Annotated Bibliography

MODULE 5: COMMUNITIES


COMPARE CONTRAST ESSAY: Communities and their relationship with the public and private realms

What is the relationship between public space and the development of community? To answer this question, these three authors, Whyte, Brill and Schneekloth surveyed the relationship between the individuals (e.g families, communities, neighborhoods) and the public and private spaces.  They all define the public and private realms by studying people’s actions and beliefs but from different point of views.

In his movie The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces,  Whyte’s  survey focuses on the variety of activities on the streets, squares and parks in order to define the guidelines that make the public realm successful or not.  Brill, in his article Transformation, Nostalgia, and Illusion in Public Life and public Space explains how the intrusion of both realms within each other may be responsible for what people have feared: the decline of public life.  Schneekloth describes the public space as “the space left over from the private articulation” and our private spaces as what we consider “our region of concerns” and therefore our actions towards that environment.
In their work, Whyte and Brill both look at how the spaces, public or private, serve the individuals.
Whereas Schneekloth looks at how the individuals and their actions serve the places whether they are public or private.

When observing public space provided by corporations and public space provided by the government or a local non-governmental organization, Both Whyte and Brill denounce that the built public environment had been only the by-product of incentives for developers but has not served wholly as public places.  Instead it has been generally only an extension of private places, for examples passages, forecourts and poorly shaped underused plazas. These extensions are actually designed to keep the public away. According to Whyte, by not providing trees and sittable areas and keeping out kiosks and food vendors, these so called public spaces remain often empty.  Brill denounces the government’s decisions to create laws based on “economic calculus” to the detriment of social causes and people’s values.  Both Whyte and Brill, mention the irony of the existence of fake living centers where private enterprises try to cater the nostalgia of euro-urbanist historicism by creating artificial and unauthentic “public life” via festival markets or Disney World “town” in Orlando. Schneekloth also taps in and described the apathy from land owners and government towards the people and their concerns.  

For Whyte the problem resides mostly in the fact that public places are privately owned and consequently disengage the public from civil liberties.  Yet for Schneekloth and Brill public and private intertwine and don’t matter, whether privately owned or public, if the future of these places depends on the initiatives and actions of the residents.
Which begs the question “what matters”?  According to Brill people are taking action to create new models of public spaces:  Indeed the occurrence of a public life resides in the following forms of public expression:  local newspapers, anyone-can-broadcast cable television, special interest groups, theater group, meet-up events (skateboarding, acting, motorcycles…), and indoor malls that become a destination as they become community centers for local groups and causes.
This is perhaps notes from Schneeklof’s stand point as she develops on how actually community actions to whether dispose of trash or clean up  a toxic river, reflect our beliefs about the boundaries between private and public.

The difference between private and public is actually very blurry for both 2 essayists: In her article, Schneekloth describes the dualist nature of public space and action in order to demonstrate the struggle to perceive the boundaries between what is public and what is private. The boundaries between private and public are moveable as some domains cross over between the private and public. (i.e. block parties, shopping). She further raises the question “Where the “self”, or I, stands in this cultural system”? What is ours and what is outside our region of concern?  How do we define these Imaginary lines between private and public and how do they articulate the areas that we care for or not?  Schneekloth poetically calls this relationship the “public/private dance” and reveals its choreographers to be the people and the communities. 

To conclude, in discussing the relationship between people and public spaces, whether analyzing from the point of view of the individuals of from the point of view of the space, all of these authors agree in the idea that people can and do democratically define public spaces and their functions.   In a time of ongoing privatization of the public spaces, it is important to recognize that in order to build coalitions to support sustainability. It is paramount to have, as Schneekloth describes it, a space for a new public world where we will enlarge the field of our “region of concern”.

"The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces." by William H. Whyte  

The survey begins at the Seagram building in NYC, a typical privately owned public space in the heart of the City.
The Seagram Building is a skyscraper, located at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd Street and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Philip Johnson.  
In his survey he first notices that some places are underused: most office building plazas are empty. Yet when building up the record, a number of patterns start to appear.
First people like reading, talking, eating yet the number 1 activity is “people looking at other people”
The numbers show a higher proportion of group of 2 or 3. On the street Corner we can observe how impromptu conversations start.  Most popular spots are under the trees because it’s like being under the awning of a cafĂ© and simple steps which are very dominant features that attract people to sit down.
Overall his first observation is that “People sit where there are places to sit.”
However, Whyte observes rapidly that some plazas are designed to keep people off: the spaces are designed so they are not sitable with high planters, beveled borders.
When raising the question “How many people is too many”  the team notices that even at peak times, in spite of heavy turnaround, the number of people remains constant.  We can conclude that there is an instinctive feel that people have for the number that is right for a place.
The observing team then further focuses on “the way” people sit. Here some patterns also start to appear:  around tables while making sure the social distance is always comfortable.  The most popular is the presence of moveable chairs: people like manipulating where their chair should be. On the other end, fixed single chairs are not attractive.

The survey moves to a different kind plaza:  the Paley Park (53rd Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues New York, NY). While still a privately owned plaza, the space was designed with different features and goals in mind by the owner, William Paley, former Chairman of CBS.
Located within Midtown's cultural district and surrounded by high-rises, this celebrated "vest-pocket" park is a welcome respite from the sights and sounds of urban living. During any season, the park remains very successful and popular fir the following reasons:
it is located directly on the street so that people are attracted to look in and enter. It has good, reasonably priced food, as well as moveable chairs and tables that let people be comfortable and have some control over where they sit. A waterfall provides a dramatic focal point and a reason to enter the park; its noise blocks out the sounds of the city and creates a sense of quiet and privacy. There's adequate shade in the summer from the trees, though they allow a beautiful dappled light to pass through their leaves.[1]
The next survey is in Houston where the streets are designed for cars. There are no stores, no windows, no small shops.  To find conveniences, the pedestrian must go off the street level, up or down.
Houston represents the self-contain mega structures where terraces are above the streets, isolated.
Back to NY, the survey continues with the Rockefeller Plaza which functions like an amphitheater where people watch other ice skating below, as well as South street seaport which offers nice space, places to sit, nice view, plenty of people. Whyte makes a parenthesis to note that “Odd people reassure us about our own normality”.
Another space in New York City is Brian Park which is cut off from the street by fences – Whyte insists rightly that “to make it work you must unfence it!”
While we find out that the Sun is not the ruling factor, some guidelines are identified as being crucial for a public space to be successful:
1.       Water: to wade, for white noise to cover conversation which conveys privacy – another example is  San Antonio with its river running  in the heart of the town center
2.       Trees: produce a canopy. Places people like best
3.       Food has its social function: People attract street vendors, which in turn attract people.
4.       Refreshments: kiosks and cafes are amenities
5.       Sittable space
6.       Street level
Triangulation:  Whyte also obverses that artwork is useful to attract people: they like walking under it sit on it, touch it, and argue about it. Bookstores and vendors also make a good attraction in public spaces for people to gather.
Finally, Whyte concludes with the most important key variable being scale:  Proportions must be right. One successful example is in Cincinnati.  Fountain square is very popular because of close relationship to the street, enclosed surroundings, different kind of sitting space, places to eat, water, heavy pedestrian in the very center of the town. Additionally, heavy pedestrian flows because the square is setup right in the center of the town.  All these combined features make it a unifying place.  In fact, the whole population of Cincinnati comes together here.

