Jacobs, Newman and the Orgone Accumulator

Secured by Design: The Practitioner’s View

The Long View

or

Jane Jacobs, Oscar Newman and The Orgone Accumulator

Rob Annable – December 07

Secured by Design Partnership input:

Secured by design application form is a game of two halves:

• SECTION 1: THE DEVELOPMENT – LAYOUT & DESIGN• SECTION 2: PHYSICAL SECURITY

Primary concern as an architect is with section 1 – without good layout and design the

physical security will be ineffective.

Jane Jacobs Oscar Newman

The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961)

Defensible Space (1972)


‘legibility?’






Paul Ritter

Planning for Man and Motor (1964)

“…All Defensible Space programs have a common purpose: They restructurethe physical layout of communities to allow residents to control the areas around their homes. This includes the streets and grounds outside their buildings and the lobbies and corridors within them... ”

“…A family’s claim to a territory diminishes proportionally as the number of families who share that claim increases. The larger the number of people who share a territory, the less each individual feels rights to it…”

- Creating Defensible Space (1996)

Oscar NewmanDefensible Space (1972)

1. different building types create spaces outside the dwelling unit that affect residents’ ability to control them

2. grouping of units in different types of building configurations creates indoor and outdoor spaces of different character.

“…Police arguments which say that paths cannot be controlled by vehicle, that

criminals cannot be properly pursued if they run on to path systems, and that paths plus roads necessitate a doubling up of

police duties, must be analysed.

It emerges then that paths planned as an integral part of housing are much more the concern of the inhabitants than the normal

road in front of houses so that policing becomes unnecessary. Emergency phone

boxes are all that is required…”

Paul Ritter

Planning for Man and Motor (1964)

1. Homes must have direct access to a footpath system

2. This footpath system must lead to all the gathering places of the inhabitants

3. The motor vehicles will be completely separate from the path system

Jane JacobsThe Death and Life of Great

American Cities

“…First there must be clear demarcation between what is public space and what is private space.

Second, there must be eyes upon the street, eyes belonging to those we might call natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to ensure the safety of both residents and strangers must be oriented to the street. They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind.

And third, the sidewalk must have users on it fairly continuously… ”

1. Jacobs led the way in advocating for a place-based, community-centered approach to urban planning, decades before such approaches were considered sensible

2. Jacobs argued for:

• Cities as Ecosystems• Mixed-Use Development• Bottom-Up Community

Planning• The Case for Higher Density

Space!People!

Clear demarcation between what is public space and what is private space.

Allow residents to control the areas around their homes.

They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind.

This includes the streets and grounds outside their buildings

The domain of the house encompasses the street

There must be eyes upon the street.

Territory!

Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897 – November 3, 1957) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

“His work on the link between human sexuality and neuroses emphasized "orgastic potency" as the foremost criterion for psycho-physical health. He said he had discovered a form of energy, which he called “orgone“, that permeated the atmosphere and all living matter, and he built “orgone accumulators”, which his patients sat inside to harness the energy for its reputed health benefits.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

‘Radburn Idea’• Homes must have direct

access to a footpath system

• This footpath system must lead to all the gathering places of the inhabitants

• The motor vehicles will be completely separate from the path system

“As the Radburn Idea sprang from considerations of living conditions in the motor age it is really not surprising that it lends itself better to the satisfaction of the needs listed. Why the needs listed are the real criteria of livability is explained in the work of Wilhelm Reich…”

- Paul Ritter

The Orgone

Accumulator!

The Orgone

Shooter!

Reich's examples of orgonomic functionalism usually involved "antithetical functional pairs" of

concepts. Reich would usually draw a symbol that looked something like this:

Source: http://pw1.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich/functionalism.html

and then label the two curving arrows on top with two opposing ideas, and the big dot at the bottom with those two ideas'

"common functioning principle."

mechanist mystic

CFP

Orgonomic functionalism – a thought technique:

motor man

path

Is this legible?

Orgone Accumulator – Hawkwind 1973

I've got an Orgone AccumulatorIt makes me feel greaterI'll see you sometime laterWhen I'm through with my Accumulator

It's no social integratorIt's a one man isolatorIt's a back brain stimulatorIt's a cerebral vibrator

Summary:

How do we build in long term legibility?

•Long term success of urban design legibility depends on the creation of diverse, flexible territory between public and private spaces

•This territory should be robust enough to resist cultural, economic and environmental change – it should not be a single gesture or idea

•The quality (both visual and functional) of the semi-private and semi-public boundaries should imbue the territory with ‘place-based’ meaning

•Creating meaning ensures that residents and visitors alike understand the purpose of the territory

•Successful territory requires successful landscape

Item 2.5

A clearly defined environment means one in which there is no ambiguity as to which areas are private, which are public, and how the two relate to one another.

There may be transitional zones of semi-public or semi-private space [often referred to as buffer zones], or there may be strong physical demarcation between publicand private areas by means of a wall, fence or hedge.

The critical point is that the environment should be capable of being easily understood by those experiencing it.

http://www.securedbydesign.com/pdfs/SBD-principles.pdf

Secured By Design Principles document says:

bibliography

• Planning for Man and Motor - Paul Ritter 1964

• Death and Life of Great American Cities – Jane Jacobs 1961

• Defensible Space – Oscar Newman 1972

• Creating Defensible Space – Oscar Newman 1996

• Eric Lyons and Span – RIBA Publishing 2007

• Ether God and Devil: Cosmic Superimposition – Wilhelm Reich 1951

• Orgone Accumulator – Hawkwind 1973

Technology

Jacobs, Newman and the Orgone Accumulator