Configuring the navigation - an experiment

Sahil Kanekar

Configuring the Navigation - An Experiment

Sahil Kanekar

Configuring the Navigation - An Experiment

student number - 4477707 | tutor - Leeke Reinders | Msc. Urbanism | January 2016 | TU Delft

image source - author

“Good cities know that streets are for people, not just cars. Great cities know that streets are places to linger and live, not just move through” – Brent Toderian

Chapter one - Observations

“The battle for neighborhood quality is won or lost at small scale and that it is important to focus on relationship between the built environment and people’s quality” – Jan Gehl

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Introduction The book is based on a process of exploring ideas to develop a way to express the experience of navigation through a street. It is structured in three chapters; observations- which comprises of documenting the facts and developing a perception; diagrams- which is about simplifying the complex data; and experimentation- where a design tool is developed to explore different possibilities.

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Serial Vision An individual walks in a city at uniform speed until and unless any external element affects the motion. It can either slow down that individual or make that person walk faster. These elements are revelations which the pedestrian experiences while walking. And the series of these revelations is termed as ‘Serial Vision’ by Gordon Cullen. The point of inception for this research were these revelations and the so termed ‘Serial Vision’; how these revelations or elements guide the way a pedestrian navigates in a city. Based on Gordon Cullen’s book ‘Townscape’; the idea of serial vision was used to explore site in terms of; concerning optics – existing and revealed views; concerning place – position in environment, for instance, here and there; concerning content – sense of identity by elsewhere.

The initial observations were based on these serial vision. The following drawings are on site observations and the way site was perceived at the first instance.

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1. The wetland area in north of Rotte river

2. The area near highway and railway bridge O b s e r v a t i o n

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3. The swan neck bend of Rotte river

4. The Noordplein area with extended wooden deck on Rotte river O b s e r v a t i o n | D i a g r a m s

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5. Towards the city center - Rotte river

6. Rotte river as city axis

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Street as a mirror of neighborhood A street is the mirror of a neighborhood. It showcases the kind of people living and working within that particular area. But it is not only people; it is the private, the public and the visual arrangements perceived by an individual while passing through these spaces. To simplify it; the way people use and occupy their building plinths and building faรงade guides an individual to navigate on that street creating a series of narratives for that neighborhood.

Such narratives were experienced within site on streets like Noordmolenstraat and Zwaanshhals

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Noordmolenstraat

Zwaanshals street

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Noordmolenstraat – Ethnic diversity, shops spilling on streets, attitude of displaying things, shops ranging from supermarket to clothes to washing machines, signage prominent and loud, center of street high on activities and display, periphery fades out with character, trees and street light poles frame the view, navigation speed slow, navigation attitude strolling, doors open even in winter

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Zwaanshals – Less of diversity, shops reluctant on spilling on streets, structured shop front, signage very subtle, one side of street linear movement whereas other side with pockets of terraces, organized placement of potted plants, no street light poles, building façade frame the view, navigation speed average, navigation attitude intentional, doors closed.

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Chapter two - Diagrams “Streets and their sidewalks, the main public spaces of a city, are it’s most vital organs”

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– Jane Jacobs

Street configuration Configuration of a street (simple or complex) is formed of physical and social landscape which displays the urban cues of the framework of that neighborhood. This chapter is about understanding these configurations and simplifying them.

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Zwaanshals street Mapping shopsThe shops on Zwaanshals street are art cafes, art shops, home dĂŠcor shops, etc. The display is within the shop with big windows to see through.

There are few super markets which do keep things on display outside the shop, but are very few.

Permeability of streetZwaanshals, being a shopping street, has high level of permeability on ground floor. This is seen in the adjacent diagrams. The gray patch represents the blocks which belong to retail sector and can be accessed.

Benthuizerstraat Mapping shopsBenthuizerstraat is also a shopping street similar to Zwaanshals, however the difference is that Benthuizerstraat has variety of shops right from salons to cafes, from washing clothes to big retail blocks like Albert Heijn.

Permeability of streetBeing a shopping street, Benthuizerstraat also has a high level of permeability on ground floor. However, there are few blocks which belong to major retail companies, so unlike Zwaanshals small units on ground floor, there are few big blocks of retail as well.

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Mapping shops

Zwaanshals street

Permeability of street

Mapping shops

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Noordmolenstraat Mapping shopsNoormolenstraat is a shopping street with a very peculiar character. The diversity on Oude Noorden neighborhood is seen in this street. There are pop up cafes, shops, super markets, laminate stores, meat shops, clothes shops, mobile stores, etc. Most of the shops have the nature of displaying things on the street, which makes Noordmolenstraat unlike any other street.

Permeability of streetNoordmolenstraat is a highly permeable street as most of the blocks on ground floor belong to retail sector.

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Mapping shops

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Bergweg street Mapping shopsBergweg is one of the major streets in Oude Noorden neighborhood. It connects the neighborhood to northern parts of Rotterdam as well as to the Rotterdam central station. The streets are moderate amount of shops which are similar to shops onBenthuizerstraat.

