A Comparative Study of the Urban Community Spaces of China, Italy and Southern Florida Jessica Elliott School of Architecture, College of Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida Through comparative research, this project seeks to analyze and compare the community spaces in both China and Italy while taking into account the social, cultural, and environmental backgrounds of both countries and the resulting effects on the people and their cultural values in community spaces. Whereas Italy has maintained a sense of continuity throughout the history of its historical cities, China’s fast changing urbanization has created a loss of memory for its people and has reduced the quality of community spaces within its cities. After researching and developing a response to these differences and cultural variations in community spaces within the Italian and Chinese urban cores, this analysis will assist in the design proposal of a small community plaza for public gathering within my hometown of Sarasota, Florida. Drawing a global view from both the Eastern and Western cases analyzing public communal spaces within an urban core, the proposed community project will reach out to promote a sense of unity and cultural growth of a low-income suburban community in Sarasota and will generate renewal of these public spaces in a city with such a large gap between the lowincome communities and the wealthy upper class.
INTRODUCTION China’s Rapid Expansion and the Deterioration of Urban Public Spaces In the rapidly urbanizing cities of China, the necessity of maintaining and creating additional public spaces is an issue that requires more thoughtful consideration as these cities continue to grow at the expense of the people. The essential interaction between the people within China’s urban cities is of extreme importance in order to maintain strongly interconnected communities and social and cultural expression which these public gardens, parks, courtyards, and squares help to provide. Problematically, the availability of urban public spaces is growing smaller and more inadequate in many Chinese cities, as the rapid achievements of urban development and display of government power overshadow the necessities of the citizens. As cities expand and skylines grow ever taller, the place for respite and reflection within an urban setting is overlooked. The memory of the sense of peacefulness and connection to the metaphysical begins to diminish with the loss of these public spaces within growing urban fabrics, and the struggle to preserve and develop new spaces for public enjoyment has become a main consideration and challenge for local Chinese architects and international architects alike. In Chinese culture, the sense of community and the source of interaction within an urban setting are developed most completely within the public spaces of urban parks and traditional gardens. In Chinese philosophy, “Tian ren he yi – harmony between man, nature, and the universe… postulates that there is a total interdependence between humans and nature, since the cognitive subject and the
object both belong to the universe” (Lu 64). Believed to be incomplete without the presence of nature and its metaphysical harmony, the body would be at a loss in an existence devoid of the beauty and spirituality of the garden. These natural public spaces are of heightened value in an urban setting, where the people of the city have very limited access to garden spaces and have encountered such a significant loss of memory due to the stifling enclosure of the city skyline and the drastically changing environments in which they live. Constantly displaced and living at the mercy of urban expansion, the citizens of these growing Chinese cities retreat to these public green spaces when they exist or quickly develop their own within the urban environment to withdraw from the stresses and confinements of daily life. Figure 1: Juxtaposition of Nature and Urban Development, Hong Kong
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“Upon entering an urban park, one immediately senses the relative tranquility and slower pace of activity… While the parks are public spaces (gong yuan), these sites are also arenas where urban dwellers seek refuge and attain a semblance of privacy in anonymity from work or home” (Davis 351). It is within these urban public spaces where the atmosphere encouraging cultural expression through dance, games, and the conglomeration of the people within an open public environment is harbored. Figure 2: Peaceful Courtyard in Beijing Urban Park
There is strong political control over the populace and the ability to exercise leisurely activities, “thus ‘free time’ is only ‘free’ in the sense that time at one’s command is free of duties. Like everything else, the ‘free’ time is more or less regulated” (Davis 150) and the suppression of the people can be felt even in the spaces that should be meant to harbor recreation. The public squares are overpowering symbols of the power of the government, providing the unsettling feeling of constantly being watched and it is instead within Beijing’s park and garden spaces where the missing serenity and spirituality can be found. Figure 4: Spiritual Embodiment in Urban Public Space
Beijing, the capitol city of the People’s Republic of China is strongly lacking a sense of peacefulness in its public spaces. The purposefulness of the urban public spaces and the ability to relax seems to be absent within its large courtyards such as those found in the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, where the feeling of freedom is disoriented underneath memories of government oppression. Figure 3: Composition of Political Power and Vast Spaces in relation to the Human Scale, Forbidden City, Beijing
