Ensemble and master plan
Space between buildings
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It is the void left between one building and another, conceived as a place and not as leftover space. It includes streets, courtyards, passages and gardens.
What it solves
It gives shade, lets breeze and light through and offers a place where people stop, play and talk. In the tropics it can be the coolest spot in the whole development.
Today
Proportion the space so it has shade most of the day and lets the breeze flow. Give it trees, benches, good night lighting and facades with doors and windows overlooking it.
Common mistake
Separating buildings with setbacks of grass or asphalt that no one uses and no one looks after.
Tomorrow
The spaces between buildings can be a development’s cool refuges during heat waves. With living soil and large trees, they are also passages for birds and insects and nearby play places for children.
Fact In a hot, humid tropical climate it is recommended to leave at least 3 meters between urban buildings so the wind can pass and ventilate.
Where it comes from
- 1European urbanism Vienna, Austria, 1889
Camillo Sitte studied historic squares and drew attention to the form of urban spaces and not only of buildings. - 2Public life studies Copenhagen, Denmark, 1971
Jan Gehl published Life Between Buildings and proposed designing first the life between buildings and then the buildings. - 3Tropical public housing Singapore, since the 1970s
Housing blocks left the ground floor free as a common space with shade, air and passage, where weddings and wakes are held.
Masters
- Aldo van Eyck Amsterdam playgrounds, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1947
Between 1947 and 1978 he turned some 700 vacant lots and neighborhood corners into places to play. He teaches that the void between buildings can be the most important place of childhood.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Ensemble and master plan
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.