Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 1
 happy - cities

a publication of the
Urban Design
Committee (UDDC)
of the Washington
Chapter of the
American Institute of
Architects (AIA|DC)

avenues
volume five
 AVENUES, VOLUME 5: HAPPY CITIES

URBAN DESIGN COMMITTEE

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS, WASHINGTON, DC

MANAGING EDITORS

JANKI SHAH, ASSOCIATE AIA

SAAKSHI TERWAY, ASSOCIATE AIA
KUMI WICKRAMANAYAKA, AIA

PUBLISHED BY
AIA, WASHINGTON CHAPTER
421 7TH STREET NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20004
AIADC.COM

2023

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND NOT THOSE OF THE URBAN DESIGN
COMMITTEE NOR THE WASHINGTON CHAPTER, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS.

6 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

contents
06 letter from the chair: happy cities
by Saakshi Terway

12 provocations

14 urban design and the happy city: on community representation within the
public square by Timothy Maher
24 happy! by Greg Luongo & Erin Peavey
42 public space for a privatized individual by Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar
50 the lived-in city | happiness in urban form by Dominic Weilminster
58 firmitas, utilitas, venustas no longer by Joseph Mckenley
70 metamorphosis: a vision for the urban cemetery of tomorrow by Bradley
Benmoshe

86 happenings

88 politics, protest and place, the role of inclusive urbanism in civic activism
90 pdaily city nature challenge
92 rethinking & revitalizing urban parks post covid-19
93 portfolio and resume workshop
94 culture amplifier - ideas competition

96 ideas

98 DC space by Aaron Greiner & Rishika Dhawan

106 the reconstruction of chinatown in washington DC by Rita Wu

Avenues, Volume 5 7
letter from
the chair
 happy cities
I am delighted to introduce the
fifth annual publication of Avenues,
the journal of the Urban Design
Committee of the American
Institute of Architects, Washington
DC Chapter (AIA|DC).
Who We Are
Founded in 2017, the Urban Design
Committee acts to improve the
quality of cities and people’s lives.
This mission is supported by our
five key goals:
1. Create a Forum to engage other
organizations in Urban Design.
2. Raise Public Awareness of the
value of Urban Design.
3. Promote Visionary Thinking
about the future of cities.
4. Advocate for Public Policy that
promotes livability, spatial equity,
and environmental stewardship.
5. Develop Allies among architects,
planners, landscape architects,
stakeholders, and policymakers.
10
Journal Overview
This journal is divided into three
sections.
Section 1, “Provocations”, talks
about what authenticity means in
today’s context.
Section 2, “Happenings”, highlights
the milestone events that were
organized within the year to
understand authenticity in the city
better.
Section 3, “Ideas”, exhibits a
collection of competition entries
that animate the essence of
authenticity.
Happy Cities
This year we focused on the
overarching issue: what makes a
city happy?
Each year we adopt an open-
ended theme to frame our critical
thinking on the challenges we
face in urban design. The theme
for 2021 was “Happy Cities”.
Throughout the year, we looked
at “what makes a city happy”
through various lenses of urbanism
like community engagement,
community development, equity
and equality, sustainability, crime
prevention through environmental
design (CPTED), etc.
Can design make the world a
better place? It is often argued
that a well-designed space can
change lives, and this may be
true. Nevertheless, any design is
ultimately impacted by the context
in which it is placed. Cities are
designed spaces embedding past
trials and errors, built on layers
and layers of context. We, as
urban designers, strive to insert
ourselves into this amalgamation.
Composed of architects,
philosophers, investors, artists,
sociologists, activists, and citizens,
we engage with these contexts,
and ultimately—whether we like
it or not—we affect lives in our
communities and our world.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

Cities are magnets for those
seeking better jobs and a wider
range of opportunities. But
increasing urbanization is causing
cities to become sprawling spaces
without a sense of community. The
sustainable development of a city
directly impacts human well-being.
In terms of happiness, people
across cultures, creeds, genders,
and geographical regions can find a
common ground. Happiness is not
just an individual characteristic, but
also a community characteristic
strongly influenced by social
connections, cohesion, and local
amenities.
Avenues, Volume 5
As urban designers, planners, and
architects, we know there are
techniques that can encourage
people to think of their city not
just as a place, but as a community
shared by all. There is growing
awareness that social bonds may
be shaped by characteristics of the
built and social environment. These
social bonds, in turn, may help to
overcome community threats that
could diminish residents’ happiness
and weaken their social cohesion.
Happy Cities
What’s Next
If the utopian concept of a happy
city has a weakness, it is that it
is subjective to every individual’s
experiences. As practitioners and
passionate urbanists, we must
strive to affect positive change
in the very real challenges of our
time. There has never been a
greater need for urban design to be
a critical multidisciplinary practice
for our city, our nation, and our
global community. We invite you to
find new avenues for exploration
in the text that follows and to join
us as a member or collaborator in
2022.
Saakshi Terway, Associate AIA
Chair,
AIA|DC Urban Design
Committee
11
provocations
this section challenges our assumptions
and explores the meaning and application
of our theme HAPPY CITIES
 urban design and the happy city: on
community representation within
the public square
by Timothy Maher, Urban Designer, DC Office of Planning Urban Design Division
JUST WHO IS THE HAPPY CITY
FOR?
To actively pursue the notion that
we can create the happy city,
urban designers, planners, and
policymakers must first recognize
that our work must elevate
participation in the public sphere
so that all who desire to be in this
space can feel safe and welcome
within it. Our work must first be
grounded in the ideals of resilience,
sustainability, and equity so that
people from many disparate
backgrounds (cultural, racial/
ethnic, socio-economic) feel their
voices have the power to influence
how they are governed. This has
long been an integral promise of
the American experience, spoken
of often by the founding fathers,
but never seriously contemplated
until recently.
One immediate facet of the idea
of equity – and where urban
14
designers and planners play
an integral role – is the issue
of representation in the public
square. Do the members of a
community feel like their values are
reflected in the physical design of
their neighborhood? Can they feel
as safe or welcomed in the public
spaces they inhabit as anyone else
of a different background? Do they
feel that if they were to speak up
about an issue occurring within
that space they would be heard
or that frequently marginalized
voices would be elevated? These
questions form the building
blocks for inclusion and belonging
in a neighborhood and lay an
important cornerstone: If members
of a community feel represented,
acknowledged, and free to fully
participate in the public square,
only then have the prerequisites
been met for our aspiration to the
happy city.
Representation in the public
square is intrinsically important,
otherwise the issue of who is
memorialized in statuary across
the country – and who has access
to the power structures that make
such decisions – wouldn’t be so
heated a discussion at this time.
Similarly, we direct a wealth of
resources into historic preservation
and the creation of historic
districts, in part to shape which
collective memories or aesthetics
are prioritized as neighborhoods
ebb and flow over time.
Representation should be so
intrinsic to the field of urban
design that it ought to make up
much of the curriculum of Urban
Design 101 courses at universities.
But herein lies the challenge for
urban planning and design at all
levels – how do we engage the
whole of a community in such a
way as to honestly elicit input on
how they want to shape the design
of their surroundings?
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

