Livability: Attending to the Dynamics of Human Thriving
The intangible aspects of a city or community – how it makes people feel, whether we like or avoid a place – may seem less important than all the systems that are necessary to support life for thousands or millions of people. We do need water, shelter, food, security and many other things but we should never discount the role that deep subtleties play in our experiences.
Jan Gehl, the well-known advocate for human scale cities, has repeatedly pointed out that human scale spaces attract us in significant ways. How many people travel from the other side of the planet to visit your local suburb? How many travel to experience Venice? Gehl would argue that we love places that score high on the livability scale – great urban design, support for healthy living, entertainment, and good stewardship of space.
A community or city doesn’t have to be Venice to be highly regarded for livability but if we study such places (or experience them directly) we know that as humans we are powerfully drawn to spaces that support human capacities – not too big or small, not too hot or cold, opportunities to encounter other people, many options to shop, eat, see, taste and touch at casual strolling speeds. It seems simple but if you get these dynamics right, you’ll have a place that goes from adequate to desirable.
Some years ago I had a chance to interview Andreas Dalgaard, the producer of “The Human Scale” documentary. Using the lens provided by Gehl, Dalgaard crafted a film that challenges us to think about what we know so intuitively: livability requires human scales which in turn increase our ability to feel like we belong with and among others. When the physical design of city spaces draws you or I in, chances are very good that it will do the same for other people. While spatial design is only one aspect of issues such as social isolation, desirable places slant the table toward stronger social inclusion for everyone.
We can readily see that the spaces in our community do not fully determine our social worlds. People may still congregate in poorly designed areas or use their ingenuity to re-design a poorly built area. Street vendors may occupy underpass spaces to sell wares to passing motorists. Designers didn’t intend for that, in fact, most interchanges are designed to fully exclude people by being concerned only with vehicle traffic. Enterprising individuals around the world, however, find ways to occupy unlivable space by exercising their creativity. Informal communities do this at much larger scales. That doesn’t mean livability is something we can afford to ignore. When spaces are not well-considered, we make the slope required for human thriving much steeper than it needs to be. Planners, architects, developers and other city builders who organize the structures of our urban settings must do more to ensure that our human need for livability is more fully reflected in their designs.
When strong support for basic needs, competitiveness and opportunity are in place, powerful attractive forces for livability can lead to neighbourhoods, communities and cities that people thrive in and want to be part of.
For more information, Contact:
Milton Friesen, General Manager