The Readings
This Reading gave us 5 strategies, one of which is to find "City Songlines"
"Sense of Place"
This is the people-centered approach to planning, design, and management of public spaces.
"Placemaking"
This is how many key qualities there are for a "successful place."
4
A specific element of this strategy is "Water-Sensitive Urban Design, which incorporates local water resources into the design of the city.
Designing to Make Natural and Cultural Processes More Visible
Strategy 2
This city has (hopefully) given us all a sense of place with the best University in the country.
Columbus
This reading, by Kevin Lynch, is all about the physical qualities of spaces.
"The Image of the Environment"
The feeling of belonging to a certain city or region they are familiar with.
"Sense of Place"
This key quality is all about how well a place is connected and how easy it is to get around.
Access and Linkages
The original inhabitants of this land left paths that showed where they needed to travel in order to survive. This strategy says we need to re-create these corridors in order to celebrate the history of the land.
Discovering City "Songlines"
Strategy 5
The Brandenburg Gate is a cultural site in this city that shows us just how easy it is for a powerful nation to become divided, but also reunite.
Berlin
This reading takes a stab at Starbucks in particular while explaining the importance of ecological and cultural heritage in a city.
"Native to Nowhere"
A measure of how easily a physical object, word or environment will evoke a clear mental image in the mind of any person observing it.
Imageability
This key quality is all about cleanliness and safety and can be as simple as a place to sit but as complex as how a city is laid out.
Comfort and Image
A statue, a garden, or anything celebrating a cities history or ecological processes.
Protecting and Restoring Key Elements of Cities Natural and Cultural Heritage
Strategy 1
This city understands the importance of water and its conservation. It has also recently been focusing on its "Sprawl" issue.
Phoenix
This text explains the problems of "leapfrog patterns" in development and characterizes this area as "a city without limits".
"What is Sprawl"
These are the paths and corridors created by people that showed the connection from their homes to the bioregions.
Songlines
Having something to do is paramount in this key quality.
Uses and Activities
Columbus hosts several festivals downtown that celebrate the Pride, Heritage, and Stories that make up our community.
Using Cultural Practices and the Arts to Celebrate a Sense of Place
Strategy 4
Along the Baltic Sea, this city is the "Happiest City in the World" and also has a district called Nyhavn along its beautiful canals.
Copenhagen
This reading concludes with "The best new streets need not be the same as the old, but as models the old have much to teach. Delightful, purposeful streets and cities will surely follow."
Consciousness of and loyalty to a distinct region with a homogeneous population, emphasis on regional locale and characteristics in art or literature.
Regionalism
A community is not a community without this key quality that can introverts may struggle with.
A good example of this strategy would be the Scioto Mile in downtown Columbus, which showcases the river.
Connecting the Urban Form with the Bioregion
Strategy 3
From the Westside to Beverly Hills, this city is the embodiment of the sense of place.
Los Angeles