Both readings, “Life Between Buildings” and “The Process of Urban Social Change” provide a better understanding of the importance of people within a community. A culture and tradition within each society is created through historical people and events as well as through the quality of outdoor space and environment within that place in the present. Understanding the past and how people have developed their own functions, meanings, and values within a group not only demonstrates the origin and core of a unique society, but certainly provides an explanation as to how cities have become a combination of various, differing opinions and lifestyles. Understanding this importance of past has proven to become a field of study in learning what a society holds as important and essential in preserving their culture and traditions. In addition, learning about the quality of space and how it has evolved from past to present and what the conditions are today, will provide a knowledge of how people live and interact with other people. “Life Between Buildings” has provided a perspective that designing a building is not always the solution to creating a space for people and traditions. Rather, improving the quality of space by providing opportunities for interaction, meeting, and contact to occur amongst people will create more relationships and a better condition for people to live and thrive. Before creating an environment within a building, the environment outside of the building, where people walk, observe, meet, and interact needs to be considered, studied, and improved. If the quality of an environment is poor, people will perform their necessary activities and retreat home, never to explore or interact with a city. Before more housing, civic, business, or rentable space can be designed, the existing conditions need to be evaluated in order to determine what can and should be improved for the people.
“The Process of Urban Social Change,” Critical Readings in Urban Design
Manuel Castells, in his essay, “The Process of Urban Social Change” (2003) states that the meaning of urban and its functions, form, and design evolve from the knowledge of the unique cultural and diverse historical aspects of a particular society, thus claiming that urban social change is a reassignment of meaning to the urban realm and a shift from the historically defined values and people of a city. Castells supports this claim through explaining four processes that produce an urban social change within a society in which include conflict and opposition amongst social groups and their values and opinions. The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of the historical sense of a city, both the positive and negative aspects produced by historical people and events, in order to educate historians and sociologists about the core of origin and tradition of a society, and whether the conflict and opposition of opinion that have developed over time eventually create an urban social change. Manuel Castell appears to be speaking to a well-educated audience of historian and social perspective, proposing knowledge and understanding of historical past as well as social and behavioral conditions within a city.
“Life Between Buildings”
Jan Gehl, in his writing, “Life Between Buildings,” (1987) asserts that the focus on ordinary days, activities, and people, and the multitude of outdoor spaces that surround the inhabitants of a city is necessary and equally as important to studying major events of a place and the main streets and centers within a city. Gehl supports this assertion by explaining how various types of activities and interactions amongst individuals, including active and passive behaviors, occur at all times during the day and are the factors that define an individual, group of people, and a society at whole. The purpose of this writing is to educate readers, especially those in the architecture and urban design profession, of the importance of learning the natural conditions, behaviors, and interactions of individuals within a community in order to acquire the understanding that a high quality space and environment provides a greater opportunity for more interactions and relationships amongst people. Jan Gehl appears to be addressing this article to an audience of architects, providing a new perspective of design in which the architect strives to improve the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the ordinary individual and everyday life.
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