Details
“Ar. Aditee Hegde-Damle
(M.Arch. – Urban Design)
aditeehegde19@gmail.com
Social ethics amounts to how a society determines the values that operates as objective moral within that society. Now we are moving towards an era of Social Isolation wherethere are government policies being made for the ways in which people should socialize. There is a complete lifestyle makeover which we would experience as individuals. So, we are going to adopt civic sense guidelines now. On one hand we are progressing and staying connected by means of the virtual platform but are also confined in the virtual world. Designing with social ethics is now a challenge for the architecture fraternity. Planning of public areas, common places, etc where it will be mandatory to abide to social ethics guidelines is interesting. It interesting and challenging because the design should be proposing a safe social connection through spaces.
Ethics and aesthetics are not united, but the environmental and social ethics movements have infused the architectural design with ethical considerations. It’s easier to talk about aesthetics, function, or the pragmatics of design because it doesn’t question a user’s power.The global pandemic has made society united in humanity’s survival but it has also disrupted the most essential element of city life: public life.In this case cultural mapping become the important tool for designing building spaces and cityscape. Today’s designs will now speak more on individuality and flexibility of space both at the same time.
What is cultural mapping?
It is not very difficult to map a space; basically, it involves analysing the space based on the following parameters: Area, Location, Topography, Climate, Connectivity, Population study and Activity pattern. Now-a-days mapping has become very easy with technology, also comparative analysis study etc has become faster. Today anyone can map his or her area for climate and traffic data using GPS (Global Positioning System), drones, cameras etc. In olden times, there used to be mental mapping, surveys and graphical data for such analysis.These maps which turn cognitive images into drawings are key elements in the diagnosis, which should serve as the basis of urban design. These mental images are knowledge structures that guide the users’ behaviours and activities in the urban space.In such technology driven age checking virtual reality vs. visual reality becomes essential. As individuals may help map our spaces right from their homes, societies, work places by means of mental maps, photos, videos etc. With so much mapping data and the ease of access, analysis of collected data is a new task for designers.
Cultural mapping also has one more side to it and that is perception. Perception is the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. It is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the sense. Perception is very relativein nature and vary for individuals. Social ethics will monitor the cultural mapping one may say but perception being relative cannot be mapped. Hence, to find a median in perception and designing for all is required.Urban labs are finding ways to map the new indoors and isolated culture.Artificial intelligence and cognitive intelligence are both equally needed for designers as well as the users.“The journey is just as important as the destination” has become the new agenda of all planning with social isolation.
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