Initial Position
Dynamic Urban Patterns deals with different ideas and theories of space linked to the Globe Cinema Roundabout, the biggest roundabout in Africa. This chapter presents the Globe as a spatial container that transforms into a social and mobile phenomenom everytime its users adapt the space to their needs. Intersections of actions and acquirements of space create a sensible structure of this constantly changing space. Not only the daily high traffic volume but also the permanent construction work cause a wide range of mobility on different layers.
Hawkers profit from the high traffic volume and offer products and services that fit perfectly to the resident's needs: Open stalls situated at strategically smart positions enable fast and easy shopping, that completely adapts to the bustling character of the space and to the rush of its users.
Permanent construction work forces people to form flexible business strategies that can be modified and adapted to new general conditions. Therefore most businesses have an informal structure, just quickly built stalls so that they might change places easily as the Globe changes every day.
How such a multilayered transformation affects the general understanding of the space, what the residents and users think about the Globe and if there is even a chance for a proper formal structure despite the fact of constant change, is the main focus of our research.
Desk Research
This chapter contains a detailed documentation of how the different activities constitute the space and constantly redefine it. Thus we deal with different sociological theories of space such as absolute and relativistic theories and concepts of space that we research and analyse.
Field Research
According to our first working title ⺠Urban Areas ⹠we used the method of walking and went around the streets of Nairobi in order to find interesting hot spots that are strongly influenced by mobility. By observing and analysing the dynamics of these hot spots, it was our aim to draw conclusions about the needs and the developments of their structures as well as future options for these places. For example, some of our criteria were a) the possibility of time-independent observations (in the context of safety), b) a certain mobility routine and c) unique features that clearly differentiate a particular spot from any other in Nairobi. The location should include different social layers and lead through different areas like residential or industrial zones, to get a strong basis to work with.
First, we concentrated on the main traffic arteries of the city. These, however, did not fulfil our criteria. Our attention then turned to the roundabouts that were supposed to support the self-regulation of the traffic and to bring a better structure into the traffic flow. With a diameter of 250 m, the Globe Cinema Roundabout is the biggest in Africa, and seemed to fit the needs of our study perfectly. However, during our working period we were confronted with problems that we could not anticipate and that we will introduce later. Primarily, our interest was focused on the different layers of mobility, which we hoped to find at ⺠the Globe â¹, and to analyze the relations between them, because they should reveal information about how mobility generates space and » how one can interpret the mechanisms of this reproduction. « (Schroer op. cit., 83) Central questions leading us to our thesis were: how does a high traffic volume at a single spot influence the behaviour and actions of its users? Do we find behaviour patterns or actions specifically for mobility? For that reason our thesis is: a constant mobility flow at a certain spot also activates the informal mobility of its users. With this ambition, we established a research plan for a working period of 5 days.
Methodology
Days 1, 2: Covert Observation
We decided to use the rooftop of the Paramount Building for observations as it gave us an overview of the whole area. Using this general method, we could decide on the next research steps in detail. It was easy to document the development of traffic during the whole day, and even to check on the behaviour and patterns of movement of the people at the Globe. We were able to identify a certain daily rhythm, as well as different areas used by specific groups. We defined these specific groups according to their informal activities, and planned on conducting some interviews with them:
Mokokoteni drivers
Street traders
Charcoal transporters
Matatu driver
Recycling material collectors
Vegetable or fruit salesmen
Shoe shiners
Car washers
Kiosk owners
Charcoal sellers
Days 3, 4, 5: Interviews
To gain more information about intentions, motivation and interests of the
protagonists and their activities at this place, we decided to do some unstructured
interviews in order to generate questions relevant to the person
and their situation.
