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Communicating quality: words and images

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2007

Jan Schreurs
Affiliation:
Department of Architecture, Urbanism and PlanningKatholieke Universiteit LeuvenKasteelpark Arenberg 1 bus 2431B-3001 Heverlee (Leuven)Belgiumjan.schreurs@asro.kuleuven.be

Extract

Enhancing the urban ‘quality of life’ has become a major task for actors in the public realm. The now ‘undisputed objective’ of ‘sustainable city development’ is meaningless unless we can turn our cities, towns and urban neighbourhoods into places where people actively want to live, work and play. The spatial quality of neighbourhoods is crucial in this respect. Besides housing typology and access, ‘quality of life’ is primarily defined by the nature of available open space. Public space is one of the most important and strategic instruments of local government. Thus a basic issue for those in planning practice is how to help realise public spaces which contribute to the appropriate level of quality. Although much progress has been made to assess quality of life at the larger level of scale, for example that of a city or a region, much less progress has been made at a smaller and more concrete area level. More than 25 years after Kevin Lynch's opus magnum Good City Form, an operational approach on the level of urban design is still much in need.

Type
practice
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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