Inter-Weaving city

INTER - WEAVING CITY Social Interaction By: Mohamad Al sadi

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MANIFESTO

INTER-WEAVING CITY - MILE ONE SETTLEMENTS

SOCIAL ELEMENTS

SOCIAL INTERACTION TYPES - SOCIAL INTERACTION DISTANCE - INTER-WEACING CITY SITE - SOCIAL PLAN

PHYSICAL ELEMENTS CONNECTIVITY - SPACES - ACTIVITIES - SITTING

NATURAL ELEMENTS

SOCIAL INTERACTION IN NATURE - QUNLI WETLAND PARK - INTER WEAVING WETLAND PARK

URBAN FUTURES CONCLUSION - INTER-WEAVING CITY PHYSISCAL MODEL

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esigning should always follow the rules and conditions of mother earth, at the same time ensuring comfort for the human. design concepts should be inspired and affected by nature. why don’t we live in a place where we can find modern cities features and services with the sense of a village and natural environment? The main idea of the Inter-Weaving city is to design a new urban settlement by creating a new type of grid that helps to increase the interaction with all the existing elements. The main target of the city is to have a system that trying to protect the existing elements rather than just occupying the land. The system is designed to be flexible and easy to deal with different conditions. Furthermore, having different types of buildings will help to create a more flexible system. The city will aim to

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increase the social interaction and the interaction between human and nature by having a walkable city with elevated and rotating buildings that try to connect all the existing settlements and the existing important natural elements. the project will design a grid that can be implemented in the whole 20 miles to achieve the core goal of greater interaction with site and nature. The design of the grid will interact with all the existing elements but at the same time keep the continuity between all the existing and newly designed parts. Also, the grid is flexible that sometimes it can be streets and sometimes as buildings, depends on the site conditions. The objective is to have 130,000 units for 250,000 people. Social interaction will always be affected by lots of different elements and that is why in this book we

will talk about the main three elements that will be designed and implemented in the city. The three elements are social, physical, and natural elements. Each element has its own world that you can create books about it. This book will try to summarize each element in a few points and create a guide for the future urban designer to use it. The idea of this book is to show how did I implement all these different elements in the inter-weaving city in order to increase and enhance social interaction and interaction with nature. Because I believe that this is the main target for all the future cities after what we did to nature and the world.

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he Inter-Weaving city is proposed between the Oxford to Cambridge corridor. The five proposed new settlements will be used to connect the residence to the natural landscape. The proposed of the city will be in one of the five strips as a starting point.

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SOCIAL ELEMENTS IN PUBLIC SPACES

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y looking at the history of different cities, it is clear that the urban structure of the city affects the human behaviour. Which means there is a strong relationship between the physical elements of the city and the social part of the human.

‘‘outdoor spaces can enhance social interaction. People go to outdoor spaces because of their need for social interaction’’ Cooper Marcus and Francis (1998). Designing space now is different, Designers now knows that it is not only about form and design, it is more about society and relationships. Our cities now are divided into different spaces, people use open spaces to interact more with others but unfortunately, after getting out of the spaces, they found themselves in a different world with lack of communication.

The social part is considered the hardest point because still there is no clear way to increase the social interaction in a space. That is why this book will concentrate on social interaction in public spaces and how to enhance it through physical design elements and reach the highest quality of a space.

To explain it in a simple way social interaction means the connection and the communication between different groups and people that lead to better social life and create different relations between the people. Public spaces considered one of the most important spaces where the people will find the chance to create these relations and do different activities that will enhance the social part of their life. The social interaction gives the space the real power and the beauty.

The main function of any space is connecting people because at the end how beautiful the space is, without the users, it will be abanded and unsuccessful design.

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McKenzie ( 2004) state that. “ A system of cultural relations in which the positive aspects of disparate cultures are valued and protected, and in which cultural integration is supported and promoted when it is desired by individuals and groups.� So based on this statement, simply we can state that designing a good and healthy public open spaces with high physical qualities may lead to the social sustainability in the public space. Unfortunately, most of the designers consider the function of the space when they are designing and consider it as the first priority but yet they forget that the function will never work successfully without thinking about the social aspects. The main power point and source for any space is social interaction because it will lead to having a very active and successful space.

The interactions between different users together are included as a source of effect on the landscape and being affected by it at the same time. Both emphasize the way in which people construct their perceptions of the landscape in.

Different types of social interaction First of all, it is very important before talking about social interaction is to understand what are the main categories of social interaction. Peter H. Mann (1954), state that social interactions can be divided into three main types: 1-Manifest interaction: This typically happens when there is a fixed plan between people for a meeting in a specific place at a specific time.

2-Latent interaction: This type happens when according to some events two people who do not know each other meet.

3-Spontaneous interaction: This happens between people knows each other but this meeting happens by chance without any planning.

It is important to know that it is almost impossible to find a clear way to let people create friendships and interact more with each other. But there are some design points in designing open spaces will help to enhance the chance to have more interaction between people, and these points are: 1- Design the action and the important space to be visible from a far distance from the edges of the space.

2- Create more shortcuts and increase the connectivity.

3- Designing the walkways and the circulation to interact with different zones and spaces.

4- Create some spaces that can be used for different performances and events.

One of the first social interaction between people is the eye contact and most of the time this happens while walking, that is why it is important to take care of these two points to increase the social interaction of the first eye contact: 1- Create some small spaces on the side of the walkway that will let the people stand there for a small conversation (check page 105).

2-Provide some seats in these areas make sure it is out of the flow of the walkway (check page 105).

Designing any space should start by thinking about the social elements. For example, this diagram is the first step in designing a space in the University of Bath. The designer starts thinking about all the social activities and according to it will start creating the zoning.

Circulation routes expansion

activity centre

specialized teaching space group centre School nucleii general teaching space restaurant centres

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residential accommodation site boundary

fig(1): Schematic Diagram showing designing according to social elements for University of Bath

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According to the studies of social relations in colleges’ dormitories, offices and housing projects. Proximity plays a great role in initiating social connections. Most people choose their friends from the circle surrounding them. In offices, studies showed that workers had 39% of their work friends in the range of 12ft around. As the distance increases the percentage decreases. Only 11% were friends in the range of 36ft. Even the percentages of friendship between roommates were 90% in case of sophomore dormitories and 86% of senior years had their roommates as friends from their freshman dorms. It is not only about the physical closeness, it is the functional closeness that causes the interaction. An example of a reflection on the landscape, two spaces could be visually connected but separated by a grid-like fence which is not a strong barrier but at the same time, it limits the social interaction. Physical closeness is present but social is not.

The same is applied to two attached spaces, but one is only elevated than the other, a non-physical separation is created. Thus the landscape architect could set a scenario for the spots that he enhances for social connections and the other that should not.

Different Social Distances: It is clear that in all culture, people will always prefer to have a fixed distance between themselves and their surroundings.

The amount of the distance is different depends on the situation. According to Deasy & Lasswell (1985, p.2025), these distances can be placed into 3 categories: 1- Intimate distance: This distance is from direct interact to maximum 18 inches. this type has the shortest distance and it can be with family, friend, lover, or children.

2- Personal distance: These are the normal spaces between different people. Exceeding these limits by strangers is not accepted socially. The distance ranges from 1.5 to 4 feet.

3- Social distance: It ranges from 4 feet to 12 feet. It is the distance for different public interactions. The lower range from 4-7 feet tends to be less formal than the more formal range from 7-12 feet.

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Sketch from the site next to Sandy showing the general environment of the site with lots of different natural elements that are valuable to reserve and use.

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In this drawing, you will see two base maps in different scales trying to understand what are the important elements that will affect the city and that need to be preserved. The first base map for the whole 20 miles. The second one is a more zoom in map trying to find a good site to test the new city and the new grid. After designing the master plan of the Inter-Weaving city, the concept of designing a public space according to social elements will be implemented in one of the public spaces in the city.

