A response to Daniel Coffeen about Space

This essay is definitely onto something. What’s missing from it, or where it might go next maybe, is the fact that space is social. That is, the space our lives gets fit into is not geometric, not primarily, but human. For example, in that party the space you found yourself drawn to was probably the space that fit with both your own social aspirations and the role that the other participants in the space imposed upon you.
Have you ever been at a party where you couldn’t find a good space, a place to stand or sit, until you’d been relegated to the kitchen or hall? I recall many publishing parties in hotel rooms where I, still unpublished, ended up by the back wall or out on the balcony with the spouses, and nobody consciously put me there. Space is social, it’s political, and the politics of the present group is just one component of how the ideology of a space works or materializes. Architecture, city planning, roads, all of these are filters that keep some out of and push others in to certain spaces. As you point out, where you are and who you are can not be separated.