This is a really interesting project being undertaken by a friends phd supervisor, Richard Goodwin. From my understanding it is about mapping the 'porosity' or, the public accessibility, of 'private' space in cities. Dressed in appropriate business attire, 'researchers' enter private space, office buildings etc and measure the amount of time/level of exploration possible. This information is then mapped according to a scale of lesser to greater porosity/accessibility. How are our concepts of space and freedom of movement within space limited and controlled by social understandings of ownership? How solid are the rules which govern our movement within cities? are these rules primarily enforced by fear and the pretense of surveillance? Does this matter? Who is granted what access and how embedded in social hierarchies are these freedoms? How important is it to defend our access to space?
Most importantly: what do cities begin to look like when we remove the restrictions of access to different spaces? And what possibilites are opened up! (mmmmmm!)
Goodwin writes: "Porosity Research seeks to classify spaces which exist deep within the skin or fabric of privately owned city buildings...One of the vital needs or reasons for this work lies in finding ways of preventing cities from being shut down as a result of rampant capitalism in the ‘Age of Terror’. Porosity as a strategy attacks this trend. It seeks the dissolution of architecture through a type of mapping which dissolves existing boundaries associated with rights of access. Capitalism needs to be continually measured by mapping or defining what is public against what is private. It can be argued that the social construction of a city is as important as its physical manifestation as buildings. It can also then be argued that a city which allows public space to penetrate its private space enables a healthier social construction."
Sorry this post is so text dense, couldn't find any images.. but superbly interesting nonetheless.
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