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Agriculture lands

Improved Graddland

Natural Graddland

Rough Vegetation Buildings Trees Woodland

Water Riparian Vegetation Railway New propsed railway Main street Flooding area

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After analysing the site this was the final master plan for the site in the south of Sandy. The space in the red colour will be designed according to social elements to show the relation between the social elements and the physical elements of any public space.

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fig(2): Designing space in the Inter-Weaving city according to the social elements

These two diagrams are for one of the spaces in the interweaving city. The idea was to start designing the space according to some social elements. After that these social elements will be transferred to zoning. Then these zoning will be designed to be an actual public space.

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fig(3): Translate the social plan to zonning

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PHYSICAL ELEMENTS IN PUBLIC SPACES The physical elements that will help to reach a more sustainable and higher quality space can be summarized in 4 main points:

Connectivity

Spaces

Sittings

Activities

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A- Connectivity (S)

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onnectivity is one of the most important elements to design a better space, and that is why designers know how important using the grid, because it makes any space have an easier connection even in a really small scale. The connection system can be developed through different routes like streets, cycling, and pedestrian. Having a good connectivity is related directly to how simple it is.

According to the definitions of Tresidder (2005): 1- Link: A link like street or any types of path line that gives a connection between two nodes. The connection can be between the intersection and dead end or between two intersections.

2- Node: The endpoint of a link 3- Real node: The intersection between two links 4- Dangle node: The endpoint connections or as we call it the dead end.

Dangle node Real node Link

To understand the level and the quality of connectivity in different spaces in any Urban settlements there are three levels (Stiles, 2013): 1- The environmental aspect: To have the connection using the flora corridors (biodiversity). Which also will help to improve and create air movement.

2- Having a safe and easy connection for the users.

3- Having effective linkage between spaces from an urban view.

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“Connectivity (or permeability) refers to the directness of links and the density of connections in a transport network. A highly permeable network has many short links, numerous intersections, and minimal dead-ends.

As connectivity increases, travel distances decrease and route options increase, allowing more direct travel between destinations, creating a more accessible and resilient transportation system (TDM Encyclopedia, 2009).”

(Planning Institute of Australia, Canberra; Australian Local Government Association; National Heart Foundation of Australia, 2014, p. 1) The level of connectivity can be shown through the function of all the different networks like cycling roots, pathways, and streets. The best connection the designer can reach when the user finds an easy and safe connection that let the user prefer to walk rather than using a car or other types of transportation.

“Many people refer to 400 meters being a “reasonable” distance for people to walk. This stems from United States research in the 1960s. The purpose was to consider walking distances to public transport facilities. A “reasonable” walking distance is likely to be affected by location, topography, weather, pedestrian facilities, trip purpose and cultural factors. While a five-minute walk (the time taken for the average person to walk 400 meters) may seem like a reasonable benchmark, it will not provide for a person’s daily exercise needs alone. More recent studies have shown that people are willing to walk much greater distances if the walking environment is favourable (an average of 1.2 kilometres in good conditions).”

(Planning Institute of Australia, Canberra; Australian Local Government Association; National Heart Foundation of Australia, 2014, p. 3). In order to measure the connectivity for any project in this schedule, you will find some rules to measure it and evaluate it.

Measurements of connectivity (Tresidder, 2005, p. 6) Measure

Density of interaction

Definition

Comments

Number of Dividing the Having a intersections area of the higher result per unit of real node on means area the total area having more intersections which lead to higher connectivity.

Density of the Value of streets linear meters of street circulation per square meters of the site

Link-Node Ratio

Calculation

Dividing the Having a total street higher result length per means unit of area having more on the total streets which area presumably lead to higher connectivity.

Number of Dividing A perfect grid links divided Links per unit has a ratio of by the of area on 2.5. number of the Nodes nodes within per unit of the study area area

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Pedestrian

Pedestrian is the most important element between all the different links, that is why the designer should give the maximum effort to give a more comfortable and easy link for pedestrians. The best design is the one that gives more pedestrian links. Various points should be within 10 minutes walk with a speed of 5 to 6.5 km/h and a gradient of less than 4 % (Dober, 2000, p. 112-119). Furthermore, designers should know it is not only about form and dimension, it is important also to show identity, direction, and circulation flow. According to Dober, 1992 There are six main elements that will always help to design and organize the links: 1- The path should be designed in proportion to the number of users.

2- There should be no obstacles in the path.

3- When designing the secondary path designer should know that it is important as the main path because at the end its still part of the circulation system.

4- All types of paths should have the ability to be used from all different types of users especially the disabled.

5- The design of the path should take in the consideration the safety issues especially in the emergency cases and give the vehicles accessible for any emergency case.

6- There should always be a separate path for vehicular and pedestrian and in case there is an intersection it should be designed in a proper safe way.

fig(4):The maximum distance between two points should be maximum 1km

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Pedestrian

4.5 meters wide walkways could be enough for six people and less (Dober, 2000, pp. 112-119). so in a main public space, the minimum will be for 4 persons which are 3.0 m and the maximum is for 10 people which are 7.5 m (Dober, 2000).

fig(5): Pedestrian dimensions

Breezeways Cycling

Breezeways are used as a design strategy for separating the pedestrian walkways and providing a variety of alternatives for moving around. Furthermore, they create suitable indoor-outdoor connections that can suit diverse design typologies.

Cycling is the second important circulation because it is, healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transportation.

According to Dober, 1992 Cycling paths can be defined in three main types: 1- Bike paths: Paths designed for bikes only, another way of transportation cannot use it.

2- Bike lanes: This lane is designed as part of the road but will be on the side only for bikes.

3- Bike routes: This path will be with vehicles on the same path just defined by some signs.

According to Arizona Bike Law The minimum dimension for the path is 1.2m for each side that’s mean 2.4m for any cycling path.

Physical 075m Minimum Operating 1.2m Preferred Operating 1.5m fig(6): Cycling distance

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fig(7-8): Different existing pedestrian walkways in the site.

Some of them are just created by the users and this type usually considered the best type because the users know more than the designer the best walkway for them and some of them were designed. But it is clear how beautiful having circulation that interacts with nature.

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Bikeroute

Bikelane

Bikepath

fig(9): Types of cycling paths

After the huge revolution of the cars industry, all the cities start trying to design more roads to adapt the need of the users. But after a while, it shows that the more streets you have the more traffic you created because people can always find a way to increase the car use. So if more roads mean more traffic does that mean fewer roads lead to less traffic? The 1989 San Francisco earthquake caused a huge damage for one of the most important vital arteries to the city centre so they had to close it. Before they finished the reconstruction planning for it they found the city managed to work fine without it and the users adapt using cars according to the left roads. That’s mean more roads will not lead to less traffic but having an alternative is the point that will help. So the city starts to convert lots of freeways to peaceful city streets and created more cycling paths. This can be shown also in different places like Portland, Oregon; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Seoul, Korea (Gehl, 2010).

As an example also Copenhagen did the same trying to increase the cycling and decrease car using, and as a result of a research done in 2008, 37% of the people are using bicycles and the plan is to reach at least 50%. The city has been changing and restructuring its streets by removing some lanes and parking and changing it to a cycling path. after all these changes, the city becomes more sustainable and welcoming bikes (Gehl, 2010).

fig(10): In this chart, it is clear the increasing of using bicycles and a decreasing in car using

fig(11): The current percentage of each type in Copenhagen

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Vehicular

This type is very important sometimes especially when there is an emergency case, but it is still important to know that this type has a huge negative impact. That is why this part should be separated, with minimum interaction with all the other links and circulations. To separate vehicular paths from other paths especially pedestrian there are two ways (Queen’s University, 2013, p. 79-81): 1- The pedestrian path should be designed with different resilient materials 2- Having more visual and physical elements for separation like seats, fences or hedges.

