design of spaces by william whyte
TRANSCRIPT
DESIGN OF SPACESBY WILLIAM W WHYTE
Instructor: Dr. Anna Grichting - TA: Arch. Luzita ballPresented by Somaia El-Sherif
Sunday 22 March 2015
DAUP – Department of Architecture & Urban
Planning
ARCT421- Introduction to Urban Design and
Planning
Content page About the Author
The street life project
Project methodology
How cities use economic incentives?
The problem and start of the project
Effect of demography on the use of spaces
What attracts people in parks ?
Seating
Pedestrian and activity zoning
Accessibility
Relevance to the city of Doha
Doha Public Parks
List of References
About the Author William W Whyte (October 1, 1917 — January 12,
1999)
American urbanist, organizational analyst, journalist and people-watcher
He is considered the mentor for Project for Public Spaces because of his seminal work in the study of human behavior in urban settings
While working with the New York City Planning Commission in 1969, Whyte began to wonder how newly planned city spaces were actually working out –something that no one had previously researched. This curiosity led to the Street Life Project, a pioneering study of pedestrian behavior and city dynamics.
He always believed that the greatest lesson
the city has to offer us is the idea that we are
all in it together, for better or for worse,
and we have to make it work.
About the Author William W Whyte For sixteen years William Whyte walked the streets of
New York and other major cities. With a group of young observers, camera and notebook in hand, he conducted pioneering studies of street life, pedestrian behavior, and city dynamics.
Whyte and his team trained Super 8 cameras on plazas, streets, playgrounds, and other small urban spaces and simply watched, via time-lapse photography, what people actually did.
What they found led to changes in the way we view the social settings of cities.
City: Rediscovering the Center is the result of that research, a humane, often amusing
view of what is staggeringly obvious about the urban environment but seemingly invisible
to those responsible for planning it.
The street life project
Produced exceptional study of How people
used urban spaces
Provided set of urban design guidelines for
New York and have been used in many other
cities
Project Methodology
An Excellent example of how to do an urban research
•Observation
•Checking against hypothesis, previously
set
•Filming
•analyzing the films (Time-lapse videos)
•Creating circulation pattern from dawn to
dusk
•Charting how people used the spaces
•Taking notes during different times during
the day / all over the year
•Gender
•Couples or in groups
•Where did they sit ?
•Interviewing people :
•Where they worked ?
•How frequent they used the
plaza?
•What did they thought of it ?
How cities use economic
incentives ?
There is a strong market for additional office spaces in the central businesses districts of many cities
Zoning ordinances set limits on height and bulk of office buildings
Permission to build more office space than zoning allows is worth money for developers
New York city awarded developers “Density Bonuses” allowing them to build more office space if the private developers agreed to provide park and plaza space at the street level
While some developers worked hard to design attractive parks and plazas, others just wanted to build something that would get them the density bonus
The problem and start of the project
On most plazas there were few people
In the middle of the lunch hour on a beautiful
day the number of people sitting on plazas
averaged four per thousand square feet of
space – an extraordinarily low figure for so
dense a center
Effect of demography on the use of
spaces
A good new space builds a new constituency,
it gets people into new habits and encourage
them to use new paths
The best-used places tend to have higher than
average proportion of women
1. Location
• Major avenues, attractive side views, close to bus stations, pedestrian sidewalks huge flow
2. Sun & aesthetics
• Wasn’t a major factor in concluding popularity of plazas
3. Amount of space and its shape
• Not a major factor as well , refer to graphs
4. Seating area
• Whatever were the attractions, it will never induce people to use the space if there’s no spaces to sit
What attracts people in parks ? (FACTORS)
What attracts people in parks ?
Amount of space Location
Retrieved from “The city: rediscovering the center” book
Seating
Integral seating
The basic kind of seating built into place such as
steps and ledges
Sitting height
Benches
Chairs
1. Integral seating
Horizontal metal strip
with saw-tooth pointsJagged rock set into
concrete
Railing placed to hit your back !
2. Sitting height
Thanks to slopes , ledges usually have different height
Conclusion showed that people will sit at any height ranges from 30 cm to 90 cm , specified in the zoning (considering different age groups)
Human backside dimension , Ledges to be double-side used
3. Benches
Most often fitted in modular forms, spaced equidistant from one another, that looks pleasant in plan view
How benches fill-up ? First arrival takes the first
end, second arrival takes end of another benches, the subsequent arrivals will take any end spots that are vacant
4. Movable Chairs
The possibility of choice is important as much as the exercise for it
Moving for shade or for privacy
Grass, for picnicking, napping or sun-bathing and psychological benefits
1
2
3
4
Pedestrian and activity
zoning
Old NYs’ zoning codes called for “Pedestrian circulation areas”away from “activity areas”
Sunken and elevated plazas tend to attract low flow of people > new code called for 3 feet difference
More east the flow between the street and the plaza the more easy people will go to sit
Barzan Olympic Park ledges and wooden benchesMIA park movable chairs and view to
Westbay towersFixed chairs and tables at Al-Ruwais Park
Benches at the
pathways and at
the nodes of
passages at
different parks
Public outdoors parks and plazas observation of types of seating and activities
Parks for a comfortable weather day, benches with no shading canopies at Al Khesah Occasions Square at the right and the
green carpet park “Al-Bossat AL-Akhdar” to the left, what makes them special is the large space of green grass with little paved
walkways passing through
Abu Dhalouf Park provides Beach, barbeque and a
boat ride as well as shading canopies without fixed
seating
Al-Morona and Al-Moroub parks are attracting male visitors.
Activities such as football playing and workers usually taking nab
during rest times
Al-Rumiela park, benches to the back of the water feature
looking towards stalls and shops
Benches at Onaiza Park, shaded by trees, not considering
the back side & not comfortable for waiting for so long ideal
for quick chats
Colorful circular fixed seats oriented to have a full view of
different parts of the park
Benches at Park 65 works as waiting area, park is more of
urban playground to different age groups
The Huwaila Four park & Dahl El-Hamam parks
Fixed benches at corners and meeting points Benches looking to each other more for friends and family gatherings
Fixed seating area under canopies, zoning for privacy Theatre fixed space for family events
Aspire park
Fixed sophisticated
benches oriented to
best views are not
used much by people
Groups tend to sit on
the grass or families
bring their own chairs
Katara cultural village
High-back traditional benches aligned
with the esplanade
Coffee shop tables and chairs
on the beach
Benches along the secondary
shaded streets
Tourists using the theatre low-rise
walls for sitting
List of References
http://www.pps.org/reference/wwhyte/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Whyte
http://www.outwalking.net/architecture_and_design/
Whyte, William H.. City : Rediscovering the Center. Philadelphia, PA, USA:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 6 March
2015.
https://verdantcities.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/40180658/
http://www.justhere.qa/category/make-it-home/parks-recs/page/2/