Human dimension & cities - The Human Scale

1Built environment & land-use planning - End term assignment

Human Dimension & City

T H E H U M A N S C A L E

“human scale is something which takes its point of departure in the human body and the human senses”

– Jan Gehl

by - Pratham Pincha & Jay Parikh – M.Plan – CEPT University – 2013-2015

2Built environment & land-use planning - End term assignment

Human is a Social Animal

He is considerably dependent on others for his material/physical & emotional needs

So he lives in Organized groups for his sustenance

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But it is not so simple!It has other 3 dimensions that

defines the group

z

yx

I. Demography

• The number of people that form this group

II. Size

• The expanse of the space they cover

III. Heterogeneity

• Variety in that group

Defining an scale that comprises of all 3 of these variables in ideal quantities, has been the biggest

prevailing challenge for the mankind!

Built environment & land-use planning - End term assignment

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The Human Scale

Defining an scale that comprises of all 3 of these variables in ideal quantities, has been the biggest

prevailing challenge for the mankind!

a b c

• In this universe there are a series of similar process at various scales

• One of these scales determines the physical & non-physical world of human significance

• And it possesses all that is needed and of significance to the human race

Also lets forget cities, spaces etc. for a moment


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Now, let us understand how these 3 dimensions of human scale: population, size & heterogeneity in settlements affects:1. An individual2. And his relation with the rest of the city

• The Human in a much larger physical extents like big cities can develop affinity and sense of belonging only for smaller physical extents & people

• With the increase in city size and population the share of ‘direct relationship’ (recognizable and may be unpurposeful) between people decreases & indirect relationships (purposeful) increases.

Social quotient is a function of city size


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c i t y s i z e │ p o p u l a t i o n │ h u m a n s c a l e │ s o c i a l q u o t i e n t

“Aristotle once explained that increase in the number of people in a settlement beyond a certain limit will affect the interrelationship between them and the character of the city”


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SO IS SIZE THE ONLY VARIABLE THAT GOVERNS SOCIAL QUOTIENT?

The case of India…

Although “Human” being common in all human beings, we find difference & diversity of numerous types and at various levels. Some of these can be commonly identified on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, occupation, caste, nationality, economic class, interests, beliefs etc.

SIZE – VARIETY – PROBLEMS

No, the other major variable of an individual’s relation with the larger surrounding is the degree of heterogeneity of the place.

Almost all Indian cities fall in the most deadly combination


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Efforts in the past by planners to define an appropriate limits to these variables

Talked about decongestion of cities

Setting up of a new town after a population is reached

kautilya/Chanakya’s Arthashastra


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Efforts in the past by planners to define an appropriate limits to these variables

Limited population in each city to 32,000 & site of 6,000 acres

He designed a module – for a certain population

Considering efficiency in resource consumption & in human action

Garden city – Ebenezer Howard


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So, historically it is realized that real world doesn’t function like mathematics

Wherein we have a formula eg. a+b=cNo matter what value between 0 to infinity is fed, it functions in the same manner

But with the change in city size & population behavior of the city & its people changes considerably


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Amos Rapoport – author ‘house, form & culture'


A partially dark caved ancient market place somewhere in Africa with slits to admit slight light for activities to take place

Relating the human scale to safety issues

Amos Rapoport takes an eg from African Market to explain that even deficient light & visibility in terms of modern safety norms doesn’t affect the safety of visitors or any kind of anti-social activities in the market.

for a simple reason that all the people who used the market as a seller or buyer know each other

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Women safety on streets


We try to find solutions through

Spatial & Ar. Interventions

Law & order

Policies

Awareness issues

Education

Self defense

Etc.

Real culprit

Darkness,

Low visibility,

Deserted env.

SCALE - where people are

strangers to each other

seco

ndar

y • These subsidiary actions consumes so much of energy & resources as against the mother activity

• Here mother activity is availing goods from market, & subsidiary ones are to mitigate the problems of safety

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another example


2 hoursWorkplace

Home

• The subsidiary activity of commuting takes considerable share of the total time.

• Efficiency decreases

• So we look at spatial planning tools to increase efficiency – FSI, Transit, Densities, Zoning etc

The bigger the city is,

The complex it becomes,

Ability to solve it reduces,

Cost-Benefit ratio increases

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The human scale doesn’t apply only to the City size,

Also to the administrative structure


• The diagram depicts the hierarchical pyramid of an administrative system wherein adulteration happens in Information transfer at various levels of the hierarchical pyramid due to the presence of human element

• Also since a person can have affinity & sensitivity only for a particular people or area, too much centralizations leads unrealistic situations

information levels

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The appropriate scale


• Even extreme decentralization does not guarantee efficiency

• The point which falls appropriately between the two need to be achieved

• This presentation emphasizes on the significance of human scale

• And hence we need to move a level above in our approach

• We need to take into consideration a higher order dimension i.e. SCALE, to identify that Human Scale

Decentra

lizatio

n

Centraliz

ation

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Thank you