Brill, M. () Transformation, Nostalgia, and Illusion in Public Life and public Space, Public Places and Spaces, Plenum Press – New York and London 

In his essay, where he introduces himself as a “Big city dweller and intense city user”, the author develops on today’s blurred distinctions between the private and public realms. He explains how the intrusion of realms within each other may be responsible for what people have feared: the decline of public life.

While he explains that the nostalgia for lost public places is not a new thing, he also suggests that the archetype idea of public life may only be an illusion because public places have very little in common with the public places in Europe.
The author defines 3 strands of our image of lost public life:
1.       The citizen of Affairs: Civility is involved, learn to act impersonally, silence on public becomes the rule, decline of verbal expressiveness in public, but we come together and act together. 
2.       The citizen of commerce and pleasure: nostalgia of “life as a theater”: bazaars, soukz, open marketplaces but lack of the entertaining discussion, no interest is aroused for the spectators. 
3.       The Familiar Citizen: family lie is its model, people are not really strangers to each other, small scale neighborhood life,
The author further argues whether public life, as we “nostalgically” describe it, ever existed, existed but is lost, existed but instead of being lost we rejected it was safer this way or whether it was not lost but got transformed.
The concept of streets as an urban pathology and the absence of high local density and diversity, as opposed to European countries, are responsible for the deprivation of public life as American people imagine it. Yet, because it doesn’t occur in the 3 classic forms of the street, the square and the park, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist at all. Indeed the occurrence of a public life resides instead in the following forms of public expression:  local newspapers, anyone-can-broadcast cable television, special interest groups, theater group, meet-up events (skateboarding, acting, motorcycles…), and indoor malls that become a destination as they become community centers for local groups and causes.
On the other hand, the built public environment had been only the by-product of incentives for developers but has not served wholly as public places, but only as extensions of private places, for examples passages, forecourts and poorly shaped underused plazas. Therefore the problem resides mostly the fact that public places are privately owned and consequently disengage the public from civil liberties. There the author denounces the responsibility of the government and its decisions to create laws based on “economic calculus” to the detriment of social causes and people values.
Ironically, private enterprises try to cater this nostalgia by creating artificial and unauthentic “public life” via festival markets.
Intrusion of public life into the private life and vice versa is the pathology.

Brill concludes that this traditional public life we’ve been mourning may keep us from supporting and sustaining these new forms of public life.   

Jargon:  euro-urbanist historicism, socioeconomic stratification, segmentation, vernacular landscape, common ground, public biographic, social oppression

Duncan, J. S. Jr.,(1973) Landscape Taste as a Symbol of Group Identity: A Westchester County Village,  Geographical Review, Vol. 63, No. 3 pp334-355

The subtle disparities in the “landscape tastes” as being clues to socioeconomic group association are the study area of this paper.  In his essay, Duncan elaborates on the “compare and contrast” of communities in a rural village.  The analysis of the social organization describes 4 distinct landscapes: Village Center, Tradesmen’s landscape, Alpha Landscape and beta Landscape. The author further narrows down his survey to the last 2 landscapes  and unveils that the 2 seemingly identical groups of residents don’t have any other connection or common points than living in that same village. Alpha landscape is most defined as the oldest residential landscape, with authentic colonial houses owned by “old money”. The Beta landscape is defined by  a perfect reproduction of old New England colonial houses that were recently built in the past 10 years, owned by “new money” , and defined by the Alpha group as dubious taste (“That awful new building”).  Through a closest observation of the neighbor interaction frequency, the aesthetics of the houses such as artifacts and size of fences, and the communities’ dissimilar social networks such as private/public schools, the author demonstrates how they entirely differ from each other. “Members of the alpha landscape would not want a house in the Beta landscape”. 

Jargon:  Rural, Landscape, communities,

Leinberger, B.C., (March 2008). The Next Slum? The Atlantic Online http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime
 
In his article written in the dawn of the great recession in 2008, Leinberger studies the ripple effects of the “Sub prime-mortgage crisis” and recession in the suburb’s real estate: the Single family suburban house, stigmata of the trends in “American demographics, construction, house prices and consumer preferences”.
Following the wave of foreclosures, the sharp decline of the economy resulted in an epidemic of vacant homes and consequently a down spiral of crime emergence and the intensification of social issues in these communities.   
But the car-based suburban dream transformation is not something new and it started in 1946 after WWII, as G.I.’s returned home.  At the time urban life was seen as dangerous and expensive, pushing people to move to the suburb. The author uses the example of Reston, VA for its “lifestyle center”, or “faux urban center”, to illustrate the desire of the American people to change the way they live and work.  These centers were designed to create and urban feel with healthier walkable developments featuring narrow streets and small storefronts, reducing the use of cars.  However, the attraction for the city lifestyle has been back on the rise since the 90’s as cities have gentrified.  
The author concludes that while suburban lifestyle is falling out of fashion there will be a better balance between “walkable and drivable communities”.

Jargon:  gentrification

Schneekloth, L.H. (1996). Confounding the Public and the Private, Public/Private Issues 

In her article, Schneekloth describes the dualist nature of public space and action in order to demonstrate the struggle to perceive the boundaries between what is public and what is private. Because the boundaries between private and public are moveable, some domains cross over between the private and public. (i.e. block parties, shopping) and consequently makes the private and public relationship dialectic. The author defines public space as “the space left over from the private articulation” and raises the question “Where the “self”, or I, stands in this cultural system”? What is ours and what is outside our region of concern?  How do we define these Imaginary lines between private and public and how do they articulate the areas that we care for or not?  Schneekloth poetically calls this relationship the “public/private dance” and reveals its choreographers.  
The author brings up these topics by focusing on our society “Invisible landscape of away” which she illustrates with examples of private/public rundown neighborhood and toxic river issues in 2 communities: “trash and garbage” and “the friends of the buffalo river”.  Here, both communities fight for making their place (neighborhood and river) a “home for themselves and their children”.  She develops on how community actions reflect our beliefs about the boundaries between private and public. But also, in a world of rights, obligations and responsibilities asks what our relationship to the world is.  Further Schneekloth demonstrates the complexity of the extent of these questions as they encompass social, ecological justice as well as legal and economic clashes.
The author concludes on the ongoing privatization of the public spaces and the consequence when public space is gone: a space for a new public world where we will enlarge the field of our “region of concern”.

