Introduction

This article examines the relationship between the concepts of urban landscape and public space, understood as the place where different attributes inherent to the human condition are expressed, based on physical and psychological conditions.

In order to illustrate the relevance and usefulness of this relationship, this paper presents an analysis and design carried out by a group of seventh semester architecture students from the Faculty of Architecture and Design at the Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida (Venezuela). The study was completed in the course entitled “Architectural Design Workshop 70,” after finishing other courses that complement the understanding of the approach proposed for the workshop, since together with “Workshop 80,” they are part of the synthesis cycle at the BA program, prior to initiating the final special degree work.

The above mentioned approach proposes the study of context, as well as the increasing complexity of variables that affect it, in order to make architectural design decisions.

This type of studies are currently developed under the coordination of the author, in the historic center of the city of Ibarra (Ecuador), to determine its physical-spatial structure based on the analysis of the visual quality of its landscape. Additionally, the method has been applied in the course entitled “Architecture Workshop” with seventh-semester students at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Ibarra campus.

The paper defends the hypothesis that the study of urban landscape attributes results in a diagnosis oriented to decision-making regarding the design of public space in a city, which increases visual quality.

According to different authors (^{Borja, 2002}; ^{Rodríguez, 2005}; ^{Segovia & Jordán, 2005}), public space is a place of coexistence, encounter, and social equity, given the coexistence of citizens in it. On the other hand, it reflects the evolution of the human condition from social, cultural, economic, political, and natural perspectives, which are associated with a system of anthropic and natural values (^{McHarg, 2000}). Its configuration and design has been carried out, throughout history, by urban planners and architects, as well as by the citizens’ own actions, who created, transformed and adapted it, motivated by their desires and needs, in search of a “common, collective space,” in the sense proposed by ^{Arias-Romero et al. (2016, p.10)}.

The social dimension includes educational level, values, morals, ethics, and aspirations that affect human behavior. As a group and as individuals, human beings externalize their needs in the environment that surrounds them. The cultural dimension encompasses the sphere of values, traditions, customs, artistic expressions, the history and human evolution of each place, which leads to and strengthens appropriation and the sense of belonging. The economic dimension is motivated by the need for trade that leads to human interaction and produces particular urban dynamics in public spaces. Policy provides individuals and groups with an opportunity to participate in decision-making, and to express their ideas about the management of the city’s public spaces in these same spaces. Finally, no less important, the natural dimension represents the primal condition of man based on his sensitivity towards biodiversity.

This approach recognizes a structural reasoning oriented to the “multidimensional construction of sustainable urban landscape,” described by Briceño Owen and Contreras (2011, p. 100), where “public space ceases to be an instrument for the physical cohesion of the city, and becomes an active and permanent discussion strategy in all its dimensions, opening the way to a cultural debate on public space and, consequently, to having a right over it” (^{Arias-Romero et al., 2016}, p. 13).

To make this approach operational, sequences and units are key concepts for the structured treatment of landscape in public spaces. Each unit, determined in the light of its attributes, facilitates the process of analysis and design. Sequence contributes to a greater goal, by achieving an interconnection between urban spaces and improving their aesthetic expression and, consequently, their quality (^{Matsuoka & Kaplan, 2008}; ^{Lynch, 1992}; ^{Cullen, 1974}; ^{Rapoport, 1974}).

Incorporating the study of urban landscape attributes helps to understand urban complexity as a result of the actions undertaken by people, which, for better or for worse, determines what happens in the city’s public space.

An urban landscape that reflects its purpose and is pleasing to the eyes of people indicates processes of human adaptation to the environment they inhabit. Integral actions on the public space, which are respectful at the same time with each encountered reality, improve the quality of life of those who enjoy it, that is, citizens. Understanding the urban landscape of historic centers, such as the one presented here, constitutes a key instrument for the management of heritage sites, in a dynamic and changing reality.

Methodology

Although the approach is illustrated through the results of an exercise, its application has been developed horizontally and vertically on the levels of Workshop 40 and 70, with different sections or parallels. The work begins with an explanation of the theoretical-conceptual and methodological contents, describing the results according to the complexity level implied by each Architectural Design Workshop.

The exercise comprises four phases: information gathering, analysis and diagnosis at city and sector scales in phase 1; structuring design in phase 2 (scale 1:500); sector design (detonator) in phase 3 (scale 1:250); and architectural design in phase 4. In each phase, the study seeks to understand the interaction between the city as a whole and the selected sector in order to carry out a specific study and design.

The experience, including the analysis of landscape attributes, has been developed since 2012 with students of the workshop, with different results in different sectors of the city of Mérida. A fundamental aspect was rigor in the collection of specific information, through the design of technical data sheets and their incorporation into the model proposed by ^{Briceño and Gómez (2011)} in order to facilitate the analysis of each aspect or concept discussed in class.

