9/3/09
Public Space Study IV
In relationship to the streets of Rome, many of the streets found in the Trastevere region are built to a smaller scale. Not only are they narrower, but the adjacent building are smaller, with more 3 and 4 story palazzi rather than the 4 to 6 story edifices found across the river. This compactness makes public spaces an even more important aspect. Indeed, there are public spaces of all sizes which range from the large Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, to the small niches no more than a widened street.
These piazze share many of the same characteristics as those found in the center of Rome. Restaurants and bars are the major program elements which animate the space. Umbrellas which line the streets provide an area, situated in between the building and open space, for these activities to occur. The umbrellas are aleatory devices—space beneath can appear, grow, shrink, and disappear as necessary. The central fountain at the Piazze di Santa Maria in Trastevere draws people to sit on its steps which offers a view of the church of the same name. Centralized seating spaces such as this are highly important in order to draw people into the center of the piazza, where there is otherwise no program. This is true for most Roman public spaces, except for those such as the Piazza Navona and Campo dei Fiore where a market occupies the center. The piazza at the Ponte Sisto is similar in its usage of stairs as a gathering element. The square provides a smooth transition from the open space along the banks of the Tevere to the narrow streets beyond.
Trastevere differs from Rome not only in its built environment, but in its topographical condition as well. Unlike Rome, hills to the West bound the urban condition and allow for nature to be introduced, which is rarely seen in a dense urban condition. Unlike the Villa Borghese, where the city and nature interact with a fluid transition, the hills of the Monte del Gianicolo force an immediate change of environment. The dense urban qualities give way to a natural landscape as the roads are forced into switchback turns. Interestingly, buildings still occupy the landscape, though they no longer form a continuous whole but are defined individually. Here, the public space is the green space, which has no definitive boundaries. A relationship with the Trastevere is established through views to below and beyond.
These piazze share many of the same characteristics as those found in the center of Rome. Restaurants and bars are the major program elements which animate the space. Umbrellas which line the streets provide an area, situated in between the building and open space, for these activities to occur. The umbrellas are aleatory devices—space beneath can appear, grow, shrink, and disappear as necessary. The central fountain at the Piazze di Santa Maria in Trastevere draws people to sit on its steps which offers a view of the church of the same name. Centralized seating spaces such as this are highly important in order to draw people into the center of the piazza, where there is otherwise no program. This is true for most Roman public spaces, except for those such as the Piazza Navona and Campo dei Fiore where a market occupies the center. The piazza at the Ponte Sisto is similar in its usage of stairs as a gathering element. The square provides a smooth transition from the open space along the banks of the Tevere to the narrow streets beyond.
Trastevere differs from Rome not only in its built environment, but in its topographical condition as well. Unlike Rome, hills to the West bound the urban condition and allow for nature to be introduced, which is rarely seen in a dense urban condition. Unlike the Villa Borghese, where the city and nature interact with a fluid transition, the hills of the Monte del Gianicolo force an immediate change of environment. The dense urban qualities give way to a natural landscape as the roads are forced into switchback turns. Interestingly, buildings still occupy the landscape, though they no longer form a continuous whole but are defined individually. Here, the public space is the green space, which has no definitive boundaries. A relationship with the Trastevere is established through views to below and beyond.
9/2/09
Public Space Study III
Giambattista Nolli’s figure/ground of Rome depicts two types of outdoor public spaces: streets and piazze. Piazze are differentiated from the narrow, winding streets as large, carved out spaces. Space alone though, is not enough to stimulate and sustain the activity implied by a piazza. There are other fundamental conditions which must be present to delineate the piazza as a place rather than a way, one of which, however simple it may be, is seating.
Below are a few of the instances of how seating is dealt with on Roman piazze:
- Benches are the most obvious solution to accommodate seating, though there never seem to be enough of them around. Hence pedestrians revert to sitting on other artifacts within the piazze.
- At the portico of the Pantheon, on the Piazza della Rotonda, the bases of the corinthian columns prove to be one of the best places to sit down within the entire square. The geometrical superimposition of a circle within a square creates four corners which can be occupied. Being a covered space – a transitional space – the portico is an ideal location for those both entering the Pantheon and viewing the piazza.
- Bernini’s colonnade at St. Peters square functions similarly to the portico of the Pantheon as people retreat to the shade provided. With such a vast open space, refuge of some sort is necessary.
- Fountains prove to be an especially desirable space to sit as their location within the center of a piazza invite people to rest at the water’s edge.
On the Piazza Navona, the barrier around each of the three fountains is constantly used as a resting place though apparently they are not designed for this use. The thin metal bar which spans between bollards is not small enough to deter people from sitting, but hardly wide enough to be comfortable.
- The greenspace on the Piazza del Risorgimento is raised from the sidewalk to a height such that the edge becomes ideal for sitting and waiting for the bus. Trees not only provide shade but break down the scale of the bus’ parking lot.
