Rethinking the Urban Square
3.1 Role and Functions of Public Squares According to Lewis Mumford, primary function of cities is the acculturation and humanization of its inhabitants and for these purposes public spaces are the essential tools in the city.
Figure 23: Sultanahmet Mosque and Sultanahmet square
Some basic functions of the urban squares as: (Kostof, 1992) o o
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As part of the transport system, the junction, collection and waiting points for both foot and car traffic are public squares. Commercial activities: public plazas are civic centres in which people participate in commercial activities. Throughout history, markets have been one of the main components of public plazas. Games and sports: games and sports events have always been an important part of public life, and there have been many historical examples of games and sports activities in public plazas.
Kostof also believed that the links between public squares within a city forms a “system”. He also stated that this approach was one of the primary issues in city planning and design during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Open spaces surrounded by houses and other structures within a city are urban public squares. In the sense of the mass and void composition of a region, they thus play an important role. Cities consist of a mixture of masses and voids. A town's structure is
Yashita Khanna|Fifth Year B.Arch.|L.S.Raheja School of Architecture
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