Enlivening locality with a non-representational approach: cases of waterfront spaces along the River Rhine

Abstract

In response to the problem of urban uniformity and loss of identity, researchers have developed fruitful analytical frameworks and design methods to strengthen locality. However, the current research mainly focuses on the transformation of information related to local history, memory, or the environment into spatial design, while socio-cultural aspects of locality such as everyday practices and immediate engagement with the place that cannot be communicated through the act of representing were rarely involved in the discussion. This study takes the initiative by applying the non-representational theory from human geography to the planning and design fields with the three research questions: (1) How can we understand and research a more-than-representational locality? (2) How does locality manifest itself in everyday life? (3) Which environmental features support personalized locality, and how can they inspire future design? The study is conducted in two phases. Firstly, I investigated promenades and parks along the Rhine in twenty towns or cities using spatial analysis and autobiographical reflections based on my on-site experiences, and developed the preliminary design guidelines. The second phase is the revisiting of six case study towns to interview their local residents. The comparison of my own experiences with the everyday life of the residents have tested the design guidelines, and the guidelines are further supplemented by the analysis of the residents’ interviews. Four types of waterfront space have been identified from the case studies, and the pattern of their distribution along the Rhine suggests that this is influenced mainly by the varying characteristics of the river and the historical development of the towns. This result permits planning to refer to spatial layout based on a region’s character. The research also reveals the dominance of representational thinking in our current design practice and its negative impact. The application of non-representational approaches reveals the importance of sensory experiences and everyday spaces for better on-site engagement, thus forming the basis for a set of design guidelines for achieving locality in river-related open spaces. According to the interview results, some spaces are not typical of the town at first glance; some of them can even appear as ‘non-space’, but is nonetheless important to the residents’ daily life. The users, especially the residents, focus more on the real-life experience of being on site at that moment, and they experience the space, including the representations, through bodily engagement. In the meantime, the study also discovered the need to leave a certain freedom and uncontrolled space, and the creation of locality should ensure that people can feel and explore the space themselves. These findings demonstrate that the non-representational theory could provide the opportunity to enliven the connection between people and places in locality research.