URSI 100--Introduction to the City

Design for Living

I. Personal Space

a. Sense of Place

b. Perceived Space

i. Proximate & Distance receptors

ii. Cultural differences

c. Lived Space

i. Personal space (“bubble”)

ii. Territory

iii. Home range

iv. Distances

1. intimate (less than 3 feet)

2. personal (2-6 feet)

3. social (5-20 feet)

4. public (greater than 40 feet)

II. Impact of Urbanization on Society

a. Class mobility

i. Geographical

ii. Occupational (individual or generational)

iii. Property (“living with strangers”)

b. Specialization & fragmentation

i. Children

ii. Families

iii. Women

III. Social Structure of the City

a. Large Size

i. Anomie

ii. Law of interaction

iii. “Overmanning”

iv. Sensory overload

b. Density

i. Physical density (number of people per unit of space)

ii. Social density (number of interactions per unit of space)

iii. Crowding (perception of “too many people”)

1. behavioral sink (John C. Calhoun)

2. excessive social stimulation (Jeanette Desor)

3. chaotic stimulation (Chalsa Loo)

a. propinquity vs. proximity (Festinger, Schachter & Back)

b. structure of interactions (Leo Kuper)

c. Heterogeneity (diversity)

i. Laumann—like seeks like

ii. Lofland—world of strangers

iii. Gans—“Balanced Community” (heterogeneous sectors composed of homogeneous blocks)

I. Neighborhood and Community

a. Concept of neighborhood

i. Ebenezer Howard—Garden Cities

ii. Clarence Perry—Neighborhood Unit

iii. Gerald Suttles—Ordered segmentation

iv. Terrence Lee—Neighborhood of acquaintance

1. personal

2. homogeneous

3. social acquaintance

b. Role of Neighborhood—homogeneity

i. Patterns of communication

1. barriers (people do not like to cross “dead spaces”)

2. cultural grouping (and associated amenities)

ii. Family life cycle (physical contiguity not enough—social contiguity is also important)

iii. Safety & Security

1. “Eyes on the street”—Jane Jacobs

2. Oscar Newman “Defensible Space”

a. Casual surveillance

b. Hierarchy of space

i. Public

ii. Semi-public

iii. Private

c. Neighborhood Perception

i. Class differences (middle-class are used to moving, their identity is less tied to place)

ii. Role differences (Donald Appleyard)

1. Planners & designers see city in terms of its future, across a variety of interests and areas

2. Residents are concerned with their present circumstance, specific interests, and particular neighborhood

MSU