In order to have a good intersection between vehicular and pedestrian there are few strategies: 1- Having narrow roads will help to have slower traffic

movement which will provide safe pedestrian paths.

2- Provide parking on the street, which will also help towards slower traffic movement.

3- Having Dense roundabouts is a bad design choice if the space next to it are high dense pedestrian space.

4- It is important to have wide sidewalks and good crosswalks, also having some traffic controls and signs.

We all agree that this type has lots of negative impacts but at the end, we can not just neglect it, because with all that it is still very important. But there are always different ways to reduce the use of cars. One of the good examples is the idea of the superblock that proposed in Barcelona.

The Inter-Weaving city was designed to be a walkable city but still, the streets designed that in the case of the emergency they can access any point. Furthermore, in the 20 miles, there will be different streets that connect the different settlements with some underground parking next to each settlement. The underground parking is distributed in the whole 20 miles to serve all the sites. But to solve the problem of the transportation more, the city will depend on a new way of transportation called beam cars. These cars will be elevated and connected to the elevated buildings that some of them will be used as a station. This type of transportation will solve lots of problem about the traffic and the pollution because it works with electricity. Also, this type will work as a viewing way to see the city because it will be panoramic capsules above the city and the woodland that will give the users an amazing view to see the city and interact with it more. The old train transportation will stay the same but there will be stations that connect the old transportation with the new one fig(12).

fig(12): intesection between the old and the new transportation system

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fig(13): The new transportation will be elevated connected to the buildings. the station will be in the buildings itself but the station building will not be residential. 90% of the existing streets and connection will not be removed but will be connected to the new system

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As mentioned before this drawing shows the network connection for the whole 20 miles using the newly designed transportation system and all the existing system including the water.

fig(14): By taking the average that for each unit one car that’s mean 130000 cars. parking area 4.5x2.5=11.25m2 + 20% circulation the total parking area for the whole city= 1960000m2 final dimension= 1400m x 1400m this area was divided to different parking underground next to each settlement so the visitors will stop their cars and walk in the city (walkable city). But the dimension of the walkway is enough to let any car to enter in case of emergency. The total new settlements will be in 4 zones attached to the existing settlements and the north part will be only for agriculture lands and the south part is in the green belt. The total new buildings will be between 5500 to 6000 buildings in average 3 to 4 stories for each building. All the new stations are selected in the intersection between the different types of network, the old and the new ones.

existing railway new transportation water transportation existing streets existing railway station new station underground parking new designed settlements

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fig(15-16): Different examples of vehicular streets show how it cuts the natural elements of the site.

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Barcelona Superblock

fig(17):The current plan of Barcelona Street length: 912km Surface area: 1483,6 ha

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arcelona is one of the most popular city that considered a well-designed city with lots of cafes and street life by having different activities. But with all that, it has a high ratio of using vehicles that affected badly the environment (Vox, 2018). According to different studies that were done about the pollution in Barcelona they found that 3500 premature fatalities per year because of air pollution. Furthermore, there are lots of harmful effects on the agriculture and the ecosystems.

That’s why in 2014 Barcelona developed a plan to bring back the city to be a walkable city by decreasing the number of the vehicles and bring more life to the streets (Vox, 2018).

The idea that was proposed is to have a superblock which will lead to having a less number of streets and that will

lead us to the same principle of the inter-weaving city because having a huge superblock and megastructure means bigger space and fewer streets.

Furthermore, the inter-weaving city is designed to use the minimum amount of streets and keep it for emergency case. Another important point that changing some of the streets to a public space that means creating more social spaces that increase social interaction and bring more green areas to the city, which will lead to better social life and a positive effect on the ecosystems.

The main principle of the idea of the superblock is connecting 9 existing blocks and transfer it to one block which will lead to having fewer streets.

And it is not only about reducing the number of the streets but changing some of them to a social public space for the residence.

fig(18): Proposed super block by Salvador Rueda Street length: 355 km (-61%) Surface area: 815 ha (-45%)

The city of Barcelona state that there are 120 possible intersections were this design could be implemented.

But still some people will ask how the results will be and such an idea will work or not? To answer that a city called Vitoria-Gastiez in the northwest

fig(19): Diagram comparing the block before and after

of Barcelona implemented the principle of superblock since 2008. The results showed that the pedestrian space increased from 45% to 74% and the traffic noise levels dropped from 66.4 dBA to 61dBA. Furthermore, there was a 42% reduction in nitrogen

oxide emissions and a 38% reduction in particle pollution in the area.

According to all that they found that the social activity starts to build itself.

(Superblocks: How Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars, 2016)

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The photo on the right from the site next to Sandy village showing one of the streets that have been closed to be for pedestrians. The street was designed for cars but after that, they decided to close it. That’s mean users do not always need the streets that were designed by the designer.

For example, the next photo shows one of the streets in Barcelona that transferred to pedestrians.

fig(20): Changing an intersection space to a public space means creating a social space for the residence.

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fig(21): The photo shows one of the streets in Barcelona that is now used by the pedestrian after it was a vehicular street. It is clear that the street now turns to a huge public space that enhances social interaction with lots of different activities.

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fig(22): The photo is for one of the Barcelona streets before testing the idea of changing it to a pedestrian walkway. It is clear from the photo that there is no social life at all on the street.

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fig(23): On the other hand on the right photo for the same street after changing it to a pedestrian walkway the whole atmosphere change. The street became a public space with different activities that increase social interaction.

Furthermore, this means a less negative impact on the environment. The difference between the two photos can say a lot how just stopping the cars even without removing the asphalt or designing more elements will change the whole space and bring more users to it.

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fig(24): This photo is for a street in Brighton, England before changing it to pedestrians walkway.

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fig(25): This photo is for the same street after making it for pedestrian only. After making it for pedestrians they found that the users increased by 62% and the number of activities in the street increased by 600%. This is a huge percentage and it is a proof of how users and their relationship with space are what gives the space its function and spirit.

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A- Connectivity (XL)

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n the late investigations, it is clear that one of the most important elements of urban design is creating a system to show and test the urban condition. According to this, the city will not be a few buildings that have specific form and facade, but a system of intersection between spaces, buildings and users. One of the best ways to reach a better connection system is using an urban grid. The grid is a design tool that has been used in history for designing urban settlements because it has more flexibility. It helps to create an easier connection for all types of circulations and connections.

Nowadays grid considered one of the first elements that lead to a sustainable design. The grid will help to increase the connectivity and create a better circulation which will lead to have a better spaces relation and enhance the social interaction. The intersection of the grid creates valuable spaces that considered attractive spaces for users. There are different types of the grid according to how many numbers of axes creates the grid. The more axes you have the more intersections you create which will lead to more spaces. But with all that, it is important to understand the good amount of intersections according to the targeted population of the city. otherwise, it will change to be a dangerous intersection. For example, some cities like New York will depend on rectangular spaces using four axes while a city like Barcelona using also four axes but to create square spaces with more intersection and more open spaces. Furthermore, Barcelona used chamfer edges for the blocks on the intersections of the grid to create a bigger and more comfortable space that will help to enhance social interaction between the users. Another important way to have better and more intersections between grid is to use diagonal axes as what I did in the inter-weaving city.

Using a diagonal grid will help to increase the intersection and creates more spaces, and at the same time, it will give more flexibility in the design.

The grid has been used through history from different civilizations and if it was not a good tool it will not be used until these days. In order to understand the grid more, it is important to understand the history and the use of the grid in older civilization.

In these three diagrams, it is clear the difference between the different types of the grid. All of them are moving from point A to point B which originally it was placed in the same place with the same distance. Then applying a different grid on it shows how different is reaching point

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A

B One way from point A to point B

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B Three ways from point A to point B

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B Five ways from point A to point B

B depends on the type of the grid. The third one has more axes which mean more connectivity and more intersection spaces which in the real life will lead to more social interaction and also saving time.

Ancient world Grid Looking at the history, Egyptian was one of the first civilization who started thinking about the Grid. The old kingdom of Giza - Egypt used the grid because they found that it is the best and easiest way to organise the city and control the population. Also, it was an important way to divide agriculture land using the Nile river as a starting point for creating the grid. The Nile river helped in creating the grid because it was almost a linear line that goes as an axis from the north to the south running through Egypt cutting it into two parts.

Going to another important region which is Mesopotamia and Assyria. Babylon and Borsippa are the best examples as grid cities. The grid of Babylon goes back to 2000 BC to the time of Hammurabi. The father of History Herodotus explained Babylon as “ intersected by straight streets, some parallel and some at right angles to the river�.

(Kostof, 1991) The genuine appearance of the urban grid was in the pre-Classical antiquity in the Indus Valley in Mohenjo and Harappa. This was 1500 BC, the shocking story that they designed towns and blocks with almost the same size and specific dimension. For example, all the main streets designed 6 to 9 m wide. But still, all that can not be considered as a real urban system that has different types of spaces and connection. All the previous can be described as just dividing the city by lines for easier circulation but not as an urban system. (Kostof, 1991)

The real important achievements are Greek and The Chinese. For these two cultures, it is easier to say that they start having a formal planning unit and urban system. The Chinese grid designed according to to the city politics. by having administrative centre fig(27). After the Persian war, lots of the Greek cities needed to rebuild in the 5th century which was an important time for using the Grid.

fig (26):The lost city of Mohenjo Daro Puzzles

fig (27):The Chinese grid

fig (28):The grid of Babylon

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The Roman empire used the grid in a more practical way and developed it to reach almost a perfect grid at that time. In the Roman period there are different cities with different grid some of them can be defined as simple grid like Cosa that was founded in 273 BC fig(30), and Timgad in Algeria that was founded in 100 AD fig(31) (Kostof, 1991).

Fig (29): Greek Grid in Miletus (Turkey)

Fig (30): Roman grid in Cosa (Italy)

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Fig (31): The most perfect Roman grid Using square blocks in Timgad (Algeria).

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fig(32): Birds eye view by A. Ruger in 1871 for Atlanta.

fig(33): Birds eye view by C. Anthonisz for Amsterdam 1536 and propsed plan for the city extensions 1663.

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fig(34): Birds view by Currier for Chicago (Illinois) 1892.

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fig(35): Atlanta between 1871 and 2011 from Birds eye view of A. Ruger

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Middle ages new towns The grid was lost for a few centuries at the end of the Classical world. Lots of Roman Grid were lost at that time and start to disappear. After that a new big scale compared to the previous cities starts to shows in three areas in Europe: 1- Northen Spain, Southern France and England.

2- Germany east of Elbe, Austria and Switzerland 3- New towns in Italy After that from Europe, it is clear that the grid starts to be shown in the USA after 1500 like Santo Domingo then bigger cities and countries start to be more clear and shows how important is the grid-like Barcena and Netherlands. Finally, we can now see the grid in the 21st century and how it works with all the new technology. For example, the last city design is Masdar city in Abu Dhabi which is still under construction fig(34). Looking at AigusMortes in France and looking to Masdar city you can feel how similar they are. More than 800 years between the two cities but still it feels the grid still gives the same feelings.

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fig(36): Aigus-Mortes (France) 1248.

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fig(37): Masdar city (UAE). 2017

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Sketchy view for the Inter-Weaving city (UK). 2050

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Sketchy view for the Inter-Weaving city (UK). 2050

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The old Kingdom in Giza - Egypt

2550 BC

Harappa city

2000 BC

The babylon city

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1500 BC

The Greek Grid

1st millennium BC

The Chinese grid

600 BC

The Roman grid

273 BC

Santo Domingo (USA)

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Middle ages new towns

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Chandigarh India (1951)

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20th century

The Netherlands and Barcelona

Aigus-Mortes (France)

At the end, Grid history is a huge story that has been used for a long time and still considered as a very effective way of organizing the city.

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GRID DIMENSION I

n order to finalize the dimension of the new grid in the Inter-Weavin city, it was necessary to start looking at some of the examples for several cities that were designed according to the grid with an almost similar population, which will help to understand the proportion and the perfect size for the grid. There are lots of examples for cities with an almost similar population.

The cities that were chosen as a case study are: 1- Ancorage - USA 2- Atlanta - USA 3- Boston - USA 4- Honolul - USA 5- Miami - USA 6- Salt Lake City - USA 7- St. Louis - USA 8- Milton Keynes - UK Case studies with higher population: 1- Barcelona - Spain 2- New York - USA 3- Glasgow - UK 4- Brighton - UK Using case studies was not enough to finalize the dimension. So after that, the idea was looking to the existing dimension of the site then analyze the types of the buildings that will be used in the city. The project will design a grid that can be implemented in the whole 20 miles to achieve the core goal of greater interaction with site and nature. the design of the grid will interact with existing elements but at the same time keep the continuity between all the existing and newly designed parts.

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population: 375,000 - main grid: -1.6x1.6km - secondary grid: -230x90m -180x100m

population: 290,000 - main grid: -1.6x1.6km -1x1km - secondary grid: -400x400m -200x200m -100x100m Ancorage - USA

Miami - USA

population: 475,522 - main grid: -1.3x0.7km - secondary grid: -370x370m -180x180m -120x120m -100x100m Atlanta - USA

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population: 194,000 - main grid: -2x2km -900x475m -620x475m - secondary grid: -200x90m Salt lake city - USA

population: 670,000 - main grid: -850x430m - secondary grid: -200x100m -150x30m

population: 266,800 - main grid: -900X1700m - secondary grid: -400x200m -170x120m

Milton Keynes - UK

Boston - USA

population: 1,239,000 - secondary grid: - 250x75m -150x100m -100x100m

population: 375,000 - secondary grid: -400x90m -125x80m -185x60m -115x75m

Honolulu - USA

Glasgow - UK

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Grid3: 150m x 150m

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Grid2: 100m x 100m

Grid1: 50m x 50m

Different types of the grid that will be implemented in the project: Grid1: 50m x 50m Grid2: 100mx100x Grid3: 150m x 150m

black lines: connect the three grids in all directions. gold lines: connect grid one with grid two in the diagonal direction. blue lines: connect grid one with grid two in the horizontal direction. red lines: connect grid two with grid three in the horizontal direction.

This drawing trying to show the relation between the three types of the grids and shows how there will always be continues connections in all directions between the grids. Furthermore, it shows the final direction of the grid.

At the end, the grid is more flexible to define it in just three dimensions.

Because in the Inter-Weaving city the grid will be used in all scales and all elements. For example, the grid will be used in small spaces and even the grid was used in designing some small elements like the observation tower and the interaction platform in one of the spaces as you will see in page 135.

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Applying the grid on the whole 20 miles depends on the population and the amount of the important elements that will need to be preserved. Still, after applying the three types of the grid on the whole 20 miles it is flexible to use different dimensions when we zoom in.

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N 71

After applying the grid on the site the next step was defining the important elements that will affect the grid then start sketching the city according to all the information and the grid.

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This is the top view for the newly designed settlement in the Inter-Waving city next to sandy village showing how the city will interact with all the existing elements.

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General view for the inter-weaving city.

