Defining Urban Architecture
In class on Tuesday the question was raised (in less general
terms) “Can architecture be the catalyst point of altering the everyday life of
the city?”
In response to this, I have another question: In this case,
what constitutes “architecture”? Does it have to be a building that changes the
life of the city, and if not, is it still considered architecture? I am
inclined to answer affirmatively to my last question – no, it does not have to
be a building, but yes, these urban acupuncture changes can and should fall
into the realm of architecture.
In undergrad, I studied in Copenhagen, Denmark for a few
weeks. While there, we visited the office of the Danish firm Gehl Architects. Gehl
is one of my most admired, currently practicing firms in the world. As they
say, their focus is creating cities for people. People are the starting point
for all of their work – their scale, movements, interests, behavior, and
engagement with their surrounding environments. One of the architects who was
giving us a tour made a remark that even three years later still strikes me as
incredibly poignant and thought-provoking; he said “nothing we design here is
above knee-height.”
The first thought most architects would have in response to
this is ‘”well how is that work considered architecture?” But I think that if we
broadened the scope of how we define architecture, this type of urban design
based solely around the behaviors of people can and should be considered
architecture. If this is the case, then the question that was posed in class
can be answered affirmatively.
The concept of designing nothing above knee height is fascinating but perhaps is a little extreme. Denise Scott Brown, among others, was a proponent of eye level perspectives as a tool to put oneself in the user's seat. Too many times in school or work we become too focused on the whole of a project and its aerial view or non-human perspective where the mass looks cool, exciting, etc. While it is near impossible to get into another person's head, offering a chance to see through the eyes of ordinary life is key. These images can then be passed on to users/ inhabitants to gauge perception. This is part of the reason architectural rendering has become so important, however simple perspective sketches can be equally or more effective in suggesting the character of a space while still allowing the viewer to project their own impressions into the space.
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