for peer review only - wordpress.com...for peer review only 2 figure 2, left: barcelona’s eixample...

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Urban Processes and the Human-Scale: Measuring social

interaction at pedestrian-scaled Superilles in Barcelona,

Portland and Eugene

Journal: Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability

Manuscript ID Draft

Manuscript Type: Research Paper

Keywords: streets, geospatial information systems, social interaction, Barcelona,

Superilla, parametric design

URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rjou

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability

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Urban Processes and the Human-Scale: Measuring social interaction at pedestrian-scaled

Superilles in Barcelona, Portland and Eugene

Philip Speranza*

Department of Architecture, University of Oregon, Eugene and Portland, OR, USA

ABSTRACT

Social interaction is an important part of new urban ecological theory of dynamic urban processes. People,

not cars, are now signs of vitality. However, measuring social interaction has challenged urban designers

because of the small human scale and change over time. Meanwhile mobile technology and parametric

urban methods allow a finer geospatial measurement than traditional planning methods. This paper

investigates a new methodology using more than fifty indicators at street addresses to broadly measure

social interaction from the scale of streets to the scale of Superilles or “super islands” of pedestrianized

three-by-three block areas. The research investigates: 1) a theoretical framework of urban ecology; 2) how

to create and analyze data via case study and baseline comparison areas in Barcelona, Spain, Portland,

Oregon, and Eugene, Oregon; and 3) the application of the methodology to design a downtown plaza

working with city cultural services, planners, environmental psychologists, and architects. These steps

allow the iterative refinement of the methodology and the critical implications of local values,

morphology, and US/European contextual differences.

Keywords: streets; GIS; urban design; Superilla; Barcelona; Portland; social interaction

*Email: [email protected]

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mailto:[email protected]

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Introduction

Social understandings of urbanism are changing rapidly in the way people both experience urban life and the

way we measure and integrate the social interactions in urban design today. People are returning to cites to

experience the healthy qualities of pedestrian life. They value walkability, livability and social cohesion. The

effect of car-centric planning has left cities as unhealthy places to live. Barcelona’s annual air pollution index of

55 surpasses that of both Los Angeles, 50, and New York, 25 (WHO 2005). Automobiles break and tire particles

continue to contribute to neurological and respiratory illness in children (Sunyer 2015) (Catanzaro 2016). Such

data, along with increased access to new mobile technologies, is affording city planners in Barcelona and

elsewhere the ability to rethink city planning at the scale of urban processes. Streets may be designed as places

for children to play, seniors to sit, and other broad places of social interactions (Gehl 2006). Barcelona’s

Superilles describe an ecological approach to relate people and transit. Interior streets within three-by-three

block areas are made more pedestrian friendly by limiting access to private vehicles, pushing new bus and bike

lanes outside these pedestrian islands. The research presented here departs from the specific approach by urban

ecologist Salvador Rueda seen in figure 1 that broadly relates cities as interacting processes of land use,

livability, mobility, urban complexity, biodiversity, metabolism, social interaction, and policy, instead of the

traditional planning notions of only land use, transit, and policy (Rueda et al 2012). Meanwhile new methods of

geospatial information collected off-site (Ewing and Handy 2009) and on-site at street addresses (author 2014),

insight into social interaction between and within Superilles at the scale of human experience. The result is a new

scale of urban understanding.

Second Phase: Evaluation of the Proposal of Ordination

A1. Land Use

A2. Public Space and Livability

A3. Mobility and Services

A4. Urban Complexity

A5. Green Spaces and Biodiversity

A6. Urban Metabolism

A7. Social Cohesion

A8. Management and Policy

Figure 1, The eight parts of the Methodological Guide for Accreditation Systems Audit and Certification of

Quality and Sustainability in the Urban Environment (Rueda et al 2012).

Small-scale spatial understanding of downtown social interaction is not well measured or understood.

Social interaction as a temporal quality of human processes is often excluded from urban data collection that

favors either fixed form or analytics without spatial understanding (Lavirov 2015). Meanwhile new methods of

social space via mobile computing are providing data at the scale of building addresses. Barcelona’s new

Superilla, urban unit provides an effective context to study urban processes. The methodology is important

because: 1) no method of this scale and direct measurement is currently used by City of Barcelona to measure

social interaction and 2) social interaction plays an important role in urban life in Barcelona and elsewhere.

Urban spaces in other cities follow similar trends. The work examines the architectural scale using new mobile

data collection, formulations and geospatial visualization using downtown neighborhoods in Barcelona, Portland

and Eugene. If urbanists are to embrace broader theories of livability and urban ecology, then new methods and

tools must relate to those fine-grained qualities.

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Figure 2, Left: Barcelona’s Eixample blocks, Superilla and interior streets. Right: Two Superilles measured 2014

The prior study of Barcelona’s 22@ innovation district planning began in 2012. Initial study of social

interaction in Superilles was then done with pilot data collection and initial computational methodology

presented at ACADIA 2015 as “Social Interaction and Cohesion Tool: A Geospatial Analysis Tool to Develop

Small Urban Planning for Barcelona’s Superilles (author 2015).” That research aimed to fill a research gap

pointed out by urban ecologist Salvador Rueda in 2014 to create a ‘social simulator’ to measure social cohesion

for his Methodological Guide for Accreditation Systems Audit and Certification of Quality and Sustainability in

the Urban Environment (Rueda et al 2012). This article presents subsequent findings about the theorization,

analysis and application of a new scale of urban units and human behaviors related to livability (Ewing and

Handy 2009), walkability (Gehl 2006) and the city as an assemblage of urban processes (Heathcott 2015).

This paper focuses on the geospatial measurement of social interaction and cohesion in downtown

locations. The author will explain the decisions and visualization methods to understand the comprehensive

Superilla area then the smaller fabric of individual streets. These diagrams, especially the former, will be

explained with the critical objective to avoid numerically combining different qualities of information. Instead

the work will use visual language such as color range and locational relationships, to enable comparative

understandings. The careful coding of urban qualities will be explained, the use of indictors and their

formulation.

Similar case study areas were done with field measurements in various parts of Barcelona, Spain,

Portland, Oregon and Eugene, Oregon. Barcelona was studied with two larger downtown test areas and four

baseline comparison areas. Portland was studied with one downtown test area and one baseline area chosen from

three data collection areas. Eugene was studied with one downtown and one baseline test area. Primary locations

were chosen to test areas of diverse uses. Baseline comparison neighborhoods were chosen from accepted

locations of diverse social interaction. The number of blocks was adjusted in Portland to include areas similar

spatial area. Comparisons were primarily done within similar grid planning to avoid issues of morphological

differences. Each case study street typically had between eight and fifty data points in areas of three-by-three or

five-by-five block study areas, and with similar mixed-use buildings and transit options.

