urban condition photos
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How to Please Nature and Delight Residents
Building a new neighbourhood always brings change to the natural landscape that it replaces. And the biggest change that goes unnoticed is what happens to the rainwater that falls on the neighbourhood site; unnoticed, that is, until it’s in the news, when a road gets washed out, for example. Other effects rarely make headlines because [...] -
The True Public Realm
Same city(Montreal), two streets and two strikingly different approaches to the public realm. Both streets are intensely public and encompass a range of uses but are predominantly gathering and socializing spaces. On the right, in the common, inherited grid, the public fucntion takes over the entire narrow sidewalk leaving no space for pedestrians. Shop patrons are exposed to two [...] -
“Urbanesque”:Town square amidst asphalt
Urbanesque: An imperfect mix of 19th century urbanism with 20th century technology. Like the Promenade Shops in Saucon Valey ( see earlier post) this square, “La Grande Place” , is surrounded by a sea of parking. While this inner suburb for 9,000 people has a main access road, a boulevard, no commercial uses flank [...] -
Main Street, Main Stage
Same day, time and Small Town. Two public realms centuries and realities appart. Main Street beautified and “fixed”, displaying history, small retail and street parking; it stands empty. All the attributes of good urbanism but no activity. Main Stage, at the end of the same street, is an enclosed 2-level shopping mall boasting affordable [...] -
Pattern Language Threads and Fabric design
Among Christopher Alexander’s patterns, some deal with the conflict between car and pedestrian movement. Pattern 49, proclaims looped streets as the most suitable type at the neighbourhood scale followed by connected cul-de-sacs. Pattern 50 asserts that the T-Junctions are the safest type. Pattern 51 sets forth the idea of pedestrian-only streets and pattern 52 [...]