References: Nancy Fraser
Jargon:  Dialectic, imaginal, neighborhood organization, Community Action Information Center.

MODULE 4: PERCEPTION & COGNITION 

Heschong, L. (1979). Thermal Delight in Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chapter: Delight

In chapter Delight, Lisa Heschong describes (beautifully) how our perception of the world depends on the variety of our sensory experiences.  She illustrates her thesis by emphasizing on the description of our thermal sense.  The thermal sense is usually not considered as a spate sense. Though it is related to the sense of touch, the author describes how different it is, “thermal sense is definitely a separate sense”.   She defines a sensory world through which we learn every bit of information thanks to using all our senses together, giving it its multidimensional value.  
·   Senses are very different from one another and complementary to each other.
·   The author introduces the concept of variability in time: when the senses get saturated by stimuli and we don’t “sense” anymore “We can only smell a rose for so long before the smell fades away (…) our nervous system is much more attuned to noticing change in the environment than to noticing steady states.”
·   Sight is the most static sense “we tend to remember visually only a fixed image”
·   Hearing retains the sense of time “song or memory to be remembered must be remembered in time”.
·   Sense of smell retains the most emotionally charged memories
·   Touch: recalls a notion of immediacy
·   Thermal sense has a notion of continuality (as opposed to hearing or seeing) in our whole body
·   Fire has always been fascinating to man probably because it stimulates all the senses at once giving it a multidimensional quality: “The fire gives a flickering and glowing light, ever moving, ever changing. It crackles and hisses and fills the room with the smell of smoke and wood and perhaps even food. It penetrate us with its warmth”

Chapter: Affection

The author in his chapter affection describes man’s relationship with the seasons and climate and specifically the thermal qualities of a place or space.  She illustrates her thesis by studying the rituals and festivals of cultures related to the changes of seasons and the thermal conditions as well as our affections towards objects and places that have a certain thermal association.  
Activities become seasonal and domestic patterns are also adjusted according to the thermal qualities of the place.
However, there is a difference if the thermal source is natural (shutters and fireplace) or artificial (HVAC system): when in the built environment, men take the thermal comfort for granted, the affection for an object that provides even thermal comfort does not happen. “When thermal comfort is a constant condition, constant in both space and time, it becomes so abstract that it loses its potential to focus affection.”
There is a strong correlation of our affection towards anything that connects us to natural cycles whether it is the cycle of days and night or cycle of plants and animal growth. It adds on to our attention and affection of change of climate.

·   Thermal functions of furniture or places: Whether we are raising ourselves from the floor where the cool air is, sit and sleep directly on the floor to benefit from it, go to a porch swing, gazebo or inglenook, we look for thermal comfort.
·   The author emphasizes on the thermal associations of objects or places and our liking for them even when they are not providing that thermal quality: “How hard it is to give up the old misshapen sweater or the old shade hat that kept the sun off for so long”.
·   “ We need an object for our affection , something identifiable on which to focus attention”
·   Art as Insulation: woven carpets and animal skins hanging on walls during winter and taken down during summer.
·   Shutters vs. wall insulation: Variability is the factor that enables us draw or attention to a device and appreciates thermal comfort it brings. 
·   Reminders of the cycles of our day, shades are also objects of affections “They remind us of that the earth is turning and the day is ending”
·   We don’t remember temperature in a quantifiable way but based on the sense of comfort it provided.
·   Some examples of places that contain thermal “memories” connected to community or family connectedness: Mosques, Baker’s shop, Cinema (movie House), Hearth, swimming pools, Japanese hot baths and Jacuzzi.

Strength of the paper:   the subject itself is a very unusual approach of the qualities of a space or place. Heschong describes the senses so beautifully; she invites the reader to experience the world from a sensory perspective. 

Weakness of the essay: the author does not mention the sense of taste (?)

Jargon: Thermal, Thermal Aediculae

Reference to work of:
·   Yi-Fu Tuan
·   James Marston Fitch
·   Anthropologist John F. Embree, Suye Mura: A Japanese Village.
·   Anthropologist  Lawrence Wylies

Gertner, J. (2009, 19 April). Why isn’t the brain green? The New York Times.
In his article, Gertner develops on how our decision making in situations of uncertainty depends on how imminent or not we think a problem is. Gertner introduces the issue of Climate change and how it was last on the poll after the president was sworn in.  To support his thesis the author interviews researchers at the CRED, Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, who have been trying to understand the “decision making process in situation of uncertainty” and especially in regards to climate change.  Furthermore, researchers study how group dynamic influence how our mind works and the progression of our decision making in the event of urgency or a calamity.
·   The essay develops on what are the mental processes that shape our choices, behaviors and attitudes.  
·   The commons Dilemma is used as an illustration of how collaboration is necessary to avoid failure: “so cooperation is the goal that can be activated”
·   According to researchers this is how our minds works: uncertainty, time, potential gains, potential losses
·   People will react to issues on climate changes when they experience directly the negative effects of man’s carbon footprint or until we experience “a Pearl Harbor moment”.
Jargon: Climate change, Anthropogenic, CRED

