MARK ZED G.

DELA CRUZ
ARCHI 4D

RESEARCH
(IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY PUBLIC DESIGN, ECOLOGICAL PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION)

WHY COMMUNITY PUBLIC DESIGN IS IMPORTANT?

Communities are shaped by public places, which also help to link up areas. These are places for
encounters, and they can aid in political mobilization, action simulation, and crime prevention. They provide
spaces for conversation and idea sharing, which improves the quality of the urban setting. Additionally, public
places are good for your physical and emotional wellbeing. In public areas with good design, people generally
feel better and are more active.

An excellent public place celebrates diversity and promotes community living, which encourages
people to congregate on the street. People are drawn to areas because of their vibrancy. Creating and
maintaining public places is the goal of the nonprofit organization Project for Public places (PPS). PPS lists
eleven factors that a public area must have to draw visitors. Without these ten characteristics, these areas
would just be alleyways or corridors where people don't want to be because there wouldn't be anything to
draw them in.

If people believe that the areas are safe, they will use them. The spaces are safer the more people
using them. Public places are made safer, and the local economy is supported through active facades and
human-scale buildings. The ten guidelines for creating high-quality public spaces are listed below.
 Diverse uses: By combining residential, business, and public spaces like pubs, restaurants, and
cafés, an area becomes more welcoming and safer. More people are drawn to public spaces
when they are used in a variety of ways. Additionally, it would spark outside actions that would
increase user safety. The increase in population would contribute to some degree to reducing
crime. For the area to work properly, a variety of uses must be present throughout the day.
When a facility is occupied and welcoming during the day but is vacant at night, it becomes a
dangerous place. Planning public areas that promote people's ongoing presence and peaceful
coexistence is a technique to protect the users' safety.
 Active facades: The link between the street and the ground floor of the buildings adds to the
attractiveness and safety of the urban planning. People would use public spaces that are
attractive regularly. People's perceptions of and use of spaces are influenced by this
relationship. The sidewalks and streets, in Jane Jacobs' opinion, show how people use and view
public areas.
 Urban vibrancy and social dimension: Public areas serve as gathering places for people. It has
an impact on the social aspect. Wide, open streets, public plazas, green spaces, walkways, bike
lanes, and urban furniture all encourage interaction between people and their surroundings,
make good use of available space, and boost the vibrancy of urban areas. To ensure the quality
of public spaces for the populace who dislike urban centers, it is important to focus on high-
density metropolitan regions while also taking the surrounding areas into account.
 Human scale: Huge, dense spaces are detrimental to people's mental health. According to Jan
Gehl's research, people tend to go more quickly through vacant or inactive areas compared to
more slowly through situations that are lively and bustling. Human-scale buildings aid in mental
relaxation, which is important in cities with fast-paced lifestyles. Additionally, it has a favorable
impact on how people view public areas. People will get the impression that user satisfaction
was given top priority when creating the area.
 Lighting: Well-lit, pedestrian-focused lighting in public areas would ensure the users' safety and
security, particularly at night. Any time of day, it would draw more people to a location. It is a
method of making an investment in the users' security and safety.
 Boosting the local economy: Public spaces that are of a high standard not only benefit the
populace by providing locations for living and pleasure but also contribute to economic growth.
Safe and active surroundings encourage cycling and walking, which makes it simple to visit local
businesses.
 Local identity: When planning public places, small enterprises should be taken into account.
Large businesses support the economy, but they won't aid in boosting local user participation.
Small businesses have a lasting effect on the neighborhood and contribute to its gradual
emergence as a distinct entity. To create a strong interaction between people and space, social
dynamics and cultural features of a location must be taken into account while creating a venue.
 Complete streets: Complete streets and shared spaces should, if possible, be considered when
designing public places. The term "complete streets" refers to streets created to guarantee the
safe passage of all users, including automobiles, cyclists, pedestrians, and those using public
transportation. A full street consists of several components, such as sidewalks, bicycle lanes,
street furniture, and signage for all users.
  Green spaces: They aid in regulating temperature and improving air quality. Urban
afforestation is crucial to reducing stress and improving well-being in cities as they get denser
due to fast urbanization. They are crucial for biodiversity preservation and urban drainage.
 Social involvement: Including locals in the planning, management, and design of public places
would result in spaces that are better designed. This would make it easier to ascertain what the
local populace desires and is now lacking so that these characteristics can be included when
developing the public areas.

HOW ABOUT ECOLOGICAL PLANNING?

According to Steiner and Brooks (1981), ecological planning is basically a means of analyzing the
biophysical and sociocultural systems of a region to determine the optimal locations for a certain land use.
Planning is the appropriate use of resources for human benefit, whereas ecology is concerned with how
resources operate. Landscape ecology is a new area of ecology that was developed in the 1970s to study the
ecology of landscapes. Landscape ecology and land use planning quickly developed connections since they
were both based on the same three core structural components: patches, corridors, and the matrix. Landscape
ecology's explicit focus on the spatial dimension of ecological processes was one of its key tenets, serving as a
common language for more effective communication between ecologists and planners.

WHY ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION IS IMPORTANT?

To understand and interpret the heritage to depict how the world was before us, the heritage must be
preserved so that it has an embodied reality for its interpretation. Conservation refers to preservation and
upkeep. Architectural conservation refers to preserving important architectural elements or values.
Architecture has been conserved and restored as a rule ever since it first emerged. Ancient Greek monuments
that had been destroyed were restored while yet maintaining their original shape. Buildings (primarily religious
buildings) have been repaired using a variety of techniques in the past.

Prior to the eighteenth century, conservation measures for religious structures were often founded on
religious principles, and in certain cases, on logical premises where the cost of maintenance and repair was
less than that of replacement and reconstruction.

The conservation of the architectural heritage was primarily concerned with a set of measures to
eliminate the erosive factors, improve the physical condition of the architectural heritage, and in some cases,
paying attention to the artistic, aesthetic, and symbolic aspects of them. This can be seen by studying the
experiences regarding the conservation of the architectural heritage carried out prior to the nineteenth
century.