Lastly, the application of this method was used in a professional urban analysis and plaza design process

for downtown Eugene, Oregon to inform stakeholder interviews, programming analysis and proposed design

strategies. The data collection, analysis and visualization were used to locate fine grained urban qualities within

larger downtown issues related to downtown livability. The research method was refined with feedback from

public planners, cultural services agents, and an urban psychologist. The method informed design processes and

supported refinement of the methodology and respective software tool before analytic revisions were done to

datasets to better understand implications of comparative diagrams completed for over fifteen total areas in

Barcelona, Portland and Eugene, Oregon.

Background - Social Interaction and Urbanism

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Often overlooked in the geospatial measurement of urban space, social interaction describes the connective

networks and structure of human behaviors. Recent research includes dynamic social conditions in urbanism

(Gehl 2006) (Franck and Stevens 2006) (Hou et al. 2010) (Carmona et al 2010) (Seamon and Manzo 2014).

Earlier modern attempts to understand human behaviors in public space (Whyte 1980) meet new ideas of

“affordance” by Jan Gehl (2006) to do “necessary, optional and social activities” (2010). The built environment,

according to Gehl, should be inviting and affordable, “to change the mindsets of people.” Furthermore the city

today is no longer a physical notion alone but rather an assemblage (De Landa 2011) (Delueze and Guattari

1987) of related processes (Heathcott 2015). These processes are not only automobile or transit centric, but

people centric. New knowledge with technology is increasingly used to measure in scale and time, how people

are affected by phenomena from social events to air pollution (author 2015).

Barcelona, a context of small-scale space for people

In Barcelona and Catalan culture, social interaction is effected by the inseparability of planning and politics in

the “collective space” (Bohgias 2004). In 2000 years of urban history since its roman castrum of Barcino, open

space in Barcelona has largely been shaped by a balance of social equity and market capitalism. Barcelona’s

Consell de Cent, or ‘Council of One Hundred,’ differed from Madrid’s hierarchy, worked closely with an

emerging merchant and bourgeois class of the 14th Century (Buesa Oliver 1980). Ildefons Cerda’s 1859 plan

Eixample, or Plan Cerda, of equally spaced 100m by 100m blocks distributed public ‘places’ evenly at each

chamfered intersection (Sola Morales 2008). A comprehensive plan of open spaces was planned at every interior

patio. But ground level commercial spaces encroached upon them. Planned variations of each building block

were filled in, leaving undifferentiated public space. These small-scale considerations for human experience

were instead eroded over the years by private developers and lacked planning enforcement. In the public right-

of-way traffic engineers often utilized four or five traffic lanes, leaving as little as two meters widths for

sidewalks. Chamfers originally designed for light, air and spatial continuity are often parked two cars or taxi

deep. The overall purpose of the Eixample to improve human living conditions of the walled gothic city and

connecting it with the small streets and plazas in villages of Gracia, Poblenou, Poble Sec, Sants and Sarria, was

never fully realized. It is this original goal to support the livability of “pueblos,” or villages, and those of Catalan

countryside family residences, that most strongly guide the traditional values of urban space in Barcelona (author

2013). These goals of livability shape the very expectations of pedestrian live today and the battle with the car,

with similar situations seen worldwide.

Figure 3. People eating and socializing in a plaza in the previously-autonomous village of Gracia, Barcelona.

Barcelona's urbanism is well known for the largescale waterfront development of 1992 Olympics and

subsequent waterfront developments (Harvey and Smith 2005) of global influence (Smith 2009) including the

massive Forum 2004. However, a less well-known period of urbanism, after the 1978 Constitution but before the

1992 Olympics, was important to the modern small-scale livability of Superilles. With a socialist party in power

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http://www.arch.ksu.edu/seamon/article_summary.htm

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for the first time since before Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, mayor Narcís Serra, 1979-1982, and city urban

planner Oriol Bohigas focused on the equitable improvement of small public spaces for each citizen to

experience on their return home from work (Moix 1994). Identified City Planner Oriol Bohigas’s recent

graduates “Lapiz de Oro,” or golden pencils, his team restored many small plazas removing cars, selecting new

paving materials, benches, trees, vegetation and drinking fountains, and reestablish the identity of places with

adjacent historic buildings (Moix 1994). These spaces, along with the streetscapes of the previously-autonomous

villages, reestablished a physical space of refuge for Gehl’s human behaviors to quietly and a timelessly exist

within the then increasingly complex urban processes of local and global tourist forces in Barcelona.

Figure 4: Superilla plan in white streets. 2015 study Superilles 01 and 02. Three Gracia neighborhoods are

identified with three red plazas. Three streets along Enric de Granados is also dark red. Street morphologies of

other previously semi-autonomous villages are seen at the perimeter of the Eixample grid and under Superilla

02.

Urban Ecology, Data rich and a shift in scales - 22@ and Superilles/Gracia,

Today, Barcelona has the great fortune of being a center for research of new applications of mobile computing,

smart cities tools and urban ecology. The 22@ innovation district that launched in the year 2000 aimed to differ

from the Olympic Village master plan that bulldozed much of the built fabric. 22@ planning favored a small-

scale insertion strategy that called for new minimum block-scaled requirements of 10% social space, 10% social

housing, and 10% social services. Older textile factories were protected. Urban ecologist Salvador Rueda was a

contributor to 22@ planning. His background in biology and urban waste management envisions the city as a

living organism, a metabolism with resources that go in and out but also cycle within the city. Thus, 22@ block

planning was focused around each block contributing toward in interconnected ecology of urban systems. The

result is fine-grained fabric of space, services and housing that support human-scaled life within and between

blocks. 22@ may be seen as the predecessor of eco-districts in Stockholm, Hanover, Jono, Malmö and Portland.

` Rueda’s Barcelona’s Agency of Urban Ecology became part of a trend using data rich urban analysis

including GIS to measure the various layers of urban systems. Their work began in Barcelona but now extends

to cities around the world. Others have contributed to urban ecology (Mostafavi and Doherty 2010), advanced

spatial analysis at the UCL Bartlett CASA, self-sufficiency (Guallart 2012) and “senseable cities” (Ratti 2015).

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Social relationships are measured with GIS (Kurgan 2013). And while digital media increasingly connects us,

there are still strong arguments for the scale of physical space (Florida 2015). Popular social media tools such as

Google Maps, Walkscore and Zillow have invaded the basic ways we evaluate our place in cities (McCullough

2013). Important metrics in walkability (Ewing and Handy 2009) and livability (Ruggeri 2014) rely on digital

tools. Food carts in Portland, Food trucks in LA and New York and parklets in San Francisco all represents new

adaptive urbanism that is dynamic and increasingly reliant on virtual connectivity of Tweets, Facebook and rapid

transit and planning tools to connect the needs of human behaviors with the built environment.

