5 Tips for Designing Successful Public Spaces
“Streets and their sidewalks, and main public spaces of a city are its most vital organs”, said Jane Jacobs in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Public spaces are complex, organic things and design is only a small fraction of what goes into making a great public space. You cannot expect to do everything right initially. The best spaces evolve over time when you experiment with short-term improvements that can be tested over years. However, there are some tips and guidelines that can set the foundations for a great final design:
1. Keep it simple
In the first stages of your project, maintain a simple and adaptable design that will allow for future enhancement of the space as funds become available and the community more involved. A good design should be able to adapt to change. While buildings come and go, the streets and the public spaces last for a longer time. New developments and public realm improvements should be designed both to respect the existing context and to accommodate future changes.
2. Make it accessible for everyone
Pedestrian street in Copenhagen. Courtesy of Jan Gehl
A good public space provides ease, Mahjong Ways 2 safety, and choice to people when moving to and through places. Helping people to find their way around and understand how a place works is often overlooked but it’s one of the most important factors in design. Create paths and wayfinding signage to improve accessibility, orientation, and connectivity of spaces and functions. A clear hierarchy of streets and paths should be established to enable pedestrians, cyclists, and people with physical disabilities move around the city safely and quickly.
3. Highlight the character of the city
Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, Italy
Recognizing and valuing the differences between one place and another is the cornerstone of a good design. Protect and enhance the buildings, streets, materials, landmarks and views that are unique and give the city its identity. The appearance of the built environment defines an area’s identity and character and creates a sense of place and community belonging. High-quality contemporary design that has evolved from its context, including respect for the heritage, is also encouraged.
4. Plan for people, not for cars
Tverskaya, Main Street, Moscow. December 2011 and July 2013
The streets are the interface between the public and the private realm. A street should be designed to accommodate all sorts of functions, not dominated by one, as in our modern society by the car. If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. But if you try to incorporate the local car movement in streets with priority to pedestrians and cyclists, you can get amazing results in terms of quality and safety. By leaving your car at the limit of the residence area, and walk 100 or 150 meters to your house, crossing the neighborhood, you have more space for other creative open-air activities and a more human-centered public space.
5. Use all your senses
The human movement is by nature limited horizontally with a speed of about 5 km/h. The senses are actually orientated frontally and the sense of vision is undoubtedly developed horizontally. The social vision field is around 100 meters. This is the distance in which you can recognize human figures while in about 30 meters distance you can distinguish more detailed characteristics of a person. The sense of smell works best in distances smaller than 2-3 meters while the sense of hearing has a wider functioning range at 35 meters. With these in mind, try to create opportunities for those with sensory or physical disabilities to use smell, sound, and touch to enhance the user experience.