How the physical characteristics may affect the social life of streets in Athens, Greece?

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charalampos Kyriakidis ◽  
Efthimios Bakogiannis
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Physical Characteristics ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Physical Features

Abstract The urban space is characterized by specific qualities that may contribute to, or mitigate the social life. These qualities were described by James Gibson as “environmental affordances”. According to that theoretical perspective, urban designers and environmental psychologists should focus on the physical features of a space in order to understand and explain the way in which it functions and the degree to which is sociable. For the scholars of road networks, this approach is particularly useful because streets shape the platform for a wide range of social interactions and experiences. Streets are by definition social spaces, which not operate always efficiently because of their form and their particular characteristics. This is one of the primary reasons why it is stated in the literature that public space is now declined and as a result it needs to recover its old glamorous prestige and importance. In the light of the above, the specific research as primarily qualitative, is focused on studies of the urban form of the Athenian streets and proposes a typology for them considering some key physical characteristics which affect with a specific way the embedded social life. Finally, an attempt is made to generalize the effects of the specific physical characteristics to the socialization of urban spaces.

scholarly journals Architecture as the art of creating human-friendly places

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 059-076
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Chęć-Małyszek
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The City

The public space of a city plays a special role in the life of every human being, as it meets basic and at the same time most important needs related to safety and comfort of life. It is a combination of an idea and a technique, which for centuries has reflected the changes taking place in people's social and cultural life. While the city is a multi-layered structure with a clearly separated private and public zone, creating mutual relations between the buildings. Camillo Sitte saw the city urban spaces as a work of art, które should be designed in such a way that the inhabitants feel safe and happy, as it is not just a show-off of technical skill, but an artistic undertaking. [1] The art of designing architecture does not exist for itself, but is created for the target audience.  It provides a harmony that satisfies human needs and guarantees survival. It is an important factor influencing the development of an individual through the organization of a social living space. Urban spaces are primarily people and their needs that change over time. The first part of the article is devoted to the role of public spaces and the idea of the city as a work of art. The second part, in turn, is an attempt to define architecture as a kind of fine arts, taking into account the role it plays in the social life of Lublin's residents.  The article is an attempts to emphasize the importance of architecture in designing a human-friendly environment as an art design that meets social expectations with the use of selected examples urban space of the city of Lublin.

scholarly journals Towards an integrated architectural media space

First Monday ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ava Fatah gen. Schieck
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Interaction Space ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Space ◽  
New Type ◽  
Large Projection ◽  
Display Walls

Large projection screens are becoming more and more ubiquitous in urban spaces. However, there is currently no methodology for designing media walls as an integral part of the urban built environment. This paper reviews the application of display walls and projection screens as an emergent new type of urban form in major metropolises around the world. It identifies issues related to the implementation of media walls, which perhaps form the basis for an integrated architectural media space. We suggest that in order to achieve real integration on an urban scale, we need to consider the design of space as a whole, taking into account the urban space, the dynamic visual information and the social interaction space.

scholarly journals PERSPECTIVES OF THE PUBLIC SPACE DEVELOPMENT IN THE HISTORICAL PART OF DNIPRO, UKRAINE

space&FORM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 183-192
Author(s):  
Iryna O. Merylova ◽  
◽  
Oleksandr A. Rechyts ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
City Center ◽  
Project Proposal ◽  
The Public ◽  
Industrial Economy ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post Industrial

The article discusses the methods for reconstructing historical urban space of the industrial city of Dnipro in a post-industrial economy, strengthening globalization and digitalization processes of the social life of citizens, analyzing development milestones of the historical city center, identifying modern problems of the area under consideration and providing the ways to solve them as a conceptual project proposal.

scholarly journals Redefinition of Pedestrian Route-Finding Networks as a Tool to Return Vitality and Responsiveness to Yazd Khan Plaza

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Moghimi ◽  
Ali Assari
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Linking Elements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Route Finding ◽  
Yazd City ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

The requirement of communities to new urban elements has changed urban space and proportional to modern community. These changes have been realized in new urban texture within modernism framework and also in old texture as wearing framework and converted them into ill urban spaces. Removing balance in social life may appear in public scenes at historic textures with which a modern element competes including street. In order to find the most efficient strategy to compensate such imbalance, reassessment of access route networks may work effectively. This approach should notice two types of determinant factors in the path toward achievement of the main goal that is resuming comprehensive balance to life in historic texture: On the one hand, using of potential in the available communication network and on the other hand redefinition of historic elements may play role in strategic situations as the linking elements. Rather than referring to definition of vitality and responsiveness in an urban space in this article, it has been dealt with subject of reclamation and renewal of these textures that also caused responsiveness and vitality in historic urban space as well and finally Yazd Khan Plaza has been mentioned as case study in this investigation. Yazd Khan Plaza is subject to imbalance in social life as one of the social scenes in historic Yazd city due to its adjacency to street lines from Pahlavi period. This article is codified according to the aforesaid approach and proposing of executive strategies in order to resume the balance in vitality and comprehensive dynamism by strengthening and creating networks of communication walk to this precious historic complex.

Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Elite ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.

