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OASE 77 - 21 Public Realm Public Space
OASE 77 - 21 Public Realm Public Space
PUBLIEKE RUIMTE
Een architecturale lezing van
The Human Condition
Hans Teerds
PUBLIC REALM,
PUBLIC SPACE
An Architectural Reading of
The Human Condition
Hans Teerds
orde stelde. Haar sombere conclusie dat het publieke domein als verloren 3
Begrippen als publieke
moest worden beschouwd, resoneert in het werk van de hedendaagse sfeer, publiek domein
theoretici. en openbaarheid
duiden op hetzelfde
In het vakgebied van de architectuur heeft het boek in al die jaren vooral fenomeen. Voor het
PUBLIEK DOMEIN, PUBLIEKE RUIMTE / PUBLIC REALM, PUBLIC SPACE HANS TEERDS vervolg van dit artikel 22
een rol in de marge gespeeld. De bekendste architectuurtheoreticus die kies ik voor het begrip
expliciet ingaat op haar werk is Kenneth Frampton.6 Verder verwijzen ‘publiek domein’,
vooral omdat dit de
uiteenlopende architecten als Léon Krier en Frank van Klingeren7 naar haar term is die ook door
Arendt wordt ge-
werk, met name omdat ze bij Arendt een kritische houding ten opzichte bruikt. De combinatie
van termen verduide-
van de moderniteit en de moderne techniek aantreffen. Sommige critici lijken overigens wel
verwijten Arendt inderdaad een zekere melancholie. Ook bij haar bespre- waar het om gaat:
het publieke leven in
king van het publieke domein lijkt Arendt situaties uit het verleden, met openbaarheid, dat
zich niet alleen ‘zicht-
name de Griekse en Romeinse staatsinrichting en stadstaten, te idealise- baar’ en ‘begrensd’
ren, om vervolgens te concluderen dat in de moderniteit het publieke (domein) afspeelt,
maar ook ‘onzicht-
domein verloren is gegaan. Deze idealisering is echter een intentionele baar’ en ‘onbegrensd’
(sfeer).
idealisering. Haar doel is het voorheen evidente maar in Nazi-Duitsland
4
en Stalins Sovjet-Unie ontkende belang van het publieke domein en zijn Michael Sorkin
veelvoudige betekenis te duiden. Voor Arendt was dit geen theorie, maar (red.), Variations on
a Theme Park. The
persoonlijke ervaring: als Joodse Duitse had ze in haar geboorteland New American City
and the End of Public
voorafgaand aan de Tweede Wereldoorlog geen grond om op te staan, laat Space, New York
staan zich in een publiek domein haar betekenis te ontsluieren en nieuwe 1992; Bruce Robbins
(red.), The Phantom
concepten om het ‘verlorene’ een plaats geven in de moderne wereld te Public Sphere, Min-
neapolis 1993.
ontwikkelen.8
5
René Boomkens,
DE WERELD VAN DE DINGEN Het publieke domein komt bij Arendt ter Een drempelwereld:
moderne ervaring en
sprake tegen de achtergrond van de ‘menselijke activiteiten’ waarmee de stedelijke openbaar-
heid, Rotterdam
mens de aarde conditioneert voor zijn verblijf: hoe hij zichzelf een plaats 1998; Maarten Hajer
verwerft, de wereld stoffeert en comfortabeler maakt en – omdat hij niet en Arnold Reijndorp,
Op zoek naar nieuw
alleen op aarde is – gemeenschappen sticht.9 Arendt onderscheidt deze publiek domein,
9
Arendts keuze zich te
concentreren op de
menselijke activiteiten
is mede gebaseerd
op het onderscheid
dat Aristoteles maakt
met betrekking tot
het goede leven:
écht leven is ofwel
participeren in de
politiek (vita activa)
of contemplatie (vita
contemplativa).
Arendt concentreert
zich hier dus op het
eerste aspect van het
goede leven. In de
filosofische en theolo-
gische traditie lag de
focus juist vaak op de
vita contemplativa,
wat volgens Arendt
heeft geleid tot een
zich afkeren van de
wereld, tot wereld-
PUBLIEK DOMEIN, PUBLIEKE RUIMTE / PUBLIC REALM, PUBLIC SPACE HANS TEERDS 24
about: public life in for a certain melancholy. In her able and – because he is not alone
public, which unfolds
not only ‘visibly’ and ‘fi- discussion of the public realm, in the world – forms communities.9
nitely’ (realm) but also Arendt seems to idealise situations Arendt divides these activities
‘invisibly’ and ‘infinite’
(sphere).
from the past, especially the Greek into labour, work and action (and
and Roman polities and city-states, speech). Labour corresponds to
4 only to conclude that the public biological life, the human body,
Michael Sorkin (ed.),
Variations on a Theme realm has been lost in modernity. growth and decay. It is linked to
Park: The new American This idealisation, however, is an the effort ‘to stay alive’. Day after
City and the End of Pub-
lic Space (New York: Hill
intentional idealisation. Her aim is day. The condition of labour is life
and Wang, 1992); and to point out the formerly evident itself. Work, on the other hand, is
Bruce Robbins (ed.), importance, nonetheless denied in connected to the human artifice.
The Phantom Public
Sphere (Minneapolis: Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Work creates an artificial, sus-
University of Minnesota Union, of the public realm and its tainable ‘world of things’ within
Press, 1993).
multiple meanings. To Arendt this which human life can develop.
5 was not theory but personal experi- The condition of work is ‘being in
René Boomkens, Een ence: as a German Jew she had had the world’. In essence, however,
drempelwereld: mod-
erne ervaring en stedeli- no place in which to stand in her Arendt’s distinction focuses on the
jke openbaarheid (Rot- home country in the period leading last category, action and speech.
terdam: NAi Publishers,
1998); Maarten Hajer up to the Second World War, let It is the only human activity that
and Arnold Reijndorp, alone to decipher the meaning of takes place directly among humans,
In Search of New Public
Domain (Rotterdam:
a public realm and to develop new without the intercession of things
NAi Publishers, 2001); concepts to give the ‘lost’ a place in or matter. Moreover, it is, by defini-
Lieven De Cauter, The the modern world.8 tion, a public activity: action and
Capsular Civilization:
The City in the Age of speech only make sense if they
Fear (Rotterdam: NAi THE WORLD OF THINGS In are heard and seen by others;
Publishers, 2004).
Arendt’s work the public realm is they produce no tangible results,
6 discussed against the backdrop of after all, unless they are recorded
Kenneth Frampton, ‘The ‘human activities’ through which in stories, reports, novels, films,
Status of Man and the
Status of His Objects: A man conditions the earth to his minutes, and so forth. And although
reading of The Human sojourn on it: how he carves out action and speech themselves are
Condition’, in: Melvyn
A. Hill (ed.), Hannah
a place for himself, furnishes the transitory, the impact of words
Arendt: The Recovery of world and makes it more comfort- and deeds can be enormous. The
zoals bijvoorbeeld via beider analyses van het begrip ‘wonen’. Bouwen als 10
Ibid., p. 19-20.
het instrument waarmee de mens voor zichzelf op aarde plaats maakt, haar
bewoonbaar maakt en toe-eigent. Arendt gaat daarentegen niet uit van het 11
Frampton, op. cit.
individu als representant van de gemeenschap, maar van de ‘mens in (noot 6), p. 102.
meervoud’. De ‘wereld van de dingen’ heeft in deze plurale gemeenschap 12
een intermediaire functie: ‘Het gezamenlijk leven in de wereld betekent in Arendt 1994, op. cit.
(noot 1), p. 60.
wezen dat zich tussen hen die haar bewonen een wereld van dingen
13
bevindt (...); als door elk ander intermediair worden mensen door de wereld Ibid., p. 62.
tegelijkertijd verbonden en gescheiden.’12 Door samen te brengen en te
scheiden transformeert het de wereld in een samenhangend bestel van
dingen. Arendt benadrukt dat deze samenhang noodzakelijk is voor zinvol
handelen en spreken.13 Architectuur is daarmee niet slechts een instru-
ment, of een vorm van cultuur en beschaving, maar ook een voorwaarde
voor publiek leven.
condition of action is human plural- claims it. Arendt, on the other hand, the Public World (New
York: St. Martin’s Press,
ity; it is the basis of political life.10 does not base her argument on 1979), 102.
Kenneth Frampton has pointed out the individual as representative of
7
that Arendt’s distinction between the community, but on ‘man in the On the impact of The
labour and work virtually parallels plural’. The ‘world of things’, in this Human Condition on
the distinction made for centuries plural community, has an interme- Léon Krier, see for in-
stance his article ‘The
between building and architec- diary function: ‘To live together in Blind Spot’, Architec-
ture.11 Building is first and foremost the world means essentially that a tural Design, 4 (1978),
218-221; on the impact
biologically necessary; man needs a world of things is between those on Frank van Klingeren,
place to live and shelter in order to who have it in common . . . like every see Marina van den Ber-
survive. It is, however, undeniably in-between, relates and separates gen and Piet Vollaard,
Hinder en ontklontering:
part of the human artifice, part of men at the same time.’12 By relating architectuur en maat-
the ‘world of things’ that furnishes and separating, it transforms the schappij in het werk
van Frank van Klingeren
the earth and makes human devel- world into a coherent system of (Rotterdam: 010 Pub-
opment possible. Arendt identifies things. Arendt emphasises that this lishers, 2003).
this very ‘world of things’ as the coherence is crucial for meaning-
8
stage of public action and speech. ful action and speech.13 This makes Young-Bruehl, Why
While she never addresses architec- architecture not just an instrument, Arendt Matters, op. cit.
