Therefore:
For public squares, courts, pedestrian streets, any place where crowds are drawn together, estimate the mean number of people in the place at any given moment (P), and make the area of the place between 150P and 300P square feet.
| average number of people, P |
|---|
 |
| area of 150P to i , /■ .•300P square feet ■ S |
* * *
Embellish the density and feeling of life with areas at the edge which are especially crowded—street cafe (8 8), activity
POCKETS (124), STAIR SEATS (I 2 5), PRIVATE TERRACE ON THE STREET (14O), BUILDING EDGE (l6o), STREET WINDOWS (164), OPENING TO THE STREET ( 165), GALLERY SURROUND (l66). . . .
| 124 ACTIVITY pockets** |
|---|
 |
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. . . in many large scale patterns which define public space, the edge is criticaclass="underline" promenade (31), small public squares (61),
PUBLIC OUTDOOR ROOM (69), PEDESTRIAN STREET (lOO), BUILDING thoroughfare (101), path shape (121). This pattern helps complete the edge of all these larger patterns.
•2* ❖ ❖
The life of a public square forms naturally around its edge. If the edge fails, then the space never becomes lively.
In more detaiclass="underline" people gravitate naturally toward the edge of public spaces. They do not linger out in the open. If the edge does not provide them with places where it is natural to linger, the space becomes a place to walk through, not a place to stop. It is therefore clear that a public square should be surrounded by pockets of activity: shops, stands, benches, displays, rails, courts, gardens, news racks. In effect, the edge must be scalloped.
Further, the process of lingering is a gradual one; it happens; people do not make up their minds to stay; they stay or go, according to a process of gradual involvement. This means that the various pockets of activity around the edge should all be next to paths and entrances so that people pass right by them as they pass through. The goal-oriented activity of coming and going then has a chance to turn gradually into something rrtore relaxed. And once many small groups form around the edge, it is likely that they will begin to overlap and spill in toward the center of the square. We therefore specify that pockets of activity must alternate with access points.
 |
| A conceptual diagram. |
600 124 activity pockets
The scalloped edge must surround the space entirely. We may see this clearly as follows: draw a circle to represent the space, and darken some part of its perimeter to stand for the scalloped edge. Now draw chords which join different points along this darkened perimeter. As the length of the darkened edge gets smaller, the area of the space covered by these chords wanes drastically. This shows how quickly the life in the space will drop when the length of the scalloped edge gets shorter. To make the space lively, the scalloped edge must surround the space completely.
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| As the activities grow around the space, it beco?nes more lively. |
When we say that the edge must be scalloped with activity, we mean this conceptually—not literally. In fact, to build this pattern, you must build the activity pockets forward into the square: first rough out the major paths that cross the space and the spaces left over between these paths; then build the activity pockets into these “in-between” spaces, bringing them forward, into the square.
 |
| A pocket of activity which bulges into the square. |
Therefore:
Surround public gathering places with pockets of activity —small, partly enclosed areas at the edges, which jut for-
601
ward into the open space between the paths, and contain activities which make it natural for people to pause and get involved.
❖ •!* v
Lead paths between the pockets of activity—paths and goals (i 20)—and shape the pockets themselves with arcades and seats, and sitting walls, and columns and trellises—arcades (119),
OUTDOOR ROOM (163), TRELLISED WALK ( I 74) , SEAT SPOTS
(241), sitting wall (243); above all shape them with the fronts of buildings—building fronts (122); and include, within the pockets, newsstands—bus stops (92), food stands (93), gardens, games, small shops, street cafes (88), and a
PLACE TO WAIT (150). . . .
602
| 125 STAIR SEATS* |
|---|
 |
603
. . . we know that paths and larger public gathering places need a definite shape and a degree of enclosure, with people looking into them, not out of them—small public squares (6i), POSITIVE OUTDOOR SPACE (l06), PATH SHAPE (l2l). Stairs around the edge do it just perfectly; and they also help embellish
FAMILY OF ENTRANCES (l02), MAIN ENTRANCES ( I I o) , and OPEN STAIRS (158).
♦I- ❖
Wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting, are those high enough to give people a vantage point, and low enough to put them in action.
On the one hand, people seek a vantage point from which they can take in the action as a whole. On the other hand, they still want to be part of the action; they do not want to be mere onlookers. Unless a public space provides for both these tendencies, a lot of people simply will not stay there.
For a person looking at the horizon, the visual field is far larger below the horizon than above it. It is therefore clear that anybody who is “people-watching” will naturally try to take up a position a few feet above the action.
The trouble is that this position will usually have the effect of removing a person from the action. Yet most people want to be able to take the action in and to be part of it at the same time. This means that any places which are slightly elevated must also be within easy reach of passers-by, hence on circulation paths, and directly accessible from below.
The bottom few steps of stairs, and the balusters and rails along stairs, are precisely the kinds of places which resolve these tendencies. People sit on the edges of the lower steps, if they are wide enough and inviting, and they lean against the rails.
There is a simple kind of evidence, both for the reality of the forces described here and for the value of the pattern. When there are areas in public places which are both slightly raised and very accessible, people naturally gravitate toward them.
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125 STAIR SEATS
Stepped cafe terraces, steps surrounding public plazas, stepped porches, stepped statues and seats, are all examples.
Therefore: