Public Space in Subsurface AreasCase Study Studio Brooklyn

Pieter Vandenhoudt

For the last five decades the contemporary city is characterized by an upcoming domination of mobility issues. The influence of transportation can’t be underestimated or even it’s impossible to imagine a world without car, train or subway. After the car’s kingdom we are now arriving at an era where public transport is growing in importance with a special focus on the subway. Transporting millions of people a day in the metropolitan cities, the subway can be seen as the most efficient means of public transportation over long distances in little time. Considering its 230 miles of routes and a total of 468 station, the New York City Subway is among the busiest urban transit system in the world[1]. So with this total overrule of number of stations operating 24/7, how important are these underground spaces for the city and its annual 1.4 billion users? Is it possible and relevant to provide more quality and a more public character to these places which are in fact just spaces for passing by and waiting for your train?

[1] mta.info, MTA Facts and Figures, 20/10/11 http://www.mta.info/nyct/facts/ffsubway.htm

WaterParkPlace20 Bay

Afbeelding1: Toronto Underground PATH

Image2: PATH map Image3: Eaton Center, Toronto

THE UNDERGROUND CITY

Buildings and roads emerge rapidly, invading the landscape and making the “horizontal expansion” a remarkable characteristic of the last decades developments. Very often this growth seems to get out of control, which in most cases results in a deterioration of environment quality. The “solution space” for improvement to the urban environment is tremendous in which building underground is seen as an important area in future planning (Durmisevic, 1999).

All over the world highly densified cities are struggling with the need for more urban space to keep their town centers livable. Due to the explosive growth of cities, the concept of compaction arose. The idea of the Compact City is introduced by sustainable thinking about the city in order to reduce car-needs and providing public transport as much more efficient and ecological. In the Compact City, distance is reduced by layering, mixing and concentrating the different facilities of the city. Because growth is limited or not interesting, city developers came up with the idea of the underground space where horizontal expansion is replaced by vertical, underground development. By this new thinking, actually extra space is provided using the same space twice without claiming valuable space on outside surfaces.

Toronto

As example, Toronto’s PATH is the largest underground complex in the world. This labyrinth, containing 17 miles of pedestrians tunnels underneath the city of Toronto, connects over 50 buildings and office towers, 20 parking garages, 5 subway stations, 6 major hotels and the Toronto City Hall, with each other[2]. The idea of PATH came up in 1900 when the first underground connection was made between the T Eaton Co.’s main store at Yonge Street and its annex behind City Hall. In 1927 the next connection followed between Union station and the Royal York Hotel. During time the PATH system is grown in different pieces developed by 35 different private corporation, without any type of masterplan. In 1995 design guidelines has been set up to bring consistency in dimensions, materials and signage. The main reason of PATH’s expansion are the overcrowded sidewalks which could not handle the flow of pedestrians coming out of the different office buildings. Going underground has the advantage of air-conditioned pathways in summer and while they’re heated in winter.

The main critiques considering PATH are the hard to navigate pathways with a confusing path signage. PATH leads nowhere and is not user-friendly because of lack of usable maps, only listing stores. “Path may be a shopping dream, but getting around in it van be a nightmare”.

The question rises why putting all this pedestrian-orientated functions underground while cars are driving the streets reinforcing Rem Koolhaas theory about the Generic City. Different reasons apply. First, the Canadian climate is very severe so people prefer to walk around in this air conditioned network. Secondly the concept of the compact city as explained above ask for the need of extra space. The third reasons is the easy connection between this pedestrian underground area with the city’s transportation system.

[2] toronto.ca/path, PATH Facts, 25/10/11 http://www.toronto.ca/path/

Image4: “The Subway” by George Tocker, 1950

Image5,6: Place Ville Marie, Montreal Underground

SPACE OF ALIENATION

Building underground provides some advantages concerning sustainability but is confronted with psychological aversion for underground spaces. Underground cities are developed with the eye on functionality and humanity but lacks the human factor in most cases. In the compact city building underground is seen as an improvement in quality of life, leaving space to the public realm. But how bringing human needs as quality and comfort into these subsurface areas? The worst problems these spaces are facing with are absence of daylight, lack of reference to the city environment and the psychological aspect of restriction when entering underground spaces.

