Laneways: Interior Design in the Urban Condition

Rebekah Radtke

Abstract

Using the analysis of the laneway as an expression of interior design in the urban context, I argue that through time, scale, culture, and materiality, the laneways is a manifestation of both worlds. The laneway, also known as an alley, is an intimate personalized negotiation of functional space within the city. A balance of public and private, fast and slow, interior and exterior, laneways connect the past to the present within the urban realm in seemingly dichotomous ways. The laneway is an interior typology, connecting the urban realm to humanity on the scale of the interior, reflecting the unique and diverse cultural expression of a city and its people. As such, it can unfold how interior design can adapt urban design to be more responsive to the human condition through a grounded, community-focused approach. At a time when cities are densifying, addressing the everyday needs of socialization, gathering, and being able to curate and create one’s own environment in the urban realm is paramount.  A critical analysis of how spaces can be adapted through a multi-scalar approach is essential to future urban resilience and how public spaces address the needs of people.

Keywords: Laneways; Alleyways; Interior Design; Urban Design

Laneways: Interior Design in the Urban Condition

Design is often categorized in scale: product, interior, architecture, and urban are a means of classification. This is an obvious way to consider the domains as discrete entities. It creates boundaries that become disciplinary guides to navigating the built environment. Urban design addresses the needs of people within a larger territory, such as the scale of the city, while interior design approaches the needs of people in a much more intimate domain, that of the interior of a building. While clearly expertise is required within each specific discipline, this paper seeks to provocate the dialogue of the interplay of interiority within the urban realm.

The laneway, also known as an alley, is an intimate personalized negotiation of functional space within the city. A balance of public and private, fast and slow, interior and exterior, laneways connect the past to the present within the urban realm in seemingly dichotomous ways. They provide cities to an opportunity to reflect on the past while responding to the contemporary needs of those that dwell within them. Underutilized and often thought as purely functional service zones, the laneway has been overlooked as an asset. But more frequently it is characterized as place for the poor, a site for corrupt behaviors to occur, or a place to be avoided in general for fear of deviance. However, as cities continue to swell from population growth and migration, these areas hold the most opportunities for expansion and growth within existing boundaries. Allowing for internal and incremental growth, emergent laneway adaptations can reflect those that live in the cities, representing the history, culture, and site specific nuances of communities. Expressing both individual and community needs with each space, it is rapidly changing in the context of urban design and reflective of the vibrant culture, art, unique characteristics of each city. Through an integrated and responsive look at how laneways function as interior spaces, cities can address the needs of its inhabitants from basic functional elements to aesthetic needs for beauty in the everyday. The very expression of the laneway is temporal and reflects distinct qualities creating “other spaces” within the urban environment. This chapter argues that through theoretical analysis, that the spatial conditions of a laneway are interior spaces within the urban context.

Stewart Brand speaks to how buildings can evolve over time to adapt to occupants, this is true for laneways. They have continually adapted to serve the city as an interior environment through low cost adaptations that allow for laneways to reinvent their purpose as a service space into a civic space serving the community and providing authentic reflections of each city manifestation(1994). The spatial qualities of the laneway can be thought of abstractly as Frank Duffy describes that of shearing layers. That it is not buildings, but components of layers that have different lifespans. The time scales of the urban realm are eternal in the site form, but the interior “stuff” is rapidly evolving, which transitions laneways into an interior environment, or as pace layers (Brand 1999). Herein this space of otherness is realized in the laneway, both operating as an interior and an exterior through time and scale. In time, the fast of the rapid change of the stuff of interiority of laneways and the slow through the unchanging nature of the urban design that has existed since the cities have been built. These parallel forms and its articulations delineate how the city is inhabited and occupied (Lynch 1960). Lefebvre furthers this point in The Production of Space when he characterizes space is a product of social values, with spatialization occurring in the interior of the laneway through the relationships of the interiority of the exterior form over time and through culture (1974).

