(99), BUILDING THOROUGHFARE (iOl), HIERARCHY OF OPEN
space (i 14), courtyards which live (I I 5) ; and mark the entrance to these minor realms with minor entrances that still stand out quite clearly—family of entrances (102), main entrance (1 10). Make the layout of paths consonant with paths and goals (1 20)....
| 99 main building* |
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Do what you can to establish a world governmenty with a thousand independent regions, instead of countries;
I. INDEPENDENT REGIONS
. . . once you have decided more or ]ess how people will move around within the building complex (95), and roughly how high the buildings will be—number of stories (96)—it is time to try and find the natural heart or center of the building complex, to help complete its circulation realms (98).
A complex of buildings with no center is like a man without a head.
In circulation realms we have explained how people understand their surroundings and orient themselves in their surroundings by making mental maps. Such a map needs a point of reference: some point in the complex of buildings, which is very obvious, and so placed, that it is possible to refer all the other paths and buildings to it. A main building, which is also the functional soul of the complex, is the most likely candidate for this reference point. Without a main building, there is very little chance of any natural points of reference being strong enough to act as an organizer for one’s mental map.
Furthermore, from the point of view of the group of users—the workers or the inhabitants—the sense of community and connection is heightened when one building or a part of one building is singled out and treated as a main building, common to all, the heart of the institution. Some examples: the meeting hall among a collection of government buildings; a guild hall in a work community; the kitchen and family room in a communal household; the merry-go-round in a park; a temple on sacred ground; the swimming pavilion in a health center; the workshop in an office.
Great care must be taken to pick that function which is actually the soul of the group, in human terms, for the main building. Otherwise, some irrelevant set of functions will dominate the building complex. The United Nations complex in New York fails for just this reason. Tire General Assembly, the heart and soul of the institution, is dwarfed by the bureaucratic Secretariat. And, indeed, this institution has suffered from the
486
99 main building
red-tape mentality. (See the excellent series of articles by Lewis Mumford, discussing the U.N. buildings in From the Ground, Up, Harvest Books, 1956, pp. 20-70.)
Therefore:
For any collection of buildings, decide which building in the group houses the most essential function—which building is the soul of the group, as a human institution. Then form this building as the main building, with a central position, higher roof.
Even if the building complex is so dense that it is a single building, build the main part of it higher and more prominent than the rest, so that the eye goes immediately to the part which is the most important.
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Build all the main paths tangent to the main building, in arcades or glazed corridors, with a direct view into its main functions—common areas at the heart (129). Make the roof cascade down from the high roof over the main building to lower roofs over the smaller buildings—cascade of roofs ( i 16). And for the load bearing structure, engineering, and construction, begin with STRUCTURE FOLLOWS SOCIAL SPACES (2O5). . . .
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. . . the earlier patterns—promenade (31), shopping street (32) and network of paths and cars (52), all call for dense pedestrian streets; row houses (38), housing hill (39), university as A MARKETPLACE (43), MARKET OF MANY SHOPS (46), all do the same; and within the building complex (95), circulation realms (98) calls for the same. As you build a pedestrian street, make sure you place it so that it helps to generate a network of paths and cars (52), raised walks (55), and circulation realms (98) in the town around it.
*J* *$•
The simple social intercourse created when people rub shoulders in public is one of the most essential kinds of social “glue” in society.
In today’s society this situation, and therefore this glue, is largely missing. It is missing in large part because so much of the actual process of movement is now taking place in indoor corridors and lobbies, instead of outdoors. This happens partly because the cars have taken over streets, and made them uninhabitable, and partly because the corridors, which have been built in response, encourage the same process. But it is doubly damaging in its effect.
It is damaging because it robs the streets of people. Most of the moving about which people do is indoors—hence lost to the street; the street becomes abandoned and dangerous.
And it is damaging because the indoor lobbies and corridors are most often dead. This happens partly because indoor space is not as public as outdoor space; and partly because, in a multi-story building each corridor carries a lower density of traffic than a public outdoor street. It is therefore unpleasant, even unnerving, to move through them; people in them are in no state to generate, or benefit from, social intercourse.
To recreate the social intercourse of public movement, as far as possible, the movement between rooms, offices, departments, buildings, must actually be outdoors, on sheltered walks, arcades, paths,
streets, which are truly public and separate from cars. Individual wings, small buildings, departments must as often as possible have their own entrances—so that the number of entrances onto the street increases and life comes back to the street.
In short, the solution to these two problems we have mentioned —the streets infected by cars and the bland corridors—is the pedestrian street. Pedestrian streets are both places to walk along (from car, bus, or train to one’s destination) and places to pass through (between apartments, shops, offices, services, classes).
To function properly, pedestrian streets need two special properties. First, of course, no cars; but frequent crossings by streets with traffic, see network of paths and cars (52): deliveries and other activities which make it essential to bring cars and trucks onto the pedestrian street must be arranged at the early hours of the morning, when the streets are deserted. Second, the buildings along pedestrian streets must be planned in a way which as nearly as possible eliminates indoor staircases, corridors, and lobbies, and leaves most circulation outdoors. This creates a street lined with stairs, which lead from all upstairs offices and rooms directly to the street, and many many entrances, which help to increase the life of the street.
Finally it should be noted that the pedestrian streets which seem most comfortable are the ones where the width of the street does not exceed the height of the surrounding buildings. (See “Vehicle free zones in city centers,” International Brief U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of International Affairs, June 1972).