The role of spatial practices within the constructed order: the autonomy of the walker in the South Bank Centre

The role of spatial practices within the constructed order: the autonomy of the

walker in the South Bank Centre.

The importance of spatial practices in contemporary times

Urban world

The study of city dwelling has become an essential tool to understand modern day

culture. This is essential in the sense that an urgent evaluation of the current situation is

called upon, as it is only recently that the balance between the numbers of rural and

urban dwellers has changed. In a world where more than half of the population live in

urban spaces, the interaction between the individuals and the city spaces determines

their identities, both through mechanisms that obviously influence urban behaviour and

through dynamics related to hidden powers of manipulation. Considering the growing

use of words such as hubs, networks and global villages to refer to what it was known

as cities, it is of great importance to analyse the city dweller’s relationship with the

modern city. From the origins of the city to now, the development of urban spaces has

had profound consequences on city-dweller’s definition of self. In the constant search of

interpretations to modern-day culture and society, the study of the role played by urban

spaces is a must.

The constructed order concerns the built environment characteristical of urban

spaces. The city’s shape correspond to the city dweller’s needs, or at least theoretically

it should. This difference between spatial rules working for or against the city dweller is

the main subject of this project. Urbanism has become an essential part of the

individual’s life inasmuch life takes place within urban spaces. Whether is a favela in

Sao Paulo or a mansion in London, their characteristics as constructed spaces are a

reflection of the cultural, ideological and social trends in contemporary times.

Global community and society of networks

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In a recent exhibition on Global Cities at the Tate Modern the introduction suggested

the display’s intentions: “It is vital that we understand the impact of this urban growth

on people and the environment, as the links between architecture and society become

both more complex and more fragile. How we- as architects and citizens, artists and

policy-makers- choose to shape our cities, buildings and public spaces will determine

how we respond to a range of problems.”1 It is in this context that questions in regards

to dignity, justice and human rights are raised. As a global community, an unrelenting

flow of individuals who move to the cities in search of opportunities are exposed to the

rules of the urban environment. It is crucial to explore the relationship between our

daily lives and the physical conditions that surround us to be able to improve the

precarious conditions most urban dwellers live in.

“At the same time as cities bring together people, resources and ideas,

intensifying social relations and creating intense experiences, they generate and enable

different responses to these sometimes overwhelming phenomena.”2 As Jenny Robinson

explains, the continuous and unavoidable contact between the city dwellers amongst

themselves and the city space produces certain kind of dialogues. The sheer number of

people who inhabit the urban continuum mixed with the idea of constant motion might

seem to portray a picture of chaos and disorder. Once approached critically, this “chaos”

seems to follow certain patterns and rythmns. Both the subject who imposes and the

subject of this imposition ally with certain norms, creating networks that work through

different levels of society vertically and horizontally.

It is in this context that spatial practices take place. It is the framework of the

alienated and the alienating forces. It involves the city as an acquired ingredient of the

experience of living in modernity and the body as an essential piece of the urban

1 Introduction, Global Cities Exhibition at Tate Modern 20 June – 27 August 2007.2 Jenny Robinson, ‘Divisive cities:power and segregation in cities’, ed. by Steve Pile, Christopher Brook and Gerry Mooney, Unruly cities? (London: Routledge, 1999), p. 150.

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machine. The role of spatial practices is to bring back the freedom and autonomy that as

city dwellers we have lost in the proccess of becoming urbanites. The configuration of

public spaces and the practice of them can be different. To be able to approach this task

with clarity there is a need to explain the disparity between place and space.

A place is normally constituted by a set of bounderies and stable limits which

are not subject to alteration by means of experience. In this sense, and introducing one

of the main authors on spatial theory, De Certeau explains that space “exists when one

takes into consideration vectors of direction, velocities, and time variables.”3 Therefore

a contained experience within the limits of a place and through the language of time is

how space is constituted. Architecture is in this sense “a product of a way of thinking”4

and, citing Siegfried Kracauer, “spatial images are the dreams of society. Wherever the

hieroglyphics of any spatial image are deciphered, there the basis of social reality

presents itself”5. Spatial practices belong to the cultural and social spheres of modernity.

Introduction to key authors in the study of spatial practices

The theories of several key authors are very useful as analytical tools in order to

decipher the dichotomy between the lived experiences and the built environment. There

is a growing body of literature on the subject as cultural theorists try to investigate the

nature of current times. Michel de Certeau groundbreakingly investigates the role of the

everyday routines in the constant struggle against the imposed order. De Certeau

analyses power relations “in terms of realms of strategy and tactics. Strategy he sees as

the imposition of power through the disciplining and organisation of space. Tactics are

the ‘ruses’ that take the predisposition of the world and make it over, that convert it to

3 Reynolds & Joseph Fitzpatrick ‘The Transversality of Michel de Certeau: Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse’, Diacritics, 29, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999),pp. 63-80, (p. 68).4 Neil Leach, Rethinking Architecture (Abingdon: Routledge, 1997), p. 15.5 Neil Leach, Rethinking Architecture (Abingdon: Routledge, 1997), p. 15.