MODULE 3:PERCEPTION & COGNITION
Kwok, A.G., & Rajkovich, N. (2009). Addressing climate change in comfort standards. Building and Environment, 45(1), 18-22
In their article Kwok and Rajkovich redefine thermal comfort standards of the interior environment to reduce Green House Gases.  The authors suggest that Climate change policies are either “mitigation or adaption”: Mitigation is defined as efforts to reduce GHG and adaption is defined as the ability of systems to adjust to climate change by enhancing our ecosystem resilience.  The authors state that it is a false dichotomy and instead these approaches should be should be seen as together, written into codes and standards. The authors state that standards should be based on the ability of a person to make adaption to achieve comfort.
·   The paper specifically examines adaptions from two models: Thermal comfort in the built environment  and  Long term building design in response to climate change:
1. Thermal Comfort research is a debate between static and adaptive models.
·   Static models are research that puts peoples in a room (humid, hot, cold, dry…) and measure involuntary reactions (sweating, shivering)
·   Adaptive models based on field research and considers responses people make in a building to achieve comfort. There are 3 main perspectives:
1.       Behavioral: Thermal comfort research is a debate between Static models (research climate chamber: what to set the temperature/humidity to maintain) and Adaptive model (field research: which considers peoples response to achieve thermal comfort; for example Adjusting clothing)
2.       Physiological (involuntary body response): the equivalent of the static
3.       Psychological (expectations of the space, previous experiences…)
·   The authors state the obvious that thermal environments that promote productivity and reduce stress are part of the responsible design.
·   The paper points out how people are much more tolerant to thermal conditions than climate chamber research (static model) suggests.  Therefore, the adaptive model research of thermal comfort has potential to conserve energy.
·   How do we move toward the model of adaption? The paper raises the 3 questions:
1.       How can designers enhance adaptive capacities in buildings?
2.       What range of adaption is acceptable in buildings
3.       How can designers influence expectation and control in buildings?
The authors promote the idea of a “mesocomfort” zone that includes our adaptive capacities as a model for the standards and codes.  It has not been defined. It is hinted at in ASHRAE and LEED but can be better developed.
2. Long term building design in response to climate change.
·   The authors apply the same static and adaptive models to discuss building designs promoting adaptive models. For example: Occupant forgiveness: people’s outdoor climate awareness improves their adaptability.  People awareness and connectedness helps people to overlook their discomfort. 
Strength of the essay:  The topic is very well developed and organized with a lot of clarity. This is a full-on academic research paper well written, concise. 
Jargon: Climate change, mitigation, adaptation, thermal comfort, Energy use, Adaptive capacity, adaptive opportunity, mesocomfort zone, occupant forgiveness, Switch-rich design.

Tonkiss, F. (2003). Aural postcards: Sound, memory and the city. In M. Bull & L. Back (Eds.), The Auditory Culture Reader (pp. 303-309). Oxford; New York: Berg; Sensory Formations Series.
In her essay Tonkiss’ argument situates sound as the primary sense used in the modern city. She illustrates her thesis on aural experiences and sonic qualities of places by studying our “sensuous” relation to the urban environment. She develops on how we attend to sounds and how we use our auditory sense as different modes of listening, ways we relate sounds to memory and finally by listening even when it’s silent.
The author supports her thesis with 3 parts starting with the notion of Listening and not listening to the City:  
·   The sounds in the city are described as “a general assault on the senses” (Mumford 1961:539).  For Georg Simmel, the urban experience is essentially and frenetically visual and for Walter Benjamin, Urban sociality was more a question of looking at than listening to.
·   BUT for the author the modern city is not only visual it is also sonic: It “provides a soundstage for the drama of modern life”
·   Sound vs. Noise: engineered and accidental - Muted interior  and acoustics of the concert hall
·   The City is a language and the confusion of tongues: being an immigrants and speaking the same language:  “A strange city too can seem like a language you don’t know (…) walking we compose spatial sentences”
2nd part: Sound Souvenirs: Memory and the City:
·   Walter Benjamin: “composed urban vignettes as if they were aural postcards”
·   In the moment of “recall” we remember places with their sounds because they also tell the story: there is a relation of sounds to memory:  “Sounds threads itself through the memory of place”
·   Concept of ‘Ear-witness” : hearing has a relation to the truth: testimony, placing trust in words, to accept things that are promised, etc.
·   Author prompts the reader about own aural experience: “Do you remember where you were, when you heard the news? “
3rd part: The Silence of Cities
·   Quiet spaces and the relation of time and sound: “a minute’s silence (…) reminds you how slowly even the shortest time can pass”.
·    Even when void of noise, we listen: the sound of silence.
·   Concludes with: is there such thing as silence: even when “late at night the quiet creeps in (…)it is as though you hear the city sleeps”.
Strengths of the paper: the study is supported by the experience and point of view of essayist Walter Benjamin who, aside from being a very important reference, was shortsighted and relied on other senses to experience spaces.
The style of the paper has a poetic quality (reminds me of the song the Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel!)
Jargon:  Aural, Sonic, polyglot soundscape, semiology, metaphor of language as sound, urban idioms, metonym 

Owen, D. (2010, 25 January). The Dime store floor. The New Yorker, pp. 33-37.
In his essay, David Owen develops on the experience of places and how we engage places with the olfactory sense. The author tells us the entertaining story of his quest of odors and his recollection of olfactive “childhood” memories.
·   He illustrates his thesis with examples of the powerful scents of pines and rooms which bring back instantly memories of younger years spent in summer camps, at the dentist’s office, smoky rooms or with family members. “I experienced a form of time travel: the trees smelled exactly like the summer camp I attended when I was thirteen and for a moment I was transported to to (…) the tent I shared for six weeks with 4 other boys”
·    On his journey, the author also recalls certain smells which he expects to find back (at the museum) but can’t find any trace once in the building. There the smell is simply gone while other places still preserved “their” gratifying smells.  “(..) As we drove there, I could easily generate a mental simulacrum of its smell, a concentrated essence of antiquity, brass polish, school shoes and institutional gravity.”  Another example is his visit to a place called the Dime store where he also expects to find the peculiar smell but the store is now invaded by the artificial scent of colorful candles.  “ Scented candle displays, in stores, are olfactory kudzu”
·   The author recalls that not only places but also family members have an olfactive identity: perfumes, deodorant, shampoo and other hair products. “ I rode through the invisible trailing cloud of their mingled shampoo fragrances (…) I also thought about how different  those girls’ hair smelled from the hair of girls I knew when I was in Junior High”
The strength of the essay lies in the author’s extensive visual descriptions of the spaces and his vivid recollection of memories and lively language. (The reader is prompted to recall similar smells he is finding there). This is great storytelling and the humoristic tone is very appropriate.
Weakness: it is a bit lengthy and it becomes repetitive at the end: places smell, peoples perfumes, place, perfume… the paper loses it momentum by the time the writer describes the very eloquent memory of his father. The organization is not great and examples get redundant.
Jargon: Olfactory, mental simulacrum

