Public Places - Urban Spaces PDF

2138255 Matthew Carmona 1111111111111111111111111 Tim Heath Taner Oc Steve Tiesdell PU LJRBAN SPA, theories, provided its overall structure. etc., from a wide range of sources, the book is emb...

2138255 Matthew Carmona 1111111111111111111111111 Tim Heath Taner Oc Steve Tiesdell PU LJRBAN SPA, theories, provided its overall structure. etc., from a wide range of sources, the book is embedded in a comprehensive reading of existing l iterature and research. It also d raws on the The structure authors' experience in teachi ng, researching and writing about u rban design in schools of plan­ The book is in three main parts. It begins with a ning, architecture and surveying. broad discussion of the context within which urban vi Preface design takes place. In Chapter 1 , the challenge for making better places than would otherwise be 'urban design' and for the 'urban designer' - a produced. This is - unashamedly and unapologeti­ term used throughout the book in its broadest cally - a normative contention about what we sense to encompass both 'knowing' and 'un know­ believe urban design should be about, rather than ing' urban desig ners - is made explicit. The chap­ what at any point in time it is about. We thus ter deliberately adopts a broad understanding, regard urban design as an ethical activity: first, in seeing urban design as more than simply the phys­ an axiological sense (because it is intimately ical or visual appearance of development, and as an concerned with issues of values); and, second, integrative (i.e. joined-up) and integrating activity. because it is - or should be - concerned with While urban design's scope may be broad and its particular values such as social justice and equity. boundaries often 'fuzzy', the heart of its concern is In Chapter 2, issues of change in the contem­ about making places for people: this idea forms the porary urban context are outlined and discussed. kernel of this book. More realistically, it is about Chapter 3 presents a number of overarching  Preface vii contexts - local, global, market and regulatory - professional level have combined to give it a new that provide the background for urban design prominence - in the public sector, through the action. These contexts u nderpin and inform the spread of design review control as a means to discussions of the individual dimensions of u rban promote better design through planning action, design principles and practice in Part I I. and in the professions with the emergence of, for Part I I consists o f six chapters, each of which example, the Congress for the New Urbanism. I n reviews a substantive dimension of urban design - addition, u rban design i s the focus of well-devel­ 'morphological', 'perceptual', 'social', 'visual', oped grass roots activity, with local communities 'functional' and 'temporal'. As urban design is a participating in the design, management and joined-up activity, this separation is for the purpose reshaping of their own local environments. of clarity in exposition and analysis only. These six Urban design is an expanding discipline. There overlapping dimensions are the 'everyday subject is unprecedented and increasing demand from the matter' of urban design, while the crosscutting public and private sectors for practitioners - or, contexts outlined i n Chapter 3 relate to and inform more sim ply, for those with urban design expertise. all the dimensions. The six dimensions and four This demand is being matched by a range of new contexts are also linked and related by the concep­ urban design courses at both graduate and under­ tion of desig n as a process of problem solving. The graduate levels; by greater recognition in plannin J, chapters are not intended to delimit boundaries architectural and surveying (real estate) education; around particular areas of u rban design. Instead, and by new demand from private and public prac­ they emphasise the breadth of the su bject area, titioners wanting to develop appropriate skills and with the connections between the different broad knowledge. areas being made explicit. Urban design is only All urban designers - both knowing and holistic if all the dimensions (the areas of action) unknowing (see Chapter 1 ) - need a clear under­ are considered simultaneously. standing of how their various actions and interven­ In Part I l l, implementation and delivery mecha­ tions in the built environment combine to create nisms are explored - how u rban design is high quality, people-friendly, vital and viable envi­ procured, controlled, and communicated - stress­ ronments or, conversely, poor quality, alienating or ing the nature of urban design as a process moving simply monotonous ones. As a field of activity, from theory to action. The final chapter brings u rban design has been the subject of much recent together the various dimensions of the subject to attention and has secured its place among the emphasise its holistic nature. other established built environment professions as a key means of addressing interdisciplina1y concerns. In this position it is a policy- and prac­ Urban design: an emerging and tice-based subject which, like architecture and evolving activity planni ng, benefits from an extensive and legitimis­ ing theoretical underpinning. This book draws on It is only recently in the UK that u rban design has that, now extensive, underpinning, to present been recognised as an important area of practice many of the key contributions aimed at beneficially by the existing built environment professions, and i nfluencing the overall quality and liveability of even more recently that it has been recognised by u rban environments. central and local government, and incorporated While urban design has developed quickly and more fully i nto the planning remit. The Urban conti nues to evolve, it is hoped that the structure Design Alliance (UDAL), a multi·profession adopted by this book will stand the test of time umbrella organisation, has also been set up by the and, over time, will be able to incorporate built environment professional institutes to advances in our thinking on the practice and promote urban design. process of u rban design, as well as any omissions In certain states i n the US, u rban design has which - through ignorance or lack of appreciation often been more fully conceptualised and better - have not been included from the start. As a integrated into the activities of the established built contribution to the better u nderstanding of good environment professionals. Examination of the urban design, it is hoped that it wil l contribute to planning history of cities such as San Francisco and the design, development, enhancement and Portland clearly demonstrates this. More generally, preservation of successful urban spaces and cher­ as in the UK, recent initiatives at both public and ished public places. THE CONTEXT FOR URBAN DESIGN  Urban design today INTRODUCTION - and their relationship to open spaces. Urban design denotes a more expansive approach. Evolv­ This book adopts a broad understanding of urban ing from an initial, predominantly aesthetic, design, which is focused on the making of places for concern with the distribution of building masses people (Figures 1. 1 , 1.2). More precisely and realis­ and the space between buildings, it has become tically, it focuses on urban design as the process of primarily concerned with the quality of the public making better places for people than would other­ realm - both physical and sociocultural - and the wise be produced. This definition asserts the impor­ making of places for people to enjoy and use. tance of four themes that occur throughout the Containing two somewhat problematical words, book. First, it stresses that urban design is for and 'urban design' is an inherently ambiguous term. about people. Second, it emphasises the value and Taken separately, 'urban' and 'design' have clear significance of 'place'. Third, it reco9nises that meanings: 'urban' suggests the characteristics of urban design operates in the 'real' world, with its towns or cities, while 'design' refers to such activi­ field of opportunity constrained and bounded by ties as sketching, planning, arranging, colouring economic (market) and political (regulatory) forces. and pattern making. Throughout this book, Fourth, it asserts the importance of design as a however, as used generally within the practice of process. The idea that urban design is about making urban design, the term 'urban' has a wide and better places is unashamedly and unapologetically a inclusive meaning, embracing not only the city and normative contention about what it should be, town but also the village and hamlet, while rather than what it is at any point in time. 