Mattias Kärrholm

The Materiality of Territorial Production, a Conceptual Discussion of Territoriality, Materiality and the Everyday Life of Public Space

This article brings together research on territoriality and actor-network theory to develop new ways of investigating the role of materiality and material design in the territorial power relations of urban public places. Using the public square as a main example, the author suggests new ways of conceptualizing the production and stabilization of territories in the everyday urban environment. Setting out from a brief outline of the history of territoriality research, the traditional approaches are reappropriated from the viewpoint of actants rather than persons or institutions, suggesting a distinction between four different forms of territorial production. Some material ways of stabilizing the effects of these territorial productions are then conceptualized. The author argues that public space can be seen as constituted by a territorial complexity, thus pointing to the relationship between materiality and public space, via territorial stabilization and production.

To the rhythm of shopping—on synchronisation in urban landscapes of consumption

This article deals with the impact of retail rhythms on urban life and urban landscape, with a special focus on tendencies toward synchronisation. The article is divided into three sections. First, the history of synchronisations in public space is traced, and it is argued that the retail business has become an increasingly important actor in the production of urban temporal landscapes. Second, six different types of spatial synchronisation are discussed, derived from studies of the city of Malmö, Sweden. Finally, I discuss the problems associated with increased spatial synchronisation, as imposed by retail businesses, on public life and space, arguing that urban synchronisations might lead to isorhythmic tendencies and a decrease in the territorial complexity of public space.

The Scaling of Sustainable Urban Form: A Case of Scale-related Issues and Sustainable Planning in Malmö, Sweden

In this article, I investigate “spatial scale” as an aspect that needs to be more carefully addressed in the discussion and planning of “sustainable urban forms”. Focusing on the Malmö–Lund region in Sweden, I discuss problems of scale as related to the new take on sustainability in Malmö planning documents, especially the update of the Malmö comprehensive plan from 2005. The article is divided into three sections. First, I discuss the concept and problem of spatial scale, contextualizing it in theory as well as in recent discussions on urban transformations. Second, I briefly discuss the discourse of sustainable urban forms, pointing out some scale-related issues that need to be more carefully addressed. In the third and main section of the article, I investigate plans and projects for urban development in Malmö, focusing and elaborating on spatial scale and discussing the findings in terms of three kinds of scale stabilization: in terms of territory, size and hierarchy. The article concludes with a call for further work for the possibilities of a more dynamic and multi-scalar approach in urban planning.

Retailising Space, Architecture, Retail and the Territorialisation of Public Space

In recent decades we have witnessed a proliferation of new kinds of retail space. Retail space has cropped up just about everywhere in the urban landscape, at libraries, workplaces, churches and museums. In short, retail is becoming a more and more manifest part of the public domain. The traditional spaces of retail such as city centres and outlying shopping malls are either increasing in size or disappearing, producing new urban types and whole environments totally dedicated to retail. The proliferation of new retail space brings about a re- and deterritorialisation of urban public space that also includes the transformation of materialities and urban design, and even the logic and ways through which these design amenities meet the needs of retailers and/or consumers. In the wake of the consumer society, research has pointed out a tendency by which shopping seems to have less to do with just quality and price, and more with style and identity-making. Consumers appropriate certain brands and increasingly tend to use their shopping as means of social distinction and belonging (Zukin 2004). Retail architecture and design also tend to become more elaborate and complex, focusing on branding, place-making and the creation of a shopping-friendly atmosphere (Klingmann 2007, Lonsway 2009). Although consumption increasingly seem to be connected to symbolic values and differentiation rather than basic needs, and design increasingly seem to be about enhancing and supporting the mediation of these immaterial values, materialities (as always) continues to act in very concrete ways. The basic notion of this book is that the materialities of retail space are not just about symbolic values, theming, etc., but that the new consumer society has also brought about new styles of material organization, and new means of material design affecting not just our minds but also, and just as much, our bodies and movements in the urban landscape. The main aim of this book is to develop a conceptual and analytical framework coping with the role of architecture in the ongoing territorial productions of urban public spaces in everyday life. This conceptual framework is developed through a series of essays focusing on recent transformations of urban retail environments. How does the retailisation of public domains affect our everyday life? And more specifically: What are the different roles played by the built environment in these transformations of public space? In The Oxford Companion to Architecture it is stated that: Shops and stores are the most ephemeral of all building types. The ultimate architectural fashion victims, their need to remain up-to-date ensures that even the most expensive schemes, by the most renowned architects, have fleeting lifespans (Oxford Companion to Architecture vol. 2 2009: 834). Although this might create problems for the architectural historian, the transformative world of contemporary retail spaces is a gold mine for the architectural researcher interested in the role of architecture in the construction, stabilisation and destabilisation of spatial meanings and usages in our every day urban environment. This book takes on an architectural and territorial perspective on this issue, looking specifically at transformations by way of how urban consumption is architecturally and territorially organised, i.e. it suggests and develops a kind architectural territorology. (Less)

