally well respected and recogni!ed but it is far from

our awareness that the blac& people still experience this

gap between the white people, you must be thin&ing

about the debris of the racism in the past, well that*s one

% 0ummary 2eport by3

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The Hidden

Dimension



indeed- yet housing and city planning programs seldom

ta&e these ethnic di#erences into account, which Hal

expressed in this chapter as in dangerously high

concentration when people of di#erent cultures are settled

in contact with each other, also as supported by the mice

experiment conducted by the pathologist 4harles

0outhwic&. %ccording to the experiment, when a mice was

oined into a group of the same specie, it could toleratehigher cage densities, while mixing it up or even merely

introduced into a strange mice will cause them increased

$ghting and stress, so as to people. With all these facts

and studies, Hall summed up the factors to consider to

manage the e#ects of cultural diversities parallel to urban

development and the society*s relations enveloped with it.

NEED FOR CONTROLS

Hall stated that one of the issues cities are facing isgoverning: handling the ethnic enclaves which was

mentioned earlier as those who chose to &eep being

traditional and are somehow left out in the urban

advancement- this obviously contributes to the tension

caused by di#erences- but are also bene$cial for the

enrichment of the cultural heritage which undeniably

plays an important role in a society. )ut not only are the

ethnic enclaves being pointed out, but also those who are

crowded

around by a common ethnic maority. %s an alternative

solution, it was stated that design features that wil

counteract the ill e#ects of the sin& but not destroy the

enclave in the process should be introduced, by that he

meant without ris&ing the interaction rate, the amount of

involvement while maintaining a healthy density and with

a continuing sense of ethnic identi$cation.

PSYCHOLOGY AND ARCHITECTURE

;hese two $elds have been widely elaborated in most part

of the boo& and other discussions and indeed these are

what contained proxemics/ that designing or urban

planning is more than the technicalities of structures and

spaces, but more importantly how it corresponds the

behavior of the users. "t was dramatically illustrated

SINK

0ocial distress caused

by great cultural

di#erences

-popularly referred to

as

“ ;he <ungle”

ITIES and CULTURE

% view of slums vs. High-rise

apartments

SLUMS

% heavily

populated urban

informal

settlement

characteri!ed by

substandard

housing and



through the di#erence of slums and high-rise apartments

)asically, if you will be as&ed to choose which is better

between the two, you might say that high-rise apartments

is far better loo&ing than slums and a better way to save

land usage, but according to those who have experienced

transferring from slums to those apartments, speci$cally

the 1egroes, you will get the total opposite. 7ne worst

case "*ve read was that a resident often hesitates to gohome from a tiring day expecting she has to experience

ta&ing half an hour to get to a $lthy, unsafe elevator/

another says it is no place to raise a family that a mother

can*t even loo& out for her &ids $fteen =oors down at the

playground, and that these apartments are seen as a

building of negroes piled above another which the white

people o&e on about. >something we must never have

thought of unless we live there. ?urthermore, this section

also highlighted about the importance of consideringscales and that ethnicities should be grouped together

according to scales that $t them best.

PATHOLOGY and OVERCROWDING

;his portion tac&les about how overcrowding

a#ects people in terms of illnesses, crime rates,

mobility and involvement. ;hrough the study of

;he 4hombart de 6auwes, crowding in relation to

pathology was computed. "t was stated that,

when the space available was below @ to AB sq.m.

per person, social and physical pathologies are

doubled, and when it rose above A9, the incidence

of pathology of both types will also increase but

not so sharply.

MONOCHRONIC and POLYCHRONIC TIME

“Time and the way it is handled have a lot to do with

structuring of space”- Edward Hall.

… Ces indeed, especially on how you would divide spaces

according to the two types of people, the monochronic

and the polychronic.

ITIES and CULTURE

SCREENING

-0eparation and sorting of

activities in spaces

CONGENIAL SPACES

% pleasant and agreeable

space where everyone

may $t in.

;o assist transformation

;o strengthen social

controls that combat

lawlessness.

ITIES and CULTURE

'7174H271"4

-6ow-involvement people

-0chedule one thing at a

time

-1eeds separation of space

to function easier.

6ac& of contact and

interaction.

(76C4H271"4

-High-involvement people

-0everal operations at once

-;ends to collect activities

-4auses disturbance.



;o avoid the so called (olychronic e#ect, one must reduce

involvement which means separating activities with as

much screening as necessary.

AUTOMOBILE SYNDROME

DB to B percent of space is devoted to cars, streets,

par&ing and freeways which ma&es the automobile the

greatest consumer of public and personal space yetcreated by man. How this could a#ect urban designF

0imple, cars or vehicles gobble up spaces which people

may meet therefore decreasing the chances of interaction-

an unhealthy social standing. (eople do not wish to wal&

as a means to get to a place anymore, and worse, those

who wish to hardly could not $nd a place to wal&. 1ot only

do pollution from cars ma&es outdoor unpleasant, but also

it ma&es people strange of each other.- ;his highlights the

importance of well designed outdoors.

CONTAINED COMMUNITY BUILDINGS

“In the heart of the city one needs more space in

the home, not less”

;he statement above implies how important homely

feel is for people living in urban places. %fter a whole day

wor&, passing through building by building, bunch of busy

people which is quite exhausting to see, added with the

noise and pollution on the streets on your way bac& home,it is a great rest and relaxation to see a peaceful and calm

home sweet home which community building unli&ely

have. 0ay for example the 'arina 4ity which has a

principal defect of having a cramped up living space which

is unduly con$ning according to the tenants.

PROSPECTUS FOR THE CITY PLANNING OF THE

FUTRE

MARINA CITY

Gesigned by %r. )ertrand

oldberg

is a mixed-

use residential:commercial

building complex that

occupies an entire city

bloc& on 0tate 0treet at4hicago, "llinois.

?inding

suitable

methods in

computing

andmeasurin

(reserving

useful

satisfying

old

buildingsand



'a&ing

4onstru

ctive

use of

4onse

rve

7utdo

CITIES and CULTUREITIES and CULTURE

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Chapter 13: Cities and Cultures - The Hidden Dimension by Edward Hall