Exploring Everyday Streets
Chapter 1:
The agency of small things: indicators of ownership on the streets of Liverpool and Belfast
David Littlefield
Streets are undesigned as much as they are designed. Markers and traces of occupation, ownership and belonging can shape streetscapes beyond the designed intention of architect, planner or urbanist. These signs and visual clues can have a transformative effect, and thus can be considered as having agency – they are ‘things’ of the street just as level changes and building surfaces are things. It is important that all stakeholders concerned with the life of the street consider the agency of small, post hoc and undesigned details – their power is far in excess of their physical presence.
About David Littlefield
David Littlefield is Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster,London, where he leads the Masters programme in Interior Architecture.David’s research focuses on place, architectural ‘voice’ and there presentation of historic surfaces through time. He has written widelyon subjects ranging from transgression to urban regeneration.