Reading Socio-Spatial Interplay - Arkitektur- og designhøgskolen i ...

R E A D I N G S O C I O - S P A T I A L I N T E R P L A Y P A R T 2formal dinner restaurants, and between places that mainly function asa meeting place for immigrants from a certain region and more stagedand ‘ethnic packaged” places mainly oriented towards a Norwegianclientele. Since there is such a wide range of differences within thisvery broad category, and since most of the typical iconographiccharacteristics (geographical references, austere but “clean and tidy”,street orientation, etc.) have similarities with various design strategies(from the thrifty to the more total-designed) of different other typesof establishments, I will not in the following investigate and presentimmigrant-run establishments as a specific category in itself. There ishowever one issue that deserves a comment: The advent ofimmigrant-run establishments gave the city of Oslo a wide range ofnew kinds of eateries and restaurants, and, consequently, newfeatures of “otherness” was introduced to public life. Still today amajority of Oslo’s cafés, bars and eateries are run by immigrants.The typical low-end “brown” pub has a standard pub sign towards the street.It is sponsored by a brewery, and the brewery logo signals that this is a placefor beer drinking. In addition adhesive letters on the shop windows announcethe name of the establishment. Except from such signs, there is usually noobservable manipulation or redesign of the street façade. In contrast to thetypical coffee bar, the typical pub-space is not as directly visually connectedto the public street space: In addition to the often relatively large adhesivesigns on the windows, Venetian blinds and/or interior wainscoting oftencovers parts of the windows – as such visual contact through the windowsisblurred. After introduction of the “smoking law” 363 most bars and restaurants,also the typical “brown places”, put up various kinds of outdoor seating fortheir customers. Due to this the use of the public street space ha obtained newfeatures. But still, there are distinguishable micro-morphological differences(differences in how the interior space relates to the public street and theoutdoor seating) between the visually more open and street oriented coffeebars and the more traditional pubs and bars, and this also affects aspects ofencounter situations that they accommodate for: In the typical pubs, theoutdoor seating works as a “smoking zone”, visually and physicallysegregated from the main pub space. The pub is a denser and in many waysmore intimate space than the coffee bar. Typical pubs are ‘inward’ oriented,so to speak; with their partly covered window façades and the ways thatinterior seating is organized, the premises turn their back upon street life.Furthermore, many pubs have a more local character than the coffee bars.The regular customers are more important for the pubs’ economy than the363 The “smoking law” (”røykeloven” in Norwegian): National smoking prohibition in public accessible indoorspaces has been operative since June 1 st 2004.215