Towards lively streets : an illustration of strategies utilized to enhance the liveliness of streets

Abstract

"Nearly every one in the world lives on streets. They have been the place where children first learn about the world, where neighbors met, the social centers of towns and cities the rallying points for revolts, the scenic of repression ... also been the channels for transportation and access ".1 Beyond our front door or garden gate begins a world called street; we have little to do with a world upon which we can exert hardly any influence. There is a growing feeling that the world beyond the front door is a hostile world of vandalism and aggression. Where we feel threatened, rather than at home. Even though the Governments spend more and more money and energy on improving the street environment, it has still not been developed in keeping up with the human requirements. Surely it is far better to go back to the optimistic and utopian concept of the 'lively streets'. Which we could see so clearly in past. In this view, inspired by the, lively streets, the street could be again conceived as what it must have been originally, namely as the place where social contact between local residents could be established as a communal living room as it were.