4 Urban Open Space-4

Roshan Toshniwal

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This lecture comprises of importance of public realm and types of public spaces like water edges, parks, and public plazas. This lecture will also emphasise on the importance of growing one’s own food and how urban agriculture is important. Urban forestry is also an important for the urban eco-system to sustain. It acts as the lungs of the city and generally are surrounded by institutional areas.

The public realm is a vital aspect of the built environment that helps to give a city its identity. The quality of our public realm is vital for the success of creating environments that people will be willing to live in. A well designed public realm balances the mobility and access needs for all users and contributes to the efficient functioning of a city and its sense of ace. The quality of our public realm is based on experiencing the surrounding environment. Therefore, it is important that the public realm is safe, sustainable, and enriching.

The fundamental role of public space in modern society is to accommodate the interaction between the individual citizen and the community, ideally giving individuals a say in all things that have an impact on their lives, and vice versa, endowing the community with tools to pursue policies that enhance its common goods. Since this role presupposes the view that all people have equal rights, an innovation usually associated with the enlightenment, most scholars see the public realm as originating in the eighteenth century. It combines two distinct components.

1. It is defined by political, administrative and legal structures, and – a crucial aspect – the tools to inform the public (notably the press).
2. It contains all public spaces in the city, ranging from the urban level (streets, squares) to public buildings (notably those reserved for the public administration), but also the buildings where people assemble like community halls, auditoriums, temples etc.

   In cities like Washington D.C. there is a Public Space Committee that makes final decisions on applications for various uses of public space and areas within building restriction lines. The Committee is responsible for assuring that the temporary and permanent uses of public space for public and private purposes are consistent with the laws and policies of the government. Same ways the Urban Arts commission in Delhi were responsible create and enforce and maintain the boulevards and structural integrity of Lutyen’s Delhi.

Almost all major cities in the world from London, Paris to Kolkata, Mumbai embraces the waterfront. These water bodies have a dynamic and messy history besides the complex legacy of industrialization. Waterfronts were favoured sites for industry and shipping. As factories multiplied near shipyards and docks, where raw materials and commodities were easily available or delivered, the economy of the city grew inviting migration. The by-product of this growth resulted in accumulation of effluent in these water bodies, killing the marine life and choking the once clean water. Thus, the environmental damage not only deters attraction but becomes an eye sore. The best places are ones that people return to time and time again. The only way to achieve this is through a management plan that understands and promotes ways of keeping the public space safe and lively.

Thus the design of public space should feature amenities that make it comfortable for people to use. A bench or waste bin in just right locations can make a big difference in the manner in which the space is used. Lighting and landscape can strengthen the identity of the public space while highlighting specific activities such as entrances, or pathways. Public art could be a great enticement for children while manicured landscape with temporary or permanent exhibits helps in establishing a convivial setting for social interaction.

This flexibility of design and use of retractable or temporary furnishings improves the quality of space and requires very little iteration to make changes. Skating rinks, outdoor cafés, markets, horticulture displays, art and sculpture help adapt the use of public space based on seasons and needs. The success of public realm depends on its accessibility by foot. The surroundings of these spaces needs to have adequate lighting for people to feel safe besides it should be accessible by public transport.

A public space surrounded by lanes of fast-moving traffic will alienate pedestrians and the space would be deprived of people. The best places are ones that people return to time and time again. The only way to achieve this is through a management plan that understands and promotes ways of keeping the square safe and lively. It is also important to maintain and renovate the public spaces at regular interval to serve different uses. The operation and maintenance of such spaces requires a lot of funding which could be drawn through innovative models like advertisements, corporates maintaining it as a part of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Among everything most important is that public space has to be used by the community and people have a sense of belonging

Historically, public squares were centre of congregation, and it, traditionally helped shape the identity of entire cities. Sometimes fountains and statues were used to give these public squares a strong image. The image of the public squares is often tied to the civic/ government buildings located near vicinity, such as cathedrals, city halls, or libraries. Any great public square has a variety of adjunct smaller spaces within it programmed to attract people of different age groups and kind. Examples: India Gate in New Delhi. These can include outdoor cafés, fountains, sculpture, or a space for performances. These attractions need not be profound in its appearance to attract attention. In fact, some of the best civic squares have numerous smaller attractions such as a vendor cart or playground that draws people throughout the day. Manek Chowk, a square in the old city of Ahmedabad transforms from a parking lot in the afternoon to becoming an eatery zone at night. The Seagram building in New York, has a nice plaza and is often studied by modern day urban designers.

Visionary park planner Frederick Law Olmsted’s idea of the “inner park” and the “outer park” is relevant even today. The streets and sidewalks around a square greatly affect its accessibility and use, and so does the buildings surrounding it. An active, welcoming outer square is essential to the well-being of the inner square. Elements within the square should be visible from a distance, and the activities in the surrounding buildings entices pedestrians to move toward the square.