Negative associations related to underground spaces are given by Carmody and Sterling (1993):

- Darkness combined with humid air;- Underground is also related to death and burial;- Fear of entrapment from structural collapse;- Disorientation;- Loss of connection with the natural world;- Lack of natural light and poor ventilation.

The following cases show underground designed areas with the eye on qualitative development.

Montreal

The Montreal indoor city is considered as one of the most beautiful in the world. 18.6 miles of pedestrian corridors and public spaces form a well-integrated track with the aboveground buildings both in a functional and structural way. Entrances are designed through the halls of aboveground buildings to raise safety, maintenance of entrances and reduction in the psychological effect of descending underground.

Starting point of Montreal’s underground city development is the Place Ville-Marie when the office tower base was linked to the Central Station by a well-designed pedestrian passengers. The co-operation between private developers and government are stimulating development for improving quality in this multi-functional complex of office space, underground shopping center and parking facilities, directly linked to the underground transportation system. To provide a variety of spaces the expansion of different complexes is developed and designed by different clients and architects. Transparent surfaces take care of infiltration of daylight and visual connection with the world above. Especially the glass-roof-structure of the Eaton Center allows lots of natural light to reduce the psychological feeling of entrapment.

Another way to provide quality and diversity into the underground world is a parallel integration where underground is simultaneously planned with the aboveground. Les promenades de la Cathedrale are an extension of the pathway underneath an existing church. Working with strong, metaphorical architectural elements, diverse spaces can be created with positive effects on underground orientation.

Lessons we can learn from the Montreal area[3.]:

- Significance of integrated planning of above and underground buildings;- Importance of co-operation between private developers and government;- Using different colors and materials to create various atmospheres;- Clear separation of pedestrians and vehicles;- Introducing natural light;- “viewable” outside world contributes to better orientation;- Entering an underground space through an aboveground building;- Metro stations designed by different architects.

[3] Durmisevic, S., The Future of the Underground Space, Cities, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp 233-245, 1999.

PLANNING ASPECTS

- Co-operation between private developers and government made it possible to realise larger underground projects (case of Montreal).

- Integrated planning of above and underground building reduces significantly investment costs.

- Partial placement of public transport (highways and railways) underground provides more continuous city development (no physical barrier or spatial segregation).

- Planning underground public transport inside city centers can be a stimulant for placing other public functions underground which in return would:

- ennoble, animate and give an extra quality to underground spaces;

- enable capacity extension of functions in city centre;

- iximprove the quality of aboveground area (possibility for more green areas, less crowd, doubling

function capacity, etc.).

- Clear separation of pedestrians and traffic provides less confusion and better mobility of each group.

DESIGN ASPECTS

- Using different colours and materials introduces variety in atmospheres and creates dynamic in underground spaces.

- Using natural light as much as possible has a positive effect, since it gives information about the outside world, brings dynamic in underground due to light intensity changes and in some cases can contribute to better orientation.

- Entering underground spaces through aboveground buildings can have many advantages, such as

increased social control, in a psychological sense the inconvenience of descending into the underground is somewhat reduced, etc.

- Spaciousness reduces the feeling of entrapment, especially if there is large concentration of people, but if not used in a correct way it can have the opposite effect, since it may create a feeling of disorientation.

- Proportions (depending on function) and variety in height are important tools for underground design.

- Using reflective materials creates a feeling of spaciousness by reflecting light in different directions, but should be used carefully not to overload space with light and thus cause temporary “blindness” and irritation.

