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PUBLIC PLACES- URBAN SPACESThe Dimensions of Urban DesignMatthew Carmona, Tim Heath,Taner Oc and Steven TiesdellArchitectural Press
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1 | A r n a v S a i k i a ( 2 0 1 3 M U D 0 0 7 )
PUBLIC PLACES- URBAN SPACES
The Dimensions of Urban Design
Matthew Carmona, Tim Heath,
Taner Oc and Steven Tiesdell
Architectural Press
Chapter-8
FUNCTIONAL DIMENSION Summary
Arnav Saikia (2013MUD007)
INTRODUCTION:
Urban designs functional dimension relates to how places work and how urban
designers can make better places or increase the potential for them to develop.
This chapter is in five parts:
movement
design of people places
environmental design
designing for healthier environments
aspects of infrastructure necessary to support contemporary life
MOVEMENT:
Movement is fundamental to understanding how places function. Pedestrian flows
through public space where people choose to sit or linger in public space and are
related to the life and activity within the space.
Vehicular and Pedestrian Movement:
Car-based movement is pure circulation where as pedestrian movement is
circulation but also permits economic, social and cultural exchange.
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Space Syntax:
Space Syntax challenges urban designers to think critically about the relationship
between the configuration of space, movement and land uses. It is widely used as
an analytic and design tool, and the theories behind its use continue to be
developed by Hillier and others.
DESIGNING BETTER 'PEOPLE PLACES':
People places are those intended to be used by people, usually through
spontaneous, everyday and informal use.
Successful People Places:
Successful public spaces are
characterised by the presence of
people, in an often self-reinforcing
process. They typically have
animation and vitality that bring
people onto the street. Different
places are, nonetheless, animated in
different ways. Some are louder,
busier and more vibrant, animated
by people and traffic; others are
quieter, perhaps animated by nature the wind in the trees, changing cloud
formations and so forth.
Movement and Activity:
If a space is poorly located within the
local movement pattern, it matters
little how well it is designed as it is
unlikely to ever be well-used unless
there are changes in the wider area
either greater density of uses or
changes to the movement network
that increase connectivity and/or
reduce severance (i.e. through better
quality connections or by new
connections, such as new bridges
across rivers, or the removal of obstacles to movement to a site).
If the space is well-located within the local movement system, then upgrading the
space and environmental improvements is likely to have a major impact on the
density of its use.
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Connectivity and Visual Permeability:
Public spaces prioritise sense-of-enclosure within the space over visual permeability
into the space. Urban spaces should not be too enclosed. The key quality in terms of
the pedestrian use of public spaces is their connectedness or, integration.
Activities in Public Space:
As successful places support and facilitate the activities of people, their design
should be informed by an awareness of how people use them.
Public spaces should be responsive that is, designed and managed to serve the
needs of their users. Six needs people seek to satisfy in public space.
i. Comfort: The length of time
people stay in a public
space is a function and an
indicator of its comfort.
ii. Relaxation: A sense of
psychological comfort is a
prerequisite of relaxation,
but relaxation is a more
developed state with the
body and mind at ease
(Carr et al 1992:98).
iii. Passive engagement: The primary form of passive engagement is people-
watching. What attracts people is other people, and the life and activity they
bring with them. Other forms of passive engagement, as do fountains, public
art, commanding views, and activities occurring in public spaces.
iv. Active engagement: Active engagement represents a more direct
experience with a place and the people in it, i.e. supports social interaction.
Successful people places provide opportunities for varying degrees of
engagement, and also the potential to disengage or withdraw from contact.
Design can create, or inhibit, such opportunities for contact.
v. Discovery: Representing the desire for new experiences, discovery depends
on both variety and change for managing and animating public space by,
for example, cultural animation programmes involving lunch-time concerts,
art exhibitions, street theatre, live music and festivals, parades, markets, fairs,
society events, trade promotions, etc. across a range of times and venues.
vi. Display: In any public space, we are on display: how we appear, dress and
behave in public space not only represents a display but may also be
important to our sense of identity and belonging. We may purposefully dress
to remain unnoticed or to stand out as different.