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the purposes of ordinary people.”6 Strategy and tactics are therefore key concepts in

understanding De Certeau’s approach to spatial practices and the purpose of places.

De Certeau goes on to explain that the role of the walker is responsible for re

appropiating the space he/she belongs to. The walker becomes thus the figure of the

hero through whom strategies are fought against, inasmuch the urban space is occupied

by the walker: “spatial practices in fact secretly structure the determining conditions of

social life”7. In this chapter De Certeau is clear on his intentions. He wants to

investigate the “stubborn procedures that elude discipline” and hopefully conclude a

theory of everyday practice that uses the walker as a figure of resistance. De Certeau’s

theory on the role of the walker therefore presents us with an ideal opportunity to

analyse the habits of contemporary spatial practices.

Referring to urban spaces Barthes pointed out that “the city is a discourse and

this discourse is truly a language: the city speaks to its inhabitants, we speak to our city,

the city where we are, simply by living in it, by wandering through it, by looking at it.

Still the problem is to bring an expression like ‘the language of the city’ out of the

purely metaphorical stage.”8 De Certeau disposed of the metaphorical aspect of the

theory and went on to establish that “The act of walking is to the urban system what the

speech act is to language or to the statements uttered.”9. The pedestrian speech act has,

according to him, a triple “enunciative” function: the walker appropiates the

topographical system he belongs to, it is a spatial acting out of the place and it implies

relations between different positions.10 He is able to define this way walking as a space

6 Mike Crang, Relics, ‘Places and unwritten geographies in the work of Michel de Certeau (1925-86)’, ed. by Mike Crang and Nigel Thrift, Thinking Space (London: Routledge, 2000), p. 137.7 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Calif. London : University of California Press,1984), p. 98.8 Roland Barthes, ‘Semiology and the Urban in Rethinking Architecture’, ed. by Neil Leach, Rethinking Architecture (Abingdon: Routledge, 1997), p. 168.9 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Calif. London : University of California Press,1984), p. 97.10 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Calif. London : University of California Press,1984), p. 98.

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of enunciation. Once again, his theory will help in the context of defining the

characteristics of autonomy that the contemporary walker/speaker enjoys (or does not).

Another key author to take into account when approaching the study of spatial

theories is Michel Foucault and his study of the Panoptic discourse. He argues that apart

from the enclosed institution as a method of discipline “At the other extreme, with

panopticism, is the discipline-mechanism: a functional mechanism that must improve

the exercise of power by making it lighter, more rapid, more effective, a design of subtle

coercion for a society to come.”11 “The minute disciplines, the panopticisms of every

day may well be below the level of emergence of the great apparatuses and the great

political struggles.”12 It is in this context that the autonomy of the city dweller can be

measured, as the exercise of power has become invisible to the walker’s eyes. As

Lefebvre points out when approaching the space of architects, “This space has nothing

innocent about it: it answers to particular tactics and strategies; it is, quite simply, the

space of the dominant mode of production, and hence the space of capitalism, governed

by the bourgeoisie. It consists of ‘lots’ and is organized in a repressive manner as a

function of the important features of locality.”13 This struggle between oppressor and

oppressed can be easily transferred to the individual spatial practices that the urban

inhabitant engages in. It is therefore necessary to investigate the extent to which power

has been able to penetrate this practices to find out how to regain the freedom lost in

this process.

It is inevitable when approaching the subject of contemporary constructed orders

to take into account the ubiquitous economic character of modern societies. In his

extensive study of post-modern culture Fredric Jameson argues that “There is no space

11 http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html12 http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html13Henri Lefebvre, ‘The Production of Space’, ed. by Neil Leach, Rethinking Architecture (Abingdon: Routledge, 1997), p.144.

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outside exchange society. Within postmodern culture everything is immediately coopted

into commodities and images”14. Capitalist space is therefore essential when

investigating contemporary strategies, following De Certeau’s terminology. Whether

tactics are able to disengage the spatial practices from the manipulation of the built

environments is the main subject of this essay. Jameson defines a new kind of space,

postmodern hyperspace: “the effect on cultural politics, according to Jameson, is that

the subject “submerged” by this postmodern hyperspace is deprived of the “critical

distance” that makes possible the “positioning of the cultural act outside of the massive

Being of capital”.”15

The relevance of the South Bank Centre, London

The South Bank Centre provides an adequate example of contained built environment

where a study of pedestrian behaviour is not only manageable but also very informative

about the general trends that urban spatial practices follow nowadays. The idea behind

the South Bank is one of uniting several different buildings together, linked by the

common denominator of their purpose: culture. At least this is the impression that its

marketing campaigns transmit. The South Bank Centre is constituted by several

buildings, forming a mosaic of spaces. As centre, it ties together several ideas. It gives a

sense of centrality in respect to a map (its location within the London map is

priviledged); it is understood that as a centre, the activities that concentrate there have

got a conexion; it gives a quality of importance to what experience is lived there; it is in

conclusion, a place within a build environment where the walker can experience a set of

spatial practices with similar characteristics.

When visiting the current website for the South Bank Centre, one is greeted by

the following text: “Welcome to Southbank Centre: Find our work inside and outside

14 Neil Leach, Rethinking Architecture (Abingdon: Routledge, 1997), p.236.15 Bryan Reynolds & Joseph Fitzpatrick, ‘The Transversality of Michel de Certeau: Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse’, Diacritics, 29, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999),pp. 63-80 (p. 65).

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three iconic buildings, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Hayward.

Come for the breething space, to walk without traffic, shop, eat and drink, and enjoy the

river and the skyline.”16 Avoiding the issue of cyberspace which also belongs to

contemporary cultural studies, the website transmits a message about fragmented

spaces, intertwined ideas and selection of happenings. The above message already uses

the appeal of words such as iconic to catch our attention. It uses spatial notions of inside

and outside to define the totalitarian nature of the South Bank Centre space. As urban

dwellers, the attraction of “breething spaces” is certain; the idea of walking in

opposition to traffic (meaning transport, cars, pollution and stress) becomes appealing.

Still our identity isn’t compromised as the familiar language of capitalism is implied in

the message: “shop, eat and drink”. Finally, we are reminded of the importance of the

symbols of London as a city: its river and skyline, globally recognized signs of its

identity.

This is a brief analysis of first impressions on the South Bank Centre’s profile on

cyberspace. This type of analysis is what this essay intends to carry out on its actual

physical space. Already there are several notions that tie up the South Bank Centre with

the rest of the City as a multi-layered space. London as a great urban space, offers an

inside and an outside (the self and the other, which will be expanded later on), a number

of iconic buildings that as a group shape the historical identity of the city, plenty of

green spaces that function as lungs for the urban environment, and the opportunity to

carry out the type of activities the city relates to: shopping, eating and drinking. All this

under the spell of its riverside and skyline. Both are symbols of London, although the

existance of the city is essential for their own existance as the riverside and skyline of a

city. Consequently, the South Bank Centre provides the setting of a study that can easily

relate to the rest of the city. The description of the pedestrian’s story in this

16 http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/

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microcosmos can then be associated to the story of the city’s walkers, as the Southbank

centre is no longer a one-function place but a multi-layered space.

From the ideological point of view, it is also necessary to distinguish the South

Bank Centre from the other spatial spheres it belongs to. London as the multi-function

urban environment is not the only notion that comprises the idea of the South Bank

Centre. The South Bank Centre is contained within the South Bank London. The South

Bank London is “an inspiring place, home to the UK’s finest theatres, art galleries and

performing arts venues.”17 On its welcome webpage, the South Bank mentions once

again the advantages of its location (in relation to London’s Houses of Parliament and

Covent Garden, using the appeal that the city iconic images offer); the chance to have

an interesting cultural experience (it mentions “the cultural heart of London”, as

theatres, galleries, cinemas and venues are usefully located one next to each other); the

green open spaces available to use (using ideas as summer festival and magical walks, it

appeals to the city-dweller’s wishes of escapism); and finally, yet again, one is offered

the chance to purchase whatever it might be that one wants, and spend more money in

the several restaurants and bars available accross the whole area. The South Bank

Centre belongs to this other space and idea, the South Bank. They do not only share the

name. It is clear that they are appealing to the same use of their space. Is the walker able

to distinguish between the South Bank Centre, the South Bank, or the rest of the city?

By reviewing the walker’s behaviour, it becomes clear whether the same spatial rules

apply in all cases, regardless of whether we are walking in one space or the other.

Cultural shopping centre? A current tendency in global scope

This tendency of accumulation of distinct places into a bigger alliance of cultural

venues, leisure spaces and retail opportunities is far from being a South Bank own

creation. It is a response to current global urban behaviours: “Many observers argue that

17 http://www.southbanklondon.com/page/attractions

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it is slowly becoming a unitary and uniform place, a global city in which most of its

inhabitants are imbued with a similar set of all-encompassing urban attitudes and

values, and follow common modes of behaviour.”18 In a global unified urban world, the

trend of making spaces into multi-function environments is easily spotted all around.

The shopping centre broke bounderies in regards to functional spaces, being able to

create artificial (in the sense that history was non-existant) cities dedicated to sustain the

needs of such a space (i.e. West Edmonton Mall in Canada). Nowadays, cafés are

essential part in banks and shops are rarely built with only one purpose; they offer the

shopper somewhere to eat, drink, have a haircut. It is obvious that planners have

realised the need to make sure the urban dweller, and potential shopper, spends as much

time as possible within the given space. This is also translated into the South Bank

Centre space.

The nature of cities nowadays also makes this trend possible, inasmuch the cities

are divived into several distinct spaces, depending on their functions. The majority of

city-dwellers live in suburban areas, implying a certain amount of time and effort to

travel inwards to the city centre. Once the walker has made a decision to spend a certain

amount of time visiting a building, shop, venue, gallery, restaurant., the likelihood of

this walker’s time becoming an evening or day out is certain. Hence the need to offer as

many functions as possible in one place, so that the walker does not need to look for this

somewhere else.

The South Bank Centre: 1951-2008

“The siting of the 1951 Festival on the Thames in central London was significant, as

this part of the capital always occupied a special place in the English geography of

pleasure.”19 Ken Worpole then goes on to explain how the South side of the river

18 David Clark, Urban World/Global City (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 3.19 Ken Worpole, Here Comes The Sun, Architecture and Public Space in Twentieth CenturyEuropean Culture (London: Reaction Books Ltd, 2000), p. 103.

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Thames has always been related to popular culture (Chaucer’s Southwark,

Shakespeare’s Bankside Globe, etc). Following the Second World War, the Festival of

Britain was created to lift the nation’s spirit. The Royal Festival Hall remained as the

legacy of the Festival. Years later, in 1967 and 1968, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell

Room and Hayward Gallery were open. Still, the building’s layout and access paths are

built to work independently from each other, adding to their isolation. In 1983 an “open

foyer” policy is introduced.20 This is the first step towards a new ideology in regards to

use of public spaces. The Royal Festival Hall opens up to all, its identity forever

changed. Its space ceased to be exclusive and directly related to the performance that it

offered. Walkers could now come in without having to have purchase any tickets, and

enjoy a different kind of experience. Currently the South Bank Centre is undergoing

major changes. “In 2002, a new chairman, Lord Hollick, was appointed, shortly

followed by a new chief executive, Michael Lynch. (Artistic director Jude Kelly started

in September 2005.) They realized they had to ensure the fragmented site was connected

back together again and rejuvenated.”21This new development is being carried out by

Rick Mather Architects after being appointed as Masterplanner: “Proposing a new urban

and activated street setting for Belvedere Road together with a tilted and enlarged

Jubilee Gardens above, the masterplan addresses the wider urban issues present in the

area to encourage greater activity, diversity and accessibility for the site as a whole.”22

This Masterplan ideally then encourages the walker’s freedom and autonomy to chose

its path according to this statement.

The Walker: practices in the constructed order

Self versus the Other

20 http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/about-southbank-centre/history-and-archive/southbank-centre-history21 http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/assets/F745E4AF-17A4-F7CE-BF63E4912B582556.pdf22 http://www.rickmather.com/

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The walker’s definition is directly related to the built environment, in this case The

South Bank Centre. The dialectics of self versus the other provides us with the

necessary methodology to understand how the walker’s identity is shaped. In this sense,

the key issue in regards to the South Bank Centre is how much the walker is influenced

by his/her environment, and whether this environment is actually influenced at all by

their figure. On this subject, Reynolds and Fitzpatrick mention Ian Buchanan’s critique

on the cultural production of space: “opposing Certeau’s view to Fredric Jameson’s

“assumption that the subject takes his or her psychic bearings from the built

environment and only has certain existence so long as he or she can cognitively ‘map’

this environment”... The effect on cultural politics, according to Jameson, is that the

subject “submerged” by this postmodern hyperspace is deprived of the “critical

distance” that makes possible the “positioning of the cultural act outsde of the massive

Being of capital.”23

In agreement with Reynolds and Fitzpatrick, the issue of the autonomy of the

subject is targetted differently by both De Certeau and Jameson. De Certeau places the

walker in his study of everyday practices, opposing his/her position to that one of the

voyeur-God, who through perspective is able to create the necessary distance that

“transforms the bewitching world by which one was “possessed” into a text that lies

before one’s eyes. It allows one to read it, to be a solar Eye, looking down like a

god.”24In this way, it is only by detaching oneself from the spatial practice of the city

that one is able to see the real meaning of the city itself. As De Certeau resolves this

nomenclature in voyeurs or walkers, it is clear that practicing space is carried out by the

walkers. The gods that are able to look down represent the panoptic forces Foucault

23 Bryan Reynolds; Joseph Fitzpatrick ‘The transversality of Michel de Certeau: Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse’, Diacritics, 29 (Autumn 1999), pp. 63-80 (p. 65).24 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Calif. London : University of California Press,1984), p. 92.

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introduces. De Certeau’s theory does not necessary occupy a place in opposition to

Jameson’s. De Certeau’s walker does indeed own his/her surroundings by techniques

related to speech, but he/she could be placed under the spell of the spatial confusion that

postmodern hyperspace is able to produce.

One of the appeals of the South Bank Centre, in terms of spatial practice, is the

views of the city the walker is able to admire from all the different balconies available

for use. It could be from the main area at the front of the Royal Festival Hall, or from

the building itself: “There are also bars on Levels 4 and 5 of the building and the new,

exclusive Members Bar, located on Level 6 with panoramic views over the river, is now

open for Southbank Centre Full Members.”25 Planners are drawing the walker’s

attention by calling upon their basic need to fulfill their role within consumer society

and spend money in their bars; they also use the idea of exclusivity, and it is taken for

granted that everyone has a desire to feel special and singular in the plural continuum

that urban society is; finally, and relating to De Certeau’s metaphore of voyeurs or

walkers, it is inherent to the idea of enjoying the view of the city to be able to detach

oneself from the walkers down below. The walker is then led to believe that his/her

position has changed, to that one of voyeur or God. Though it is not necessarily true, as

the walker is still being manipulated into thinking so, one is able to see the idea of the

city of London: the skyline is one we can immediately recognise as it has been

reproduced countless times so that we acquire it and relate it to the identity of London.

