Inbetweens of The City from within. About the experience of home, public space and transformations in the urban everdyday

Abstract

Recent developments are changing our spatial notions and experience leading to a ‘crisis of belonging’ as our relations to places, objects and ‘others’ in our tangible everyday lifeworld, change and become discontinuous. Therefore, the impact of this transformation of belonging links developments in global society to the very local, micro level of the home that does not necessarily limit itself to the physical boundaries of the house or private property. Within this thesis, the perspective of the ‘city from within’ is presented to connect views ‘from above’ and ‘from below’ and practices of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’. In doing so, it is inspired by assemblage theory when putting focus on the ‘inbetween’, while investigating an explorative empirical case study within a neighbourhood in the 15th district of Vienna, Austria.

This research reflects on three key concepts and their coherence: ‘home’, ‘public space’ and ‘urban transformation’ exploring the spatiality of ‘home’ in relation to public, private and commercial spaces. As such, this thesis particularly problematizes the borders and relations between private, public and commercial spaces, when identifying home in the current urban context and that is stated to be an essential part of the transformation process of the city.