In any urban environment, the spaces between where streets interconnect are parcels of land where buildings or green spaces appear. These areas are known as blocks. Blocks are typically divided into smaller land ownership parcels known as plots. It is within these plots that the buildings sit. You may remember some of this from the video in section 3.
Buildings
Buildings sit within the plots. In some instances, the buildings can fill an entire block. Sometimes there is one building per plot.
All buildings have a back and a front. If we look back to the historic city the buildings in any plot or block will almost always adhere to 2 key rules:
1. Front of buildings facing onto the facing front of other buildings
2. The backs of buildings face onto the backs of other buildings
Think of a street of terraced houses, every house has a front and a back. The front faces the street and facing it at the other side of the street is the front of another house. The back of the house faces towards the back of another house with private gardens in between. The back is usually less pleasant than the front and this way one back can be used to hide another back- the crappy side hides another crappy side. Why would you want the pleasant front of one building to face the crappy back face of another building?
The front of the buildings face onto the street and onto the front of another building:
Here on the left the front of the houses faces onto the back garden wall of the next row of houses- they are quite literally "back to front." The houses to the right are side to the street and front facing another side- its just all wrong and makes the street feel shitty.
The front of buildings should always be oriented towards the street and designed so that they activate the street. As soon as active frontages are mentioned most people think of shops, probably coffee shops or cafes. Luckily an active frontage can be more than just a shop. If the front door and windows of a house facing a street are within about 5 metres of the street edge (a 5 metre setback) they will help activate it. A good street should have about 80% of the buildings fronting the street, with activate frontages- and most active frontages in successful urban places are homes.
Active frontages in the form of shops and houses
Much development in the half century or so since the end of the second Great War failed to adhere to these basic rules. Buildings were built with inactive edges, separated from streets by more than 5 metres such as huge but barely used front gardens, or by walls, fences, parking or with the back of the building facing the street. All such approaches give the streets an undesirable feel- regardless of the quality of the building.
Left image-The fail: An apartment block where a car park and pointless green strip separate the building from the street. Middle- The fail: the back garden fences of homes faces onto pointless open space which itself is also fenced from the street. Right image - The Fail: Homes with garages at the front at ground level creating a dead and unpleasant street.
Next up section 9.
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