mechanical + social development
infrastructure | programmatic complexity by alfredo landaeta
function priorities
the streets we need
usage traffic people
not so long ago, streets were very simple: no sidewalks, curbs, in- frastructure or public transit, and without strict differentiation be- tween pedestrians and other means of transportation. Ancient meso- potamian cities show narrow streets and cul-de-sacs that provided access to courtyards linking clusters of dwellings belonging to ex- tended families or clans. Streets were not a continuous system con- necting urban settlements but rather the minimum necessary space required to delineate distinct clusters. It is perhaps this concept of the street as the in-between that first tinted it with a social undertone, establishing such spaces as the meeting place, the political arena, the place of commerce. Mediæval streets show a similar simplicity: street networks evolved, becoming more complex, intertwined and hierarchical in nature and, in many instances, actively incorporating trees and land- scape as part of their design. The street as a socially populated void with minimal technological attributions is still very much in use today. Informal settlements in developing countries, products of completely unregulated and un- planned development, usually generate dramatic streets and alleys, uncannily proportioned to the human scale, uncaring of accessibility codes or infrastructural logic. These spaces arise purely from the tension between the pressure of occupation and the need to circu- late. There is an organic quality in these spaces that is clearly lacking in the formal city. * In many contemporary cities, streets have become flow : their value is not for what they host, but for how good they flush; the simplicity of the original void has been filled as an inevitable consequence of modern life, with a long list of stuff : parking, public transport lines (at times in exclusive rights-of-way), mail boxes, lamp posts, power lines, storm water channels – and all that just above the surface. Be- low grade is almost as crowded with water pipes, telephone lines, electrical cables, gas and sewage lines, fibre optics, metro lines, district cooling and heating, even grey water lines for landscape ir- rigation. In fact, streets are the de facto location for most of our ever- increasing infrastructure needs. To design a street these days is to necessarily accommodate, combine and reconcile all of these differ- ent requirements. This mechanistic conception of the street as a device for the mo- bility of people, vehicles and services leaves little room for the street as a true public space. Good streets not only function as conduits for all types of transportation and services, they also must perform as social ground, negotiating transitions between zones and loaded with historical and cultural content. The value of the street is based in the complex ballet of move- ments and carefully timed rhythms and sequences that it hosts (com- pellingly amplified and portrayed by fast-motion movies such as the 1983 Koyaanisqatsi) than in its spatial qualities. This exhilarating tapestry of movement and activity is the very definition of modernity; it is what draws rivers of people to urban centres and what simulta- neously repels and attracts us.
an underdeveloped Venezuelan street in terms of engineering, but a highly sophisticated street as the site of social exchange
Let us look at a typical mid-density neighbourhood street servic- ing a mixture of residential and commercial uses. Depending on the culture, context and climate we will find that the street, conceived as a technological device, is designed, calibrated and built with the intention of maximising the performance of non-human elements — the social component is often negated entirely. Differentiated strips for pedestrians, trees, vehicles and public transit facilitate the uninterrupted flow of traffic, justified by arguing that this clear sepa- ration is for the safety and congeniality of otherwise incompatible uses and activities. As such, the contemporary street is inevitably hierarchical and specialised, predestined at the design stage to fulfill a specific role within the urban continuum. What happens if the initial assumptions established at the planning stage no longer hold true, or if significant technological changes begin to affect the behavioural patterns of people? What if political and cultural changes cut deep enough to affect the nature of its use, or if the basic assumptions related to the cost of mobility are challenged? Our paradigms for developing and designing our cities, and by extension our streets, are currently under revision. Growing envi- ronmental awareness is placing great pressure on a way of life that is increasingly wasteful and responsible for our current state of envi- ronmental deterioration. As this awareness permeates the core of our values, changes will begin to accelerate. Streets will require as radical a redefinition as will our production-consumption-disposal cycle.
onsite 19: street, streets and lanes, the straight and narrow, wide and busy
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