Comments on: Urban trees and benches should be aspects of urban forestry and urban design

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 05:04:42 +0000

There is more than one way to design a seat and there is more than one way to design a square.
[ http://resource.wur.nl/en/wetenschap/detail/not_much_choice_on_a_bare_town_square/ ]

Not all seats are equally good, nor are all squares.

It is worth looking at what makes a good seat as well as what makes a good square!

By: Seed Parade

Seed Parade — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:52:33 +0000

That’s a joke those bench billboards. we don’t have them over here in the UK (…yet :/)

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:19:08 +0000

I am equally amazed by the differences and by the similarities between Whyte’s world and our world.
Re Pope Innocent XXII, I guess he was thinking ‘what can I do to make Rome the world’s greatest city?’

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:41:33 +0000

Yes, it would be very interesting to explore and expand upon W H Whyte’s ideas and methodologies in more detail.[ http://vimeo.com/6821934 ]

The Spanish steps are the longest and widest steps in the whole of Europe.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8dI2qYmJ5c ] What was Pope Innocent XXII thinking?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:58:51 +0000

Yes, WH Whyte was brilliant. But he said that with open space you must ‘use it or lose it’, so I guess he would not support the idea of empty open space. I would, providing it had other qualities.

By: Poppy

Poppy — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:08:16 +0000

NOW, I feel the idea of William H Whyte is brilliant. He used observation and time-lapse photography to record the users on the plaza and give the the assessment of public open space.Then, we can clearly find what the trend of the spaces are and how they will affect the people in these spaces.

With the fast development of city, more and more public open spaces are needed, but not all of them are designed necessarily for users. There is an interesting question：if a public open space was designed ,but it became empty most of the time,why it should be designed?

By: Christine

Christine — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 03:23:53 +0000

Do you think they will have swimming [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/extra/series-1/london_beaches.shtml ] and skating by Tower Bridge if summers keep getting hotter and winters colder? [ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Frost_Fair_of_1683.JPG ]

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 06:04:21 +0000

The word ‘park’ derives from the verb ‘to impark’, meaning to fence off. So if the space is not protected in some way then it should not even be called a park. Fences and opening hours are a good means of protection. Or, as in London’s Hyde Park, you can have a park police force. But yes, yes, yes, it is also desirable to have unfenced and uncontrolled space. In London the best example of truly open space is the Thames beach.

By: christine

christine — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:18:31 +0000

I guess it is necessary in some urban settings for parks to have opening and closing hours?
[ http://www.bryantpark.org/plan-your-visit/hours.html ]

Gardens are the most obvious example where this is expected.
[ http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/rbg-melbourne/visiting-us/open-hours ]

However it would be sad to lose parks that are unfenced fully accessible open space.
[ http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde_park/ ]