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The Design of the Edge:
The micro-design and use of successful people places can be considered in terms of
the centre and the edge. While something in the middle provides a focus and a
sense of visual completeness, this is
secondary and what really matters for
a successful people place is the design
of the edge.
Active Frontages:
Frontage is how a building addresses
the street. Facades can be designed
so that buildings metaphorically reach
out to the street, offering active
frontage onto public space, adding
interest, life and vitality.
Sociability and Privacy:
In urban design terms, privacy is usually defined in terms of selective control of
access (to individual or group) and of interaction (especially that which is
unwanted). Need for privacy and interaction varies among individuals, with respect
to personality, life stage, etc., and across different cultures and societies.
Visual Privacy:
Issues of visual privacy typically relate to the interface between public and private
realms and, in particular, the physical and visual permeability between these realms.
The requirements of each privacy domain must be enabled, while balancing these
with opportunities for interaction.
Aural Privacy:
Design strategies can combat noise nuisance. Measures can be taken to prevent or
reduce the break out of noise, and/or to separate it from noise-sensitive uses, by
physical distance, sound insulation and/or through screens and barriers.
Vitality, Mixed and Continuous Use:
A key aspect of creating a lively and well-used public realm is the spatial and
temporal concentration of different land uses and activities. Modernist planning,
functional zoning approaches had, over time, led to cities dominated by a coarsely
gained collage of single-function areas rather than the more fine-grained mixed-use
areas of previous eras and have been much criticised.
Jacobs (1961: 155), for example, argued that the vitality of city neighbourhoods
depends on the overlapping and interweaving of activities, and that understanding
cities requires dealing with mixtures of uses as the essential phenomena. She also
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outlined four conditions indispensable to generating exuberant diversity in a citys
streets and districts:
The district must serve more than one primary function, and preferably more
than two.
Most blocks must be short streets and opportunities to turn corners must be
frequent.
The district must mingle buildings varying in age and condition.
There must be a sufficiently dense concentration of people, for whatever
purposes they may be there.
Llewelyn-Davies (2000: 39) identifies the following benefits of mixed-use
development:
More convenient access to facilities;
Minimising travel-to-work congestion;
Greater opportunities for social interaction;
Socially diverse communities;
A greater feeling of safety through more eyes on the street;
Greater energy efficiency and more efficient use of space and buildings;
More consumer choice of lifestyle, location and building type;
Greater urban vitality and street life; &
Increased viability of urban facilities and support for small business.
Density:
A sufficient density of activity and
people has animation and vitality
creating and sustaining viable mixed
use. Jacobs (1961: 163) considered
that density was essential to urban life.
Llewelyn-Davies (2000: 46) suggests a
range of benefits from higher
development densities:
Social by encouraging positive interaction and diversity; improving viability
of and access to community services; and enabling more and better
integrated social housing.
Economic by enhancing the economic viability of development and
providing economies of infrastructure (e.g. basement car parking).
Transport by supporting public transport and reducing car travel and
parking demand.
Environmental by increasing energy efficiency; decreasing resource
consumption; creating less pollution; preserving and helping to fund the
maintenance of public open space; and reducing overall demand for
development land.
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ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN:
An essential part of urban design is the need to provide comfortable conditions
within public spaces. Levels of sunlight, shade, temperature, humidity, rain, snow,
wind and noise have an impact upon our experience and use of urban
environments.
Microclimate:
Design decisions have an important influence in modifying the microclimate to
make spaces more comfortable. Relevant factors at this scale include:
Building configuration and its effect on and relationship to buildings and other
influences at the site boundary.
Positioning of access roads and pedestrian paths, trees and other vegetation,
walls, fences, and other obstructions.
Orientation of internal and external spaces and facades with respect to the
direction of sunlight and shade.
Massing and grouping of buildings, including the space between buildings.
Wind environment.
Positioning of main entrances and other openings acting as transitions
between inside and outside conditions.
Landscape, planting and water pools/fountains to enhance natural cooling.