Through scale and time of the laneway, the character of the city is translated into an interior condition. Connected by Foucault’s theory of heterotopia, each principle is encompassed in the interior urban realm. This chapter will explore the importance of interconnectivity and interplay of culture as it relates to the urban interior condition. The vastness of the network of laneways to the individual bricks that comprise them are the essence of the city. Serving as the exterior skins, but operating as an interior space, deeply personal and intimate in scale and time, they are outward expressions of how laneways embody interiority, yet remain exterior domains.

Occupants in cities today have altered the laneway by building new structures, tearing down buildings, and altering the circulation spaces. Additionally, they have created new social spaces by connecting and taking ownership over the public space as an expression by reinterpreting historic structures to address new and emergent needs of the city. As master plans proliferate the future of city developments, it is in the laneways, the back porch of the city, that the authentic expression of the values in each city are made manifest: the true interior in the city. Heterotopia serves as a theoretical lens to understand the characteristics of laneways and how they connect and define the spaces as uniquely old and new, public and private, family and social, useful and cultural and additionally both interior and exterior, thus a manifestation of the interior realm in an urban condition.

Historical Overview

Laneways, or alleyways, were traditionally seen as service zones and purely functional in design. Characterized as dark and dirty, they were narrow service corridors that exist behind homes and businesses. In is simplest form, they are a connection from the front street providing access to services and spaces to a building in the sides and rear, making a deep block more accessible. The beginnings of laneways can be seen in their earliest form in China’s walled city, with narrow alleys bridging courtyards called Hutongs, connecting close knit residential courtyard communities (Kane 2006, Meyer 2008), but are seen in many early civilizations in various forms throughout the Indus Valley Civilization (Hodge & Gordon 2007, Morris 1993). 

In Greek and Roman cities, laneways have been a part of city design and are synonymous with the functionality within the built world across cultures. From east to west, laneways spread as civilizations created cities. In the Middle Ages laneways were narrow footpaths in informal developments providing movement corridors within the city which were refined over time to formalized avenues with fountains during the renaissance (Morris 1993). After the Great Fire in England in 1666, formalized standards created the mew which allowed for back access for London’s grand estates and for services like coal delivery and servant routines (Morris 1993). Mews in England were typically articulated as a two story-carriage house with storage below and servants corridors provided upstairs accessed from a double-loaded narrow pathway made of cobblestone. Through the colonization of the Anglosphere, laneways functioned similarly to the English traditions of service and function.

In North America, The Land Survey of 1785 delineated that new cities would apply a gridiron to create blocks and lots, building on the structures of early alleys from 5th century B.C. in Greece (Clay 1978). In many cases, alleys can reflect a cultural history of slavery in America as it provided a way for owners to keep a watchful eye over enslaved people who were housed in stables or accessory buildings on the property near the alley (Borchert 1980, Beasley 1996) As cities grew, often times alleys provided tenement housing in cramped corridors for immigrants in America(Riis 1890). Laneways remained service oriented but also were for homeless and recently migrated people and displaced populations (Hess 2008). In D.C., Roosevelt sought to remove alleys from the city with the Alley Dwelling Authority in 1934 but was unable to completely implement these changes because of the work of citizens and preservationist alike.

With the advent and widespread use of the automobile after World War II, most city planning was oriented towards the street and laneways became out of style. With increased concern for cleanliness and beautification of cities, garden city planning and super blocks prevailed, and the Federal Housing Administration approved loans and incentivized community development designed to eliminate alleys (Hage 2008). Cities expanded to the suburbs, developing houses with front garages and more space with larger lots (Clay 1978).

