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The art of
making places - of the public realm
Making
Places
The quality of the 'public realm' - who is
responsible?
Making
places is the mechanism by which those concerned with the
quality of people's daily lives in the built environment can
have an impact on the design process. To succeed, the
approach has to involve professionals, the public and their
representatives working together at both the planning and
detailed design stages. Here we are dealing with the
detailed level of making places by design - the term 'Urban
design' is normally used to describe the process which
enables 'making places in cities for people to enjoy and
use'. It deals with spatial planning issues as well as the
detail of design decisions. 'Planning for real' describes a
well researched method of involving the public in the design
process for the spaces they will use - but its effectiveness
relies on the right questions being asked. Too much so
called research into public needs concentrates on the
relatively simple question "what do you want to do in the
space we are designing?" The answer to that, without the
additional question "what feelings would you like to
experience when you are there?" is almost worse than
useless. For instance, the limited "what do you want to do
there" approach has resulted in many inadequate children's
play areas which have been built at great expense (by
covering an area of ground with a suitable hard surface and
then placing the desired play objects apparently haphazardly
across the surface), without any sense of place being
created by the way the space has been designed.
If place
making is to be successful, it needs to be understood as
essentially about the liveability of cities (Carmona et al,
2003). To function effectively as a process, place making
has to be concerned with both the physical (the spaces and
the buildings), socio-cultural (people) and, when it is
outside, the natural (climate, geology, biodiversity)
characteristics of spaces.
As
Tibbalds (1992) stressed: "places matter most". He points
out that we tend to miss the "whole" by worrying about
"individual buildings and other physical artifacts" at too
early a stage in the planning process. This is a particular
problem for larger projects, where a range of clients and
designers are responsible for different parts of a site.
Understanding
the interconnection of the space between the buildings is an
important part of making places. Very often concentration by
planners and designers on a specific part of a large project
has been the cause of neglecting to make joined up, liveable
places. The outside public realm is not just the
hard-surfaces of 'plazas' or the 'walkways'; it is the
totality of the space between the buildings. Designing
public places excludes working directly on the private open
space that is never open for public use, but even then such
spaces can have an impact on the user of the city and,
therefore, on their perception of the liveability of the
city.
Lynch
and Alexander and their followers tried to look for ways of
bringing the urban designers back to their principal task of
making places. Their ideas have been used in many different
countries for developing design guidance. For instance, in
the UK the government-sponsored design guidance, By Design:
Urban design in the Planning System (DETR/CABE,
2000) developed the following useful list of considerations
which can be applied by designers and others involved in
'making a place':
- Character:
a place with its own identity
- Continuity
and enclosure: a place where public and private spaces
are clearly distinguished
- Quality
of the public realm: a place with attractive and
successful outdoor areas
- Ease
of movement: a place that is easy to get to and move
through
- Legibility:
a place that has a clear image and is easy to
understand
- Adaptability:
a place that can change easily
- Diversity:
a place with variety and choice
How can we design
user-friendly places
The probable user needs for outdoor and indoor public spaces
need to be agreed at the site planning stage. For example,
in relation to a city centre site
Clare Cooper Marcus's
(1990) has suggested that spaces need to be provided with at
least some of the following characteristics and allow for
the following activities (note: this is a very brief 'taste'
of the information in her book and the reader is advised to
take a thorough look at her book People places when
working on a design project):
- Spaces which are
visible to passers-by (they should not be too sunken and
should have at least part of their boundary open to
viewing by passers-by)
- Spaces accessible to
a wide variety of users
- Spaces which
accommodate a wide range of users: local residents,
office workers, shoppers and tourists
- Spaces which are
sunlit for much of the day if they are outdoors and part
of the day if indoors
- Spaces with plenty
of seating, both formal (benches} and informal (ledges,