Environmental noise and pollution (Pitts 1999).
Designing for Sun and Shade:
Sunlight penetration into urban places and
into buildings helps make them more
pleasant places. It also encourages
outdoor activities; reduces mould growth;
improves health by providing the body with
vitamin E; encourages plant growth; and
provides a cheap, readily available source
of energy for passive and active collection.
Two major issues are of concern: orientation
& and overshadowing and shading in terms of which the following should be
considered:
The suns position (altitude and azimuth) relative to public spaces and to the
principal facades of buildings.
Site orientation and slope.
Existing obstructions on the site.
The potential for overshadowing from obstructions beyond the site boundary.
The potential to overshadow nearby buildings and spaces (Pitts 1999).
Air Movement - The Wind Environment:
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Wind flow has a substantial effect on the comfort of pedestrians, the environmental
conditions within public spaces and around building entrances and the activities
that might occur there.
In very humid climates
external spaces may need to
be designed to encourage a
greater through flow of
cooling air, whereas, in arid
climates positioning fountains
and water features in public
spaces help cooling through
the evaporation of water
vapour.
Lighting:
Natural lighting makes an important contribution to the character and utility of
public space. The play of light in urban spaces also has aesthetic dimensions.
Frederick (2007: 49) observes how the altitude, angle and colour of daylighting vary
with orientation and time of day. In the northern hemisphere, daylight:
From north-facing windows is shadow less, diffuse and neutral or slightly
greyish most of the day and year.
From the east is strongest in the morning, is of low altitude, with soft, long
shadows, and is grey-yellow in colour.
From the south is dominant from late morning to mid-afternoon, renders
colours accurately, and casts strong, crisp shadows.
From the west is strongest in the late afternoon and early evening, has a rich
gold-orange cast, and can penetrate deeply into buildings, but occasionally
is overbearing.
The amount of visible sky is crucial to the quality of daylighting.
Although artificial lighting can make a positive contribution to the character and
utility of urban spaces, it is often designed only with vehicular traffic in mind and
tends to be inefficient in energy use, resulting in light pollution. It has two key
functions:
Statutory lighting which provides basic lighting levels, to aid pedestrian way-
finding and the secure use of the public realm at night, and the safe passage
of vehicles.
Amenity lighting which enhances the street scene through flood, feature
and low-level lighting; and gives colour and vitality through signs, shop-
lighting and seasonal lighting
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DESIGNING HEALTHIER ENVIRONMENTS:
A concern to create environments with better sunlight penetration, ventilation and
open space provision, were the driving force behind Modernisms growth and
spread in the first half of the twentieth century, while, in the second half, the built
environment was increasingly shaped by concerns for health and safety.
Health as a Strategic Design Concern:
Today, the impact of the built environment on a range of new health-related
concerns has again come to the fore, meshing with a wider agenda for healthy
cities (Hancock & Duhl, in Barton & Tsourou 2000: 31) encompassing:
A clean, safe physical environment
of high quality (including housing
quality).
An ecosystem that is stable now
and sustainable in the long term.
A strong, mutually supportive, non-
exploitative community.
A high degree of participation and
control by the public over
decisions affecting their lives.
The meeting of basic needs for food, water, shelter, income, safety and work.
Access to a wide variety of experiences, resources, contact and interaction.
A diverse, vital and innovative city economy.
The encouragement of connectedness with the past.
An urban form that is compatible with and enhances the above.
An optimum level of public health services available to all.
High levels of positive health and low levels of disease.
The Local Environment:
At the local level, a wide range of detailed technical factors impact on the
healthiness of the local built environment. Protection against communicable
diseases requires a safe water supply, sanitary sewerage and waste disposal, good
drainage of surface water, and provision of facilities for personal hygiene and safe
food preparation. Protection against injuries, poisonings and chronic diseases
requires adequate structural and fire safety safeguards, low air pollution, safety from
harmful materials and from injury on the roads, and through ready access to
appropriate emergency services.