From the point of view of the South Bank Centre, one can distinguish the London Eye,

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Charing Cross, The Thames and St Paul, all

main indredients of the Londonness the walker is sold. De Certeau’s World Trade

Centre example explains the Voyeur’s need to map the city. The South Bank Centre

voyeur is a walker in disguise, unaware of its own identity as part of the urban space.

25 http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visiting-us/royal-festival-hall

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The appeal of thinking oneself as a voyeur brings the walker to the balconies and

terraces. The view legitimizes as well the existance of the lone pedestrian, making it

acceptable for someone to be on their own, admiring the city skyline.

The constructed order: visions of utopia

When analysing the constructed order in its relation to the walker, De Certeau brings up

the idea of the “city” as based on utopian and urbanistic discourse and as able to carry

out three different types of operations26: the production of its own space, the “forgetting

of the spatializing travels from which the map arose”27 and the creation of a universal

and anonymous subject (the city itself) to which all functions that were before isolated

can now be attributed. How much does the South Bank Centre space belong to his

utopian representation of the city? De Certeau calls this Concept-city “the machinery

and the hero of modernity”28simultaneously. In its origin, The Festival of Britain was

certainly a hero of its modernity, and was more related to the above idea of utopian city

26 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Calif. London : University of California Press,1984), p. 94.27 Bryan Reynolds; Joseph Fitzpatrick ‘The transversalita of Michel de Certeau: Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse’, Diacritics, 29 (Autumn 1999), pp. 63-80 (p. 70).28 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Calif. London : University of California Press,1984), p. 95.

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than the current space. As the South Bank Centre’s identity developed, its

characteristics of Concept-city decayed. The buildings at the core of its identity became

isolated, which brought about the need for planners to connect these places in a fluid

way. The pedestrian was able to reappropiate this space as an expression of identity

versus the other or built environment. As planners have tried to read the walker’s

speech, they have built accordingly, making the walker’s original reappropiating of

space void.

The structures of power: strategies and tactics

“The language of power is in itself “urbanizing”, but the city is left pray to contradictory

movements that counter-balance and combine themselves outside the reach of panoptic

power.”29De Certeau uses the language of strategy and tactics to differenciate between

the construction of place and the practice of space as seen above. If it is understood that

the panoptic power is the planner behind the contruction of the South Bank Centre, what

role does the walker play as the tactical player, owner of the movement of resistance?

Allegedly space has been, and is being, shaped mirroring the walker’s needs. In the

South Bank Centre, the several levels space is divided in have always been regarded as

an awkward cluster of concrete. It becomes familiar with the walker once the different

levels have been occupied by easily recognisible brands (Wagamama, Strada, Giraffe,

Eat, Las Iguanas, Le Pain Quotidien, Caffe Vergnano 1882, Feng Sushi and Ping Pong).

The space has been taken over by the practice of consumption. The walker’s autonomy

has therefore been jeopardized. Spatial practices within the South Bank Centre are

almost invariably related to a capitalist ideology of the built environment. With profit as

the motor behind the planning, the walker is guided through the different spaces, and is

29 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Calif. London : University of California Press,1984), p. 95.

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given the false idea that by chosing which one of the outlets he/she prefers, they are

practising their right to autonomy.

Fortunately for the practices of resistance or tactics, there have been other spatial

practices developed through the recent years. The most notorious one is the practice of

skate boarding under the Queen Elizabeth Hall’s building, also known as ‘The

Undercroft’.

Since the 1970’s the odd stairs and different shapes made by concrete, residue of the

1960’s style of architecture, have served as unlikely playground for skaters from all

over the globe. What Jess Harris elocuently names “dead space”30has gone to become

exactly the opposite, a space brought to life by a spontaneous practice completely

unrelated to the response the planners of the South Bank Centre were aiming for. The

angular shapes left to frame a space seemingly lacking of any purpose have served as

the best obstacles to show skate-boarding skills, as per the photograph above31. In true

panoptic style, it has not been until recently that the urbanizing or strategic forces have

30 http://www.locumconsulting.com/pdf/LDR16-ReclaimStreets.pdf31 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlle_jordan/2223083813/

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agreed to acknowledge a spatial pratice they have not previously conceived, therefore

outside the boundaries of their control. Unable to contain the free flow of this particular

spatial practice, the authorities behind the South Bank Centre watch as well how this

language of resistance is splashed throughout the gray walls of the undercroft. Grafitti

serves as the best means of expression. Its ephemeral nature adds to its value as the

background where the skaters own their space in a truly genuine and spontaneous way.

The lifespan of the grafitti is, as that one of the skater’s tactics, unknown and

unpredictable.

