Piazza del Duomo | Milano (Italy)
“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 a great city. They are what makes a city alive.”
Amanda Burden (2014)
In her TED-talk about city design Amanda Burden has her concerns about the usage of the open space in the city.
A well-functioning urban square is pre-eminently an enjoyable public space. The accessibility of the square and the feeding of people from the surrounding pedestrian network are therefore essential for a good town square. Christopher Alexander poses that where there is the most activity, public streets will swell out into the public squares as a social point in the urban morphology.
To make it lively, the positioning of the square in the urban area is essential. Only with good positioning can there be a sufficient supply of people, as here at the Piazza del Duomo in Milan.