Affordable and Sustainable-ecoHousing

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.