Research Question

First we shape the city than the city shape us. Winston Churchill

R.Q: How can we create, by designing the streetscape, a safer, more pleasant environment for people rather than for cars?

“The quality of a city has to do with the quality of the public space” said once the urban designer Jan Gehl. But in the course of time, traffic has obtained a predominant influence on the use of public space that such space is only meaningful in its traffic-related functions.
Man, as a user of public space, has been reduced to a small part of the system.By intervening in the domain of infrastructures, the “hardware” and people's behaviours, the “soft” aspects of the city (Sikiaridi/Vogelaar,2006), my thesis addresses the integration of traffic with other forms of human activity. Design can shift back the lay-out of the urban roads to a more predominant public use by starting a process of shifting the language of standardized street elements into tailored public furniture and micro architectures.

Design can bring new approaches on the use of the public space and open new paths of urban design. A gradual transformation of the spaces trough design interventions can invite people to reappropriate the public space by making it convenient, safer, attractive, and sociable.

Work in Progress

Inspirations

Midterms Submission (updated)

“The observation that the risk of an individual pedestrian or bicyclist being hit by a motor vehicle decreases as the number of pedestrians or bicyclists increases, respectively runs counter to what one might expect .”

Safety in Numbers by Brad Aaron

Thesis Title:

SOFT ROAD DESIGN

R.Q:

How design can help to humanize urban roads from mainly traffic to a more predominant public(people) use?

Abstract:

Feeling safe when we and our children make use of the road is a basic need.

But often this need of security induces attitudes of closure that effectively reduces the quality of urban life. Alternative strategies seek out security in a more open and participatory enjoyment of urban activities.

A number of studies paradoxically affirms that when pedestrians make more use of the road, decrease the possibility of accidents between people and vehicles.

But in the course of time, traffic has obtained a predominant influence on the use of public space that such space is only meaningful in its traffic-related functions.

Man, as a user of public space, has been reduced to a small part of the system.

With design we can shift back the lay-out of the urban roads by marking a more predominant public use.

By intervening in the domain of infrastructures, the “hardware” and people's behaviours, the “soft” aspects of the city (Sikiaridi/Vogelaar,2006), my thesis addresses the integration of traffic with other forms of human activity.

Design thinking as a creative process can bring new approaches on the use of the public space and open new paths of urban design.

INSPIRATIONS: Click Me

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Click Me

EARLY.DESIGNS: Click Me

People research plan:

The Urban Design Research:

My research started by photographing interactions of people and elements that are part of the road network:

I'm planning to involve different groups of people of different ages and different nationalities. To be able to achieve successful feedbacks and results I will tryout several times the same method:

A first version of my "urban probe pack" is going to be tested on friends and students of the DAE. The number of people depends from their availability and will be defined better after a first tryout.A second version will be tested in the city of Venice and Torino during my Italian trip on the first week of November 2008.
The probe pack consist in a series of sticky cards especially conceived to let the participant be able to speculate and rediscover the urban space. The participants will comment on aspects of social life and co-relate them to the urban space by sticking the cards on the spots they want and then record it on a picture.
The results of the series of "urban probe packs" will bring a everyday-life into the design process as a source for ispirations.
The second fase consist in designing the research inspired concepts and in a more evaluative way , test them by creating prototypes and/or models.

R.Q: How can we increase pedestrian's road use and shift the identity of the road from motorist-centered to human-centered?

Experts in my subject:

City Counsellors:

Comune di Torino Settore Arredo Urbano for financial and more practical questions about urban designs and city planning.

Ilda Curti Città di Torino Assessore alle Politiche per l’integrazione

Urban designers: Walter Cavallaro, street furniture director Comune di Torino, Esterni.org - Design Pubblico

Xavier Lust designer, Belgium, Jp Decaux

Street Artists: Anish kapoor, Roadsworth Toronto, The London Police Amsterdam,

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Click Me



EARLY.DESIGNS: Click Me

photo credits: roadsworth montreal

Bibliografia

Books:

Anderson, Stanford. On Streets. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978.

Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein.A pattern language : Oxford Univ. Pr., 1978.

Establishment, Building. Designing for Pedestrians.
IHS BRE, 2006.

Gaventa, Sarah. New Public Spaces. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2006.

Gehl, Jan. Public Spaces Public Life. Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press, 1996.

Gehl, Jan. Life between Buildings. Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press, 2008.

Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe. Motopia: A Study in the Evolution of Urban Landscape: Praeger, 1961.

Liane Lefaivre, Döll. Ground-up city, play as a design tool: Rotterdam : 010 Publishers, 2007

Naegele, Isabel and Ruedi Baur. Scents of the City.
Lars Muller Publishers, 2004.

Novak, Anja et.al. Aldo Van Eyck. City: NAi Publishers/Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2002.

Sucher, David. City Comforts. Seattle: City Comforts, 2003.

Zardini, Mirko and Wolfgang Schivelbusch. Sense of the City. Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2005.


Internet:

Design pubblico
http://www.designpubblico.it/english/cose/

Mindmaps

Early Concepts

Night Cane - D.A. Artuffo 2008

Vulnerable Signs - D.A. Artuffo 2008