Designing Social Porous Space

Social Porosity is defined as the degree to which social ties flow over the surface of a neighborhood(Hipp et al.,2014). Since the past times, many people live in the local neighborhood as both permanent and temporary. That is why it is a thing of people s life that impact them strongly. People living in the same neighborhood always have in interaction and contribute somethings each other. Although it has been changed with increasing industrialization and urbanization, some studies demonstrated that local neighborhoods could provide close ties and interaction among residents, called the “urban village” model. (Hipp et al.,2014) Social Porosity is an essential part of creating an urban village. Social Porous spaces are functional and productive spaces that allow all people, active participants.(Saha,2005) These spaces give a chance to interact with different groups, so they support neighbor relationships. According to studies, social Porosity is highly affected by physical conditions. That is why “physical porosity” is one of the critical factors in designing a social porous space.

Physical Porosity

It is critical to find balance in case of visibility and accessibility while designing porous space since porosity is directly related to a degree of permeability.

Accessibility is defined as a capacity of a human flow.(Ephes,2006) In porous spaces, people can easily move from one place to another with created “pores” in the space. They are not entirely restricted to flow, but the architectural elements lead them by giving alternative options.

Furthermore, visibility is another critical factor that contributes to Porosity. Visibility offer people percept different locations at the same time. Using appropriate materials and play tectonics, it is possible to design more visible spaces.

To sum up, In the social porous spaces the edges become indistinguishable due to the visual contact and Ease of Access(Moreno,2011). It offers a transparent space for people that helps them take part in place and encourages people to attend activities.

Implementation of the Social Porosity to Our design

As urban villagers, we add different programs to our complex related to the ICLEI. These programs, such as agriculture, greenhouse, ateliers, compost, food and craft, bazaar, green roof, allow them to interact with their neighbor

and help to improve social Porosity. In addition to this, we consider designing

physical porous spaces by using architectural facilities to remove the borders

between neighbors and encourage them to contribute to activities that create

social porous spaces in a given program. In these aims, we design spaces which

had different degree of visibility and accessibility.For example;

- Conference hall, thanks to the transparent linking space; people can take part in the conference visually

- Workinton both provide easy access from one place to another and also act as a study place.

- Amphitheater, even if the screen looks like a non-permeable surface, it is so permeable since it provides the connection between different realms.

- Exhibition Hall , both visual and physical access help develop social Porosity.

- Classes, while transparent surfaces provide visual connection inside and outside, a feature of classes opening to nature offers all visitors to listen to the lectures.

- Inner Street gives a chance for people to experience playful access and take part in managerial area’s building.

the images produced by Meltem Şahin

the text written by Damla Turgut

References

Ephes,L.(2006).Architecture of Permeability-Urban Re

development of Fa Yuen

Street.Chineese University of Hong Kong.pp.1-1

Hipp ,J . Corcoran,J. & Wickes,R (2014). Examining the Social Porosity of Environmental

Features on Neighborhood Sociability and Attachment. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0084544

Moreno,C.(2011).Urban Porosity: Designing for Modern Metropolis.

Saha,B. (2005) Porosity and Participation:The ARCHİTECTURE OF THE Candian Instutue

of Design.School Of Architecture Carleton University.pp.56-64