Human Scale
Architects push for control over every aspect of the user experience, whether the user likes it or not. Influential urbanist such as Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl argues against this desire for planners to play god. The user will control his or her experience, no matter how carefully planned or controlled the space happens to be. Gehl summarized this effect with a very clear scnerio, “Large green areas are crisscrossed by trampled footpaths showing how the inhabitants have voted with their feet in protest at the stiff, city plan” (Gehl, 197). Modern cities feature long, straight concrete streets, large out of scale buildings, dangerous highways and low population density. Designers should be more concerned with the design of the human scale as opposed to the “basilica syndrome” where planners layout massive developments at a large and unconnected scale. I think it is important for the architect or designer to put him or herself into he shoes of the user instead of designing at such a large overarching scale.
I do believe to some extent that the built environment should be geared towards the human scale; however, I also believe designing an an overarching scale creates an experience in itself. If everything was designed to accompany the human scale, wouldn't all spaces appear to flat and too uniform? That diversity within building typologies grants us the present of much needed hierarchy.
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