“To explore how physical space is necessary to allow for political struggle and without it is no place for struggle. Public space is not only as Lefebvre, would have it, a representation of space - space designed by planners and engineers, and ordered for consumption. Nor is it merely a representational of space - space of every life, save, made and remade through ordinary, often mundane spatial practice.”
Don Mitchell “The Right to the City”
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| Area of Investigation |
“Be sure to settle the figure of the town so as the streets
hereafter may be uniform down to the water from the country
bounds... This may be ordered when I come, only let the house
built be in a line, or upon a line, as much as may be...”
William Penn circa 1682 [in his use of the grid as the typical organization for Philadelphia parcels]
William Penn circa 1682 [in his use of the grid as the typical organization for Philadelphia parcels]
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| Area of Encasement |
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| Ariel and Street View |
Different boundaries have been defined by several agencies
and many residents would not necessarily place themselves in
Fairhill, other names include Hartshranft, West Fairhill, and
simply North Philly.
“Is there some spatial structure or set of structures which will
maximize equity and efficiency in the urban system or, at least,
maximize our ability to control the powerful hidden mecha-
nisms which bring about redistribution? This is both a norma-
tive and a positive question for it suggests that we can explain
current distributional effects by looking at existing spatial
structures and also devise spatial structures to achieve a given
distributional goal.”
David Harvey , 1973, Social Injustice and the City
Lost Lots
Lost Lots is based in premise that the physical space
of the city, its organization and quality, can be a mechanism
of integration--claiming places. The open, public spaces of
the city both reinforce and promote existing and new social
agreements: where meetings between different people take
place, where identities emerge, where a sense of belonging
is fostered. But how are these spaces defined?
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| Proposed Parcels |
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| American Street [Between York & Dauphin] |
- By Ariel Vázquez
Contact him at lostlots@claimingplaceslab.org