There should be the provision of sidewalks, animated streets and enjoyable scenery
to promote walking and exercise and pedestrian paths separated from the street.
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Health-Promoting Environments:
Health benefits can be most efficiently
achieved through creating health-
promotive environments in which
physical activity is encouraged as a by-
product of urban form. They argue that
all modes of travel are not equal in this
respect non-motorised modes have
clear health consequences, while
motorised modes have negative
associations.
THE CAPITAL WEB:
The capital web is made up of the above and below ground elements of the citys
infrastructure. Mainly horizontal and also vertical infrastructure of community centres,
churches, mosques, libraries, sports pitches, etc. The major capital web
considerations in urban design are the provision of public open space; road and
footpath design; parking and servicing; and other infrastructure.
External Public Open Space:
External public open space offers recreational opportunities; wildlife habitats; venues
for special events; and the opportunity for the city to breathe. A number of towns
and cities have developed sophisticated open space frameworks and green space
networks to link open spaces and create green corridors through urban areas for
recreational purposes and for wildlife. Integration of natural and built environments is
a key objective of sustainable development.
Road and Foothpath Design:
The segregation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic to provide personal safety, often
meant pedestrians could only cross busy roads by underground subways or
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overground foot bridges. In general, the contemporary ethos is to design pedestrian-
dominant rather than car-dominant environments: such approaches give priority to
pedestrians without banishing the car.
The aim must be to avoid car-dependant environments, because this reduces their
potential to be sustainable, and to increase the potential for walking. Road and
footpath design thus needs to achieve a set of basic requirements:
Maintaining safety and personal security through reducing vehicle speeds,
discouraging road and footpath separation and increasing passive
surveillance.
Increasing permeability and access by all modes of travel but particularly by
foot.
Encouraging directness by acknowledging and emphasising desire lines in
development (the most convenient route to where people wish to go).
Designing in sympathy with the local context to ensure an attractive
development in which clearly defined spaces, landscaping and buildings
dominate rather than roads or cars.
Increasing legibility through the design of layouts in which the overall structure
and local visual references are clear.
Designing For Walking:
There is a difference between necessary or utilitarian walking and optional or
recreational and leisure walking. Many traffic-calming measures enhance
walkability, including widening the sidewalks/pavements, thereby reducing the
street width.
Designing For Cycles:
The personal health benefits of cycling are greater
than those of walking. Cycling provide health and
environmental benefits for both the individual and
community. To encourage the use of cycles there
should be provision of cycling infrastructures- cycling
lane, parking/stands, junctions, signals & signage.
Parking and Services:
parking requirements are a necessity of contemporary living within all environments
whether urban, suburban or rural. Parking needs to be:
Sufficient to cater for contemporary needs.
Convenient (i.e. located close to destinations) for all users, including those
with disabilities.
Attractive (e.g. by limiting its visual intrusion use of landscaping and quality
materials can successfully integrate on- and off-street parking).
Safe and secure
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Where locations are well-served by public transport, required parking standards can
be reduced. Charging for parking is one approach to managing demand for
parking space.
Car-free housing, where residents contract not to own cars, has been developed in
a few locations well-served by public transport.
Contemporary developments also require space for servicing, including business
deliveries; waste disposal, storage and collection; recycling points; emergency
access; removals; cleaning and maintenance; and utilities access.
Infrastructure:
An areas infrastructure both that above and that under ground has often been
built up over several centuries. Above ground, the capital web incorporates the
public space network and landscaping framework; any public transport network
and infrastructure; and public facilities (e.g. shops) and services (e.g. schools). Below
ground, it incorporates water supply networks; sewage disposal systems; electric
grids; gas supply network; telephone networks; cable networks; combined heat and
light systems; and underground transit systems.
CONCLUSION:
Discussing the functional dimension of urban design, this chapter reiterates the
importance of understanding urban design as a design process. In any design
process, there is a danger of narrowly prioritising a particular dimension aesthetic,
functional, technical or economic and of isolating it from its context and from its
contribution to the greater whole. Design must be considered as a totality and in-
the-round.
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