the temporal dimension
TRANSCRIPT
Lecture no.9
Urban Design
The temporal dimension
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
The temporal dimension
This lecture concerns the temporal or time dimension of urban design.
Although some times considered to be a matter of working in three dimensions, urban design is four dimensional: the fourth dimension being time.
As kevin lynch observes:
We experience the passage of time in the urban environment in two ways: 1. through “rhythmic” reputation: the heart beat,
breathing, sleeping and waking, hunger, the cycles of the sun and moon, the seasons, waves, tides, clocks.
2. And through progressive and irreversible change: growth and decay not recurrence but alteration.
Time and space are intimately relatedAnd the great frame work within which we order our experience
We live in time places
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
We live in time places
We live in time places
We live in time places
We live in time places
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
We live in time places
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
We live in time places
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
We live in time places
We live in time places
We live in time places
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
We live in time places
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
The main time cycles are based on natural cycles, the dominant one being the 24 hour circadian cycle that results from the earth’s rotation, and affects sleeping and waking and other bodily cycles.
Working and leisure time, mealtimes, and so on, are overlain on this basic cycle.
The cycle of the year and the changing seasons are also rooted in the period of the earth’s rotation around the sun.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
Facilitating and encouraging the use of urban spaces requires an understanding of the effects of the cycle of day and night, the seasons, and related cycles of activity.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
At different times of the day and night, the urban environment is perceived and used differently.
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
Facilitating and encouraging the use of urban spaces requires an understanding of the effects of the cycle of day and night, the seasons, and related cycles of activity.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
At different times of the day and night, the urban environment is perceived and used differently.
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
It can be a rewarding and enlightening experience for urban designers to observe a ”life in a day” of a public space, or the same space over the course of the seasons.
That is to study its social anthropology and notice, for example, its changing rhythms and pulses – now busy, now quite – and different people using the space- more women at same times, more men at others.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and timeCycles of activity are also grounded in the changing seasons:
During the winter in northern temperature climates, for example, even at noon, the sun is low in the sky. Days are typically grey, wet, windy and cold. People may use external spaces only when necessary.
In the spring, leaves start to appear on trees, and people begin to linger in urban spaces, enjoying the warmth of the sun.
In summer, the trees are in full leaf, the sun is high in the sky, days are long and light, and people opt to stay longer in urban spaces.
In the autumn, the leaves turn rich reds and browns and eventually fall from the trees. People may linger in urban spaces to enjoy the last warmth of the sun before the onset of winter.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
Urban designers may deliberately exploit the changing day and the changing seasons to bring greater variety and interest to urban spaces.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
The grip of the old disciplined of time and time constraints is weakening. While this has been a historical process – for example, candles, gas lamps, and then electric light, all extended the useful hours of the day – the pace of change is accelerating.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Although an exaggeration, the term “ 24 hours society” is a useful shorthand for the changes under way and serves as a metaphor for “a different type of the world” .
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
----- shows how the UK is becoming a 24 hour society by noting how, since the late 1980s, the national grid has recorded an increase in electricity usage between 1800 and 2200 hours, attributed to shops staying open later and staying lit, while telephone companies have noted an increase in night time telephone traffic.
As a sequence, the use of time and the pattern of activities, is being variously stretched and squeezed.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
By colonizing the night through the 24 hour society we cannot create time but we can provide the means to use the available time more effectively so that we can free ourselves from the coiled grip of the time squeeze.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time cycle Activities are fluid in space and time
In the same way that electronic communication has freed us from the constraints of space , there is also greater freedom from the constraints of time.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public space
Mixed uses have generally been advocated on the basis that they create more life and activity in a location…… activity must also be considered in temporal terms .
Urban designers need to understand activity patterns, how to encourage activities through different time periods.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public space
The timing of activities needs to be managed.Activities may be prohibited at certain times to prevent conflicts; be separated in time to alleviate congestion; or be brought together in time to allow connections and a sufficient density of use.
Urban places that are well peopled enable complementary activities to overlap in space and complexly interrelate, resisting the narrow time specialization that fragments and compartmentalizes activities.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public space
While public space is often naturally animated by the ebb and flow of people going about their everyday business, this can also be stimulated through planned programmes , encouraging people to visit, use and linger in urban spaces.
Programmes usually involve a varied diet of events and activity. Therefore, as people visit an area to see what is going on, urban vitality is further stimulated and the public realm becomes animated by having more people on the streets and in cafes, etc.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceThe march of time
As well as through the repetitive rhythms of time, we also know that time has passed through evidence of progressive and irreversible change.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
In a very real sense, the past is fixed and the future open. While we may yearn to return to the city we knew as a child, or relive a wonderful moment, we are unable to do so. This is the relentless “march of time”.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceThe march of time
Urban environments are continuously and inexorably changing. From the first design drawing to the final demolition, environments and buildings are shaped and reshaped by technological, economic, social and cultural change.
A building or other element of the built environment of a given period and type tends to be a carrier of the spirit of its time.Every city can be read as a multi layered text, a narrative of signs and symbols and becomes a biography of urban change.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceconservation
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceconservation
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceconservation
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceconservation
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceconservation
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceThe continuity of place
Many current approaches to urban design attempts to respond to the existing sense of place , stressing “continuity with” rather than a “break from”, the past.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
Time management of public spaceThe continuity of place
In world of rapid change, visual and tangible evidence of the past is valued for the sense of place and continuity it conveys.
Particular value is placed on the sense of place and the relative
permanence of its character and identity.
Urban Design courseZaqaziq University
Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture
Lecture no.9
The management of change
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