Oregon Young Scholars- Streets for Us

Streets for us

Oregon Youth Scholars 2020 Summer workshop

Streets, especially in many parts of the United States, are thought of as places solely for vehicles. They are not. Streets were historically thought of as “right-of-ways” for people to not only transit from place-to-place but also to walk, meet, socially interact, do business, celebrate, protest and simply be outdoors. 

Today urban environments such as streets and plazas are important places for community engagement. They have the potential to offer refuge for all walks of life including across age, cultural group, caregivers, and economic access. Streets are democratic public spaces and access is not always but should be equitably accessible. Healthy streets and plazas are refuge from problems of air pollution, sound pollution, light and heat as well as fight social issues of gentrification, inclusion and broad social interaction. In the most welcoming streets the local community participates in their various uses over time.

Research, Measurements and Design

In this workshop we will talk about healthy streets. We will create a constructivist approach sharing our own ideas of street environments. What aspects of streets are healthy for people, what are not and why? How can our opinions be different and yet make sense within different climatic and cultural contexts. Students will be engaged observe, gather data (online and on site) through rating systems, analyze understandings, discuss, design and critique each other’s ideas. Process will be more important than outcome. Today’s context of Covid-19 will act as an example of resilient urban design that needs to be adaptive to infrequent but radically impactful events that shape the way urban design needs to serve we the people. 

Outline and schedule

Sunday

Introduction of course and myself. 

 

Tuesday, 2 hours

Introduction to workshop (40 minutes)

• What is the problem with streets? Why is it important to share streets?
• Examples of successful streets (rambla poblenou, superilles, gracia, Times square, Gehl, Copenhagen, Charlottesville main street) and non successful streets (Lubbock, old west side highway, parkway in Portland, downtown Eugene)
• Short bio intro Philip

[Shared Streets_PDF with student work, Superilla video]

Meet each student (20 minutes)

• mention an interest to be brought into design and Google Earth of place of birth or upbringing for context

Workshop (20 minutes)

• Media  and why methods are important 

• • Street sections, plan and diagrams
  • Sensors on phone (sound, light, camera) how to use. Rating. Comparative over time mapping phenomena. 
  • Observation types of 1) uses and activities over time and 2) fixed urbanism to support a use

[street sections – street workshop via weblog]

Students Draw in groups of 2-3 (30 minutes)

• Project to identify streets or plaza near them to assess and design to improve for collective and individual use
  • Groups of two students or individual

Wrap-up, task and Questions and Answers (10 minutes)

 

*Task to go online using Google Streetview, Google maps, OpenStreetMap, Yelp, Zillow, redfin, other social media to remotely investigate, research and understand a place

 

Thursday, 2 hours

Goals for class (5 minutes)

• • Each group identifies and explains problem/s they want to address and design to and street or plaza as their site

Philip explains example of good street and it’s design process (25 minutes)

• • Demonstrate process of design. Passed San Joan example and drawing it in section and plan. Photograph and identify elements.
    • Design new ideas in section:
      • Location for people, vehicles, bikes, transit
      • Building edge
      • Street Trees
      • Other everyday spaces to play, sit, shelter, meet, eat, gather
      • Measure problem and identify shelter elements

Students Draw in groups of 2-3 (50 minutes)

• Students do this for their streets and plazas with guided assistance from instructor and assistant.
  • Short presentation to class for input. Discuss importance of design communication, constructive critique in design, collaboration and collective design processes. 

Present and review work together 5 minutes each (20 minutes)

*Task:

Go to that space to observe. Follow CDC guidelines for Covid safety. Ask how Covid effects the space now. Have they been to the soVe before? What collective community engagement has happened or could happen. Photograph zoomed elements, diagram as think and quickly draw ideas as abstraction (not illustration but design tools for individual ideas)

 

Friday, 2 hours

Goals for class (5 minutes)

Explain new ideas of design element examples.  (15 minutes)

Revise design. Enhance with elements. 

Presentation and students recording critique and ideas

Final presentations

Discussion with students

Medieval and other cities were historically walled for defensive purposes. Density of ghettos for examples let to laws and practices for air, light and health environmental access.