Anticipating a fluid, dynamic interiority

Abstract

This paper will explore some ideas regarding variations in the nature of the public and private realms that are speculative in nature yet based in studies of shifting patterns of how streets are used and experienced. It is equal parts anticipation and reflection. Fundamental to this investigation is a reassessment of what is meant by the term the interior, and how it has been changing this past century through significant advances in technology and redefinitions of mobility. Advances in mechanization and the evolution of early 20th century streets provided an environment for a changing dynamic interiority in the city. Investigating a dominant arterial in the centre of Toronto, the changing pattern of a few qualities will be examined and then speculated upon regarding some imminent changes to the flows and patterns of use regarding the streetscape, such as the changing nature of shop fronts along a streetscape- that I refer to as a shop front interiority, as well as the changing role of the street front due to, for example, an influx of density from new developments, wireless connectivity, and our near-future of sharing space with drones and autonomous vehicles. From this examination of the shifting nature of the affordances found in what was a more static street front, a different version of a sustainable urban life of the street is imagined. The combined factors of a changing street scape will lead to new patterns of use that will impact upon ideas of interiority through the ways that we think about and use this new shifting realm of an extended private realm in the public.