'design', rather than having a narrowly aesthetic Providing an introduction to the concept of interpretation, is as much about effective problem urban design, this chapter is in three main parts. solving and/or the processes of delivering or organ­ The first develops an understanding of the subject. ising development. The second discusses the contemporary need for In a wide-ranging review of u rban design, Mada­ urban design. The third discusses urban design nipour (1 996, pp. 93-1 1 7) identified seven areas of practice. ambiguity in its definition: 1. Should u rban design be focused at particular TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF scales or levels? URBAN DESIGN 2. Should it focus only on the visual qualities of the urban environment or, more broadly, The term 'urban design' was coined in North Amer­ address the organisation and management of ica in the late 1 950s, and replaced the narrower urban space? and somewhat outmoded term 'civic design'. Typi­ 3. Should it simply be about transforming spatial fied by the City Beautiful Movement, civic design arrangements, or about more deeply seated focused largely on the siting and design of major social and cultural relations between spaces civic buildings - city halls, opera houses, museums and society?  4 Public Places - Urban Spaces FIGURE 1. 1 A place for people - Harbour Steps, Seattle, Washington, USA 4. Should the focus of urban design be its prod­ The first three ambiguities are concerned with the uct (the u rban environment) or the process by 'product' of urban design, the last three with which it is produced? urban design as a 'process', while the fou rth 5. Should urban design be the province of archi­ concerns the product-process d ilemma. Althoug h tects, planners or landscape architects? Madan ipour's ambiguities are deliberately 6. Should it be a public or private sector activity? presented as oppositional and mutually exclusive, 7. Should it be seen as an objective-rational in most cases, it is a case of 'and/both' rather than process (a science) or an expressive-subjective 'either/or'. As we 'consciously shape and manage process (an art)? our built environments' (Madanipour, 1 996,  Urban design today 5 FIGURE 1.2 A place for people - Broadgate, London, Ul< p. 1 1 7), u rban designers are interested in, and Urban design is typically defined in terms of archi­ engaged with, both process and its product. tecture and town planning - Gosling and Maitland Whi le, in practice, 'urban design' can be used to (1 984) describe it as the 'common ground' refer to all the products and processes of devel­ between them, while the UK's Social Science opment, it is often useful to use the term in a Research Council located u rban design at 'the more restricted sense to mean adding of quality to interface between architecture, landscape architec­ them. ture and town planning, drawing on the desi, g n Attem pting to sum up the remit of u rban tradition of architecture and landscape architec­ design, Tibbalds (1 988a) notes a defin ition of it as ture, and the environmental management and 'Everything you can see out of the window.' While social science tradition of contemporary planning' this has a basic truth and logic, if 'everything' can (from Bentley and Butina 1 991 ) Urban design is. be considered to be u rban design, then equa l ly not, however, simply an interface. It encompasses perhaps 'noth ing' is u rban design (Daganhart and and sometimes subsumes a number of disciplines Sawicki, 1 994). Nevertheless, in acknowledging and activities - prompting Rob Cowan (200'1 a, the potential scope and d iversity of u rban design, p. 9) to ask: there is little value in putting bou ndaries around which profession is best at interpreting policy; the subject. The real need is for definitions that assessing the local economy and property encapsulate its heart or core rather than prescribe market; appraising a site or area in terms of its edge or boundary. That is, for the identifica­ land use, ecology, landscape, ground condi­ tion, clarification and debate of central beliefs and tions, social factors, history, archaeology, urban activities rather than of boundaries and exclu­ form and transport; managing and facilitating sions. a participative process; drafting and illustrating It is freq uently easier to say what u rban design is design principles; and programming the devel­ not, than to say precisely what it is. It is not, for opment process? example, architecture, civil or highway engineer­ ing, landscape architecture, estate management, or Cowan contends that while all these skills are likely town planning. Equal ly, it is both more and less to be needed in, say, prod ucing an urban design than any of these long-established activities framework or master plan, it is rare for them all to (University of Reading, 2001 ). Relational definitions be embodied by a single professional. The best (i.e. those that define something in relation to frameworks and master plans are drawn up by a something else) can, nonetheless, be helpful. number of people with different skills, working in  6 Public Places - Urban Spaces collaboration. U rban design is inherently collabora­ Traditions of thought in urban design tive and interdisciplinary, involving an integrated approach, and the skills and expertise of a wide Two broad traditions of urban design thought stem range of professionals and others. from different ways of appreciating design and the Scale has also been used as a means of defining products of the design process. In his paper 'Urban urban design. Urban design has commonly been Environments as Visual Art or Social Settings', Bob considered to function at an intermediate scale Jarvis (1 980) discussed this distinction in terms of a between planning (the settlement) and architec­ 'visual-artistic' tradition emphasising the visual ture (individual buildings). In 1 9 76 Reyner Banham qualities of buildings and space, and a 'social defined its field of concern as 'urban situations usage' tradition primarily concerned with the social about half a m ile square'. This definition is useful qualities of people, places and activities. In recent only if we see u rban design as an activity mediat­ years, the two have become synthesised into a ing between architecture and planning. Kevin third, 'making places' tradition. Lynch (1 981 , p. 291 ) defined it more broadly as encompassing a wide range of concerns across (i) The visual-artistic tradition different spatial scales, arguing that urban design­ The visual-artistic tradition was that of an earlier, ers may be engaged in preparing a comprehensive more 'architectural ' and narrower understanding of regional access study, a new town, a regional park urban design. Predominantly product-oriented, it system, and equally, 'may seek to protect neigh­ focused on the visual qualities and aesthetic expe­ bourhood streets, revitalise a public square,... set rience of urban spaces, rather than on the cultural, regulations for conservation or development, build social, economic, political and spatial factors and a participatory process, write an interpretative processes contributing to successful urban places. guide or plan a city celebration'. It is important to Influenced by Sitte's City Planning According to Artis­ appreciate that u rban design operates at and tic Principles (1 889) as well as (what appeared to be across a variety of spatial scales rather than at any its aesthetic antithesis) the work of Le Corbusier, particular one. the visual-artistic tradition is clearly expressed in Although consideration of urban design at a Unwin's Town Planning in Practice (1 909), and rein­ particular scale is a convenient device, it detracts forced by the various contributions to MHLG Design from the fact that urban environments are vertically in Town and Village (1 953). It is typified by Freder­ integrated 'wholes'. Urban designers need to be ick Gibberd's concern for the pictorial composition constantly aware of scales both above and below of front gardens, rather than for considerations of that at which they are working, and also of the rela­ privacy or of opportunities for personalisation tionship of the parts to the whole, and the whole (Jarvis, 1 980, p. 5 3). Issues of pictorial composition to the parts. In a necessary reminder to the built also predominate in the 'townscape' approach environment professions, Francis Tibbalds (1 992, developed by Gordon Cullen and others in the late p. 9) argued that 'places matter most': 'We seem 1 940s and the 1 950s. As Punter and Carmona to be losing the ability to stand back and look at (1 997, p. 72) note, while Cullen's Townscape what we are producing as a whole... We need to developed his personal and expressive response to stop worrying quite so much about individual urban environments, it largely failed to acknowl­ buildings and other physical artefacts and think edge public perceptions of townscapes and places, instead about places in their entirety.' In broad which - by contrast - Kevin Lynch's contempora­ terms, Christopher Alexander's 'pattern language' neous The Image of the City highlighted (Lynch, illustrates the range of scales at which u rban design 1 960). operates, with the patterns being ordered in terms of scale, beg inning with patterns for strategic (city­ wide) design, and working down to interior design. (ii) The social usage tradition Alexander et of. (1 977, p. xiii), however, stressed The social usage tradition emphasised the way in that no pattern was an 'isolated entity': 'Each which people use and colonise space. It encom­ pattern can exist in the world only to the extent passed issues of perception and sense of place. that it is supported by other patterns: the larger Identifying Kevin Lynch (1 960) as a key proponent patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of of this approach, Jarvis (1 980, p. 58) highlig hts the same size that surround it, and the smaller Lynch's attempt to shift the focus of urban design patterns which are embedded in it.' in two ways:  U rban design today 7 in terms of appreciation of the urban environ­ (iii) The making places tradition ment: rejecting the notion that this was an Over the past twenty years, the concept of urban exclusive and elitist concern, Lynch em phasised design that has become dominant is one of making that pleasure i.n urban environments was a places for people. This evolution of urban design commonplace experience; thought is nicely summed up in the following defi­ in terms of the object of study: instead of exam­ nitions: ining the physical and material form of urban environments, Lynch suggested examining In 1 95 3, Frederick Gibberd argued that the people's perceptions and mental images. 'purpose of town design is to see that [the urban] composition not only functions prop­ jane jacobs - whose book The Death and Life of erly, but is pleasing in appearance'. Great American Cities attacked many of the funda­ In 1 961 , jane jacobs asserted that: 'To approach mental concepts of 'Modernist' urban planning the city... or neighbourhood as if it were a larger and heralded many aspects of contem porary u rban architectural problem... is to substitute art for design - was a key proponent of this approach, life.' arguing that the city could never be a work of art In 1 988, Peter Buchanan argued that urban because art was made by 'selection from life', while design was 'essentially about place making, a city was 'life at its most vital, complex and where places are not just a specific space, but intense' (1 961 , p. 386). Concentrating on the all the activities and events that make it possi­ sociofunctional aspects of streets, sidewalks and ble'. parks, jacobs emphasised their role as containers of human activity and places of social interaction. The Synthesising the earlier traditions, contemporary same kind of detailed observation informed subse­ u rban design is simultaneously concerned with the quent work in this tradition, such as jan Gehl's design of urban space as an aesthetic entity and as studies of public space in Scandinavia (1 9 7 1 ) and a behavioural setting. It focuses on the d iversity William H. Whyte's (1 980) The Social Life of Small and activity which help to create successful urban Urban Spaces. places, and, in particular, on how well the physical Christopher Alexander's work also epitomises milieu supports the functions and activities taking the social usage tradition. As Jarvis (1980, p. 59) place there (Figures 1. 3, 1.4). With this concept notes in Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Alexander, comes the notion of urban design as the design 1 964) and A City is Not a Tree (Alexander, 1 965), and management of the 'public realm' - defined as Alexander identified both the failings of design the public face of buildings, the spaces between philosophies that considered 'form without frontages, the activities taking place in and · context' and the dangers of approaching city between these spaces, and the managing of these design in ways that did not allow for a rich diver­ activities, all of which are affected by the uses. of sity of cross connections between activities and the buildings themselves, i.e. the 'private realm' places. Alexander's ideas were developed further (Gleave, 1 990, p. 64) (see Chapter 6). in A Pattern Language (Alexander et a/., 1 97 7) and In recent years, 'official' definitions have also The Timeless Way of Building (Alexander et a/., embraced the concepts of making places, and of 1 979), in which he set out a range of 'patterns'. the public realm. In England, for example, planning Rather than 'complete designs', each pattern was policy guidance states that 'urban design' should a 'sketched minimum framework of essentials', a be taken to mean: 'few basic instructions' and 'rough freehand sketches' to be shaped and refined (Jarvis, 1 980, the relationship between different buildings; the p. 59). For Alexander, the patterns are intended to relationship between buildings and the streets, provide the designer with a usable - but not squares, parks and other spaces which make up predetermined - series of relationships between the public domain itself; the relationship of one activities and spaces. Even those patterns closest to part of a village, town or city with the other the traditional visual or spatial concerns of urban parts; and the patterns of movement and activ­ design, in which Alexander frequently cites ity which are thereby established. In short, the Camillo Sitte, are grounded in and j ustified by complex relationships between all the elements research and/or observation of people's use of of built and unbuilt space. (DoE Planning Policy places. Guidance Note 1, 1997, para. 74)  8 Public Places - U rban Spaces FIGURE 1.3 A place for people - Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia FIGURE 1.4 A place for people - Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon, USA  U rban design today 9 The Department of Transport, Environment and 3. Fit, the degree to which the form and capac­ the Regions (DTER, previously the DoE) and the ity of spaces matches the pattern of behav­ Commission for Architecture and the Built Environ­ iours that people engage in or want to engage ment (CABE, formerly the Royal Fine Art Commis­ in. sion) subsequently gave a more rounded definition, 4. Access, the ability to reach other persons, activ­ identifying u rban design as the 'art of making ities, resources, services, i nformation, or places, places for people': including the quantity and diversity of elements that can be reached. It includes the way places work and matters 5. Control, the degree to which those who use, such as community safety, as well as how they work, or reside in places can create and look. II concerns the connections between manage access to spaces and activities. people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric, and the processes Two meta-criteria underpinned the five dimen­ for ensuring successful villages, towns and sions: those of efficiency, relating to the costs of cities. (DETR/CABE, By Design: Urban Design in creating and maintaining a place for any given the Planning System: Towards Better Practice, level of attainment of the dimensions; and of 2000a, p. 8) justice, relating to the way in which environmen­ tal benefits were distributed. Thus, for Lynch the The guide identified seven objectives of urban key q uestions were: (i) what is the relative cost of design, each relating to the concept of place: achieving a particular degree of vitality, sense, fit, access, or control?; (ii) who is getting how much Cl 1aracter: a place with its own identity; of it? Cl >ntinuity and enclosure: a place where public ar d private spaces are clearly distinguished; Allan Jacobs and Donald Appleyard Q Jality of the public realm: a place with attrac­ In their paper 'Towards an U rban Design Mani­ th·e and success-Ful outdoor areas; festo', jacobs and Appleyard (1 987, pp. 1 1 5-1 6) Ec se of movement: a place that is easy to get to suggested seven goals that were 'essential for the ar d move through; future of a good urban environment': Legibility: a place that has a clear image and is easy to understand; 1. Liveability: A city should be a place where Adaptability: a place that can change easily; everyone can live in relative comfort. Diversity: a place with variety and choice. 2. Identity and control: People should feel that some part of the environment 'belongs' to them, individually and collectively, whether Urban design frameworks they own it or not. 3. Access to opportunities, imagination and joy: As part of the 'making places' tradition, there have People should find the city a place where they been a number of attempts to identify the desirable can break from traditional moulds, extend their qualities of successful urban places and/or 'good' experience, and have fun. urban form. It is useful to note the key content of 4. Authenticity and meaning: People should be five such attempts. able to understand their (and others') city, its basic layout, public functions and institutions, and the opportunities it offers. Kevin Lyrnch 5. Community and public life: Cities should encour­ lynch (1 981 , pp. 1 1 8-1 9) identified five perfor­ age participation of their citizens in community mance dimensions of urban design: and public life. 6. Urban self-reliance: Increasingly cities will have 1. Vitality, the degree to which the form of places to become more self-sustaining in their uses of supports the functions, biological requirements energy and other scarce resources. and capabilities of human beings. 