David,
that is a rather nice and succinct statement. You point essentially to the risk of identifying the characteristics of something as features that can just be checked as ‘present or absent’ in the hope that if they all (or a sufficient number) are present then that success will follow. However, in the urban /social world everything is interconnected, and presence of the feature alone is not enough, its a matter of how these features are interrelated into a whole that matters. It is this relational account that space syntax develops (for a very partial ‘spatial’ layer of the experience) but perhaps this demonstrates how one might approach other layers.
Alan
> On 13 Mar 2015, at 15:29, David Seamon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> All,
>
> I agree that the specific elements of urban design presented in the video are significant—six are given: a balance of order and variety; visible life; compactness; orientation and mystery; scale; and making locality (sense of place).
>
> My problem with this presentation is that there is a confusion of means and ends: the ends is robust urban places. But the more difficult question is how design, planning, and policy can help facilitate robust urban places. In contributing usable possibilities toward this aim, urban and place theory needs a dynamic understanding of the interconnectedness of elements. We have few urban theories with this lived dynamism. Jane Jacobs’ is one and it illustrates a powerful “folding over” among her urban diversity, street ballet, and the four shapeable conditions—mixture of primary uses, short blocks, range in building types, and sufficient densities. Everything interconnects with everything else, whereas the six elements of the video are not given any clear conceptual or lived relationship. The assumption seems to be that, if we understand the six elements, we will be able to make them happen in the real world. Unfortunately, the process is not that easy.
>
> David Seamon
>
>
>
> Dr. David Seamon
> Professor of Environment-Behavior & Place Studies
> Department of Architecture
> 211 Seaton Hall
> Kansas State University
> Manhattan, KS 66506-2901
> 785-532-5953
> [log in to unmask]
> www.arch.ksu.edu/seamon/
> http://ksu.academia.edu/DavidSeamon
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