(note 2). Young-Bruehl
ture in this regard, she nonetheless or a form of culture and civilisation, has also written a thor-
provides an argument to specify but a pre-requisite for public life. ough intellectual biogra-
phy of Hannah Arendt, in
the meaning of the discipline. Such which the way Arendt’s
important sources for architecture PLURALITY, SIMULTANEITY, CON- experience influenced
theory as Martin Heidegger and TINUITY Arendt explicates the her work is made clear:
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl,
Maurice Merleau-Ponty point out importance of action and speech in Hannah Arendt: For
the relationship of the individual public by means of three aspects. Love of the World (New
Haven: Yale University
(as representative of the human The first is the singularisation Press, 1982).
community) with the earth, for of the individual. Only when one
instance in both of their analyses of leaves one’s own realm and actively 9
Arendt’s choice to
the concept of ‘habitation’. Build- participates in public life can one concentrate on human
ing as the instrument with which begin to find oneself, Arendt argues. activities is partly based
on the distinction Aris-
man carves out a place for himself To put it another way, a meaning- totle made in relation to
on earth, makes it habitable and ful life means transcending oneself the good life: true life
is either participation and participating in public affairs. fined, there is no public realm; the
in politics (vita activa)
or contemplation (vita By devoting himself to this, man loss of the public realm is dangerous
contemplativa). Here attains both his true destiny and lib- for plurality – people are stripped
Arendt concentrates
on the first aspect of
erty, in part because this dedication of the freedom to develop their
the good life. In philo- to the public good frees him of his own unique biography in relation to
sophical and theological own concerns.14 The second aspect others and with it to take part in the
tradition, instead, the
focus was often on the is the same outward nature of the organised world.17 In this regard,
vita contemplativa, individual constitutes human plural- Arendt, in The Human Condition,
which Arendt felt had
led to a withdrawal from
ity. This is a paradoxical plurality. does not so much identify political
the world, from a dis- Individual man, after all, is similar to threats, but mainly other develop-
connection from reality. others as a being, but he demon- ments: the mass society (which was
The vita activa, on the
contrary, is focused on strates his uniqueness by speaking becoming more and more evident in
the world, on building and acting. No one speaks or acts her time), the bureaucratic forms
the human community.
Arendt, The Human the same way, because everyone’s of organisation attendant upon
Condition, op. cit. life story is different.15 The last as- this and in addition the increasing
(note 1), 16. pect is the affirmation of reality by primacy of economic principles over
10 appearing ‘in public’. What remains everyday life. In short her analysis
Ibid., 7-8. merely in the private realm never comes down to the observation that
11 becomes ‘real’ for humanity; after in mass society, deviations from
Frampton, ‘The Status all, it is neither visible nor audible. ‘normal’ behaviour run counter to
of Man’, op. cit. (note 6).
What appears in public, however, the common interest and therefore
12 acquires the greatest possible cannot be tolerated. And because
Arendt, The Human recognition. This is the importance of the totalitarian pretensions of
Condition, op. cit.
(note 1), 52. of the public realm: ‘The presence economics, man is not seldom ap-
of others who see what we see proached as ‘merely’ a consumer,
13
Ibid., 55.
and hear what we hear assures us as a being that can be regulated
of the reality of the world and of through economic principles.
14 ourselves.’16 Arendt sees this as a curtailment
Ibid., 36.
With this analysis, Arendt empha- of ‘man in the plural’. In all of these
15 sises the inextricable connection instances, people have become soli-
Ibid., 176; compare also
with Veronica Vaster-
between human plurality and the tary individuals, prisoners of their
ling, ‘Hannah Arendt: public realm. When plurality is con- own subjective experience – even if
zij die zich met deze dingen bezighouden weten dat zij hetzelfde zien, 19
Arendt, op. cit. (noot
hoezeer verschillend zij het ook mogen zien, kan de werkelijkheid van de 1), p. 65.
wereld haar ware en betrouwbare gestalte geven.’ 19 20
Een tweede kenmerk van het publieke domein is volgens Arendt de Ibid., p. 135.
others can have the exact same ex- Why devote yourself to the public Een fenomenologie
van het politieke’, in:
perience. The end of the commonly good if you do not, in the process, Ciano Aydin (ed.), De
shared world has arrived when it contribute to something that tran- vele gezichten van de
fenomenologie (Kam-
is reduced to a single perspective scends your own life? This durabil- pen: Uitgeverij Klement,
and a single aspect.18 To counter ity, however, is under tremendous 2008), 75.
this, Arendt argues that a real pressure. The personal dimension of
16
public realm is characterised by the the things with which we surround Ibid., 50.
simultaneity of countless perspec- ourselves and with which we fur-
17
tives. ‘Only where things can be nish our world vanishes when ‘arts Hannah Arendt,
seen by many in a variety of aspects and crafts’ are replaced by mass Between Past and
without changing their identity, so production. Furthermore, economic Future (London: Faber
& Faber, 1961), 148.
that those who are gathered around principles lead to shorter material
them know they see sameness in lifespans: the world of things no 18
In a certain sense,
utter diversity, can worldly reality longer outlives man. Disney’s theme parks
truly and reliably appear.’19 are perfect examples of
A second characteristic of the AN ARCHITECTURAL PERSPEC- this. The precision with
which this corporation
public realm, Arendt says, is its TIVE: CONTINUITY IN SPACE AND manages to organise at-
durability. The ‘world of things’ TIME The spatial dimension of the tractions to a carefully
devised climax means
plays an important role here: it public realm was long ignored in that there is little room
lends the public realm its durability; the reception of Arendt’s concept for experiences other
than this one perspec-
interpersonal activities are, after all, of the public realm – to this day tive. It is no coincidence
by definition ephemeral. The ‘world the discussion is virtually entirely that Sorkin refers to
of things’, which already existed abstract or politically oriented.21 Of Disneyland – not just
because you cannot
before we came along and will still course we must first think of this demonstrate there, but
exist when we are gone, provides abstract dimension, of the dialogue also because everyone is
expected to experience
man the stability and the reliability in and of itself, which can take the same thing (and be
it must have as the residence of place anywhere. And of the formal content with that).
mortal man.20 Arendt emphasises aspects of the issue, of the political
19
that this ‘world of things’ is not arena and institutions, such as the Arendt, The Human
just a pre-requisite for the public freedom of expression and religion, Condition, op. cit.
(note 1), 57.
realm, as we saw earlier, but also that guarantee the pluriformity of
the substance of action and speech: society.22 And of the virtual ‘space’:
lijk dat het publieke domein niet slechts een politiek fenomeen is, maar dat 25
Jürgen Habermas,
de vertoning aan anderen een concrete, begrensde doch publieke ruimte The Structural
vereist. Transformation of
the Public Sphere.
Dat is natuurlijk geen nieuwe conclusie – ik noemde al de namen van An Inquiry into a Ca-
tegory of Bourgeois
onder anderen Michael Sorkin, Bruce Robbins en Lieven De Cauter, die het Society, Cambridge
(Mass.) 1989 (vert.
begrip in het architectonisch discours introduceerden. Hun werk leunt van Strukturwandel
vooral op de analyses van Jürgen Habermas en Richard Sennett, die Der Öffentlichkeit,
Untersuchungen zu
respectievelijk in de jaren zestig en de jaren zeventig het onderwerp aan de einer Kategorie der
bürgerlichen Gesell-
orde stelden.25 Mede daardoor ligt hun focus vooral op de noodzakelijke schaft, Neuwied/
gelijktijdigheid als kenmerk van de openbare ruimte die het publiek domein Berlijn 1962); Richard
Sennett, The Fall of
zou moeten huisvesten. Inderdaad staat dit aspect onder druk. De al Public Man, New York
the changing meaning and function- tinuity in space, but also of continu- Sphere, An inquiry into
a category of bourgeois
ality of (historic) city centres, but ity in time. There is relatively little society (Cambridge,
also the increase of closed-circuit attention paid to this in architec- MA: MIT Press, 1989),
Originally published in
surveillance cameras in the streets, ture. Its durability is reduced to en- German: Jürgen Hab-
the drawing up of rules of behaviour vironmental aspects. However, the ermas, Strukturwan-
and the exclusion of undesirable built environment, the urban fabric del Der Öffentlichkeit,
Untersuchungen zu
persons from the public space, are and undoubtedly the cultivated einer Kategorie der
all more or less visible exponents landscape, too, are quintessentially bürgerlichen Gesells-
chaft (Neuwied/Berlin:
of a curtailment of simultaneity significant carriers of the memory Luchterhand, 1962);
expressed in plurality and freedom. of society, as Aldo Rossi also argues Richard Sennett, The
In his dissertation, René Boomkens in his famous theory of the city. ‘To Fall of Public Man (New
York: Vintage, 1967);
provides a valuable identification the extent that this artificial nation Richard Sennett, The
of this curtailment. He emphasises is a built form, it also embodies Conscience of the Eye,
The Design and Social
that today’s developments are values, in particular durability and Life of Cities (New York:
characterised by spatial discontinu- memory.’29 This continuity is closely Knopf, 1990).
