To perceive the city: exploring the notion of negative spaces as a node for low-speed urban perception

Abstract

The starting point of this master thesis is to explore how negative space in cities affects people's perception and experience of urban space, and affects people's way of movement and social interaction through design. Negative space, in the field of architecture, generally refers to the space left behind which exists widely in urban spaces. In this master's thesis, my research object is selected as viaduct space. The high-speed transportation system occupies an important position and space in Gothenburg. It is undeniable that the rapid development of infrastructure to facilitate cars and trains has divided the city into small chunks and created obstacles to mobility at a human scale. In adddition, Gothenburg has very good river resources, but some of the river banks are not well used to create public value. For example, where railway tracks and Bridges cross rivers, the continuity of walking along the river is interrupted. The dark, noisy and cluttered space under the bridge brings a strong sense of insecurity and depression to pedestrians, which are invisible psychological effects. In many cases, slow pedestrians and bicycles are on the ground level of the city, and people need to look up to get a sense of the city, while cars and trains can read the urban space at high speeds. What if the continuous space of the viaduct is used to create pedestrian space occupying the upper part of the city? At present, some infrastructures are facing the situation of abandonment around the world, but there are still new viaducts being built. Therefore, besides of considering the coexistence of the viaduct and the existing environment, how can we consider the coexistence of future planning? How do we consider new construction to achieve its own future flexibility? The viaduct is connected to the surrounding environment in various and complex ways, which brings both challenges and opportunities to the improvement of urban space. This thesis discusses how to connect the infrastructure with the surrounding urban assets to provide high-quality experience value for the urban low-speed traffic groups, so as to create a dialogue between people, space and movements.