The street as the 'third place' between home and workplace

Urban social space is any place in the city where people come together, congregate and interact with one another. Social gathering in these areas comprise of interactions among a diversity of individuals in small, medium and large groups for social and community purposes. I have argued in previous articles that cities show only marginal expansions in their open social spaces despite the overwhelming expansion of the built environment. This highlights the need to look for innovative ways on how to rejuvenate cities and catalyze them as scenes of social life. Several authors agree that streets are an integral part of urban social space and should be described as the ‘heart’ of the city; alive with activities and pedestrian movements, emphasising the mix of residents and visitors is an essential element of urban life. Therefore, social streets as successful sites for social gatherings in the city become the “third place” between home and the workplace where creative interaction is encouraged; interaction that is broader than a home setting and less private from that of a workplace setting – offering a perfect base for social cohesion. Indeed great streets have a few things in common: space for activities, people to watch, and places to stop and rest. They say that resting is usually the best part since it almost always involves eating and drinking. Everyone likes it, everyone enjoys it. I belong to the school of thought that strongly believes that cities are created for people, not cars. The search for that peculiar vibrancy that emanates from the interactions taking place between the pedestrians projects a perspective, in which streets are seen as connectors, not only between places but also between people. Streets and other public open spaces are where we meet and socialize as human beings and communities. Buildings and cars in the city do not talk to each other, they do not have social lives that need a scene and audience – this therefore squarely leaves it all to us. We should not give up the fight, but increasingly and consistently keep finding innovative ways to reclaim the place for people out of these vehicular veins of the city. In any case, urbanisation itself is measured by the number of urban residents – and not the number of buildings and cars. The quality of interactions among the people in a city, therefore, becomes a point of interest worth a discussion. It is, therefore, important to highlight the important considerations towards a balanced framework for urban social streets that accommodates the need of the vehicular traffic and emphasizes a pedestrian sense of safety and comfort. This balance begins to create an inter-weave between urban form and social space, drawing upon its multi-textured nature, vibrancy, diversity and flexibility that could consequently improve the dialogue between the city and the people. The understanding that streets as social spaces become the place for everyone to meet old friends, make new ones and participate in the drama of life ought to be shared by all. From a humanitarian perspective, social streets convey a sense of belonging and inclusion; they encourage social cohesion and discourage isolation and segregation. To frame ‘streets’ within the overall definition of ‘urban public spaces’ as ‘all areas that are open and freely accessible to all members of the public’, in principal, makes lots of sense, but how practical can this definition be? It is understandable that maintaining the openness and free accessibility of streets as urban public spaces can be challenging as this flexibility may easily open window for negative aspects such as insecurity, mismanagement, misappropriation etc. This is when design as a tool comes in handy, in an attempt to strike a balance between the three major perspectives on public space: The legal–economic perspective, which seeks to answer the most concrete questions about public space (what is it and who pays for it?). The socio-spatial perspective, which is more concerned with questions of design and application: (what does it look like and how is it used?); and the political perspective, which questions a public space’s role in democracy: both abstractly (as a site for discursive activities) and concretely (as a site of exclusion or empowerment). Well-designed social streets create win-win situations. For instance, they attract people whose presence becomes a security element itself, whereby having many people on the street at various times of the day and night itself increases safety in an area. With the above facilitation, the future for streets is promising since with us are proper tools to reclaim back their value and role in society. From their genesis, streets start off as the integral base for urban social life until vehicular traffic sets in, increases and kicks out the pedestrian programme. Amidst fleets of vehicles dashing through streets, it subsequently becomes difficult to see friends meeting and hanging out, children playing, neighbours socializing, and people just watching people on streets! Vehicles rudely interrupt the already set base for our social interaction and these new species (vehicles, motorbikes) keep intimidating and harassing pedestrians. The vibrancy of street life is undeniably inversely proportionate to the amount of vehicular traffic. In all considerations, people need to be put before vehicles. As such, the decreasing vibrancy on streets needs to be faced critically. Streets in many cities, including Kigali, if well designed, have every potential to fulfil the social needs for the city users, a greater percentage of whom are pedestrians. Well-designed streets can be sufficient motivation for people to spend more time outside interacting with other people in diverse ways, offering a pleasant third place between home and the workplace. The writer is a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at the University of Rwanda. She is an architect and urban designer with a keen interest on the dialectical relations between Architecture and Society.

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The street as the 'third place' between home and workplace