Victory compact city
Fostering urban life in the compact city to optimize high density urban living
S.N. Reinink (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Stefan van der van der Spek – Mentor (TU Delft - Urban Design)
Evert Meijers – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Urban Studies)
Jelle Koolwijk – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Design & Construction Management)
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Abstract
This research focuses on the relation between the compact city and urban life. Literature suggests that a holistic approach to further compacting a city means also integrating urban life qualities. This is currently lacking in Western European practice due to pragmatism, decentralisation and neo-liberal plot-led development. This while both concepts are crucial for sustainable cities. Therefore an optimization of their relation is needed in order to make better choices regarding densification. The result is a research-by-design that researches three distinct themes that are related to incorporating urban life. These are urban volumes, urban network and urban quality. The Dutch densification site ‘Central Innovation District’ in the Hague is used as a case study for applying the found design principles. In order to measure and predict the character of spaces, modern modes of measuring the city are used. Most prominently are the methods of space syntax angular integration, betweenness shortest path algorithms and the spacematrix GSI/FSI density ratios. Moreover, because of its focus on the human scale, 3D modelling is a crucial part of the research. The research concludes that the compact city and urban life can be integrated with eachother by following a set of principles for volumes, slow traffic networks and urban quality. What is needed is a broader overview of what attractors and pedestrian flows will emerge in a plan area. The associated centralities can then be used to shape the volumetric properties in such a way that significant densification can be achieved while urban life values like human scale stay assured.