SPACE AS THE ORGANIZING CONCEPT IN URBAN DESIGN
SPACE AS THE ORGANIZING CONCEPT IN URBAN DESIGN
Late in the nineteenth century the Viennese archi- tect Camillo Sitte reacted against the poor imita- tions, throughout Europe, of Haussmann’s schemes
for Paris in the mid-century. 26 Many nineteenth- century groupings are dull mainly because they were designed about a few ideal viewing points without the subtleties of spatial composition of the greater works. Axial planning degenerated into the unimaginative use of the straight edge and the
TOWNS AND BUILDINGS
stereotyped employment of compact solid building
architecture is relegated to a subsidiary supporting
blocks as the primary element of urban design.
role. The façades of buildings, which stand alone in
Furthermore these building blocks of city planning
space, meet an an external angle and are seen by
were often set out on a major axis, as for example
the observer as a mass. Reversing the process, build-
in South Kensington, London, described by Gibberd
ings arranged around a space have façades which
as being ‘. . . like meat on a skewer’ 27 (Figure 3.34).
meet at an internal angle and there is an effect of
Within such developments the main architectural
volume.
relationship is the correspondence of adjacent
Relating building forms seen in mass at urban
entrances. Sitte reversed current urban design
densities requires some form of rectangular or
dogma by emphasizing the square and the street as
regular layout and preferably this should occur on a
the elements of city development. In other words,
flat site. When buildings form the walls of squares
according to his theory it is the spaces in the city
and streets this is not nearly so important. The
which should receive the attention of the designers.
multitude of vanishing points are not so apparent.
This theory of urban design places emphasis on the outdoor rooms and corridors of the city; they are the volumes to be designed and the buildings are merely two-dimensional enclosures – the walls of the spaces.
Following Sitte’s pattern of city development buildings are designed in such a way that the scene
Figure 3.35 Geraci, Reggio
becomes more important as urban design while
Calabria Figure 3.36 Geraci, Reggio
Calabria Figure 3.37 Geraci, Reggio
3.36 Calabria
URBAN DESIGN: STREET AND SQUARE
Figure 3.38 St Mark’s Square, Venice
1 = Piazza San Marco 2 = Piazzetta San Marco 3 = San Marco 4 = Doges Palace 5 = Campanile 6 = Library
Figure 3.39 Entrance to the Piazzetta San Marco, Venice
An irregular spatial layout is not obvious to the spectator apart from very obtuse angles in an awkward triangular space. Even when irregularities are apparent the scene is often thought quite picturesque with adjacent planes eliding to form a single element containing the space (Figures 3.35–3.37).
Sitte’s suggested method of organizing building groups is best illustrated by the Piazza and Piazzetta San Marco in Venice (Figures 3.38–3.42). His own words describe most eloquently his views:
So much beauty is united on this unique little patch of earth, that no painter has ever dreamt up
TOWNS AND BUILDINGS
Figure 3.40 Piazza San Marco, Venice Figure 3.41 San Marco from the Piazzetta, Venice Figure 3.42 Piazzetta San Marco, Venice
anything surpassing it in his architectural backgrounds; in no theatre has there ever heen seen anything more sense-beguiling than was able to arise here in reality. This is truly the sovereign seat of a
great power, a power of intellect, of art, and of
the abundance of their sculptural decoration, the
industry, which assembled the riches of the world
rich polychromy of S. Marco, the powerful
on her ships, and from here exercised dominion
Campanile. However, it is the felicitous arranging of
over the seas, relishing her acquired treasures at
them that contributes so decidedly to the whole
this, the loveliest spot in the whole wide world. Not
effect. There is no doubt that if these works of art
even Titian or Paolo Veronese could invent anything
were disposed separately according to the modern
more magnificent for the imaginative city views in
method, straight in line and geometrically centred,
the backgrounds of his large paintings of weddings
their effect would be immeasurably decreased.
and other occasions. If we were to examine the
Imagine S. Marco isolated, with the Campanile set
means by which this unexcelled grandeur was
on the axis of its main portal in the middle of a
achieved they would, indeed, prove to be
huge modern square – the Procuratie, library, etc,
extraordinary: the effect of the sea, the
standing about separately in the modern “block
accumulation of superlative monumental structures,
system” instead of forming a tight enclosure – and
URBAN DESIGN: STREET AND SQUARE
to top it all, a boulevard of almost 200 feet in
suggest that suburban expansion will cease to exist
width running past this so-called plaza. One cannot bear the thought. 28
in the twenty-first century. Though in Europe particularly there may be a return to urban form more in keeping with our cultural heritage. It is
CONCLUSION
assumed that over large areas of European cities urban designs will he required for projects where
There are two main ways in which buildings can be
land will be intensively used with little space being
arranged in space. The buildings themselves can be
available for massive landscaping schemes. Certainly,
the positive object designed as a three-dimensional
there will be parts of cities such as industrial estates
mass, the ‘figure’ in the composition, while the
where buildings will sit on their own site
space in which they stand is the ‘ground’. The alter-
surrounded by car-parking space. But for the major
native method advocated by Sitte and his followers
parts of the city the ideas of Sitte will take on added
is a reversal of this process. Space itself becomes
importance. These ideas will be considered in detail
the ‘figure’, the positive element, the volume to be
in the following chapters. They will examine spatial
designed and buildings are relegated to a supporting
composition using squares, streets and the methods
role, the ‘ground’. As the background of the urban
used for their combination.
