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Pag 17 Livro urban space

Typical functions of urban spaces

The activities of a town take plance in public and private spheres. The behavioral

patterns of people are similar in both. So, the result is that the way in which public

space has been organized has in all periods exercised a powerful influence of the designof private houses.

We might almost infer the existence of a kind of social ritual, which produces a perfect

match between individual and collective. What concerns us above all here are those

activities which take place in the town in the open air: i.e. actions which a person

performs outside the familiar territory of his own home and for which he utilises public

space, as for example travelling to work, shopping, selling goods, recreation, leisure

activities, sporting events, deliveries etc. Although the asphalt carpet which serves as a

channel for the movement of cars is still called a street, it retais no connections with

the original significance of the term. Certainly the motorized transportation of people

and goods is one of the primary functions of the town, but it requires no scenery in the

space around it. It is different in the case of the movement of pedestrians or public

transport vehicles which move at a moderate speed, like carriages. Today we have

boulevard situations which apparently draw their life from the dfile of flashy cars and

pavement cafes are visited despite the fact that the air is polluted by exhaust fumes.

Looking at planning schemes of the turn of the century one can appreciate that in

cosmopolitan cities such as Paris, Rome or Berlin, the air was polluted in a different

way: by horse manure, stinking sewage and uncollected refuse. A problem of urban

hygiene, as old as the town itself, with the only difference that people can be poisoned

by carbon monoxide but scarcely by horse manure.

On medical grounds we can no longer

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indulge in this kind of boulevard romanticism. While the automobile in its present form

continues to occupy streets, it excludes all other users.

Let us give a brief outline here of the characteristic functions of the space defined by the

square and the street:

THE SQUARE

This spation model is admirably suited to residential use. In the private sphere it

corresponds to the inner courtyard of atrium. The courtyard house is the oldest type of

town house. In spite of its undisputed advantages, the courtyard house has now become

discredited. It is all too easily subject to ideological misinterpretation, and people are

afraid that this design may imply enforced conformity to a communal lifestyle or a

particular philosophy.

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A certain unease about ones neighbours has undoubtedly led to the suppression of this

building type. Yet in the same way as communal living has gained in popularity for a

minority of young people with the disappearance of the extended family, the concept of

neighbourhood and its accompanying building types will most certainly be readopted in

the near future.