Urban Strategies / Social Interaction Index
Chamfered street corners of city blocks in Barcelona, yielding spaces that can be reclaimed by pedestrians and urban dwellers internal to high-volume traffic of the city, alongside greenways and food truck pods in Portland, which similarly disrupt the otherwise relentless march of city activity, provide much needed permeability within the urban fabric. Combating pollution and auto-centric infrastructure, contemporary theorists, like Rueda, conclude the importance of disruption and diversion within the city structure, placing human needs first and creating a tri-part plan with goals of improving usability and infrastructure, informed by a keen understanding of underlying demographics.
Assessing social space in the city, the study utilizes quantifiable categories including tree height, vegetation health, lighting and child friendliness. While each of these metrics are important into of themselves for human comfort and appreciation of urban space, it is not difficult to see how they also contribute to ecological health in the city. In a fundamental way, vegetation and trees create the backbone of most ecosystems. Lighting underlies the health of vegetation as well as strongly enhancing human experience of spaces. Furthermore, in abstract, supporting the development of children and providing access to vibrant natural habitat will help instill ecological values in society, furthering ecological health in the long run.
The comparison of existing, historic fabric, such as the Gracia neighborhood, and the designed Superilla yields numerous patterns of distinction. While Gracia had favorable rankings in regard to public space, a feeling of urban refuge, and vegetation levels, it lagged in terms of access to public transit, reliable social services, and food/convenience stores. A real challenge to achieve high rankings in each metric of the social interaction index, the well-formed historic fabric supports more fundamental or traditional values, like communal space, hard-built into the cityscape. Equally valuable, but perhaps more fluctuating, resources, such as food markets, as well as more modern infrastructural resources, like transit, are not as well supported. This presents an opportunity for the Superilla to improve upon weaknesses of existing fabric while learning from its merits.