Results

The study began by defining different concepts and as an example the case of the Milla sector was presented, which is located in the central area of the city of Mérida (Figure 1) and is very important for the historical identity of the city.

Source: Own elaboration based on a ^{Google Maps satellite image, 2017} ©

Figure 1 City of Merida, Milla sector 

Some figures were selected to illustrate the information of the analysis carried out by students; the design proposal is explained later.

Based on the physical-spatial configuration attribute, public spaces are defined by their horizontal and vertical plans. There, the objects located around give shape to the background and generate an urban space contained by the proximity, regularity, and proportional height of the elements that provide the necessary vertical reference so that the subject is able to orient himself within the space and identify it. Beyond the aesthetics of a building or the adopted style, architectural form can contribute to creating or disassembling public spaces in a city. On the one hand, configuration is shown through figure-ground plans of urban grain, block, and open spaces, complemented by a three-dimensional study of block types, streets, intersections, and open spaces. On the other hand, it is also related to the definition of micro-sequences, where particular elements and relations express a functional purpose defined by the people who live there; they concentrate pedestrian and vehicular movement, making them visible in contiguous urban nodes, at the same time that, associated with other nodes, complement them with different activities and contribute to creating sequences. Each attribute is explained through graphs as shown in Figure 2.

Source: ^{Briceño et al. (2012)}. ©

Figure 2 Physical-spatial configuration: Micro-sequences 

This analysis also shows the relationship between the shape of a street and the definition of its lateral plans (Figure 3), observed in the presence of streets with discontinuous buildings in its façade. This study also aimed to typify open spaces, such as plazas, squares, and intersections, since their perception as a contained urban space leads to identifying problems that can be addressed in design.

Source: ^{Briceño, Gordon, Lobatón, Márquez & Peña (2015)}. ©

Figure 3 Analysis of physical-spatial configuration: Streets 

The educational, religious, sociocultural, residential and service routes, together with nodes of encounter, are linked to pedestrian routes. In this sense, the micro-sequences identified in Figure 4 show the findings of the analysis and the possibilities they offer for conceptualization, since part of the treatment in the medium and short terms implies articulating the public space through sequences that give character to the landscape.

Source: ^{Briceño, Gordon, Lobatón, Márquez & Peña (2015)}. © Copyright

Figure 4 Analysis of physical-spatial configuration: Micro-sequences 

The activities attribute shows their type and proximity in relation to housing; economic interaction on the street, information activities and the presence of commercial premises, as well as the time invested in accessing them conform areas of proximity in the daily life of people; variables that reinforce the definition of micro-sectors that promote safe and highly vital spaces (Figure 4).

With regard to the diversity attribute, it is important to highlight the scarcity of green areas in relation to housing, which is why it is fundamental to gain recreational spaces and green surface per inhabitant. This effort should also be directed to different age groups (children, youth, adults, seniors) with different conditions, to meet their needs.

As for the biodiversity attribute, biotic, abiotic and connectivity elements have been analyzed. Regarding the first, vegetation coverage represents 20% compared to the built-up area; trees in open spaces are limited to two existing squares in the sector; the open area in the interior of blocks has little vegetation, which, however, can be recovered with medium- and long-term actions. There is no variation in the color of vegetation, which is scarce according to the climatic seasons of the year. As for the abiotic aspect, slopes are close to 12% in the north side of the urban space and less than 6% in the southeast. There are no elements that would offer protection for pedestrians from rain or sun. Regarding connectivity, little relation is observed between routes, natural spaces, and the concentration of people on streets (Figure 5).

Source: ^{Briceño, Gordon, Lobatón, Márquez & Peña (2015)}. ©

Figure 5 Analysis of biodiversity, biotic elements, and connectivity 

The natural physical integrity attribute evidences the degree of natural conservation observed in temporal layers, and the maintenance and conservation of singular elements. Figure 6 shows the temporal layers, where 1 is the oldest and 2 is the most recent. The analysis highlights low visual or functional accessibility to these natural spaces and to scenic backgrounds.

Source: ^{Briceño, Gordon, Lobatón, Márquez & Peña (2015)}. ©

Figure 6 Analysis of natural physical integrity 

The urban physical integrity attribute complements this study with an assessment of the strength of buildings, spaces, and elements recorded in the plan. Patrimonial buildings were identified using heritage catalogs; building strength is based on objective data shared in the workshop, which makes it easy to determine existing elements and their potentialities. This helps to reinforce landscape sequences later, in the design proposal.

The aesthetic expression attribute is based on the identification of sectors that, due to the cohesion of their architectural typological characteristics, generate spatial units through visual patterns that, in relation to public spaces, highlight the historical character of the sector.

Scenic backgrounds, based on an identification of wide views and the degree of detail (furniture, signage, etc.), are analyzed not only through green spaces, but through built elements and their possibilities to emphasize wide views, or, on the contrary, to obstruct them.

