Transcription: Addressing the Interactivity Between Urban and Architectural Spaces and Their Use

This contribution stresses the gap between the design of urban spaces and their use. It argues that the interactivity between writer and reader in literature, in the sense that the reader co-produces the text, also counts for the designer and the user (or perceiver) of architectural space. I propose the notion Transcription as an approach connecting this interactivity to the role of activities, movements, and events in the experience and the making of urban space. Literary concepts such as perspective, character, and narrative are brought into the realm of urban and architectural design. First, the paper brings to the fore the work of a number of theorists who have addressed the social dimension of space, for instance, Henri Lefebvre, stating that space is socially produced, and Michel de Certeau, who connects the spatial practices of everyday life to the idea of narrative. Second, the paper discusses how architects such as Daniel Libeskind and Peter Eisenman have attempted to transcribe such insights to their theoretical and architectural projects.