Superilles

With the guidance of data computation and Rueda’s Barcelona Agency of Urban Ecology, Barcelona began to

rethink the scale of urban units within its Eixample grid. Superilles were planned with intersections that could

match in size and quality the plazas in Gracia as spaces of ‘placer,’ or human pleasure (Barcelona Superilla

Plan). To execute this plan the city’s bus and bike lane systems were completely reorganized to match the new

orthogonal Superilla plan. New urban units now match the population density and complexity of many Catalan

villages. However, the smaller human-scale understanding of social interaction identified in the plazas of Gracia

and Bohigas’s Lapiz de Oro, are not yet designed.

Method – Iterative Development: Theory, Measurement and Space

To measure social interaction and cohesion at the scale of a Superilla, the research approach aimed to understand

small-scale differences between whole Superilles as circle diagrams, and the streets as planometric diagrams.

The methodology was empirically based on repeated field visits to fifty plazas and streets in Barcelona and

Granada. Final datasets recorded approximately 15,000 human data entries for each of the final case study and

baseline areas. Indicators were measure broadly (Creswell and Piano Clark 2006) (Carmona 2015) between

qualitative and quantitative phenomena. Analysis, synthesis and evaluation (Lawson 2006) was employed used

provisional steps before reaching final computational solutions. Iterative solutions (Lawson 2006) and “design

patterns” (Woodbury 2010) were repeated. The employment of parametric workflow offered continuity

(Woodbury 2010) and integration (Author and Germany 2016) using ‘see-move-see’ iterations (Schon 1987),

and more than thirty research and student projects. The pilot data sets and comprehensive research tools were

revised and refined over three years. The objective was to empower the researchers’ decision making process

through iterations and frequent re-evaluation of the effectiveness of the work.

The theoretical framework of this tool emerged from in-person meetings with Salvador Rueda, study of

written description of social cohesion within his Guia Methodologica (2012) and the author’s subsequent

theoretical adaptations for broader application in both Europe and the United States. For Rueda, social cohesion

is one of eight ways to understand urban sustainability (see figure 2).

That theory of social interaction was used to create a framework of primary and secondary categories of

urban qualities to organize indicators, namely: 1) land uses of social space, social services and social housing;

adding job access 2) demographic differences of age, income and culture, eliminating education; and 3)

infrastructure such as transit and adding information technology (see figure 3). In many cases Rueda’s

framework was dependent on public affordances such as social housing, services or space. As suggested by

others about the complexity of publicly and privately accessible spaces (Carmona 2015) and social interaction in

private space (Gehl 2010), the author created a means to measure both the public and private indicates of each

secondary category of urban qualities. For example, to measure accessibility to diverse types of housing, a

housing affordability index was used. To measure diverse access to social space in addition to public parks, a

category of privately owned but publically accessible ‘third place’ by Ray Oldenburg theory was used ( ) .

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Figure 5. Theoretical framework for measuring social interaction. Dashed categories are newly added.

Within the primary category of USES the secondary category of Job Access was added to consider social

relationships related to work activities, describing the diversity of social interaction opportunities of that place at

the street level. Within the primary category of DEMOGRAPHICS the measurement of educational background

by Rueda was eliminated both for lack of evidence of impact and its difficulty to measure. Within the primary

category of INFRASTRUCTURE, the secondary category of Information Technology was added. Additional

infrastructure access such as topography of street slopes were considered for a general tool but was not used here

for lack of variations in the test areas. These examples demonstrate how the framework was shaped to test social

and market forces underlying both European and US urban contexts.

Geospatial information and coding – the human / non-human computational workflow

The technical approach using small architectural scaled Rhino 3D and Grasshopper software was chosen to

measure, codify and visualize data for its open, systematic and experiential benefits (Author 2016). Traditional

GIS planning software such as ESRI ArcGIS and even ESRI CityEngine (2011) do not offer the ease of custom

formulation or ease of access to new mobile data. The software’s architectural scale aligned well with the scale

of data and the custom visualization of this work. The choice to create new data on-site was informed by work

from the MIT SENSEable City Lab from three types of data: 1) data from a single source such as cell data; 2)

data from a variety of sources or 3) data from scratch (Nabien et al, 2014). In many cases the data did not already

exist from municipal datasets. Demographic data for example exists at the scale of census tracks. New data

collection targeting specific types of data could be identified and collected to meet the needs of the theory. Data

could more closely meet the framework of primary, secondary and then public and private indicators of urban

qualities, rather than relying on pre-existing “big data.”

To measure the ability to support diverse accessibility to social interaction of these categories, indicators

were identified to measure how that place may support those types of social interaction. Importantly, in almost

all cases the phenomena of social interaction was not directly measured. Preexisting research for projects

measuring urban experience and air pollution, in collaboration with sociologists, contributed to an iterative

knowledge of indicator testing and a subsequent process of qualitative to qualitative coding. Coding methods

used yes/no (0/1), ratings (0 to 5), numerical quantities including currency and spatial areas, typologies, indexes

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and syntax matches. Data dictionaries were used including “coding type” and “units,” describing a strict protocol

for data gathering research assistants. Datasets were gathered for each primary study area Superilla with, when

possible, by one person measuring each set of indicators over a three to five day period. Datasets were often

tested in pilot visits to individual streets and or emerged from expertise in a specific type of data collection. Data

collection varied significantly by expertise. Landscape architectural expertise was used to understand indicators

of tree health by leaf examination and ratios of tree species height, and canopy and trunk diameter. Demographic

interviews were done by Spanish speaking researchers. Tests were then done at larger spatial intervals such as 33

meters, resulting in 108 data points per Superilla in Barcelona or over 200 points for a similar area in Portland.

Later tests would gather data at each street address, totally approximately 15,000 data entries per Superilla.

Figure 6. Coding

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Table 1. Category hierarchy: PRIMARY in caps; Secondary in sentence case; Pu = Public, Pr = Private.

USES

Space

Pu

tree species

tree height

other plantings

health, pollution or draught

sound source, dominant

exterior seating +

lighting +

kid friendliness +

Pr (Ray Oldenburg)

name

# occupancy

seating type

# employees

comfort

character

Housing

Pu Public Housing

Pr housing type

housing diversity

bath

bedroom #

# floors

area

cost per ft2

rental cost

Services

Pu public service

Pr service type

name

public / private

Job Access ++

Pu job type +

# of floors +

access +

signage +

DEMOGRAPHICS

Age

Pu/Pr

seniors (55+)

adults (31-55)

young adults (21-30)

teenagers (13-20)

children (0-12)

Income

Pu

high ($) meal

low ($) meal

Pr (usda food dessert index)

milk (whole, .5 gallon)

eggs (dozen)

potatoes (per lb)

apples (per lb)

coffee (12oz.)

beer (pint)

Cultural Background

foreignness

parent’s birthplace

birthplace

language name

INFRASTRUCTURE

Transit Pu

sidewalk width

bike_street friendly

parking_on-street

bus

emx/streetcar

subway

Pr

buffer/safety

bike_parking

parking_off-street

Information Technology ++

Pu

free public wifi

fiber optic bandwidth

Pr

cell strength

free private wifi

Basic Needs ++

toilet +

drinking water +

shelter +

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Analysis- rating, formulation and visualization

Formulation of the significance of each indicator was necessary and relied on the initial principle of Rueda’s

approach to diverse accessibility to support these qualities. How can one equate data of different types, quantities

and syntax to ideas of diverse accessibility to social interaction? A general approach to this was established for

each of these primary types of formulation, adhering to Rueda’s principle of diversity. For example, while

thirteen business types were possible, a street could achieve a maximum rating by reaching a threshold of seven

different types. A total number below seven of business types would result in a prorated value. Similar numerical

ratings, quantities, medians and averages were achieved. Formulation was then brought into individual formulas

where they could be associated with each geospatial point.

