Architects marking their turf
The building on development site 2a, adjacent to our building 2b and surrounding the same courtyard, is getting closer to the finishing line. The fence that separated the 2a half of the courtyard was removed earlier this week. It feels like about half of the flats in our building are occupied now and there seems to be a fair share of small people who have moved in. There was even some sneaky playing in the courtyard sandpit this weekend. It is really nice to see other toddlers doing their toddler thing in the courtyard now and again. We also spotted another dog! When all flats are occupied, the people living here will use the inner court yard together. Barking and Forgetful are intact male dogs and prone to a bit of wee sprinkling to mark their turf. We have trained them pretty well by now to not wee in the inner courtyard area and never let them off their leads in there either. It is just better to do so in the courtyard we share with present and future neighbours.
Some human people, however, seemed to have been very keen to put their (visual) mark on the buildings around the shared courtyard. I am struggling a bit to come up with a fitting description of my feelings when it comes to the development site design differences. ‘Annoyed’ is too strong a word, ‘irritated’ too. ‘Slightly despairingly amused’ does, perhaps, best describe my feeling towards the differences between the buildings on site 2a and 2b. All people living here will live around the same courtyard, engage with each other and use all four entrance arches to the inner courtyard. Yet, somehow, the building planners/architects were keen to make their mark in differing distinctive features: entrance arches, brick work, even the colour of the inner courtyard terrace partitions. I am really not sure what the purpose is of these differences, other than architects visually making their mark. To me, as person living here, these differences seem to solely encourage a ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality between the neighbours of 2a and 2b.