THE FREEDOM OF THE AESTHETIC: MONTSERRAT ROIG’S USE OF THE CITY IN RAMONA, ADÉU

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
Caragh Wells
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The Social ◽  
Catalan Literature ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

This article suggests that over recent decades Catalan literary criticism has paid too little attention to the aesthetic attributes of Catalan literature and emphasised the social, political and cultural at the expense of discussions of narrative poetics. Through an analysis of Montserrat Roig’s metaphorical use of the city in her first novel Ramona, adéu, I put forward the view that the aesthetic features of Catalan literature need to be re-claimed. This article provides a critical analysis of the aesthetic importance of Roig’s representation of the city in her first novel and argues that she uses Barcelona as a critical tool through which to explore questions of both female emancipation and aesthetic freedom. Following a detailed discussion of Roig’s descriptions of how her female characters interact with particular urban spaces, I examine how Roig makes subtle shifts in her semantic register during these narrative accounts when her prose moves into the realm of the poetic. I conclude that this technique enables us to read her accounts of urban space as metaphors for aesthetic freedom and are inextricably linked to her wider concerns on the importance of liberating Catalan literature from the discourse of political nationalism.

scholarly journals Free or paid: the uses of Roses Citadel (Catalonia)

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Josep Burch ◽  
Modest Fluvià ◽  
Ricard Rigall ◽  
Albert Saló ◽  
Gabriel Alcalde
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Economic Analyses ◽  
Social Use ◽  
The Town

Purpose The Roses Citadel is a bastioned fortification that has archaeological remains from the Greek, Roman and medieval periods in its interior. Currently, the area inside the Citadel is used for a wide range of activities; some directly related with the heritage item, others associated with its use as a public space for the town. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the economic interest of charging an entrance fee vs the alternative of free access and offers a framework to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach The proposal is to consider the marginal cost of increasing the number of users and to carry out a travel cost analysis. It is vital to take into account the results of specifically economic analyses, but the evaluations of social policies should also be considered, and should have a considerable weight in decision making. Findings It is proposed that free entry would bring about an increase in the number of visitors and users of Roses Citadel. In turn, this increase would lead to a greater social use of this heritage asset, and a chance for the least privileged sectors of society to use the site more. Financial resources for the maintenance of the asset would not be raised through entry fees, but through contributions relating to the increase in the social consideration of the site. Originality/value In the context of a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of paying an entry fee for heritage assets, the example of Roses Citadel provides several factors for consideration. It shows that payment of an entry fee affects use of the site by society, and particularly by the local community, whereas free access leads to a wide range of opportunities for use.

scholarly journals Exploring Successful Small Urban Spaces’ Criteria with Emphasis on Cultural Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-482
Author(s):  
Parvin Partovi ◽  
Kebria Sedaghat Rostami ◽  
Amir Shakibamanesh
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Short Time ◽  
The City

In the crowded cities of the present age, public spaces can provide a quiet area away from the hustle and bustle of the city that citizens can interact with by incorporating utility features and meeting human needs and Relax there. Small urban spaces are among the most important and effective urban spaces to achieve this goal. Because these spaces due to their small size and lower costs (compared to larger spaces) for construction can be created in large numbers and distributed throughout the city. In this way, citizens will be able to reach a public urban space on foot in a short time. If these spaces are well designed, they can encourage people to stay in and interact with each other. It is not difficult to identify and experience high-quality successful places, but identifying the reasons for their success is difficult and even more difficult, understanding if similar spaces in other places can be considered successful. This question is important because public space with deep social content is considered a cultural product. Public space is the product of the historical and socio-cultural forces of society. Therefore, one of the most important issues that should be considered in the study of public spaces and the reasons for their success is the cultural context. In Iranian cities that have been influenced by the values and principles of Islam,recognizing Islamic principles and their role in shaping public spaces can lead us to desirable results. The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual model of successful small urban spaces with an emphasis on cultural issues, especially in Iranian-Islamic cities. In this regard, the effective criteria for the success of urban spaces in general and small urban spaces in particular in the two categories of Western countries and Iranian Islamic cities were examined and then, taking into account the criteria derived from cultural theorists, the conceptual model of research with 38 subcriteria is provided.

scholarly journals Street Cries and the urban ritornelle

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-80
Author(s):  
Jacob Kreutzfeldt
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Felix Guattari ◽  
Northern European ◽  
The Social ◽  
Environmental Relations ◽  
The City ◽  
Fertile Area

Street cries, though rarely heard in Northern European cities today, testify to ways in which audible practices shape and structure urban spaces. Paradigmatic for what Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari call ‘the refrain’, the ritualised and stylised practice of street cries may point at the dynamics of space-making, through which the social and territorial construction of urban space is performed. The article draws on historical material, documenting and describing street cries, particularly in Copenhagen in the years 1929 to 1935. Most notably, the composer Vang Holmboe and the architect Steen Eiler Rasmussen have investigated Danish street cries as a musical and a spatial phenomenon, respectably. Such studies – from their individual perspectives – can be said to explore the aesthetics of urban environments, since street calls are developed and heard specifically in the context of the city. Investigating the different methods employed in the two studies and presenting Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of the refrain as a framework for further studies in the field, this article seeks to outline a fertile area of study for sound studies: the investigation of everyday refrains and the environmental relations they express and perform. Today changed sensibilities and technologies have rendered street crying obsolete in Northern Europe, but new urban ritornells may have taken their place.

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