Urban Design (EAPS4202) Lecturer 6 Downtowns Rehabilitation

1. University of Palestine Faculty of Applied Engineering & Urban Planning Dept. of Architecture, Interior Design & Planning Urban Design (EAPS4202) Lecturer 6 Downtowns Rehabilitation Streetscape, Spirit of a Place, Configuration Pattern and Space Syntax Method Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 02.12.2008

2. Urban Elements Image of the city introduced 2 important elements: • Image ability: is how easy it is for a dialogue between the person and the environment to build into a good mental image • Legibility: is the capability of the object to be easily understood and/or recognized Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 02.12.2008

3. Urban Elements The factors that make an urban element more observable than others: 1. Intensity of Signs: When the number of an element is high, the possible interaction with the element increases. 2. Functional Landmarks: People pay attention to and remember places that serve their needs. 3. Scale: The relative size of elements in respect to their surroundings affects the legibility of such features. 4. Aesthetics: This factor is a subjective issue, however, a number of cases can be, to a certain degree, agreed upon in aesthetic evaluation, such as distinctive building styles, clean and dirty streets, blight and new structure, and tidy or messy places. 5. Materials: Materials used for construction affect one's mental image since they are characterized by color, texture, and touch. 6. Natural Elements: Trees, parks, and fountains are necessary natural elements for shade, cool air, and relaxation. They stand in contrast with the built environment; they are, therefore, legible. Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

4. Urban Elements There are six factors known as urban elements that affect one's observations and mental images of what constitute a place. Urban elements: Commercial area; public buildings; street pattern; street characteristics and building materials. It is an important step to gain information from the environment that is prior to the spatial tendency or appreciation of a streetscape. Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

5. Configuration of Pattern: Gestalt Theory • The essence of the Gestalt theory is that people perceive objects as wholes, because they tend to “group,” and/or interpret a visual field or a problem in a certain way. • Grouping is explained by six factors that play a role towards affecting our visual perception of a place • Factors having an impact on visual perception: proximity (closed elements) such as the door elements; 2) similarity (similar in some way) such as the ceiling joist; closure (complete a pattern), such as the total view of the zokak entrance; 4) simplicity(symmetry, regularity, and smoothness) such as the wall of the zokak; 5) common fate, such as walls and path; and 6) continuity such as the arrangement of ceiling joists. Dead-end Street, Zokak, in Alamin Quarter, Old Damascus. Ras Alnassa’a Restaurant Complex Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

6. Visual Effect of Dark and Light There are 2 facts to keep in mind: 1. Visual perceptions are generated according to the empirical significance of light stimuli, rather than the characteristics of its stimuli as such. 2. Our perception of light as a source much depends on the amount of light reflected by its surroundings; "the black line appears darkest in the bottom part of the illustration whereas the white line appears lightest in the middle” The location of both light & darkness has two influences of key significance: • Effects the degree of one’s visual attention • it is informative (the case of sun casts on a wall). Here, the change in the size of the lit area or the shadow whether vertical or horizontal becomes an indicator of the time of the day Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

7. Street Layout Types & Their Observations • Space layout determines both the time and distance that is needed to observe and contemplate the surroundings. • to observe and contemplate surroundings1. pedestrian’s moving-behavior within a space has three possible actions; standing, turning, and moving ahead while his/her vision, as well as the other sensing faculties (olfactory, auricular, and tactile), searches and/or observes the space • 4 types of a street layout as follows: Straight Street with exits Straight Street Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008 Segmented Street Curvilinear Street

8. Spirit of a Streetscape • Spirit of a streetscape is much about attention demonstrated by the way people behave within different places • Different street layouts produce different sensational aspects as follows: • 1) Predictability (pertaining to street type one (the straight street), this type of street makes it possible to view clearly the scene ahead); • 2) Unexpectedness and surprise (pertaining to segmented street type, we turn or enter from one urban area or street type to another with uncertainty); • 3) Regularity (it is a combination of street layout type one and three, producing a street-grid system); • 4) Quiet (as the semi-private, private, and dead-end • street, or zwkak); and • 5) Active or busy area (as in public areas and commercial streets). • 6) Amazement and leisure place (pertaining to street layout type two and three, or irregular street widths as well as the commercial strip street) Street layout types & Forms Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

9. Street Walk A: The distortion of reality, as the black squares shift in positions, one may or may not be able to tell, if the lines are parallel Sunlighthas an informative effect. In figure B, the beholder perceives the architectural alphabet differently, according to the sun’s position during the day. If the sun is on the left side, the beholder will not expect the existence of the right side alley. However, if the sun casts the light into the street from the right side, the beholder will assume the existence of either a hidden alley or a gap in the façade. C: The visual surprise occurs because of the effect of both light and shadow and the attraction of the beholder’s eyes to the minaret. A B C

10. Streetscape: Diversity & Selective Experience • As selective as one can be, the “Straight Street” is unlikely to make a pedestrian feel bored and/or over loaded. How does it work? • Accesses to neighboring buildings, for example, provide additional pleasant views. • Accesses, whether are expected or unpredicted, encourage the pedestrian to joyfully continue his/her way through. • For example, the mosque forms at the end of the exit orients the eyes quickly from the horizontal components to a vertical one. • Such a shift will unconsciously refresh the pedestrian’s mind.

11. Streetscape: Diversity & Selective Experience • Side streets are a turn-head situation for the curious pedestrian to actually know what lies ahead at the end of the street. • Each exit leaves a different impression, for example, crowded place is inviting. Function tells • Five scenarios for an exit: Zockak, Cul-de-sack, Harat (side road), Hara (neighbourhood road), stairs in a Zockak, and open market. • Street elements include: roman Victory Arch, posters of cultural events, carved wood with ivory and silver inlayed works, cooper wares, and carpets, open spots in the metal vault cover, minaret, shop front and window. • observable street elements are not only related to the visual elements but also to the ear & smell marks. Hara Stairs in Zockak Open Market Zockak Cul-de-sack Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

12. Street Type: AlleyA manipulating Scene • The alley can have a manipulating scene because of a curved road and a setback mosque. • Unpredictably, the street layout type 3’s "perception seems to be a matter of looking up information that has been stored about objects and how they behave in various situations" (Gregory, 1968, p. 75). • At a distance of about 50 meters, the pedestrian has a view of the alley that includes the mosque’s minaret; but, as he/she gets closer, the minaret disappears. His/her mind gets busy with the shops on both sides of the street and the busy traffic causing him to overlook the mosque. • Getting even closer, the recessed mosque with its minaret unpredictably appearing once again, invites the stroller to contemplate its beauty and the sound of the praises to God comes quickly to mind. Babmosala Street’ in Damascus shapes and the mosque’s location creates unpredictability as a result of a manipulation of the overall scene according to the beholder’s position, Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

13. A composite Alley • A composite Alley contains two choices or more. Here, the proposed example in figure embodies two choices, the first manifests an INVITATION and the second manifests an ATTRACTION. • The first choice follows the street layout type 1. The beholder moves east-west. He/she experiences the notion of an invitation to the site that stretches out ahead. • This invitation is of course a result of four urban features as follows: 1- the location of the alley at the Umayyad Mosque’s East Gate; 2- the transitional zone from the commercial area to a dwelling area; 3- the different levels presented by a set of stairs, & 4- the urban elements composition; one of the most prominent elements is the coffeehouse on the south side of the alley Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

14. A composite Alley • The second choice represents the street layout related to type 3 where the stroller will turn right to Alkallasa alley that provides ATTRACTION. A beholder will highly enjoy the urban composition while moving through the quiet and peaceful alley. • The attraction occurs in this example as a result of the light and shadow manipulation. • The gradual arrangement of the sibat drags the stroller ahead onto the dead-end street, zokak. However, once reaching stage two (near the wall-fountain, which is on the corner of the zokak’s entrance); the beholder will discover the actual continuance of his way that is situated on his left side. • In this particular example, the beholder will be first misled by the streetscape composition, and later he will be able to read his way out of the maze because of the width and alphabetical composition of the exit. • Once he/she turns left, he/she is facing a new view, in other words a new start. • In reality, any street setting contains more than one cue or attention-grabbing stimulus. The invitational aspect could be found, as for example, standing side by side with the attraction notion. Streets are mostly found in many examples overlapped, interrelated, or in different degrees of observation. A photo of a street in old Muharraq that clearly shows the light & shadow manipulation Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

15. In Summary: Streetscape • Different syntheses of urban elements have actually in many examples produced different street layouts and streetscapes, too. • The presence of urban elements in an observable manner; the configuration of patterns as one sees the whole or the main components of street scenery; • The feeling of the spirit of a place is much related to what one experiences different impressions and reactions to different places; • Street layouts - as one reads one’s way through the manipulated streetscape – are caused by those changes occurring in the street’s width, geographical direction, and street exits that are presented in clear or unexpected scenery; • The alteration of dark and light as one’s eye adjustment mechanism plays a role in the perception of the whole or the details beside the manipulation of what lays ahead. As a spatial stimulus, dark and light direct one’s attention from horizontal to vertical planes in such a way that significantly occupy the pedestrian mind, his spatial reactions and changing mood; and • The presence of sound, regardless of its source and type, can imply the presence of some nearby functions. Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

16. Visual Analysis of a StreetscapeSpace Syntax Method • It is a theory that describes the physical characteristics of a streetscape towards connecting the urban texture at the scale of the individual, with the urban character of precincts within. • By considering the open spaces generated by the existence of an interdependent built boundary extending in scale from the individual house through to the streets that form cities, the theory of space syntax attempts to explain human behavior, as it occurs in spaces. • Describing the visual character of a streetscape through the analysis of its spatial configuration might then provide an objective measure within a planning field that is dominated by qualitative methods. • A method of analysis named “Space Syntax” has been developed using an algorithm, based on the Hough transform, which provides a global measure of the geometry within the convex space of the streetscape. • This image processing technique segments an image at a fine scale on the basis of discontinuity and similarity, allowing the edges that define the features within the built surface to be detected. • The density of edges within the textured surface then provides a measure of how visual detail is distributed throughout an image at different scales, a concept that is closely related to fractal geometry. Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008 Segment model

17. Visual Analysis of a StreetscapeSpace Syntax Method • The approach is conceptually related to the theory of description retrieval, façade configuration and the facade isovist discussed by Hillier (Hillier 1996:p238; Hillier 2003). • The streetscape is considered as such with a convex space where the visual field is constructed of elements that can be studied as an objective reality. The interrelationship of the elements, or as Hillier describes, the way they are synchronized, might then provide an insight into how the street is understood at an experiential level. • Space is therefore not a background to an activity, but an intrinsic aspect of it. Evidence based planning & design Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

18. Space Syntax: Spatial Configuration • In terms of streetscape as part of the urban structure, Hillier proposes that configurations of building facades may be viewed as an arrangement of shapes which are orientated "to and away from the ground on which they stand" (Hillier 1996: p120). • A building's facade is represented as both a "metric tessellation" (which is then investigated to provide a measure of connectivity) and as a diagram of "the dominant elements in the facade, as a pattern of convex elements“ (Hillier 1996: p122). • The concept of information retrieval (Hillier 2003) discusses the way in which a visual scene is understood simultaneously as both a relationship between elements and as a whole. • Thus the processes of visual perception may be embedded within spatial morphology (Turner 2003); or as Hillier claims, space itself may be the machine. This suggests that the viewer "may merely need to determine the humanly accessible topology as invoked through the process of inhabitation" (Turner 2003) to determine the merits of proposals within the urban fabric. In this way a measure of the salient geometry within a streetscape or "small scale spaces" might reveal a topology that is useful in the analysis of larger urban areas (Jiang 1999). • The concept of an iso-vist; a set of points visible from another point in space (Batty 2001), could also be enhanced by a consideration of the three dimensional surface of the urban scape. Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

19. Space Syntax: Iso-vist Approach Isovist map of Room • The iso-vist analytical technique has developed (Benedikt 1979; Hillier 1996;Batty 2001; Batty 2004; Carvalho 2004) largely as representation of planar arrangements with little consideration of the volume of the urban space. • The concept of a facade iso-vist (Hillier 1996) which describes the planar area of urban space that a facade is visible from appears to be a measure which would be enhanced by an evaluation of the façade itself. • While requiring considerable computational power to develop accurate three dimensional models of urban areas, this type of analysis is becoming more prevalent in the field of computer vision. • Teller similarly examined the three dimensional openness of streetscapes and town squares by creating a two dimensional image from a wide angle view looking vertically towards the sky (Teller 2003). • The analysis identified different kind of structure ; global and local, in the networks and makes them visible by coloring segments red for high movement potential through to blue for low. Space Network of Jeddah New Existing Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008

20. Space Syntax End Results Non-discursive regularities Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 21.10.2008