Hannah WIDMER, Institut de géographie et durabilité, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Urban form on different spatial scales sets the framework for who can do what, when, and where. These individual rhythms are not only characterising daily lives, but in their aggregate form they also contribute to territorial rhythms and thus to the production of places (Lefebvre 2013). Ultimately, individual and territorial rhythms shape human co-presence. This is particularly relevant in the case of public space which is generally assumed to be open to everybody and carrying the potential to enable encounters between strangers, often cited as an essential urban quality (Lofland 1973). The co-presence of different people unknown to each other requires at least some overlap between rhythms. A lack thereof might narrow one’s view of the range of lifestyles and thus threaten tolerance and social cohesion (Aelbrecht et al. 2019) and reproduce social inequalities related to (in-)visibility (Citroni and Kärrholm 2017). Can a place accommodate the whole range of life rhythms, or do urban form and dominating rhythms limit diversity?
This paper explores the role of public space design and neighbourhood characteristics in the rhythmic patterning of co-presence and diversity in public squares in Zurich, Switzerland. We present empirical insights into the interplay between urban form and individual and territorial rhythms gained through extensive fieldwork in three public squares including counts, observations, and surveys. By analysing the frequency and the duration of different activities in combination with sociodemographic characteristics of public square users, we examine the temporality of diversity in public space. Results suggest that the use of the public squares is to a large extent dominated by middle classes, raising questions about publicness, constantly oscillating between exclusion and inclusion (Qian 2020). Considering also materiality and the atmosphere places emanate, this paper contributes to debates on diversity in planning and public space design.
Mots clés : rhythms|co-presence|public space|diversity|exclusion
A104152HW