Lang, J. T. (1987). Cognitive maps and spatial behavior. In Creating Architectural Theory: The Role of the Behavioral Sciences in Environmental Design (pp. 135-144). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
In his essay, Lang develops on how spatial orientation and cognitive mapping provides environmental designers with valuable information to design built environments.  The ease with which people find their way through the building depends a lot on the quality of the design and the organizing element of a place. Extensive use of signs is not the answer to clarity; some built environments are just not legible.  By designing with these challenges in mind, the designers’ goals are to enhance the ease of experience for end users who are often challenged by new places where way-finding is usually difficult. 
·   Individuals’ feeling of security in the built environment depends on how easily they can orient themselves and create a cognitive mapping of the place. Cognitive maps are personal mental graphic representations of a place which are partial, schematized and distorted, which differ from one individual to another.
·    Tolman’s definition of Cognitive mapping is the process whereby people acquire, code, store, recall, and decode information about the relative location and attributes of the physical environment.
·   Romedi Passini defines spatial orientation as “a person’s ability to determine his position within a representation of the environment made possible by cognitive maps”. He describes how people who have grown up in cities and buildings orient themselves differently than people who grew up in natural environments.
·   Stephen Kaplan: 4 types of knowledge: recognition, prediction, evaluation and action
·   According to Lynch’s work, in cognitive maps physical structure of cities contains 5 categories of elements that people use to structure cognitive images: Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks. According to David Strea there are only 4 basic features: points, boundaries, paths and barriers.
·   For cognitive maps to develop individuals refer to buildings characteristics: some buildings are better known than other according to their forms, visibility and use and significance attributes. Cognitive maps show the individual differences based on how they approach a space and emphasize or put in order the elements of that space: boundaries, repetitive systems, districts, nodal points. It is relevant to study how cognitive maps develop with different approaches: chain-type maps, branch and loop type, network-type, sequential image maps
·   Because they use other senses than the visual sense, blind people take on a different approach as well to build their cognitive map form sighted people: they use textures and geometries on surfaces, sound of the environment, layering of air temperature.
·   Culture plays also an important role in how people approach environments to create their cognitive maps and their built environment: “the people of some culture describe total impressions, others focus on details; some pay attention to open spaces, others to boundaries and edges. 
Strength of the paper: The topic is clearly defined and the content is well organized. it covers a lot of approaches and refers to a large diversity of references. The introduction and conclusion are clear. 
Jargon: cognitive mapping, Guiding Schemata, recognition, prediction, immediacy, Maslow’s model of human needs.

Bull, M., & Back, L. (2003). Introduction: Into sound. In M. Bull & L. Back (Eds.), The Auditory Culture Reader (pp. 1-18). Oxford; New York: Berg; Sensory Formations Series.
In this introduction to his book, the authors Bull and Back, outline the hierarchy of the senses and argue how there should be a democracy of the senses to fully experience the world. They emphasize on the necessity to take a stake in Deep Listening: listening to sounds to make us re-think. 
·   Though epistemologically understanding is identified as seeing, everyday our learning experience is facilitated by sounds
·   The auditory world brings different cues about the environment than the visual world alone. “knowing the world through sound is fundamentally different from knowing the world through vision” Bruce Smith
·   Using only the visual sense limits us in fully learning and understanding the world; we should broaden our use of the other senses: touch, taste, smell and listening.
·   The author uses the example of the much mediatized attacks on the world trade center on September 11, 2001 to illustrate how the experience was mostly seen but remained unrealistic: “ TV screens acted like a sensory prophylactic”
·   The authors are prompting the readers to “think with (their) ears”, using our auditory sense to experience the world: “we (…) point to the equally crucial role that sound plays in our experience and understanding of the world.” Indeed the authors argue that using only the visual sense will only make our knowledge of the social world flawed because of our lack of information.
·   The authors introduce the concept of Deep Listening as a way of studying the world based on how it “presents itself when we listen rather than look upon it.”
·   To support their thesis, the authors refer to the work of Bourdieu: “of the five senses, vision is the most distancing one”, and Bishop Berkeley “sounds are as close to us as our thoughts.
·   Sound values and sonic bridges: here the authors refer to sound vs. noise: who defines what is acceptable (Civilized) or not: “who defines the nature of noise, sound and music”.
·   More than  just listening to music, the users let “sounds manage (their)mood, feelings and sense of time and place”
·   Authors refer to the work of Fran Tonkiss and her reference to “social deafness” in urban life: users stop engaging with others but instead prefer solitude “sounds transform public space into private property”
·   Sounds of the wind and Silence: sounds can be comforting or a hindrance depending on the listeners.
Strength of the essay: the authors bring up to both classic and contemporary  references:  Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” that describes how the way we may see and understand the shadows on the wall does not mean it makes up reality, as well as Tonkiss’ work  about urban life.
Weakness: This introduction is not organized effectively.  A bit heavy-handed, the essay emphasizes judgment over explanation: it is very clear that the authors are stating how things are. There is no room for dialog.
Jargon: Scopic Metaphors, sensory prophylactic, epistemology, acoustemology

Carpman, J., & Grant, M. A. (2002). Wayfinding: A Broad view. In Handbook of Environmental Psychology. Sage.
Wayfinding and disorientation are the main opponent behavioral subjects in this essay. The authors define the complex issue of wayfinding as a cost of disorientation and a widespread problem in many environments “from city scale to site planning, landscaping, architecture, interior design and graphic design”. Having a sense of direction is not enough; the design of the built environment has to be conducive for the users. The authors illustrate their thesis with the examples of the medical environment design being poorly addressed by the architects and interior designers. While suggesting design guidelines, the authors stress on the need to design with careful examination and observation related specifically to each project. 
·   Wayfinding system is not signage. The authors define wayfinding as: “Knowing where you are, knowing your destination, knowing and following the best route to your destination, being able to recognize your destination upon arrival and reversing the process to find your way back out.”
·   Good wayfinding is conducive to customer satisfaction and helps an organization to market itself. The opposite is true as well.
·   Wayfinding behavior is rooted in people’s own skills. Yet the author suggests that there are 4 strategies: 1-seing one’s destination 2- following a path 3-using environmental elements 4-forming a cognitive map.
·   Design elements that support wayfinding: facility layout with a good functional adjacency, architectural and Interior Design differentiation, landmarks that are noticeable, signs at “decision points”, maps and finally appropriate lighting.
Strength of the essay: organized and well broken down.
Weakness: Redundant and lengthy, the information gets diluted. Illustrations could have been equally about successful design and not just ineffective wayfinding.
Jargon:  wayfinding, disorientation, signage, sense of direction

