Each variable method returns to Foucault’s condition of ‘heterotopia.’ Spaces of otherness that are ‘neither here nor there’ but which are simultaneously cooperative, serving as a microcosm of different environments which blur classic territories or prejudices.
Foucault’s Scenarios: Spaces of dual meanings and spaces of dual functions.
Crisis heterotopia- spaces where a coming of age occurs out of sight such as a boarding school, military school.
Heterotopias of deviation-spaces for people with unconventional behavior such as psychiatric hospitals, asylums or retirement homes (straddling between heterotopia of crisis and deviation).
Heterotopias of time- museums, libraries and cemeteries exist both presently and outside of time, encompassing finite capsules of time.
Heterotopia of ritual or purification- isolated spaces not freely accessible such as a sauna or hammin. In contemporary today, this could also be translated to th country club, yoga studio or winery membership.
Heterotopia of Illusions- create spaces of misconception exposing reality such as a mirror.
Heterotopia of Compensation- creates a real space- a space that is other.
While the previous provides a basis for dual spaces, I am most interested in some of the potential conditions created by Heterotopic spaces and how they can be translated to smooth the frictions apparent across the urban realm.
[1] Foucault, Michel. “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias”Architecture/ Mouvement/ Continuite, 1984: 2. (“Des Espace Autres,” March 1967 Translated from French by Jay Miskowiec)