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Vision in Motion: Architectural Space Time Notation and Urban Design, 1950-1970

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Abstract:
This dissertation examines the context and emergence of several architectural space time notation systems created during the 1950s and 1960s in the United States to describe the complex visual experience of moving through urban space. These notation systems were designed to record the perceptual, sequential and temporal experience of movement at the larger scale of the urban landscape from ground-level perspective and were intended to supplement traditional architectural plans, drawings and models. These abstract linear mapping devices were loosely modeled on notational systems of music and dance and consisted of symbols that were read against a framework of time and distance. They emerged at a time when American cities were being drastically restructured through urban renewal and interstate highway construction and reflected awareness that change could be effected at a larger scale and increased speeds of movement. This dissertation considers notations created by Lawrence Halprin; Philip Thiel; the MIT Team of Kevin Lynch, Donald Appleyard, and John Myer; Stuart Rose; Raymond Gindroz; and others. These notation systems, largely uninvestigated by scholars, attempted to reach between disciplines to study the concept of "vision in motion," contributing to discourse on the role of movement in urban design that stretched from Camillo Sitte and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy to Gyorgy Kepes, Gordon Cullen, Robert Venturi, and others. Some notations were designed for the experience of walking in an attempt to focus attention on the importance of creating pedestrian-friendly urban spaces. Others emphasized the high speed journey by car and privileged the driver's experience on the newly developing urban freeway at the expense of the pedestrian, reflecting an enthusiasm for the potential of highway design that ran counter to the contemporary writings of Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford, and William H. Whyte. Although the notations were subjective, difficult to standardize, and ultimately did not succeed as widespread tools in architectural practice, they represent a body of related work that engages many of the pressing postwar urban issues of the time, from large scale urban renewal and highway construction to debates on aesthetics, spatial perception, and choreography in the ordering of the urban landscape.
Notes:
Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2011)

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Collection is open for research.

Citation

Heffley, Divya Rao, "Vision in Motion: Architectural Space Time Notation and Urban Design, 1950-1970" (2011). History of Art and Architecture Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0CV4FZJ

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