1.

THE HUMAN DIMENSION

1.1 The Human Dimension
A delve into the book – cities for people – presents a persistent issue in today’s cities which is
overlooking the human dimension in the current city designs. This problem arises from the modernist
planning ideas that focuses on a single building instead of the city as a whole and designing for the car
instead of the pedestrian. However, with realization of the place of the pedestrian in the city, progress has
been achieved which includes;
-Making car traffic an inferior priority to pedestrian traffic.
- Planning mixed-use areas instead of the single building approach by Modernists.
-There is more development in traffic planning.

1.2 Shaping Cities That Will Later Shape Us.

The first priority would be to shape cities by reducing traffic by motor vehicles which can be achieved
through; improving public transport and providing cyclist lanes while also allowing short walking
distances. Other factors that can be utilized to shape our cities include providing beautiful courses of
space, distinguished architecture and carefully designed details done to a human scale an example being
the city of Venice. Surveys from cities like Melbourne that have revised their city planning show that
increasing pedestrian access and city life increases quality of city life.
1.3 City As A Meeting Place
For cities where conditions of life on foot are improved, the extent of walking activities increase
significantly which results to more extensive growth in social and recreational activities and that qualifies
the city as a meeting place.
Improvement of pedestrian conditions can be done by analyzing the optional activities and the non-
optional activities. The book argues that the non optional activities are the ones that give a city life thus
the need to get people involved in engaging in optional activities by giving them quality city space that
has street furniture, space barriers, visual quality of the space and providing recreation activities beside
walking. Another approach to improving city life is by improving the non-optional activities that will
bring people to the city and give it life. This is reinforced by the saying that ‘Man is man’s greatest
attraction.’ The same goes for a city which is made by the crowd and the people. Among the advantages
of making the city as a meeting place is improving social sustainability and democracy.

2. SENSES AND SCALE.

2.1 Senses And Scale.
From studies pertaining distance, senses and communication; very little happens from about 100 to 25
meters after which richness of detail and communication intensify meter by meter. Between 0 to 7 meters,
all the human senses can be used and feelings exchanged. With this in mind, then the 25 metres becomes
a critical threshold that at which we can start decoding emotions and facial expressions. The same applies
for up and down with a limit of 70-80 degrees and 50-55degrees when looking below and above the
horizon respectively.
Application of the thresholds in the city context:
It is worth noting that very little town squares have a length of 100+metres and neither have an area more
than 10,000+sq. metres.The same also applies to the vertical range where connection between the street
and the building is effectively lost at the fifth floor and above and details start to disappear.
Perception And Speed:
For speed, the 5km/hr is another threshold at which when moving we can perceive and absorb detail. The
‘5km/hr architecture’ is perceived to be based on a cornucopia of sensory impressions, spaces are small,
buildings are close together with a lot of detail combined. It is this type of architecture that makes you
walk at such pace in order to absorb detail.
The opposite of the 5km/hr architecture is the 60km/hr architecture that embodies large spaces and wider
buildings seen at a distance and only generalities are perceived
2.2 Senses And Communication.
We tend to gather large volumes of information over great distances while we take in few but very intense
and emotionally significant sensory impressions from short distance. This statement is affirmed by the
law of four dimensions as follows in the following communication thresholds;
i) O-45cm – This is described as the intimate distance at which the senses of smell and touch
come into play. An example is a breastfeeding mother and her child.
ii) 45-120cm- The personal distance. It is used by family and close friends.
iii) 120-370cm-This is the social distance. It has to do with work, vacations and memory chats.
iv) Above 370cm-The public distance. Involves more formal contact and one way communication.
An example is between teacher and student.
This distances relate to the city in terms of detailed architecture and architecture without.
2.3 The shattered Scale.
The shattered scale design is a product of modern architecture that does not embody the laws of
proportion and scale and the architecture is defined by too big, too tall and too fast architecture.The other
main cause of this architecture is the car as cities are being designed for the car and not the people while
also design without the human proportion in mind is another.
3. THE LIVELY, SAFE, SUSTAINBLE AND HEALTHY CITY.
The book gives also four qualities of an ideal city;
i) A lively city;
The potential of a lively city is influenced by inviting more people to walk, cycle and interact
in the city.
ii) A safe city
Strengthened by people moving around and staying more in the city.
iii) A sustainable city
Strengthened by if large part of the transport can take place as green mobility which is by foot,
public transport and cycling.
iv) A healthy city
Enforced by if a large part of the daily activities are patterned by walking or cycling.
RELATIONSHIP TO THE GREAT WALL SITE.

1. THE HUMAN DIMENSION.

The greatwall site does not really much adhere to the human dimesion with focus for the desigb of
the vehicle remaining superior to the design for the pedestrian. All the free areas that are not built
up are or have being designed to accommodate the car which discourages the street activities from
happening as the pedestrian is not accommodated.

2. SENSES AND SCALE.

For the sense and scale, the greatwall court with fountain seems to adhere to the 100meter
threshold design. However, the buildings do not make it interesting to have the 5km/hr walk as
there is little to no detail on this facades.

3. A LIVELY, HEALTHY, SAFE, SUSTAINABLE CITY.

The characters of a healthy, lively, safe and sustainable city have been mentioned earlier ion this
essay. However, from a closer look the greatwall apartments does not satisfy any of these qualities
which renders it a poorly designed human space.