- The design for the
Tesselschadestraat in Leeuwarden stems from our participation
in the design competition Duurzaam Veilig Leven 2000. This competition
questioned the relationships between urban design and infrastructural
design aiming to develop new ideas and solutions for a sustainable
safety in built environments. The competition was conducted in
two phases. Our proposal obtained the second prize in the category
City-Axes.
- We have approached
the relationships between context and infrastructure from the
point of view of urban networks. In particular we focused on
network intersections as very meaningful places within urban
structures. They are the places of encounter and exchange, engines
of urban life and development. But the crossing of networks also
creates the most risks for safety when designers underestimate
the consequences of the mutual influences of context and infrastructure.
The potential problems become more relevant if the intersecting
networks belong to different orders. We have researched the linking
element between infrastructural design and urban design with
the goal of defining which elements of both knowledge domains
influence safety in urban areas. Our conclusion was that a designed
convergence of traffic downgrading systems (traffic calming)
and introduction of programme will produce situations of sustainable
safety. Downgrading is necessary to balance the intersecting
networks while the introduction of (extrovert) programme will
stimulate a meaningful use of public space. We have summarised
this approach in the formula D+P=dV: downgrading+programme=sustainable
safety. According to the diversity in situations occurring both
into infrastructure and the context we have developed a tool
-in the form of a matrix-
able to help the designer to choose the possible D+P combinations.
We think that our tool should not be necessarily applied to the
whole system but to the conflict points within the system: the
network intersections. In this sense these places act as explanatory
mechanisms for the whole system. With the help of this matrix
we have made a design that meets criteria of sustainable safety.
This design focuses on the Tesselschadestraat in Leeuwarden,
a route connecting the railway station to the FEC -former Frisian
Halls. The problems we have observed along this route are mutual
reinforcing. On the one hand the unsatisfactory presence of downgrading
systems and social control makes the public space unattractive,
on the other hand the absence of extrovert programme leads to
an abandoned public space. We have identified four conflict points
along the route where the design of a combination of downgrading
and programme is desirable. The specific design solutions are
made for the areas
1 & 2 and the areas
3 & 4.
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