Chan, T. 2024. Rethinking urban street experiments through Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis: From vehicles and vibrancy to virtuosos. Cities. 152 105175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.105175
| Title | Rethinking urban street experiments through Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis: From vehicles and vibrancy to virtuosos |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Chan, T. |
| Abstract | Streets, vital for vehicular and pedestrian traffic, are increasingly repurposed to enhance urban vibrancy beyond transport needs. This paper explores intentional and spontaneous street experiments, drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis. Streets are seen as hosts to intersecting rhythms shaped by daily routines and mobility, with users as performers in rhythmic interactions. While initially disruptive, these experiments strive to integrate innovative elements for cohesive urban compositions. Through a musical metaphor, the paper promotes a holistic approach to identifying rhythms influenced and introduced by street experiments. It examines how these rhythms interact, presenting as synchronised dynamics, disruptive discordance, or coexistence in dissonant compositions. Combining rhythmanalysis with spatial discourse analysis, the study ‘reads’ and ‘listens’ to temporary spaces through historical records (N = 55) of seven street experiments in Hong Kong from 2016 to 2020. Findings uncover the overly abstract agendas of these experiments — exemplified through narratives involving chairs, railings, and traffic signals — often oversimplify and exclude possibilities. The paper calls for open dialogue to capture power dynamics in street infrastructure and embodied lived experiences during the transition from vehicle-centred to people-oriented streets. It suggests rhythmanalysis as an initial tool for urban planners to envision streetscapes as symphonies, fostering sensitivity to time-space dynamics. |
| Keywords | Urban street experiment |
| Rhythmanalysis | |
| Spatial discourse analysis | |
| Tactical urbanism | |
| Walkability | |
| Conviviality | |
| Article number | 105175 |
| Journal | Cities |
| Journal citation | 152 |
| ISSN | 0264-2751 |
| 1873-6084 | |
| Year | 2024 |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Publisher's version | License CC BY 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.105175 |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 18 Jun 2024 |
| Supplemental file | License CC BY 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Project | EX-TRA Experimenting with city streets to TRAnsform urban mobility |