Friday, September 23, 2011

Urban Design: Nolli's Map of Rome














Nolli's Map of Rome, from Wiki's article.



A high-definition copyrighted group of the map in twelve sections is available for download, and hardcopy purchase, from the University of California at Berkeley depicting the 18th-century work by Giambattista Nolli, at this link.

The initial purpose of the map was simply to conduct a survey and produce an accurate depiction of the city. Being pre-automobile and in a heavily built-up environment, buildings and the spaces between them were the map's format. Streets were truly corridors.

The remarkable and compelling trait of the map, though, is its convention of showing in figure-ground format public spaces in white, with private spaces and structure in black. The flow of space without distinction between roofed-over publicly-accessible space and that which is open to the sky offers a surprising and profound manner of seeing the city.

While the distinction between "public" and "private" might vary in validity from time to time, the basic idea that a space could be visited as a commercial, religious or othewise public place supports the logic of Nolli's map.

It's graphically beautiful and I consider it a great learning experience for anyone with interest in urban design.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Gehry, updated.




Experience Music project, Seattle
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Frank Gehry's career seems to be hitting its stride.
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At 82, he is still at the center of some of the world's most interesting and acclaimed projects. Among his projects that have been built or publicized since this blog's previous Gehry post are the IAC HQ in New York (a very nice website from the link, by the way,) 8 Spruce St., also New York and the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas.


















8 Spruce St., NY
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Some people carp about Gehry's work. Anything done publicly is open to criticism, and some of it's usually valid, at least by some criteria. At the same time, Gehry is one of the most truly ground-breaking architects in history, and in my opinion his work holds lessons for anyone who would design buildings. It isn't necessary to design something visually similar in order to obtain the lessons and put them to practice. They can be useful in abstract ways as well as literal ones.
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One of the pet criticisms goes to the "arbitrary" nature of his building forms, pointing out that they may be unrelated to function. This is a cheap shot, because any building that uses form in a way that departs from mere functional accommodation would be vulnerable, and the world would be a much duller place without art. Architecture has been used as a means of expression in addition to, or even exclusive of, functionality throughout its existence. Gehry has referred to Alvar Aalto as an influence, and Aalto's work followed a similar path from concept to construction, celebrating the "arbitrary" expression of form and material, and the physical detailing necessary to bridge the possible distinction between art and architecture.


Cleveland Clinic, Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas

Related criticism can be that "it's impractical." Yes, it's always impractical to do something that exceeds functional necessity. Every age since the dawn of classical Greece has tried to find new and valid ways to express itself in its built environment.
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In the hands of less inspired, less capable hands than Gehry's, buildings of the ambition and general character associated with his work can be, and often are, failures. There is a sufficient appetite for distinction in architecture that much avant-garde work is commissioned that fails to meet even reasonable principles of design. Difference for the sake of being different, while not an inherently invalid proposition, can obviously lead to ridiculous and ill-advised work.

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Gehry follows a path of, like Aalto, exhuberant creation and celebration of form, followed by relentless refinement, then a hard-nosed pursuit of structural and weather-resistent physical integrity of the building. I think the refinement stage is the most singular, and most critical, in the making of his architecture. (A look at the design part of the IAC HQ site gives a nice, if greatly abbreviated, glimpse of what this entails.)

Sunday, January 30, 2011

2nd St. Ln.

Macon Mayor Robert Reichert asked me to study the potential of alley development in one of the city's downtown blocks. A newspaper account of the initial meeting with property owners and agencies is here.
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I had carried out a similar study for an adjacent block several years earlier for
Newtown Macon, a downtown revitalization group. That study is described here. Other priorities intervened, and that study was not developed. The block suggested by Mayor Reichert, however, immediately showed promise as having even more interesting and varied spatial character than that of the original block.

















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Alley entrance, 2nd St. Ln., at Cherry St. This alley is only 8 feet in width.
A small second-floor room attached to one of the buildings framing the alley
entrance is suggested as a gateway.
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Patina has its charm. On a limited scale, Macon has a tradition of placing storefronts and restaurant entrances in alleys.
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The advantages to doing so have increased since the migration of big-box retail stores to suburban malls. That is, with something like 200 feet from streetfront to alley, the depth of downtown buildings is much greater than is needed for specialty retail, restaurants and small establishments such as hair salons.
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If one of the old buildings is subdivided into two ground-floor businesses, one fronting on the street and the other on the alley, the retail space can be halved for each business. In the case of a building with its long side as well as its back fronting on alleys, much greater flexibility is possible, with small shops of twenty-foot width or even less all along the long side of the building.
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Alleys have unique aesthetic advantages. They are narrower than downtown streets. This evokes traits of European cities' narrow medieval streets, where perceptions are heightened by proximity to surfaces, storefronts and other people. Sights, sounds, smells of coffee and food preparation all build an experience that is likely to be superior to the routine pull-up-to-the-curb suburban shopping stop, and offer much greater social contact as well.
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Plan view. Brick paving, trees and shrubs indicated delineate the public amenities at the block's center.
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Since the establishment of suburban retail malls, tenants of downtown spaces are usually what can be called destination retail, places whose products are unique enough to cause a special trip to buy the things they have to offer. This is particularly true of an alley development, where a walk of a block or more may be necessary from a parking garage or street parking space. (Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter stories requires special knowledge to even gain admittance.)
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Bakeries, restaurants and pubs, art galleries, and wine shops are among the stores likely to find a good fit in an alley development. An urban bed and breakfast or small hotel can find a ready market amid the street life and bustle of the alley side of a downtown block.
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Above, viewed from higher level
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Below, eye level.
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Below, Cherry St. Ln. alley entrance at 2nd St.,
with suggested wrought-iron signage.
This alley, perpendicular to 2nd St. Ln., is 16 feet in width.
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Below, part of the existing block.



related links:

Old Pasadena

Michael Scott

New Urban Network

Note: All drawings and photos in this post are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or used without my written permission.