Humanizing the city : festivals as a human adaptation of public space

Abstract

As currently conceived, the contemporary city will not advance beyond its present level of achievement. This research frames the city within three root values upon which all decisions made in the city are based. The three root values are continuity, connection and openness. Under the present priorities of city making, the contemporary city is heavily biased toward continuity. A paradigm shift is required in the way cities are conceived and developed to rebalance the three root values with the intention of creating cities that are better places for humans to inhabit. This shift is a call for a more human city. This research investigates a collection of urban design principles that are intended to humanize the city and improve them as settings for human use and occupation. The research utilizes the festival as a temporal moment in the city of uniquely human-centered use. It is a moment in which the human becomes the dominant priority in the organization and occupation of space, while other systems of the city are temporarily interrupted. Through a series of six festival case studies a number of consistent adaptations of space emerge in which the festive events highlight strategies for humanizing space in the city. The urban design principles highlighted by this research include adapting spatial containment, restructuring movement, exposing meaning and commonality, attracting density of people, removing separation of uses, increasing overlapping activities, and spatially and temporally scripting and choreographing all of these strategies.

(cont.) These principles are then examined through a design test that shows their applicability in making humanizing adaptations of space and ultimately creating more human cities.