The creation of prospering centres of human activity by encouraging people to move back into urban areas appeared to be one of the most difficult tasks of the new century (Urban Task Force, 1999). Contemporary urban regeneration mainly focuses on this aspect and puts a greater emphasis on diminishing the number of larger scale green spaces to a combination of smaller open spaces of rest and escape.
Urban Task Force (1999) clearly states this alteration in the Task Force report and stresses out that public space should be developed into ‘an outdoor room within a neighbourhood’ that will offer relaxation and urban experience .
In 2004, the Urban Regeneration conference, organised by the ODPM and The Guardian newspaper in London proposed a strong composition of interconnected open spaces that wove together into urban towns and cities in order to make them more liveable. The connection of streets to a variety of outdoor spaces could help to reduce fatigue and also develop into a new urban park that would be part of the new regenerated city.
Urban Task Force also recommended the establishment of a national urban framework of key design principles (Urban Task Force, 1999, p.84). The outcome of this was a number of excellent publications that highlighted the importance of human life quality in the urban environment and how this could be practised in urban design.
However, many of the characteristics of the design that will help to strengthen the potential of offering opportunities to users remain overlooked. At this point, we start to see that the spatial structure of restorative environments links together smaller open spaces and places emphasis on the way they are experienced by people as ‘an interconnected spatial continuity ‘(Thw...
... middle of paper ...
...der this is wholeness, a sequential system in which disparate centres interlock each other to form the field effect. (Alexander, C., 1993).
One of the delineate features of Alexander’s ‘centres’ is that each ‘centre’ is not an isolated entity but a field of other ‘centres’ (Alexander, C., 1993; Thwaites, K., Helleur, E. & Simkins, I., 2005:537). ‘Centres’ are made up of other centres of smaller scale and work together to contribute to the composition of their larger surrounding centres.
Alexander‘s ‘centres’ aim to play a significant role in achieving ‘unify geometry, human experience, spatial form and function’. These spatial structures are the key assets that he believes are elemental in achieving and sustaining human fulfilment and play a transitional role in arranging our cities and towns. (Alexander, C., 2001; Thwaites, K., Helleur, E. & Simkins, I., 2005:539).
centres, as well as all that is proposed to go hand in hand with them,
Frank Lloyd Wright is one of America’s most influential architects that has left a legacy of structures that are collaged with Nature (Mead, 2014, February). Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture, has left a legacy of tranquil spaces hidden within parks that are known for their “picturesque” qualities (Mead, 2014, January). These two men are completely different with the designs that they’ve created simply because they are using different mediums, but ultimately there aren’t a lot of contrasting elements to their designs. The similarities are evident when you begin to look at their main priority when designing; mental health and wellness. With health and wellness as a mutual focus it is easy to find that they had complementary design influences, theories, and design principles. To create a design that successfully helps to soothe the mind they both found that Nature is the best tool to use. This tool is now their unique contribution to design history, and as a result it stands out as something that today’s designers want to mimmic when focusing on mental health and wellness.
With such industrialization and the grit and grime of the city life, city planners decided that more “green space” was needed in the most centralized locations. This included small parks, ornate flower gardens, planting of trees, and lush vegetation. These areas of supposed relaxation and tranquility were highly controlled, though, and were illusions of the rural lifestyle, designed to distract citizens from dirty life and allow them to practice good manners and remain solitary.
It has been given due priority in urban design and planning for promoting social cohesion as a constituent concept of the sense of belonging and community values through ethnic mixing to deal with challenges of multiculturalism in the West especially in England and Canada. The limitation of social cohesion to deal with multicultural challenges has led to contemporary planning imaginations that emphasize the meaningful engagements among different cultures. In the multicultural context, although contemporary planning imaginations do not directly refer to the role of public space at the level of local living per se, it nevertheless consider the significance of socio-physical setting public space provides for 'meaningful intercultural interactions' (Sennet, 1994), ‘openness to unassimilated otherness’ (Donald, 1999) and, as settings for ‘active civic engagements with clearly defined goal’ (Sandercock 2003). Trying to deal with the problematic of contested nature of public space in multicultural context, these imaginations in a way argue for the active civil engagements in public space through broad social participation with clearly defined goal for promoting social and civic solidarity by maintaining the meaningful distance or unassimilated otherness to live together
But how does one even begin to fathom what makes a public space worthy to the users and the city? Is it purely the design of the building? Or is it the function of the building? Or is it in fact how the function of the desired spaces and the vision of the designer work together to create the experience?
