Responsive Environments :

Manmade environment is a political system : what you can or can’t go or do

( the building must be linked with the environment )

7 qualities to be archived in the design of an outdoor

building :
1. Permeability : quality of choises like routes / must be
considered early
2. Variety : quality of uses , offer a choise of
experiences / different type of uses like how wide economically
and functionally , ex working and housing .. ect
3. Legibility : quality of understanding / the volumes of the
buildings which enclose the public space
4. Robustness : quality of environment / focus on indiv
building and outdoor space , to be suitable for the widest possible range
in both short and long term
5. Visual appropriateness : quality of appearance /
more details about what it should look like , affects the interpretation
6. Richness : quality of richness in visual and non-
visual / increase the choice of sense-experience for the users to
enjoy , dealing with the smallest details .
7. Personalization : quality of designing for
personalisation / for people to put their own stamp or mark on
their environment , final decisions to support personalization , and not to
erode any public role the building may have .
8. Put it all together :

Book’ structure : 03 parts

1. The introductory sections : how to design for the
particular quality , cover the responsiveness as a whole , ..
2. The design sheets : practical implication of achieving the
qualities , from the most useful ..
3. Notes : footnotes and suggestions for more reading and
information network .

Chapter 01 :
 Accessible places can offer the choice for people
which change from place to place so which key
measure it ? and that’s permeability
 It’s difference between public and private
(different role) while working together
 In public space depends of the number of choices
and must be visible ( visual and phy )
 In small blocks more choices than large
 The use of design against it like Oxford’s Westgate
shopping center who is unnecessarily monolithic
 Hierarchical layouts reduce the choices of permeab
so it must be added not substituted
 Segregation that make the public space into
different categories reduce it so we have to make
expensive duplication of routes , can be achieved
by high premea (don’t build around it)
 Between public and private it’s largely a visual
permea who enrich the public (private activity not
equal) so the private are kept from public
 And physically it enrich it around the edge in
gardens ..while the entrance are located in the
edge of pub spaces
 Fronts public/backs private leads to a layout called
perimeter block development , nowadays decided
by designers and have been forgotten , should be
consider the obvious starting point of the design
 To start the project , we should link the site with its
surrendering and locate new routes and access and
layout and analysis them
 How much the routes will be used by ppl and this
is needed in chap 2
 Checking the junction if it’s acceptable and
depending on the traffic roles , then making the
blocks who should be small as possible and their
shape
HOW IT WORKS:
 Start by the existing system of links : connect the
site with the whole city then with the surroundings
