Streets with People : System-Analytical Consideration of Street-Scape Qualities

Abstract

Liveable cities of the future require a re-reading and re-thinking of space and new modes of sustainable and integrative distribution of urban spaces to ensure a climate fit and societal friendly environment. Our approach provides an innovative tool for re-conceptualizing urban public space. As a starting point, we are considering public street space not detached from the surrounding buildings that constitute it—but investigate & treat street space as an immanent part of the Urban Parterre (the fabric of streets, building ground-floors, sou-terrains & courtyards). [1,2] Based on the Urban Parterre Modeling (UPM) [1,3] approach—which will be enriched with Open Data focusing on a climate fit and societal friendly streetscape—a completely new categorization & systematization of public street space is undertaken. By answering questions like: How does the space itself actually work? What are its qualities in terms of proportions, geographical orientation, infrastructural supply, pavement and substructure, permeability of adjacent ground-floor facades, level of use & vacancy rate, crowd density… we will define a new urban space syntax.