Parks and sacred sites such as the Temple of Heaven are the true public spaces that now belong to the people of China, rather than an emperor and are where the people flock to celebrate in Beijing. These vast parks and gardens allow for the wanderers to free themselves and become completely surrounded by nature; “being lost in remote landscapes is good for enhancement of virtues… withdrawing from the bustling world and moving into remote nature” (Zou 10-11). In Chongqing, a megacity in southwestern China, public spaces such as those experienced in Beijing are dwindling. Chongqing residents have a single public park that is growing smaller due to the constant expansion of the public sector. The loss of these spaces symbolically demonstrates a loss of peacefulness and cultural unity in China’s urban environments. Shenzhen is a new, rapidly growing city in southern China whose existence as an urban center has only been a matter of decades. Although Shenzhen is a clean slate for designing a more perfect city, the city does not offer much to its citizens in the ways of enjoyable public space. The city of Chengdu, another southwestern city, however, experiences the opposite of most Chinese cities. Whereas in many Chinese urban public spaces the people are not allowed to touch the grass or ride their bikes in the public park, the people in Chengdu enjoy more of the urban
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spaces. “Despite being planned by the government and bounded by fences and admission gates, the park remains a place where popular and personal healing can occur” (Davis 352). The older, traditional architecture of China is in many ways more readily expressive of the values and beliefs of Chinese culture. Whereas the architecture of China in the present sense seems to aspire primarily to seek attention in individual design and monumentality, the architectural theory of more traditional Chinese values sought to achieve much greater purposes. In traditional Chinese architecture, “the original natural conditions were respected and the optimal conditions for harmoniously combining buildings with nature was sought” (Lu 54). With the unwavering pressure of maintaining an amazing speed to design and the growth of its urban centers, “many architectural designs today lack a respect for and sensitivity towards nature and the environment, whereas in the past landscaping was an area in which the ancient Chinese were masters” (Lu 54). The deterioration of this connection with garden spaces as they were originally designed in conjunction with the built environment is becoming more apparent to the Chinese architects as they begin to more heavily urge the importance of these public spaces within new architecture. Architects designing in China, whether local or international have begun to recognize the importance of this preservation and seek to incorporate public spaces within urban buildings and larger scale projects to better provide for the people and to give back to the culture amidst change. Projects such as Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid in Beijing and Horizontal Skyscraper in Shenzhen seek to design buildings around vast areas of open outdoor spaces and to provide a strong correlation between indoor and outdoor spaces, fostering an interaction between the body and the landscape. Figure 5: Exterior/Interior Pathway Composition and the Relation of Urban Public Space within the Built Environment
Though designing urban projects in China as a foreign architect, Holl’s ideals that “the reciprocal insertion of the body – oneself – in the interwoven landscapes of architecture yields identity and difference” (Holl 11-16) reflect similar ideals embraced by Chinese philosophy. It is within these projects that the resuscitation of urban public space is assisted and the preservation of the sense of community within an urban fabric is defended. Although
the over indulgence in Western culture has greatly masked Chinese culture behind the search of identity within a globalized world, the presence of international architecture within China’s era of rapid urbanization can also seek to revive the ideals of Chinese culture. While there has grown to become a strong lacking of public spaces provided by the government to the people of China, the constant efforts of national and international architects hope to revive the urban culture and to provide more for the public through architecture and urban design. With the rapid growth of the cities of China, it is a difficulty that worries the people and local architects alike: how to provide for the culture of the people and maintain the memory of the past in an ever-changing built environment. The necessity of the integration of nature within the lives of the people living in China’s cities is that which has been lost through the development of cities and the deterioration of public space yet is a strong cultural element which requires preservation. Through China’s rapid urbanization, the pressure to assert the growing power of China has in turn developed “the emotionless state in Chinese mega cities, (which) starts from not even realizing what essential aspect has been lost” (Zou, 365) namely the sense of culture and poetic unity between the people and nature within a public urban environment. The Italian Plaza, Piazza and Garden: History and Tradition through Public Space In sharp contrast to China, Italian cities have become known throughout the world for their famous plazas, piazzas, and garden spaces. These public spaces are cultural and historical landmarks, through which the citizens carry out their daily activities, interact with their neighbors and become an integral part to the life of the city. The organization of the public spaces also serves as landmarks for tourists and allows visitors to experience the distinctive culture and receive the most expansive view of these Italian cities and how they shape the lives of their people. In an urban setting, the importance of the public space within the lives of the city’s inhabitants is invaluable. Theses spaces, regardless of size or intention assist in providing a lapse between the deliriousness of the scaleless city and begin to tell the stories of the lives of the people who live within the city; “they walk – an elementary form of this experience of the city; they are walkers whose bodies follow the thicks and thins of an urban ‘text’ they write with being able to read it” (Certeau 93). Italian public spaces play a primary role in the lives of its people in a range of intensities dictated by the intention of the public spaces: the garden as the least intense and the plaza as the more intense public space. These less intense spaces, such as the Parco Querini in Vicenza, Italy act as moments of respite from the restless city life and provide a
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sense of tranquility that is echoed by the presence of timeless architecture and sculptures.
there may be hundreds of people in the piazza playing a major role in the culture of their city.
