design communities, not housing

Bermuda has lost the opportunity, several times now, to design communities and, instead, has erected a crowd of dwelling units, between them providing or intending to provide a roof over the head of more than one hundred families. Examples that come to mind include Harbour View Village, Grand Atlantic - unfortunately, it's simply very visible; there's no intention to pick on it! - and Loughlands.   

It's the lost potential that is probably most frustrating. No doubt current residents enjoy living in a new development but architects and planners, me included, should take some responsibility in settling for OK, or even pretty good, when great might have been within reach.

tassafaronga village, east oakland, ca image: matthew millman for nytimesDesigning for a community can be done. This article in the New York Times, Design as a Balm for a Community's Soul by Michael Kimmelman wonderfully explains and illustrates the possibilities, admittedly in an urban setting. (Enjoy the accompanying slide presentation too.)

Useful points include: design so that eyes are on the shared public spaces; make those spaces ones that encourage walking, recreation and community; include business ventures that appeal to immediate residents as well as passers-by so as to bring activity to the site; and, open the development up to its surrounding neighbourhood.

We tend, here, in both the private and public sectors, to engage in some 'tick the box' design and planning. So, for example, the Cataract Hill/Fritholme Gardens residential complex, which includes a swimming pool and an attached clubhouse with a bar, hairdresser, yoga centre and gym, enables both architect and planner to tick the communal amenity space box and pat ourselves on the back.

As it turns out, this residential amenity space deliberately does incorporate uses that are a part of daily living and which appeal to both immediate residents and the wider island community. In that way it steps up the community building ladder, more so than most, and that's a good thing. Also, with 100% occupancy and more townhouses and villas on the way, clearly there is something working in this formula. Are there tweaks, though, that might help it fulfill its community potential and take it to the level of great?

Given the economy and current lack of construction, it is unlikely issues of community building will move to the front burner soon. That doesn't mean Bermuda's architects and planners can't spend some time considering new ideas and ways to improve the communities, neighbourhoods and apartment complexes we have now. The collection of buildings and activities somewhat randomly sprouting up around the Warwick Gas Station on South Road and the proposed residential community planned for Victoria Terrace in Dockyard point to the opportunity for new thinking around community design that ought not be lost. Such new thinking can only be good for Bermuda.

Update on 2012-10-21 21:57 by A Ratteray Pryse

This article on the polis blog, "Social Sustainability Report Must Look Deeper" by Melissa Garcia Lamarca is enlightening. UK developer, the Berkeley Group, studied the social sustainability of four of its housing developments, as a result of England's 2011 riots, using the following definition:

Social sustainability is about people's quality of life, now and in the future. It describes the extent to which a neighbourhood supports individual and collective well-being.

Social sustainability combines design of the physical environment with a focus on how the people who live in and use a space relate to each other and function as a community. It is enhanced by a development that provides the right infrastructure to support a strong social and cultural life, opportunities for people to get involved, and scope for the place and community to evolve.

The four dimensions studied included:  infrastructure and social amenities, voice and influence, social and cultural life and change in the neighborhood. Critically, as Lamarca points out, the dimension of equity and justice was not studied. Considering that riots served as a catalyst for the study, this is surprising.

Bermuda's communites - the examples highlighted above - are considerably smaller than those constructed by the Berkeley Group but there is much for us to learn from this hindsight view.

do our parks pass the test? victoria park, city of hamilton

In the headspace of landscape architecture, urban planning and architecture William Whyte is victoria park bandstandfamous. He began acutely observing the substance of urban public life whilst working with the New York Planning Commission in the late sixties, early seventies. These observations became the 'Street Life Project' - a study of pedestrian behaviour and city dynamics - and, eventually, led to a book (and film), 'The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces'.

Distilling Whyte's work into a list of seven patterns or features does not do it justice but, out of curiousity, I wanted to see how Victoria Park, the City of Hamilton's first park, measured up.

Victoria Park occupies a city block and is bordered by roads on all four sides: Cedar Avenue, Victoria Street, Dundonald Street and Washington Street. For relaxation and recreation the park offers manicured flower beds and lawns, with benches dotted throughout. Also, in the centre of the Park, is a bandstand purchased to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. Prior to that, Victoria Park was a somewhat marshy informal play area known as Dean's Bottom. 

Whyte identified seven feautures of successful urban spaces (to be exact, he studied plazas rather than parks): their relationship to the street, 'sittable' areas, position relative to the sun, impact of wind, presence of water features, options for food and 'triangulation' or the external stimulus that prompts strangers to speak with each other. 

view from southwest cornerStreet: For Victoria Park, it's relationship to the street is not wonderful. Surrounded by a wrought iron fence on top of a low stone wall on all four sides, there is little opportunity for interation between activity in the park and passers-by. Entrances to the park are located on the northwest and northeast corners, as well as at the mid-point of the east and west sides, and all are quite narrow. While the sidewalks at the corner entrances of the park are generously proportioned, this was done for vehicular safety and not to draw people into the park.

Seating: There are benches throughout the park, usually along the walkways. These are heavy and not built to be moved in a manner that would encourage groups to sit together. People in groups must sit on the grass - the sturdy but slightly uncomfortable Bermuda crab grass.

Sun: Victoria Park has both great sunny spots for everyone to enjoy, as well asview from west entrance welcome shady areas. The bandstand provides another opportunity for shade whilst using the park. 

Wind: The prevailing winds in Bermuda are from the southwest and, as the Park is substantially below the grade level of Victoria Street on its south boundary, it is quite sheltered.

Water: There is no water feature in the Park.

Food: There are no food vendors in the Park.

Triangulation: There are no permanent features in or around the Park that might stimulate conversation between strangers. During the summer months the City of Hamilton regularly stages musical events in the Park that can work as a catalyst of the type Whyte observed was desirable.

Taken at face value, it may seem as though Victoria Park 'fails' the Whyte 'test' but that would be a facile conclusion. It is a park used often by nursery school groups and others seeking a quiet oasis to read and these groups do not necessarily require all the features Whyte identified. Having said that, it would seem there is scope for improvement if the objective of the park planners is to create a lively, vibrant space of human connectivity.

new designs in historic settings

Historic buildings are on my mind these days, so this new design in an historic residential area in Madison (Wisconsin, I presume), USA caught my eye - Compact Family Home in Madison Inspiring Warmth and Sophistication featured in freshome.com. 

Particularly, Johnsen Schmaling Architects's explanation of the design approach made me smile:

Successfully contesting the local preservation ordinance whose strict guidelines advocated stylistic mimicry while failing to recognize the neighborhood’s rich architectural diversity, we designed a quiet but unapologetically contemporary building...

This building is set between a one hundred year old Spanish Colonial and a house dating back to 1896, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It would be wonderful to see more of the hisortic setting to truly assess the architect's claim. Nonetheless, what do you think?