MODULE 2: BODY AND PLACE: BEYOND ANTHROPOMETRIC 

Gayle Epp, “Furnishing the unit from the viewpoint of the elderly, the designer and HUD”, November 15, 1980
The essay is a comparative analysis of the actual needs and perceived requirements of a group of end users. In her paper, Housing Planner Gayle Epp, illustrates her thesis by studying the divergences between designer’s furniture arrangement planning and the actual need of the end users, here the elderly. To further illustrate that notion, the author uses the example of the elderlies moving to a subsidized home which is typically smaller than their original residence and studies successively the amount of furniture, the type of furniture and furniture arrangements. 
·   She first evokes the importance for the elderlies to make their space a place that contains their lifetime memories (dining set, photographs, knock knack, furniture…)
·   Epp uses 4 different Data Sources to develop her thesis: the MIT study of a 55 elderly-occupied units, the HUD minimum Property standards (policy makers), a group of practicing design professionals interested in housing issues and finally a group of beginning architectural students.
·   Furnishability requirements and HUD Minimum Property standards: “Space shall be provided in the (living area, dining area, or bedroom) to accommodate the following furniture or its equivalent with comfortable use and circulation space”.
·   The 4 data were compared on the amount of furniture, the specific furniture pieces and their arrangement in the units. NOTE: all group data underestimated by approximately 50% the amount of furniture the elderly have.
·   Student interpreted elderly’s choice of having a rich environment (full of memories) as clutter (overcrowded) and chooses to design the unit very sparsely: there is no attempt to understand and design for the end user in mind.
·   Additionally, HUD (policy maker) is the least accurate in the representation of end user’s furnishing.
·    Elderly arrange their furniture against the wall and like symmetry
·   Designers and students tend to define activity zones and arrange furniture in center of rooms
Conclusion: Architects and designers should not rely only on their personal experience.  “The average architect does not think the same way as the average person.”
The essay raises the following concerns:
·   The question of whether the end user doesn’t know better and should follow the designer’s instruction or the designer should design to fit the end user’s approach of his space.
·   Architects’ lack of understanding of the end user’s needs
·   Are nursing homes and elderly home care places are not designed with the challenges of the end users in mind.
Strength of the paper:  the issue of the lack of study and understanding from the architects applies to other types of buildings/spaces.
Weakness: the paper lacks the point of view of the end user, only graphs illustrate the end users final furniture arrangements but we only assume eh reasons why the end user modifies the furniture arrangement. 
Jargon:  Furnishability, furniture arrangement, furniture mapping, habitability

Peter Monaghan, “Modern Play Spaces May Be Safe, but They’re Stultifying, Some Experts Say,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 7, 2000, sec. Research, http://chronicle.com/article/Modern-Play-Spaces-May-Be/6750/
In the Newspaper article Monaghan interviews cultural geographers who study how children interact with their environment and how they deal with establishing their role and place in society and how to they handle social reproduction. To support the article, the Author focuses on and refers to writers who have studied the children need to create liberating spaces.  One of the themes that are valuable in the article is the social reproduction amongst a generation of children who don’t seem to have any natural interactions with others and with the natural environment.  The other theme is the lack of the parent’s role and place to educate their children and instead let TV and activity packed schedules do the job.
·   Through Participatory research in a fast food playground, the geographer “explores the changing nature of childhood as a function of changing cityscape, patterns and styles of habitation, and everyday live s while noticing the “erosion of children’s autonomous play”
·   The article evoke social reproduction (perpetuation of values form parents and grandparents) as the main concern when it comes to today’s children who don’t have much experience with the developing “cognitive, linguistic and – in geography – spatial skills” – what happens to the kids when they don’t explore the nature around them, their neighborhood and its social activities that are organized?
·   Virtual reality
·   The way social, cultural and political identities children form? The journalist rises the concerns of what role are parents playing to educate their kids.
·   The geographer sums up his concerns by stating “we are creating a generation that doesn’t know how to do nothing”
·   Reference to D.W. Winnicott’s approach: emphasizes on paly and affect over logic and reason – introduction of the concept of “transitional spaces”: “emotional. Intellectual and spiritual play and experiment in which children reconcile the external world with their developing ego.
·   Study by professor Ms. Kats on Sudanese children after it was incorporated in to a state-run agricultural development project – capitalist system – it “disrupted the age-old, unified way in which children worked, played, and engaged in formal learning while assisting in their families’ daily activities.  The study shows that play “had previously been “a creative means for the acquisition, use, and consolidation of environmental knowledge” – children worked and play at the same time and it had a positive outcome.
·   Study on children in NYC where cuts in funds of spaces such as playgrounds have disrupted efforts to make children self-sufficient in spite of tight family structures.
·   Katz concludes with: Disinvestment in spaces correlates with criminalization of young people.
·   In Susan M. Ruddick book “Young and Homeless in Hollywood: Mapping Social Identities” point s out  the positive outcome of young people hanging outside and the impact on their public perception
The strength of this article lies in the great diversity of essays and book references for the reader to understand the complex issues children encounter to define their identity and status in society.
Jargon: Autonomous culture, social reproduction, spatial skills, transitional spaces

Jon Lang, Creating Architectural Theory: The Role of the Behavioral Sciences in Environmental Design (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1987).
In his book written for entry level interior designer, urban design expert Professor Jon Lang describes in Chapter 12 of his book, Anthropometrics and Ergonomics and how these fields of study deal with the relationship between physiological capabilities and metabolic processes and the built environment. 
·   The author introduces the subject referring to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. (1-Physiological , 2-Safety  etc.)  The built environment is here to provide certain levels of bodily comforts starting with the basic need for shelter.  However, anthropometrics and ergonomics are here to define the environment as more than that: the environment should provide also comfort to its user.  Yet there is more than just comfort that counts as the reasons why we’ve become more concerned with anthropometric and ergonomics. There are energy crisis, accidents, catering people who are impaired and legislation.
·   Designers must study data that is specific to building types whether domestic or office.  Because people have different physiological abilities to use the environment they evolve in.  In fact, amount and type of space is often underestimated because of assumptions of the average person.
·   The sense of a place being comfortable or uncomfortable is very subjective and changes from one person to another.  New technologies have improved to give people more comfort. For example temperature can be controlled more easily today in the built environment - the idea of perception of temperature is supported by a visual graph: perception of comfort of 845 office workers in NY.
·   Another factor of comfort is illumination levels in the design: Natural vs. artificial. The levels of illumination and contrast determine a great deal of comfort for the eyes.
·   Additionally color perception plays a role in the sense of visual pleasure or not: the right amount of contrast in colors is key for the psychological comfort.  But the psychological effect of color perception has been determined physiologically and culturally. This idea is supported by a graph of level of appreciation and effect of colors: distance, warmth & mental stimulation.
·   Sound is a direct concern in architecture because acoustical qualities play also an important part in the comfort factor: Sound and noise are interferences with activities throughout the day and night.
·   Finally the growing concern of designing a Barrier-free environment is the most important in design today. The barrier-free need for people with reduced mobility has to be addressed as well: wheelchair-users, hard of hearing, blind.  The author raises the question of which degree environment has to be made accessible for all.
·   Yet, overall personalities and social and cultural environments influence the perception of our environment as well. There are social and cultural norms that are to be taken into consideration when designing.
·   But more importantly the correlation between body types and personality, diet/nutrition, physical development, health care access and Socio-economic status has to be addressed.
“People are prepared to put up with physiological discomfort in an environment or its furnishings when its symbolic aesthetic value is high or when it is important for them in carrying out some activity.”
Conclusion: Lang concludes on how what is considered as good sizes vary from culture to culture but the designer’s role strongly remains in showing the user better ways to carrying out activities with maximum ease and comfort.
Jargon: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Static Anthropometrics and Dynamic anthropometric, Socio-economic status.

