Photography, Photography
The unpredictable lives of public spaces
Project description
The lives of the public spaces are subjected to change, are prone to chance, they grow and dwindle in ways that are difficult to anticipate, such as the rhythms of humans are renewed, are given additional dimensions, are subordinated to principles that tend to constantly alter their shapes. Some public spaces, designed to satisfy well defined requirements, do not get to fulfill their part, they wane and die, while others, without being influenced in any way, receive new meanings through spontaneousness, are given new lives. The secondary arm of a river, former shipyard, becomes the pretext for a network of small buildings dedicated to spending leisure time, while a nineteenth century marketplace is only used as an acces area towards a supermarket. The mistake we often commit is to imagine that everything needs to be regulated, that patterns can be created from fictional conceptual constructs, which have firm theoretical foundations, but fail when confronted with reality. The risk that is always present is to succumb to our own illusions, to our own utopias, to our own prejudices regarding the manner public spaces should be used. In certain cases, it is precisely the design, the actual expression of this vision, that tends to annihilate the character of a space, instead of enhancing it. To believe that society’s problems could be ameliorated solely through design or through implementing strategies is nothing but another face of the attempt to standardize, to circumscribe people to pre-established patterns, to remove the hazard that is inherent to the world. Henceforth, adequacy, discernment, critical spirit towards thinking patterns that tend to be steered towards dogmatism become valid instruments in approaching concepts related to common goods. There are situations in which a rigorous approach is necessary, but there are also situations in which things should be let to follow their own course. Because it is through uncertainty that the whole potentiality of human being can be expressed.
Author's presentation text
My name is Andrei Chindriș. I graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban PLanning of Timișoara,
