Once again I watched the Smoke by Wayn Wang. I like the film very much, especially a story on every-week photographs - always from the same place and always at the same direction - done by the main hero.
Pay attention please how important in this film is the situation of the shop at the corner of two streets. If it is somewhere else less people would visit it. And it would be less important for its clients.
Jane Jacobs in the cult book Death and Life of Great American Cities writes that a cross road is the best place for a corner shop. There are places where the movement is higher than elsewhere. And she is undoubtly right.
Lets look at the way of thinking of Ildefons Cerda - designer of Eixample, the 19th-century "extension" of Barcelona. He must have thought in the similar way - cutting of the corners and creating small squares there. Look how much movement takes place there.
A typical cross road in Barcelona - source Google StreetView.
Corners use to be places where life flourishes. The thesis has a language acknowledgement - the corner shop.
I am not quite sure why the thesis above does not always prove true. Wayn Wang could make his film in some neighbourhoods only - not just at any corner shop.
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