Protest at the statue of Confederate General Albert Pike, D Street NW, on who should be represented in the public square, 2017
Photo credit Vision Planet Media
UNDERSTANDING
ENGAGEMENT AND A
NEEDED PARADIGM SHIFT
Over the past several years, the
DC Office of Planning (OP) has
made several efforts to shift the
thinking as to how community
members are included in planning
efforts. The first of these pilot
efforts, organized as part of a grant
award by the Kresge Foundation
in 2016, was the citywide
Crossing the Street program, an
effort to use art and culture as
a means to bring communities
together and begin dialogue with
neighborhoods experiencing rapid
demographic and social change.
Avenues, Volume 5
Happy Cities
Through outdoor music, art, and have not previously interacted with
cultural performances, tactical the Office of Planning before to
urbanism demonstrations, and have an avenue for engagement.
neighborhood potlucks, dozens of
Simultaneously, OP began
individual events and installations
conducting Public Life Studies as
were hosted across the city, all
another shift in public engagement
scoped and workshopped with
efforts. Based on the Jan Gehl idea
community stakeholders. This
that direct observation of activity
effort pushed city planners into the
(and inactivity) can provide clues
physical space of the neighborhood
as to the way people use their
where they could directly engage
public spaces, a Public Life Study
community members on what
can better assess how the physical
was their turf – to ask questions
design features of a public square
about what is cherished within a
are actually used rather than
neighborhood and what challenges
relying on vague design intentions
need to be addressed while
and assumptions. Following up the
physically inhabiting that very
direct observations are intercept
space. It became an outdoor forum
surveys to provide insight into
that better allowed individuals who
15
 how people perceive the spaces
they inhabit and their reactions
to various elements within a
space. In turn, new or proposed
conceptual designs for public
spaces can then be improved by
understanding some of the myriad
ways in which people interact with
their surroundings. For example,
observations can focus on how
users pass through a space, where
they opt to linger (whether by
themselves or with a group), or
by watching for when a wall is just
an aesthetic fixture versus when
it is used as a bench, footrest, or
playground.
TO MOVE FORWARD, WE AS
PLANNERS AND DESIGNERS
NEED TO RECOGNIZE OUR ROLE
Left: Crossing the Street events: Okuplaza Fest in Adams Morgan, 2016. Right: See/Change in Park View, 2016.
Photo credit: DC Office of Planning
16
IN IMPROVING COMMUNITY critical shortcoming of the Public
REPRESENTATION WITHIN Life Study method is that direct
THE PUBLIC SQUARE. THIS observation and surveying of
IS A MARATHON EFFORT people as they inhabit a space
TO BUILD TRUST AND homes in on groups already
RECONSTRUCT RELATIONSHIPS comfortable in that space and
WITHIN COMMUNITIES, proceeds to set their behavior
ESPECIALLY WHERE up as the baseline. What is left
ECONOMIC SEGREGATION unseen (or lesser seen) are
AND DISPLACEMENT HAVE groups marginalized in public
OCCURRED. or those more hyper aware and
uncomfortable with being watched
Both of OP’s proactive engagement or recorded while going about their
models are light years beyond the daily lives.
standard practice of community
THE LONG AND
engagement that has persisted for
INCREMENTAL ROAD TO
decades – a weeknight evening
BETTER COMMUNITY
meeting that is typically attended
ENGAGEMENT
only by those with the free time
to – and yet they still fall short
To move forward, we as planners
of what could be. Though, a
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