7. An environment for all: Good environments 2. Sense, the degree to which places can be clearly should be accessible to all. Every citizen is entitled perceived and structured in time and space by to a minimal level of environmental liveability, users. and of identity, control and opportunity.  10 Public Places - Urban Spaces To achieve these goals, five physical characteristics ity and robustness (resilience). Bentley (1 999, or 'prerequisites' of a 'sound' urban environment pp. 2 1 5-1 7) has subsequently proposed a were defined: 'responsive city typology' consisting of the deformed g rid, the complex use pattern, robust 1. Liveable streets and neighbourhoods. plot development, the positive privacy g radient, 2. A minimum density of residential development the perimeter block, and the native biotic and intensity of land use. network. 3. Integrated activities - living, working, shopping - in reasonable proximity to each other. Francis Tibbalds 4. A manmade environment that defines public I n 1 989, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales space, particularly by its buildings (as opposed offered a framework for architectural design spark­ to buildings that mostly sit in space). ing an important debate. In response, an u rban 5. Many separate, distinct buildings with complex design framework of ten principles was developed arrangements and relationships (as opposed to by the then-president of the Royal Town Planning a few, large buildings). Institute and founder of the UK-based Urban Design G roup, Francis Tibbalds (1 988b, 1 992): 1. consider places before buildings; Responsive Environments 2. have the humility to learn from the past and During the late 1 970s and early 1 980s, a team at respect your context; the then Oxford Polytechnic formulated an 3. encourage the mixing of uses in towns and approach to urban design, published as Responsive cities; Environments: A manual for urban designers (Bentley 4. design on a human scale; et a/., 1 985). The approach stressed the need for 5. encourage the freedom to walk about; more democratic, enriching environments, 6. cater for all sections of the commu nity and maximising the degree of choice available to users. consult with them; The design of a place, it was argued, affected the 7. build legible (recognisable or understandable) choices people could make: environments; 8. build to last and adapt; Where they could and could not go. 9. avoid change on too great a scale at the same The range of uses available. time; How easily they could understand what oppor­ 1 0. with all the means available, promote intricacy, tunities its offers. joy and visual delight in the built environment. The degree to which they could use a given place for different purposes. The Congress for New Urbanism Whether the detailed appearance of the place made them aware of the choice available. New Urbanism is a term applied to a set of ideas Their choice of sensory experience. that appeared in the USA during the second half of The extent to which they could put their own the 1 980s and early 1 990s, including 'neo-tradi­ stamp on a place. tional neighbourhoods' (NTDs) or 'traditional neighbourhood developments' (TNDs), where the The approach respectively focused on seven key central idea was to design complete neighbour­ issues in making places responsive: those of hoods that would be similar to traditional neigh­ permeability, variety, legibility, robustness, visual bourhoods (e.g. Duany and Plater-Zyberk, 1 991 ), appropriateness, richness and personalisation. It and 'pedestrian pockets' or 'transit-oriented devel­ was later suggested that resource efficiency, clean­ opment' (TOO), where the central idea was to liness and biotic support be added, to include the design neighbourhoods that were explicitly related ecological impact of u rban forms and activity to transport connections and of a sufficient density patterns (Bentley, 1 990). Based on thei r experi­ to make public transport viable (e.g. Calthorpe, ence in practice and teaching, McGlynn and 1 989, 1 993). There was some convergence M u rrain (1 994) argued that four qualities between the ideas, including common preferences appeared to be fundamental - permeability, vari­ for mixed uses; environmental sensitivity; an inter­ ety (vitality, proximity and concentration), legibil- nally consistent hierarchy of architectural, building  Urban design today 11 and street types; legible edges and centres; walka­ Their criteria suggest the vibrant, lively and well­ bility; and a reliance on succinct graphic guidelines integrated urban form of cities such as San Flran­ in lieu of traditional zoning codes (Kelbaugh, cisco and Paris. As is discussed later in this book, 1 997). Their origins, however, show a much urban designers should be wary of being too greater diversity. Coming from an energy and envi­ prescriptive about urban form, since that which is ronmental design ethic, pedestrian pockets and appropriate in one local climate and culture may TODs were predicated on a regional transit and not be so in another. open space system, while TNDs grew out of a While these frameworks are sound in them­ concern to recreate traditional notions of city, selves, there is a danger of their treatment as inflex­ town, neighbourhood and architecture. ible dogma or their reduction to mechanical Formalised through the creation of the Congress formulae. They should be used with the flexibility for New Urbanism (CNU) in 1 993 and the publica­ derived from a deeper understanding and appreci­ tion of a Charter for New Urbanism (www.cnu.org) ation of their biases, justifications and interrela­ styled on ClAM's 1 93 3 Charter of Athens (see Chap­ tions. Urban design should not be reduced to a ter 2), New Urbanists were 'committed to re-estab­ formula. Application of a formula negates the lishing the relationship between the art of building active process of design that relates general princi­ and the making of community, through citizen ples to specific situations. In any design process based participatory planning and design' (CN U, there are no wholly 'right' or 'wrong' answers, 1 999). While explicitly recognising that physical there are on ly better and worse ones. Their q uality solutions alone cannot solve social and economic may only be known in time. Furthermore, frame­ problems, the Charter argued that 'neither can works may well stress the outcomes or products of economic vitality, community stability, and envi­ urban design rather than the process dimensions, ronmental health be sustained without a coherent suggesting qualities of 'good' environment or and supportive physical framework'. It advocated urban design, but not how these can be achieved. the restructuring of public policy and development The processes through which the u rban environ­ practices to support the following principles: ment comes about demand cognisance of, and sensitivity to, power dynamics in urban space and Neighbourhoods should be diverse i n use and its production. Urban designers therefore need to population. understand the contexts within which they operate Communities should be designed for the (Chapter 3) and the processes by which places and pedestrian and for transit, as well as for the car. developments come about (Chapters 1 0 and 1 1 ). Cities and towns should be shaped by physi­ As in many spheres, there is often an imple­ cally defined and universally accessible public mentation 'gap' between theory and practice. The spaces and commun ity institutions. experience of New Urbanism provides an illustra­ Urban places should be framed by architecture tion of this. Sohmer and Lang (2000, p. 7'56) and landscape design that celebrate local argue that New Urbanism can be considered to histon;, climate, ecology and building practice. involve three main components: (i) an architec­ tural style (i.e. nee-traditional, contextualiised The Charter also asserted principles to guide public architecture); (ii) an u rban design practice (i.e. policy, development practice, planning and design, prescribed street forms, street profiles, public at the scales of region (metropolis, city and town), spaces and densities); and (iii) a set of land use neighbourhood (district and corridor) and block policies (i.e. mixed-use, mixed-income, mixed­ (street and building). tenure, and transit-oriented development). These can be arranged in a pyramid, whereby those at the lower levels are easier to implement and those The frameworks at the higher levels harder to implement. The Each of the above frameworks has a different pyramid reflects the hierarchy of the use of f\Jew degree of prescription regarding desirable physical Urbanism. The New Urbanist arch itectural style is and spatial form. Lynch's framework is least often used without the other two components. prescriptive and is essentially a series of criteria to H ousing developments may, for example, feature guide and evaluate urban design, which leaves New Urbanist-inspired nee-traditional homes but others to determine the physical form. jacobs' and on standard suburban lots. While not as readily Appleyard's framework is much more prescriptive. adopted as the architectural style, the urban !. 