In 1980, William H. Whyte published the findings from his revolutionary Street Life Project in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Both the book and the accompanying film were instantly labeled classics, and launched a mini-revolution in the planning and study of public spaces. They have since become standard texts, and appear on syllabi and reading lists in urban planning, ...
In 1980, William H. Whyte published the findings from his revolutionary Street Life Project in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Both the book and the accompanying film were instantly labeled classics, and launched a mini-revolution in the planning and study of public spaces. They have since become standard texts, and appear on syllabi and reading lists in urban planning, sociology, environmental design, and architecture departments around the world.
Project for Public Spaces, which grew out of Holly’s Street Life Project and continues his work around the world, has acquired the reprint rights to Social Life, with the intent of making it available to the widest possible audience and ensuring that the Whyte family receive their fair share of Holly’s legacy.
Summary: This book is great
Rating: 5
I read this book for school... but I would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter. (Reading it, I was always wandering around talking to friends and family about it). The book is short, but there is a lot to think about. :)
Summary: How urban areas work
Rating: 5
Years ago I watched an episode of NOVA on PBS on William H. Whyte that explained the background and purpose and accomplishments of his project to study what makes urban spaces in cities work. I sat there riveted, as he methodically and carefully unveiled a vast range of urban phenomena of which I had hitherto been unaware.
The background to his study was this: following the enormous success of the plaza of Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building in New York in the mid-1950s, the city began to give tax breaks to new buildings that included plazas as part of their design. At the Seagram, people found in the heart of the city a marvelous space in which to congregate, to eat lunch, to sit and talk, and just enjoy a few minutes away from the office. While the idea of providing an incentive to new plaza development was unquestionably a great aim, a small problem developed: many of the new plazas were, unlike that of the Seagram, just dreadful. Cold, austere, people unfriendly, unwelcoming, many of them seemed designed more to keep people away than give them a place to enjoy themselves. This is where Whyte comes in. New York City was concerned with codifying what made a successful plaza, and giving tax breaks based more on the kind of plaza being built, rather than any kind of plaza at all. So, Whyte was charged with discovering precisely what goes into a successful urban space. The results of his exhaustive study are summed up in this brilliant monograph.
Whyte took cameras and began filming all kinds of urban spots in plazas and parks, and on regular sidewalks. As a result of this study, he was able first to analyze how urban spaces work, and secondly on the basis of this make, to make suggestions as to how to make successful spaces. He discusses the enormous value and utility of using fountains or falling water both to provide aesthetic benefits and to create a barrier of white noise between an urban space and the street. He shows the value of having a variety of steps and levels in providing fun places to sit. He allays the fears of those who are afraid that a plaza will attract undesirables by showing that the homeless tend to go where other people are not. He displays the patterns of traffic on sidewalks and the function that street food can play. Whyte comes across not merely as a sophisticated urban planner and social scientist: he is revealed as a visionary.
I think that this ought to be a must-read for anyone with any curiosity about cities and the potential they possess for a vibrant and exciting social life. Here in my own city of Chicago, I constantly lament that Whyte's lessons go unheeded and unlearned. We Chicagoans take pride in how clean our downtown area is, but we possess very, very few plazas, instead having virtually all of our buildings coming all the way to the edge of the sidewalk. I lament that there are so few places in the Loop and the near North to sit at lunch, that so very, very little has been done along the river to make it people friendly, and that there are so few places to congregate. We have a gorgeous, inpirational skyline, but on the sidewalk level, things are different. I wish our city planners had more of Whyte's view of things.
Summary: A classic case study for urban design professionals
Rating: 5
Although the photographs are dated, the material is classic. This book is a must for anyone who is involved with design or review of open spaces. It shows how people use open space and identifies the common elements of successful spaces. While the elements all seem logical, the book shows how we often fly in the face of logic when using these spaces. The book focuses primarily on plazas and small parks in New York City, but includes a section for smaller cities with low rise buildings. The information can also be applied to parks in any size town. This book is a facinating case study in social ecology.
作者简介
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威廉·H·怀特 William H. Whyte (1917-1999),《财富》杂志编辑,美国关于城市、人与开放空间领域最有影响力的评论家。通过他的著作,特别是《有组织的人》《最后的景观》和《小城市空间的社会生活》,威廉•怀特教育了一代城市规划者和设计师,应该把城市看作 是人的居住地,而不是简单地作为经济机器、交通节点或巨大的建筑展示平台。
Whyte, W. H. (1980). The social life of small urban spaces. Washington, DC: The Conservation Foundation William Hollingsworth Whyte (1917 - 1999) was an American urbanist, organizational analyst, and journalist. Before the book The Social Life of Small Ur...
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5 有用 叶上窸窣 2018-04-17
街道上的交谈者并不走出步行人流。广场光顾者数量与开放空间面积关系不大,而与等效座位数量有关,其长度宜以广场周长为参考。带活动座椅的人会不时调整位置,并不需要明确的动机。树要靠近坐处。食品摊贩比其他摊贩(如鲜花)更能吸引人,而人群又能吸引更多人(称为场所的secondary use)。街道至少一半的临街面要供给零售商。下沉式广场给其中的人一种被上面观看而无法观看对方的感觉,因而不受欢迎。 ... 街道上的交谈者并不走出步行人流。广场光顾者数量与开放空间面积关系不大,而与等效座位数量有关,其长度宜以广场周长为参考。带活动座椅的人会不时调整位置,并不需要明确的动机。树要靠近坐处。食品摊贩比其他摊贩(如鲜花)更能吸引人,而人群又能吸引更多人(称为场所的secondary use)。街道至少一半的临街面要供给零售商。下沉式广场给其中的人一种被上面观看而无法观看对方的感觉,因而不受欢迎。 读了快一半,非常实在的一本书,有空了接着读完。 (展开)
0 有用 Chocolate 2015-08-21
the basic book for planning
0 有用 KZ 2018-05-12
其实仔细读一读还是很有意思的:比如在第一章作者提到一个观点,如果一个广场里女性的人数明显低于广场所在城区女性的平均数,那么这个广场很有可能是有问题的;还有第七章,我在想如果真的把看上去像自动钢琴打孔纸卷的西格拉姆广场图编成钢琴谱,那就可以将这张图做成一个类似雕塑纪念物的展示,并在广场中进行音乐公放或是由艺术家来演奏这段谱。这将是一件多么美妙又充满故事性的事情啊!!
0 有用 狐狸咧玫瑰咧 2011-09-25
经典
0 有用 木上立 2016-10-31
太逗了,最后的偷拍技巧是来自于海军陆战队的作战经验吧/从研究方法、研究内容等各方面都有启发帮助的读物/虽然时刻强调social effects,但还是限制在基础的物理空间,感觉结合William Foote Whyte 的《街角社会》一起读可能会更加有趣
0 有用 纸袋仙人掌 2021-01-25
电影更好读
0 有用 H聽見 2020-12-06
感觉自己像太子伴读
0 有用 SWyKS 2020-08-30
简单有趣。一本非常interesting且thought-provoking的读物。我更愿意把它看作一本Urban Planner的灵感集。Planning和Design的人文味道在细节里体现得淋漓精致。学习的同时也在思考,书中提到的细节在不同的地方是否都会成立呢?国内有城乡研究教授做Public Places的研究吗?非常愿意给教授打下手。
0 有用 goook 2020-08-21
a social infrastructure design brochure
0 有用 云牧群青 2020-04-23
空间交往;行为学