steps, lawns}
- Spaces with a
variety of green and hard-surfaced subspaces
- Spaces designed with
a focal place or feature and which if a large space can
be usable for civic celebratory events
- Spaces which also
encourage use for walking through as shortcut
- Spaces with a range
of seating areas which can attract individuals and small
groups on a regular basis
- Spaces which have
small lawn areas functioning as semiprivate "outdoor
rooms" within the public space (for safety they should
not be totally screened)
- Spaces where it is
possible to enjoy some of the following
experiences:
- watching
people
- watching water
moving
- being in an
atmosphere different from the business of the crowded
city (a place where the air seems fresher because of
the vegetation, where the noise seems deader because
of the reduced area of hard surface or because a
fountain makes more noise)
- looking at plants
and lawns
- finding the place
"attractive" or even "beautiful"
- looking at art
(note: this is not just objects but the whole space
can be designed as a piece of art)
- looking at a
place full colour and pleasant smells (seasonal
flowers and leaves)
- looking at a
lively or quiet place
- looking at a
peaceful place
- enjoying a place
sheltered from buffeting winds
- enjoying a place
which is warm and sunny and sheltered
- buying
refreshments
- listening to
music
- watching
events
- making new
friends/ meeting friends
- Spaces where
people can:
- walk
through
- walk and
watch
- walk and
talk
- stand and
watch
- stand and
talk
- sit and
watch
- sit and
talk
- sit and
listen
- sit and
eat
- sit and
read
- wait for some
event (a bus/ taxi)
Designs based on user
needs
When making an overall plan for any site the planners and
designers should ensure that the public realm is shown as
clearly as the proposed building layout. It should include a
detailed consideration of the external spaces formed by the
proposed layout and show how each might be used, owned and
managed. It should consider the situation at the different
phases of the project and the impact on the
users.
It would be possible to
do this at this early stage in the planning process by
developing:
- a typology of spaces
linked to
- a preliminary
assessment of the range of user needs likely to be
encouraged in each type of space
- descriptions of the
characteristics of the spaces in experiential
terms
In order to carry out a
qualitative analysis of new public spaces, a yardstick for
the evaluation is needed. It is suggested that one developed
by Gehl (1997) which considers the quality of the public
spaces as viewed from a pedestrian perspective, walking at a
pace of 5 kilometers per hour, could be used.
- produce a
descriptive analysis of the actual physical conditions
provided for pedestrians in the existing
development
- produce a
descriptive analysis of the probable physical conditions
for pedestrians in the proposed new
developments
In each case Gale
suggests that answers are needed to the following
questions:
- How are the public
spaces composed? (classify the different types of urban
space)
- How large are the
areas available for pedestrian traffic and public
life?
- Where are they
situated ?
- What are the
conditions offered for walking and spending time in the
city?
- What is the traffic
situation like and how do pedestrians cross the main
arteries and the minor roads and what are the major
conflicts with pedestrian movements?
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Liveable
public spaces
Introduction
Scope and approach
Ideas
about design
Different
professions, different approaches
The cost to society of failed designs
Recommended reading
Liveability
and design
Information
needs
User needs
Design guidance
Making
places
The
quality of the 'public realm'
How can we design user- friendly places
Designs based on user needs
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Links
and References
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Books
and papers
Alexander,
Christopher et al, 1976, A Pattern Language: Towns,
Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure
Series), Oxford University Press Inc., USA.
Carmona
M. et al, 2003, Public Places: Urban Spaces, dimensions in
urban design, Architectural press, London.
Cooper Marcus, Clare
and Francis,Carolyn , 1990, People places: design guidelines
for urban open space, van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Gehl, Jan, 1987, Life between buildings: using public space,
van Nostrand Reinhold, New York
Lynch,
K., 1960, Image of the city, MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
Tibbalds, F., 1988, Ten commandments of Urban Design, The
Planner, 74 (12).
Tibbalds, F.,1992, Making people friendly towns: improving
the public environment in towns and cities,
Longman,Harlow.
Tibbalds, F., 1993, London's Urban Environmental Quality,
London Planning Advisory Committee, Romford.
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