Permeability of streetAs the street has moderate amount of shops, the permeability is moderate as compared to earlier three shopping streets.

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Mapping shops

Permeability of street

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Zaagmolenstraat Mapping shopsZaagmolenstraat is also one of the major connecting streets within Oude Noorden. However, this street has very less number of retail blocks on ground floor.

Permeability of streetAs the street has less number of retail blocks on ground floor, it is less permeable in its character. This can be seen in the adjacent diagram.

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Mapping shops

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Public Realm

Benthuizerstraat Primary Street in Oude Noorden

“The sphere of social relations going beyond our own circle of friendships and of family and professional relations. The idea of public realm is bound up with the ideas of expanding one’s mental horizons of experiment, adventure, discovery, surprise.”

– Bianchini and Schwengel Streets form a discontinuous collective space with different levels of shared uses defined by physical and social landscapes. This overall defines the public realm; different for different neighborhoods. When all these five streets are combined together, they give a rough idea of the public realm within Oude Noorden neighborhood. It displays the hierarchy of streets as primary, secondary and tertiary; where Bergweg and Zaagmolenstraat act as the primary connecting streets of neighborhood, while streets like Noordmolenstraat, Benthuizerstraat and Zwaanshals are the secondary but shopping fronts of neighborhood; whereas the est as the tertiary with residential function as majority.

Berweg street Primary Street in Oude Noorden

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Zaagmolenstraat Primary Street in Oude Noorden

Noordmolenstraat Secondary Street in Oude Noorden

Zwaanshals street Secondary Street IN Oude Noorden

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Permeable Facades The factors which make these streets permeable or impermeable are the functions that occur on the ground floor.

Elements like windows, doors and their arrangements play an important role in this permeability of streets. There is an inventory of existing building facades developed; retail and residential; for Oude Noorden.

Block 1 - elevation

Block 1 - diagram

Block 2 - elevation

Block 2 - diagram

Block 3 - elevation

Block 3- diagram

Block 4 - elevation

Block 4 - diagram

Building blocks with residence on ground floor O b s e r v a t i o n

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Block 1 - elevation

Block 1- diagram

Block 2 - elevation

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Block 3 - elevation

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Block 4 - elevation

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Block 5 - elevation

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Block 6 - elevation

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Chapter three - Experiment “Entrances of dwellings can contribute to safety and liveliness by giving opportunities for social interaction”

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– Jan Gehl

Street and plinth – A protagonist of urban fabric An individual experiences city through the ‘public realm’. It is something more than a public space. It consists of not only parks, squares, plazas, streets but also building facades, ground floors and what functions are present at the ground floor. In short it includes everything that can be seen and experienced at the eye level. Ground floor plays a very important role in vibrancy and attractiveness of an urban space, both in residential and commercial scenario. Researches show that if the destination is safe, clean, relaxed and easily understood, and if visitors can wander around with their expectations met or exceeded, they will remain three times longer and spend more money than in an unfriendly and confusing structure. A ground floor maybe only 10% of building, but it determines 90% of buildings contribution to the experience of environment.

Based on the observations and diagrams developed and experiment is formulated to develop a tool which shall help in configuring an active public realm.

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image source - author

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Neighborhood opinion “Oude Noorden is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Rotterdam” “All different culture groups need to interact better with each other” “Oude Noorden is not safe enough” “There should be more space for activities” Based on interviews with the residents and people connected to this neighborhood, it was observed that they still feel Oude Noorden; which is one of the most diverse neighborhood, lacks scope of interaction and quality of livability is low.

Urban renewal in Oude Noorden so far…

The urban renewal within Oude Noorden has been focused on open space, squares and parks so far. As a result of these urban renewal strategies, the economic value of Oude Noorden increased in period of 2000 and 2008. One of the factors responsible was attracting creative class. The intention was successfully achieved; however it led to increase in the housing stock within the neighborhood. This didn’t solve the issues of neighborhood like lack of social environment and unemployment and improvement in the livability. Due to attracting creative class, there has been a flow of new set of people which attracts investors and projects for development, which in turn increases the property value, resulting into people from working class within the neighborhood not able to afford these properties and moving them out of Oude Noorden. This lets the higher middle class move in the area thereby increasing the economic value of Oude Noorden. There is no doubt that improving public spaces and community areas, modernizing building blocks led to increase in livability of neighborhood, however these are not the only factors to deal with the issues.

There are two approaches for renewal of a neighborhood; one is ‘renewal of place’ and second is ‘renewal for people’. These solutions are more oriented towards the ‘renewal of place’ rather than the approach should have been as ‘renewal for people’

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“People come where people are – people are inspired and attracted by activity and the presence of other people” – Jan Gehl

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Formulating the experiment When one talks of an active public realm, it is retail, cafes and restaurants that form the image. As a result, this approach is always dealt with commercial functions. The last ten years The Netherlands experienced 50% increase in area dedicated to retail, however the turnover in the sector remained same. Due to internet shopping there is an expectation of decrease by 30% in retail sector. This suggests that an active ground floor does not mean providing only retail, cafes and restaurants but thinking about different activities which can thrive. It is important to also look at public functions such as schools and libraries, pop up shops which can add on to this approach. But a very important factor is living on ground floor and how flexible is this ground floor to accommodate different functions if and whenever required.