Roger S. Ulrich, How design impacts wellness; The Healing Environment The Healthcare Forum Journal (1992)
In his article, Ulrich focuses on how the built environment impacts, whether positively or negatively, the wellbeing of its end user and on how designers’ goals should be promoting wellness. The author develops his thesis around the concept of Supportive Design and its advantages such as stress reduction, marketing and demand from end users and employees, lower care cost, lower construction costs.
To support the need for better design Ulrich points out how the built environment is designed to accommodate a young population without taking into consideration the importance of designing for an aging population.
·   Bad design vs. good design: “Research has linked poor design to anxiety, delirium, elevated blood pressure, increased need for pain medication, and longer hospital stays following surgery.”
·   Institutional characteristics of design in hospitals: Little attention is given to the psychological needs of patients and visitors
·   Poorly designed facilities:  noisy, invade privacy, interfere with social support.
·   Physiological response: increased blood pressure reduced immune system functioning
·   Behavioral response:  verbal outburst, social withdrawal, sleeplessness, alcohol abuse, noncompliance with medication regime.
·   Design must foster a sense of control, access to social support, access to positive distractions and that is access to visual privacy for gown clad patients, gardens and grounds accessible to patients’ control of room temperature, better location of staff workstation to avoid interruption.
·   Access to social support: overnight accommodation for family members, comfortable visitor waiting areas, areas that support patient/visitor social interaction
·   Positive distractions that produces positive feelings:  windows, nature elements (trees, plants, water), happy and caring human faces and benign animals such as pets.  The restorative influence of nature scenes reduces worrisome thoughts. Also, visual stimulation is key: fosters more rapid recovery for the brain impairment. Additionally to natural features Wall Art can be used. But it must be chosen carefully:  there are examples of negative effects when art is not chosen thoughtfully and increases stress in patients (example of abstract painting) Ulrich suggests placing visual stimulation on ceilings for those who can’t sit/walk.
Ulrich concludes with the importance of integrating thoughtful design early in the programming of design.

Margaret P. Calkins, Designing for an aging population Ideas: Innovative Designs in Environments for an aging society (1992)
In her short article, the author uses the example of the elderly population to show the problems a group of people meet when in a space not addressing their physiologic challenges.  She suggests the following design solutions:
·   Visual: Use Larger letters, Avoid lighting the background of signs, Avoid blues, greens and neutral colors, Provide higher illumination, Diminish glares, Avoid uneven lighting, Ensure flexibility in lighting options
·   Auditory: Use sound absorbing materials and minimize background noises
·   Motor challenges:  Make available seating areas where excessive walking is expected, provide handrails
Jargon: Supportive design, Sensory deprivation, wellness, healing environment, visual stimulation

Julius Panero and Martin Zelnik, Human Dimension and Interior Space: A Source Book of Design Reference Standards (Watson-Guptill, 1979).

The book is written for student architects, interior designer and industrial designers.  In the chapter Anthropometric Theory, the authors point out the necessity for the designers to become more aware of the data available and its applicability to the design of interior spaces.
·   In 1940, the sources of data come mostly from the military sector: this is the 1st   time there is an actual need for anthropometric data and it is for the industrial and aircraft industries.  The study aims at measuring the human body to determine differences in individuals within a group.
·   Body sizes vary with age, sex, race/ethnicity and occupational groups. There are 2 factors that influence the body sizes: Age factor: body dimensions peak in late teens and then decrease and Socioeconomic factors: contribute to body growth freedom from childhood diseases and better nutrition available those with higher incomes.
The authors organize the chapter as following:
1. Types of data: Structural (static) and Functional (Dynamic)
2. Presentation of Data is usually done in a graphic forms or tabular form, both to indicate frequency.
3. Percentiles: designers deal with the 90% (average size) of the population
4. Variability and reliability: “socioeconomic study has indicated a significant difference in stature between people having different occupations”. It was observed that the measurements of general body sizes within a country may change over a period of time: Graph indicates a growth in the stature of U.S. males from generation to generation. 

Rachel N. Weber, “Manufacturing Gender in Commercial and Military Cockpit Design,” Science, Technology, & Human Values 22, no. 2 (April 1, 1997): 235-253.

In her essay, Weber uses the concepts of ergonomics and anthropometrics to compare the treatment of gender as an ergonomic consideration within military and commercial cockpit design.  It is most importantly about how to change that. To illustrate the gender-based exclusion the author focuses on the example of how Cockpits have been built to specifications based on male anthropometry “Cockpit design specifications have protected what has traditionally been a male occupation.”
·       Design bias is not restricted to the military; commercial technologies such as aircraft, automobiles, and architecture are also built to accommodate male anthropometry.  One of the main point of the article is the demonstration of how and why the “interests of women pilots could prevail in the traditionally male preserve of the military”.  In fact historically “many scholars of gender and technology have questioned women's access to particular technologies” (Wajcman 1991).
·      To understand how women’s bodies are excluded by design, the author traces “design bias” and “boundary makers” to focus on the problem of technology itself and how it excludes women and shorter-statured men.   “How are cockpits designed to accommodate women's bodies? When is a particular flight deck "gender neutral," and when is male bias embodied in the actual design, in the engineering specifications? How can biased technologies be altered to become more "women friendly"?”
One of the main themes is “the boundaries between men's and women's social space.