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B- Activities

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paces should have different types of activities and functions and it should be flexible to change according to the season and daily timing. Also, space is not only a few shading areas and seatings. Spaces are more than just an open space, it should function for different types of people. There are few examples of spaces that have lots of different functions like in Chicago fig(38). To increase the social interaction in any space it is important to give the feeling of identity and belonging to the space. In order to do that the designer should give the users different activities to do, more than what the users will create by themselves.

Giving different activities for the users will create more desire to use the space which will lead to more identity and feeling about the space. It is not necessary to give different activities directly. Most of the time all what the user need is high-quality space that can accommodate different activities and the users will create their own activities. So it is important for the designer to think about both giving direct activities and also giving spaces that allows the users to create and do their own activities. Different outdoor spaces are very important especially for kids for learning new skills like solving problems and creativity. Furthermore, having different activities in the outdoor space will help the children to grow emotionally and academically because they can find the chance to explore and experience new things. Also, having natural elements will let the children have the curiosity to explore more and knows more about it (Clements, 2004). White and Stoecklin (1997) state that outdoor spaces and activities enhance the ability of the children to interact with each other and any surrounding things especially that they feel they are far from the adults’ world which means they have more freedom.

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fig(38): Different activities in Chicago

Chinatown, where you can: 1- Pick up a pair pf foo dogs 2- Try something new for lunch 3- Fly a kite in ping tom park 4- Buy bamboo and money plants 5- Take a picture in the Zodiac Sculpture Garden 6- Meat friends for bubble tea 7- Enjoy Chinese New year celebrations

Northerly Island where you can: 1- Look north to the skyline 2- Look aest at the sailboats 3- See a concert 4- See native wildflowers 5- Go fishing 6- Picnic 7- Say hello to fast bikers

Wicker Park, where you can: 1- Play a game of chess 2- See where Nelsen Algren lived 3- Chase a kid through the Jungle gym 4- Set up a tightrope between the trees 5- Blend with hipsters and yuppies 6- Play catch in the dog park 7- Watch a softball game

Lincoin square where you can: 1- Watch a littile league games 2- Join a pick-up game of ultimate frisbee 3- See a movie at the historic Davis Theatre 4- Attend a summer concert series event 5- Take a class in martial arts, cooking, music, or dance.

6- See a piec of the Berlin Wall

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Activities in zone D: 1- Try something new for lunch 2- Kids area 3- Outdoor market 4- Enjoy sitting in the sun and nature 5- Play and interact with water 6- Swim 7- Outdoor market

Activities in zone C: 1- Try something new for lunch 2- Enjoy sitting in the sun and nature 3- Prformance area 4- Attend a summer concert series event

Activities in the woodland: 1- Interact with nature 2- Enjoy the view 3- Watch the birds Top view for one of the public spaces in the inter-weaving city showing some of the different activities in this space (all these activities are the direct ones and each space can accommodate

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more different activities according to the users).

Activities in zone B: 1- Play a game of chess 2- Play ping pong 3- Play billiard 4- Play baby foot 5- Kids area 6- Observation area 7-swim 8- Go fishing 9- Picnic 10- BBQ area

Activities in zone A: 1- Swim 2- Enjow the sun and the view 3- Kids area 4- Outdoor restuarants

Activities in zone E: 1- Try something new for lunch 2- Kids area 3- Attend a summer concert series event 4- Prformance area

Activities in zone E: 1- Try something new for lunch 2- Kids area 3- Outdoor market 4- Enjoy sitting in the sun and nature

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To show example in a more clear way here you can see three views for two different zones in one of the public spaces in the Inter-Weaving city ( zone B, and C) This view is for zone B. As we discussed before having different activities for different ages will help to enhance the social interaction in any space. According to that, this space was designed to have lots of different activities where people can: 1- Play a game of chess 2- Play ping pong 3- Play billiard 4- Play baby foot 5- Play in the Kids area 6- Watch the birds in the Observation area 7-swim 8- Go fishing 9- Picnic 10- BBQ area

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11:00 am

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View from zone C showing part of the social life in the space in two different times. Any space can be used in a different way in the different times of the year and in the different times of the day even. That is why for this space the views will show the difference between the day and night in this space. The space in the daytime used for enjoying the sun and the view, swim, sports and walking.

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11:00 pm

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As it is clear the space at the night is different. The space changed to a place for outdoor drinking, talking and for parties. Even the users will be different and the way they dressed. For example, there are fewer kids and less swimming suits. So this can show that the social interaction not only by the space but even the time.

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C- Spaces

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eople now need to communicate with others and the world. Public outdoor spaces are the most important spaces because it can provide the suitable environment to fill the gap and provide a space to communicate with others. Public space is the space of enjoyment, relaxation and communication. With time people start to create a special relationship with the spaces because they use it and experience the world from it and create different memories. The space form and design effect on this point and change a lot the way people communicate and interact. Designers now know that providing a well designed, maintained and attractive space with different activities gives the users the sense of community and identity to the space. Social interaction is a huge element that happened in a city in different scales. Spaces between buildings are the most obvious place where you can see the social interaction between users. One of the most important spaces is the intersection between two grids (node). This space has the highest density which means attracting more users. Before talking about spaces it is important to understand the types of the spaces. Types of spaces can be classified into two main parts: 1- Types according to the space form 2- Types according to the space function The form of any open space can be categorized in ten categories: unsymmetrical on two axes and line,

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avenues closed and open, Closed courts, open courts, telescope, the cross, the T, and pyramids (Dober, 2000).

Types of spaces according to the function can be classified into five spaces (Dober, 1992, p. 141): 1- Primary space: Main outdoor space that can be used for lots of different activities 2- Secondary spaces: Similar to the primary but the difference is not in size or design, actually the difference is in the expression of the space and usually, this space has a less visual impact.

3- Wetscapes: It is clear from the name of the space. This space is known for having some water features starting from a small fountain to a huge lake or even river.

4- Dryscapes: This type of spaces usually named for spaces in arid areas 5- Green spaces: Also, it is clear from the name of the space that it is a space with lots of green spaces with different types of planting.

Good space characteristics:

To understand how to design a better space it is important to know how to define a good space. Simply, there are three elements to define how good is space (Stiles, 2013, p. 13): 1- Environmental: - Having a positive impact on the climate conditions - Decrease the noise - Increase and support the idea of saving water 2- Social: - Create a suitable and comfortable space for different activities.

- Create a space that increases and support social interaction - Design the space with taking into consideration interaction with nature.

- Influencing human health and psychological wellbeing.

3- Structure and Function: - Divide the space into different zones and keep the connection between the zones and between the space and the surrounding.

- Create the space with special identity and concept.

Closed Courts

Open Courts

Pyramids

Avenues Open

Avenues Closed

The Cross

Unsymmetrical on two axes

Line

The T

Telescope

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Types of spaces according to the form:

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Closed courts Open courts Line space Telescope space

Public spaces form

Courtyard spaces form

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To understand how to define the good space there are few main criteria that will help to understand the good spaces (Capilano University, 2012, p. 31): • The form of the space should always be defined by different elements like plants, or buildings otherwise it will be considered weak space.

• Taking into consideration the human scale in the proportion between the buildings and space.

• Lots of small elements have a huge impact on the space especially the furniture.

• There should be a strong relationship between the soft and the hardscape.

Primary space

Also, it is important to have the variety in the type of the spaces like public, semi-public, and private spaces.

Secondary space

Wetscapes

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Types of spaces in the Inter-Weaving city according to the function:

Green spaces

Wetscapes

Primary space

Secondary space

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8 7

6 3

4

5

D 2

C A

E

B

1 Main public space in the dotted line (primary space) this space is divided into different spaces also according to the function (spaces A,B,C, D and E). This space is designed as an example for more detailed space to show the social interaction in public spaces and in nature and some physical elements that will affect on the social interaction as we will read in the coming parts of this book.

