The Design of Spaces by William W Whyte An article taken from the author's book "The city: Rediscovering the center" Read & presented & discussed in class of ARCT421- Introduction to Urban design and planning by architecture student from the DAUP - Department of Architecture & Urban Planning - Qatar University

1. DESIGN OF SPACES
BY WILLIAM W WHYTE
Instructor: Dr. Anna Grichting - TA: Arch. Luzita ball
Presented by Somaia El-Sherif
Sunday 22 March 2015
DAUP – Department of Architecture & Urban
Planning
ARCT421- Introduction to Urban Design and
Planning

2. Content page
 About the Author
 The street life project
 Project methodology
 How cities use economic incentives?
 The problem and start of the project
 Effect of demography on the use of spaces
 What attracts people in parks ?
 Seating
 Pedestrian and activity zoning
 Accessibility
 Relevance to the city of Doha
 Doha Public Parks
 List of References

3. About the Author William W Whyte
 (October 1, 1917 — January 12,
1999)
 American urbanist, organizational
analyst, journalist and people-watcher
 He is considered the mentor for
Project for Public Spaces because of
his seminal work in the study of human
behavior in urban settings
 While working with the New York City
Planning Commission in 1969, Whyte
began to wonder how newly planned
city spaces were actually working out –
something that no one had previously
researched. This curiosity led to the
Street Life Project, a pioneering study
of pedestrian behavior and city
dynamics.
He always believed that the greatest lesson
the city has to offer us is the idea that we are
all in it together, for better or for worse,

4. About the Author William W Whyte
 For sixteen years William Whyte walked the streets of
New York and other major cities. With a group of
young observers, camera and notebook in hand, he
conducted pioneering studies of street life, pedestrian
behavior, and city dynamics.
 Whyte and his team trained Super 8 cameras on
plazas, streets, playgrounds, and other small urban
spaces and simply watched, via time-lapse
photography, what people actually did.
 What they found led to changes in the way we view
the social settings of cities.
City: Rediscovering the Center is the result of that research, a humane, often amusing
view of what is staggeringly obvious about the urban environment but seemingly invisible
to those responsible for planning it.

5. The street life project
 Produced exceptional study of How people
used urban spaces
 Provided set of urban design guidelines for
New York and have been used in many other
cities

6. Project Methodology
 An Excellent example of how to do an urban research
•Observation
•Checking against hypothesis, previously
set
•Filming
•analyzing the films (Time-lapse videos)
•Creating circulation pattern from dawn to
dusk
•Charting how people used the spaces
•Taking notes during different times during
the day / all over the year
•Gender
•Couples or in groups
•Where did they sit ?
•Interviewing people :
•Where they worked ?
•How frequent they used the
plaza?
•What did they thought of it ?

7. How cities use economic
incentives ?
 There is a strong market for additional office spaces in the
central businesses districts of many cities
 Zoning ordinances set limits on height and bulk of office
buildings
 Permission to build more office space than zoning allows is
worth money for developers
 New York city awarded developers “Density Bonuses”
allowing them to build more office space if the private
developers agreed to provide park and plaza space at the
street level
 While some developers worked hard to design attractive
parks and plazas, others just wanted to build something that

8. The problem and start of the project
 On most plazas there were few people
 In the middle of the lunch hour on a beautiful
day the number of people sitting on plazas
averaged four per thousand square feet of
space – an extraordinarily low figure for so
dense a center

9. Effect of demography on the use of
spaces
 A good new space builds a new constituency,
it gets people into new habits and encourage
them to use new paths
 The best-used places tend to have higher than
average proportion of women

10. 1. Location
• Major avenues, attractive side views, close to bus stations,
pedestrian sidewalks huge flow
2. Sun &
aesthetics
• Wasn’t a major factor in concluding popularity of plazas
3. Amount of
space and its
shape
• Not a major factor as well , refer to graphs
4. Seating
area
• Whatever were the attractions, it will never induce people
to use the space if there’s no spaces to sit
What attracts people in parks ? (FACTORS)

11. What attracts people in parks ?
Amount of space Location
Retrieved from “The city: rediscovering the center” book

12. Seating
 Integral seating
The basic kind of seating built into place such as
steps and ledges
 Sitting height
 Benches
 Chairs

13. 1. Integral seating
Horizontal metal strip
with saw-tooth pointsJagged rock set into
concrete
Railing placed to hit your back !

14. 2. Sitting height
 Thanks to slopes , ledges
usually have different height
 Conclusion showed that people
will sit at any height ranges from
30 cm to 90 cm , specified in the
zoning (considering different age
groups)
 Human backside dimension ,
Ledges to be double-side used

15. 3. Benches
 Most often fitted in modular
forms, spaced equidistant
from one another, that
looks pleasant in plan view
 How benches fill-up ?
 First arrival takes the first
end, second arrival takes
end of another benches, the
subsequent arrivals will take
any end spots that are
vacant

16. 4. Movable Chairs
 The possibility of choice is
important as much as the
exercise for it
 Moving for shade or for
privacy
 Grass, for picnicking,
napping or sun-bathing
and psychological benefits
1
2
3
4

17. Pedestrian and activity
zoning
 Old NYs’ zoning codes called for
“Pedestrian circulation areas”
away from “activity areas”
 Sunken and elevated plazas
tend to attract low flow of people
> new code called for 3 feet
difference
 More east the flow between the
street and the plaza the more
easy people will go to sit

18. Accessibility
 Handicapped facilities , Drinking-Water
fountains
 Back rests for seats

19. Relevance to city of Doha, Qatar

20. Barzan Olympic Park ledges and wooden benchesMIA park movable chairs and view to
Westbay towers
Fixed chairs and tables at Al-Ruwais Park
Benches at the
pathways and at
the nodes of
passages at
different parks
Public outdoors parks and plazas observation of types of seating and activities

21. Parks for a comfortable weather day, benches with no shading canopies at Al Khesah Occasions Square at the right and the
green carpet park “Al-Bossat AL-Akhdar” to the left, what makes them special is the large space of green grass with little paved
walkways passing through
Abu Dhalouf Park provides Beach, barbeque and a
boat ride as well as shading canopies without fixed
Al-Morona and Al-Moroub parks are attracting male visitors.
Activities such as football playing and workers usually taking nab

22. Al-Rumiela park, benches to the back of the water feature
looking towards stalls and shops
Benches at Onaiza Park, shaded by trees, not considering
the back side & not comfortable for waiting for so long ideal
Colorful circular fixed seats oriented to have a full view of
different parts of the park
Benches at Park 65 works as waiting area, park is more of
urban playground to different age groups

23. The Huwaila Four park & Dahl El-Hamam parks
Fixed benches at corners and meeting points
Benches looking to each other more for friends and family gatherings
Fixed seating area under canopies, zoning for privacy Theatre fixed space for family events

24. Aspire park
 Fixed sophisticated
benches oriented to
best views are not
used much by people
 Groups tend to sit on
the grass or families
bring their own chairs

25. Katara cultural village
High-back traditional benches aligned
with the esplanade
Coffee shop tables and chairs
on the beach
Benches along the secondary
shaded streets
Tourists using the theatre low-rise
walls for sitting

26. List of References
 http://www.pps.org/reference/wwhyte/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Whyte
 http://www.outwalking.net/architecture_and_design/
 Whyte, William H.. City : Rediscovering the Center. Philadelphia, PA, USA:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 6 March
2015.
 https://verdantcities.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/40180658/
 http://www.justhere.qa/category/make-it-home/parks-recs/page/2/