The Hidden

Dimension
A Summary Report by:

CAPULONG,

CITIES and CULTURE

KRISSALAINE M.

Ar4B

city is in addition to everything else an expression of

the culture of people who produced it
What Edward Hall quoted above is so right in the
context of urbanism. While there are these ethnic tribes
who remain on their traditions and way of living as an
expression of their culture, majority of the rest aims to be
more civilized, more developed and advanced and so as to
provide the means to circulate this aim was the growth of
urbanism, the birth and expansion of more cities. In line
with this is the continuing growth of population and its
diversity which Edward Hall emphasized in this chapter of
what and how it could possibly affect the designers,
architects, urban planners, and other experts and
personas on the fields it could touch.
America is known as a habitat of different ethnicities
therefore also having diverse cultures mixed together as
members of one holistic society, idiomatically called as
the Melting Pot. But despite that, we are used to seeing
America in that state, and there werent too loud a case in
the history that protests about this diversity (this is
another case from racism)- seemingly no major problem
that arises from it- in contrary to the sense of the socalled Sink which tells that if there are great cultural
differences, there would be great social distress. But
according to the profound demonstration of the
sociologists Glazer and Moynihan in their book Beyond the
Melting Pot, there is not really a melting pot in American
cities; made evident by the sequence of generations
keeping their distinctive ethnic identities throughout the
years- Say for example the Negroes, although we now
often see in the television that the black people are now
equally well respected and recognized but it is far from
our awareness that the black people still experience this
gap between the white people, you must be thinking
about the debris of the racism in the past, well thats one

SINK
Social distress caused
by great cultural
differences
-popularly referred to
as
The Jungle
A view of
slums vs. High-rise
apartments

SLUMS
A heavily
populated urban
informal
settlement
characterized by
substandard
housing and

indeed- yet housing and city planning programs seldom

take these ethnic differences into account, which Hall
expressed in this chapter as in dangerously high
concentration when people of different cultures are settled
in contact with each other, also as supported by the mice
experiment conducted by the pathologist Charles
Southwick. According to the experiment, when a mice was
joined into a group of the same specie, it could tolerate
higher cage densities, while mixing it up or even merely
introduced into a strange mice will cause them increased
fighting and stress, so as to people. With all these facts
and studies, Hall summed up the factors to consider to
manage the effects of cultural diversities parallel to urban
development and the societys relations enveloped with it.

NEED FOR CONTROLS

Hall stated that one of the issues cities are facing is
governing/ handling the ethnic enclaves which was
mentioned earlier as those who chose to keep being
traditional and are somehow left out in the urban
advancement- this obviously contributes to the tension
caused by differences- but are also beneficial for the
enrichment of the cultural heritage which undeniably
plays an important role in a society. But not only are the
ethnic enclaves being pointed out, but also those who are
crowded

around by a common ethnic majority. As an alternative

solution, it was stated that design features that will
counteract the ill effects of the sink but not destroy the
enclave in the process should be introduced, by that he
meant without risking the interaction rate, the amount of
involvement while maintaining a healthy density and with
a continuing sense of ethnic identification.

PSYCHOLOGY AND ARCHITECTURE

CITIES and CULTURE

These two fields have been widely elaborated in most part

of the book and other discussions and indeed these are
what contained proxemics; that designing or urban
planning is more than the technicalities of structures and
spaces, but more importantly how it corresponds the
behavior of the users. It was dramatically illustrated

SCREENING
-Separation and sorting of
activities in spaces

CONGENIAL SPACES
A pleasant and agreeable
space where everyone
may fit in.
To assist transformation
To strengthen social
controls that combat
lawlessness.

through the difference of slums and high-rise apartments.

Basically, if you will be asked to choose which is better
between the two, you might say that high-rise apartments
is far better looking than slums and a better way to save
land usage, but according to those who have experienced
transferring from slums to those apartments, specifically
the Negroes, you will get the total opposite. One worst
case Ive read was that a resident often hesitates to go
home from a tiring day expecting she has to experience
taking half an hour to get to a filthy, unsafe elevator;
another says it is no place to raise a family that a mother
cant even look out for her kids fifteen floors down at the
playground, and that these apartments are seen as a
building of negroes piled above another which the white
people joke on about. something we must never have
thought of unless we live there. Furthermore, this section
also highlighted about the importance of considering
scales and that ethnicities should be grouped together
according to scales that fit them best.

PATHOLOGY and OVERCROWDING

This portion tackles about how overcrowding
affects people in terms of illnesses, crime rates,
mobility and involvement. Through the study of
MONOCHRONIC
POLYCHRONIC
The Chombart de Lauwes, crowding in relation to
-Low-involvement people
people
pathology
was computed. -High-involvement
It was stated
that,
-Schedule
one
thing
at
a
-Several
operations
at
once
when the space available was below 8 to 10 sq.m.
time
-Tends topathologies
collect activitiesare
per person, social and physical
-Needs separation of space
doubled, and when it rose above 14, the incidence
to function easier.
-Causes
of pathology of both types will
alsodisturbance.
increase but
Lack of contact and
not so sharply.
interaction.
MONOCHRONIC and POLYCHRONIC TIME
Time and the way it is handled have a lot to do with
structuring of space- Edward Hall.

CITIES and CULTURE

Yes indeed, especially on how you would divide spaces

according to the two types of people, the monochronic
and the polychronic.

MARINA CITY
Designed by Ar. Bertrand
Goldberg
is a mixeduse residential/commercial
building complex that
occupies an entire city
block on State Street at
Chicago, Illinois.

To avoid the so called Polychronic effect, one must reduce

involvement which means separating activities with as
much screening as necessary.

AUTOMOBILE SYNDROME
60 to 70 percent of space is devoted to cars, streets,
parking and freeways which makes the automobile the
greatest consumer of public and personal space yet
created by man. How this could affect urban design?
Simple, cars or vehicles gobble up spaces which people
may meet therefore decreasing the chances of interactionan unhealthy social standing. People do not wish to walk
as a means to get to a place anymore, and worse, those
who wish to hardly could not find a place to walk. Not only
do pollution from cars makes outdoor unpleasant, but also
it makes people strange of each other.- This highlights the
importance of well designed outdoors.

CONTAINED COMMUNITY BUILDINGS

In the heart of the city one needs more space in
the home, not less.

Preserving
useful
satisfying
old
buildings
and

The statement above implies how important homely

feel is for people living in urban places. After a whole day
work, passing through building by building, bunch of busy
people which is quite exhausting to see, added with the
noise and pollution on the streets on your way back home,
it is a great rest and relaxation to see a peaceful and calm
home sweet home which community building unlikely
have. Say for example the Marina City which has a
principal defect of having a cramped up living space which
is unduly confining according to the tenants.
Finding
PROSPECTUS FOR
THE CITY PLANNING OF THE
suitable
FUTRE
methods in
computing
and
measuring

Making
Constru
ctive
use of
Ethnic

CITIES and CULTURE

Conse
rve
Outdo
or

CITIES and CULTURE