Designs for Improvements in the Quality of Life in Downtown Cores
1975; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 4; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00207411.1975.11448691
ISSN1557-9328
Autores Tópico(s)Urban Design and Spatial Analysis
ResumoWe need to have many times over the quantity and quality of information already stored in mankind's memory bank. Moreover, because the problems are new, the type of knowledge we require is also new. What follows is a non-rank-ordered inventory of questions urgently needing answers if we are to solve the problems of urban environments, which contain three-quarters of the Western world's population. If we are to survive in gigantic cities, what is the maximal size of these cities beyond which they become rat traps ? Within them, what are the optimal living, working, and walking densities below which they become deadly thoroughfares and above which they become cesspools of social pathology ? What are the optimal divisions and arrangements of spaces, both public and private, beyond which perceived congestion and lack of ownership responsibility and pride potentiate the hostility that comes from powerlessness and leads to violence and crime, or at least to anonymity, indifference, and anomie ? What is the minimal square footage of living space below which man cannot function as a truly human being ? What is the maximal height above which there is nothing but alienation, vandalized elevators and corridors ? What is the noise level above which sleepdreams are banished and insanity invades by night, and the cost in energy consumed in mentally turning noise off leaves us listless by day ? (In this context, how much interruption and pressure from sound, for instance, can a child tolerate in an open-plan school
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