2 Woodland observation area (green space) 3 Walkway (green and secondary space) 4 Fishing Club (green and secondary space) 5 Wetland park entrance (primary space) 6 Outdoor exhibition (secondary space) 7 Outdoor theatre (primary space) 8 Observation tower (green and primary space) As mentioned before the intersections between the grids create high-quality spaces that will help to increase the interaction.

According to that having the diagonal grids in the inter-weaving cities with horizontal and the vertical creates lots of different spaces. This master plan will show some of the new spaces that were designed in the intersections of the grid showing the quality of these spaces.

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Walkway (green and secondary space) 95

1 96

Zone (D) outdoor market

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Zone (C) outdoor performance area

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D- Sittings • It is always better to think about sustainability by using local materials and technology According to Whyte (2001), a study was done on different open spaces in New York trying to find why some spaces welcome more people the others, and the result shows that there is a strong relationship between the number and the quality of the sittable seating with the number of the users as is shown in fig(39).

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here are lots of different services that the users need to use daily in the space. From these utilities are: Street furniture.

Street Furnitures: Benches, seats, lighting posts, kiosks, trash receptacles, display boards, signs, retaining walls bicycle racks, fencing, and billboards all are outdoor spaces furniture which is better to be visually unified which gives the space identity and style. Outdoor street furniture is a very important element that will affect a lot on the efficiency of the space.

The furniture should be designed with a consideration that it will be used every day from different types of users. For example, there are main elements for designing furniture in any space (Dalhousie University, 2010, p. 31): • It should be located in a suitable place for the users without blocking their way. • The design of the furniture should be according to the standards.

Chairs:

The best sitting elements are the movable chairs. It gives the flexibility and the freedom for the users to arrange the space as they prefer. The users will decide if they want to sit in the sun or in the shade which gives them the control and the feeling that they are part of the space. Furthermore, it gives more flexibility for the events to be held in different spaces. Also having movable chairs will help to increase the social interaction and sending messages between users. For example, a new person took the chair next to a group of people, that gives a signal that the person wants to interact with the group. Also taking the chair to far place means that the user needs the privacy. According to that people can send lots of signs and messages to others as a part of the social feelings (Gehl, 2010). Chairs will let the users feel that they own the space. For example zone A in the inter-weaving city designed as space for the users to put the chairs as they want which led to more flexibility and interaction in the space.

fig(39): Sharts from the Ney York study showing the relation between the number of the users and the amount of the sittable space.

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Zone (A) this space was designed just with chairs giving the users the freedom to adjust their space. This will help to give the feeling of identity to the space.

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Edges:

Sitting furnitures are not only chairs and benches. One of the most successful things to do in any public space is ledges.

Having a good clear sittable ledges is a very important design element, especially because it can be used as a sitting place and as a table. One lesson is when Seagram’s Philip Johnson said that when Mies van der Rohe saw how the people use the ledges was surprised because they never thought that this is how space will be used and it was shocking the number of the users every day for a space that does not have any single bench.

So if ledges considered a suitable place then it is important to understand the best dimension for it. For example, the ledge of Seagram’s started at 7 inches at one corner rising to reach 44 at the other corner. and according to the observation that was done by (Whyte, 2001) trying to find which height the users prefer they found that people were sitting everywhere in balance which means that users will always use the ledges. As a conclusion of the observation the average hight should be between one foot and three foot, but in general, the most successful hight is 14 inches. Another important dimension is the depth. Sometimes the architect designs the depth that can be used for two persons back to back but not in a comfortable way or a big space for one person which will make some problems especially in the weekends where the number of the users will be high. The designer should know for how many people the depth will be used if it will be for 2 then it should be enough to make them sit back to back in a comfortable way. To finalize, the dimension of the depth 30 inches is good for two persons but the best and the ideal is 36 inches. (Whyte, 2001)

14 inches

36 inches

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Space 2 in the inter-weaving city showing how people will use the ledges to enjoy the space and the nature.

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Zone (E) showing the arrange of the benches in this area to enhance the group meet but at the same time do not disturb the main path.

Benches: For benches, they are preferred to be made of a strong material as steel that can withstand the intensive usage as well as the weather conditions more than plastic, wood or recycled composites. Benches should be a bit of classical not very trendy as it is supposed to be a part of accessory on the space that should not greatly grab attention but act in harmony with the surroundings. The length and the size of benches are decided according to the usage whether it is for small groups or for a large group that needs more length and space. Selection of dark colours is better than bright ones as it is more easily maintained.

Another important point that lots of architects put the benches far from the active zone which sometimes leads to let the people aband using the benches. But still using fixed benches is not the perfect things because the best way to arrange the seating area is by the users themselves and the best way to do that is to give them chairs that they can move. Putting chairs in the space will let them arrange the sitting area and most of the time the designer will find the chairs arranged and will probably stay the same unless some special events happened.

According to the studies done by Deasy & Lasswell (1985), in public spaces 71% of the groups only contains two members, there are 21% with 3 members, 6% with 4 members and 2% are groups with more members. So, according to this study, it is clear that people prefer to be in small groups which means this should be considered in designing public space and arranging the seats for small groups. • The seating should be always designed minimum for 2 persons at the same time and maximum 8. • The seating should be arranged in a way that is suitable for group meeting without distracting from any walkway.

As you can see this example from zone B in the Inter-weaving city showing how each sitting area is separated from the main path designed for group sitting area. clear circulation axis Group sitting area

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fig(40): To understand social interaction in any space it is important to understand all the elements more deeply.

Every small element in the physical, social, or natural will affect. For example, this photo was designed by Gehl (2013) trying to create a small story for a bench to understand the social interaction that happened around that bench.

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Thers is a bench

A+B ‘‘ Great, let’s sit...’’

A+B ‘‘....so I can puff on my pipe’’ (The man in the background is still waiting.)

C: ‘‘ Ah an empty seat on the end: I’ll grab that.’’

A+B: ‘‘ Well, time to move on.’’

C: ‘‘This is so good place to sit’’

C: ‘‘Here come two apprentices with paint all over their pants. I think I have been here long enough

D+E: ‘‘Wow, did you get a look at here?’’

There is an empty bench.

F: ‘‘Ah an empty bench. I wonder if there are any red ones left?’’

G: ‘‘This is a nice place. I will sit at the opposite end. What on earth, is white stuff?

Fresh paint-well I’m not going to set here’’

F: ‘‘So he didn’t really want to sit down. I guess I will manage with my own company’’...

(The littile guy is still waiting patiently in his107 stroller.)

Informal social sitting centres: Sometimes, users just find a place for themselves that become the main gathering and sitting area for them.

Anyway, lots of times this type of spaces not designed to be a sitting area but the users decided that it is a very good space for them which sometimes lead to lots of problems in the space. This types of spaces can be lots of different spaces like near to the entrance of a building, under a tree, or the most popular one on the stairs, or next to some landmark. This view for zone A in the Inter-Weaving city trying to show how people will find their own way of using a space by using some elements

to be as a sitting area even if it was not designed to be one. So, in order to design these spaces in a better way, these are some of the important criteria that the designer should consider (Deasy & Lasswell. 1985, p.98): 1- This type of spaces should always be connected to the main circulation system.

2- It is better to have these spaces in an intersection space with some activities in the surrounding.

3- There should be sitting areas in these spaces.

4- Provide some shading areas in these spaces.

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The intersection between zone (E) and zone (A). Showing how users might find their own sitting area even if it was not designed for that like next to the land mark, edges, and the stairs.

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Sitting area percentage: According to (Gehl, 2010) after analysing the best public spaces in New York trying to find the how much sitting area the space need, the result was that 6 to 10% of the total open space is the best ratio and this includes all type of sitting even the ledges. But according to the change in the use of the space through time Gehl state

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that 10% should be the minimum in any open space. At the end sitting area has the most important effect on the social interaction in any space, that is why it is important to have the good amount with the best design and organization.