Figure 6: Parco Querini in Vicenza, Italy
Figure 8: Festival in the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza, Italy
The people of the city gather to these gardens alone or with a significant other to rest on the benches underneath the trees. The piazzas offer a slightly more intense public setting, with gatherings of the public for cultural parades and local markets. Flanked by the Basilica Palladiana, statues, and numerous shops, bars, and restaurants, the piazza of Vicenza is a significant example of the influence of a public space on the life of a city and its inhabitants.
The plazas of the more urban cities of Italy, such as the Plaza of San Marco in Venice or the Piazza del Popolo in Rome are much more intense public spaces through which the immense expansiveness of the plazas has the effect that makes the public spaces seem less relaxing. Figure 9: Piazza del Popolo in Rome, Italy
Figure 7: Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza, Italy
The sense of urban connectivity and the interconnectivity of the inhabitants of the city are embodied in the cultural gatherings that occur in the Italian piazzas where at times
The presence of government can be seen in displays of power in ancient Egyptian obelisks and monuments that mark these plazas as the most important cornerstones of the city. These public spaces and their monuments help to define the overall composition of the cities, acting as landmark spaces to both the native and the visitor, showing how the lives of the people interweave through the city fabric as they progress from one plaza or monument to the next through weaving alleyways and large streets: “The networks of these moving, intersecting writings compose a manifold story that has neither author nor spectator, spaced out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces”
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(Certeau 93). The ranges of these public spaces allow for many different experiences with different emotional impacts within the city as a whole and help to define the Italian culture through public spaces, which have held a wide influence throughout the world as to how public spaces can be more successfully composed within a city. The cultural impact of the public spaces in Italy is that which can be compared to the dramatically different experience for the people living in China. The ongoing importance of preservation of the historical public spaces within Italy is an aspect that differs considerably from many of these Chinese cities, which openly embrace new, modern architecture that begins to adversely affect the sense of memory for their people. This loss and constant rebuilding with the lack of consideration paid to what came before can be detrimental to the people who live in the city. The Italian cities and their public spaces, though preserved are not unmoved by the globalization of the city and while some believe that the over preservation of Roman ruins detracts from the growth of the city, it can be argued that the loss of these vital public spaces is that which would remove a significant piece of the lives of the Italian people. The contemporary Italian understanding of the translation between old and new is something that has lifted argumentation towards whether or not this over preservation has become a weight that prevents new growth and creation. Italian monuments and architecture have become iconographic throughout the world as a symbol of the most culturally historical sites, preserved and even rebuilt in a manner to help to recreate what may have been lost. Even when an Italian site of significant architectural importance was bombed or destroyed in some way, Italians acted upon the phrase “dov'era com'era,” or “how it was, as it was.” This act of rebuilding their cultural and historical landmarks is an example of how the Italian government and its people are in constant awareness as how to best preserve the importance of their culture and history in these public spaces, maintaining the sense of memory and the image of the Italian city. In other cases, such as the design of the Ara Pacis Augustae in Rome designed by Richard Meier, the reaction of the public to the modernism of the design has been highly controversial as the creation of new architecture and the highly contemporary design is thought by many to be detrimental to the city and its historical context. The metaphysical paintings of De Chirico from the early 20th century further demonstrate how the timelessness of the Italian piazzas and architecture are juxtaposed with the age of industrialization and change. This ongoing present-day struggle between change and the integration of modernism and globalization in architecture against preservation and historical, architectural conservancy will be something interesting to witness as the Italian city further develops in a modern age. The effect of the government on the organization and feeling of the Italian public spaces is an important
consideration in regards to what development and changes occur to these spaces over time. Although not as strongly experienced by a visitor to some of the Chinese plazas such as the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the Italian plazas, such as the Piazza del Popolo in Rome is organized to display the power of the government through the presence of ancient Egyptian obelisks. Figure 10: Analysis of Plazas in Rome, Italy
Despite the dominant demonstration of the glory of government throughout the ages, the base of the organizational consideration for the design of the plazas is first and foremost for civic use. The composition of the piazza or the plaza is characteristically organized around a church and a school, which helps to ground the space within a useable public setting and heightens its importance within the lives of the citizens who use the space every day. This recognition of civic importance within the city is that which has been embraced from the foundation of cities. Access to public spaces, nature and the preservation of this tranquility is something that is defined clearly in Sorkin’s Local Code through which he states that “City dwellers shall enjoy these civic rights: …the right to a city with a harmonious and visible relationship to nature… the right to memory, expressed in the retention of the City’s authentic artifacts, not to be infringed either by arbitrary destruction or by the substitution of simulacra” but also notes “the right to change” (Sorkin 15-16). The Italian government’s organization and preservation of public spaces in many ways reflect the consideration of these rights and resonate how the ability to experience these basic civil liberties is invaluable in the lives of their inhabitants.