Things that can be kept in mind for the development or design of subsurface areas[3.]:

Image7: Metrostation Wilhelminaplein, Rotterdam

Image8,9,10: Stockholm Subway Stations

Randstad area

The Randstad area as the most populated part of the Netherlands is a perfect of example of an area meeting its boundaries. The different cities defining the Randstad area (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Den Haag) converged so the area is excluded from further growth. By searching for alternative solutions for further expansion different issues had to be taken into account. The cities should built more compactly with more efficient use of the cities’ vertical line, providing infrastructural improvement together with other facilities, without destroying the historical images of the area. Building higher wouldn’t be a solution because of the historical image so integration of the subsurface space with the existing aboveground city seemed logical.

To start, the existing metro station of the Wilhelminaplein was too small for the planned development so an expansion of the station was needed with a widening of the subway tunnel and a connection to the city surface. Openings in the wall between the two platforms were made to provide visual contact with the other side going together with an increase in social control. Improving spatial aspects, a split-level is constructed to give an overview of the lower level and increase the feeling of safety in the station. Reflective materials and bright colors are used to spread light over the area. By this different interventions (colors, reflection, space) the feeling of being underground is reduced and a more pleasant space is designed.

Stockholm

In spite of the small scale of its subway system, Stockholm shows us a fascinating world when descending underground. Every station is designed individually with a lot of precision, but this are places that fascinates people and even can convince people to go underground.

CONCLUSION

Building underground is a very recent issue in urban planning and still knows a lot of critiques concerning future planning. Though, with the view on the compact city and the underground spaces constructed for subway development, the possibilities to provide quality to the underground are in the hands of urban planners and designers. This case-study is a first step to learn more about the difficulties regarding this issue and to shape a concrete idea about them.

[3] Durmisevic, S., The Future of the Underground Space, Cities, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp 233-245, 1999.

SOURCES

DURMISEVIC. S., “The Future of the Underground Space”. in: Cities, 1999 (16), nr. 4, pp. 233-245.

DURMISEVIC, S., SARIYILDIZ, S., “A systematic quality assessment of underground spaces – public transport spaces”. In: Cities, 2001 (18), nr. 1, pp. 13-23.

DUFFAUT, P., “Underground City-Planning. A French born Concept for Sustainable Cities of Tomorrow”. International symposium on Utilization of underground space in urban areas. 2006, 6-7 November, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

ITACUS, “Planning the use of underground space”.

ITACUS, “Underground Space: Q&A”.

Urban Residue.com, Shuffield, Jay, “The Subway as Intermediary Public Space”, October 26, 2011. http://www.urbanresidue.com/theory/subway.html

IMAGES

Image 1 Toronto Underground Network, Center for landscape research (24 October 2011) (http://www.clr.utoronto.ca/projects/LI/torontoundergroundnetwork.htm)Image 2 Toronto’s Downtown Walkway, City of Toronto (25 October 2011) (http://www.toronto.ca/path/pdf/path_brochure.pdf)Image 3 Toronto Eaton Center, About.com city travel (26 October 2011) (http://gocanada.about.com/od/canadiancities1/ig/Toronto-Picture-Gallery/Toronto-Eaton-Centre.htm)Image 4 The Subway, UrbanResidue.com (20 October 2011) (http://www.urbanresidue.com/theory/subway.html)Image 5 Place Ville Marie, Décision1 (26 October 2011) (http://www.decision1.com/place-ville-marie)Image 6 Place Ville Marie, JohnnyJet.com (26 October 2011) (http://www.johnnyjet.com/folder/archive/WheresJohnny03012006.html) Image 7 Metrostration Wilhelminaplein, Wikipedia.vom (26 October 2011) http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Metrostation_Rotterdam_Wilhelminaplein.jpgImage 8 Stockholm Subway, Damn Cool Pictures.com (21 October 2011) (http://www.damncoolpictures.com/2011/10/beautiful-stockholm-subway-art.html)Image 9 Stockholm Subway, Damn Cool Pictures.com (21 October 2011) (http://www.damncoolpictures.com/2011/10/beautiful-stockholm-subway-art.html)Image 10 Stockholm Subway, Damn Cool Pictures.com (21 October 2011) (http://www.damncoolpictures.com/2011/10/beautiful-stockholm-subway-art.html)