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Clossick, Jane (2014) Finding depth. In: The mediated city: smart cities - political cities, April 01-03 2014, Ravensbourne; Woodbury University, London.
This paper explores the concept of "depth" in relation to high streets as complex, layered urban entities, arguing that conventional understandings reduce them to mere retail strips. Drawing on case studies like Tottenham High Road and Hall's (2014) ethnographic observations of spaces like Nick’s Caff, the paper reveals the spatial, temporal, and social multiplicity embedded within high streets. Through literature review and philosophical framing, particularly phenomenology and hermeneutics, the paper develops a methodology for interpreting urban depth as an ethical, lived, and embodied dimension of city life. High streets, it argues, are sites of informal coexistence, resilience, and civic function, whose depth can only be accessed through interpretation of physical and social fragments. Understanding this depth challenges top-down planning narratives and supports more nuanced, place-sensitive urban design. Ultimately, the paper contends that urban depth is essential for structured freedom, ethical inhabitation, and the possibility of shared urban futures.
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