scene the buildings are the stage setting for the activities of daily life taking place within the spatial
NOTES
volumes they define. There are a number of techniques by which buildings of three-dimensional mass can be unified;
1 Boesiger, Willy. Le Corbusier, Thames and Hudson, London,
with the use of landscaping, through the unified
1972, pp.116–119
architectural treatment of simple volumes and by the use of the right angle, axis or vista. Axial or 2 Le Corbusier. The Chapel at Ronchamp (trns. Jacqueline
Cullen), Architectural Press, London, 1957
vista planning takes on an added dimension and greater subtlety when used in conjunction with a
3 Baker, G.H. Le Corbusier, An Analysis of Form, Van
spatial composition following the prescriptions of
Nostrand Reinhold, Wokingham, Berkshire, 1984,
Sitte. In any system of categorization there will pp.186–211 always be the possibility of overlap, the use of two
4 Murray, Peter. The Architecture of the Renaissance, Thames
or more basic concepts together with the deliberate
and Hudson, London, 3rd edn, 1986, pp.123–127, and
and successful application of principles to achieve
Burckhardrt, Jacob, The Architecture of the Italian
particular effects. It does appear, however, that in Renaissance (ed. Peter Murray), Penguin, Harmondsworth, any given composition one method, one concept
1985, pp.61–63
should be the dominant idea if unity is to be
5 Summerson, John. The Classical Language of Architecture,
achieved.
Thames and Hudson, London, 1980, p.49
For the remainder of the text it will be assumed
6 Serlio, Sebastiano. The Five Books of Architecture (an
that urban areas in the future will be constrained by
unabridged reprint of the English edition of 1611), Dover
the imperative of resource conservation both in
Publications Inc, New York, 1982, Book 3, Chapter 4, Fol.
terms of land allocation and the husbanding of
energy. Such an imperative would place a premium
7 Downs, Kerry. Hawksmoor, Thames and Hudson, London
on the development of a tightly grained urban fabric
1969, pp.92–94, and Kersting, A.F. and Ashdown, John. The
as opposed to prairie planning associated with the
Buildings of Oxford , Batsford, London, 1980, pp.22, 64 and
North American suburban ideal. This is not to
TOWNS AND BUILDINGS
8 Gibberd, Frederick. Town Design, Architectural Press,
19 Vitruvius. The Ten Books of Architecture (trns. by Morris
London, 2nd edn, 1955 pp.216–217
Hicky Morgan), Dover Publications, New York, 1960,
9 Tunnard, Christopher. The City of Man, The Architectural
pp.24–32
Press, London, 1953
20 Morris, A.E.J. History of Urban Form, George Godwin,
10 Unwin, Raymond. Town Planning in Practice, London,
London, 1972 pp.117–118
21 Popham, A.E. The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci,
11 Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Existence, Space and
Jonathan Cape, London, 1964, pp.161. 312–314
Architecture , Studio Vista, London, 1971, pp.l7l–177 and
22 Irving, R.G. Indian Summer, Lutyens, Baker and Imperial
Gibherd, F. Op cit, pp.125–127
Delhi , Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981,
12 Gibberd, F. Op cit, p.75
pp.259–26O
13 Ibid, p.252
23 Giedion, S. Space, Time and Architecture, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge. Mass., 3rd edn, 1956, p.76
14 Scully, Vincent. The Earth, The Temple and The Gods: Greek Sacred Architecture , Yale University Press, New
24 Ibid, p.648
Haven and London, 1962, p.65
25 Gibberd, F. Op cit, p.77
15 Abercrombie, Patrick. Greater London Plan, HMSO, London,
26 Sitte, Camillo. Der Stadte-Bau, Carl Graeser & Co. Wien,
16 Scoffham, E.R. The Shape of British Housing, Godwin,
27 Gibberd, F. Op cit, p.75
London and New York, 1984, p.56
28 Quoted from the translation of Sitte in Collins, G.R. and
17 University of Liverpool, Recorder, Report of the
Collins, C.C. Camillo Sitte, The Birth of Modern City
Development Gommittee to the Council of the University
Planning , Rizzoli, New York, 1986, pp.196–197
for the Years 1959–1964 , The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, January 1965
18 Guadet, J. Elements et Theorie de L’Architecture, Vols I to IV, 16th edn, Librairie de la Construction Moderne, Paris, 1929 and 1930
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