and designers need to recognize
our role in improving community
representation within the public
square. This is a marathon effort
to build trust and reconstruct
relationships within communities,
especially where economic
segregation and displacement
have occurred. And while our
current toolkit of engagement
ideas is improving, it does not yet
suggest a flawless solution. On
that end, we should consider that
each project moving forward can
serve as a testing ground for new
and potentially inspiring means
of expanding our outreach to the
members of a community that
have yet to give us their time or
trust.
A chance for a novel approach
to engagement came in 2020,
notably during the summer and
fall months of the first year of
the Covid-19 pandemic when
District residents were facing a
slew of unprecedented pressures
stemming from the public health
crisis. At the time, the city
was operating under ‘Phase 2’
restrictions that set limits on the
interior capacity of restaurants
and shops, and mandated physical
distancing and mask use in public.
With people’s behaviors so
intensely altered during the health
emergency and safety orders, the
direct observation of a Public Life
Study was an uncertain endeavor.
At that time, however, OP began
a series of investigations into the
Frank D. Reeves municipal center
and its surrounding public spaces
Avenues, Volume 5
at the intersection of 14th and U
Streets, NW.
First, a bit of history. The Reeves
Center plays a fairly significant
and at times nostalgic role in
the memories of many longtime
District residents – it was
intended in the mid-1980s to
help reinvigorate a neighborhood
struggling with a lack of investment
following the 1968 riots less than
two decades prior. The calculated
‘investment’ of a large municipal
office building set back from the
street to create an expansive front
plaza would kickstart weekday
activity along the corridor with
a thousand daily government
workers. These workers would
have an immediate need for
a variety of surrounding retail
spaces, lunchtime diners, dry
cleaning, shoe repair shops, and
the like. The plan was that this
would in turn spur new residential
and office development to then
induce additional demand for
retail in a positive feedback loop of
economic vitality and growth and
set the course for a self-sufficient
and desirable neighborhood again.
In time, the U Street corridor,
once the bustling arts and finance
center known as Black Broadway
in the early and mid- 20th
Century, re-emerged as a place of
exciting nightlife, flashy retail and
restaurants, high-rise residential
buildings, and rebuilt historic
theaters. Arguments can be made
as to whether or not it was the
Reeves Center that really did act
Happy Cities
as catalyst for the neighborhood
(and academics continue to go
back and forth on it), but the idea
that it played a significant role in
revitalizing a Black neighborhood
by a Black mayor in the early days
of Home Rule is still present in the
minds of many long-term residents
of the District.
A CASE STUDY ALONG BLACK
BROADWAY
One illustration of the microcosm
of this re-birth was the 14th
and U Street intersection and
the adjacent public plaza which
has played witness to many
spontaneous protests and
celebrations over the years as a
central gathering space.
On the night that Barack Obama
first secured his party’s nomination
as a presidential candidate,
celebrants including a makeshift
drum circle gathered at the plaza
in revelry. Similarly, several years
later, activists in the Don’t Mute
DC campaign purposefully selected
the 14th and U Street plaza as a
site of protest and demonstration
when a white newcomer to the
neighborhood filed a complaint
in an attempt to shut down a
nearby corner store for playing
Go-Go music on a speaker from
the sidewalk. Events of this nature
have a way of gravitating towards
the open plaza.A clear challenge
to exploring urban design is
presented by this cocktail of
ingredients:
17
 Protest at the statue of Confederate General Albert Pike, D Street NW, on who should be represented in the public square, 2017
Photo credit Vision Planet Media

The Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center, view from the southeast.

Photo credit Erkin Ozberk

18 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

Activity on the 14th and U Street NW intersection, view from the northwest
Photo credit Timothy Maher

Public Plaza at the 14th and U Street NW intersection, daytime weekday .

Photo credit Timothy Maher

Avenues, Volume 5 19
 Columbia Heights Plaza; Though approximately the same size as the 14th and U plaza (~0.3 acres) the plaza in Columbia Heights sees considerably
more daily use, much stemming from the fountain and adjacent retailers.
Photo credit Timothy Maher
A municipal center built by
an important Black political
figure in a city with a majority
Black population located in a
renowned, former Black financial/
entertainment district;
A public plaza and community
gathering space for local political
protest and celebration; and
The potential redevelopment
of a site in a neighborhood that
has been experiencing economic
pressures that can lead to
displacement.
And so for urban designers
the question is raised; how
can we ensure that any future
20
development proactively carries
and builds upon the shared cultural
memories of a space, positively
acknowledging the rich history
of Black enterprise, while taking
note of how residents want to
participate in the public square
today? And can we address this
effectively both meeting the needs
of existing residents while also
making room to welcome new
members to the community so that
all can feel represented and coexist
within their public square?
As OP embarked on a Public Life
Study of the 14th and U Street
intersection during the first fall
season of Covid, it was clear that
in-person observation would be
unreliable (few were behaving
normally in public and even fewer
were comfortable answering
questions from a stranger in a
mask) so we resorted to a series
of community storytelling and
narrative exercises conducted
online. During this process, we
asked community respondents
to expound on their memories of
the space, what types of activities
do they believe still belong on
the site and if they want any
new activities introduced. What
we got in return was something
different than the typical snapshot
of pedestrian activity over a single
weekend at the site; we received
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

