Designing mobilities for difference

Cities are premised on difference; on the negotiation of social, spatial and material difference and this forms a key aspect of urban design. However, rather than designing out difference through, for example, defensive architectures, social design should accommodate difference in a way that achieves societal change and enhances wellbeing. The design of streets has a role to play here in that it often stops at the kerb, despite cities’ mobile spaces: their streets, pavements and walkways, being key to meaningful urban transformation. Bringing together researchers in sociology, architecture and urban design, geography and communication studies, this project builds on a number of transdisciplinary streams of work, including research on ‘age-friendly’ cities, intergenerational spaces and ‘shared space’ in seeking to understand the ways in which urban street spaces can be designed in ways that accommodate social difference.

 

Designing mobilities for difference poster image

Project aims

To produce knowledge on social interactions with urban street spaces, advance thinking on mobile and visual methodologies and methods; and impact on the liveability of cities for people who are more likely to be marginalised in urban street space.

Project findings and impact

This project seeks to make a contribution to the meaningful transformation of urban spaces through making new connections through people’s everyday narratives of urban street space. We seek to inform thinking, design and policy in relation to the inhabitation of mobile urban space according to difference. The project aims to impact on the liveability of urban street spaces by engaging policy-makers in the design of urban streets; not only the physical elements but also in engaging with the ways in which people’s use of communication technologies can enhance their experiences of street spaces.

Research team

Sue Robertson

Professor Andrew Church

Outputs

Publications:

Murray, L. and Robertson, S. (eds.) Intergenerational mobilities. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate (forthcoming 2015)

Murray, L. (forthcoming) Age-friendly mobilities: a transdisciplinary and intergenerational perspective.Journal of Transport and health.

Presentations:

Designing mobile shared spaces, Designing mobilities workshop, South Bank University, London April 2015.

Sharing mobile space across the lifecourse, Uneven mobilities, PanAmerican mobilities network conference, 12-15 October 2014, Santiago, Chile

Partners

Kim Sawchuk, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

Paola Jiron, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile