Bijlmermeer: Defining Public Spaces

Researching Public Spaces: Streets, Pavement, Sidewalks & Parks



Our final morning lecture, given by Dr. Leon Deben, senior university lecturer and associate professor of sociology and anthropology at UvA and part of the research team "Urban Geographies and Social Interactions".



What is public space?



Public space is defined as "space that is not privately owned and cannot be claimed by one person, or group of persons, exclusively," according to Dr. Deben, it is "a reflection of how a society is organized." You do not need to obtain permission to enter this space, spend time there, conduct business, &c. Day or night, man or woman, you are free to use this space as you choose.



Semi-public spaces are just that, 'semi-public', they are do not afford the same freedoms as a truly public space, but they are certainly a part of the public domain. They are characterized by time restraints, membership requirements perhaps, tacit (or perhaps not) rules governing behavior and conduct. Shopping Malls, therefore, will forever remain semi-public.



Three Domains of Space



The private domain is the home; characterized by the intimate interactions of a specific group/individuals, a freedom of behavior, attitude and ideas not available elsewhere. Interaction with strangers is extremely limited.



The next step out is the parochial domain, or the neighborhood; a familiar community network of friends and family, the people you ride the tram with to work every morning, the baristas at the cafe on the corner. Interactions with the unfamiliar occurs, but there is some sense of ownership and pride in this space, you have some vague idea of who belongs or who doesn't.



Of course the public domain is a realm of strangers; while locations are largely familiar, the sea of faces endlessly shifts and changes.



Diversity and Freedom



“In a village, when you look out the window, you are looking in the mirror. In the city, when you look out the window, you see the world."



By forced meetings (in public spaces), tolerance becomes a part of everyday life, developed more and more each day. It is impossible to exist in a city environment, interacting (if only briefly and superficially) with individuals from every walk of life on a daily basis, and remain intolerant. It may not always be the most pleasant experience, but if you were to remain completely intolerant, you would either never leave your house or leave the city and move to a gated community where you never have to see anyone outside of your fixed social stratum and environment.



Theoretical Perspective: Erving Goffman



Dr. Erving Goffman: former president of the American Sociological Association and professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, University of California - Berkeley and University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded Doctor of Hebrew literature/language from the University of Chicago and Doctor of Laws from University of Manitoba, a Guggenheim Fellowship (1977-78), In Medias Res (International Communication Award, 1978) and the Mead-Cooley Award (social psychology life achievement award, 1983).



Dr. Goffman developed the idea of "symbolic interactionism" which focuses on the constructive, creative aspect of human behavior: not passive, but based on interpretations of the environment. He stresses the strategic, calculating aspects of social interaction. Sees the world as backstage (your language/vernacular) and main stage; in each situation there is a seen and unseen component. Backstage is the difference in behavior in public spaces versus private spaces; how you behave at home versus how you behave in Dam Square. Backstage is more informal and familiar; the 'true you' so to speak. You conduct yourself differently in the privacy of your own thoughts and home than you would in a shopping centre or public park. Dr. Goffman also notes the "anonymous privacy" afforded by public spaces and the concept of "civil-inattention and nonpersons", you don’t see the homeless or the crazy pigeon lady, you turn away. If you give everyone attention, you will not be able to walk through the city, or keep your sanity.



Territories of the self applied in research of the public area and domain

Used Space

The Turn

The Sheath - the skin that covers the body, the clothes that cover the skin

Possessional territory - purses, bags, umbrellas

Personal Space

The Stall - establishing your space. Setting a bag on the chair next to you on the tram to prevent intrusion of others into your perceived 'bubble'

Information Reserve - things that are always present, even in public, but are still unknown to others. The contents of your pockets, for example.

Conversational Reserve



Privatizing Public Spaces: Symbolic Transformations



According to Dr. Lyn Lofland, a student of Dr. Goffman and research professor of sociology at University of California - Davis, you cannot cope with thousands of strangers, you must develop strategies for existence and survival. By reducing the complexities of an anonymous life and by turning public spaces into a private place, so as to avoid this ‘world of strangers’. By knowing a city, by filling in our mental maps, we become more comfortable with the city/world around us. Privatizing public space is an individual act; a locational transformation to avoid the world of strangers.



Home Territories are places where you are among your compatriots. A piece of public space that is taken over by people who want to maximize encounters with the personally-known. A “home away from home”, which makes the urban world safer and easier. Invites "host-like" behavior towards strangers.



1. Casual knowledge (customer)

2. Familiar knowledge (patron)

3. Intimate knowledge (residents)

4. Public Space knowledge (colonizers)



The customer has a casual knowledge of a place, looks at it as somewhere to meet friends, to see and be seen. The Patron has familiar knowledge based on a regular relationship; a privileged link with employees, which also contributes to the spatial segregation of strangers. Upperclassmen always know new students, and there is some discrimination based not on socio-economics, but sheerly on the amount of time you have spent in a space or set of spaces. Residents know everything via permanent relationship; can recognize strangers. An alteration which transforms a world of strangers into ‘home’.

