LIVABLE URBAN SPACES. PUBLIC BENCHES AND THE QUALITY OF DAILY LIFE (original) (raw)
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We live in an era in which public life within the urban space is in a profound crisis. The urban and economic development, corroborated with the technological advances, often determine public space to be replaced by remote social interactions. Thus have appeared more and more private spaces (i.e. commercial centres), culminating with an increasingly restricted and timid use of the public space that places under the sign of uncertainty the citizens' right to the city. In this study, we aimed at realising a territorial diagnosis of the squares in the central area of Cluj-Napoca, analysing the degree of functionality of the urban elements, their current role based on users' perceptions and experience, as well as the assessment of the cultural landscape's aesthetic. Methodology included a questionnaire survey, direct and participatory observation, thematic photography, cartographic mapping, urban inventory, and territorial diagnosis. Results showed that the historical squares in the central Cluj-Napoca area were different in form, profile, size and structure, and in functional attributes. In addition, there has been a change in the functions of squares, along with the evolution of the city, from the economic function to the recreational and cultural one. Moreover, we realised an analysis and typology of the cultural landscapes of the urban public space in Cluj-Napoca. These research results enabled us to propose a series of actions which could reduce or eliminate territorial malfunctions, providing results for the decision-making process and for other researchers wishing to explore more this topic.
Public spaces and urban beauty
In Europe the historic city is the result of a seamless integration between the physical dimension and the content of identity: the system of public spaces is the fulcrum of the entire urban structure, authentic stage of the meeting community, where beauty is intended to be a significant value, able to fascinate and to seduce, a mean to make people feel part of the urban whole. The suburb is rationally organized for specialized and functional parts, linked and connected by a strong hierarchical system of mobility: while movements of people and things take place in a systematic way, a new desire for public life takes place through episodes and experiences related to everyday existence. Thus, public happiness is no longer the result of the emotional impact of a widespread beauty, but the discover of new meanings and values of the city as a unique urban whole, both historic and suburban, together with not predictable social forms of interaction between people.
PART -1 URBAN SPACE 1.1 VIEWS OF URBAN DESIGNERS ABOUT URBAN SPACE
One building standing alone in the countryside is experienced as a work of architecture, but bring half a dozen buildings together and an art other than architecture is made possible. Several things begin happen in the group which would be impossible for the isolated building. We may walk through and past the buildings, and as a corner is turned an unsuspected building is suddenly revealed. We may be surprised, even astonished a reaction generated by the composition of the ground not by the individual building. Again, suppose that the buildings have been put together in a group so that one can get inside the group; than the space created between the buildings is seen to have a life of its own over and above the buildings which create it and one's reaction is to say "I am inside it" or "Law Entering it".