urban design,
web 2.0
and the orgasm
practice: theory: no2self.net

Jane Jacobs Oscar Newman
‘legibility?’
The Death and Life of Great Defensible Space (1972)
American Cities (1961)
practice: theory: no2self.net

Jane Jacobs Paul Ritter Oscar Newman
The Death and Life of Great Planning for Man and Motor (1964) Defensible Space (1972)
American Cities (1961)
practice: theory: no2self.net

practice: theory: no2self.net

practice: theory: no2self.net

practice: theory: no2self.net

People! Space!
practice: theory: no2self.net

Allow residents to
Clear demarcation control the areas
between what is around their
public space and homes.
what is private
space.
practice: theory: no2self.net

This includes the
They cannot
streets and
turn their
grounds outside
backs or blank
their buildings
sides on it and
leave it blind.
practice: theory: no2self.net

There must be The domain of the
eyes upon the house encompasses
street. the street
Territory!
practice: theory: no2self.net

practice: theory: no2self.net

‘Radburn Idea’
• Homes must have direct “As the Radburn Idea sprang
access to a footpath system from considerations of living
• This footpath system must lead conditions in the motor age it
to all the gathering places of is really not surprising that it
the inhabitants lends itself better to the
• The motor vehicles will be satisfaction of the needs listed.
completely separate from the Why the needs listed are the
path system real criteria of livability is
explained in the work of
Wilhelm Reich…”
- Paul Ritter
Wilhelm Reich 1897 – 1957
Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.
practice: theory: no2self.net

one !
Org ator
The mul
A ccu
practice: theory: no2self.net

one
Org er!
The oot
Sh
practice: theory: no2self.net

Orgonomic functionalism – a thought technique:
Reich's examples of orgonomic
and then label the two curving arrows on
functionalism usually involved
top with two opposing ideas, and the big
\"antithetical functional pairs\" of
dot at the bottom with those two ideas'
concepts. Reich would usually draw a
\"common functioning principle.\"
symbol that looked something like this:
mechanist mystic
CFP
practice: http://pw1.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich/functionalism.html
Source: theory: no2self.net

motor man
path
practice: theory: no2self.net

practice: theory: no2self.net

Orgone Accumulator
(Hawkwind 1973)
I've got an Orgone Accumulator
It makes me feel greater
I'll see you sometime later
When I'm through with my Accumulator
It's no social integrator
It's a one man isolator
It's a back brain stimulator
It's a cerebral vibrator
Is this legible?
practice: theory: no2self.net

Summary:
• legibility depends on space between public and private
spaces
• should be robust/flexible enough to resist cultural, economic
and environmental change – it should not be a single gesture
or idea
• the qualities of the semi-private and semi-public boundaries
should imbue the space with meaning
• meaning ensures users understand the purpose of the
territory
practice: theory: no2self.net

“Lyons placed three basic
principles at the heart of the Span
projects:
•community as the goal
•shared landscape as the means
•modern, controlled design as the
expression.”
source: BBC
The web 2 (way) metaphor:
A communal landscape…
becoming territory through the
meaning created by its users.
practice: theory: no2self.net