Ensemble and master plan
Permeable edge
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It is the boundary of a development or building that allows people to see, cross and linger, with hedges, see-through railings, frequent entrances and uses facing the street instead of a blank perimeter wall.
What it solves
It puts eyes on the street and makes it safer, lets the breeze through and connects the development with the neighborhood on foot. Unlike the walled condominium, it spreads life on both sides of the boundary.
Today
Combine hedges, living fences or see-through railings with frequent pedestrian entrances and with homes, classrooms or shops that look outward. If control is needed, place it at the door of each building and not in a wall that isolates the whole block.
Common mistake
Surrounding the development with a high wall and a single guardhouse, which leaves the sidewalk without eyes, lengthens routes and forces people to use the car.
Tomorrow
A permeable edge can be a passage for wildlife, shade for those waiting for the bus and a window onto what happens inside. Developments can open their courtyards or courts to the neighborhood by day and look after them together with neighbors.
Where it comes from
- 1Garden city Hampstead, London, England, 1906
Among the neighborhood’s principles was separating houses with hedges and not walls. It also sought to make room for people of all social classes. - 2Greenwich Village neighborhood New York, United States, 1961
Jane Jacobs called eyes on the street the natural surveillance provided by windows, doors and shops facing the sidewalk.
Masters
- Lina Bo Bardi SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil, 1986
She turned a factory into a cultural and sports center with an open lane that enters straight from the sidewalk and invites people to walk through. The boundary between street and building is barely noticeable.
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.