This document summarizes a lecture on public open spaces. It discusses what public open spaces are, including that they are accessible land not built upon. It lists types of public open spaces like squares, parks, and plazas. The document outlines qualities of successful public open spaces like access, activities, safety, and sociability. It also discusses the roles of public open spaces in increasing safety, improving neighborhoods, and creating economic opportunities. Finally, the document reviews the history of public open spaces and provides criteria and keys for their successful design.

1. ELECTIVE-II
URBAN DESIGN
LECTURE-6
Ar. Ananta Gautam
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES
Department of Architecture
Pokhara Engineering College

2. • Public open space is any piece of land that
is not built upon and is accessible to the
public
• These provide recreational areas for
residents, enhance the beauty and
environmental quality of neighborhoods and
are the breathing lungs of a cities
• Public open spaces is where the people
realize the values and benefits of proper life
• Public opens spaces are where greatest
human interactions and contacts take place
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES

3. • Political procession
• Trade and commerce
• Circulation
• Religious, Festivals
• Leisure
FUNCTIONS OF PUBLIC SPACES

4. • Squares
• Historic plazas
• Streets
• Parks and gardens
• Foot bridges
• Waterfront promenades
• Water bodies
• Market places
• Religious spaces
TYPES OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES

5. • Access and linkages
• Accessibility- connections to its surroundings, both
visual and physical
• Visible from both distance and up close
• Edges are important as well. A row of shops along
a street is more interesting and generally safer to
walk than a blank wall or empty lot
• Comfort and image
• Space should be comfortable and present itself
well
• Safety, cleanliness and availability of places to sit
QUALITIES OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES

6. • Uses and activities
• Activities are basic building blocks of a place
• Having something to do gives people a reason to come
to a place and return
• Sociability
• Difficult quality for place to achieve, but once achieved
becomes a distinctive feature
• When people see friends, meet and greet their
neighbors, and feel comfortable interacting with
strangers, they tend to feel a stronger sense of place or
attachment to their community - and to the place that
fosters these types of social activities
QUALITIES OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES

7. • Increase safety and reduce fear of crime
• Improve residential neighborhoods; safeguarding
property values and increase attractiveness to
visitors
• Create economic and social development
opportunities
ROLES OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES

8. • Greek Agora
• Public arenas, amorphous open spaces
• Roman Forum
• Imperial monumental space for selected
public
• Spatial design dominated by formalism
• Monumentality and symbolism
• Tight relation with edge (basilica,
temples, colonnades)
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES IN
PRE-MODERN CONTEXT

9. • Medieval Plazas/Piazzas
• Especially in Italy, France, Spain
• Shape-regular, irregular, usually enclosed
by buildings, with one major civic
buildings
• Street connect the spaces at corners
• Piazza of market place, piazza of
cathedral, piazza of civic authority
• Urban space as civic place or public realm
• Renaissance Plazas
• Civic function further elaborated and
form/ design regulated
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES IN
PRE-MODERN CONTEXT

10. • Baroque Grand Designs
• Monumentality and Symbolism
• Plaza gets backdrop of monuments or
monumental buildings
• Squares (major in British towns)
• Four sides open surrounded by streets
• Used as garden or for recreation
• Streets
• Undifferentiated from squares spatiality
and functionality
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES IN
PRE-MODERN CONTEXT

11. • Be located where it is easily accessible to and can be seen by potential users.
• Clearly convey the message that the place is available
• Be beautiful and engaging on both the outside and the inside
• Be furnished to support the most likely and desirable activities
• Provide a feeling of security and safety to would be users.
• Encourage use by different subgroups without disrupting the other’s enjoyment.
• Offer an environment that is physiologically comfortable at peak use times
• Be accessible to children and disabled people.
• Incorporate components that the users can manipulate or
• Allow users the option, either as individuals or as members of a group, of
becoming attached to the place
• Be easily and economically maintained
• Be designed with equal attention paid to place as an expression of visual art and
place as social setting.
SET OF CRITERIA FOR OPEN SPACE

12. • The experience of a lively city is related to people using the public realm at various
times, and for various activities. Thus two factors influence this experience:
1) Number of people
2) The span of time people spend in the public realm
• Urban activity -number of people´ multiplied by ´time spent´.
• An inviting space offers good comfort, sun, views, other people, shelter, and a respect
for human scale.
• A balance between active and calm places is important to invite many user groups.
• The extent of stationary and recreational activities has the largest impact
• many user groups create lively cities
• planning for optional activities creates lively cities
• a strong pedestrian network makes lively cities
KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC LIFE

13. THANK
YOU!