Urban Design Reader：The social dimension.pdf

Section Four The social dimension TEAM LinG The social dimension 141 It is difficult to conceive of ‘space’ as being without lived – Greenwich Village, New York and Rittenhouse social content and, equally, to conceive of society Square, Philadelphia. The influence of this inevitably without a spatial milieu. The relationship is, therefore, subjective and impressionistic approach to investigat- best conceived as a continuous two-way process in ing urban design has nevertheless been profound, which people create and modify spaces while at the providing an early and devastating critique of same time being influenced in various ways by those Modernist urban space design. Part of the classic spaces. By shaping the built environment, urban urban design canon, the essence of Jacob’s book, and designers influence – inhibit, facilitate, precipitate and arguably her major contribution to urban design, is modify, but do not determine – patterns of human her emphasis on vitality. Focusing on the cardinal activity and, therefore, of social life. importance of a mix of land uses and activities to cre- This section presents a set of five chapters explor- ate lively, vital public places and outlining four condi- ing the social dimension of urban design – that is, tions she considered indispensable to the generation the relationship between space and social/urban of ‘exuberant diversity’ in a city’s streets and districts, experience. The first is from Jan Gehl’s 1971 book this selection encapsulates that contribution. Life Between Buildings: U