ity. As a result, the urban fabric is related to public life. The long life-
26
losing the ability to accommodate span of the urban structure creates See for instance his
the myriad perspectives within room for (collective) memories, so analysis of the Universal
Citywalk in Los Angeles
one coherent system.26 Space is that the city can be the interac- by the Jerde Partner-
being partitioned, each section tion between the individual and ship in: Boomkens, Een
drempelwereld, op. cit.
mono-programmed in isolation for the universal, as expressed in the (note 5), 344-347.
a specific public.27 One crosses the relationship between the public and
space between these ‘places-to-be’ private realms, and in architecture 27
Various terms have now
by car, so that they (can) turn into a between the rational design and the been coined to denote
‘no-man’s-land’.28 In the experience uniqueness of the place. Rossi’s this process (or partial
aspects of it): disney-
of its users, the city is losing its insightful analysis is clearly rooted fication, theme-parki-
public-space coherence. in Italian – and other Western sation, thematisation,
Sorkin and co. are less interested European – city centres, where capsularisation, Mc-
Donaldisation, parochi-
in the second aspect that Arendt monuments, landmark squares and alisation.
emphasises: only a durable public streets have indeed had the time
28
realm is a meaningful public realm. to nestle in the collective memory See, among others,
This is not simply a question of con- of their residents. Can we also Christine Boyer, Cyber-
Cities: Visual Perception expect contemporary architecture FINALLY Noting that architecture
in the Age of Electronic
Communication (New to eventually become the carrier of is part of the artificial ‘world of
York: Princeton Archi- this collective memory? Probably, things’ underscores the signif-
tectural Press, 1996).
although it is even questionable to icance of architecture, but also
29 what extent the old city centres immediately puts it into perspec-
Aldo Rossi, De archi- themselves will remain carriers of tive. Architecture is part of the
tectuur van de stad
(Nijmegen: Uitgeverij collective memory, now that they preconditions; it does not consti-
SUN, 2002), 31, original- are turning into open-air museums, tute the public realm itself, but it
ly published in Italian:
Aldo Rossi, L’architettura
as some theorists predict, and are is the stage upon which public life
della città (Padua: severed from the vital urban fabric can develop. Concrete, steel and
Marsilio Editori, 1966). and get haphazardly attached to brick do not make a society; only
30 modernist expansion districts and citizens can do that. Arendt herself
Manuel de Solà-Morales, large-scale public programmes that suggests this. Indeed she places the
‘Openbare en collectieve
ruimte. De verstedelijk- have been situated in the urban architect – in one of her few refer-
ing van het privé-domein periphery. Seeking coherence ences to architecture – in the same
als nieuwe uitdaging’, among all these urban aspects is league as the legislator: both create
OASE 33, Over de trans-
formatie van de metro- the job of architecture and urban space by indicating its necessary
pool (Nijmegen: Uit- design, whereby both continui- boundaries, whereupon residents
geverij SUN, 1992); with
the private, closed spac- ties are essential. Barcelona-based themselves must constitute the
es, Solà-Morales means, architect Manuel de Solà-Morales public realm by appropriating the
among other things, the
large department stores
in fact argues that ‘precisely there public space.31 To make this pos-
and shopping malls that ... can a spectrum expansion of sible it is imperative that continuity
from a typological stand- the communal city be produced in space and continuity in time be
point turn away from ur-
ban life, that are private that contributes to the hypertro- brought together – only then will
property and therefore phy of the public space itself. The architecture be able to contribute
not public space in the
strict sense. Yet a large
significance of the public space lies to the construction of an active
proportion of contem- not in the degree of its expanse, its public realm – a public space that
porary public life takes quantitative predominance or its transforms the world into a coher-
place there.
symbolic leading role, but in con- ent system of things and activities,
31 necting private, enclosed spaces, so because it brings people together.
Arendt, The Human
Condition, op. cit.
that these spaces too can be turned
(note 1), 195. into collective patrimony.’30 Translation: Pierre Bouvier