12 Public Places - Urban Spaces. i. !" __ , i design component is more common than New the physical d ivides that purposefully or acci­ U rbanist land use policies. Sohmer and Lang, dentally separate social worlds; ·. r:: therefore, conclude that for 'true' New Urbanism, the spaces that development has passed by or ,. all three components must be in place. It could, where new development creates fragmentation J however, be argued that for 'true' New Urbanism, and interruption. ,, the 'architectural style' component is dispensable (see Chapter 1 1 ). She gives examples of such cracks in a range of locations. Examples in the urban core include those situations 'where corporate towers assert their THE NEED FOR URBAN DESIGN dominance over the skies, but turn their back onto the city; where sunken or elevated plazas, skyways Having clarified the scope of urban design, it is and roof gardens d isrupt pedestrian activity; and necessary to discuss the contemporary need for where the asphalt deserts of parking lots fragment urban design. Writing in the mid-1 970s, ian Bent­ the continuity of the street' (p. 91 ). Elsewhere the ley (1 976) saw the emergence of concerns for cracks include car-oriented commercial strips, with urban design originating in critiques of: (i) the no sidewalks or pedestrian amenities, and walled or urban environmental product; (ii) the development gated developments that 'assert their privateness process; and (iii) the professional role in controlling by defying any connection with the surrounding its production. Each of these critiques detected landscape' (pp. 9 1 -2). various kinds of fragmentation and a lack of Poor quality urban environments also come concern for the totality and overall quality of the about in response to various social and economic urban environment. trends, such as those of homogenisation and stan­ dardisation, of a focus on individualism rather than collective issues, of the privatisation of life and The urban environmental product and culture, and of retreat from and decline of the the development process public realm. jacobs and Appleyard (1 987, p. 1 1 3) There have been many critiques of the built envi­ comment that cities - especially American cities - ronment. The poor quality of much of the contem­ have become privatised through consumer soci­ porary urban environment, and the lack of concern ety's emphasis on the individual and the private for overall quality, are functions of the processes by sector. Escalated greatly by increasing car use, which the environ ment is produced, and the forces these trends result in a 'new form of city', that act on those processes. Influence and blame is one of closed, defended islands with blank and attributed - rightly or wrongly - to the develop­ windowless far;ades surrounded by wastelands ment industry. The authors of the DETR/Housing of parking lots and fast-moving traffic... The Corporation's Urban Design Compendium (Liewe­ public environment of many American cities has lyn-Davies, 2000) argue that the development become an empty desert, leaving public life process and the actors within it have become dependent for its survival solely on planned 'entangled' in a system that produces 'develop­ formal occasions, mostly in protected internal ments', but not 'places', constrained by the locations. 'predominantly conservative, short-term and supply-driven characteristics of the development industry'. Environ mental degradation also results The role of the built environment from the cumulative effect of incremental decisions professions by 'unknowing' u rban designers (see below). In a similar vein, focusing on the product rather The contemporary concern for urban design is also than the process of urban design, Loukaitou-Sideris located in critiques of the role of the various built (1 996, p. 91 ) discussed urban quality in terms of environment professions. As the apparent certain­ 'cracks', seeing the cracks as: ties of Modernism in architectu re and planning became increasingly q uestioned, the period from the gaps in the urban form, where overall the 1 960s onwards saw a series of crises of confi­ continuity is disrupted; dence in the main environmental professions about the residual spaces left undeveloped, under­ what they were doing and how they were doing it. used or deteriorating; Lang (1 994, p. 3) locates the birth of u rban design  - U rban design today 13 in the recognition that 'the sterile urban environ­ ments achieved by applying the ideas of the Modern Movement to both policy-making and to 1r ii!(R t SMN' Of URBAN · i ·: architectural design at the urban scale were a fail­ ' ; at. Jt; ,.... n tidnill regional and local ure in terms of the lives of the people who inhab­ :p9licy PP iatusta ited them·' - people who, in McGlynn's words · (1 993, p. 3), 'began to challenge the values and 'E:nsure that urban design is :9 1r la¢ if;at.. :.. ofp61itkal and administrative :· assumptions of architects and planners and to.. 1 aet:is1oi1.L. rff k cittivitY ·. ·. ,. distrust their ability to improve upon the spatial i: pklnni g system· to a do pt a and physical forms of pre-modernist urbanism'. ·. Problems of a lack of qual ity in contemporary development have also been attributed to well­ 'chlttiurt>ati design process, and k:t intentioned but ill-conceived public sector regu­ n'df 'f'leai::ti,Je antl n ative :nirQ pt a ive antl positive intervention. :. 6r eri R gulatlo!J.. q lation, and to development controls and · standards with little holistic awareness. Drawing ·.·· inspiration from john Ruskin's 'Seven Lam ps of. itlie :Wfand {Cl'ltre) c. l 945-1 973 and 'post­ Fordist' metropolis, c. l 975 onwards (source: Knox and Pinch, 2000, p. 69) growth' (see www.smartgrowth.org). Its advocates in the city; and the environmental costs of aban­ unify around the aim of trying to change undesir­ doning 'brownfield' sites, building on open space able impacts of (sub)urban sprawl. They typically and prime agricultural land at the suburban fringe, question the economic costs of abandoning infra­ and thus increasing pollution by necessitating structure only to rebuild it further out; the social longer commuter journeys (Environmental Protec­ costs of the mismatch between new employment tion Agency, 2001 ). Downs (2001 ) identifies four­ located in the suburbs, and the available workforce teen basic elements of smart growth (see Box 2.5),  Urban change 3:1 TABLE 2.2 Problems of car dependency ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC SOCIAL Oil vulnerability External costs from accidents Loss of street life Petrochemical smog and pollution Loss of community Toxic emissions such as lead Congestion costs, despite road Loss of public safety and butane building Isolation in remote suburbs High greenhouse gas High infrastructure costs in Access problems for those contributions new sprawling suburbs without cars and those with Urban sprawl Loss of productive rural land disabilities Greater stormwater problems Loss of urban land to bitumen from extra hard surfaces Traffic problems such as noise and severance (Source: Newman and Kenworthy, 2000, p. 1 09). and four g roups that claim to support it in Complex street patterns, reflecting ancient principle: patterns of settlement and long, slow g rowth. The presence of plazas and squares (many of 1. Anti- or slow-growth advocates, a1m1ng for pre-modern foundation) which remain impor­ slower urban expansion with reduced car­ tant centres of activity. dependence. High density and compact forms, resulting from 2. Pro-growth advocates, aiming for outward high levels of u rbanisation, a long history of expansion to fully accommodate future growth. u rban development, the constraints of defen­ 3. Inner-city advocates, aiming to prevent the sive walls and, more recently, strong planning d raining of resources from the inner city by regulations limiting lateral growth. outward growth processes. Low skylines, constrained by historic materials 4. Better-growth advocates, aiming for reasonable and technology, and by planning and building g rowth with reduced negative impacts. codes preserving the dominance of important buildings. Restructuring processes are mediated by sociocul­ Lively downtowns, due to the relatively late tural choice, by institutional structures and by pre­ arrival of the suburbanising influence of the car, existing physical forms. The cities epitomising and because of strong planning controls