Despite the lack of interest in laneways, Jane Jacobs advocated for close knit older communities, privileging the alley and how it connected those in the urban environment (1961). Ensuring that it provided “eyes on the street”, The Life and Death of Great American Cities encouraged social mixing for diversity that increased neighborliness and moved away from mass construction and income segregation that occurred with garden city movement. New urbanist embraced these notions in the 1980’s emphasizing the importance of walkability, accessibility, and proximity in the urban environment (Duany, Roberts, Talen 2014). New urbanists prioritize networks of the street, valuing neighborhoods that are older, and discourage suburban sprawl. This has led to movements in revitalization of downtowns for responsible community growth focusing on density and diversity, providing alternative transportation such as walking, biking, reinserting the value and applicability of the laneway in the contemporary city. (Krieger 1996, Duany 1989, Calhorpe 1991)

Present day reinterpretations of the alleyway, with the work of Gehl Architects in cities worldwide, but more specifically in Australia, work to activate the laneway to address the current needs of those that live in cities. This chapter focuses on Western civilization for examples, noting that other cultures most certainly operate with laneways, but that culturally are activated in a different manifestation. Additionally, the selection of analysis is concentrated on cities colonized and developed in similar times and size to be able to draw conclusions that validate the theories presented. This chapter extends and explores qualities of laneways in the interior urban condition through the lens of heterotopia.

Looking at Foucault's theory of Heterotopia, it can be interpreted how laneways are in fact both interior designed spaces as well as urban spaces. Foucault discusses heterospaces as “other” spaces that are seemingly unrelated, contradictory, or in contrast to each other. He states that we have not reached practical desanctification of space and that “oppositions that remain inviolable” (Foucault 1984). These contradictions that we have accepted as givens, old and new, public and private, family and social, useful and cultural exist in laneways. Thus, and in addition to this contradictions proposed by Foucault, a laneway is equally both an urban and interior.

Theoretical Framework

Building on the notions established by Foucault and Henri Lefebvre about the importance of social space, later theorized by Cenzatti about “spaces of representation”, spaces in the public realm are for many public spheres, not limited to the group that created it. In this theory, space is defined relationally to describe on as it relates or compares to that which is next to it. The principles outlined below will argue that heterotopia is the lens that we can use to analyze laneways within the context of interiors.

In the first principle, heterotopia of deviation contextualizes the place of laneways within this theory. Foucault describes deviance as being behaviors that cannot exist within the mean or standard of the city. Behaviors that have been characterized in the history of laneways are seen as seedy at times, but also organic and unorganized and ripe for emergent behaviors. The deviance is allowed, accepted, and embraced within this context of the city to occur within laneways as is the case with Graffiti Alley in Toronto (see image). Here, the artistic expression of street art is deviant in and of itself to high art and too discursive for the boulevards and central squares. Temporary and outsider art must exist in this unregulated space, less patrolled, and less precious. The laneway encourages and creates the space for behaviors that cannot occur in the public eye, yet still exist in the public space. But in some cities laneways have become activated citizen interior spaces in the urban context. Building on the notion of the private spaces of an urban back porch, they are intrinsically personal and an expression of the local community. Cenzatti describes this as “invisibility and recognition”(2009).

Figure 1. Graffiti Alley in downtown Toronto, Canada.

The second principle of heterotopia refers to the transformation over time. As one space was intended to serve in specific way in society, it can move beyond that purpose as cultural values shift. Laneways are responsive to the culture of the time and are not fixed in space. The structure remains the same but the skin is evolving and responsive the culture of the city. Originally designed to function the services of the city, it has evolved to serve quite different functions. In some contexts, this has manifested as additional housing. Responding the growth the city, infill housing through granny quarters, Airbnb, and other residential projects are responding the needs of an evolving city as seen in D.C. resulting in policy change. In Detroit, it has been a community ownership project, with grassroot initiatives to create social spaces that respond to the inhabitants in The Alley Project. In Melbourne, the more public realm has allowed a new market for bistros, bars, and restaurants, creating a vibrant new subculture. Some, as the case with Toronto, the function has been as a surface treatment through graffiti art, but still functioning as an alley or instituting greening of the alleyway to discourage surface runoff and water retention on site in Chicago. And in others, least adaptations, it is works as a functioning alley, providing circulation and city services to residences with no additional enhancements. The alleys have adapted over time to respond to the city occupants needs. This fluidity has made it responsive and representative the city in which it exists.  

