Outdoor events in Italy certainly sound idyllic. Fortunately for Lower Mainland residents, they don’t need to fly across the ocean to get a taste of that. There are many outdoor events happening in Maple Ridge throughout the summer, including the Caribbean Festival on July 11th – 12th and the Jazz & Blues Festival on August 8th. You can see a detailed scheduled on http://www.MapleRidgeWeekends.com. Now, as for the outdoor movie screen… that’s something to think about!
Cheers,

Sandy Blue

No dreaming, no whining, no wishful thinquing . . . just the facts . . .

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At the FormShift evening Frances reiterated an earlier confession about her inability to read architectural plans. Yet, her experiences in urban space seem unhampered by such a personal flaw (have a dead ear to music, can’t play, can’t read, yet love concerts and enjoy all types of music).

Here are five lessons in urbanism we can ‘draw’ from Bologna:

1. The Pedestrian Shed as the neighborhood footprint.

The center of Bologna is a “Roman Castrum” (as is Firenze). Walking from the center of a Roman Castrum to the edge takes five minutes. Thus, part of the magic that Frances experienced in Bologna was walking in a ‘precinct’ sized for the human experience of place. Nevertheless, automobiles, trucks, buses, etc., can still get around.

2. Return to a street-and-square urbanism.

The center of the neighborhood, and the center of Bologna, is an empty place: the square. However, as Frances found out, it doesn’t stay empty for long. Those central spaces become the site for the market buildings, outdoor screens, fairs, concerts (as others have already note) … and even the odd public execution.

The guillotine stood at Place de la Concorde and Savonarola was burned alive at the stake in Piazza della Signoria, Firenze, a stone’s-throw from Michelangelo’s David.

What we must put to the fire today is the legacy of the Charter of Athens, where the “street and square” urbanism was signaled out for extinction.

3. Fee-simple, high-density, low-rise buildings.

In the center of Bologna buildings rarely exceed 4 stories.

4. Dedicated bus lanes that can convert to surface rail service once neighborhoods attain threshold populations.

Transportation is among the primary shapers of urbanism.

5. The Urban Arterial.

Bologna has a wonderful ‘peripherique’, probably built on the site of Renaissance-era city walls, complete with a center median generously planted with trees.

The Roman tradition of lining highways with trees, later adopted by the French Baroque architects for the tree allées of the royal palaces, and finally usurped by Napoleon III-Hausmann in their mid-19th century re-invention of Paris, has something to offer today’s green movement.

Rows of trees are an effective way of ameliorating the impact of arterials carrying high volume traffic. Reinvesting in our urban forests is a good way to build up the carbon sink. Trees near the source of pollution are much more effective than trees far removed.

Of course, Bologna is the kind of place that also has a few things we ought not copy:

1. The basilica of San Petronio is one of those great Italian churches missing a temple front. Two schemes by Palladio are on view at the local museum. One of them should be installed.

2. Nearby, in Santo Domenico, round the back of the altar, a number of statuettes have been recently attributed as early works Michelangelo and Nicoló dell’Arca. Letting go of “Il Magnifico” should be a reminder to treat our local talent better.

3. Legend has it that fighting Pope Julius II, the same Pope that stole Michelangelo away from both Bologna and Firenze, the locals melted down the only equestrian bronze statue by Michelangelo to make a canon to fire at the Papal armies.

4. The scale of Piazza Maggiore, the central square, is off. The space feels too big because its dimensions exceed 6-times the height of the surrounding built form.

5. All the arcaded streets in Bologna seem to lead to the Piazza Ravegnana, site of a gate on the eastern edge of the original castrum. Two blocks from Plazza Maggiore, this rat’s nest of medieval squares is the real heart of the city. Yet, when I was there, it was overrun by cars.

Ultimately, the dilemma that Frances has presented, as others have indicated above, will only be resolved at the level of Isaiah Berlin’s distinction between the hedgehog and the fox.

The Romans, and in their turn the Italian Renaissance, mastered urbanism in a manner that will continue to escape us until we change approach. Urbanism is not an endless list of fox-smart strategies, to be cherry-picked here and there, in an attempt to ameliorate things long after the horse has left the barn.

Getting the urbanism right requires a global, overall knowledge of one, vast and complex field of knowledge. It’s hedgehog knowledge.

Traveling in Bologna, Frances came across something timeless. Yet, what she experienced was neither a work of art nor the result of a stroke of genius. It was a town built of concrete and verifiable parts. In Bolognia, and in the other Italian Renaissance towns, the builders had put their finger (once again) on those physical relationships known to resonate with our human sense experience or human scale.

It is “human scale” that will remain on view in Bolognia for all generations to come, or until such time as we as a species evolve longer legs, larger lungs, or a different psycho-visual apparatus. Good urbanism knows no politics. The worst despots, as well as the most enlightened leaders, have built great cities. In the meantime, the 5 minute walk, the golden ratio of 1.6 to 1, and the simple harmonic ratios of 1 to 1, 1 to 2, and 1 to 3 will fix in more or less exact proportions the limits of what we will experience as joyous in constructed, urban space.

And you don’t gotta be able to read a plan to get it.