industrial (Chicago) and post-ind ustrial (Los Ange­ directed at urban containment. les) urban form were relatively free from the Stable social and physical neighbourhoods: Euro­ constraints of earlier patterns. Most cities, particu­ peans move house much less frequently than larly European ones, have extensive physical and Americans; and, due to past use of durable socio-economic legacies of earlier u rbanisation, but construction materials (e.g. brick and stone), not the levels of disinvestment that have plagued the physical life cycle of neighbourhoods tends many North American cities. Thus, while Los Ange­ to be longer. les-style restructuring and urban form may be a The scars of war: defensive hill-top sites and city future for some cities, it is not necessarily a future walls limited and shaped the growth of modern for all. Knox and Marston (1 998, pp. 449-53) iden­ cities. tify distinctive physical, social and economic Symbolism: the legacy of a long and varied features of European cities which both distinguish history includes a rich variety of valued symbols them from those of North America, and provide in the built environment and the historic area. some form of resistance to Los Angeles-style A tradition of municipal socialism: European restructuring: welfare states generally provide - or have  32 Public Places - Urban Spaces sition from an industrial to an 'informational' era. Precisely how cities and urban areas will develop in the informational age is, as yet, unknowable. Nevertheless, it has been argued that 'the very idea of a city is challenged and must eventually be re­ conceived. Computer networks become as funda­ mental to urban life as street systems. Memory and screen space become valuable, sought-after sorts of real estate. Much of the economic, social, political and cultural action shifts into cyber-space' (Mitchell, 1 995, p. 1 07). Another d imension of the development of elec­ tronic communications is the increasing potential for telecommuting - the ability to work from home, blurring distinctions between 'home' and 'workplace' - which has been hailed as both revo­ lutionising living and working conditions and allowing greater choice of domicile. Thus, rather than 'urbanity by necessity', it could be a case of 'urbanity by choice'. Telecommuting does not remove the need to design and create places where people want to live, work and play. Telecommut­ ing may also facilitate spatially fluid and complex urban lifestyles. Graham and Marvin (1 999, pp. 95-6), for example, note that most teleworking is done in the zones within and around the large cities, allowing people to go to the office on one or two days a week for face-to-face meetings. The informational age also takes further the ideas of Melvin Webber (1 963, 1 964) who extolled the freedom offered by the freeway system and the highly decentralised city. Webber conceived the 'non-place urban realm' (where 'place' refers to geographical location) that challenges the real estate orthodoxy of 'location, location, location'. Arguing that spread-out cities such as Los Angeles worked j ust as well as traditional high-density ones such as New York, he suggested that 'the essential qualities of urbanness are cultural in character not territorial... these qualities are not necessarily tied to the conceptions that see the city as a spatial phenomenon' (1 963, p. 52). In a celebrated provided - a broad range of municipal services passage, he concluded that: and amenities, including public transit systems and housing. the values associated with the desired urban structure do not reside in the spatial structure per se. One pattern of settlement is superior to INFORMATIONAL AGE URBAN FORM another only as it better serves to accommo­ date ongoing social processes and to further the The contemporary restructuring of urban form is non-spatial ends of the political community. I not just a consequence of the transition from an am flatly rejecting the contention that there is industrial to a post-industrial era. As Manual an overriding spatial or physical aesthetic of Castells (1 989) suggests, it is also part of the tran- urban form. (Webber, 7 963, p. 52)  Urban change :n Electronic communication could mean that future dent combinations of meeting places and public 'cities' are aspatial and ageographic. Mitchell spaces' (1 999, p. 97). They also note how, despite argues that: 'The Net negates geometry... it is the g rowth of e-tailers, a wide range of consumer fundamentally and profoundly aspatial... The Net services - tourism, shopping, visiting museums and is ambient - nowhere in particular but everywhere leisure attractions, eating and drinking, sport, at once' (1 995, p. 8). As it does not matter where theatre, cinema and so on - remains embedded in computers are located, merely that they are urban locations and seems likely to resist any connected together, the I nternet gets much closer simple, substantial substitution by 'online' equiva­ to providing universal accessibility (where every­ lents (1 999, p. 95). where is equally accessible) than does the car. A possible implication in terms of urban form is the Environmental sustainability situation described in Dear and Flusty's concept of Keno Capitalism. Dear and Fl usty (1 999, p. 7 7) Other factors influential in changing urban form argue that in 'the absence of conventional and include concerns about g lobal warming, about transportation imperatives mandating propinquity, pollution (especially from cars), and about the the once-standard Chicago School logic has given depletion of fossil fuel reserves. Factors such as way to a seemingly haphazard juxtaposition of land increasing fuel prices will change the parameters of uses scattered over the landscape'. They argue that locational choices. While some argue that this will the result, in terms of urban form, could be a land­ lead to more compact and centralised urban forms, scape 'not unlike' that formed by a keno gamecard, there is considerable debate about such predic­ in which: 'Capital touches down as if by chance on tions. a parcel of land, ignoring the opportunities on Breheny (1 997, pp. 20-1 ) suggests that the intervening lots... The relationship between dominant motive for urban compaction and the development of one parcel and non-development com pact city is the need to red uce travel by facili­ of another is a disjointed, seemingly unrelated tating shorter journeys and the use of public trans­ affair.' Here, 'Conventional city form, Chicago­ port (thereby reducing the use of non-renewable style, is sacrificed in favour of a non-contiguous fuels and vehicle emissions). Other motives are, collage of parcelised, consumption-oriented land­ that it can support retention of open space and scapes devoid of conventional centres yet wired valued habitats; encourage traffic calming and into electronic propinquity and nominally unified walking and cycling; make the provision of ameni­ by the mythologies of the disinformation super­ ties and facilities economically viable, enhance highway' (1 998, p. 81 ). social sustainability; and encourage social interac­ 'Places' or facilities are nevertheless interdepen­ tion. dent assets, and the direct rather than virtual expe­ Central to the argument that more compact rience of place remains important. If location in cities will result in less travel has been Newman atnd space (geographical location) matters less in loca­ Kenworthy's work relating petroleum consumptlion ' tional decisions, then the quality of local 'place' per capita to population density, for a number of may start to matter more. G raham and Marvin large cities (Figure 2.4). Higher densities were (1 999) contest the assumption that new commu­ found to be consistently associated with lower fuel nication technologies will 'dissolve' the city, argu­ consumption. Their ideas were criticised for, inter ing that IT applications are largely metropolitan alia, their focus on the single variable of density. phenomena. Noting how, as the value added in IT Hall (1 991 ) argued that travel distances and modal industries is shifting to places that can sustain inno­ splits depend also on urban structures, Gordon and vation in software and content - and, crucially, Richardson (1 989) argued that market mechanisms where the employees of such industries want to live would produce polycentric cities with relatively low and socialise - they cite a study of Manhattan's energy consumption and congestion, and Gordon SoHo and TriBeCa, which found that the raw mate­ and Richardson (1 991 ) found that, despite contin­ rial for such industries was 'the sort of informal uing d centralisation, commuting distances in the networks, high levels of creativity and skills, tacit US had recently tended to remain stable or to fall, knowledge, and intense and contin uous innovation which they attributed to the co-relocation of processes that become possible in an intensely­ people and jobs, with most work - and non-work localised culture, based on