“It is generally realized from personal experience that these irregularities do not have an unpleasant effect at all, but on the contrary, they enhance naturalness, they stimulate our interest, and, above all, they augment the picturesque quality of the tableau.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
One of the best known …
“Generally speaking, the more open the corners of the square, the less the sense of enclosure, the more build up or complete they are, the greater the feeling of being enclosed”.
– Cliff Moughtin (1992)
Earlier we discussed the need of enclosure. I posed that every pleasant square has a high degree…
“That the center of plazas be kept free.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
Step into the world of urban planning with a purpose! Camillo Sitte’s words make a clear appeal in “City Planning According to Artistic Principles.” Old towns maintained a harmonious balance, where statues, fountains, and churches gracefully adorned the square’s edges. But times have …
“The architect imagines and think primarily in terms of the three-dimensional mass, a volume. Space as a three-dimensional void has been considered rather as a by-product.”
– Paul Zucker (1959)
Zucker’s quote captures the essence of urban square design. It’s not just about arranging a two-dimensional surface …
“Triangular plazas are always unattractive, of course, because in them any deception of the eye is impossible, and the building lines of the houses which face on them intersect awkwardly.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
Much has been written about square shapes, and the most common form resembles a rectangle rather…
“The life of a public square forms naturally around its edge. If the edge fails, then the space never becomes lively.”
– Christopher Alexander (1977)
In his 1977 work, “A Pattern Language”, Alexander introduces a practical language for shaping the built environment. Within this language, known as patterns, he outlines solutions to recurring…
“Most often our perception of the city is not sustained, but rather partial, fragmentary, mixed with other concerns. Nearly every sense is in operation, and the image is the composite of them all.”
– Kevin Lynch (1960)
Lynch is known for his work on the perceptual form of urban environments. He was…
“Many of our modern public squares, though intended as lively plazas, are in fact deserted and dead”.
– Christopher Alexander (1977)
Do you consider the Plaça de la Mercè in Barcelona as a lively plaza? Of course, there are times when there are a lot of people here. There are …
“Enclosure is the end product of traffic, this is the place to which traffic brings you. Whiteout enclosure traffic becomes nonsense”.
– Gorden Cullen (1961)
There is a difference between closure and enclosure. Closure is the creation of a break in the street. This break does not block out the sense of…
“Cities are fundamentally about people, and where people go and where people meet are at the core of what makes a city work. So even more important than buildings in a city are the public spaces in between them. (…) Lively, enjoyable public spaces are the key to plan…
“From the artistic point of view a merely unbuilt piece of ground is not yet a city plaza. Aesthetically speaking, a great deal would still have to beaded in embellishment, in meaning, and in character.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
Not every unbuild piece of ground in a pedestrian area is (automatically) a…
“We are well aware of the effect of an old plaza, but how to produce it under modern conditions is not understood because we are no longer cognizant of the relation between cause and effect in these matters.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
Through the last 135 years many great urban designers analysed the qualities of…