Also, it is important to have different types of sitting area as you can see in this view for zone E in the Inter-weaving city.

1

Zone (E)

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04

SOCIAL INTERACTION WITH NATURE

U

nfortunately and for the first time in the history, most of the countries population now living in the urban areas. The huge growth of the cities and urban settlements reached the maximum percentage in the history. in 1950 30% of the population was urban but by 2014 the number reached 54%. imagine that all these people living in cities with high density and lack of communication. That is why it is important to provide public spaces that help them to get out a little bit from there busy life and interact more with the world. This huge Urban growth creates the biggest challenge for the urban planner to provide cities that ensure the health and well-being of the residents. Also, it is important to provide some natural elements after what city did by occupying a huge part of the lands. But what if we gave spaces that provide natural elements and at the same time increases the social interaction. This type of spaces is one of the best solutions to improve the life of the residence of any urban settlements, and that is why this chapter will talk about social interaction with nature.

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E- Social interaction with Nature

U

rban nature is one of the most important elements that provide different benefits to humans, as improving the quality of air and water, and supporting the ecosystem of cities. Firstly it is important to understand the definition of nature. Nature can be a definition for anything than humans and human-made things. Others consider nature to be anything on this planet that exist without human help. The most successful definition, I believe to be is that nature is any living fauna and flora.

When mentioning natural elements, this means all the natural living elements like plants and animals and nonliving like sun and water. Defining Urban nature can be simply the presence of all the different natural elements in the urban environment. There are lots of examples of urban natural typologies like rooftop garden, bioswales, rain gardens, community gardens, parks, street trees and vertical gardens. Natural Urban spaces seem to support the environmental and social interaction of the users. There are different studies done to test the effect of nature on the human psychology. The researcher Tyrväinen et al. (2007) studied the impact of nature on the users in Tampere and Helsinki. The results showed that people favourite places most of the time in nature and forest outside the city. That is why it is important when designing any green space to understand what the users like. In order to know more how important are natural elements in public spaces here are some studies that were done about it listed in the article by (Chiesura, de Groot 2003): - Experience gained from the park will help to reduce the stress (Ulrich 1981)

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- Experience gained from the park will help to create a peacefulness sense (Kaplan 1983).

- The effect of the natural elements has been tested in many different fields. For example, hospital patients who have a view on environmental elements like trees or plants will be recovered more quickly than patients who do not have this view (Hartig et al. 1991; Conway 2000).

- Also in a survey that was done for park visitors, they found that people who visit parks frequently reported a better health than who did not (Godbey et al. 1992).

- According to Schroeder (1991) spaces with vegetation and water help to reduce stress more than spaces without vegetation.

When talking about social interaction natural elements can: - Help to encourage the users to use the outdoor space more (Coley et al. 1997).

- The existence of trees and plants in outdoor spaces will help to promote and enhance the development of social ties. Also, green spaces help people to reduce aggression and relax (Kuo et al. 1998).

Water

One of the most important elements of the natural elements is water. Waterfronts considered one of the most complex public spaces in any city because it breaks the rigid and the grid of the city and gives it a more natural theme. Waterfront spaces is a unique space because it is considered the most obvious space where nature and man-made meet. It can form the border between two worlds and at the same time creates a link between them. Furthermore, it is one of the greatest ways for transportation and entertainment. To design a space with water features or elements here are some important points (Sorkin, 1993): 1- The minimum surface that should be occupied by water is 30%.

2- The minimum depth of the water in case of using it as a transportation is 6 feet.

3- Designing the waterfront should include all types of services and infrastructure.

4- As maximum as it could be the water should be clean without any chemicals.

5- Any link or bridge above the water the maximum distance should be 1 km as mentioned before in the pedestrian part.

4

Fishing Club (green and secondary space) this space was always known as a fishing are and that is why in the design I tried to keep the original function in the space.

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According to what was mentioned before it is very important to bring nature to any design and the first thing to think about it when designing any space is using the existing elements. And this is the main concept of the inter-weaving city. For example, the public space for zone A, B, C, D, and E designed by using all the existing elements. The space was designed according to the existing trees and water features trying to use it as maximum as I can. The results were that all the trees that you can see in this plan is a real existing trees in the site not newly designed. This will help to bring the nature more to the spaces. Furthermore, the idea was to create spaces inside all the existing woodland and that is why you will find different spaces cutting through the woodland to interact more with it. Later we will talk also about a flooding area that was converted to a wetland park by using all the existing elements trying to use it as a positive way rather than just demolish everything and start designing from zero. At the end using grid does not mean to forget the natural lines.

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Different studies about the effects of the natural elements on the public spaces showed that spaces with more vegetation can help to reduce the fear of crime in the space which will lead to use the space in a more comfortable way and trust the other users to interact with them (Kuo and Sullivan, 2001b).

According to Kuo et al., 1998 the more physically and visually the vegetation accessible the more time the users will spend. Furthermore, some studies found that there is a direct link between the number of the trees in the space and the number of the users. Also, more studies showed that spaces with more trees and grass will attract more adults, youth, and mixed age groups (Coley et al., 1997, Kuo et al., 1998b). That is why in the inter-weaving city I tried to create different spaces in all the existing woodland and bring nature more to attract more users and enhance the social interaction.

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Space 2 in the inter-weaving city showing an elevated bridge that cut through the woodland to create different three spaces on three different levels.

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Zone (B) showing the space that was designed with different voids according to the existing trees and showing a space in the woodland with kids area and entertainment area.

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Throughout history, it was clear that nature always tried to find its way to the city. Designers always tried to bring this feeling to the city. Starting from the ancient Persian gardens to the Islamic gardens and to today’s parks, nature has been always an important design element in the cities.

Unfortanly with the huge industrial revolution and all the urban growth in the word cities started to lose the green spaces and the separation between nature and human is increasing. That is why in the half of the 19th-century designers start to bring large green areas and spaces to the heart of the cities. This is the reason why lots of designers now trying to create huge natural landscape projects in the middle of the cities by using native plants trying to bring nature more to the heart of the city. One of the amazing projects that was trying to do that is Qunli National Urban Wetland Park. The main aim of this park is to bring nature again to the city and use any existing potential of the site.

This project was a great inspiration for one of the wetland area in the Inter-weaving city trying to design it as a wetland park bringing the nature to the heart of the city.

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fig(41):View from Qunli park showing different spaces at different levels and creating platforms giving the users the chance to interact more with nature.

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Qunli New District is a new urban project, with a size of 2733 Hectares, and it was designed in 2006. The main aim of this project is to design and build buildings with an area of 32 million square meters in 15 years. In reference to the design, only 16.4% of the site was meant to be a green space and the rest of the land will be buildings.

Unfortunately, the city had a huge bad history of flooding, especially in the summer. Turenscape found a flooding area that can be designed to be a great natural public space. They used the principle of cut and fill to change the land to a park after it was a dying wetland (Turenscape. com, 2017).

fig(42):The site of the Qunli park in the mddile of the city.

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fig(43): In this view, you can see the principle of cut and fill helped to create different spaces at different levels.

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fig(44):Photo from the skywalk in the Qunli park. They created walkways at different levels to create different views on nature which will help to have different activities.

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fig(45): To interact more with nature they created different observation towers.

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Qunli wetland park was a great inspiration to transfer one of the floodings are in the inter-weaving city to a wetland park. So the first phase was analysing the site trying to understand the site and discover the existing ponds and all the elements of the site that can be used to create spaces that will attract more users to have a higher social interaction in the public spaces.

The space in the red dashed line is a flooding area where the new wetland park will be designed.