Finally, colonizers turn public spaces into home; a ‘full-time job’ for seeking private purposes. An action which depends on the approval of other people and authorities; unlike the privatization of public space, which is an individual action, this is a group act.



Villages



The Urban Village is a personal world in urban anonymity, based on solidarity and/or security. The Concentrated Village (neighborhood) a mix of unity and autonomy which remains fictional. A way for inhabitants to avoid the adaptations to the ‘world of strangers’; an extreme example is a gated community. 10-15 million people in the United States live in gated communities, turning their backs on society; an anachronism in our cosmopolitan world.



Amsterdam is an important mix of all of these spaces and territories: there are 80-85,000 residents in the city itself, and on any given day between 80-100,000 people living and working in the 8 square km of the city.



Now, onto Bijlmer and a short history lesson...



Bijlmermeer



History:

1622 - Reclamation of Bijlmer lake

1672 - Marshy polder flooded

1678 - Drained again

1702 - Flooded during a storm

1825 - Drained again

1846 - Owned by Weesperkarspel

1960 - Cooperation with Amsterdam. To realize housing plans (to combat post WWII housing shortage), began discussions on building up Bijlmermeer.



Bijlmer was designed to be a "Functional Town": a town in which living, working, traffic and recreation are separated (like old German industrial town) The Bijlmer was designed by Le Corbusier and based on his "Voisin Plan" for Paris (1925). He founded CIAM, in 1928, and invited 28 European architects to join this international congress for the design of modern architecture. In 1934, they wrote the Charter of Athens (1942) which dictated the planning of new cities based on the proceedings of CIAM meetings from 1933-1941. While the Bijlmer project was conceived in the 1930s, it was not realized until the 1960s.



The Potential Plan

High-rise Apartment Blocks (8 floors/each)

18,000 apartment units, 13,000 in the High-rise

Deck access apartment blocks

Honeycomb Pattern

Large green spaces in between



The Effective Plan

Budget Cuts

Remained incomplete

The "covered street" or raised highway was set at 1st floor-height

Storage at the Ground Floor (a bad thing; must have watching eyes on street level to reduce crime)

Number of floors was increased (10/11 stories)

Number of lifts decreased

Galleries were too long

Cavernous spaces in car parks; from day one, they were not used properly because there was a fee. Residents removed the gates and parked for free, only to find their wheels missing the next morning.

Subway realized later; initially it was a bus system connecting Bijlmermeer to the city.



Reasons for failure

Too expensive; the idea was to build the Bijlmermeer, and then be able to renovate the 19th C girdle of the city. Never happened.

Unsafe carparks.

Insufficient shops/retail locations

A menacing atmosphere in the public area: because all of the highways were elevated, underneath them, these cavernous spaces were no-go areas at night and are the ultimate in sketch.

Nuisance in the Blocks

Rapid Turn Over

Faulty Social Structure; in a way, this became the place where, if you could not get a home in Amsterdam proper, you moved to Bijlmermeer.



Further problems caused by external forces

National policy created ‘overspill towns’

Slower population growth than anticipated,

Relatively high rent throughout the country,

Combined with this situation: negative residential climate around the Blocks, too many units left empty,

Fewer families living in the blocks (single parents, partners without children, individuals)



1975 Surinam (Dutch Guyana) gained its independence, and these immigrants like to live in the same communities, this filled the empty Bijlmermeer.



1992 El Al freighter crashed into one of the apartment blocks; unfortunately, there were so many illegals living in the area that the actual death toll is unknown. There is a memorial erected in Bijlmerpark to commemorate this tragedy.



Census of Resident Participation:

25% liked the High Rise Blocks

25% wanted to leave

25% wanted the Bijlmermeer to be renovated



Buildings have been torn down and rebuilt, others renovated, others still remain unchanged. The campaign for a new Biljmer: clean, whole and safe: restoring the quality of life.



Population:

Surinamese - 25,000

Antillians - 4,500

Turkish/Moroccan - 2,000

Non-Westerdn - 16,500

Dutch - 22,500

Western Origin - 6,500

-----

Total: 77,500



The Bijlmer Renewal Project



To be completed by 2010, the Bijlmer Renewal is hailed as the "Society of Tomorrow" and anticipated to increase the population in Amsterdam Zuidoost (southeast) from 77,500 to 90,000. They'll be removing the raised highways, renovating or rebuilding the remaining apartment blocks from the 1960s, and have renovated the extremely sketchy metro station (now a clean, aesthetically-pleasing, contemporary structure of glass and steel). They will also be constructing a new music dome and entertainment center with hotels, shopping, a discotech/club, and 3D/IMAX cineplex, in hopes of turning Bijlmer into Amsterdam's new center for the arts and entertainment.















Religion is extremely important to residents of Bijlmer; while there is no official church, all of the protestants (the majority of the inhabitants) attend services and whatnot in a shared building, where all communities peacefully coexist. Bijlmer, too, is the largest employment center in Amsterdam, filled with skyscrapers: the symbol of modern industry.



A few of us hung around Bijlmer for a few hours and explored the city center before returning to Amsterdam proper where a few of us went out for dinner and re-explored the city at dusk.