Temporal Sections Conceptual Tool: Articulating Space and Time in Representing Urban Ambiances

Assistant prof. Depart. of Urban Design, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams Univ. Cairo, Egypt Associate researcher, School of Architecture Univ. Grenoble Alpes, AAU-CRESSON, France

^* Corresponding author: said.n@grenoble.archi.fr

Abstract

This article aims to present a new methodological protocol and a representation tool that articulates both space and time in understanding urban ambiances: temporal sections. The elaboration of this conceptual tool is based on a theoretical background dealing with the palimpsest of urban ambiances. The urban palimpsest is a metaphor underlying the dynamic of the formation process of the territory resulting from a temporal, spatial and social stratification that manifests in the lived experience. Combining urban transect, a geographical tool, and stratigraphy, a geological one, temporal sections represent the sensory experience as a palimpsest that integrates the different pasts and projects on the future. This tool provides a very specific way of immersion and opens new realm in constructing a storytelling; it proposes a rereading and writing the ambiance in depth.