In this video the potential for urban design was explored by Architect/ Designer Evelina Ozola. Making public spaces more public was a big idea in this talk, in that public spaces aren’t as public as we think. In modern cities, they’re built more for cars than for people. Here Ozola explains how we can invite more people and more connections by changing the way we design urban spaces. By making way for people, cyclist, and drivers we can create a harmony between all and create a space where we can connect and live comfortably. While I love living in the city, I do miss many thing from living in a rural area. One being the public spaces and greenery. I believe with attitudes and concepts like we can bring those aspects of comfortable living and public space you find in rural or more public towns to big cities like New York.
This video talks about public space, similar to the last one, but more focused on New York city. Now when I started watching this I was intrigued by the ideas she was proposing about creating more public spaces in New York and planning for the city to grow in population and how she was able to come up with solutions for this. Then she mentioned Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I know from experience it is a gentrified neighborhood and so when she talked about the park that was built, I imagine it had some effect on the property value. And I started thinking about the other places she had been building. So in my thoughts, I began connecting the paradox that is public space and social displacement. I believe she was trying to do good and that a lot of people who cause or contribute to gentrification may be trying to improve the lives of those residents but inadvertently end up being what drives economically disadvantaged people away.
This little video seems to be the sum and real life results of what the first two videos were walking about. The influence of public spaces is seen through out the footage of this video and a few point from the book by William Holly Whyte. In the quotes from his books, he talks about how public spaces should function for people to use them, then in the video there is direct evidence of people experiencing this in the city in public spaces.