Understanding the fine-grain through visualization

Each city was examined with one or two Superilles and compared with a relative baseline contextualization in a

local area known for social interaction. Analytical comparison between cities was avoided. The circle diagrams

owe visual language to current coding and visualization researcher Manuel Lima’s Visual Complexity (2011).

Circle and plan diagrams began to be analyzed and visualized as city blocks but shifted to the experiential space

of streets. It became apparent that this new scale of urban data collection led to a new scale of urban data

analysis and visualization. While many urbanists have studied the small scale of public space, either streets or

plazas, few examples exist of GIS methods or visualizations at this street scale. The visualization language

carefully differentiated or associated information using: 1) various axis of circular spatial organization, 2) color

and 3) tick mark lines for each street measurement and tonal filled areas for Superilla averages.

The research: Superilles are not the same everywhere

Each city is different. Each iteration of the method from city to city resulted in adaptation and adjustment to the

method and the associated software tool. The Portland study after Barcelona primarily tested job impact. The

Eugene study acknowledged local values of social equity or basic needs. Indicators were consistent between a

primary study and comparison areas. But each indicator reflects only one way to measure a desired quality. For

example, to measure the visual appeal of a social space, the study measured diversity of tree species and other

planting. But leaf color, flower coloration could have been used. In each location impressionistic and

comparative understandings were always established on-site to test if the indicators were relevant, the effect of

morphology and other variables of data collection. Reading the data from the diagrams includes a diverse

‘mixed-method’ (Carmona 2015) that includes:

- Circle Diagram: Compare circle diagrams between two Superilles or between a Superilla and local

comparison space/s using the visual hierarchy of primary, secondary and indicator groupings. Reflect on

average scores visualized with a heavy line and transparent ton. Consider the individual lines

representing data scores for individual streets, and how they are distributed across the average score.

- Spreadsheet data base: Use the spreadsheet to compare statistical averages between comparison areas.

- Street Plan: Look at the data points with values for a single quality/indicator at the scale of a street.

Barcelona – Pueblo Livability, the expectation.

The Eixample grid unifies the streets of Barcelona but it also masks key differences. As the city government

aims to make more livable and walkable pedestrian islands from the cars, motorcycles and mopeds, specific

design qualities will need to be identified, measured and supported at that small scale. What is the existing

texture of the small-grained social environment to “attach” (Latour) to “place” (Manzo and Perkins, 2006)?

What are the overall differences between Superilles? What are the differences between the streets within a single

Superilla? What new understandings can be learned using point data within streets of a Superilla?

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The research first collected data in the summer of 2014 for two adjacent Superilles in the Poblenou

waterfront neighborhood of the Eixample grid. In the summer of 2015 two new comparison Superilles, one in

Poblenou and one in the downtown Eixample Esquerra were studied and used for the findings here. The 2015

Eixample Esquerra Superilla was located downtown between Carrer de Compte d’Urgell to Carrer de Muntaner,

and Gran Via de les Cortes de Catalanes to Carrer de’Aragó. The 2015 Poblenou Superilla was located between

Carrere de la Llacuna and Carrer de Bilbao, and between Carrer de Doctor Trueta and Carrer de Pujades. It is

worth noting that the Poblenou Superilla is also located across older streets of a previous Poblenou fishing

village and new 22@ block planning.

The Superilla plan published by the city and Salvador Rueda (Barcelona Superilla 2015) explicitly

identifies the livability and social interaction of the Gracia plazas located just above the Eixample. As a result

the Plaça del Sol, Plaça Revolució and Plaça de la Vila de Gracia were chosen as baseline comparison areas to

better understand the relative analysis of the two Barcelona Superilles studied in 2015. Likewise two exemplary

streets, Carrer de Enric de Granados and Passeig de Sant Joan, were measured with analytical diagrams done for

only Carrer de Enric de Granados.

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Figure 7. Barcelona - Eixample Esquera Superilla

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Figure 8. Barcelona - Eixample Esquera Superilla

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Superilla Poblenou vs Superilla Eixample Esquerra – Traces of a Pueblo

USES – Sensory Engagement. Indicators of the secondary category Space measured the diversity of

spatial experience. When comparing the diagrams of data for the Poblenou Superilla and the Eixample

Esquerra Superilla, a higher access of exterior seating (2.05 and 1.3) is seen for Poblenou. Higher

diversity of dominant source of noise and other vegetation are also seen, suggesting greater “sensory

invitation” (Gehl 2006) for people to hear a variety of natural, human and non-human noises. Indicators

of trees species and tree height, are similar, perhaps explained by the consistent city regulation and

maintenance of such qualities in Barcelona. Indicators of private third-spaces such as average maximum

occupancy (63 and 55), comfort level and the number of employees are higher in Poblenou.

DEMOGRAPHICS – Affordable Staples. Data for Poblenou measured greater income access to average

combined food staples prices for vegetables (tomatoes and potatoes), milk and eggs (4.80€ and 6.91€),

as well as the average cost of coffee (1.11€ and 1.34€) and cost of beer (1.52€ and 2.10€). The average

most expensive meal was more accessible in Poblenou (14.79€ and 20.l6€), while the average least

expensive meal was similar (3.97€ and 4.02€). However, the average rental price per meter squared was

similar (13.84€ and 14.72€) despite the Eixample Esquerra’s more central downtown location. Indicators

of cultural background were similar with birthplace of owner (2.13 and 2.20) and menu languages rating

(1.25 and 1.30) respectively.

INFRASTRUCTURE – Pedestrian centric: Transit indicators revealed detailed differences of more

pedestrian friendliness in Poblenou but more traditional transit access in Eixample Esquerra. Poblenou

scored higher than Eixample Esquerra in bike friendliness and bike parking but lower in access to on-

street parking and off-street parking, bus stops and metro stop access. Pedestrian access such as

sidewalk width and street buffers were similar, again, perhaps pointing to qualities more regulated by the

City. Information Technology infrastructure was similar but free-private WiFi was higher in Eixample

Esquerra.

