Urban Alphabet

The public sphere is one of the most complex themes in architectural theory. To get a better grasp on this subject, I tried to establish an archive of words that all relate to the Public. After making a dictionary of words that all relate to this theme in general, I weighed them and linked them to my experiences of the Public in Sao Paulo. By doing that and linking related words to eachother, I found a way to describe the different realities of the Public in Sao Paulo. It’s clear that Sao Paulo is too big, too complex and there are too many contradictions to be able to narrow it down to a single reality.

Now I’ve found a few realities that all show a different aspect of Sao Paulo, this makes it easier for Nicola and me to select the words that describe the public sphere of Sao Paulo best for our second part of our presentation for the expositions. We want to select some pictures that show the different realities and accompany them with a word that describes these varying aspects. I think that would really add something to the presentation since “one image says more than a thousand words.” This could be in the form of large printed out pictures or a video presentation.

By no means, this dictionary is finished and complete. Feel free to add more words and comment on my experienced realities. Because that’s what always fascinates me about the Public, there is space for different interpretations of the same.

A
Acceptance
Alternative
Anonymity
Appropriation
Authority

B
Behaviour
Bureaucracy

C
Citizenship
Coherence
Collectivity
Communication
Community
Concentration
Concept
Condition
Conflict
Confrontation
Congestion
Connectivity
Consolidation
Constitution
Construction
Contact
Context
Continuity
Control
Clustering
Culture

D
Danger
Decor
Destination
Democracy
Density
“Depublicisation” (privatization)
Development
Differentiation
Digitalisation
Distraction
Downgrading
Dynamical

E
Emptiness
Exclusion
Experience
Experiment

F
Facilitation
Fear
Flexibility
Formality
Freedom
Functionality

G
Genericality
Globalisation
Growth

H
Hierarchy
Homelessness
Hybridism

I
Identity
Illegality
Improvement
Informality
Infrastructure
Integration
Interiorisation
Isolation

J

K

L
Layeredness
Law enforcement
Locality

M
Maintenance
Memory
Migration
Mobility
Modernity
Monstrosity
Monumentality

N
Necessity
Neglection
Network

O
Occupation
Openness
Organisation

P
People
Planning
Potential
Popularity
Power
Privatization (“depublicisation”)
Process
Protection
Provocation

Q

R
Reality
Recreation
Regulation
Restriction

S
Safety
Segregation
Society
Spatiality
Statical
Strategy
Structure
Supervision
Surveillance
Sustainability

T
Temporality
Territory
Trade
Tradition
Transformation
Transportation
Tourism

U
Universality
Unemployment
Urbanity

V
Visibility

W

X

Y

Z
Zoning


As I said there is not one reality that really says it all about the public sphere of Sao Paulo. The city is a monster, in the way that this city more than anywhere has created itself for decades without the strict supervision of a municipality. From my point of view, for a long time the city has literally been “out of control.” Now municipality is trying to get back in control, but not without resistance. Informal processes follow out of necessity and establish themselves in their purest form. They are there for a reason, have developed through time and can not be easily replaced by a formal layer of urban planning. Besides, informality is always a response to formality, so formalizing the informal will evoke new informal processes because certain groups, behaviour etc. will be displaces that have established there place on that spot through time.

Next to the formal-informal realities, there is a big difference between Sao Paulo at day and at night. At daytime the city becomes something between a hysterical circus and an overloaded infrastructure that in now way can supply the demand of its population. The car is the only option because distances are great and the development of the public transport has been on a stand still while Sao Paulo was growing out of its own skin. Not to mention the pedestrian and the cyclist that are liked guests of our European cities but have no place in the public network. Of course all these things are relative. For instance, there are clusters of a vivid public life where pedestrians are very present, but these clusters often are poorly connected, creating a tissue around them that is dominated by cars again. And very apparent is the way these clusters are dealt with: often with a gate around it and surveillance controls making sure there are no unwelcome guests that do not comply to the “appropiate” behaviour. At night, the streets become deserted. Again clusters of nightlife, but anywhere else the smell of trouble in the air. This fear has established itself over the years but has become an important factor in the way people use the city but also the way people have designed the city. Contrary to the stereotypical Brazilian outdoor public life you will find in most other cities in the country, a significant part of the public life of Sao Paulo occurs indoors. Yes this also has to do with the climate etc but it can’t be denied that the fear of danger plays an important role in this. Putting the Public behind a door makes it easier to control, protect and watch them. People will always have the urge to become public: to meet with strangers, to claim your own place in society, to give your life a meaning and an identity, to get distracted and to be just an anonymous element in the mass before turning back to the private again, where comfort is found but responsibilities and duties too.

Reality 1: the Reality of the Formal City
Authority, Behaviour, Conflict, Control, Exclusion, Formality, Hierarchy, Isolation, Law enforcement, Maintenance, Power, Privatization (“depublicisation”), Protection, Restriction, Segregation, Surveillance, Zoning


Reality 2: the Reality of the Traffic
Congestion, Connectivity, Clustering, Destination, Dynamical, Infrastructure, Mobility, Network


Reality 3: the Reality of the Night
Danger, Fear, Emptiness, Homelessness, Interiorisation, Territory


Reality 4: the Reality of the Informal City
Acceptance, Appropriation, Citizenship, Community, Constitution, Density, Development, Flexibility, Functionality, Genericality, Growth, Illegality, Informality, Necessity, Neglection, Occupation, Potential, Process, Transformation


Reality 5: the Reality of the Public Man
Anonymity, Collectivity, Communication, Confrontation, Contact, Democracy, Digitalisation, Distraction, Freedom, Globalisation, Identity, Integration, People, Recreation, Society, Trade, Tourism, Universality, Urbanity, Visibility