on-going, face-to-face - trips being suburb to suburb, rather than suburb contacts supported by rich, dense and interdepen- to centre. jobs and retail had generally moved  34 Public Places - Urban Spaces 60,000 United States FIGURE 2.4 Newman and Kenworthy's comparison of petroleum consumption per capita 0 25 50 75 1 00 125 150 1 75 200 225 250 275 300 to population density (source: Newman and Urban density in persons per hectare Kenworthy, 1 989) closer to, rather than further from, where people CONCLUSION live (Pisarski, 1 98 7). Various commentators have suggested other This chapter has reviewed the context in which sustainable urban forms, such as decentralised but contemporary u rban design operates. At the start concentrated and compact settlements linked by of the twenty-first century, the old 'certainties' public transport systems, and concentrated nodes about u rban form are challenged. The future will and corridors of high-density development (Frey, be different from now, in ways we do not yet 1 999). Many such patterns are based on aggregation know. Mitchell (1 999, p. 7) contends that the of relatively smal l-scale, walkable neighbourhoods. impact of the digital revolution will 'redefine the Susan Owens (from Hall, 1 998, p. 972) suggests that: intellectual and professional agenda of architects, urban designers, and others who care about the At regional scale, neighbourhood-sized units spaces and places in which we spend our daily (1 0-1 5 000 people) might be clustered to form l ives'. Pollution, global warming and the depletion larger settlements, with the units arrayed in a of fossil fuels may also provoke radical change. linear or rectangular form along a public trans­ Mitchell suggests that, while future u rban environ­ port spine. ments will retain much that is familiar, there will be At subregional scale, compact settlements, also a new layer consisting of 'a global construction of in linear or rectangular form, might have high-speed telecommunication links, smart places, employment and commerce d ispersed to give and increasingly indispensable software, [which a 'heterogeneous' land-use pattern. will] shift the functions and values of existing urban At local scale, subunits at pedestrian and cycle elements, and radically remake their relationships'. scale, medium to high residential density, and As a result, he suggests that: possibly high linear density, might have local employment, commercial and service opportu­ the new urban tissue will be characterised by nities clustered to permit multi-purpose trips. live/work dwellings, twenty-four hour neigh-  Urban change 3 5 bourhoods, loose-knit, far-flung configurations Urban design is not simply a passive reaction to of electronically mediated meeting places, flexi­ change. It is - or should be - a positive attempt to ble, decentralised production, marketing and shape change and to make better places. The recent distribution systems, and electronically UK urban renaissance agenda (Urban Task Force, summoned and delivered services. 1 999) and the smart growth movement in the US have highlighted how the ignoring of fundamental Future urban design might, therefore, increasingly urban design considerations such as connections, be about the design of mixed-use urban neigh­ accessibility and mixed uses, can result in the bourhoods and villages, business and employment creation of less sustainable, less socially equitablle, parks, leisure and entertainment complexes, and in the long term less economically viable urban offices, shopping malls and home-work units - forms. While types of urban form may have to be cheek-to-jowl or widely separated, and with seem­ rethought and reconsidered, it is clear that the ingly no overarching logic of land values providing structure of urban places matters. Furthermore, an even transition of intensity and density of devel­ there is a clear relationship between the spatial and opment. Terms such as 'city centre', 'suburb' and physical characteristics of a city, and its functional, 'periphery' may become less meaningful, and socio-economic and environmental qualities. The social and spatial fragmentation may continue, need, therefore, is to design cities and urban places with exclusive enclaves of wealth and privilege, but to work well, to be people-friendly and to have a also areas of intense deprivation and disadvantage. positive environmental impact.  Contexts for urban design INTRODUCTION boundaries. In general, the larger the project, the greater its scope to control or create its own context. This chapter discusses a set of broad 'contexts'..,. Nevertheless, whatever their scale, all urban design local, global, market and regulatory - that actions are embedded within and contribute to their constrain and inform all areas of urban design local context. All acts of urban design are therefore action. Although these contexts change over time, contributions to a greater whole. at any particular moment they are relatively fixed Encapsu lated in Francis Tibbalds' golden rule and are typically outside the scope of the urban that 'places matter most', is the idea that respect design practitioner's influence. Hence, in relation to for, and informed appreciation of, context are individual urban design projects and interventions, prime components of successful urban design. they have to be accepted as givens. They also Each place's unique quality is perhaps its most underpin and inform the discussions of the dimen­ precious design resource, with urban designers sions of urban design in the following six chapters. frequently operating within established, generally The dimensions constitute the everyday material of complex, and often delicate contexts. As discussed urban design, which urban designers have greater in Chapter 2, the ideologically motivated innova­ scope to manipu late and change. In practice, the tion and the 'clean sweep' of comprehensive boundaries between 'contexts' and 'dimensions' schemes were largely responsible for the rejection are blurred. In a general sense, however, while of Modernist ideas of urban space design. As a urban designers can make decisions about a devel­ response, there has been a preference for more opment's form or visual appearance, they cannot incremental development that respects local char­ change the fact that it is situated in a particular acter and context (Figure 3.1 ). local and global context, or that it occurs within a Not all contexts or places require the same market economy that is regulated to a greater or degree of 'contextual' response. Areas of highly lesser extent. Relating the four contexts and the six unified character generally require more respectful dimensions is urban design's essential nature as a responses, while areas of low environmental quality problem-solving process. The final part of this offer greater opportunity for the creation of new chapter, therefore, presents a discussion of the character. Most areas fall between these extremes. urban design process. Equally, while not of particular historic or aesthetic quality, they may also be valued for their social or cultural qualities. The concept of context must be THE LOCAL CONTEXT considered broadly. Buchanan (1 988, p. 33) argued that 'context' was not just the 'immediate surround­ Where urban design action involves the preparation ings', but the 'whole city and perhaps its surround­ of a public realm strategy, the site is itself part of the ing region'. It was not 'narrowly formal', but context. Where urban design action involves a devel­ included 'patterns of land use and land value, opment project, the context can be considered to topography and microclimate, history and symbolic include the site plus the area immediately outside its significance and other socio-cultural realities and 36  Contexts for urban design 37 aspirations - and of course (and usually especially which to explore the diversity of established u rban significant) the location in the larger nets of move­ contexts (Figure 3.2). Lang (1 994, p. 1 9), for ment and capital web'. example, suggests that all environments can be A study of London's urban environmental qual­ conceived of in terms of four interlocking compo­ ity (Tibbalds et a/., 1 993) identified eight key nents: factors forming a useful departure point from 1. Terrestrial environment - the earth, its structure and processes. 2. Animate environment - the living organisms that occupy it. 3. Social environment -the relationships among people. 