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Public Contribution in
High-Rise Building Design
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@ New York City
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| Result: Criteria for Public space design of High-Rise Building | ||
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| According to my experience in observing the utilization of public space of many high-rises in New York City while I am being trained at KPF, there is one important thing that I noticed. That is that most of the people spend a very short time, about 30 to 60 minutes, at the out door space of those buildings. After finishing their own activities such as eating, drinking, shopping, taking pictures or smoking, the people move on to do other businesses either go back to work or move to other spots. People spending short time at those out door spaces may come form the size of the space itself or from the functions that are provided or from the kind of social context that each space represents. | ||
| Once we have learned that these out door public spaces are for the people's short-time activities such as for workers' brief relaxation or city dwellers' taking some fresh air or for tourists' attraction, etc., there should be a successful way to design these public space by encouraging the people to use the space to its maximum efficiency within a short time depending upon the type of users. | ||
| Two major types of space users are found. | ||
| 1. Local Users - These users are familiar with the space and come regularly to spend their time with various kinds of activities being provided. Basically, this group is the office-working people around the area who constantly come to have lunch, to buy books or newspaper, to meet people, or even to smoke. Some of them come to change their transportation, buses or subway. These people experience all facilities being provided in these spaces as a part of their everyday lives. They certainly need a kind of space that they can have some privacy, not so crowded, not so noisy and easily do some quick shopping. | ||
| 2. Visitors - These users are not familiar with the spaces and visit them only once or occasionally. Most of them are tourists who come to have a short experience with each space in order to take photographs or buying souvenirs or having some snacks. These people expect some special characteristics of each space that can address it uniqueness and adds to the diversity of the cityscape. So they can value their worthwhile trip to New York. Moreover, they expect large amount of people visiting the place as an indication how important the space is. They also expect many shopping outlets that carry special items not available elsewhere. | ||
| These two groups have quite an opposite expectation while visiting these out door public spaces. The one needs calm the other needs crowd. The one need simple and spacy the other needs splendid and spinning. This is because they have different behavioral patterns, desired activities and spirits. Therefore, it is the designer's intelligence to be able to cater to the expectation of both parties. | ||