L.A. Micro-Publics : expanding the seams of the transportation system

The global city is the privileged site of "repositioning ... citizenship in practice," where traditional notions of identity and citizenship are being radically reconstructed. This thesis examines contemporary Los Angeles as such a site, a heterotopia built on difference, without a coherent civic identity. In this context, the region's transportation system emerges as both a form of governmentality and the "strategic terrain" for the struggle to redefine citizenship in the urban environment. The system itself is a space of contestation, where the struggle to claim the Lefebvrian "right to the city" in the form of mobility is currently being played out. If design can be an instrument of governmentality to propagate exclusion, fear, and resistance to difference in contemporary cities, then it must also have the power to accomplish the opposite. This thesis proposes a strategy of design interventions to the existing L.A. transportation system, as explored in the conditions of the nexus, the crossing, the node, and the terminus, with the aim to open up a new micro-public realm. These new urban spaces of encounter, eroticism, and exposure to othernesses in Los Angeles can push this city to a more urban, more inclusive future.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Hong, Yeon Wha

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Julian Beinart.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72622

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/72622