Dead Space
The Asperger's part of my brain wants all cities to be like Sim City: clean lines, discrete zones. Of course they're not and who really would want them to be? However I've become fascinated by the way cities have evolved - whether by accident or design - areas of no use whatsoever. Redundant space. Dead space.
This is Reading Lane in Hackney:
It is a perfect example of the dead space formed where two buildings meet imperfectly. They have created a bordered off patch that serves no purpose but is nonetheless protected by its physical boundaries. It is further isolated by the fact the pavement has been angled at 45 degrees to deter all but the most intrepid pedestrian. No one wanted this space but incrementally it has come to exist. Which is not to say chaos is the only begetter of dead space.
A couple of hundred metres south is Bush Road:
Here we have a perfect Sim City uniformity, a fifteen foot wall sealing off the gardens of the two up, two downs on Beck Road. Bonus points for the raised herringbone psuedo-pavement. On the other side of the road is the twenty foot wall of Ash Grove Bus Depot. The road has been entirely sterilised. This is a completely different sort of dead space: dead space by design.
What is the point of all this? The idea for this journal was born here but I don't really know how it will work out. It is an experiment. Don't worry, it won't be entirely about dead space.
This is Reading Lane in Hackney:
It is a perfect example of the dead space formed where two buildings meet imperfectly. They have created a bordered off patch that serves no purpose but is nonetheless protected by its physical boundaries. It is further isolated by the fact the pavement has been angled at 45 degrees to deter all but the most intrepid pedestrian. No one wanted this space but incrementally it has come to exist. Which is not to say chaos is the only begetter of dead space.
A couple of hundred metres south is Bush Road:
Here we have a perfect Sim City uniformity, a fifteen foot wall sealing off the gardens of the two up, two downs on Beck Road. Bonus points for the raised herringbone psuedo-pavement. On the other side of the road is the twenty foot wall of Ash Grove Bus Depot. The road has been entirely sterilised. This is a completely different sort of dead space: dead space by design.
What is the point of all this? The idea for this journal was born here but I don't really know how it will work out. It is an experiment. Don't worry, it won't be entirely about dead space.