ELECTIVE-II

URBAN DESIGN
LECTURE-6

PUBLIC OPEN SPACES

Department of Architecture
Ar. Ananta Gautam Pokhara Engineering College
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES
• Public open space is any piece of land that
is not built upon and is accessible to the
public

• These provide recreational areas for

residents, enhance the beauty and
environmental quality of neighborhoods and
are the breathing lungs of a cities

• Public open spaces is where the people

realize the values and benefits of proper life

• Public opens spaces are where greatest

human interactions and contacts take place
FUNCTIONS OF PUBLIC SPACES

• Political procession

• Trade and commerce

• Circulation

• Religious, Festivals

• Leisure
TYPES OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES

• Squares
• Historic plazas
• Streets
• Parks and gardens
• Foot bridges
• Waterfront promenades
• Water bodies
• Market places
• Religious spaces
QUALITIES OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES
• Access and linkages
• Accessibility- connections to its surroundings, both
visual and physical
• Visible from both distance and up close
• Edges are important as well. A row of shops along
a street is more interesting and generally safer to
walk than a blank wall or empty lot

• Comfort and image

• Space should be comfortable and present itself
well
• Safety, cleanliness and availability of places to sit
QUALITIES OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES
• Uses and activities
• Activities are basic building blocks of a place
• Having something to do gives people a reason to come
to a place and return

• Sociability
• Difficult quality for place to achieve, but once achieved
becomes a distinctive feature
• When people see friends, meet and greet their
neighbors, and feel comfortable interacting with
strangers, they tend to feel a stronger sense of place or
attachment to their community - and to the place that
fosters these types of social activities
ROLES OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES

• Increase safety and reduce fear of crime

• Improve residential neighborhoods; safeguarding

property values and increase attractiveness to
visitors

• Create economic and social development

opportunities
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES IN
PRE-MODERN CONTEXT
• Greek Agora
• Public arenas, amorphous open spaces

• Roman Forum
• Imperial monumental space for selected
public
• Spatial design dominated by formalism
• Monumentality and symbolism
• Tight relation with edge (basilica,
temples, colonnades)
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES IN
PRE-MODERN CONTEXT
• Medieval Plazas/Piazzas
• Especially in Italy, France, Spain
• Shape-regular, irregular, usually enclosed
by buildings, with one major civic
buildings
• Street connect the spaces at corners
• Piazza of market place, piazza of
cathedral, piazza of civic authority
• Urban space as civic place or public realm

• Renaissance Plazas
• Civic function further elaborated and
form/ design regulated
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES IN
PRE-MODERN CONTEXT
• Baroque Grand Designs
• Monumentality and Symbolism
• Plaza gets backdrop of monuments or
monumental buildings

• Squares (major in British towns)

• Four sides open surrounded by streets
• Used as garden or for recreation

• Streets
• Undifferentiated from squares spatiality
and functionality
SET OF CRITERIA FOR OPEN SPACE
• Be located where it is easily accessible to and can be seen by potential users.
• Clearly convey the message that the place is available
• Be beautiful and engaging on both the outside and the inside
• Be furnished to support the most likely and desirable activities
• Provide a feeling of security and safety to would be users.
• Encourage use by different subgroups without disrupting the other’s enjoyment.
• Offer an environment that is physiologically comfortable at peak use times
• Be accessible to children and disabled people.
• Incorporate components that the users can manipulate or
• Allow users the option, either as individuals or as members of a group, of
becoming attached to the place
• Be easily and economically maintained
• Be designed with equal attention paid to place as an expression of visual art and
place as social setting.
KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC LIFE
• The experience of a lively city is related to people using the public realm at various
times, and for various activities. Thus two factors influence this experience:
1) Number of people
2) The span of time people spend in the public realm
• Urban activity -number of people´ multiplied by ´time spent´.
• An inviting space offers good comfort, sun, views, other people, shelter, and a respect
for human scale.
• A balance between active and calm places is important to invite many user groups.
• The extent of stationary and recreational activities has the largest impact
• many user groups create lively cities
• planning for optional activities creates lively cities
• a strong pedestrian network makes lively cities
THANK
YOU!