#62 high places
The instinct to climb up to some high place from which you can look down and survey your world seems to be a fundamental human instinct. To have a view. Build occasional high places and landmarks through out the city. They can be natual part of topography or towers, or part of the roofs of the highest building- but, in any case, they should include physical climb.
Why did I choose this pattern?
I didn't want to use this pattern when I started. But then when I started designing and having two important elements of my design be high places I thought it was a good fit after all. I found the following sentence quite interesting and it never left my head "in any case, they should include physical climb."It got me thinking, ofcourse a view is nice but it is so much nicer when you have taken some amount of effort to get there.
Field research
My model
My first sketch model I used to look at how high I would want my hills in proportion to the rest.
When looking at my own design and the pattern I took two things into acount. A great view and making your way there.
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From the beginning I knew I wanted a big hill that would cath a lot of sun and allow people to lay in the sun for hours. Or when there is snow, have a big hill to sled off.
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My reason for the placement of this his is the fact that this has the most sun. I knew straight away when I saw a sun map that here must be a big hill to sunbath and sleep on in the sun for a long time.
Placing my terrace here was a conscious choice. This part of the square gets the least amount of sun and also is the least used. Brushed off almost. I wanted to change that and add a terrace. But why would people choose to sit where there is less sun than the other places? I chose to make it an experience something worth visiting. A terrace high up reached by walking through a flower path. And having an amazing view of the whole square.
Reflection
"The instinct to climb up to some high place from which you can look down and survey your world seems to be a fundamental human instinct. To have a view. Build occasional high places and landmarks through out the city. They can be natural part of topography or towers, or part of the roofs of the highest building- but, in any case, they should include physical climb."
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I found these quite useful when designing my square. To play into human instinct and looking at designing in this way opened my eye to new things I hadn't thought about before. I was interested in using this in my design. Because my whole concept was designing for the people. The people of Rotterdam specifically. When reading it should include a physical climb I found this to be a great element. People in the city are used to walking between big buildings and because everything is quite flat don't really experience climbing. Having people do something that is not very usual in a city interesting them. And also having them do something with the reward of a great place to sit and relax.
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I also used high places to make a place interesting to sit. Like the terrace on the hills. This place of the square is not often used and to attract people here adding the element of having an experience climbing up through flower gardens and having a rewarding view at the end.