Reppy (1993, 6) notes that it is not that women are not physically capable of flying these particular aircraft or that they are not equally exposed to danger in other aircraft; rather denying women access to combat aircraft is a way of protecting a distinctly male arena.
·      Weber’s research then develops on the prospect of regulating accommodation which is a decision to standardize any technology: it is often contested because it can be very costly to retrofit existing technology but the economic benefits can be appealing. Here pursuing to design for man of smaller stature opens up to other markets: “Pragmatists also pointed to the prospect of foreign military sales to countries with smaller-sized populations, which would make design accommodation an important economic consideration as well.”
·      The author concludes that there is a need for a change. “In the same way that design specifications can exclude women, they can also be redrawn to include them--given the political momentum.”  The two examples (military vs. commercial cockpits) show how regulations can enact changes.
The strength of the essay lies in how using regulations to make changes is possible. The same can apply to sustainable design and extend to changing the mindset that is needed in design practices.  As a general rule, a project has to be economically viable for changes to happen.  Economic benefits and political special interest groups are what finally push new standards through.
Jargon: symbolic markers, social space, Ergonomics, anthropometric

MODULE 1: SENSE OF PLACE

Colson Whitehead (2001, November 11). The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost and Found. New York Times.
The essay is about the memories of long gone places in NYC and how they still exist through the eyes of its citizens, New Yorkers.  It is written from a very personal point of view, in a very emotional way.
In his short article written 2 months after 9/11 attack, the writer connects with the readers very powerfully by describing that one is a New Yorker the first time they say ''That used to be…”.  The essay grabs our attention by using the expression “private New York”:  He prompts the reader to recall memories of their city, by triggering intimate images of the “1st experience”, the first moments they were in NY and “tried to make those new streets [theirs]”.
Romantically, Whitehead humanizes the city: he associates the City to a person who knows each of its inhabitants just like each inhabitant knows the city.  To further his point he mentions that he “never got a chance to say goodbye to the twin towers”; a feeling that all New Yorkers share.  He further humanizes the apartments in whimsical description:  for example: “They could piece together the starts and finishes of your relationships.”
The main point of the essay is that the city exists through the eyes and memories of specific places by its people, regardless of the generations passing by.
Whitehead concludes the article on the fallen twin towers still standing in our memories and therefore still existing: “the twin towers still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows (…)”

Proshansky (1983) Place-identity: Physical World Socialization of the Self.  Journal of Environmental Psychology.
In his academic paper Proshansky aims to describe how people’s identity is closely connected to the places where they are from and/or live in.   
He defines the self-identity in connection to the place-identity and how the environment we live in influences our sense of self.  He describes how, first as a child, we define ourselves in the following environments: School, home and neighborhood. Later on, as adults we continue to define our identity and social role in the working environment as well as the place we live in with an emphasis on the urban setting.  The author points out the risk of loss of individuality when a person is displaced to a new setting that is lacking of his cultural heritage.  
He concludes on proposing to redefine the concept of place-identity to urban-identity.
Unless I did not understand well, I disagree with the author regarding a “loss of individuality” when a person is displaced. Proshansky article is more in line with how a new place may initially create self-turmoil but it can ultimately both strengthen and contribute to our sense of self.
The paper is written in an academic style
 Jargon: Place-identity, self-identity, social attributes, human privacy, territoriality, personal space, crowding behavior, setting interaction.

Michael Chabon (2009, July 16). Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood.  The New York Review of Books Volume 56, Number 12

In his essay Chabon describes his childhood memories growing up running free.  In the first part he explains how autonomy leads to knowing your surroundings and develops the imagination. The author grabs the attention of the reader by describing his personal experience as a kid in a very poetic way full of great imaginary.
In the second part of the essay Chabon points out how today’s generation of parents don’t let their children free to discover on their own their surroundings.  He makes reference to  the increased anxiety and irrational fear of parents over possible accidents and abduction “product of the consumer reports mentality”.  While he develops further the loss of development of children’s imagination, the author concludes on the sad realization that kids just don’t play outside in the wilderness together anymore, away from adult supervision, like he used to.
The main point of this essay is we are experiencing the end of “free range children”.
I would take it further by describing the reasons why concerned “helicopter parents” today are groundlessly hovering over their kids. The author could also perhaps come up with ways the parents of today could be educated on value of “running free.”

Andre Aciman (May 5,2000) Shadow Cities . Letters of Transit: Reflections on Exile, Identity, Language, and Loss, The New Press New York, Published in Collaboration with the New York Public Library.

This essay is autobiographical. Andre Aciman, an immigrant from Egypt based in New York, starts telling us this story by describing his feeling of loss of stability, when he witnesses a familiar place, Straus Park, in his NY neighborhood, seemingly being demolished. He further explains that this fear relates to all people who are in exile, who have no more roots.  The author tells us the story of how the park is the crossroad of many places coming together and shares his memories about the people and how his imagination could run there.  This is the place where other inhabitants of the neighborhood gather together creating the wonderful sense of community.  Strauss Park is located on an actual crossroad but it is also the crossroad of foreigners and languages, generations and social status.
For Aciman, Travelling elsewhere in time is the most compelling attribute of places, like Straus Park, that make our environment.  He further explains that the beloved place actually represents his home town, though based on a fantasy.  
He concludes with an unexpected denouement: Strauss Park was not being demolished but only being improved/renovated.
The major point of this essay is the importance to achieve stability by adjusting to and fitting in our surroundings by making them familiar. 
Jargon and main ideas: Exile, Identity, language and Loss.
This was my favorite reading because I relate to it.
Clare Cooper (1971). The House as Symbol of the Self. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press.
The major point of this essay is how the house reflects how man sees himself.  In her paper, Cooper doubts the conventional meaning of the house. 
First she uses Karl Jung’s theories as another way to understand the house function.  The author uses 3 main following concepts and jargon from Jung: the collective unconscious, the archetype and Symbol as well as identity, psychic mesh, anthropomorphizing (house with eyes, etc…). For instance, she uses examples from contemporary architecture, poetry, and literature and dreams to show how houses are invested with human qualities.
Finally Cooper uses Jung theory of dreams as a way to interpret the symbolic meaning of house in people’s dreams.
Overall the house is discussed as something sacred to people, a point of reference to structure the world around them. (For the child first there is the womb, then the mother, followed by the bedroom, then the house).
The success of the article lies in using Jung’s concepts as a way to describe the relationship between the House and the Self.
One of the weaknesses is that the article forces the reader to accept Jungian ideas of self. The article depends on the viewer accepting this idea in order for it to work.  One way to take it further would be considering other ways of understanding “the self”.