Still, this activity which is the most autonomous expression of the walker’s

spatial practice within the South Bank Centre, and also relation to the rest of the urban

environment, has an uncertain future. The walker’s right to reappropiate space in a free

manner is used by what De Certeau calls “the “waste products” of a functionalist

administration”32. Teenagers have traditionally lacked a voice that was heard by the

ruling systems. They are normally given the space they are supposed to occupy in

society. Stepping out of it, makes them outcasts, therefore a problem to the urbanizing

powers. As I am writing this essay, the space is still being used by them, but there are

also calls for protecting it from possible threats33. Only the Masterplanners know at the

moment what the future holds for this walkers of the South Bank.

Maps and itineraries

Another way by which the constructed order aims to control the walker’s autonomy in

the South Bank Centre is by the use of maps. De Certeau explains that originally maps

were history books. They were the result of the itineraries carried out by those creating

the maps themselves. Maps would indicate the posibilities of a place, or the possible

spatial practices available in a particular location. “(...)we can understand how maps are

32 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Calif. London : University of California Press,1984), p. 94.33 http://www.dobedo.co.uk/dbd_viewmedia.php?mId=8

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“proper places in which to exhibit the products of knowledge” and “form tables of

legible results”- for although they are presented as objective indicators of place, maps

are founded on spatializing assumptions that affect the way that those mapped places

are perceived.”34 As much as the walker uses a map to find the way, it is the way that

finds the walker through the language of the map.

The above map35 is available on the South Bank Centre’s website and

information booklets. The simplification of a space that vertically stretches to more than

five levels is necessary to be able to read the map. As a contained environment, the map

34 Bryan Reynolds; Joseph Fitzpatrick ‘The transversality of Michel de Certeau: Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse’, Diacritics, 29 (Autumn 1999), pp. 63-80 (p. 68).

35 http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/assets/40D208FF-17A4-F7CE-BF7843582F3BF729.pdf

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advises the walker of the limits of the South Bank Centre space. Flanked by two

bridges, a road and the river, it seems clear what the spatial boundaries are. The venues

at the core of the South Bank Centre become on the map a rigid figure, distinquished by

different colours. The basic needs the walker has are all catered for: toilets, cafes,

restaurants, bars and disabled access are referred to by universally understood symbols

on the map. Surrounding the building, the lines that refer to stairs are visibly on the

map. This might give the walker the idea of buildings linked to each other in a coherent

way. The reality the map refers to might be different to the one the walker acquires by

reading the map.

There are several possible itineraries within the South Bank Centre environment.

They could turn into an immensurable quantity of possible routes depending on the

walkers condition of autonomous city-dweller or subject to the constructed order. One

could approach the area using the Golden Jubilee Footbridge. The proximity to the

railway lines remind the walker of his/her condition of urban dweller. The pedestrian

walks next to the railway lines. By proximity the walker becomes essential part of the

city inasmuch the train lines are fundamental features of the functioning of urban space.

This exerice by which the walkers merge with the city in the most essential of ways

takes place all around the South Bank Centre. Both from Waterloo Bridge and

Belvedere Road, the pedestrian can access it. Even the Festival Pier allows the walker to

arrive. This sense of centrality, whereby usual means of transportation such as

cars,trains or buses, appeals to the walker and captures his/her attention, attracts his/her

steps to its chore. Once within the South Bank Centre environment there are no

references to urban transport (only singposts), aiding to the idea of autonomous identity

in respect of the rest of the city. As the walker’s sense of direction is overwhelmed by

the forces behind the arranging of paths around the South Bank Centre, the destination

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of his/her footsteps has already been decided. The pedestrian leaves the urban routine

outside the bounderies of the South Bank Centre, giving its space the character of the

extraordinary.

The South Bank Centre dweller

Who the walker is in this universe of spatial rules is a crucial question when trying to

assess how successful the constructed order has become. The offer in regards to cultural

activities is widely seen as providing for all, inasmuch the offer of different types of

cuisine is supposed to cater for all tastes. But when referring to the pedestrians in the

South Bank Centre area, what are their main characteristics? Surrounding the South

Bank Centre, pedestrians follow the four main routes. The walkers that enter the South

Bank Centre space from the either the London Eye or the British Film Institute sides,

walk onto the Festival Riverside. The timing of the pedestrian is crucial, as during the

day and the weekends, this flow tends to be composed by tourists enjoying the walk on

the south side of the river. Unless they are purposedly attending a particular cultural

event, these pedestrians are likely to pause to admire the skaters’ skills and the

unorthodox surroundings of the Undercroft.

There are other streams of pedestrians that enter the South Bank Centre area

without an objective related to its cultural or leisurely offer. The Golden Jubilee

Footbridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Upper Ground leading to Belvedere Road,

function as useful channels of communication for the London commuter. Bus,

underground and train connections are easily reached, therefore the after work walkers

find themselves within the South Bank Centre space, with no particular reason to be

there. Their use of these routes, makes them familiar with the centre as it becomes part

of their daily landscape. Still, as familiar as their South Bank walk might be due to their

routine, the offer of restaurants and bars transforms the identity of the South Bank

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Centre space. The chance to alter that customary habit, makes the use of one of the

several bars and restaurants exciting. Initially a primarily cultural space, the South Bank

Centre has become the space for drinking and eating, not having to be related to any of

the cultural activities the venues offer, maximising the productivity of the business

based there. The compelling appeal of fulfilling the city dweller’s function within the

capitalist society (as mentioned above) subjugates the pedestrian’s will. By different

marketing mechanisms the urban inhabitant has acquired the idea that making use of

bars and restaurants equals leisure time, off-work interval, recreation and enjoyment.