- Out of all of these types of seating, stairs provide the highest seating capacity and widest range of possibilities. The Piazza di Spagna sees just as many people sitting on the steps as are climbing up and down. Additionally, stairs allow for good views of the city below. Note that the Piazza di Spagna has larger ‘stairs’ which not only provide formed seating but partition the regular stairs into segments.
- On the Piazza di Pietra, there is no effective seating and consequently most people simply pass through.
Conclusively, it is evident that people do not simply sit on the ground. Seating is a special and necessary condition within a piazza. Alone seating cannot animate a piazza alone, it is an element that certainly cannot be overlooked.
Below are a few of the instances of how seating is dealt with on Roman piazze:
- Benches are the most obvious solution to accommodate seating, though there never seem to be enough of them around. Hence pedestrians revert to sitting on other artifacts within the piazze.
- At the portico of the Pantheon, on the Piazza della Rotonda, the bases of the corinthian columns prove to be one of the best places to sit down within the entire square. The geometrical superimposition of a circle within a square creates four corners which can be occupied. Being a covered space – a transitional space – the portico is an ideal location for those both entering the Pantheon and viewing the piazza.
- Bernini’s colonnade at St. Peters square functions similarly to the portico of the Pantheon as people retreat to the shade provided. With such a vast open space, refuge of some sort is necessary.
- Fountains prove to be an especially desirable space to sit as their location within the center of a piazza invite people to rest at the water’s edge.
On the Piazza Navona, the barrier around each of the three fountains is constantly used as a resting place though apparently they are not designed for this use. The thin metal bar which spans between bollards is not small enough to deter people from sitting, but hardly wide enough to be comfortable.
- The greenspace on the Piazza del Risorgimento is raised from the sidewalk to a height such that the edge becomes ideal for sitting and waiting for the bus. Trees not only provide shade but break down the scale of the bus’ parking lot.
- Out of all of these types of seating, stairs provide the highest seating capacity and widest range of possibilities. The Piazza di Spagna sees just as many people sitting on the steps as are climbing up and down. Additionally, stairs allow for good views of the city below. Note that the Piazza di Spagna has larger ‘stairs’ which not only provide formed seating but partition the regular stairs into segments.
- On the Piazza di Pietra, there is no effective seating and consequently most people simply pass through.
Conclusively, it is evident that people do not simply sit on the ground. Seating is a special and necessary condition within a piazza. Alone seating cannot animate a piazza alone, it is an element that certainly cannot be overlooked.
9/1/09
Public Space Study II
Any public space which is to be an animate space must be defined—there must be edges. In its simplest form, the edge is the line at which the space of the piazza becomes the mass of the palazzo. It is a dividing line and no more. The edge is rarely ever solid in Rome: fenestration sparks a dialogue between interior and exterior, though it does little to create a transitional space in between. A more dynamic edge offers a fluid transition between spaces and has the potential to create space for functions that would otherwise not be found. Two types are prevalent within Rome: the ‘umbrella edge’ (where umbrellas line the façade) and the portico (where space is hollowed out within the palazzo.In the Centro Storico, it is quite common to find restaurants lining the edge of streets and piazze which seat their guests outside under the cover of umbrellas. When a number of these establishments are concatenated, it forms an umbrella edge. The Piazza Navona, the Piazza della Rotonda, and the Campo dei Fiore are especially representative of this condition. Under these umbrellas, space is formed where people can sit and watch the activity occurring on the piazza. Since the umbrellas can be folded up, these spaces are completely flexible, able to expand, contract, and be relocated as necessary to suit varying numbers of people throughout the day.
Porticoes on the edges of piazze become more prevalent as one drifts away from the Centro Storico. Porticoes are evident on the Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. Like the umbrella edges, these elements provide an open but covered space along the periphery of the piazza which allow for a fluid transition between outdoors and indoors. However, porticoes are quite different from umbrellas. Firstly, they are a permanent condition whereas umbrellas are ephemeral. A comparison between the Piazza della Repubblica and the Campo dei Fiore further illustrates the differences. Whereas the space under the umbrellas on the Campo dei Fiore are places for sitting, the porticoes along the southwestern edges of the Piazza della Repubblica is a space of movement and circulation. Here the market, the center of activity, is at the periphery rather than at the center. The problem with this is that there is nothing to animate the center of the Piazza—nothing to hold it together. A perpetual barricade of bypassing cars further compounds the problem by restricting access to the center of the piazza, the fountain. Thus pedestrians stick to the periphery where the activity can be found and the space cannot be understood as a whole.
A fluid edge implies a layered edge, and a layered edge suggests more than one type of space. Indeed, micro-spaces are created within the larger space of the piazza, especially on the Piazza Navona. As mentioned, the walls of the palazzi give way to outdoor seating under umbrellas in a sort of semi-public space. The next layer is the street, bounded by curbs, which surrounds the piazza and is where pedestrians (and the occasional car) circulate about. At the center of the Piazza Navona is the daytime market along with the three fountains. Here in the main activity space, the most public space, away from the edges people circulate in all directions at various speeds, take pictures, sit, and browse hrough the art.
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