a broad mosaic of many positive
and negative perceptions of the
space that spanned decades, told
to us from the perspective of the
persons witnessing it firsthand.
Though it was a cacophony of
points of view with many gaps
and some events we were unable
to corroborate, it did allow us to
home in on a sense of collective
memory and cultural value of the
immediate area.
ON MOVING URBAN
DESIGN AND ENGAGEMENT
FORWARD
As a case study in improving
public engagement, the Reeves
Center site is far from faultless. It
illuminated for us a novel method
of tapping into collective memory
that we have only just begun to
explore, but fell short in reaching
marginalized populations that are
not connected to the internet. But
if we can learn these lessons and
improve our next model, it serves
an overall positive purpose.
And as with any planning study,
the true challenge of seeking a
more equitable representation and
a voice for communities within
the public square must inspire
the work conducted during the
design and implementation stages
of development. The study is still
necessary – we can continue to
broadcast these issues so that
future participants in this ongoing
process can build on top of the
information that has already been
gathered. Planning and urban
Avenues, Volume 5
Happy Cities
design here can act as planting As we continue to address the role
the seed of an idea, and so OP urban designers and planners play
introduced the following design in a community’s access to and
principles to be considered for representation within the public
any proposals on the site moving square, we welcome the chance
forward: to constantly learn and evolve
from past attempts. It is only
Living Legacy: Recognize the
through the long-term building
once-in-a-generation opportunity
of community trust that they
to celebrate and honor the living
lend us their voices and guide us
legacy of a neighborhood steeped
to better, more sustainable and
in the U Street corridor’s historic
inclusive outcomes. It is on us as
link to Black identity, culture,
designers and planners to not turn
and enterprise. Acknowledge
back when facing sticky problems
the Reeves Center’s ties to civic
and instead open our ears to
activism and the struggle for
improvement.
Home Rule in the District through
architecture, urban design,
commemoration, and public
art and promote Black-owned
businesses as principal tenants of
any redevelopment.
Public Plaza: Maintain a true
public open space along the site
by transferring a portion of the
private lot for use and ownership
by the public. Design an open plaza
that prioritizes visual openness,
physical access, and comfortable
environmental conditions and that
reflects the shared values of the
District and its people.
Engaging Edges: Prioritize day-to-
day activity, foot traffic and visual
interest along the site through site
design, architecture, and a curated
selection of ground floor tenants
with opportunities for outdoor
retail or café spaces to the benefit
of the surrounding neighborhood.
21
 REFERENCES

To follow up on OP’s Public Life Studies and other Placemaking and Public Engagement efforts, check out the following:

Creative Placemaking at OP and the Crossing the Street Project: https://planning.dc.gov/page/creative-placemaking

Public Life Studies at OP: https://planning.dc.gov/publication/guide-public-life-studies-dc

Public Space Activation & Stewardship Guide: https://planning.dc.gov/page/district-columbia-public-space-activation-stewardship-guide

