Intention and Attention of Urban Design
There are many interesting observations to be made from the readings. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs indicates that how sidewalks let people gather and allow them to communicate each other. Christopher Alexander in his book named A Pattern Language shows some conditions a public square has to have in order to make passers-by to stop walking and engage to that space. Lastly, Tony Hiss, the writer of The Experience of Place, purposes every human being has “simultaneous perception” and explains that how it is crucial when people recognize their surroundings.
Jane Jacobs suggests that how crucial a public sidewalk is, in that it provides a lot of chance for citizens to communicate each other. In her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she explains that the sidewalk life allows people to accumulate “public respect and trust” so that they are able to have strong interactions. She also points out the contents residents share are not necessarily significant things, explaining that “Most of it is ostensibly utterly trivial but the sum is not trivial at all.”[1] Therefore, It could be a really simple thing like saying hello to a neighbor living next to your house, or getting some practical advice from the elder in a grocery store, although it does not seem a big deal. I was shocked that the public spaces like sidewalks encourage to exchange life experiences and to make better quality lives of city residents, and also thought about what if The New School also makes certain paths in buildings so that students encounter more frequently and have more opportunities to say hello; further, exchange thoughts about their lives. Since I feel a lot of students in our school looks like they don’t want to be involved in any relationship with others, or feel uncomfortable to talk about themselves, so if the school creates some spaces or facilities, functioning just like the sidewalks Jacobs represents, it would be helpful to resolve the problem of students holding themselves aloof in the school.
Written by Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language contains an observation called “activity pockets,” and this chapter is about the conditions for a public square. The condition, Alexander shows is that “The life of a public square forms naturally around its edge. If the edge fails, then the space never becomes lively.”[2] The most interesting explanation in his reading is that if there are no borders around the square, people don’t recognize that place to stop or to stay but to pass and to walk through. On top of this, he explains that activity pockets, which engage people to get involved like street furniture or shops should be located around the square’s edges. In this reading, I notice that such a place like a plaza or a square should satisfy certain conditions and I think of these conditions as the intentions beneath urban design at the same time. According to the film, Urbanized, Amanda Burden, a director of NYC department of city planning, said that “when you walk down a street, everything you see has been designed. The width of sidewalks, where trees are planted, the scale of the trees, how the street furniture interacts, how many stores you have per block, the height of the buildings where they set back. Each one of these things has been thought about.”[3] As a result, including the public square, all of the elements of the city are designed with the purpose and exist because they should be.
In The Experience of Place, Tony Hiss proposes that people have an ability to experience surroundings with multiple senses and he calls it “simultaneous perception.” It functions like a “sixth sense,” making our understanding of the place more immediate and productive. By giving an example, Grand Central Station, he explains that “Without the help of simultaneous perception, multisensory patterns would be hidden from us, and we might bump into everyone in Grand Central Terminal.”[4] At this point, I think simultaneous perception is one of the most important attributes in an artist and a designer. Since they are supposed to suggest something sensuous and thoughtful to the public, paying attention to environments would be a significant base to create innovative concept of arts and designs. This is because nobody knows where a brilliant idea suddenly pops up. The High Line in Manhattan could be a good example for changing overlooked surroundings in a whole new way. It was a disused railroad and people didn’t pay attention at all, but Joshua David and Robert Hammond made a big transformation with the careful attention from their environment. The High Line now is one of the most famous parks in New York City.
In conclusion, lots of interesting explanations about urban community, design and the city structure stand out to me from the readings and the film. It is impressive that the entire city has been structured based on the intention and attention in that sidewalks have the purpose to make residents interact each other, the public plaza should be intentionally designed to involve people to pause and stay, and simultaneous perception means paying attention the surroundings with multiple senses.
[1] Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), 56.
[2] Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 600.
[3] “Urbanized,” You Tube Video, 01:26, posted by Samantha Welton, December 12, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qn8Ja8vFms.
[4] Tony Hiss, The Experience of Place, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990), 4.
Bibliography
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Hiss, Tony. The Experience of Place. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
“Urbanized,” You Tube Video, 01:26, posted by Samantha Welton, December 12, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qn8Ja8vFms.
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