In addition to assessing building height in relation to visuals towards scenic backgrounds (Figure 7), the study also identifies architectural typologies that complement the reading of historical layers in the sector’s urban landscape.The determined patterns-colonial, republican, modern, and contemporary-serve as a basis for the treatment of façades. This aspect offers an opportunity to differentiate micro-sequences and to characterize each of them, which has a positive effect on the reading and orientation of the sector.

Source: ^{Briceño, Gordon, Lobatón, Márquez & Peña (2015)}. ©

Figure 7 Analysis of aesthetics 

The described attributes allow observing what happens in the city’s public space from the characteristics and qualities of its elements, to activities carried out by people. Form and function-perceived, analyzed, interpreted in ensembles and sequences-orient the structure of urban landscape, while identifying different concepts that are adapted, in turn, to the conditions derived from the needs of people.

Discussion: Public space and urban landscape design

Moving from analysis to project involves defining appropriate planning and design concepts in order to improve the visual quality of the urban micro-interface. The general intervention proposal for the sector evaluates appropriate concepts, actions or strategies, as well as specific design for perceptual patterns, defined according to visual sequences based on the attributes that are intended to be improved.

The structuring project for the Milla sector of the central area proposes an interesting concept (Figure 8) that reinforces its checkerboard grid, and seeks to reconfigure and grant greater vitality to the public space through perception and functional relationships. The authors of the proposal state:

The starting point is the idea of an intervention in the Milla sector with habitable vision, understanding that to inhabit a region is to feel, assume, and value the presence of the communities that live there. In this case, the structuring design is developed based on three items: moving: ideas to improve connections; living: ideas for rest, contemplation, and breathing; observing: ideas to differentiate places to be recognized, places to travel through, and places to coexist in them (^{Briceño, Gordon, Lobatón, Márquez & Peña, 2015}).

Source: ^{Briceño, Gordon, Lobatón, Márquez & Peña (2015)}. ©

Figure 8 Design concept, phase 3 

Effectively, the structuring of elements and sequences requires a vision that promotes exchange and the enjoyment of public spaces, where streets and places of permanence represent opportunities to establish new connections and possibilities to promote urban life. To perceive, interact, contemplate, protect, and orient are basic notions for the proposal (Figure 8). The identified purpose is related to artisanal activity, tourism, and recreation along its avenues 1 and 2; these converge in the cultural and recreational purpose of the sector.

Routes are proposed that connect the identified sequences with public spaces, as well as with the interiors of blocks. Green systems also contribute to reinforcing connectivity and to defining the identity of each micro-sector. The study proposes to create variation in vegetation cover using selected types with different colors for the interiors of blocks, which are going to be recovered in the medium and long terms.

The two visual sequences outlined in Figure 9 present design options for the existing and future city, introducing gradual interventions that seek to increase the visual quality of landscape in terms of urban aesthetics.

Source: ^{Briceño, Gordon, Lobatón, Márquez & Peña (2015)}. ©

Figure 9 Micro-sequences: sequences visual 

The treatment of façades proposed for the sector follows the guidelines of the typological patterns encountered. Diversity in architectural treatment is an important factor in preserving part of its identity as a whole. The mixture of architectural types in the definition of elements that generate visual cohesion is decisive for the orientation and characteristic beauty of the site. The idea is to recreate the concept of unity in architectural diversity.

Conclusions and recommendations

This attribute system provides a useful tool when preparing studies and comprehensive proposals regarding urban landscape. Implemented in the teaching of architecture, it fulfills the stated objective of including the study of context and the increasingly complex variables that affect it in order to make decisions in relation to architectural design.

The formulated hypothesis allows verifying that the study of urban landscape attributes result in a diagnosis oriented to the design of public spaces as an expression of daily life in the city of Mérida, with an increased visual quality.

Even when there is only limited time to carry out this type of exercises in a workshop, it is recommended to submit the elaborated proposals for public consideration in order to establish, based on preference studies, whether the sequences and the treatment of design satisfy or not the expectations and needs of different human groups.

The premise for moving from analysis to design is an interaction with the affected persons, not only to study the context in which they live, but also to show them different options regarding the changes they propose to introduce. Sometimes people know what they need, in other occasions, they do not. The proposal of novel ideas that are based on a deep knowledge of landscape attributes by those who intervene in the public space allows developing designs that reflect the adaption processes of human beings to their life environment.

Acknowledgements

The author wants to take the opportunity to thank students Vanessa Briceño, María Gordon, Elimar Lobatón, Ana Márquez, and Mariangel Peña. Their effort, dedication and maturity in carrying out the research has served as an excellent example to demonstrate the usefulness of including the study of urban landscape attributes in relation to public space in the teaching-learning process of the architectural design workshop, explained in this article.