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Decoding Play of Streets

Aparnaa C. & Sparsh Patlan

Lines are projections of varied units of figures dissected or organised in a certain form and can be explored in multiplicity of ways. Utilization of a multitude of forms, density and complexities of lines (to further even create shapes) in tandem with a colour palette inducing particular emotions are tools to interpret and analyse, create and represent designs in various domains. The design style reflects the juxtaposition of these forms with playfulness as the catalyst to evoke new meanings. They are used in various ways, always subject to distinct methodologies for depicting ideas. As John Dewey (1950) states “In order to understand the aesthetic in its ultimate and approved forms, one must begin with it in the raw; in the events and scenes that hold the eye and ear.” A juxtaposition of lines, colours and the varied spectrum of overlaps to create a hierarchy visually, to emphasize and conversely to create a simultaneous backdrop, denoting directions through lines and curves as points of orientation and organization are few of the endless possibilities that help one’s work be perceived and implemented. Interpreting the colors as theories of impression i.e how they are perceived, when colors are mixed with these line types, they represent the emotional chaos that these lines embrace. For instance, red reflects solid emotions like anger, passion, strength or how yellow is more on the coy, docile yet cheery side. Using colors as a tool to strengthen the subjectivity that each color embraces in itself and instigating varied perceptions and understandings that it beholds.

Interpreting the aforementioned attributes into parameters of the drawing, lines and colours are used to depict streets on a two-dimensional space that further guide its three-dimensional representation. The theories investigated anchor the potential that the indeterminate spaces between the built and streets hold within themselves. Lines of varying thickness, types (dashed, dotted, continuous etc) and colours represent the different street types. These highlight distinct street fabrics that, through evolution of the urban realm (along with peripheral development and connectivity with the rural areas) are coherent with the built environment that instigate the appropriation of the thus created spaces by different user groups. The purpose of this is to investigate how different urban mosaics create varied fabrics of built and open as well as create multiple enclosures and mazes. It builds on the density, accesses and movement patterns within a space, in this context a city. The relationship, nuances and simultaneously occurring activities in these spaces create urban playfulness. With the change in intent of the perception and design of space, the play of lines and colours are improvised as per need. For instance, in one context, lines and colours are means of illustration street fabrics, skylines in another, degree and hierarchies of interfaces in yet another and so on. The design style thus juxtaposes these interfaces, anchor points and densities into one singular parametric design which strengthens the streets and the activities that play in and around them, and projects how they are structured by the patterns and mosaics that they emerge from.

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