This data reveals how Poblenou exhibits livability qualities as a previously semi-autonomous pueblo

including sensory engagement, affordable staples and pedestrian centric transit. A closer look within

affordability, for example, suggests the greatest differences of food staples and beer. The Poblenou Superilla

data suggests that the pueblo experience is possible within the partial morphology of the Eixample grid. The

comparison may also reveal differences of public regulations and private spaces on social interaction. Clues are

evident about geospatial differences at an even smaller scale within Superilles. For example, the spacing of the

individual lines and the average in color fill tone for differently abled suggests differences of equitable

distribution between the two areas.

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Figure 9. Barcelona, Poblenou Superilla, three street morphologies]

Morphological Understanding –Blocks to street: high resolution and the space of human experience

The high density of data points result in a resolution that allows closer inspection of urban spatial differences.

While traditional planning-scaled visualization extends over buildings and streets, the indicators of social

interaction may now be examined in the experiential space of streets. The single quality of free private WiFi

visualized in the Poblenou Superilla reveals small-scale differences of free private WiFi (see figure 9) that could

relate to: 1) differences street morphologies between the 13th C. Maria Aguilo main street (right), the 19

th C.

Rambla Poblenou (center) and the 20th C. Eixample Plan / 21

st C. 22@ Plan Carrer de la Llacuna (left). Small,

densely spaced shops line Maria Aguilo while free private WiFi is more accessible along Rambla Poblenou.

These observations of the circle diagrams at the Superilla scale and the plan diagrams at the street scale may

suggest spatial patterns of social interaction in Poblenou compared with the more downtown Eixample Esquerra.

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Figure 10. Barcelona comparison spaces: Gràcia´s Plaça del Sol; Plaça de la Vila de Grâcia and Plaça de la

Revolució de 1868

Superilles vs. Gracia plazas

Barcelona’s Superilla publication (Rueda 2012) including Gracia plaza as exemplary spaces of social interaction

informed the selection of a baseline comparison area. Proposed Superilla plazas would be gained by limiting

vehicular access and reclaiming the chamfer space from double parked cars. These new plaza spaces would be as

large or larger than most of the plazas in Gracia. For the purposes of this comparison the Superilla Poblenou,

with its higher pedestrian rating, was chosen to compare with Gràcia neighborhoods smaller Plaça del Sol; Plaça

de la Vila de Grâcia and Plaça de la Revolució de 1868.

INFRASTRUCTURE – Urban Refuge: The new transit qualities of walkability and bikability are

exemplary in Gracia and follow the general pattern of Poblenou’s village history rather than

Eixample Esquerra. The Gracia plazas create hospitable enclaves for diverse social activities. The

indicators of street buffer and bike friendliness consistently rated higher in Gracia plazas than the

Poblenou Superilla. Meanwhile, access to bus stops, metro stops and off-street car parking were

almost non-existent. These qualities in combination with an urban morphology of discontinuous

streets, creates a feeling of urban refuge. In these small and isolated plazas one may observe

children playing, seniors resting, young adults enjoying semi-illegal activities such as drinking and

smoking. Daily social interaction is supported with IT access with free private WiFi ratings varying

higher, lower and no data.

USES – Meeting Place: Lighting and source of sound were at their highest levels of the study. In

private third-space maximum occupancy and diversity of seating type were also high. Conversely

tree height and other vegetation rated often lower than in Poblenou. Tree species was similar.

General indicators of access to housing were similar. Services and jobs indicators were lower and

sometimes immeasurable as the smaller plaza spaces such as Plaza del Sol had few services and job

types possibly related to the low number of addresses in each plaza but perhaps also because of

related to the lack of traditional transit access such as metro and bus stops.

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DEMOGRAPHICS – Income Diversity: Gracia plazas are a destination for broad family activities

during the day and diverse meal and entertainment activities at night often experienced walking in

close proximity from plaza to plaza. Income accessibility for meals, coffee and beer was diverse

with the three plazas measuring higher, lower and no data when compared to the Poblenou Superilla.

Few Gracia plazas offered food for sale immediately within the plazas but when they did in the

Plaza de la Vila de Gracia the prices of milk and eggs were more accessible than either Superilla.

Cultural indicators were similar except that language of menu diversity was higher. Language of

business name and birthplace were slightly lower than either Poblenou or Eixample Esquerra. This

may suggest more entertainment-centric cultural accessibility rather than diversity of shop owners

and the cultural foods they serve.

This information suggest that the analysis often is revealing not only for higher ratings but for what is lacking,

similar or denied in an area. In Gracia, traditional transit, job diversity and lush vegetation are not necessary for

the successful experience of a meeting place.

Figure 11. Barcelona comparison street: Carrer de Enric de Granados

Superilles vs Carrer de Enric de Granados

Streets, like plazas, may support the human-scale of social interaction but by definition support mobility to

connect a city. The street Carrer de Enric de Granados is recognized for its outdoor restaurant seating in the

downtown Plan Cerda and is another urban refuge from vehicular dominance in downtown Barcelona. It also

demonstrates flexibility creating such a diverse human space within the typical street section of the Plan Cerda

often used for four lanes of traffic or parking. Three blocks of Carrer de Enric de Granados were chosen between

Carrer del Rosselló and Carrer de València. Most of the 22m street sections were divided into broad sidewalks of

7m on both sides of the street for walking and dining, one bike lane of 2m, motorcycle and moped diagonal

parking of 2m, and only one vehicular lane of 3.5m.

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INFRASTRUCTURE –The New Transit and Data Providence: The diversity of traditional and non-

traditional transit access seen in street sections was also evident in the more fine-grained data of the

diagrams. Bus stops and metro stops were higher than in the Poblenou Superilla. Pedestrian access

indicators of street buffer and sidewalk width were higher. Bike friendliness was equally as high.

Surprisingly, bike parking was lower but it had multiple bike share stations. Access to free private WiFi

along Enric de Granados was the highest rating of the survey. Public WiFi is similar to Poblenou,

suggesting an effective public distribution. Private cell strength was lower.

USES – Meeting and Housing Diversity: The indicators of public space were similar with child

friendliness rating lower in Enric de Granados but private third-space maximum occupancy rating

highest of the survey, and seating type also higher. Comfort level was slightly lower. While housing

rental cost access was slightly lower, the diversity of area, number of floors, number of bedrooms,

number of baths and housing types were drastically higher in Enric de Granados. Services were lower in

Enric de Granados but indicators of job access were higher especially the number of floors, access and

signage. Thusly, while common indicators of rental costs and job types were not more accessible, the

finer-grained qualities were more accessible.

DEMOGRAPHICS – Attraction to Exclusivity, Hip: As expected, downtown income accessibility was

lower. Comparing Enric de Granados with the Poblenou Superilla, income indicators were less

accessible including the average cost of beer (2.26€ and 1.52€ ) and cost of coffee (1.28€ and 1.11€) .