Our City, Our Spaces Guide: https://planning.dc.gov/our-city-our-spaces

22 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 23
 Happy!
By Greg Luongo, AIA and Erin Peavey, AIA, WELL AP, EDAC, LEED AP BD+C, HKS
WHAT MAKES
US HAPPY?
To answer that question, we looked
to the Nordic countries, which are
consistently ranked as some of
the happiest places on the planet.
And while the reasons why vary, a
handful of universal characteristics
came up in research conducted by
The Happiness Research Institute in
Copenhagen, Denmark. According
to their findings, seven factors are
fundamental to contributing to a
sense of happiness:
Health: No surprise here really.
If we’re sick, we are generally
unhappy. Health is also one of the
factors that not only affects us as
individuals, but our family and
friends as well.
Wealth: This one doesn’t come
as a surprise either. Data shows
that richer countries and people
are simply happier in general. But
the important thing to understand
24
here is the trigger: being without
money is the root of unhappiness.
If we can’t put food on the table or
provide a roof overhead, it causes
stress and anxiety. There’s also an
interesting factor of diminishing
returns when it comes to wealth,
where more or excessive wealth
does not necessarily have a
corresponding bump in happiness.
Trust: This factor is less obvious
than money or health. In Nordic
countries, foundational trust comes
in two forms. First is trust in the
state and government, which can
come as a result of low levels of
corruption, strong governance
and democratic institutions,
and widespread access to basic
services that support well-being.
The second is trust in one’s fellow
citizens and neighbors. When
we can trust our neighbors, we
generally have fewer worries —
we’re less anxious about theft or
threats of harm. Trust just makes
life a little bit easier and more
convenient.
Personal Freedoms: There is a
strong correlation between the
level of personal freedom in a given
country and the level of happiness.
Beyond civil liberties like freedom
of speech and assembly, personal
freedom means having the ability
to decide how to spend one’s
time, which can lead to increased
well-being and a balance between
work and personal life. People
in most Nordic countries have
a fairly good work-life balance,
meaning that they are relatively
in control of what they get to
spend their time doing. Of course,
freedom and choice are affected
by our life circumstances such as
where and how we work, whether
we have children, and what our
support networks look like — but
regardless, having more personal
freedoms is proven to increase
happiness.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