The public parks, especially the neighbourhood parks acts as a space essentially used by the community living in the neighbourhood. Thus the community have a large role in nurturing and creating the neighbourhood parks based on their needs and use. To design the neighbourhood parks, it is essential to observe how people use public spaces and find out their likes and dislikes. Based on these observations, the designer can incorporate changes for better functioning of the space. Even after the public spaces are built, the designer and the community should continue to observe them as it would teach them the ever evolving activities that the space nurtures over time. Creating ten good spaces, with ten things to do, offers a full program for a successful public park/ space.

At a city level the central parks not just acts as the lungs but also a repository of flora and fauna. This linkage to nature is essential for the urbanites which otherwise lives in a mundane surrounding. These well maintained city parks like the Central park at New York, the Regent’s park in London or the Lalbagh Botanical garden attracts not only the residents but also tourists. Thus the large public parks in the city serves multiple purpose including adding aesthetic value to the city.

When public spaces are successful […] they will increase opportunities to participate in communal activity. This fellowship in the open nurtures the growth of public life, is stunted by the social isolation of ghettos and suburbs. As these experiences are repeated, public spaces become vessels to carry positive communal meanings.

Although neighbourhood parks, water tanks and lakes are primarily used by the community, it is essential for the ecology of the entire city. The function of these spaces complements the resources of the surrounding land. Presence of a park in the neighbourhood will lead to incremental increase in the price of real estate. Although, these parks are public space the community living in the surrounding being the primary users should be consulted and included in the design and maintenance process.

Need for Urban Forestry and Urban Agriculture

Urban agriculture is a means to enhance local economies, improve environment and human health besides supporting food security. It directly integrates with urban economics and ecological systems by building upon existing urban infrastructure. Incorporating food production into densely developed and populated environments aids people in understanding where their food comes from and how it’s processed, while simultaneously creating environmental, economic and social benefits. Urban forests are important as the lungs of the cities. Their impact on local economies, social and environmental benefits they provide, to people are immense. It is also sometimes referred to as urban forest management, meaning planning and management of trees, forests, and related vegetation within communities which creates value to the space. In many Indian cities these exist as reserved forests, National parks or ecologically sensitive zones. In Mumbai the Sanjay Gandhi National Park or the Guindy National Park in Chennai are examples of the urban forestry. As per Indian State Forest Report (ISFR) 2013 report urban tree cover is about 16.4% of urban areas in India, but it differs intermittently between different cities. The denser cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai have lower urban tree coverage when compared to cities like Delhi.

The importance of tree has already been discussed earlier in the first lecture, and so the section on urban forestry and agriculture in this lecture does not emphasize on it. Afforestation using indigenous species of trees will ensure retention of the local ecology. Often trees of higher commercial value are planted for exploitation in the name of afforestation but that destroys the local ecology and is irreparable.

To conclude with design of the public realm is essential for the success and wellbeing of the city. Although it is often categorized as a recreational space, the above lecture explains that it serves beyond mere physical recreation. Well-designed open public space brings sanctity to the otherwise chaotic life in city.

Glossary

Public Realm: Public realm is defined as any publicly owned streets, pathways, right of ways, parks, publicly accessible open spaces and any public and civic building and facilities. It is the main space where civic interaction occurs and is often defined in contrast to private property.

Public Square/ plaza: An open public space commonly found in heart of the city, where the congregation of people gather. These plazas are generally hardscapes suitable for open market, staging rallies or concerts and are usually surrounded by small shops. The square also often have a fountain or statue which becomes the image of the city.

Landscape: It comprises of all the visible features of land, including physical elements of landforms, indigenous vegetation, human elements including built and unbuilt spaces, and transitory elements such as lighting and weather. Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor spaces to achieve environmental, social-behavioural or aesthetic outcomes.

Urban Forestry: The purpose of urban forestry is primarily to improve the urban environment. It advocates the role of trees as a critical part of the urban infrastructure. In many countries there are forest management departments to maintain trees, and preserve forest. They also conduct research and promote the benefits of trees and urban forestry.

Urban Agriculture: It is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in and around a village, town, or city which also involves bee keeping, horticulture, aqua culture, animal husbandry and other disciplines of agriculture. It is good to grow some part of our food by ourselves and thus the concept of urban agriculture is becoming popular amongst people living in urban areas. Urban agriculture provides fresh food, generates employment, recycles urban wastes, creates greenbelts, and strengthens cities’ resilience to climate change.

Web Links

http://ddot.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ddot/publication/attachments/ddot_public_realm_design_manual_2011.pdf

http://helmofthepublicrealm.com/

http://www.dovetailinc.org/programs/land_use/urban_ag_and_forestry

http://www.parksleisure.com.au/documents/item/2091

References

http://www.pps.org/reference/squaresprinciples/

http://www.pps.org/reference/11steps/

http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/45404.pdf

http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/cwp/other/Garrett_Square.pdf