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 1Likewise, the composition of rhythms produced by the practices of a space ata time or at different times, or by a temporality at different times and spaces,might be distinguished as dominated by more or less cyclic or linearrepetitions – but neither these are analytic categories: rhythms are relative.The relativity of rhythms means that any study of rhythms necessarilybecomes a comparative study. 136Two examples of Rhythmanalysis and aspects of architecture involvedLefebvre exemplifies his Rhythmanalysis with two urban studies at twodifferent levels. In both, the differences in rhythms are related to differencesin temporality and in spatiality:(1) In Seen from the window, 137 Lefebvre analyses the rhythms – theencounters of different time-space constructions – which can be observedfrom the windows on each side of his typical Parisian apartment, on anordinary day. Lefebvre discusses how the differentiated flows of practices indifferent spaces (streets, areas) distinguish them from each other: how therhythms observed from the window facing the garden and courtyard differsfrom the rhythms observed from the window facing the busy street, but alsohow ‘hidden’ logics such as the omnipresent State (with its monuments), thedivision of labour and leisure, and the co-presence of different space-timeelements(super modern and medieval, both spatial codes and urbanfunctions) affect the composition of rhythms in different spaces. The ‘hidden’logics Lefebvre describe as related to the composition of rhythms in differentspaces can therefore be related to the contextual composition of architecturalelements – to aspects of the spatial situation. 138 Lefebvre describes the logicsas ‘hidden’ in the sense that they are not sufficiently unambiguous andexplicit to be recognized by any or every practitioner of the spaces theyinvolve: and therefore they can not be ascribed spatial determinism. Still, thepresence of these products of power and intentions in architectural sociospatialpractice – designed to serve past and present rhythms of socio-spatialpractices – affect the present contextual repertoire of encounter situations.And the ‘hidden’ logics in the composition of architectural elements areempirically accessible: they involve visually observable elements that can bedescribed and analyzed through studies of the composition of patterns in the136 “Let us insist on the relativity of rhythms. They cannot be measured like that of the speed of a mobile on itstrajectory is measured, with a well-defined start (zero point) and a unit defined once and for all. A rhythm isfast or slow only in relation to other rhythms to which it is associated within a greater or lesser unity. Anexample is a living organism – our own body – or even a town (of course not reducing it to that of a biologicalorganism). Which leads us to emphasize the plurality of rhythms as well as their interactions or reciprocalactions.” Ibid, p. 230.137 Ibid, pp. 219-227.138 Aspects of the spatial situation – ‘hidden’ logics in the composition of architectural elements – that arerelated to contextual differences in ‘rythms’. ‘Hidden’ logics in the architectural environment are empiricallyaccessible through studies of patterns in the architectural production in the urban landscape over time, whichwill be demonstrate in the next chapter.69