Therefore:
Arrange buildings so that they form pedestrian streets with many entrances and open stairs directly from the upper storys to the street, so that even movement between rooms is outdoors, not just movement between buildings.
100 PEDESTRIAN STREET
 | no cars |
The street absolutely will not work unless its total area is small enough to be well filled by the pedestrians in it—pedestrian density (123). Make frequent entrances and open stairs along the street, instead of building indoor corridors, to bring the people out; and give these entrances a family resemblance so one sees them as a system—family of entrances (102), open stairs (158) ; give people indoor and outdoor spaces which look on the street—private terrace on the street (140), street windows (164), OPENING to THE STREET (165), GALLERY SURROUND (166), six-foot balcony (167); and shape the street to make a space of it—arcade (119), path shape (121). . . .
491
| IOI BUILDING THOROUGHFARE |
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492
. . . if the building complex is built at high density, then at least part of the circulation cannot be made of outdoor pedestrian streets (loo) because the buildings cover too much of the land; in this case, the main spines of the circulation realms (98) must take the form of building thoroughfares similar to pedestrian streets, but partly or wholly inside the buildings. Building thoroughfares replace the terrible corridors which destroy so much of modern building, and help to generate the indoor layout of a BUILDING COMPLEX (95 ) .
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* V V
When a public building complex cannot be completely served by outdoor pedestrian streets, a new form of indoor street, quite different from the conventional corridor, is needed.
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| An indoor street. |
The problem arises under two conditions.
1. Cold weather. In very cold climates to have all circulation outdoors inhibits social communication instead of helping it. Of course, a street can be roofed, particularly with a glass roof. But as soon as it becomes enclosed, it has a different social ecology and begins to function differently.
2. High density. When a building complex is so tightly packed
493
on the site that there is no reasonable space for outdoor streets because the entire building complex is a continuous two, three, or four story building, it becomes necessary to think of major thoroughfares in different terms.
To solve the problems posed by these conditions, streets must be replaced by indoor thoroughfares or corridors. But the moment we put them indoors and under cover, they begin to suffer from entirely new problems, which are caused by the fact that they get sterilized by their isolation. First, they become removed from the public realm, and are often deserted. People hardly ever feel free to linger in public corridors when they are off the street. And second, the corridors become so unfriendly that nothing ever happens there. They are designed for scuttling people through, but not for staying in.
In order to solve these new problems, created when we try to put a street indoors, the indoor streets—or building thoroughfares —need five specific characteristics.
I. Shortcut
Public places are meant to invite free loitering. The public places in community buildings (city halls, community centers, public libraries) especially need this quality, because when people feel free to hang around they will necessarily get acquainted with what goes on in the building and may begin to use it.
But people rarely feel free to stay in these places without an Official Reason. Goffman describes this situation as follows:
Being present in a public place without an orientation to apparent goals outside the situation is sometimes called lolling, when position is fixed, and loitering, when some movement is entailed. Either can be deemed sufficiently improper to merit legal action. On many of our city streets, especially at certain hours, the police will question anyone who appears to be doing nothing and ask him to “move along.” (In London, a recent court ruling established that an individual has a right to walk on the street but no legal right merely to stand on it.) In Chicago, an individual in the uniform of a hobo can loll on “the stem,” but once off this preserve he is required to look as if he were intent on getting to some business destination. Similarly, some mental patients owe their commitment to the fact that the police found them wandering on the streets at off hours without any apparent destination or purpose in mind. (Erving Goffman, Behavior in Public Places, New York: Free Press, 1963, p. 56.)
494
IOI BUILDING THOROUGHFARE
If a public space is to be really useful it must somehow help to counter the anti-loitering tendency in modern society. Specifically, we have observed these problems:
a. A person will not use a public place if he has to make a special motion toward it, a motion which indicates the intention to use the facility “officially.”
b. If people are asked to state their reason for being in a place (for example, by a receptionist or clerk) they won’t use it freely.
c. Entering a public space through doors, corridors, changes of level, and so on, tends to keep away people who are not entering with a specific goal in mind.
Places which overcome these problems, like the Galleria in Milan, all have a common characteristic: they all have public thoroughfares which slice through them, lined with places to stop and loiter and watch the scene.
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| Shortcuts. |
2. Width
An indoor street needs to be wide enough for people to feel comfortable walking or stopping along the way. Informal experiments help to determine how much space people need when they pass others. Since the likelihood of three people passing three people is not high, we consider as a maximum two people passing two people, or three people passing one person. Each person takes about two feet; there needs to be about one foot between two groups which pass, so that they do not feel crowded; and
495
| I INDEPENDENT REGIONS** |
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| 10 |
BUILDINGS
people usually walk at least one foot away from the wall. The street width, therefore, should be at least n feet.
Our experiments also indicate that a person seated or standing at the edge of a street feels uncomfortable if anyone passes closer than five feet. Thus, in places in the street where seats, activities, entrances, and counters are placed, the street should widen to about 16 feet (one-sided) or 20 feet (two-sided).
J. Height
Ceiling heights should also feel comfortable for people walking or standing along an indoor street. According to ceiling height variety (190), the height of any space should be equal to the appropriate horizontal social distances between people for the given situation—the higher the ceiling, the more distant people seem from each other.