Many of these pedestrian-commuters make use of the South Bank Centre space in this

particular way, complying with the set of rules imposed by the constructed order.

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There is also the inflow of South Bank Centre visitors, who have possibly

booked tickets for one of the cultural activities it offers. Arriving through any of the

different entries already mentioned, the unfamiliar pedestrian might be overwhelmed by

the different levels that compound the Centre. Both the Festival Terrace and the Festival

Riverside have been occupied by different business (shops or restaurants). As the most

lineal of spaces within the centre, therefore the most approachable for pedestrians, both

terraces become the first contact with the place. The chances of the walker stopping are

therefore greater. Once inside the building, if the visitor has not stopped on any of the

business, the offer to spend some leisurely time is still there. Bars and restaurants

occupy the different levels and main foyers of the Hayward Gallery, the Royal Festival

Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Jameson’s critique of postmodern hyperspace

already mentioned becomes reality. In a space entangled with different levels and

possibilities of practice, the “critical distance” is denied to the subject. Submerged in

this space, the walkers tend to practice what is familiar to them. The language of

commercial exchange overtakes any other possibilities available. The walker then

occupies the space making use of the several bars, restaurants and shops available.

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The skaters, as already mentioned, have become another fixture of the South

Bank Centre space. They are indeed practicing space with absolute freedom and

autonomy from the constructed order. Somehow, as they are both practicers of space

and spatial fixture, as people come to witness their use of space, part of their

spontaneous character has changed. The pedestrian expects to see them there, it is

therefore their space. In contrast to another spatial practice that bases its use of the city

on the same ideas that the skaters do, the skater’s use of the Undercroft is prone to be

controlled by the urban order. Parkour or Free Running are both spatial practices where

the constructed order strategies not only do not regulate the walker’s autonomy, they are

turn against themselves and serve as unlikely grounds for the expression of pedestrian’s

freedom. Disregarding the network of rules that tangle urban places, the free runners

take over impossible and seemingly unreachable corners, angles, balconies, windows,

walls and so on. They successfully make urban space theirs. As with everything else,

capitalist society has found a way to own this spatial practice, and commodify an

individual and genuine expression of freedom. Free Running has become common

within the global language of advertisement36.

There are also other dwellers within the South Bank Centre space. These are the

workers, essential part of the functioning of the site. As a component of the space, they

merge with the strategies of the South Bank Centre’s constructed order. The walker is

not supposed to be aware of any rules within this environment, therefore the employees

are not more than pieces to the motor behind the centre. The roles are set and the space

is distributed accordingly.

36 http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/media/media.htm

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23

All of the above photographs37 represent parts of the South Bank Centre hidden

from the pedestrian flow that normally inhabits it. Odd corners, hidden staircases, back

doors and car park areas belong to the strategic order, therefore remain invisible for the

pedestrian/consumer. Bringing the focus of attention to the riverside and the main

entrances of the buildings through economic use of space (shops, bars and restaurants)

guarantees that the number of pedestrians lost within the machinery of the South Bank

Centre is mininal. Still, as real as the rest of its space, these places are dark, dirty, void

of any apparent function and seemingly unappealing. A contrast to the public face of

South Bank Centre. Does this mean that these spaces are less social than the others? As

much as the environment intends to focus the attention somewhere else, these spaces are

available to be occupied, therefore as valid as the rest.

Languages of resistance

De Certeau’s analysis of the figure of the walker is based on pedestrians speach acts, as

already mentioned above. It is through the language of paths that the walker

reappropiates the space available, in accordance to the laws of the constructed order or

making full use of one’s free choice. “By means of its diverse ideological and represive

aparatuses (including educational, juridical, and religious structures), the state works to

37 Author’s own.

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enclose each subject in a prescrived and regulated subjective territory. This subjective

territory is in effect realized physically (geographically) as well as conceptually ad

emotionally; physical constraints influence the conceptual and emotional aspects of

subjectivity just as they are symptoms and extensions of these aspects.”38 In

reappropiating space, the individual is guided, as Reynolds explains, by a system of

control. Reynolds further concludes that though this system tries to provide the subject

with a system of values that tie him/her to society in a particular and easy to control

manner, it leaves out the “infinite space of “transversality”.”39 He calls upon the power

of the walker to make use of the transversal power to transgress the set bounderies.

With this acquired knowledge of subjective space, the walker approaches the

South Bank Centre. The pedestrian is deceptively given freedom to chose one path or

the other, one bar or the other, one shop or the other. The set of choices that face the

walker are all product of the strategic intentions of the constructed order. It rarely

happens that the walker makes up his/her own set of paths to chose from. The example

of skaters already mentioned, is one of these spatial practices making use of the

transversal power (Reynolds) or tactics (De Certeau). Nevertheless, the social group

understood as skaters follow also their own set of rules, whereby one might be better

skilled than the other. Therefore their take on the reappropiation of space is to a certain

extent, controlled by guidelines. The main point is that these guidelines do not

correspond to those ones initially drafted by the planners behind the South Bank Centre.

