Temporal Urban Design

Filipa Matos Wunderlich is an Associate Professor in Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Planning, at University College London (UCL) in the UK. Her research interests are on the temporal dimension of urban place design, sensory urbanism, the interface between urban and musical aesthetics, urban design theory and research by design methodologies. Filipa is the Director of the Master in Research (MRes) in Interdisciplinary Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Planning. She also coordinates ‘Research By Design’ components for both the Sustainable Urbanism and Urban Design and City Planning MSc Programmes. She is an architect, urban designer and musician.

• List of figuresList of tablesIntroduction Chapter 1: The need for a paradigm shiftWhy the sense of time and rhythm is important for designThe problem of our cities: new conditions and challengesThe problem with growth-led developmentThe problem with design: obsolete aesthetics hinder innovationThe intermittent loss of temporality with Covid19Ways forward: an intellectual and aesthetical review A doughnut spatial economy: an alternative modelTemporal Urban Design: an alternative aestheticCultural and social place-temporalities as temporal heritage to design forThe need for methodological innovation and interdisciplinarityThe need for a paradigm shift Chapter 2: Time and temporality in urban designIncorporating time in urban design studiesPlanning cities and timeGoverning and delivering through timeMapping through time: time-geography and urban mobility studiesManaging through time: planning for slowing time in the cityTaking stock of urban design research on timeThe significance of senses of time in urban designConclusionChapter 3: Time and temporality in philosophy and in scienceTime or temporality: early conundrums in philosophy and scienceThe first temporal conundrums: origins of the Western discoursesThe dialectics on time: Aristotle and PlatoThe early Christian timesThe dialectic in the Middle Ages: presentism or eternalismThe progressive and instrumental times of the Middle AgesEternalism or Presentism: early to late modern physicsEternalism: the absolute timePresentism: the crumbling of timeQuantum time: on spacetime, time and rhythmThe time of the mind, experiential or relational timeCritical debates on the experience of urban time: Bergson and BachelardTime as duration: intuition and memory, and its distortion in space, by BergsonTime as discontinuous and creative, by BachelardDuration, temporality and rhythmTemporality: as concrete duration and refrain, by BergsonTemporality: as created by rhythms, by BachelardListening to rhythms to understand temporal existenceTemporality: phenomenological time, rhythm, rhythmanalysis, assemblage, refrain and territorialityTemporality: as the phenomenological timeDistaff theories of time and temporality: Deleuze and LefebvreConclusionChapter 4: The urban temporal condition: understanding rhythm in urban spaceTime constructs in society and spaceTemporality as a sense or as a process? Time, rhythm and urban spaceTemporality as a sense: experiential and representational timeTemporality as a process time through the rhythms of everyday life Rhythm, refrain and territorialityThe coincident accent on rhythm to express time in spaceTowards the territorialisation of time: paradigm shifts in urban critical theoryPlace as temporal: sense of time, sense of place or atmosphere?Chapter 5: Temporal Urban Design: situating the theoryThe case for a turn towards Temporal Urban Design Manifesto (Thoughts on cities/notes to the urban designer)What defines Temporal Urban Design?A new temporal aesthetics for urban place designThe aesthetics of place-temporalityConclusion: Place-temporality and the principal aspects of its aesthetics and experience in urban spaceChapter 6: An aesthetics akin to music: a new temporal aesthetics for urban place designMusic in urban environment research Music, place-temporality and rhythm: experiencing, performing and listeningThe experiencePerforming: choreography and resonanceListeningThe conceptual toolsThree musical processes: rhythm, performance and tonality (or tonal organisation) Rhythm (as in music)Rhythm in urban spaceThe temporal aesthetics of places: eurythmia, performativity and tonality as in a place-scoreConclusionChapter 7: Temporal Urban Design: situating research practiceTemporal Urban Design: interdisciplinarity and inherent intellectual foundationsPlace-rhythmanalysis: a methodology for temporal urban place designResearching the temporality and rhythmicity of urban landscapesRhythmanalysis in urban studiesThe focus on place-rhythmanalysisPlace-rhythmanalysis: ethnography into the temporal phenomenology of placesWorking as a place-rhythmanalystListening to urban place as a musician in urban placesThe process: the fieldworkThe process: the analysisConclusionChapter 8: A place-rhythmanalysis: the singular rhythms and temporality of Fitzroy SquareAt Fitzroy SquareAn everyday placeArchitecture and public space design Nature at the squareEveryday social and cultural profileA residential and communal squareA multicultural placeAn events placeA working and institutionally representative squareAn exceptional private-public garden squareLocation and relationship to the wider neighbourhoodA particular sense of time, or tempo and the aesthetic significanceSpatial expression of place-rhythms at Fitzroy SquareSocial place-rhythms: societal, cultural and functionalAt Fitzroy SquarePhysical place-rhythmsNatural place-rhythms Temporal expression of place-rhythms: an horizontal place-rhythmanalysisPrinciples for temporal horizontal place-rhythmanalysisAn horizontal temporal rhythmanalysis of social place-rhythms at Fitzroy Square Physical and natural place-rhythms rhythmanalysisTemporal expression of place-rhythms: a vertical place-rhythmanalysisPrinciples for the temporal vertical analysisEurythmia at Fitzroy Square: One day performative narrativesA place-score on the temporal rhythmic aesthetics of place: a representation and interpretation tool for urban designersThe rhythmic DNA of one day at Fitzroy Square: intensity and accentuation barcodesSummaryChapter 9: Temporal urban design: Situating practice (epilogue)IntroductionFraming the realm of practice Temporary, Acupuncture and Tactical UrbanismParticipatory Data UrbanismSensorial and Performative UrbanismPractising Temporal Urban Design: framing actionA collaborative route to methodological innovationTactical interventionismCraft and craftsmanship in the temporal design of the cityCraftsmanship in urban place-rhythmanalysisCollective urban craftmanship processes in places co-productionDesigning for the Slow and Soft City ConclusionReferencesIndex

“The temporal dimension of urban design has for too long been neglected by practitioners and academics alike. That is until now and this wonderful book by Filipa Wunderlich which tackles the conceptual and practical complexities head on. A timeless tour through temporal urban design.”Matthew Carmona, The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL"In this stimulating book, Wunderlich recasts conventional understandings of time and the city in terms of rhythms, aesthetics, experiences and meanings. In particular, she explores the value we give to time in terms of ecology, society and the vibrancy of urban life. A thorough, perceptive and thought-provoking account, of great relevance to urbanist academics and practitioners alike.” Iain Borden, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL