The Socia l L i fe

of Smal l

Urban Spaces

M O H D D A N I S HM.Arch 1st sem (Urban regeneration)

J a m i a m i l l i a i s l a m i a

By William H.Whyte

STREET LIFE PROJECT started in 1970 by William “Holy” Whtye for

study of small urban spaces to find why some

urban spaces work and why others not.

Regularity of chance meetings

Street conferences

Behaviors of people on streets

STUDY

• City spaces

• Talking with people

• Making notes

• Photography

• Film making

• Measuring heights of benches and ledges

• Writing articles

• Discovering public place that people use and don’t use & why.

Manhattan, New York

• Happiness space

• Small urban space

• Ledge small parks

• Paley park

• Greenacre park

• Farragut circle

• Dupont circle

• Ledges along the streest and fountains

‘W O R K I N G

and

DON’T W O R K I N G S P A C E S ’

WHAT

give LIFE

KILLS a S P A C E ?OR

WHAT

DRAWS PEOPLE

KEEP THEM OUT?OR

Spaces designed to keep out

U N D E S I R A B L E S

and

attract people FREE OF PROBLEMS.

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS:

• Sun

• Trees

• Water

• food

• Most of al seats

SMALL spaces can make LARGE IMPACT on

quality of lives to see if we can take advantage

of small urban spaces if we design new one

well & fix the existing one.

Block on 101st street in east

Harlem

Children play on streets

with their mother looking at

them from stoops and fire

escapes, visual connection

makes them feel safer

CITY SPACES

• urban crowding

• Lack of crowding

• High density

• Sheered space empty

• Heading-street as a play area

SEAGRAM BUILDING

77 water street (swinger plaza)

ta l k ing

“NOTHINGt a l k ”

Key factors defining plaza:

• Surrounding enclosure

• Shape of plaza

• Amount of space

• Sittable space People tend to sit where there

are places to sit.

Seating not materially

comfortable

but SOCIALLY.

C H O I C E S … . .• In front or back or to the

side

• In the sun or shade

• In groups or alone

Giving choices to sit making flat surfaces do double

duty as table tops or seats

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

Making sitting spaces

giving ledges in plaza

valued simplicity and

was a success unlike

of aesthetics and

formal sittings.

• Steps were made easy to sit on

• 600 ft of ledge sittable without a bench on it.

• 17 inches height is good to sit on which goes upto 3 ft.

SITTING SPACE

• Single seating 17”

• Back to back 36” is comfortable sitting.

• Benches are not good for sitting sometimes old

style park bench may work

• Movable chairs are most successful it gives

user flexibility of movement and direction.

h o w m u c h ?More though to probable

pedestrian flows placement of

steps trees behind baffles, sun

traps & even waste baskets

6 to 10 % of the total

open space should be given for

sitting.

Bryant Park Renovations

Movable chairs permit many sitting opportunities to facilitate

differing activities

SEAGRAM PLAZA • People sitting where there was sun

• Southern exposure is of critical importance

PA L E Y PA R KSun light was curtailed but loss was a negotiable

it sustained without it.

• Quality of experience

• Which can be much greater when there is sun.

SUN

+

WIND

+

TREES

+

WATERChoices…

Sun,

shade or

In-between

PA L E Y PA R K

Designed by Zion &

Breen on the site of

the former Stork

Club (just off 5th

Avenue at 53rd

Street

Bryant Park

Note the high density of users on a warm summer day

S o l u t i o n s

• acquiring air rights, lowering height of building

on southern edge to open up to sun light

• Rights have more leverage

• Sell rights to cast minimum shadow to open

spaces

• Permitting other bulding to rise higher than

normal height.

• Borrow sun with help of reflection usng glas

and stainless stel in buildings

• As a result spaces became alive where there

was no light before.

Example : glaze plaza

Wind• Plaza works efficiently in absence of wind.

GREENACRE PARK

• Three side enclosed one side open

• Extreme cold weather area face lack of feet in plazas

due to wind flowing through it.

• But greenacre sustain with sun and blocking the wind

with appropriate orientation of buildings around.

O N E B A N K P L A Z A , S E A T T L E ,

C H I C A G O

• Windiest place not because of local wind but of draft

down the side of giant John Hancock and Sears tower

T R E E S A treet for every 25 mtr walk 3.5” dia.

• An open space of 5000 feet, a

minimum of 6 trees.

• People feel cuddled, protected very

much as they do under awnings of a

street café.

• Overlapping trees provide

combination of shade and sunlight.

C O M B I N E trees and

sitting spaces

W AT E R• Water falls

• Water walls

• Rapid sluiceway

• Tranquil pools

• Water tunnels

• Meandering brooks

• Fountain of all kinds

Lacking access

Look & feel it

Splash your hand deep feet.

Swimming

Away from water

fencing water

fountain is it a

SOLUTION?

PALEY PARK WATERFALL

• Bangs up street noise

• Make conversation segregated

• No more congenial.

F O O DFood vendors always put the space

to live accumulating people all

around and inviting more people.

• Cover pedestrian trafficSeed a place

Put

FOOD A C T I V I T Y

ROCK FELLER PLAZA

15 vendors

• Vendors became caterer of

plaza activity

• City’s outdoor life

• Fill a void, remove them life

of space goes with them

• Purveying food outdoor but

eating as well .

REGENERATION OF

ANDREW PLAZA

PALEY AND

GREENACRE PARK

Street we see a big party

Food to repeat draw

people & they draw more

people

20%to food activities

S T R E E T S

Good plaza starts with street corner

• Traffic between plaza and steert

• Retailing stores, windows with display

signs to attract your attention , doorways

people going in and out.

Relationship to streets is

I N T E G R A L

• 49 TH STREET THE AVENUE OF

AMERICA Along side of Mc Graw Hill building.

• Street along PALEY PARK integrated so well

virtually a part of it.

success

o BRYANT PARK cut from the streets by

WALLS

• Dangerous, hub of dope dealers & muggers

• Fence & shrubbery.

o KANSAS HIGH central park has WALLS people

even don’t realise if its there or not.

o ROCKFELLER PLAZA is sunken “ a stage

without theatre”

failure

Characteristics of best used plazas:

higher proportion of groups rather than

solitary individuals

Greater proportion of female users

Variability over day, week, season

”People are most likely to sit where there are

places to sit”

Design Criteria for Plazas

Movable chairs (benches are less desirable)

Seating area should be approximately 10% of

the total open space

Protection from sun, wind and noise (use

trees and water)

Availability of food (snack bars, vendors,

tables & chairs)

Related to the street, near the action

Design Criteria for Plazas:

“Triangulation: presence of

people or things that induce

strangers to talk with each

other

Surveillance comes from

vendors, newsstands,

building employees.

Dealing with “undesirables”:

make the area appeal to

anyone

Bryant Park Renovations

Movies, ice skating, & a cafe draw people into the park

Design Criteria for Indoor Spaces

(e.g., atria, galleries, courtyards, arcades, concourses, indoor plazas)

Seating

Food

Retail stores

Public toilets

Presence

THANK YOU….