The concrete that makes the South Bank Centre space is hardly a welcoming

environment. Parts of this grey chaos have been conquered by autonomous spatial

38 Bryan Reynolds; Joseph Fitzpatrick ‘The transversality of Michel de Certeau: Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse’, Diacritics, 29 (Autumn 1999), pp. 63-80 (p. 72).39 Bryan Reynolds; Joseph Fitzpatrick ‘The transversality of Michel de Certeau: Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse’, Diacritics, 29 (Autumn 1999), pp. 63-80 (p. 74).

25

practices as the Undercroft. Still, there are plenty of dead spaces40, as per Jess Harris use

of the word, forgotten by the walkers through the use of more regular paths:

40 http://www.locumconsulting.com/pdf/LDR16-ReclaimStreets.pdf

26

The photos above41 show different parts of the South Bank Centre on any normal

day. The temporality of these spaces within the centre is of great importance. These

dead spaces as portrayed gain new character on particular occasions. On normal

circumstances, these spaces are designed to be mere fixtures of a path. They don’t invite

the walker to spend some time experiencing them, focusing instead of directing the

pedestrian to the restaurants and bars. Unless the subject is making use of the

restaurants, there is hardly any seat available to prolongue the experience of the space.

41 Author’s own.

27

The walker is not able to sit on the restaurant benches unless he/she is

consuming. The adjacent shops (like Foyles in the photograph above) do not actually

offer any sitting, as it would encourage the use of space in a non profitable way. The

space left is empty. The options to sit down without having to engage in any type of

economic transaction are scarce. Only in special occassions these spaces are designed to

accommodate dwellers without asking anything in return. This factor adds to the

character of extraordinary space when experiencing the centre, as its space changes

depending on the event. Curiously, when reopening the Royal Festival Hall last

summer, giant puffs where handed out for free. For a weekend, the walker was able to

sit around on any corner he/she chose, regardless of his/her economic character as an

element of society.

In accordance to Reynolds idea of subjective territory already explained, the

South Bank Centre actively categorizes the kinds of experience the walker should have

within its space. With initiatives such as Love The Festival Hall42 and Name A Seat43,

the walker’s experience is determined, the memories to be had are spelt out. The

centre’s pedestrian is told of the experiences of others, all special and extraordinary in

their own way. By associating the important moments in one’s lifetime with the South

Bank Centre, the walker’s life turns into the latest branded object. Life is, as it can be

deduced from the appeals, about falling in love, having children, grandchildren, losing

someone. All these experiences we are advised are not as special as they could be. By

making sure we can attach the South Bank Centre logo on them, these moments of our

lifetimes become more precious, as there will always be a place where we can go to be

reminded of them: “pedestrians are capable, though the activity of walking, of

42 http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/lovethefestivalhall/43 http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/support-southbank-centre/individual-support/name-a-seat

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remembering many things that have been forgotten.”44 Though Reynolds and Fitzpatrick

are here referring to anamnesis as a way to make use of transversal power, therefore

belonging to the area of tactics, this same technique is use to control the pedestrians’

will.

Conclusion

The South Bank Centre contains and control certain kinds of spatial practices. From the

walkers on their way home, to the employees within the buildings, everyone practices

its space as they apparently chose to. As city-dwellers, we all belong to the network of

information and relations that the urban order sets for us. Walking, as De Certeau

claims, can bring back the freedom and autonomy we have lost by accepting the terms

of living in the city. Practicing a particular space one way or the other, establishes the

way the walker agrees to comply with the built environment rules or not. It is within the

subject’s power to find out to what extent the habits we think belong to us, are imposed

upon us. It is in fact the individual’s responsibility towards his/her own freedom to

attempt to discover these strategies of manipulation.

As seen, there are certain practices that make use of tactics to defeat the spatial

rules set upon the walkers. The success lies in the unpredictability, as once the system

behind the constructed order aknowledges these practices, they will certainly be

assimilated by the language of strategy. In this case, even rebellious behaviour is prone

to manipulation as the subject becomes unaware even his/her tactics for liberation are

being monitored and used for the system’s benefit. Jameson claims there is no space

outside exchange society. It is essential as part of a capitalist society that space is indeed

shaped by economy and profit. What is also essential to retain some of the autonomy we

have lost, is to become critical and aware of the rules that more or less openly shape our

44 Bryan Reynolds; Joseph Fitzpatrick ‘The transversality of Michel de Certeau: Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse’, Diacritics, 29 (Autumn 1999), pp. 63-80 (p. 74).

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behaviour as city-dwellers. The South Bank Centre has provided an example of urban

space, shaped by cultural and economic ideollogy, that seeks to influence the subject

into certain spatial practices. The constructed order habitually alters the self. As already

seen, the self can be set free. The self is able to decide not to comply with these rules.

As a result, the self turns into a walker who is completely umpredictable, and this

element of surprise is the one that the organisational strategies designed by the imposing

order does not expect.

30

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