4. Cultural environment - the behavioural norms of, and artefacts created by, a society. Terrestrial and animate factors include climate and local microclimates; the established natural environ­ ment; underlying geology, land form and topo­ graphical features; environmental threats; and sources of food and water. Social and cultural factors include a settlement's original purpose; changes of purpose and human interventions over tirne; patterns of land ownership; the culture of the inhabitants; relations with neighbouring popula­ tions; and adaptability in changing circumstances. In any one place and time, an 'urban environment' is part of a particular terrestrial context inhabited by a diverse animate community, incorporating multi­ FIGURE 3.1 layered social interactions producing a distinctive London's Urban Environmental Quality (source: Tibbalds local culture, and forming one among a prolifera­ et a/., 1 993, p. 22) tion of distinctive and complex urban contexts. FIGURE 3.2 New development in London's Isle of Dogs makes little reference to and is often not connected with its surrounding context. Despite significant investment in the area, the benefits are almost negligible in the areas adjacent to the key developments  38 Public Places - Urban Spaces It is also clear that considerations of context are in creating and managing the built environment, not just concerned with 'place' in a physical sense, urban designers shape, but do not determine, but also with the people that create, occupy and patterns of social and cultural life and interaction. use the built environment. Understanding local The last two decades, for example, have seen the sociocultural contexts and cultural differences emergence of 'cafe society', 'loft living' and a allows urban places to be 'read' and understood, culture of u rban living in the centres of many revealing much about the culture that created and British cities. This is a result of people seeking these maintains them. lifestyles and of the media and cultural industries The relationship between culture and environ­ presenting positive images of them - but also of ment is a two-way process. Over time, people's developers and designers making such opportuni­ choices create distinctive local cultures that shape ties available. and reinforce their environments, and are symbol­ Given the naivety of assuming that principles of ised within them. Based on prior experience, such good u rban design are universal and transferable choices are motivated by shifting criteria related to between cultures, urban design requires sensitivity goals, values (both individual and societal) and to cultural diversity. Furthermore, as processes of preferences. While people - and the choices they globalisation threaten to overwhelm cultural diver­ make - collectively create sociocultural contexts, sity, it is increasingly important to respect that they do not do so in a vacuum. Choices are shaped which continues to exist. While the discussion in by, for example, the ability and willingness to pay; this book is drawn primarily from a Western (and the constraints and opportunities offered by the probably Anglocentric) perspective, Barrie Shel­ local climate; the availability and cost of technol­ ton's Learning from the japanese City: West Meets ogy and resources. The contemporary urban envi­ East in Urban Design offers an important reminder ronment in the US, for example, is a product of that ideas about u rban space are culturally specific. choices predicated on relatively low motoring costs Shelton (1 999, p. 9) notes that, to most Western (and the expectation of their remaining low). In eyes, Japanese cities 'lack civic spaces, sidewalks, much of Europe, it is a product of choices predi­ squares, parks, vistas, etc.; in other words, they lack cated on relatively high motoring costs. those physical components that have come to be Technology, especially that of communication viewed as hallmarks of a civilised Western city'. He and transport, provides new opportunities. explains how, behind Japan's urban forms, there Although its impact on social and cultural life can are ways of thinking and seeing that are rooted be both d ramatic and radical, as change often deeply in the wider Japanese culture. Japanese occurs in incremental and subtle ways, we are less thinking about architectural and urban space, for conscious of it while it is actually happening and example, has g reater affinity with 'area' - as shown more aware in retrospect. The impacts of new tech­ by the importance of the tatami mat and the floor nology on social, cultural and economic life can be in buildings - than that of Western thinking, which illustrated by the example of the local high street, focuses on 'line'. There are also debates about, for where, until recently, ban ks were a ubiquitous pres­ example, 'European' and 'American' traditions of ence, often occupying architecturally elaborate urban design, usually in attempts to identify a buildings and offering face-to-face interaction distinctively American, rather than a transplanted (Mitchell, 2002, p. 1 9). Their role was affected by and remedial European, tradition (Dyckman, 1 962; the provision of automatic cash points providing Attoe and Logan, 1 989). banking facilities 24 hours a day, and as telephone As the economic, social, cultural and technolog­ and electronic banking further diminished the need ical context continually changes, so does the urban for high street branches, they tended to close, and environment. Change is inevitable and often desir­ their buildings found other uses. able. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, change in Such changes come about through the aggre­ the built environment tended to be slow and incre­ gate effect of individual market choices, based on mental. Since then, the pace and scale of change the availability of new technology. While urban has increased, with a corresponding increase in designers must respect and work with the grain of development pressures on particular places, and in people's sociocultural values and preferences, the homogenisation of places and contexts (see urban design both responds to cultural change and Chapter 5). Pressures include globalisation and is itself a means towards such change. Through internationalisation; standardisation of building their involvement in the development process and types, styles, and construction methods; loss of  Contexts for urban design 39 vernacular traditions; use of mass-produced mate­ The range of uses a development contains (e.g. rials; decentralisation; estrangement of people from mixed use, access to facilities/amenities, work­ the natural world; pressures for short-term financial ing from home). returns in the development industry and in the Site layout and design (e.g. density, landscap- decisions people make about their living environ­ ing/greening, natural habitats, daylight/ ments; the public sector's often unthinking and sunlight). homogenising regulation of the built environment; The design of individual buildings (e.g. built and increased personal mobility, and dominance of form, orientation, microclimate, robust build­ cars. These pressures, which have both local and ings, building reuse, and choice of materials). global dimensions, provide the link between local and global contexts. The concept of sustainable development includes not only environmental, but also economic and social, sustainability. Urban designers need to have THE GLOBAL CONTEXT regard to social impacts and long-term economic viability, as well as environmental impacts. Just as all acts of u rban design are embedded in There is often tension between the meeting of their local context, they are also inextricably human needs, aspirations and desires, and envi­ embedded in the global context: local actions have ronmental responsibility (Figure 3.3). If human global impacts and consequences, while global needs are considered to be short-term and 'urgent' actions have local impacts and consequences. and those of the environment long-term and Given warnings of global warming, climate 'important', a balance is needed between short­ change, pollution of the natural environment, and term and long-term interests. The problem is the the depletion of fossil fuel sources, the need for tendency to privilege short-term u rgent needs at environmental responsibility is an important the expense of long-term important ones. consideration for u rban designers one which -· Commenting about the short-termism of market impacts on design decisions at many levels, includ­ behaviour, the economist John Maynard Keynes ing those of: suggested that in the market's view the long-term did not matter because 'in the long-term, we are The integration of new development with exist­ all dead'. A different view is expressed in Chief ing built form and infrastructure (e.g. choice of Seattle's wise and poetic words: 'We do not inherit location/site, use of infrastructure, accessibility the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from by various modes of travel). our children.' If future generations are to enjoy the FIGURE 3.3 Supermarket, Greenwich Peninsula, London, U K. This development shows the all too frequent contradictions inherent in the concept, in this case an 'energy efficient' yet car-dependent development  40 Public Places - Urban Spaces environmental q uality and the quality of life throughout its lifetime - should be as self-sufficient enjoyed today, sustainable design and develop­ as poss