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300

m

200

m

100

50m

50m

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N

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Start creating a base map for the area to understand water direction and the existing ponds. This will help how to use the cut and fill and how to control the flooding and use the water and plants for filtration and cleaning.

450m

400m

350m

300m

250m

200m

150m

100m

50m

0m

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1- Existing circulation and woodland

6- Ground level walkways

2- Existing ponds and connecting it according to the water flow

7- Site entrances

3- Cut area

8- Elevated walkways and nodes

4- Fill area

9- Main activity zones

5- Applying the grid

10- Elevated buildings

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On the left side, you can see the main process of designing the wetland park. The sketches and the diagrams showing that using the grid was not only for the urban level. The grid was implemented even in designing some really detailed elements as you can see for the structure of the observation tower and different platforms and spaces.

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Since nature can really affect and enhance social interaction it was really important to give the users the opportunity to interact more with nature. After designing all these spaces and elevated walkways I designed different platforms to let the users interact more with nature. These different spaces and platforms were designed also using this grid to prove that this new grid can work in all different scales for different elements to make sure it is flexible enough.

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137

Wetland park plan

138

139

Bird Observation tower

In this section, you can see the merging between the manmade and nature, trying to design different elements in the nature to increase social interaction with nature.

Cut area

Ground level walkway

River Ivel

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River Ivel

Bird Observation tower

Elevated path

Outdoor theatre

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8 9

Observation tower (green and primary space): This space was designed in the middle of a woodland to use the existing natural elements in the heart of the city. Bringing huge natural elements like woodland to the city will help to create space that attracts more users as mentioned in the previous studies which will help to increase social interaction.

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7 3

Outdoor theatre (primary space): This public space is an elevated public space that used as a performance area between lots of natural elements like woodland and rivers. This is one of the main spaces in a wetland park that was designed to attract more users to the park and increase social interaction between the users.

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5 1

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Wetland park entrance (primary space): The entrance of the wetland park in the Inter-weaving city that will lead to the outdoor exhibition space which is also a space that was designed in the intersection of the grid as it is clear in the view. This Space contains outdoor museum and observation tower.

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6 6

Outdoor exhibition (secondary space): View for the space that was mentioned in the previous view, that was designed to be an outdoor museum and exhibition.

This view is trying to show the vertical connection between the different circulation that was designed according to the grid.

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05 152

URBAN FUTURES

U

rban future now is not only about creating towers and fancy buildings. All what people think when talking about future cities is technology, but they forget about the most important element which is the human. Urban future should be about the human and their relations. There are lots of great and rich cities but when you live there you feel there is something missing. On the other hand some cities they might have lots of problems like the slums or the informal settlements but still, people there will have their own identity and they will fight for this place. Because at the end it is always about the social aspect and the relation with the place. Social interaction is the main key to any space. Without it, space will be just another open space that did not reach the exact function and did not give any service to the community. When we talk about social interaction it is obvious that lots of different elements can affect it. The three elements that we talked about are the most important elements and you can write books about each one of them. It is clear that there is a strong relationship between all the three elements.

There is no way to consider one and forget about the rest because all these elements are like a web they depend on each other. Designing cities and spaces should always think about the social part at different levels. Some small details can change a lot in the design.

All these elements can be considered as different layers. To have a successful design you should add all these layers on top of each other to reach your final city. Future cities should be designed by taking into consideration all the different elements in all scales and design phases. The inter-weaving city was just a proposal trying to apply as much as its possible from the different elements to create a better city for the future that can enhance social interaction and develop the human. Because at the end developing the human is the most important thing because only human can develop the future and create a better vision for the future cities. At the end to conclude this book all these elements created the layers of my new city which can be considered the conclusion of this book. To show the city more and show how all these layers affect each other and rely on each other, in the next page you will see a conceptual model showing all the different layers and the relation between them. At the end I hope in the future designers will start to give the social aspect more time and design the cities and the spaces starting from this aspect.

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Site

Existing landscape The Grid

New designed elements (Buildings)

Streets & spaces

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This model is like a final conclusion for the city trying to show the relationship between some of the different layers of the city and how they interact with each other.

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List of Figures All the figures in this book are done by the Author except: Fig (1): Dober, R. P. (1992). Campus Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Fig (6): Arizona Bike Law. (2018). AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities. [online] Available at: http://azbikelaw.org/aashto-guidefor-the-development-of-bicycle-facilities/ [Accessed 13 Jul. 2018].

Fig (9): Dober, R. P. (1992). Campus Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Fig (10-11): Gehl, J. (2010). Cities for people. 1st ed. Washington, DC: Island press.

Fig (17-19): Trentini, S. (2018). The “Superblocks” of Barcelona: Despite Protests, City Follows with Sustainable Strategy — TheCityFix. [online] TheCityFix. Available at: http://thecityfix.com/blog/the-super-blocks-ofbarcelona-despite-protests-city-follows-with-sustainable-strategy-sergiotrentini/ [Accessed 10 Aug. 2018].

Fig (20): Brass, K. (2018). Redesigning the Grid: Barcelona’s Experiment with Superblocks - Urban Land Magazine. [online] Urban Land Magazine.

Available at: https://urbanland.uli.org/planning-design/barcelonasexperiment-superblocks/ [Accessed 10 Aug. 2018].

Fig (21): Planetizen - Urban Planning News, Jobs, and Education. (2018).

Barcelona ‘Superblocks’ Aim to Cut Down on Cars. [online] Available at: https://www.planetizen.com/node/86881/barcelona-superblocks-aim-cutdown-cars [Accessed 10 Aug. 2018].

Fig (37): Transsolar.com. (2018). Masdar City Masterplan | Transsolar | KlimaEngineering. [online] Available at: http://transsolar.com/projects/ masdar-city [Accessed 9 Jul. 2018].

Fig (38): Edited and modified by the Author.

Original figure reference: Metropolitan Planning Council (n.d.). A Guide to Neighborhood Placemaking in Chicago. Chicago: Metropolitan Planning Council.

Fig (39): Whyte, W. (2001). The social life of small urban spaces. New York: Project for Public Spaces.

Fig (40): Gehl, J. and Svarre, B. (2013). How to study public life.

Washington, DC: Island Press.

Fig (41): ArchDaily. (2013). Qunli Stormwater Wetland Park / Turenscape. [online] Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/446025/qunli-stormwaterwetland-park-turenscape [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Fig (42): Edited and modified by the Author.

Original figure reference: Austin, G. and Yu, K. (2016). Constructed wetlands and sustainable development. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Fig (43-45): ArchDaily. (2013). Qunli Stormwater Wetland Park / Turenscape. [online] Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/446025/ qunli-stormwater-wetland-park-turenscape [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Fig (22-23): Publicspace.org. (2018). Works - PublicSpace. [online] Available at: https://www.publicspace.org/works/-/project/k081-poblenous-superblock [Accessed 10 Aug. 2018].

Fig (24-25): Gehl, J. and Svarre, B. (2013). How to study public life.

Washington, DC: Island Press.

Fig (26): Nationalgeographic.com. (2018). Lost City of Mohenjo Daro Puzzles Archaeologists. [online] Available at: https://www. nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/archaeology/mohenjodaro/ [Accessed 9 Jul. 2018].

Fig (27- 28): Ancient Civilizations | History Simplified. (2018). Babylonian Empire. [online] Available at: http://www.ancient-civilizations.com/ babylonian-empire/ [Accessed 9 Jul. 2018].

Fig (29-34): Kostof, S. (1991). The city shaped. London: Thames & Hudson Lt Fig (35): Atlanta, Then and Now (1871 to 2011). [online] Available at: https://www.citylab.com/design/2011/11/atlanta-then-and-now/539/ [Accessed 10 Jul. 2018].

Fig (36): Kostof, S. (1991). The city shaped. London: Thames & Hudson Lt

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