Category: The Neighborhood

Material differentiation signifies uses in the built environment.

This design pattern applies to material hierarchy. For example, the street contains pavement while the sidewalks are concrete or pavers.

At the block scale, narrow passageways on the ground level transform the scale by serving as another access point.

These narrow passageways serve as an access point but also enable the development of secondary merchant spaces. Oftentimes these passageways are narrow in width which translates to the size of the merchant space. These merchant spaces are formal in nature but also provide an opportunity for inclusive economic development by providing inexpensive space for rent. The narrowness enclosure makes it a design challenge.

Area maps, post office drop boxes, and tiny libraries are methods of integrating social infrastructure.

Providing access points to social infrastructure provides the opportunity to promote knowledge sharing within the community. If a community does not have adequate resources to develop large projects, these smaller elements provide a mechanism to reach people. Besides post office drop boxes, these projects related to social infrastructure should be buildable through off the shelf hardware and common lumber sizes. In addition, the plans to build should be made freely available to promote knowledge sharing with other communities and maintain principles in open source.

9+ For roadways with high speed limits, buildings range between five and seven stories. This is primarily focused in urban areas. This includes ground floor retail. This should follow patterns of new urbanism.

Hierarchy of streets in relationship to building height – 7 + stories, 5 to 7 stories – 4-5 stories 3-4 stories, 1 to 2 stories. Each height is dependent on the number of lanes. It is also important to consider sidewalk widths.

This approach to design is commonly found in urban planning materials.