Leuphana Digital School 2st Assignment Planned Cities

CORNERS AS PARADIGME OF URBAN DIVERSITY

Suellen Costa, Nadia Gonzalez, Maria Alejandra Pucheta

The cities do not explain their past but they contain it, as hand lines, in their corners Italo Calvino, Invisivel Cities, 1972 Living public spaces as collective identity On Assignment 1 we concluded that Collective space is what integrates the citys elements, they belong to the symbolic field, as a cultural product of their community. And to develop real Collective Spaces it is essential to create Collective Identity, to raise the sense of responsibility, community involvement and people's creative potential. One of the cities analyzed under this Significant Detail was Brasilia, the spatial segregation of circulations between pedestrians and vehicles, treated under the guise of "city for the automobile". Now we intent to go in depth in this Key Theme by contrasting and analyzing Barcelonas configuration of public spaces and focusing on the concept of interways.

Urban scale, Human scale Curiously, one year after Brasilia was founded, Jane Jacobs wrote her renowned critic about urban planning ideology of Modernism The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961 - that, in her opinion, the "zoning" and the emphasis in the construction of individual buildings would put an end to Urban Space and City Life; since Modernism put a low priority on quality of public spaces and pedestrianism. Looking to the city today, it is clear what Jacobs said. In Brasilia corners and intersections are designed to facilitate cars flow; this way streets and highways divide people and space. Actually Pedestrians don't have an easy task to get to those places (most of the time they have to cross at least six lines of traffic, bridges, etc), and almost every four-way intersection is a cloverleaf interchange. In Barcelona corners and intersections are designed altogether with streets and avenues to be livable by people; theres a clear interaction between citizens and public spaces; which generates a dynamic journey through the city.

Leuphana Digital School 2st Assignment Planned Cities

The former has a Monumental scale, while the later was conceived with Human one.

The corner and the city Across urban form, the way the streets intersect among them is one of the characteristic that influences our image of the city. In Eixample- Barcelona, Cerd has worked extensively with the corners and opening of the blocks as an essential issue, he intented to present them not only as geographical, social and economic crossroads, but also the special condition with what architecture materialize them; moreover as intersection of construction, flows, movement and energies. The 20 meters high square blocks with chamfered corners and the streets broaden at every intersection, forms a sort octagonal squares. Cerd defines the inflexion as a simple change in the sense of the street, breaking the sidewalk continuity to get to a re-qualified, well ventilated and sunny open space. This great void, outlined by corners, place mix of uses: commercial, housing, monuments, transport; and so express the nature of the city as places for meeting, exchanges, social expressions, overlap, conflict and diversity. These extended corners increased the value of urban art and architecture, specially on the corners where buildings -such as Gaudis- would be now more visible and admired, becoming symbolic and giving identity to the neighborhoods. Diversity of facades and people meet at the corners and cause innovation and encouragement. In this way, the corner constitutes a proposal from diversity. Difference+coincidence could be a a new definition for corner; and also for city. Learning from the past Therefore, according with our key theme, what would be the most important factor to be considered? The answer is easy: people. Although, Brasilia and Barcelona has "redesigned" corners, what really differs one from another is how consider people in the urban plan. So, what have we learned from the past? The city of the future should not be define by two dimension grids or flatten perspectives. Are new planned cities considering intersections quality and human scale as such important element for public spaces and collective identity?

Leuphana Digital School 2st Assignment Planned Cities

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Leuphana Digital School 2st Assignment Planned Cities

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Leuphana Digital School 2st Assignment Planned Cities

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Bibliography
CALVINO, Italo. Invisible Cities. London: Secker & Warburg. 1972. EATON, Ruth. Ideal Cities. Utopianism and the (Un)Built Environment. London: Thames & Hudson. 2002. JACOBS, Jane. Death and life of great American cities. New York: Random House. 1961. ROSENAU, Helen. The Ideal City. Menthen & Co. Ltd. London and New York, 1980 TAFURI, Mamfredo. Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development [Paperback]. 1979 http://www.escolessas.com/escolessas/laie/recerca/bat/ensanche/ensanche.pdf http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=john_mullin http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=crp_fac "Complementary Material - Table of Comparison Complete" http://www.flickr.com/photos/susucosta/8469302346/sizes/h/in/photostream/