The Future Design Of Streets is a book written by urban planners and architects for those who know nothing about the subject. It's an accessible, non-technical book that aims to inspire those who plan cities, but above all those who live on the streets every day - in other words, all of us.
Since 2020, a group of academics and people who carry out public space projects, such as architects and urban planners, have dedicated themselves to thinking about the future design of cities. What started out as online meetings in Zoom rooms soon moved on to a first big live and in color conference in Porto in November last year. In the early summer of 2023, an association was formed to give body and form to this global platform for debate and reflection, which already brings together more than 100 people.
Now a book has been born. The Future Design Of Streets is an attempt to compile the lessons learned and good practices discussed over these three years. The work was led by Daniel Casas-Valleurban planner at the Urban Dynamics studio and researcher at the Faculty of Architecture of Porto, as well as the signatures of Ivo Oliveiraarchitect and researcher at the Laboratory of Landscapes, Heritage and Territory at the University of Minho, and of Catarina Breia Dias, an architect from Lisbon who has been working with Daniel and Ivo, dividing her time between the capital and the undefeated city. "We've tried to write a book that isn't technical but can be used in communication between technicians, citizens, politicians, traders... We bridge the gap between academia and practice, because we all work in practice"Daniel explains. "Making this book helps us spread our ideas about street design. It's the result of years of reflection, webinars and conferences. It's a way of getting our knowledge out to more people, both inside and outside Portugal."
"It's a book for anyone interested in the urban and social life of our cities, towns and villages"he summarizes. It's not a technical book, as I said, but an accessible book in which we've tried to avoid the vocabulary of urban planning. It's a book that takes a certain amount of time to consume and which, in essence, serves as a practical guide to knowing what's best for each street, each neighborhood. "We see fundamental concepts that are changing, but in practice they are often not yet stabilized. Dialogue between the various elements of urban planning is important, at all stages and in all projects, from planning the PDM [Municipal Master Plan] to an execution project on a street. This book tries to offer tools to help with the dialog between these elements."
Street life is at the heart of our society. Streets are the foundations of our daily lives: they constitute a spatial platform on which we move and organize the most diverse economic and cultural activities. As fundamental urban elements, they are the basis of our daily lives and that is why we must take care of them: with the present and the future in mind.
The streets are, more than ever, social spaces for meeting and mobility. Spaces for interaction and conflict. Spaces for cultural and economic activities. Ecological spaces for fauna and flora. Human spaces full of individual and collective stories. Streets are spatially and socially constructed over time: layer upon layer, through the addition and replacement of components, subsystems, changing in their uses and meanings. Taking into account urban formation and evolution, streets are central public spaces in cities and towns.
In urban areas, streets are resilient collective spaces. Streets adapt thanks to their ability to integrate new uses and technologies. New social, technological and sustainability requirements will affect streets. That's why it's so challenging to think about how they will be designed in the future.
- introduction in the book The Future Design Of Streets
In the first part of The Future Design Of StreetsDaniel, Ivo and Catarina start by making a presentation of how streets were thought of "yesterday" and the urban challenges of "today", ending with prospects for "tomorrow". And they illustrate this evolution in thinking and planning with a sequence of montages, from 1840 to 2040. In the second chapter of the book, the authors leave 10 essential topics for street design"Urban Porosity", "Typologies", "Activities", "Ground Floor", "Plants and Soils", "Water and Air", "Walkability", "Mobility and Accessibility", "Reversible Approaches" and "Design Priorities". These topics are key to any public space project; each one is illustrated with several clear examples, allowing anyone - even if they don't have in-depth technical knowledge of this area and are taking their first steps - to understand what different types of street can exist or what different social functions a street can have.
"The street is essential in our lives, in everyone's life. The public space is where we can meet people we don't know, it's the most democratic space in cities, towns and villages; and the streets are the majority of that public space. If the streets are good, the city works. It doesn't just work as an economic machine, but also the social part"Daniel explains. "The street is not a simple thing. The complexity of the streets reflects the complexity of life, and that complexity is very beautiful because it attracts diversity and plurality to the public space, that space where we meet each other."
The Future Design Of Streets is the book that condenses the work of critical reflection promoted by the association of the same name. It is available online for 25 eurosThis amount also serves as a donation to the work of this collective of architects and urban planners.
The book was presented during the European Mobility Week - first in the north, in Gaia, then in the south, at the Costa da Caparica, in Almada. Here, Daniel appeared accompanied by Rute Nieto Ferreira, architect at the Danish studio Gehl. And together they promoted a workshop to identify negative and positive points in the streets and alleys of Costa's historic center and propose solutions. A group made up of municipal technicians from Almada Town Hall and the WeMobAlmada's municipal mobility company and citizens interested in public space issues toured the area around the Costa market and Rua dos Pescadores; at the end, they split into two groups, which, around two tables, drew up ideas and discussed two proposals. One of the groups suggested a kind of "superblock" made up of pedestrianized or coexistence streetsand with a circulation scheme that pushed all through traffic onto the main avenues. The other group presented a similar solution in terms of restricting cars and pedestrianizing the neighbourhood, but with a three-circuit traffic scheme.
In general, there was talk of giving priority to walkingIn addition, they helped Daniel and Rute with the local specificities of the area: to have fewer cars circulating, to create a relationship between the market and the neighborhood, to think of streets with shared pedestrian floors (with 3.50 meter emergency lanes), to have flowerbeds and trees that provide shade and freshness, to redefine short-term street parking.... With their on-the-ground experience, the technicians from Almada City Council and WeMob, as well as the local people present, helped Daniel and Rute with the local specificities of that area; and Daniel and Rute contributed their specialist knowledge of reference.
Workshops like this allow municipal technicians to be inspired and at the same time have moments of conviviality, discussion and dreaming, and also for the population to get to know new references and imagine different things for their areas. "We need to develop spaces and environments whose quality and attractiveness contribute to our relationship with the streets no longer being dominated by cars, but by experience and diversity"said Stefan Signer, the German architect who inspired the book with his phrase The Future Design Of Streets. Anyone interested you can buy it here.
