Palaiologou, G; Vaughan, L; (2014) The sociability of the street interface – revisiting West Village, Manhattan. In: Oliveira, V and Pinho, P and Batista, L and Patatas, T and Monteiro, C, (eds.) Our common future in Urban Morphology. (pp. pp. 88-102). FEUP: Porto, Portugal.

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Abstract

This paper examines the micromorphology of street interfaces, considering how street life is shaped by the emergent pattern of built form and spatial layout. In an effort to reassess Jane Jacobs’s conception of liveability, the study uses urban form and space syntax methods to record the changing micro socio-spatial texture of West Village, Manhattan. The paper discusses the way in which pedestrian experience varies and changes as the characteristics of street facades change: from the postmodern solid block front to an alignment of short row house facades or from a wholly domestic setting, to a street lined with shops and businesses. In order to understand the urban streetscape as a place of social activity, the study examines the built volume in terms of building-street connections aggregated within a block frontage. The resulting pattern is analysed to consider how morphological properties might give rise to street interaction. The study also maps the mixture of buildings by age and relates this pattern to the spatial distribution of non-domestic land uses, the street network configuration and associated urban interfaces. Conclusions suggest morphological features of the built form which are more likely to generate and support a vibrant street-life over time.

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