The accessibility for low meals (4.52€ and 3.97€) and high meals (16.77€ and 14.79€) were also lower.

Access to food staples along these three specific streets was almost non-existent. In fact the data may

suggest an economic exclusivity, combined with the high traditional and new transit and IT

infrastructure, similar to other gentrified meeting places such as Soho in New York, La Condessa in

Mexico City and Trastevere in Rome. Cultural indicators such as the birthplace of business owner or

parent’s birthplace of business owners were lower while language of menu was the highest of the survey

and the language of business names was much higher than in Poblenou. It is internationally welcoming

but owned by locals – it is hip.

The Enric de Granados data suggests that higher qualities of social interaction are possible within the Plan

Cerda. Enric de Granados is a meeting place like Gracia but hipper perhaps from new transit and data

providence, diverse meeting and housing qualities and attraction to exclusivity. It has bike share! It may not

be an area everyone crosses paths to buy food staples but it is a destination to be exclusive if for only a meal

or beer.

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Figure 12. Portland: NW Pearl District downtown and E Burnside and 28

th Street comparison

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Portland – Downtown Urbanism

Social interaction in Portland is most traditionally associated downtown near West Burnside Avenue including

distinctive businesses such as Stumptown coffee, Powell’s book store, Vodoo donuts, food cart at SW Alder

Street, Nike’s flagship store near Pioneer Square and the farmer’s market on the South Park Blocks. Portland is a

city of progressive values demonstrated by its urban growth boundary, model street car system and community

oriented planning processes. The climate is moderate with more days of cloud cover and rain but lower humidity

than Barcelona. Portlanders, like Seattleites, seek refuge from rain in coffee shops. Portland’s policies, urban

cultural processes and physical block morphology suggest the values of a city equally interested in livability,

walkability and sustainability as Barcelona, but within the context of the US. Direct comparison between

Barcelona and Portland was not the intent and was avoided for significant differences of urban morphology,

culture and climatic. Rather, the Portland Superilla and baseline areas were especially established to understand

theoretical and methodology adaptations from Rueda’s theory such as job access and the inclusion of private as

well as public space.

A study area was chosen in the new downtown Pearl district in the NW Quadrant of Portland. The Pearl

is similar to Barcelona’s 22@ district for its use of rail yards and reuse of industrial buildings. Portland’s 200

square foot blocks are smaller than Barcelona’s 100 meter blocks. As a result, a five square blocks were used

instead of three. The Portland Superilla was located from NW 13th Street to NW Park Avenue and from W

Burnside Street to NW Glisan Street. These Portland blocks were historically subdivided into quadrants while

new tower developments use entire blocks. This differs to Barcelona’s smaller row house morphology and

chamfered corners. Parcels varied between twelve story buildings and empty parking lots. The resulting mixed

vibrancy of residential and commercial uses, street-level activities and ample infrastructure were reasons for its

selection as a test area.

A baseline comparison area similar to Barcelona’s established Gracia plazas and Carrer de Enric de

Granados street was chosen based on popular areas of social interaction. Data was collected for three comparison

areas: 1) East Burnside from 24th to 30

th street and 28th Avenue

,from SE Ankeny Street to NE Couch Street; 2)

NW 23rd

Street between NW Hoyt Street and NW Kearney Street; and 3) SW Division street between SE 10th

and SE 14th streets. The area first area of E Burnside and 28

th Street was chosen for its broad livability and broad

avenue-based activities on in Portland’s east side.

Pearl Superilla vs. East Burnside and East 28th Streets

USES – Boutique Jobs: The research aimed to study how job diversity might play a role in the street-

level social interaction as workers come and go, eat meals and shop, aspects not included in Salvador

Rueda’s original understanding of social interaction and cohesion. The Pearl Superilla had 285 street-

level businesses. The Pearl represents dense downtown development for workers and residents,

gentrifying a monoculture of high-end condominium towers. 54% of all business types included high-

end salons and other personal services 8%, interior design/real estate 5%, showrooms/galleries 30% and

retail businesses 11%. Only 35% of the same boutique jobs (7%, 9%, 15% and 4%) exist in the E

Burnside and 28th area. Service type diversity was also significant lower in the Pearl. The Pearl was more

similar to a second comparison area at NW 23rd,

where retail or food and hospitality businesses

accounted for 76% of all business types. Shopping and dining dominate in these established and new

downtown locations. Housing indicators of average rent were less accessible in the Pearl ($2.46/sqft and

$2.02/sqft). Space indicators such as sources of sound and child friendliness were lower in the Pearl

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while tree species, tree height and other vegetation, like Barcelona regulated by the City, were similar.

Indicators of private third-space were also similar.

Demographics –Cultural Diversity Not Downtown: Cultural diversity indicators rated much higher in the

comparison area of E Burnside and 28th Street. Birthplace and language of business name were much

lower in the Pearl Superilla than in E Burnside. Age accessibility was also significantly lower in the

Pearl Superilla. Income indicators such as beer ($4.17 vs. $4.41) and coffee ($2.20 vs $2.34) were less

more accessible in the Pearl. Meanwhile other income indicators such as the average least expensive

meal ($4.92 vs. $5.32) and most expensive meal comparison ($20.45 vs. $19.62) measured at 25 and 15

eating establishments, showed only modest differences. Cultural diversity is lower in the Pearl Superilla

but meals are accessible.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Infrastructure differences were less conclusive and it is worth noting that the

smaller E Burnside and E 28th intersection may reveal a limit in the data smaller comparison areas. For

example, a dedicated bike lane along Ankeny Street running parallel with E Burnside is just one block

outside of the test area. Still some transit indicators were noticeably higher in the Pearl such as

pedestrian sidewalk widths, bike friendliness and metro stops. The Pearl Superilla rated lower in off-

street parking and bus stops. Some IT infrastructure including free private WiFi was higher in the

downtown Pearl while cell strength was similar.

Overall Portland’s Pearl Superilla suggests patterns of boutique urbanism at new downtown development.

Important to the research, Portland and also Barcelona job related data above street level was collected but not

analyzed. The Pearl, for example, had at least three buildings with multiple tenants above the ground-level: 1)

the full-block Brew House ten-story tower at 1120 NW Couch Street with fifteen tenants such as Pandora,

Mozilla and the Guardian of six business types; 2) 108 NW 9th Street three-story building with seven tenants of

five business types and 3) 1100 NW Glisan Street, only two stories but twelve smaller tenants of four business

types. E Burnside and 28th Street likewise included the two-story Burnside Trolley Building with ten tenants of

health and services activities. While job related data was consistent with Barcelona at the street-level, the US

city morphology varied greatly between ten stories and empty parking lots verses Barcelona’s consistent six-

story buildings with no surface parking recorded.

