The University of Sheffield

School of Architecture

Essay and Sketch Design for

ARC 6984: History and Theory of Urban Design (MAAD)

Name: Ding Li, MAADss

Registration No: 110204279

Part 1: History

Aldo Rossi defined the primary element in his book The Architecture of the City:

We have called these urban elements, which are of a dominant nature, primary elements because they participate in the evolution of the city over time in a permanent way, often becoming identified with the major artefacts constituting the city.

Combined with is thesis of the monument proposed former in the same book, I always consider the Arts Tower and the whole university campus are the primary elements in the city. As an important part of Sheffield, the university is not only a physical facility provides high education and employment, but also a part of the city’s economy, culture and life. Even though the campus does not occupy a large area of the city land, and the geographical location of the university is not right in the city centre, the group of the university buildings, especially the Arts Tower, has already been seen as one of the centres in Sheffield in people’s mind.

The research area is next to the Arts Tower and the campus. The highway divides this area into two parts, the city centre part and the outer part. And the university land is cross the highway. Occupying on each side of Broad Lane and Bolsover Street, the spatial connection of the research area and the university is definitely tight. In this area most facilities are private own houses and apartments which are largely rented by students from outside of Sheffield. Thus, people of the university are the majority of the population in this area, and the activities and life in this area are actually becoming a part of the university. Besides, the analysis of the pedestrian traffic illustrates that this area is the only way which must be past for students and stuff living in the northeast of the university. Therefore, this area has already been an essential part of the wider university area.

… “fixed activity” includes stores, …university, … What they have in common is that both refer to the public, collective characters of urban elements, to the characteristic fact of public things that they are made by the collective for the collective and are by nature essentially urban….we always arrive at the collective aspect; it seems constitute the beginning and end point of the city.

In a general sense they are those elements capable of accelerating the process of urbanization in a city, and they also characterize the processes of spatial transformation in an area…...often they act as catalysts.

Thus primary elements play an effective role in the dynamic of the city, and as a result of them and the way they are ordered, the urban artefact acquires its own quality, which is principally a function of its placement, its

unfolding of a precise action, and its individuality.

Based on the thesis of the collective characters of the urban element and the concept that the primary elements can characterize the process of spatial transformation in an area, I propose that transform the function of the study area and turn it into a public space which is a part of the university and a buffering area between the university and the city centre area. First, as the nearest area affected by the primary elements (the Art Tower and other parts of the university) this subordinate area should be changed immediately. According to the university’s lack of big public and open space, this area will be developed for gathering and other activities and the old buildings will be removed. Second, as a space of communication between the university and other elements of the city, this area should be used for collective activities to enhance the connection between of university and the entire city. Finally, after being changed to a part of the university, this area will acquire characters of primary elements. And in the future, it will impact the city together with the Arts Tower and the whole campus.

Part 2: Order

Having the familiar rational understanding of the city, Leon Krier proposed more practical thesis in the book Rational Architecture after the publishing of The Architecture of the City. Although the book is named as architecture, the essence of the book is definitely studying the city and public space in the city.

… It cannot find its motivations in a “state of mind”, in the fictions of artistic or technical progress but in the reflection on the city and its history, on its social use and content. The revolutionary element of this new architecture does not lie in its form but in the model of its social use, in its coherency, in its reconstruction of the public realm.

… The dialectics of buildings and urban spaces, of solid and void, of private and public realm can no more be exclusively seen as the result of political, social and economical constraints, but as the result of rational intention of culture.

The complex architectural scheme, precise types of urban space (street, avenues, squares, arcades, colonnades) will have to replace the two-dimensional zoning space. …inside a precise relationship of building-typology and morphology if urban spaces, we re-establish a dialectic of public buildings (monuments) and urban fabric.

…the public realm as a finite, unitarian, rational space. Place becomes the lieu where the individual identifies himself as a being with cultural and political responsibility.

Based on the proposal of Part 1, this time I want to focus on the spatial order of the creation in the research area. The research area is in a special wider area. The west of it is the boundary of a massive traditional residential district which is a main part of the surrounding residential area. The east of the research area is the central district of the city. The special location of it determines that this area, accompanied with the university campus, is the transitional area between the residential area and the city centre. Meanwhile, it is the in-between space that the spatial form changes from the traditional residential linear space to the grid and quartier space of the modern city.

Through the research of the typical spatial form both of the residential area and the city centre blocks in Sheffield. I believe that the spatial form of the creation should be constructed as a transition between the two kinds of space. In addition, because of the consideration of the city landscape aspect, both looking from the residential area (the top of the slopping topography) and the city centre (the bottom of the slopping topography), it is the waist of the slopping landscape. The urban fabric will be changed and continue here.

Part 3: movement

It is interesting that about 50 years ago, there was a scheme focusing on the same area and the same key point with the design about movement today. In 1954, two architects, who had contributed a lot to the British architecture, Alison and Peter Smithson proposed a scheme for our university. In the design, they focused on the traffic system formed by pedestrian traffic of students. Moreover, motorways on different levels, platform bridges for passengers only and the vertical transportation

system were fully expressed. They believed that right angles or geometric forms could all be ignored. What should be studied was the mode of composition based on the slopping topography and both the inside and outside traffic organization.

Even though the design was not adopted by the university, the idea about movement is quite useful to address some problems today. It is an obvious problem that the pedestrian transport organization at the ring is nothing good for walking people. I have counted the walking time from my apartment (the distance from my apartment to the ring is roughly same as the distance from the ring to the Arts Tower) to the Arts Tower, it is incredible that it costs more than half of all the time to cross the roads. More importantly, the high way and the city roads cut the whole university campus and the research area into pieces. It breaks the entirety and the continuity of the university space. According to the current situation of the road system and the existence of the underground tram pathway, I am convinced that the most efficient way to address this problem is to create a platform bridge system to connect the pieces.Based on the proposal of new public space, the platform bridge integrates all the segments divided by the roads. It becomes a crucial link between two parts of the city, and the public realm of the entire university area will be enhanced by the creation.

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Typical spatial form of the residential area in Sheffield