The Link in Bringing the City and People Together with Urban Design

Architecture performs the new formulation and reproduction by formatting actions in order to accommodate to the existing environment. The basic practice of the architectural space is to reform the object of architecture on the site. People have built a natural environment for themselves by starting the first shelter since they are in the world. The built environment that undergoes continually a transformation and change has evolved to be closely associated with people and the lives of people. At this point, the relationship between architectural and urban voids came into prominence. So, what is the void? How is it designed? And how can the void contact its inside and outside? or What is the potential of voids?

In this part Lynch argues that people in urban situations orient themselves by means of mental maps. To un-derstand the role of these mental maps in our urban lives, he conducted a field research of the visual qualities of the cities of Los Angeles, Boston and Jersey in the previous chapter, and deduced that these visual qualities can conveniently be classified into 5 types of elements: Paths, edges, districts and nodes.

Cities are characterized by the patterns of streets and squares that define their arrangement, a concept that undergoes frequent changes since the establishment of cities 10,000 years ago. There are multitude factors that influence such changes with system of government, values, population size, values, artistic sensibility, building methods, design techniques, paving techniques, military considerations, and transport technology being the main determinants. Medieval architectural designs emphasized on rigid grid forms, that contemporary writers of the history of urban planning and design, assume the presence of grids even in plans where they exist in approximate forms. Absence of grids is often perceived as lack of planning. Nevertheless, it is critical to note that the complex patters of streets in medieval cities were neither random nor chaotic.

In this essay I will be comparing the urban and suburban spaces and their relationship of the spaces between the public squares with the streets and the buildings around its surroundings. The comparison will also talk about the different type of experience that is felt in these two environments.

Since the 60s a vast literature (Jacobs, 1961; Harvey, 1973; Mitchell, 2003; Sennett, 2006) has discussed the physical attributes of built environment for the purpose of creating lively and inclusive public spaces through the temporary appropriation.

Consider the spaces has interchangeable nature due to the current atmosphere of the place and take into account factors such as street sociability and relationships between people and

This has inspired me to explore the separate interpretations of ‘urban’, possibly exploring the contrast between the two- both the concepts and the effect they have on the shape and style of designs.

Urbanism demonstrates the cultural and material aspects of urban and city living. An urban condition is basically a city plan. The space and community play a valuable role in the creative process of designing an urban condition. Designing the spaces between the buildings is just as important and designing the building itself. In the following essay, I will discuss the main critical elements necessary to design a spatially rich urban condition.

In ten years I see myself changing urban communities throughout the world addressing the issues of crowding, environmental injustices, and carbon sequestration projects through the lens of social justice. I would like to reduce class division through collaborative initiatives between existing businesses and the development of new businesses filling in the lack of resources within those communities. I would like to contribute to revitalization efforts that reimagine the use of space in urban areas to address concerns of community while intersecting the use of spaces with outdoor art gallergies that feature local artists and crafters in the region.

Overall, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces says that in order for an area to be successful it must be light enough, not too vast, have adequate seating, water that is accessible, food wither it be café’s or food carts, view of the street, not fenced off from the street, not too high above or too low below the street, ample amount of trees, and something to bring people together. Whyte shows how places that have all or most of these components are the most successful as being an urban space while areas that lack these components end up being unused and unsafe. Whyte also shows how a successful space works for not only one demographic but many. He shows children, business people, families, friends, lovers, and even homeless people using the area to prove how those areas

Just by the sound of it, it seems so easy to understand that a population that is of diverse nature definitely requires a corresponding diverse environment upon which it can thrive and succeed. This philosophy rules out the whole idea as to why architects are continuing to come up with one size fits all design environments. The question is as to whether their main intention is to create and or trying to ensure equality. But as already set, the society is composed of a diverse population, which is a reason enough as to why diverse architectural designs are important for the masses. Critics may attribute this trend to the notion that methods of construction as well as the costs associated with diverse designs, alongside the respective site restrictions tend to make the diverse environment to become infeasible both economically as well as physically. On the contrary in this view, this way of thinking only makes it difficult for the designers to understand the manner in which the diverse populations are affected by the buildings.

“The best that can be said of the conception is that it did afford a chance to experiment with some physical and social planning theories which did not pan out. “ This quote reflects Jane Jacob’s philosophical ideas in an attempt to criticize the social housing’s design approach and its associated urban planning in modern era. “The physical and social theories” outlines the urban planning idea of social housing (Utopian idea) and according to Jane’s statement, such experiment of these theories were deem to be unsuccessful. It is inevitably certain to some extent that a provocative statement towards modern era social housing approaches would hold true due to the minimal success the plans brought to the city, such as solving the working class commendations temporarily. Nevertheless, it is a failure to deliver long-standing social improvements corresponded with the increasing suspicion of modernism, one cannot simply attribute ill fate to its “innovative physical features” (As Jane said, the Utopian and Utopia), but should rather considered a range of other elements in the larger aspect of society: factors such as difficulty of racial integration, problems of financing and management, lack of bridging between architecture and planning, as well as the increasing preference of suburban lifestyle from the rising mid class. These problems reflected evidently in some stereotypes of social housing communities built in the modern era such as Pruitt-Igoe, sunny side Gardens, Paul

In the era of constant networking and relaying of information, the world has become a much smaller place. The shrinking world has somewhat become a familiar spectacle of identical fads and lifestyles. At least in the developed countries, globalisation has given birth to homogenous consumer culture. Demonstrated not only by the expansion of multi-national cooperations such as Apple and Starbucks but also by the indistinct architecture. It is a common sighting in urban cities today to see the identical steel, concrete and glass structures. This occurrence might be innate due to the easy exportation of concepts and architects, however not obligatory. Whilst advancing towards a modern society, architects have adapted this “universal style” of architecture that fails to represent the unique topography of different cities. Architects have the choice to either “repeat the same building everywhere or to push ourselves forward, to create an encounter between ourselves and the local culture” (Koolhaas, 2012). If the notion of Critical Regionalism were to be practiced by architects through the integration of the local culture with modern techniques, it could potentially return the missing identities of these cities.

Urban transformation, has been rapidly increasing at a global scale as witnessed in the past century. Crossing the 50th percentile, the global population is moving towards inhabiting purely urban spaces. Amid a post-industrial world, it is crucial the ecological knowledge be applied to building systems to solve urban environmental needs and concerns. Ian McHarg, in his seminal text Design with Nature, suggests that landscape should be the overarching principle that governs urban space . The incorporation of green infrastructure such as native vegetation, natural materials, and fabricated soils, into urban spaces is crucial in improving overall human ecology

‘defies linguistic description, and its intense engagement of feeling and sensitivity to context. whereby the architectural space becomes the arena for an experience that melds physical and immaterial/mental coordinates. What their work has in common is an immersion in the present and the displacement of cognition by experience.