Nyhaven, Copenhagan, Denmark
Photo credit: Febiyan - Unsplash
Quality Relationships: In every
study the Happiness Research
Institute conducts and in every
data set they look at, whether it’s
local, national, or international,
the quality of our relationships
is often the best predictor of
whether people are happy or
not. This appears to be true for
humans across all geographies
and cultures. No matter where we
come from or where we live, what
drives happiness in Copenhagen is
similar to what drives happiness in
Washington, DC.
Avenues, Volume 5
Happy Cities
Generosity: As humans and social community consistently appears as
beings, we are fundamentally a major contributor to happiness
wired to feel good by doing good. — whether it’s measured at a
Being kind and/or generous to precise moment in time, in general
those around us provides a short- across a lifetime, or in terms of our
term boost to well-being — often sense of purpose.
called a “helper’s high.” Engaging
in long-term volunteering can
also lead to feelings like having
a greater sense of meaning and
purpose.
Community: The last factor
highlights the importance of
togetherness and belonging.
Being part of a collective, and
having strong relationships and a
25
 happiness and the built
environment
Our understanding of how our
environment shapes our happiness
has evolved quite a bit in the last
few years. These seven “happiness
factors” can provide direction
for us as we design the built
environment moving forward. The
way we live and work is rapidly
transforming — the dividing
lines between the two continue
to disappear. The COVID-19
pandemic accelerated trends
associated with the physical and
virtual hybridization of urban life
while also exposing other social,
environmental, and economic
challenges our cities will face in the
future.
The pandemic also brought to light
the health impacts of loneliness
and social isolation, which have
been linked to sleep loss, ill health,
dementia, premature, death and
even heartbreak. A 2010 study
found that these effects on our
health are as harmful to our life
Next Page: Main Street. Charlottesville, Virginia
Photo credit: Tach - AdobeStock
26
expectancy as a 15-cigarette-a-day
smoking habit. Even before the
pandemic, global trends towards
individualism and away from
traditional sources of solidarity and
community exacerbated loneliness.
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation
Study showed that more than one
in five adults in the United States
(22%), United Kingdom (23%), and
one in ten in Japan (9%) report
being frequently feeling lonely or
socially isolated.
Coupled with the effects of the
pandemic, technology, and social
media continue to simultaneously
connect and isolate us. Many of
us have an increased desire for
meaningful shared experiences
in connected, socially enriching
environments.
So how can we design the built
environment to promote social
connection? What are some urban
design strategies we can leverage
to improve our happiness? As
designers and researchers at the
global design firm HKS, we are
committed to answering these
questions. We believe that through
research, informed intent, and
meaningful (measurable) impact,
are core tenets of responsible
design and innovative practices. An
HKS original research report, How
the Built Environment Can Foster
Social Health, identifies guidelines
for design spaces that combat
loneliness and social isolation
and foster social capital and
communities. Here are excerpts
from the report:
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 27
 the built environment as a social
determinant of health
As humans, we evolved living in
communities. People gathered
in small tribes to support one
another, to provide protection,
warmth, food, and care for
children. Given our nature, being
completely autonomous and
independent was a threat to
survival. Our basic need to be
interdependent remains, even
though the backdrop of humanity
has transformed over centuries.
The scientific community is just
beginning to understand the extent
to which the built environment of
all scales is a social determinant
of health. Research shows that
designers and urban planners can
increase people’s social capital in
a place by creating spatial designs
that facilitate social interaction
among residents. Early research
indicated that certain elements in
neighborhoods, such as porches
and tree-lined streets, can promote
neighborly conversations and voter
28
turnout. Furthermore, a large-scale
systematic review of the scientific
literature showed that the design
qualities of a place—walk-ability,
sense of place, greenness, street
design, and architecture—have
the potential to increase social
interaction, the integration of
diverse people, social support, civic
pride, social resilience, and social
and political involvement.
Many American communities
have become very car-dependent
and less walkable through zoning
ordinances that deemphasized
public transit and essentially
banned mixed-use zoning,
and thus, pedestrian-oriented
neighborhoods. However, walkable
neighborhoods have been linked
to higher social capital, lower
rates of depression, less reported
alcohol abuse, and more physical
activity. Researchers have tied
certain characteristics of the
environment, such as house and
street design, population density,
mixed land use, proximity to
the city center, the amount of
greenery and communal space to
improvements in a range of social
health markers, including social
well-being, network size, trust,
and perceived safety. Communities
are feeling the pressure of urban
sprawl, with commuting taking up
more time that was once dedicated
to leisure or family and friends. In
contrast, high-rises and rows of
cookie-cutter condominiums have
popped up throughout cities like
Seattle, San Francisco, and Dallas,
marketed as modern living, but
it appears developers gave little
thought to how these facilities
connect with the rest of the
urban fabric, featuring buildings
that crowd out any shared space
between neighbors and that fail to
offer a sense of welcome or scale
in the form of overhangs, trees,
and benches at street level.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

