in-between |ɪnbɪˈtwiːn| informal

Adjective

situated somewhere between two extremes or categories; intermediate: I am not unconscious, but in some in-between state.

The in-between is a ‘necessary evil’ to move from one thing to another; to reach a certain state or desire you have to pass through or be in the in-between. To use a cliched quote ‘it's not about the destination it's about the journey’.

The in-between is prevalent in our everyday lives and environments, a simple example is that to get to work I have to be on the train to get to the office. Rijnsweerd-Noord (RWN) is no exception. It is actually a prime example of the in-between. For those that work there arriving at 9AM and leaving at 5PM, they are in-between arriving and leaving, RWN is their in-between of being at home. The student residents also don’t stick around in the area, they only really sleep there. They are in-between the city centre and the Utrecht Science Park (USP), in-between work and play. The community gardeners are physically in-between the built environment, between the highway and office car parks, they are literally in-between cars. The commuters, the passers by on a bus or bike are in-between A and B, between their points of departure and arrival. The neighbourhood itself is an in-between, to the city centre and the USP, it is between highways, the A27 and A28. Moreover the occupants of RWN cannot be pinpointed, they are in-between being workers, gardeners, residents, students, joggers and commuters.

This all sounds quite transitory, impersonal and maybe negative. The situation is okay, it is doable, survivable, but nowhere near perfect. However, we say that this in-between, this ‘necessary evil’, should be embraced. No longer is the ‘doable’ okay. Instead the in-between should become more enjoyable and pleasant, more meaningful. We believe these transitory, ill-defined and underutilised areas should be addressed and their opportunities fulfilled.

We want to change the idea of people wanting to leave the in-between, RWN, as quickly as possible. We want to change the dominance of the head down mentality of getting from A to B, and instead tap into a wider national problem and policy debate surrounding the language and problem framing of mobility.

We see RWN as a small example of an issue on a national level: the framing of mobility around efficiency and the seemingly infinite development of infrastructure. RWN can become an experimental nucleus acting as a catalyst for challenging and exploring this dominant framing. As we see it this neighbourhood currently cannot get much worse and instead the lack of definition of RWN should be exploited. It should be experimented with as a place. As mentioned previously, in-betweens are prevalent in all of our everyday lives, habits and the spaces we occupy. Therefore RWN is part of a wider typology, thus there will be multiple other sites where the lessons from RWN could be applied and tested.

To try and encapsulate this theory of the in-between neighbourhood we took our findings from RWN and begun to convey them through a new language, primarily an abstract visual language. We believe that this can help engage a wider audience on this issue. If the current rhetoric about mobility would be used terms such as 'efficiency', 'savings', 'optimisation' and primarily numerical values would be used to explain the mobility problem and how RWN is used.

Instead we wanted to see if we could use the information from our discussions with policymakers and ideas from our intervention to change the language used for the mobility debate and how an area is seen. Therefore we adopted a marketing and branding approach.

Firstly we took the location of RWN and represented its positioning through shapes. As seen below.

We then used a branding approach to translate these shapes into a logo and create a narrative behind the in-between concept and RWN. A square was the starting point for this concept as the neighbourhood is trapped in by the dominant A roads, it is physically boxed in a square. This also fits with the symbolism of a square and an ordered rational mindset. A shape and mindset which has the opportunity to be broken and unleash variety and fluidity within.

We then took the image of the square and used it to show different mobility patterns in the current and a possible future scenario of the neighbourhood. A possible future scenario shows the square being broken apart and dissected to allow for more diverse routes through the area. This idea came from Richard Sennett's theory of creating 'porous borders' at the edges of neighbourhoods to allow for greater variety and exchange.