Functional Dimension

FUNCTIONAL DIMENSION

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EFFICIENT PUBLIC SPACES


A sense of comfort is reflected by:

Environmental factors ( relief from sun, wind, etc ) Physical comfort (comfortable and sufficient seating) Social and psychological comfort (Security)


Relaxation: Trees, greenery, water features, and separation from vehicular traffic make it easier to be relaxed


Active engagement: It involves more direct experience with a place and the people within.

Triangulation: The process by which some external stimulus provides a linkage between people and promote strangers to talk to other strangers as if they knew each other.


Passive engagement: The need for an encounter with the setting, without becoming actively involved.

People watching: watch people while avoiding eye contact.


Discovery: People desire new spectacles and pleasurable experiences.

It depends on variety and change. These may come with the cycle of seasons, and they may also result from the management and animation of public space.

Ex. Lunch-time concerts, art exhibitions, street theater, festivals, markets, society events, etc.

Privacy

• The edge of the public space provides the interface between public and private realms and need to both enable interaction and protect privacy.

• In Urban Design terms, privacy is defined in terms of selective control of access and of interaction. It can range from solitude, anonymity, intimacy being reserve, secluded, not neighbouring and isolated.

• In functional terms, Privacy can be discussed in terms of Visual and Aural privacy.

MIXED USES

• The mixing of uses has become a widely accepted urban design objective. Areas may have mixed uses in either or both of two ways:

• 1.by having a mix of single-use buildings, or • 2.by having buildings which each contain a mix of uses.

• The concept of "mixed-use" as a discrete zone is predicated on the relatively recent practice of single-use zoning whereby different uses in different places are set by legislative mandate.

Designing for mixed uses. (i) I f a l l the potential 'mixed-use elements' are located at the edge of the development, it undermines the role of the centre; (ii) although geographically proximate, the uses are still zoned with roads forming the boundaries between uses; and (iii) more vibrant and sustainable neighborhoods and areas result from the complex interweaving of uses and by blurring the distinctions between uses (source: adapted from Llewelyn-Davies, 2000, p. 39)

If all the potential mixed-use elements are located at the edge of the development, it undermines the role of the center.

Although geographically proximate, the uses are still zoned with roads forming the boundaries between uses.

More vibrant and sustainable neighborhoods and areas result from the complex interweaving of uses and by blurring the distinctions between uses.


Llewelyn-Davies identifies the following benefits of mixed-use development:

Minimizing travel-to-work congestion. Greater opportunities for social

interaction. Socially diverse communities. A greater feeling of safety through more

eyes on the street. Greater energy efficiency and more

efficient use of space and buildings. More consumer choice of lifestyle,

location and building type. Greater urban vitality and street life.

The New Urbanize project at Florida was a development guided by typology rather than functionality and the USP of the project became “ uniformity of functions within a zone”. With an overall conception of the desired 3-D form, the master plan allocates each development site a particular development type.

HIGH-RISE DEVELOPMENT STANDING IN OPEN SPACE:• No private gardens, poor amenities directly available to the inhabitants.• No direct relationship between the buildings and the surrounding streets.• Large area of open space required management and maintenance.

STREET LAYOUT WITH 2-3 STOREY HOUSES:• Front and back gardens.• Continuous street frontages define the public space.• High site coverage minimizes potential for communal spaces.

URBAN PERIMETER BLOCK:• Surrounding buildings can be of different heights and configuration.• Buildings are arranged around a landscape open space.• open space can contain a community-based facility.• Commercial and public facilities can be distributed along the ground floor, maintaining an active street frontage.• space is available for uses as, rear gardens, communal areas or a park.

HIGHER DENSITY HOUSING IN HONGKONG, LOWER DENSITY HOUSING IN USA

Dallas’s Cedars neighbourhood

Tokyo City Aerial view

Llewelyn-Davies suggests a range of benefits from higher densities of development:

Social: encouraging positive interaction and diversity, improving access to community services.

Economic: enhancing the economic viability of development.

Transport: supporting public transport and reducing car travel.

Environmental: increasing energy efficiency, decreasing resource consumption, creating less pollution, reducing overall demand for development land.

Environmental Design:

THE MICROCLIMATE:

•Climate in open spaces of the built environment and / or around a specific building, affected by orientation, landscape, vegetation, adjacent buildings, etc.

Map of Microclimate on the school grounds

Different use of same space at different microclimatic conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

Thank you!

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Functional Dimension