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Figure 13. Eugene Downtown Superilla and Whiteaker comparison area.

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Eugene – Downtown Urbanism

Eugene, Oregon is a modest US city of 158,000 people, home to the University of Oregon and well-known as a

bastion of liberal values and hippie culture. Its urban street life is characterized by values of social equity, local

foods and the arts. Its downtown area like many small US cities has suffered from periods of growth and decay.

The city center relocated from the Willamette River in the 1890’s, due to flooding, to a location closer to the

train station and a new main street called Willamette Street oriented north-south between Spencer Butte to the

south and Skinner Butte to the north. Photos of Willamette Street in 1908 show one of six street-car lines but by

the 1940’s like many US cities they were replaced with four lanes of cars and parking. Little affordance of the

right-of-way was left for people or bikes. By the 1960’s urban renewal also saw the destruction of the historic

downtown fabric. In 1980 a pedestrian mall was built downtown but it failed from continued flight to the

suburbs and malls. Not until the streets were reopened and tax breaks after the 2008 recession, did things change.

Today Eugene’s downtown is seeing significant growth. A growing community of technology startups ranks

among the top ten in the US citing proximity to the University, affordable rent and accessibility to recreation and

culture (Lindzon 2015).

A downtown Eugene study area was chosen around the intersection of Willamette Street and 8th Avenue,

between 5th Avenue and 10

th Avenue, Oak Street and Pearl Street. While Eugene blocks are similar to Barcelona

(334 feet square including 160 feet quarter-blocks and 14 foot alleys compared to 100 meters) Eugene’s lower

density and larger building since the 1960’s suggested a larger four by five block square Superilla. Downtown is

characterized by business activities that have filled vacancies and a seasonal Saturday farmer’s and crafts

market. However about 40% of downtown is open parking lots with pedestrian activity focused along Broadway

(9th avenue). The study area was chosen for its central location, proximity to the research team and synergy for a

professional urban design project for the City of Eugene for a plaza outside its Hult Center for the Performing

Arts.

The area of Eugene used as a baseline comparison that exemplifies social interaction was the Whiteaker

neighborhood. An area was chosen along the diagonal Blair Boulevard from W 8th Avenue to W 2

nd Avenue and

residential cross streets to the east until Monroe Street. The Whiteaker neighborhood is known as a strong

community of working class residents, environmental activism and anarchism. Recent protests occurred there

during World Trade Organization Ministry Conference of 1999 and Occupy Eugene in 2011. Blair Boulevard is

the major axis of this neighborhood with a variety of activities and services for neighbors and as destination for

others from Eugene.

Eugene: Downtown Superilla vs. Whiteaker Neighborhood

Eugene, Oregon’s downtown is not the location of gentrifying condominium towers like Portland’s Pearl district.

Eugene’s downtown recent vibrancy supports new bars and restaurants. Still, the residential qualities including

downtown housing units but also places to find food, kids to play and seniors to rest, are missing.

USES – Un-livability: Two parts of the Downtown Eugene diagram immediately draw attention for their

lack of data. Housing data was sparse. Food staple data was non-existent. Housing indicators were

broadly lower in Downtown Eugene when compared with the Whiteaker neighborhood. Only 4 in 20

blocks downtown had housing, compared with 11 of 13 blocks in The Whiteaker. Housing type, rating

single family, multi-family, row houses and apartment types, scored more than five times higher

diversity in The Whiteaker. Child friendliness was lower Downtown (1.73 and 2.13). Exterior seating,

rated as the ability to rest on stairs or low walls, chairs and bench-like structures or undivided benches,

was lower Downtown (1.4 and 1.6). Private third-space indicators were higher Downtown such as

average maximum occupancy (52 and 32) and diversity of seating types. Downtown Eugene also rated

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highly is public space indicators matching or even outscoring the smaller scaled Whiteaker

neighborhood in indicators of tree species, tree height, vegetation health and lighting.

Private third-space indicators showed greater job type diversity Downtown. Service types were 13 or

97 business dispersed downtown while the 14 of 74 businesses in The Whiteaker were concentrated

along Blair Avenue. Signage was higher downtown. However, like Portland, the data collection was

limited to street-level shops and at least one four-story building, the 44 Broadway Commerce Center,

has 25 businesses likely contributing to higher job type and density of service diversity Downtown. The

Whiteaker is like meeting places in Barcelona and Portland with 51% of its business types focused on

food and hospitality compared with just 22% Downtown.

Demographics – Culture at the Periphery: Eugene’s downtown scored similarly to Portland’s

downtown. Downtown food staple accessibility could not be scored for lack of data compared with three

food staple locations for vegetables, milk and eggs found in the much smaller Whiteaker area. The cost

of beer and cost of coffee were less accessible downtown while the average least expensive meal was

cheaper Downtown. Cultural indicators were also lower with Downtown Eugene scored broadly lower

for shop owners’ birthplace, their parents’ birthplace and language of menu. Whites account for 85% of

the Eugene’s population. Meanwhile the periphery Whiteaker area contained 40% of seventeen

businesses in one three block area owned by Mexicans, with Spanish language seen in shop signs and

menus, and spoken with customers. Only 20% of twenty-four business owners Downtown were foreign

born compared with 27% in the thirty in the Whiteaker. Downtown foreign born business owners

identified mostly as South Koreans compared in the Whiteaker with greater cultural diverse from

Mexico, Japan, Pakistan and Thailand. Noticeably the seasonal Downtown Saturday Market is a

temporal place of cultural diversity downtown with nine of fifteen foreign foods or names.

Infrastructure – Business Fiber: General transit was similar but with slightly higher overall transit

friendliness Downtown. IT indicators were showed higher free private Wi-Fi Downtown and free public

Wi-Fi offered exclusively in Downtown Eugene. Fiber optic, first measured in Barcelona but dropped in

Portland for lack of visible indicator, is provided exclusively in Downtown Eugene to serve technology

startups.

Downtown Eugene has some high qualities of public space such as tree species, publically regulated but private

funded, and private third-space qualities related to bars and restaurants but lacks the broader livability including

housing type diversity, access to food staples, child friendliness and exterior seating. Demographically

Downtown indicators showed a lack of Cultural diversity and lower Income accessibility.

Downtown infrastructure is business oriented demonstrated by a recent city council decision to

prioritize urban renewal money downtown fiber to server startups over new funding for parks and open space

(Hill 2016). Meanwhile some technology startups such as Archimoto, who design and make new three-wheeled

electric vehicles, are moving from Downtown to the Whiteaker toward lower rent and the hip meeting place

urbanism. How will dynamic city support of business downtown and laissez-faire attitude toward the Whiteaker

affect: a) Downtown livability or b) gentrification of the Whiteaker’s higher social interaction and livability?

