Designing today is to design the borderlines and the passages…

Abstract

Paper presented at the XXXIII IAHS World Congress on Housing, 27-30 September 2005,"Transforming Housing Environments through Design", University of Pretoria.

Building or space is not a single entity, it is a (piece of) manifestation of life and the environment. Architecture is about the whole, including individual space, building and all surroundings - urban and rural - rather than treating it as if it were a single, abstract phenomenon. Architecture is about life; its connection with life is existential… And if the motto of life at present can be stated as “living in the city or the city life,” today’s architecture can also be stated as a manifestation of the city life. City life means having privacy, joining the public life, and moving about easily. This can also be summed up as private in the public and public in the private. Briefly, living in the city is being able to join both parties, belong to both parties: public and private, and to move somehow, mentally, emotionally, virtually or physically. Therefore, borderlines appear as important accesses as well as problematic of today’s cities. Designing today can be called designing the borderlines and the passages, which is designing the interactions… Borderlines give opportunities for passages, mix usage and open structures. They make possible the moving from one side and situation to another side and situation… From several perspectives, borderlines look like the places for the creation of new knowledge and new settings of life, city and architecture… Briefly, this paper will look at the possibilities of borderlines… the possibilities of enlarging them into the passages… the necessary life corridors.