Perceived urban design qualities and affective experiences of walking

Abstract This study investigates associations between perceived micro-level urban design qualities, the affective experience of walking, and intention to walk specific routes in the neighbourhood. A total of 106 residents assessed on-site three routes planned for walking in semi-central neighbourhoods. In the prediction of the residents’ intention to choose to walk and intention to avoid walking the route, perceived urban design qualities were mediated by the affective experience of valence of the walk. The perceived complexity and aesthetic quality, upkeep and order, and the presence of well-maintained greenery, were identified as important. These perceived urban design qualities and affective experiences varied between the three routes, but also within the routes. It is proposed that understanding of site-specific affective experience of walking environments could serve as guidance for urban design practices.

Building Type Production and Everyday Life: Rethinking Building Types through Actor-Network Theory and Object-Oriented Philosophy

The aim of this paper is to reconceptualise ‘building type’ in order to better account for its general role in society and everyday life. The paper merges the concept of building type with actor-network theory and object-oriented philosophy in order to develop the concept of ‘territorial sorts’ as a way of widening building-type research and making it more useful for investigating how building types are actually produced, not just in terms of the work done by different kinds of authorities, such as architects, engineers, and building regulators, but also in terms of the ongoing practices and power relations of everyday life.

Escalating Consumption and Spatial Planning: Notes on the Evolution of Swedish Retail Spaces

The aim of this article is to describe and investigate how the Swedish escalation in consumption and restructuring of retail spaces are dealt with in Swedish spatial planning. In the first part of this article, we present a history and an overview of the Swedish retail evolution. The major changes are presented, followed by a short discussion of some main actors in this evolution. In the second part of this article, we focus on policies and the planning process, discussing how the municipalities are expected to fulfil their tasks as the agents responsible for physical planning of commercial centres in the light of the ongoing rapid escalation of retail planning projects. Recent guidelines from the national and regional authorities for improvement of the current situation are analysed. Finally, we discuss recent research maintaining that a new form for project planning is emerging within commercial planning. This new form sometimes bypasses traditional planning practices and thus requires new instruments and organizations for a more effective planning of urban retail.

Interseriality and Different Sorts of Walking: Suggestions for a Relational Approach to Urban Walking

Abstract In this article, we attempt to develop a meta-language for a relational approach to urban walking that is able to account for walking as a mutable, embodied, materially heterogeneous and distributed activity. Following the perspective on walking as developed in a series of articles by Jennie Middleton, we develop a notion of the walker as a socio-technical assemblage. By recognising walking as an ongoing relation of different series of walking assemblages or ‘sorts of walking’, it becomes possible to study the mediation of these series through the focus on objects of passage: things or triggers that transform one walking assemblage into another via the process of appraisal. We suggest interseriality as a concept capable of handling a ‘relation of relations’; i.e. how different sorts of walking relate to one another and how the ongoing transformation of a walking assemblage ultimately also produces a mutable but sustaining walking person. Finally, we suggest a focus on boundary objects. Since walking assemblages cannot help but to transform in order to sustain, walks always include a series of different sorts of walking: the possible co-presence of different sorts of walking thus depends on boundary objects.

Rhythmanalysing the urban runner : Pildammsparken, Malmö

Abstract In this article we discuss the development of urbanized running culture by exploring how the embodied rhythms of running interact with other urban rhythms in a park. The analysis focuses on the timings, sensations and materialities produced through running, and how the rhythms of running intersect with the materialities and rhythms of others. The investigation draws on interviews, observations and a running diary undertaken at Pildammsparken in central Malmö. Our research shows that while the runner, in endeavouring to align with the rhythms of others, may becoming a more disciplined figure, running in the park is more concerned with practising a sharing of space than moving on auto-pilot. Consequently, running is largely a mobile rhythmic practice that negotiates and adapts to co-produce eurhythmic choreographies in this particular urban location.

Three presents : On the multi-temporality of territorial production and the gift from John Soane

Territoriality has primarily been seen as a spatial rather than temporal phenomenon. In this paper, we want to investigate how time functions in territorialising processes. In particular, we are attracted by the multi-temporality that is co-present in each process of territorialisation (i.e. processes in which time and space are used as means of measure, control and expression). The article is divided into two main parts. In the first part, we draw inspiration from Gilles Deleuze’s book Logic of Sense, as well as from authors such as Simmel, Whitehead, Benjamin and Jesi, in order to articulate three different types of the present (Aion, Kronos and Chronos). In the second part, we move to a short case study of the collector John Soane and the establishment of his house-museum. The case is used to exemplify how these three presents can be used to discuss and temporal aspects of territorialisation in general, and the production of a specific sort of territory – the house-museum as a new building type in particular.