Social interaction will play a role is the dynamic conditions that seem to follow the creative class (Florida 2008)

of artists, designers, and food entrepreneurs and the people that follow them for hip meeting spots, or how

business activities do relate to downtown livability.

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Design application – integration with urban design and sociological methods

The Downtown Eugene and the Whiteaker area comparison analysis was done in parallel with a three-month

professional design study for the City of Eugene for a downtown public plaza outside the Hult Center for the

Performing Arts. The work was part of a downtown place making study looking toward the 2021 Track and

Field World Championships. The urban design work was done in collaboration with the Cultural Services, City

Planning and a social psychologist integrated within the professional design team. The work included traditional

urban design analysis and the social interaction methodology. The new methodology was informed by

complimented with urban psychology using: 1) field observations of people using the space at various times; 2)

downtown stakeholder interviews; and 3) socio-grams geospatially mapping the positive and negative feedback

of interviews regarding existing and possible changes downtown. The integrated sociological and computational

analysis was important because it was the primary source in Eugene for specific theoretical adaptations of this

application of the method around local values of social equity and inclusion including. This included new theory

of: 1) INFRASTRUCTURE, a new secondary category called Basic Needs with indicators of toilet access, water

access and shelter, and additional Transit indicators of differently abled and 2) USES, new indicators of exterior

seating, lighting and child friendliness.

Figure 14, Eugene theoretical framework.

The integration of developing both the Downtown Eugene and Whiteaker comparison area in

interactions with the sociological study and design procession was most useful to: 1) influence the theoretical

adaptions mentioned above and 2) apply the social interaction tool integrated with the stakeholder interviews to

generate programming uses and activities. The key understanding that emerged was the need for downtown

housing, but more specifically the need for the fine-grained urban qualities support places to sit, eat and play.

This work clearly 1) identified those qualities and 2) informed architectural scaled design parameter for the

human-scale design work. These qualities were otherwise difficult to see at traditional larger planning scaled

work. The new activity ideas would broaden the everyday use of the space to complement the City initial ideas

for movie project and events.

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Hult Design Process Outline

Background

- Urban form and policy analysis

- Precedent qualities and their scale

- Identity Study

- Stakeholder interviews/narratives

- Time-lapse observations (different times of day, week)

Qualities Study

- Social Interaction Tool

- Programming and activities

- Design strategies

Design

- Integrated design summary

- Revise Social Interaction Tool

- Communication tools

- Presentation / exhibit and public feedback

Chart 3. Design Process outline

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Figure 15, Design site plan with programming study.

Figure 16, Day time activities of eat, sit, play and meet.

The resulting impact on design work of identification of qualities and design parameters are not always

immediately adjacent to the site but become evident from this study of supported urban qualities and processes

within the Superilla area. Deficiencies were identified in comparison to the comparative Whiteaker area. The

design application was used to improve the research methodology and vis-versa. Programming and activities

could be designed: 1) in scale for location and time and inform materials decisions; 2) spatial forms of designed

mounds that provide safe visual connectivity, ADA ramps and activities to connect three spaces separated in

section; and 3) to use technology such as LED lighting of the mounds to communicate social and natural

phenomena such as Tweets of community participation and weather visibility and precipitation. These qualities

connect the project with the new context of Eugene over time.

The design work reshaped the social interaction methodology to conceptualize:

1) urban processes through temporary urbanism such as food trucks to address the issue of food access;

2) the sequence of downtown urbanism between building new housing units and their complimentary

residential qualities to eat, sit and play;

3) the fine-grained human-scaled parameters that support eat, sit, play and movie watching that are local

needs and social values that may not be present at the immediate site during design but are evident in the

systematic analysis of the larger Downtown Eugene Superilla and Whiteaker comparison area.

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Figure 17. Left: Mound model with human-scaled parameters of eat, sit and play, Right: mound at daytime.

Figure 18. Left: Dusk scene with movie project and other social interaction activities.

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Conclusion – Fine-Grained Urbanism

The closer look at urban qualities and iterative measurement of social interaction offers benefits for designers,

cities and individual inhabitants. Urban designers can better understand human-scale qualities to compliment

traditional planning scaled approaches. This provides urban designers with a valuable way to include social

interaction in sustainable urban design. The way mobile technology is used, for example on a Saturday morning

for a parent to meet a friend at a downtown café, make a call, shop and check information for a later activity with

their children, explains the way people socially interact today. These interactions downtown lead to other

interactions in the broadest way we use urban space. These examples demonstrate how lives are enriched by

urban interaction (Gehl 2006). The methodology and software tool to measure social interaction presented here

is different than predict modeling used in urban analytics. It goes on-site to identify and collect data about a

quality. It uses local comparison site to make relative understandings. It examines differences as well as

unexpected similarities. In fact, the measurement of urban qualities in baseline areas was revealing in itself.

Urban design using the small-scaled qualities can act in the nuanced ways, providing places for the human scale

activities such a sitting, eating and playing that support the large ideas such as housing downtown.

The three cities of investigation offered relative comparative insights. However, the research also

illustrates how small-scale urban processes affect social interaction in other cities. The transition of car-centric to

human-centric urbanism in downtown locations may use the described methodology to illuminate effective

urban qualities in established periphery neighborhoods that have retained their human scale. Business impact in

both US and European downtown has been driven by capitalistic and touristic forces. But today ideas of

sustainable urbanism and urban ecological broadly include social interaction to relate business activities and

downtown livability. Visual patterns emerged including examples urban refuge, meeting places, boutique jobs

and data providence. The three study areas at the scale of Superilles and streets, and ultimate design process

provided an iterative and evolutionary demonstration of the value of an adaptive methodology and software tool.

The work exploits differences of local values and conditions of place to make the tool useful for everyone. Broad

inclusiveness of people brings a society together. Urban design methods that are creative and open (Author 2015) reinforce the ability and need to address

the parameters of human-scale in urbanism. These small-scale design parameters can inform the urban designer

either directly: 1) with design criteria or 2) indirectly toward sensitivity of a quality. Meanwhile local

adjustments to the theoretical framework provided a means to understand the values of a specific place, and

offered clues to design with the new use of mobile technology in geospatial information analysis

Social interaction and other phenomena measured on-site demonstrate the growing bottom-up

interaction of urban designer using methods of small-scale geospatial information systems (Author 2014). What

theory of urban qualities and what new indicators should be added for each city? Indicators represent qualities of

human experience phenomena. While the indicators may seem prescriptive they are indicators of broad urban

qualities in the air of a larger place that are waiting to settle down. The illuminate the very human processes in a

community. The methodology simultaneously isolated and related these urban qualities and processes embodied

the idea of assemblage (De Landa, Delueze) in urbanism today. These processes are social interaction.

Designers who interact with the small-scale of social phenomena in public space are part of design and social

processes today and those who interact in the human-scale spaces of urbanism, like Superilles, will benefit from

them.

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