Sense of place is the “development of level of comfort and feelings of safety that are associated with a place” (Kopec, p. 62). These associations often translate into that desired sense of belonging, and allow individuals the ability to “develop feelings of attachment to particular settings based on combinations of use, attractiveness, and emotion” (Stokowski, 2002). Developing these psychological connections with certain places lends itself to the concept of place attachment, or, “a person’s bond with the social and physical environments of a place” (Kopec, p. 62). These places often hold deep meaning for people because their identities were established among their surroundings. This affiliation between a person and their place is often seen through personal connection, comfort, and security (Kopec, p. 131). Many people feel as though the place they are in should have its own “special character”, or an identity that defines it, and distinguishes it from other places (Kopec, p.1). Kopec states, “An environment’s distinct spatial features, how it compares with others, its connections to personal life paths, and its potential for change combine to affect the meanings places have for people”. An establishment of this sense of place identity ...
Chaffey, J. (1994). The challenge of urbanisation. In M. Naish & S. Warn (Eds.), Core geography (pp. 138-146). London: Longman.
Thus, the reality of places is constructed through social actions including both individual and collective efforts, through informal associations and institutions of government and the economy, rather than through the inherent qualities (Logan and Lolotch, 1987, p.45). Hence, the conclusion is well constructed. The authors effectively use 'compare and contrast' structure and 'cause and effect' structure in the chapter to build and enhance their argument. They also back up their arguments citing various researchers throughout the chapter, in almost all the sections, making their argument more persuasive. Logan and Molotch enhances the
The author explains architecture as an identification of place. Architecture starts with establishing a place. We define ‘place’ as a layout of architectural elements that seem to accommodate, or offer the possibility of accommodation to, a person, an activity, a mood, etc. We identify a sofa as a place to sit and relax, and a kitchen as a place to cook food. Architecture is about identifying and organizing ‘places’ for human use.
Burgess further went on to write that there being a tendency for each inner zone to extend its reach into another area. Today, however, the center loop doesn’t just have one business but several businesses. And yet, this model and terminology are still being used to urban pl...
New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning, accessible public space, narrow street grids for easy pedestrian usage and better placement of community buildings. Only a few hundred American communities are utilizing this method of planning, but the impact is quickly growing in an infant field dominated by a few influential architects and engineers.
With more needs for nature experience and sustainable development in urban areas, increasing importance has been attached to urban open spaces since they play a crucial role to support the ecology system and form a natural network in the cities (Chiesura, 2004; Tzoulas et al., 2007). Urban open spaces include plazas, parks, campus, greenways and other green spaces. They serve as islands of nature, enriching urban landscapes, adjusting the microclimate, promoting biodiversity and providing habitats for other species (Chiesura, 2004; Do, Kim, Kim, & Joo, 2014; Morimoto, 2011). Apart from these benefits, they also show a great impact on urban dwellers’ health, since open spaces offer places for outdoor activities and opportunities for contact with nature (Chiesura, 2004). Tyrväinen et al. (2014) indicated that even short-term visits to urban green spaces have positive psychological and physiological effects on perceived stress relief. People were attracted to urban open spaces for physical activities, social interactions, and a relief from daily life, which benefit their mental and physical health (Thwaites, Helleur, & Simkins, 2005). A large epidemiological study in Britain looked at mortality and morbidity among three income levels in relation to urban residents’ access to green open space (Mitchell & Popham,
... architectures would led to a more organic organization beneficial to the people that choose to make their lives in this city. Although this model of a sustainable city is not a perfectly closed loop, it lays the foundation for one that is. Over time, with constantly evolving and improving technology and new methods of design from the scale of products to buildings, the gaps in the loop could be closed, and a “true” sustainable city could be fully realized.
Curtis, W J. "12. The Ideal Community: Alternatives to the Industrial City." In Modern architecture since 1900, 159-173. London: Phaidon, 1996.
I believe that a better understanding of our basic human sensibilities is key to designing buildings of lasting resonance. The following discussion looks to the beginnings of architecture for its groundwork, namely through the reconsideration of the the ‘Cave’ typology. It seeks to tease out its latent spatial qualities as well as our innate cognitive responses and expectations of this environment, through it remedying the current design approach that is increasingly prospect