Convivial Urban Spaces...

Henry Shaftoe from the University of West England gave a presentation at CABE on Tuesday... mainly focusing on his new book the theme was, you've guessed it, convivial urban spaces. For the more experienced 'urbanists' present he didn't seem to offer anything particularly new - but for myself it was nice to get a break-down of what research had shown made for sociable, lively and pleasant places... namely spaces that:

• are inclusive & democratic
• contain sitting places (!)
• are well maintained and clean
• feel safe and nonthreatening
• have a distinctive character and identity
• incorporate natural features
• contains comfortable micro-climates
• ban or tightly control vehicular circulation

Henry went on to break these down into 4 key elements 'urbanists' should consider when developing urban spaces:

1. It's physical design
2. The geographical location
3. Management (including fixed and temporal animation of space)
4. The Psychology of a space

The mention of the animation of public space got me down a path of thought that had me doodling away on my note-pad... particularly in thinking about temporal art. It's something I've been pondering for a while - but it was nice to have it 'boxed' as an aspect of public space that interests me and that has interconnections with notions of place as a whole.

Henry also went on to talk briefly about the idea of 'provisional spaces'... which wasn't something I'd thought about before - but the idea struck me. He was thinking about a method for creating places that was based upon developing an initial spatial plan, implementing it, testing it, evaluating feedback on how it does/doesn't work, amending it... and then eventually finishing with a final version of the space...