URBAN
SPACE BY ROB KRIER
REVIEWED
BY NICHOLSON D. KUMWENDA
 |
| Rob Krier |
Rob Krier,
born 1938, had been an influential post-modern urban designer, theorist, academician
and prominent architect. The book ‘URBAN SPACE’ was first published in German 1975
and translated into English Academic Edition in 1979.
The author
dissects appreciation of urban space into typological and morphological
fabrics. With his strong and competent
historical knowledge of urban planning, he makes a strong assertion that
tradition use of urban space, as practiced in ancient urban planning, surpasses
modern approaches. He argues that urban planning and its corresponding
aestheticism of infrastructure development which characterised and dominated
the modern era (20th Century) was ‘impoverished and reduced’ and is
incomparable to the superiority ancient traditional approaches.
He defines
urban space as an exterior open space and interior enclosed space, geometrically
bounded by various forms and types of aesthetically qualified elevations. He
skillfully produced numerous forms of hand-sketched elevations to further qualify
aestheticism of the said elevations.
He
typologically and morphologically categorises Urban spaces into internal and
external fabrics i.e. (room/corridor) and (Square/ street) relationship
respectively.
He defines external spaces as
open, unobstructed spaces for movement in the open air, with public, semi-public,
and private zones; while internal spaces represent effective symbol of privacy
which are shielded from weather and environment i.e. room /corridor
He
typologically and modularly identifies a square, a circle, and a triangle,
including their numerous derivatives, in appropriate scale, as basic forms
traditional urban space.
As an
urban space, he defines a square as derived from a traditional grouping of houses
around a central courtyard, a planning approach that was traditionally
influenced by the need for total control of internal space for security as well
as religious purposes i.e. Agora, forum, cloister, mosque courtyard etc. He
further suggests that this could probably be the first way man discovered use of
urban space. He deduces that modern
planning has abandoned or suppressed central courtyard planning due to
perception of seemingly enforcing communal life; and a growing tendency of
feeling certain uneasiness about ones neighbour.
Traditional Streets: These were a
product of spread of settlement around Central Square which provided a
framework for distribution of land and give access to individual plots. Streets
were planned for human beings, horses and carriage not for motorised traffic as
in modern ‘asphalt carpet’. The author bemoans modern planning as both unhealthy
and less user friendly. He draws parallelism between carbon monoxide/noise
pollution consequences to public health in our modern streets, compared with traditional
street which was
characterised by stinking horse sewage. He further
reveals that modern streets have lost meaning and functionality as automobile
has displaced other traditional street users.
Using
basic shapes of square, circle, triangle, and other approaches, the author
comprehensively generates various matrices of sketches showing various geometrically
regular/irregular permutations of planning approaches to create various forms
of spacial types. He emphasizes that derivative shapes or forms affect the
quality and functional characteristics of the urban space. He
extrapolates and assimilates numerous sketches to various real life urban
spaces such as London St. James and Grosvenor squares of 18th century etc.
Squares or
rectangle: He asserts that people have variations of feelings according to
morphological characteristics of the urban spaces. For example, a traditional square
or rectangular which is enclosed in all sides; or has two parallel streets that
enter the square; or has one street that enters the square centrally etc., in
all circumstances, the space presents a different feeling and emotions of appreciation
to users. As more streets enter the square, it loses its geometric form, claims
the author.
Circles:
He depicts traditional circular urban plan and their various derivatives in
ancient circuses such as that of Siena, Lucca, and Square of the Pont Neuf in
Paris etc.
Triangles: The author observes
that regular traditional triangular urban spaces are extremely rare in the
history of town Planning i.e. Pompeii Triangular Forum, Theatre and
gladiatorial School
The author succinctly gives a
comprehensive historical account of what he calls ‘EROSION OF URBAN SPACE IN
20TH CENTURY TOWN PLANNING’. He discusses historical transition from
traditional to modern urban planning. He records that traditional Town planning
was largely based on defence/security system. The increased sophistication of warfare,
including military technology, weaponry and new tactical patterns, made
traditional defensive approaches to planning irrelevant. This led to the decline
of city walls which coincided with the onset of industrial development, which
forced cities into unprecedented growth. The sprawling of cities around the
surrounding country side went unchecked. Four important publications opened a
new dimension to planning: Howard’s Garden City of Tomorrow; Mata’s linear city
(1882); Garnier’s Cite industrielle 1904; and Sitte, City Building According to
Artistic Principles.
Traditionally, urban spaces were
laid out regularly in a chessboard pattern, a design approach strongly
supported by the author. For example, street of Ideal Cities of Mata and Ganier
were laid on old grid system with building placed in isolation from each other
creating a villa scenario against the tradition of the day.
The author bemoans
that the garden city concept, which he strongly recommends, had been greatly misinterpreted
by modern planners.
He summarises
theorems that determine pattern of urban buildings into two: Each building in a
town must harmonise to its surrounding fabric and; Existing building concept of
urban space must be complemented or be created by new buildings.
He criticizes modern
planning which was influenced by a response to industrial revolution. Terraced
buildings, which were repeated at a vast scale, removed basic point of
orientation, contrary to how people are supposed to live in their environment. There
was no recognisable configuration of urban space and individual spaces lost its
significance.
The author recommends
Le Corbusier’s scheme for contemporary city of three million inhabitants
because of its traditional spacial concepts. Laid on grid system with isolated
tower blocks, the proposed city had multi-storey circulation for vehicles and
pedestrians in a traditional sense. Numerous open spaces embraced the whole
traditional concept of ‘streets and courtyards’. The author claims that the
concept of high density city centre was negatively interpreted after the Second
World War when spacial concerns were neglected.
The author finally provides
his propositions for restoration of urban spaces after the Second World War
devastation from the Centre of Stuttgart. He advocates preservation of the grid
layout and provision of pedestrian walkways; Systematic integration of
pedestrians and polluting motorised traffic; Design streets and squares for
pedestrians, harmonising them with existing structure; Carry out structural
modifications in keeping the contemporary needs; design to avoid street noise
penetration to inner courtyards.
‘As far as modern
town planning is concerned, the concept of urban space has by large fallen into
disuse’ claims the author.
In conclusion, his
observation and interpretation of various urban spaces are acute and original.
His language and numerous sketches are dazzling and provocative. His arguments
flow effortlessly from many diverse samples of existing urban spaces, exposing
drawbacks of modern approaches. Although he advocates for traditional grid chessboard
pattern of planning, I see it as a major disadvantage as far as motorised dominated
traffic is concerned in contemporary cities.
