Design Trust for Public Space is a very progressive organization that is trying to emphasize a sense of community into city planning, parks, and public buildings. “The Design Trust Council is a leadership circle of executives, urbanists, civic leaders, and designers that provides critical support for unlocking the potential of NYC’s public spaces” http://designtrust.org
The project for Public Spaces guide was immensely straightforward and specific in applicable ways especially with its sections on “What makes a place successful” www.pps.org
“The Future of Community” is a collection of design feats from history and why the applications were useful then and how that ushers us into the present and future.
Williams, Richard. “Public Space: Designing-in Community.” In The Future of Community: Reports of a Death Greatly Exaggerated, edited by Clements Dave, Donald Alastair, Earnshaw Martin, and Williams Austin, 40-50. Pluto Books, 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183q51w.7.
Research Question
What circumstances impact the way strangers interact with each other? What circumstances impact the way strangers interact with a space or a piece of art?
The circumstances that impacts the way strangers interact with each other in their surroundings include Lighting which affects mood, or area layout. I noticed that the kind of auditorium setup like Union Square yields results because it resembles a sort of public stage or space for a people’s demonstration which was brought up many times in historical accounts of public space design. “Urban geographical writing on public space has been dominated by the ‘republican tradition’. This views public space as primarily a space available for people to make political claims, and gain public recognition.” I believe how open a space is is the initial factor in preliminarily assessing a public space, we have all walked into a huge white stark gallery and it makes us feel a certain way, some people prefer cozy whereas others prefer space to be a basis of creativity. I think people are different in what they perceive as good and that centralizes those people to the more creative areas like union square where as old people like to read under a tree at stuy.