Third principle addresses the incompatibility of the functions of the site, juxtaposing real spaces with perceived ones and superimposing meanings. In the comparison to the laneway this can be see through functionality of the space. In a space where garbage and services might occur, a party for a toddler and a pop-up bar directly adjacent to a recycling bin might superimpose in the same alley. In Cincinnati (see image), certain alleyways have been reconceived through materials and surface articulations, yet still functioning to provide access and mobility. These are juxtaposed uses and activation of the laneways that keep the space adaptable and useful. Temporary fixes that are foundationally centered on addressing the needs of people within the built environment is interior design fundamentally. Yet, this occurs in a space that is not an interior, creating real spaces adapted for perceived needs juxtaposed in the context of the laneway.

Figure 2. Revitalized alleyway in downtown Cincinnati, USA.

The fourth principle explores the slices of time where there are two heterotopias: one of festival and one of eternity. These are seen in the built environment as a museum to represent eternity and a carnival to represent festival, and joining these two ideas together is in the huts of Djerba, encapsulating ancient history in a temporary manner. In this principle of eternity, all the time can exist in one place like libraries and museums, all building on each other and constantly adding. In the same way, laneways are always the same, and yet always adding to the skin of the building, layers of history, grit, paint, and stories that tell the narrative of the place. They are less curated than public facades that express an outward looking focus for desired perceptions for the public eye.

The immobile space and indefinite time of the city grid, designed by western civilization order and structure, the laneways are responsive to the immobile organizing grid, bound in time and space. But in the same space, a temporal nature exists in the laneways as well, providing pop up spaces and street fairs. The streets parks that represent playscapes for neighborhoods that don’t have this permanent infrastructure can be seen in the work of Better Block, using public space to reactivate neighborhoods in communities such as Dallas, Texas and the work of Gehl Architects in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia (see image).  

Figure 3. Laneway in the Central Business District of Melbourne, Australia.

Fifth principle investigates the notion of being both open and closed and how space can be private yet open. Penetrable and but even still isolated, spaces cannot be a public space with free access, it must be accessed through permissions. These maybe rites or compulsory, this principle can be seen in the alley as they serve in some regard as a home for transient populations. Allowing those to reside in the space, taking ownership and identity within this space, but also it is a public space where they are not welcome to loiter. Which, in turn, discourages other populations from using the spaces, for fear of safety and security. In Melbourne, it is not about displacing transient populations in ways to cleanse or tidy up the city and making the space only safe and protected for general population, but creating a space that welcomes all to reside. By diversifying the populations that visit, a space is created not just for one or the other, but both for all.

In the last sixth principle, and maybe the most esoteric and elusive trait of the theory, Foucault speaks how heterotopias function in all the spaces that remain. In the space of illusion, similar to a brothel, to create an experience of illusion or in contrast and in the space that is perfect like Jesuit or Americanized colonies in juxtaposition to our own world. Order occurs through colonization and religious ideas made manifest in design and order provided to the city plan, thus the creation of alleyways. Foucault discussed Jesuit communities and puritan settlements as examples of this spatial order constructed to symbolically represent predetermined perfection through the plan of settlements. In the same way, David Harvey sees the street or the square of public spaces for riots and lived moments in the same space where different moments occur (1987). The alley supports activities that represent the intimate sphere of the interior.

The multiplicity of one space over time to serve various activities and movements in heterotopia further parallels how an alley serves a multitude of activities over time, responding the culture and climate of its context. An alley creates a socially activated zone that reflect its current community, which may have been a home for immigrant populations seeking refuge a century prior or a present day cafe (see image). It is adaptable other space and because of its scale, it is personal and limited to specific, yet infinite behaviors addressing the needs of its occupants. Heterotopia encourages that behaviors and activities that do not conform to norm society have a physical space of deviation. This is true of alleys. Public squares host parades and sanctioned activities were institutionalized and ordained festivities occur, meanwhile, in alleys, the activities are private and responsive, ground up emergences of what the micro-community wants in their literal backyard. Against the notion that bigger is better, intimacy of the interior scale is foundational for a livable city.

