{"id":32514,"date":"2023-03-09T15:34:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T13:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rein.veebikoda.com\/make-modernist-urban-space-better\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:20:38","slug":"make-modernist-urban-space-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/make-modernist-urban-space-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Make modernist urban space better?!?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A good urban space is characterized by the number of people present in it and the positive interactions that arise between them. This is a clear and simple criterion. <\/p>\n\n<p>The idea of measuring the quality of urban space through the density of people and the frequency of their interactions was first described by the well-known Danish architectural theorist Jan Gehl in his book \u201cLife Between Buildings\u201d (first published in 1971).<\/p>\n\n<p>Gehl divides human activities in outdoor spaces into three categories:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong data-start=\"691\" data-end=\"715\">Necessary activities<\/strong> \u2013 these include things like going to school or work, shopping for daily needs, or waiting for a bus. In other words, they are everyday compulsory actions carried out regardless of weather, season, or the qualities of the urban environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong data-start=\"961\" data-end=\"984\">Optional activities<\/strong> \u2013 actions people choose to do when time, place, and mood allow, such as having a coffee in a corner caf\u00e9 or taking a short walk instead of a bus ride.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong data-start=\"1141\" data-end=\"1162\">Social activities<\/strong> \u2013 these depend directly on encountering familiar people in public space and on the spontaneous interactions that arise from such encounters. They can be seen as an amplification of the first two types of activity when enough people gather in one place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30211\" width=\"639\" height=\"364\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi.jpg 852w, https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi-768x437.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jan Gehli diagramm linnaruumi kvaliteedi kasutuse vahelisest s\u00f5ltuvusest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p>Gehl\u2019s diagram on the relationship between urban space quality and its use illustrates how the true measure of urban quality is the number of people who spend time there. He also conducted detailed studies to identify the factors that attract or discourage people from using public spaces.<\/p>\n\n<p>In his book, Gehl critically examines modernist residential quarters built in the 1960s and 1970s, especially their failure to properly understand or value public urban space and its quality. These housing districts were designed mainly around <em data-start=\"1956\" data-end=\"1978\">necessary activities<\/em> \u2013 going to work, to school, to the local shop, and back to the warm apartment with a television. The main design value was ensuring optimal sunlight exposure for the buildings to provide adequate lighting. The quality of urban space was assumed to come from abundant greenery.<br\/><br\/>However, the existing street network \u2013 the skeletal framework of public space \u2013 was dismantled and replaced with a free-form layout pattern that was even claimed to draw inspiration from traditional belt ornaments. One might wonder whether <strong data-start=\"2499\" data-end=\"2513\">T\u00f5nis Vint<\/strong> would still admit today that Mustam\u00e4e\u2019s free-form plan was inspired by Estonian national belt patterns, supposedly carrying a secret symbolic message.<\/p>\n\n<p>It turns out that the greatest loss was the disappearance of the traditional street from modernist housing districts. The narrow street had successfully supported all three functions of public space: it allowed necessary activities while also generating incidental encounters that greatly enhanced optional and social activities.<\/p>\n\n<p>Can the traditional street be restored in modernist housing areas?<\/p>\n\n<p>Naturally, no.<\/p>\n\n<p>Should we demolish the panel buildings? Perhaps yes!<\/p>\n\n<p>But are there alternatives?<\/p>\n\n<p>We cannot simply rotate buildings back to align with streets and roads. Lowering the building height, as has been attempted in some wealthier countries, might enhance the value of individual houses, but it would not necessarily improve the overall quality of public space.<\/p>\n\n<p>The first issue worth addressing would be the <strong data-start=\"3490\" data-end=\"3513\">main arterial roads<\/strong> connecting new housing areas to the city center. According to Gehl\u2019s framework, these roads currently serve only necessary activities \u2014 direct routes from home to work or school, where the goal is simply to move as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n<p>But what if these arterial roads were redesigned to focus on people instead of cars? Our new residential areas have streets that are far too wide. A comfortable street width should correspond to the distance at which a person\u2019s face is still recognizable \u2014 according to proxemics, this is about 30 meters. The space between the buildings along S\u00f5pruse Boulevard is about 70 meters. To achieve a more reasonable density, the boulevard could be divided in half.<br\/>In the middle, one could introduce a multifunctional row of buildings with commercial spaces, caf\u00e9s, and shops on the ground floor, some offices on the middle floors, and new types of apartments with spacious terraces and glazed balconies on the upper levels. This would create a new street: one side following the principles of a traditional urban street, the other maintaining the open spatial character of modernism.<\/p>\n\n<p>a cross-section of S\u00f5pruse Pst. plan<\/p>\n\n<p>This would liberate large areas of public space from cars and open possibilities for new optional activities \u2014 such as community gardening. While urban agriculture between panel buildings might at first recall the siege of Leningrad, when starving citizens grew food under their windows, this would actually align with the concept of \u201cRural Urbanism\u201d \u2014 where the city moves toward the countryside, and the countryside moves into the city.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1114\" height=\"744\" src=\"https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30212\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi1.jpg 1114w, https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/murula.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blogi1-768x513.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1114px) 100vw, 1114px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<p>The guiding motto for the re-evaluation of our new housing districts could therefore be: the revival of streets and the discovery of new activities for residential courtyards.<\/p>\n\n<p>architect Rein Murula<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A good urban space is characterized by the number of people present in it and the positive interactions that arise between them. This is a clear and simple criterion. The idea of measuring the quality of urban space through the density of people and the frequency of their interactions was first described by the well-known [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32514"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33275,"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32514\/revisions\/33275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murula.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}