TUTORED BY JULIET JAIN, DURING YEAR 3 OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING (2013/ 2014), ACHIEVING A FIRST CLASS GRADE.

With the hypothesis that a higher level of permeability within the private-public border will allow for more interactions to take place (and thus more sociability) the dissertation aimed to understand the problems with sociability in cities, basing its case studies in the streets of Paris.

A HIGHER LEVEL OF PERMEABILITY WITHIN THE PRIVATE-PUBLIC BORDER WILL ALLOW FOR MORE INTERACTIONS TO TAKE PLACE (AND THUS MORE SOCIABILITY)

CITIES ARE DYNAMIC SYSTEMS AND AS DYNAMIC SYSTEMS THEY SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD AND STUDIED THROUGH OBSERVATION.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF OBSERVATION AS AN ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE.

The understanding of the private-public border is one of the most important factors to generate life and socialization in public spaces. A greater permeability between public and private spaces will make the public spaces places where to stay and socialize (Whyte, 1980).

As dynamic systems, cities have the power of self-organization and spontaneous organization, which is a contrast to hyper-specification or excessive planning that takes place when cities are understood as infrastructure or are not observed but just studied theoretically (Johnson, 2001).

Three case studies are selected in Avenue de Flandre, Paris, to understand the different levels of permeability and their relationship with the level of interactions. Observing how people move through these spaces helps drawing the conclusions to verify the hypothesis.