Subasinghe, C (2019) Forsake me not: Balcony spaces in codes and cues among on-campus apartment dwellers. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 8(3), pp. 253-266. ISSN 2046-6099
Abstract
Purpose: While some people are mindful of what a personal space that also belongs to a common façade portrays to outsiders, why other people treat this personal space as a mere utility space invisible to the public eye must be determined. International students who live in single-bedroom apartments with balconies and were mostly married were investigated regarding the meaning they attach to their balcony spaces. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: This work also hypothesized that residents of these units perceived their balconies as a liminal space that oscillates between a spatial repertoire for familiar memories and a versatile, utilitarian device for temporary storage. A naturalistic inquiry was then conducted among purposefully sampled apartment dwellers via in-depth, open-ended and semi-structured interviews. Findings: While offering much needed spatial economy to dwellers, the cues and codes revealed that the balcony space could furnish a sense of membership to established social cohorts. The balcony space further brings an element of escape and ease into impecunious student life by means of its ability to offer a broad spectrum of spatial-aspatial needs that manifested in forms of personalizations and exploitations. Originality/value: A knowledge gap in socio-cultural appropriation of on-campus apartments for sustainable redevelopment where the majority of consumers were married/partnered, international students has been investigated.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | balcony-space; codes and cues; international students; naturalistic inquiry; on-campus-living; redevelopment |
| Index terms: | exploitation, escape, bedroom, redevelopment, methodology, meaning, interview |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, sociology, emergency and crisis management, infrastructure and transport systems, research methods, management, architectural elements |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Design Practice, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 CTE |
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