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Standing on a square
Standing on a square
Nayra Hammann
Nayra Hammann
For the last station we end up in the present. We invite you to become observants of the Neude yourself. Public spaces do invite people to dwell, have a chat or just sit down to observe others. One of the first things that crossed my mind when I observed the Neude was that no one does these things. Everyone seems to be busy and on their way to some other place. I am aware that there are cafés in which one can sit, but sitting in a place of consumption or sitting on a spot without having to pay money are two different things.
I propose to you the following. Go and stand right in the middle of the Neude. How does that feel? Do you feel comfortable? Do you feel like you belong there? That, it's okay to be there? If you're like me then the answer is no. I think that has a variety of reasons. One of them is the surface itself. If you look closely enough, you can detect that the ground is more elevated the more you walk to the centre. Neude is convex. When I stood in the middle of the Neude I felt like standing at the heart of someones stretched palm. Almost vulnerable. Delivered to everyones eyes and the lenses from the cameras that are installed all around the square.
The situation changes if benches provide people with sitting opportunities. Luckily for me, the change occurred when benches were installed because of the Film Festival. Suddenly different dynamics appeared.
Sitting on a square
Sitting on a square
video-1569588115.mp4
Moving flows without free sitting opportunites
Moving flows without free sitting opportunites
The colored lines are exemplary moving flows. The red line is the thickest because it represents the most dominant movement, people who are on their way from A to B. The other ones are more ‘singular’ flows. Green and blue are two friends who meet and then leave in direction of Vorstraat. Pink is a couple who sits in a café for a while and then leaves the square. Here, all movements are directed towards: consumption, commuting, meeting and leaving. Moreover, no interaction happens between the groups.
Moving flows with free sitting opportunities
Moving flows with free sitting opportunities
Here, a dark square in the middle of the Neude represents the benches that were installed in the context of the Film Festival. The lines are moving patterns that I observed. The green spot was a girl that sat down to wait for her boyfriend. When I asked her what she would do if the benches weren't there she answered that she would have not chosen the Neude to wait but would go instead to another spot where she could sit down. Her boyfriend (blue) came with a motor scooter and stopped just in front of her, staying seated on the scooter. They didn't leave immediately. Rather, they dwelled. The pink line is an elderly man who, after slowing down his pace, approached the couple and started chatting with them. I didn’t hear the conversation, but it was clear to me that they didn’t know each other. Maybe they were talking about the scooter (see film above).
The yellow line represents two women, one with a headscarf, that after strolling around for a while decided to sit down and continue their chat sitting. When I approached them to ask why they chose to sit there, they shook their head, signaling that they won’t or can’t speak English.
The missing benches
The missing benches
The interactions that happen here are spontaneous, don’t serve any efficiency and transcend social boundaries. For me, this is what a public space should be. When I asked another woman, who was sitting at one of the benches about her motivations, she pointed out that there were benches on the Neude when she moved to Utrecht 8 years ago. But, with time, they disappeared. Why do you think did this happen? My hunch is, that the municipality didn't want many people dwelling on this busy square. Further on, the fact that half of the space on the square is distributed to cafés leads me to the suspicion that Neude could be an example for the increased commodification and privatization of public spaces that took place since the 1980s.1 It is an outcome of this ‘entrepreneurial’ approach in urban development that citizens are limited to the role of consumers.
‘My own private Neude’
‘My own private Neude’
According to sociologist Richard Sennett “places should become both dense and diverse, either in the form of dense streets or packed squares; such physical conditions can prompt the unexpected encounter, the chance discovery, the innovation which is the genius loci of cities. ”2 For Sennett, meeting strangers is a civic duty.
In order to not restrict myself to a critic on the increased commodification and privatization of public spaces, I want to share some more observations that I made on the Neude. For example did I observe a group of protesters hanging up a banner on the wall that circled the construction. They temporarily seized the wall for their own purpose, displaying their concerns. Even the boulders that are spread on the square to prevent cars from driving through certain passages has been repurposed by a man, who sat down on it and started to swing on it. It is this unpredictable, spontaneous and disorderly behavior that makes a city a living organism.
I shared my observations with you because I want to encourage you to think about how you can ‘own’ places. People are incredibly resourceful in finding ways in defining space for themselves. What actions can you think of?
If you want to feel inspired you can watch an extract from the movie “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” in which William H. Whyte examined what happens when movable chairs are placed on a square. Another idea could be to set up an embroidary table like artist Liz Kueneke and invite people to stitch a place on the Neude they connect with a personal story. Or how about inviting designer Elisa Otáñez to place her mobile pop-up toilet for women on the Neude, thus calling attention to the unjust distribution of public restrooms for women in Dutch cities?
Footnotes
1. Van Melik, R.; Van Aalst, I.; Van Weesep, J. (2009)‘The Private Sector and Public Space in Dutch City Centres’, Cities, vol. 26, 202-209, here 202, viewed 26.09.2019 <www.elsevier.com/locate/cities>.
2. Sennet, R. (n.d.) The Open City, viewed 29.09.2019, <https://www.richardsennett.com/site/senn/UploadedResources/The%20Open%20City.pdf>, 7.
Images
Hammann, N. (2019).
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