Category: everyday urbanism

what urban locks tell us as passers-by

On By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, infrastructure2 Comments

By day and night, traditional gateways create barriers between public and private spaces.

Sometimes more symbolic than secure, the urban lock speaks to tradition and reality. The skillful can break through, but most will respect the craftsmanship as a sign to be honored.

It does not take long to see the diverse forms of urban locks, sometimes almost comically layered to fend off the feared.

Sometimes, the lock as symbol is apparently an insufficient bar, and the passerby sees a second layer of signage. suggesting the sound of the urban alarm.

All images composed by the author.

displaying a survival kit of urbanism

On By Chuck WolfeIn compact development, everyday urbanism, placemaking, sustainability2 Comments

In one way or another, as city-dwellers, we all have our urbanist survival kits—our daily tools of transport and leisure. They are often clustered in a front hall or front porch, usually in a private space.

Yet. increasingly, I’ve seen them shown for public display, or even stored in the public realm, perhaps evidence of a humanizing urban trend.

Here, on the street side of a fence on a city sidewalk, someone shows us a survival kit for walking, riding, playing, and getting protection from the rain.

Image composed by the author.

when a building smiles in the city

On By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, placemaking, urban views3 Comments

In early evening, through color and form, a building speaks and smiles.

Image composed by the author.

towards a more visual measure of people and place

On By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, placemaking, sustainability, urban views7 Comments

In cities, people and place mix seamlessly, as inhabitants interact both with each other and the locations where they live, work or play. These “people and place transactions” are relationships worthy of further study as visual manifestations of organic urban life.

In this context, “employment” in the modern sense gives way to a range of underlying roles, such as observer, thinker, vendor or helper. Sometimes alone and forlorn, sometimes passive, inquisitive and in motion, such roles define the day-to-day urban landscape.

The images below present selected examples compiled over a recent three-hour period. No matter what the currency and measure of profit, each has worth in depicting the vernacular. Surely in our own contexts, most of us have played these illustrated roles of contemplation, education, shopkeeping—even feeding pigeons—at the intersection of the public and private domains.

Accordingly, in the changing city, shouldn’t we better design for who we really are?

All images composed by the author. Click on each image for more detail.

about urban resilience on a darker day

On By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, infrastructure, pedestrianism, placemaking, sustainability, urban views3 Comments

Successful cities have always blended human activity, natural systems and the built environment with easy grace.

Here, in that tradition, Portugal’s second city recently embraced the rain. In the image below, climate and river, bridge and bystanders inspired, even amid the misplaced darkness of a Spring storm.

Image of Porto, Portugal composed by the author. Click for more detail.