Articulating Togetherness

written by Mia Roth Čerina

 

Society communicates its value system by spatializing the infrastructure in which it is realized. Regardless of changes in internal processes – pedagogy, sports, forms of assembly – which will require a modification of functional schemes, the physical projection of the ideal, the articulation of togetherness remains a constant. The elements of this infrastructure are epicentres of identity whose influence is far more reaching than the primary function they are accommodating.

 

Today's forms of housing and labour require the re-examination of the physical framework that is conditioned by them, of functional typologies, but also of the forms of their integration into the city, even of interaction or overlapping. Work, rest and pleasure are no longer divided by clear boundaries, the places where they take place are, in their contemporary manifestations, the amalgams of, until recently clearly separated, spaces of entirely different ambiences. In that sense, it is harder to discern the system of values that such complexes represent. However, what we include in the broader concept of social standard can still be considered as a separate category in which the role of society, community, and the city is less susceptible to change.