Toolkit
Quality Maps of Downtown Eugene, Oregon
The following preliminary map is not a map
of 'what I like and dislike'. Such questions,
as well as economic questions, are put aside
for the moment.
The simple question which drives this map is:
'do I feel more alive in this spot'? Or Does
this spot feel alive?In surveys, the question of "aliveness", or "life",
as an experience, as a quality, or as a feeling,
engenders a far less subjective result, than
more neutral and professional sounding
nomenclature, such as 'preference'.The quality that makes a place have feeling
may have one or several kinds of feeling:
quiet, contemplative, bustling, sweet, edgy,
ethereal, etc. But it evokes feeling, because
the place has a human quality.
In yellow on this map, is what we've found
downtown, so far, to provide a human
pedestrian experience:Pedestrian Positive Quality Map
In the following map, we overlay the answers
to the opposite question: Which spot makes
me feel most dead? Which spot is most dead?
We've overlaid blue in these most dead areas.
These areas need the most attention.Pedestrian Negative Quality Map
Again:
- blue needs improvement
- yellow needs protection
Useful repair and construction sequences
from Christopher Alexander's PatternLanguage.com
(become a member):
- Pedestrian Network Tutorial
- Public Plaza
- Yellow Green Gray Red (YGGR):
- Generic Room Sequence
- Entrance Transition
Playful Tools
Make the façade of a Paris café.
Geographic Links for Downtown Eugene
A predominance of "9-to-5" office space can
strangle the life out of an urban space.
