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People interacting at public spaces
Image source:http://sabarmatiriverfront.com/project/riverfront-park-subhash-bridge
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I am sure all of us have a favorite corner in our house
which just calms us down or energies. It could be reading space, thinking space
or your relaxing space. Now think if you have any such favorite zone or space
in your city the energies you; which you look forward to visit quite often. It
might not be an easy task to recollect this as we hardly think about it. But
given a thought you would certainly remember few such spaces around in your
city where you like to spend time alone or with your friends or family. It
could be a traditional bazaar or a park or a street or a bridge or a public
square near college. Well designed urban spaces bring in character to the city
or town.
The branch that deals with design of urban spaces is
referred as ‘Urban Design’. Urban designer work to make spaces in cities more
people centric. In other words, design public spaces to facilitate sustainable,
functional and aesthetically pleasing lifestyle to residents and visitors.
Buildings, public spaces, streets, transport systems, landscapes are physical
elements that define cities fabric. Urban designer plays with these elements to
craft better experiences for the citizen.
The experience of doing any activity or task in a well-designed
space becomes enjoyable and soothing. A comparative example can illustrate this
point better. Try to remember your travel experience at terminal T2 and any
suburban train station in Mumbai. Time spent at terminal T2 airport before
boarding the aeroplane is very different from that spent at the railway station
before one boards the train. This difference is the result of the way both
these spaces have been designed. Apart from being functionally well designed to
cater to the needs of passengers; at terminal T2 the spaces are aesthetically
pleasing too. It goes beyond satisfying the basic needs like waiting area, restrooms
etc, providing many options for passengers to spend their waiting time
fruitfully alone or with others. This is how people centric design affects the
lifestyle.
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Different experiences of waiting at Terminal T2 Airport and Train station in Mumbai
Image source : https://thepointsguy.com https://www.hindustantimes.com |
With design intervention public spaces that people use on daily
basis can be thoughtfully done so that people can enjoy their everyday life and
need not have to wait till weekend to have fun. Easily accessible natural
elements like parks or landscaped waterfronts can be breather during lunch or
other breaks from work. Such spaces aid interaction among the residents to
bring in togetherness. Some urban spaces can integrate platforms for various
art performances by citizens and enrich life experiences.
Urban designer can work on private projects like
neighbourhood centers, commercial complexes or bigger size residential projects
as well as government undertaken projects like riverfront development,
transport systems, heritage site development, public squares etc. to name a
few. They work in coordination with architects, landscape architects, transport
planners, urban planners etc. It is interesting to know the difference between
urban planning and urban design. While planning is more about two-dimensional
zoning for land use, transportation planning, economic development; urban design
deals with three-dimensional spaces for much smaller areas in the city like streetscape,
public squares etc.
I hope this read throws some light on role of urban design
in our lives and makes us aware about how important it is for every city. And enables
us to have a participatory contribution in making our cities more meaningful!
Some useful links:
