Framing daily life in sprawl: Flanders urbanized space from a cinematic perspective: Fid-Bau Portal

Framing daily life in sprawl: Flanders urbanized space from a cinematic perspective

Staessen, Annelies / Boelens, Luuk

This paper explores the possible contribution of cinematic perceptions for spatial planning in general and the inclusion of everyday experience in the planning of the Flemish urbanized landscape in particular. Urban planners as well as policy makers struggle to get grip on dispersed spatial developments, while everyday practice of consuming space in sprawly areas, also in Flanders, unimpededly continues. Our assumption is that based on a theoretical understanding of the duality between urban theories and everyday life, a cinematic approach might gain insights in the inhabitants’ imagination of suburbia in general and the Flemish landscape in particular. Here we will preliminarily refer to five contemporary fiction films, such as Nowhere Man (Patrice Toye, 2008), Fucking Suburbia (Jeff Otte, 2012), Kid (Fien Troch, 2012), Violet (Bas Devos, 2014) and Home (Fien Troch, 2016). They show how film represents, reflects and interacts with the intrinsic characteristics, the experience value and the typical dynamics of those sprawly areas. These perceptions might enhance a deeper understanding of the daily lives in those areas, and therewith enhance a more engaged approach of those areas by planners.