Finding Lost Space: Theories of Urban Design

by Roger Trancik

The problem of "lost space," or the inadequate use of space, afflicts most urban centers today. The automobile, the effects of the Modern Movement in architectural design, urban-renewal and zoning policies, the dominance of private over public interests, as well as changes in land use in the inner city have resulted in the loss of values and meanings that were traditionally associated with urban open space. This text offers a comprehensive and systematic examination of the crisis of the contemporary city and the means by which this crisis can be addressed. Finding Lost Space traces leading urban spatial design theories that have emerged over the past eighty years: the principles of Sitte and Howard; the impact of and reactions to the Functionalist movement; and designs developed by Team 10, Robert Venturi, the Krier brothers, and Fumihiko Maki, to name a few. In addition to discussions of historic precedents, contemporary approaches to urban spatial design are explored. Detailed case studies of Boston, Massachusetts; Washington, D.C.; Goteborg, Sweden; and the Byker area of Newcastle, England demonstrate the need for an integrated design approach--one that considers figure-ground, linkage, and place theories of urban spatial design. These theories and their individual strengths and weaknesses are defined and applied in the case studies, demonstrating how well they operate in different contexts. This text will prove invaluable for students and professionals in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning. Finding Lost Space is going to be a primary text for the urban designers of the next generation. It is the first book in the field to absorb the lessons of the postmodern reaction, including the work of the Krier brothers and many others, and to integrate these into a coherent theory and set of design guidelines. Without polemics, Roger Trancik addresses the biggest issue in architecture and urbanism today: how can we regain in our shattered cities a public realm that is made of firmly shaped, coherently linked, humanly meaningful urban spaces? Robert Campbell, AIA Architect and architecture critic Boston Globe

Genres: Architecture, Urban Design, Urban, Urbanism, Urban Planning

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Find your lost spaces.      "Finding lost spaces: theories of urban design" is a classic, an old book on how to re-integrate the segregated open spaces from the urban fabric. It begins with the assumption that architecture cannot solve the problem of lost spaces and to solve them there must be a set of "New Rules" to order them all.
     The book starts with a definition of lost spaces and their causes, and then blames it all on modernists and their attitude toward public space. It then presents three clear and distinct theories of urban space (which I found the most useful part of the book). the three theories being the figure-context theory (based on mass/space or positive/negative dichotomy of planning), the linkage theory (considering the activities and circulation of people in the public sphere of cities), and the place theory (representing cultural and social context). the last pages of the book are filled with a few case studies to illustrate Trancik's points, which you can skip after the cases of Boston and Washington D.C..
     Overall the book is worth reading if you are a planner, or you work on the large-scale. I personally think that most lost spaces can be found with small, cute ignition of public and private sector coupled with a little architectural creativity and do not need a philosophical approach.

[Chris Hamby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can be overly prescriptive (should every city look like Italian cities?), but great guide to what makes successful urban space.

[Sura · Rating 4 out of 5]

“ designing is nothing more than finding out what the person and object want to be, form then makes itself .. there is really no need for invention- you must just listen carefully “

[Boghel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The discourse is bout the impact of modernism which influence architecture and urban planning in the 20th century. Relative to definition of space, scale, connection and meaning of place.