5.1 Regeneration
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5.2
Quality of Space. Human Scale
The word space in the context of the public
realm is normally assumed to describe an outdoor area bounded
by buildings, though it could also refer to any open
area such as a park.
Victoria Square, Birmingham
The quality of a space can be measured from many points of view.
Generally the measurements consider the extent to which the space
fulfils its various intended purposes. A shopping area would
be expected to have a vitality. A wild wilderness would be expected
to provide solitude.
In a town centre, a market place would be successful if people
were attracted to it, if they obviously enjoyed being there and
seemed to want to stay and come again.
As an example this historic market place in a small east of
England town is a place where people come to meet their friends,
stop and chat and sit in family groups. The shops are sufficiently
varied to provide a really useful range of local convenience
goods. The space itself is managed to provide a series of local
community based events.
Yet it is surrounded by listed buildings and has a street pattern
little changed in two hundred years and still follows the line
of the curved boundary walls of a Norman castle.
Sitting & meeting friends in
Wisbech
Getting out wheel chairs
Listed buildings giving an interesting roof line
Historic street patterns
Parked cars in Laycock village
Entertainers in Kingston-upon-Thames
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5.3
Importance of Image
There is an undoubted co-relation between environmental quality,
appearance and image, and economic well-being. Much regeneration
expenditure is spent on making a place appear attractive and
looked after. Unkempt public parks attract vandalism and are
statistically less safe. In a street, traffic paraphernalia:
redundant or badly sighted and maintained street equipment and
signs are a major contributor to the erosion of visual quality.
Street where clutter has been removed are safer.