Figure 4. The Belt, a redefined alleyway in downtown Detroit, USA.

Conclusions

In some cities, densifying the city to accommodate city growth have used laneway infill as a means to expand sustainably as is the case with Toronto. Some policies have expanded opportunities for additional incomes from this infill, while others prohibit it for historic justifications, resulting in D.C. and recent policy changes towards this matter. Melbourne, which has most successfully adapted policy, implemented programming and has advocated for amendments to encourage community participation, artistic endeavors, and diversity within the traditional streetscape. Infill has manifested in historic adaptations, preservation, or in contemporary ways, reimagining and transforming the use and aesthetic of the laneway, directly impacting the way in which it occupied. This diversity of translation of space bring richness to the communities in which it serves. A mother-in-law suite for aging in place (accessory dwelling units), a guest retreat for Airbnb, a work space for an artist or start up space: these spaces make cities relevant and connect to contemporary needs. Policies have traditionally limited this type of infill because it can be seen as detrimental to historic neighborhoods, but it may increase the viability and diversity within these communities and work to address homeless or low income in cities like Washington D.C. Reinterpretation of the urban fabric on the micro-scale of the interior of the street increases participation in urban planning and provides a grounded approach that large-scale plans tend to overlook. The history and unique subcultures that exist in neighborhoods are represented the rooms of the laneway, bringing sensitivity to the existing resources and character defining moments.

Typically, unseen and ignored, laneways are a rich commodity in urban design. As demands on space increased, creative adaptations of the city occur increasing the importance of historic neighborhoods. Clay sees the alley as an asset and retreat from the street and boulevards providing intimacy in form (1978). Alleys provide ideal interior spaces because of intimate scale, limited populations, useful surfaces, and the cyclical nature of the occupants (Martin). How the city is inhabited and occupied has evolved as services, technology, and the needs of those that inhabit the urban realm have evolved. The human scale of the city and its experiential desire as humanity to have diverse experiences connected to who we are fundamentally as people. The details remind us of who we are as individuals but also bridge us to a larger network in the fabric of the urban and of the community to which we belong. Seemingly insignificant details of a shop display or a brick cobblestone on a daily commute can have a profound impact of an urban dweller. The repetition of experiences allows us to deeply know the intricacies of the built environment and collect memory of form, material, scale as it relates to the individual.

People and culture of the city knit the old with the new and over time and scale, seeking to preserve the past but resonate with the future needs. The push and pull of this dichotomous relationships of new and old, past and future state, projections and revisions occupy the realm of the interior of the city. Cities emerge with scars of past use, forms that reflect past people, memories in those who reside there and the artifacts through time and scale. The infrastructure can tell the history of the place because it is old and slow to change, however those who reside there quickly change. Technology and travel of the worker, commuter, resident, and tourist quickly change while the infrastructure remains. Scarcity of land, space repurpose of zones to accommodate the ever evolving needs of urban dwellers emerge with grassroots organic change to address the needs of those who live there and to connect people to the cultural heritage of the laneways and the value that they bring in quotidian ways. The laneway is an interior typology, connecting the urban realm to humanity on the scale of the interior, reflecting the unique and diverse cultural expression of a city and its people.

At a time when cities are densifying, addressing the everyday needs of socialization, gathering, and being able to curate and create one’s own environment in the urban realm is paramount with an increased need for public infrastructure in city spaces. Those that live in cities need opportunities to express ownership and personalization which occur in the interior as a personal expression of oneself, occurs in the urban realm through laneways. A territory that can mediate the needs of those who dwell in the city, address the needs of the community, through negotiation activism. How the interior lens situates laneways within urban planning for the future of city design.

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