Quest for meaning upon urban isolation

Abstract

Considering that the individuals and their actions account for the vitality of cities, it is possible to argue that the meaning of being “alive” is transforming. The beginning of this transformation of meaning is not new. However, there is a breaking process in view of the position it has reached. The breaking can occur in an introverted, and sometimes inaudible way due to the activeness of daily life. Trying to take a place in an exaggerated and unrealistic scale in every sense, the individual wants sometimes to isolate him/herself from the city and create his/her free space; sometimes he/she tries to express him/herself against this transcendent scale, again in search of freedom. This kind of an inter-scale communication loss can be encountered within individual, spatial, cultural and also social contexts. The mutual lack of communication within the city-individual cycle is able to transform the interior of the city to become a whole of empty masses. So, the vitality of the city should also be questioned in this sense. In this cycle, the individual is also affected by whether the city is alive or not-alive. Within the scope of the study, a critical reading has been prepared within the framework of a case study pattern in line with this main approach. It is thought that being able to analyze the actions of “isolating” and “being isolated” in the essence of non-communication has turned into a mandatory requirement in making sense of the city, space and individual. The research has been limited by developing the reflections of these actions occurred in the public spaces. Potential situations for the formation of new meanings are discussed over the city on this basis. In this holistic situation, it is thought that the unique language formed for the production of space can be discussed in many disciplines from psychology to sociology.