METHOD Redesign for an Urban Park in Southern Florida After experiencing the urban public spaces in China and Italy I have applied my knowledge from research to develop the proposal for a community plaza in Sarasota, Florida combining the interpretations of public spaces of both East and West. Retaining the positive aspects of community and cultural value in public space, the design introduces a more organized and useful
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community space to a low-income neighborhood in Sarasota. Incorporating multiple intensities, the proposal features a community center surrounded by low intensity garden spaces for reflection and more intense plaza spaces for gathering, while retaining the current playground and sports facilities that are of great value to the community. Mirroring the influence from the Eastern culture within the parks, garden spaces, and pavilions, and drawing influence from the Western culture within the plazas, pavilions, and organization, the urban public space maintains the elements of the existing park that reflect the values of the American community including the motorcycle racing track, baseball fields, and tennis courts. Figure 11: 17th Street Park Existing Site Conditions, Sarasota
The park currently consists of a few unorganized softball fields, a tennis court, a BMX track and a small playground connected by loose dirt pathways and parking lots. The situation in the site is uncomfortable, with very few trees and no separation from the busy streets of 17th Street and Tuttle Road. The park has a single playground and the entirety of the park is largely unused except by youth baseball leagues and weekend motorcycle races, which have become strong community events within the area and are connected to the professional baseball fields just south of the park at the Ed Smith Stadium. There is also a small stream that runs directly through the site as a result of the development of the fields and track.
and plaza space, is developed from the concepts and cultures of public space in Asia and Europe, juxtaposed with the current American sports traditions and community park values. The topography of the site is altered to create a language between views, paths, and spaces of pause within the garden. The elevated land contrasts with the three water elements of the community park, reflecting the Eastern idea of shanshui (literally, “mountains and waters”). The mountains and trees assist in providing a buffer zone to separate the park from the noise of the busy street, but also offer pockets of views into the landscape of the community spaces from the streets, inviting visitors. The three typologies of pavilion spaces reflect the differences in program within the site, and the influences of the different cultures and traditions in public space. The main plaza pavilion, the book pavilion, is positioned to provide a transition from the sports facilities and from the wandering garden spaces, joining them within a central location where the community can gather and enjoy all aspects of the public park together. The book pavilion is set on the plaza reminiscent of an Italian piazza with a Roman fountain feature while overlooking an Eastern fish pond and covered pathway bridging the book pavilion with a smaller community pavilion. Joining the traditional values of community space from the Eastern and Western ideals, while maintaining a sense of American value in recreation, the 17th Street Park proposal is a transformation of a largely unused and unorganized park into a meaningful community space within a low-income neighborhood where such connection and togetherness could provide the residents with an invaluable retreat from the city and new possibilities for communal growth and prosperity. Figure 12: Process Model of the Designed Site, Sarasota
RESULTS A Proposal for 17th Street Park in Sarasota, Florida The proposal seeks to organize the elements of the park into a unified system, adding attractors without sacrificing the features currently used by the city. The formation of two intensities of public space, the garden and the plaza will provide numerous spaces for gathering, wandering and interaction. The park will serve the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods and beyond. The contrast between low and high intensity, garden space University of Florida | Journal of Undergraduate Research | Volume 14, Issue 2 | 2013 6
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Figure 13: Perspectival Collage of the 17th Street Park Proposal, Sarasota
Figure 14: Plan of the 17th Street Park Proposal, Sarasota
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WORKS CITED Barthes, Roland. The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979. Davis, Deborah. Urban Spaces in Contemporary China. New York, NY: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1995. De Certeau, Michel. “Walking in the City,” The Practice of Everyday Life. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1984. Holl, Steven. “Intertwining,” Intertwining: Selected Projects 1989-1995. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. Lu, Xin. China, China… Western Architects and City Planners in China. Stuttgart, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2008). Maliszewski, Paul & Steve Featherstone. “The Collector.” Granta 88 (Winter 2004). Sorkin, Michael. Local Code: The Constitution of a City at 42 Degrees N Latitude. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993. Zou, Hui. “The Idea of Labyrinth (migong) in Chinese Building Tradition.” The Journal of Aesthetic Education 46.4 (Winter 2012). Zou, Hui. “Jing: A Phenomenological Reflection on Chinese Landscape and Qing.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 35.2 (June 2008).
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