Signal-2: The Public Patio
The World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization released a report within which it introduced the concept of “agility” as one of the defining characteristics of the future of cities. The report included a framework, guidelines and metrics for agility in key areas such as buildings, land, energy, mobility and others; that together will form the city agility index.
Modernists’ car-centered cities are being replaced by multi-modal schemes that link between different modes of transport — human and machine powered— and are at the core of what is referred to as “agile mobility”. Cities today are focused on enhancing the safety of pedestrians and non-motorized transportation as they believe this will lead to greater adoption of public transport, reduce congestion and pollution, and therefore result in better health.
While reading through, “agile mobility” and “pedestrian/cyclist safety” captured my attention and made me think about “agile safety”. In other words, how to provide pedestrians and cyclist with safe as well as agile streets that serve their changing needs. Climate is one of the main challenges to pedestrians and cyclists. Wandering the streets become hard during harsh weather conditions. Creating some sort of an agile micro climate for these vulnerable yet sustainable modes of transportation could help increase its adoption.
Agile micro climates could be realized through creating a lightweight adaptable weather screening — a public patio. While I believe designers would have interesting ideas for the materials and shape of these elements, there are many challenges that would face implementation. From choosing the suitable part of the street, to integrating these structures within the different street uses (walking, driving, etc.), reaching the fact that they can’t be continuous (at intersections for example), are all impediments that might or might not have solutions. However I believe that if we could do it for underground trains we must be able to find a way for humans above ground!