An experiment is formulated to develop a tool which shall help in configuring an active public realm. The key statements which materialized this experiment are; A good street needs to have an interactive ground floor.

An interactive ground floor doesn’t mean all blocks to be converted into retail.

It is related to creating an opportunity to develop passive see and hear.

There has to be participation of the inhabitants of neighborhood.

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The Design tool A model of a very generic street but very specific to Oude Noorden is developed based on an inventory of earlier research about the five streets. This model has a specific width and specific length, however can display the characters of a residential street and a retail street at the same time. This is achieved by changing the building blocks and street within the model from residential to retail or visa versa.

The aim of the experiment is to generate different scenarios to achieve an active and flexible street configuration.

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The residential street In this configuration, all the blocks on ground floor are residential. The street arrangement is based on existing streets within Oude Noorden. It can be seen that the pedestrian walkway is narrow, street is dominated by vehicular parking and there is no active navigation within the street for a pedestrian.

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The retail street This configuration depicts a retail street within Oude Noorden. The street arrangement shows different types of shops and cafes with their terraces and spillover on the street. This makes the navigating experience very much active and the pedestrian is alert while walking on such a street. There is an opportunity to generate interaction.

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Place to sit, stand, see and hear

Single lane vehicular access

Interface between public and private

Wide pedestrian walkway Staggered parking

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The experiment of configuring street The street profile has been modified to widen the pedestrian walkway. Vehicular access is one way which makes it possible to widen the pedestrian walkway. Parking has been staggered. All the blocks are provided with 1 meter wide front yard which acts as an interface between public and private. Shops and cafes can use it to display their products or as terraces respectively and for residential blocks a planter bed can be added with provision of a bench to sit. All these small interventions give an opportunity for people to see hear around them and guides their navigation in an active manner. This gives a scope to develop an active public realm. Similar arrangements can be achieved by the inhabitants within the neighborhood which will make them involved in configuring their own street.

Passive see and hear Wide walkway with parking Active front of residence

Interface Flexible ground floor; residence Wide walkway Flexible ground floor; retail

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Single lane traffic

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Conclusions From the experiment following conclusions were derived; 1.

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To develop an active public realm, it is not necessary that street has to be of retail nature.

It is important to rethink about living on ground floor.

An interface needs to be developed between private and public to make the street active.

This interface will give an opportunity to interact.

The ground floor should be flexible enough to change from retail to residential or visa versa.

Preferably the corner blocks should be of retail nature to create an active junction.

The residential streets should be single lane to focus on wide pedestrian walkways and safe traffic intersec tions.

Parking should be staggered to avoid dominance of vehicle on street.

The building blocks on ground floor should be of small unit nature and large blocks. This gives an opportunity to create diversity of functions and increase the scope for permeability of a street.

More the scope for permeability, better is the navigating experience of street. Better the navigating experi ence of street, better is the livability of neighborhood.

NOTE: the model developed is a tool to configure active streets for active navigating experiences. This has to be done with the involvement of the inhabitants of respective neighborhood. The proposal is to demonstrate the working of the model as a design tool.

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References BOOKS • Walkable City: from Haussman’s Boulevard to Jane Jacobs streets and beyond; by Jeff Speck; Vehicule press, 2008, Montreal • Townscapes; by Gordon Cullen; Architectural press, 1961, London • In search of new public domain: analysis and strategy; by Maarten Hajer, Arnold Reijndrop, Andrew May, Els Brinkman; NAi publishers, 2001, Rotterdam • Life between buildings: using public space; by Jan Gehl; Arkitektens Forlag, 2001, Copenhagen • Cities for people; by Jan Gehl; Island Press, 2010, Washington D.C. • City at eye level: lessons for street plinths; by Meredith Glaser; Eburon, 2012, Delft • Urban regeneration in Rotterdam: economic and social values; by A. Mak, P.L.M. Stouten; De Gruyter Open 2014-06-06 • Great Cities; by Allan Jacobs; MIT press, 1993, Cambridge • Streetscape territories – Raval Barcelona, Notebook; by Kris Scheerlinck; Sint-Lucus KU Leuven Faculty of Ar chitecture, 2014 • Everyday urbanism: featuring John Chase; by John Chase, Margaret Crawford, John Kaliski; Monacelli press, 1999, New York WEBSITES • http://www.deprivedhoods.eu/ • http://www.stipo.nl/english/the-city-at-the-eye-level • http://www.stipo.nl/english/from-making-a-city-to-being-a-city • http://www.stipo.nl/english/the-intercultural-city-and-city-making • https://streetscapeterritories.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/a-matter-of-thinking/ • http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/images/content/5/6/v2/567013/MSM-Booklet-092613.pdf •

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/news/the-great-cultural-and-urbanistic-legacy-of-manuel-de-sol.html

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