Communal Meal
Photo credit: Priscilla Du Preeze
This disregard for the surrounding
environment may be partially
to blame for an emerging body
of research warning against
adopting this development model.
In addition, the popularity of
door-delivery services and virtual
Avenues, Volume 5
Happy Cities
transactions is chipping away at physical spaces that frame our
the core of our humanity: the need existence.
for physical interactions with other
people. We are losing the intervals
in our everyday lives that get us to
slow down and bond with those
around us—the glue between the
29
 the power of third places
The prehistoric Stonehenge
monument and other
archaeological sites offer ample
evidence of human civilization’s
enduring need for communal
gathering spaces, those places
where people can come together
for celebration, ritual, and the
mundane. These places are what
sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined
third places—places unlike the
private, informal home and the
public, formal workplace, being
both informal and public. These are
places where people gather and
socialize deliberately or casually:
meet friends, cheer for the home
team with fellow fans, or just sit to
people-watch.
The physical environment is an
important factor underlying our
health ecosystem, influencing how
we think, feel, and behave. This
is why third places — libraries,
coffee shops, parks — deserve
our attention. Third places are a
Next Page: Union Station Market, Washington DC
Photo credit: Susie Ho - Unsplash
30
special type of place unlike the We are just beginning to recognize
private, informal home and the the role of our built environments
public, formal workplace, being in shaping our social experiences
both informal and public. Third and opportunities for connection.
places can strengthen social Spaces designed and activated to
capital, foster social connection, facilitate social connection can
and boost diversity and well- help us overcome loneliness by
being. They also serve as “enabling sparking or supporting meaningful
places” that promote recovery relationships.
from mental illness by providing
The following guidelines are a
social and material resources. Yet
resource on how to design for
little is known about what design
social health and empowers
characteristics of a third place can
everybody with the tools to create
help improve social health.
better spaces.
As designers and urban planners,
we too often discount the
importance of preserving and
elevating human connection in an
effort to focus on efficiency and
lowering costs. Designing for social
health is important for people in
any era, but it is especially relevant
today as loneliness and social
isolation become more prevalent.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 31
 Accessibility:
Creating Places That
are Safe, Inclusive, and
Walkable
Perhaps the most foundational
attribute of a good third place is
that it is accessible to those who
can use it. The best versions foster
a sense of ownership and become
regular parts of people’s lives.
This requires safe, convenient,
affordable, and comfortable access
to the place. For children, this
means they can gather, play, and
explore with some independence
from parents as developmentally
appropriate. For senior adults
or people with disabilities, this
means that there are easy physical
access options, benches to rest,
and spaces to shelter them from
the elements. For all ages, the
ideal is a space that is within
walking distance from home, work,
or school. Humans evolved to
navigate our worlds on our feet,
and much research has shown the
benefits of physical activity on the
health of our minds and bodies,
and the role of walkable streets,
neighborhoods, and cities in
fostering well-being.
Studies have demonstrated
that people living in walkable,
mixed-use neighborhoods have
more social capital compared to
residents of car-oriented suburbs
People in walkable neighborhoods
report being more likely to trust
others, participate politically,
know their neighbors, and be
socially engaged. Car dependence
Next Page: People biking in Washington DC
Photo credit: Tim - Adobe Stock
32
limits opportunities for in-person
interaction, and whenever
possible, it is best to shift away
from auto travel when we think
about how people access a third
place.
Activation:
Programming Place
from Ordinary to
Extraordinary
Ideal third places bring together
diverse people who seek
recreation, amenities, or a break
from monotony. Connections will
happen naturally. The celebrated
urban designer Jan Gehl put it this
way: “Social activity is the fruit
of the quality and length of the
other types of activities because it
occurs spontaneously when people
meet in a particular place”. For
third places to be successful, they
must intentionally serve people’s
fundamental needs, from quiet
time to socializing.
At a coffee shop, this means
spaces for meeting people, as well
as spaces for focused work and
patios for pets. Library activation
can happen through child reading
circles, spaces for teens to study
and socialize after school, fun
meetups for older adults, and
cubicles for those just needing to
hammer out work. For workspaces,
activation means placing lunch
tables and coffee machines next
to the intersection of natural
paths of travel but also providing
places where the whole staff can
gather for celebrations or town
halls. At the neighborhood block,
this means having places where
people can eat with their families,
pick up a gift for a party, or cheer
for a sports team. Activation can
also include events on the street
made possible by temporary road
closures. This array of options
interspersed with housing and
work provides for a mixed-use area
that is vibrant day and night and
provides natural safety through
“eyes on the street”. Often city
or neighborhood parks fail, not
because of the lack of green space
or playscapes, but because there is
little else to pull people to the park
that supports the full spectrum of
daily life.
Designing “purposeful
inconveniences” that funnel
everyday activities through a
common point can lead people
to slow down and connect with
theirs. This strategy has been used
at Pixar with its famous single set
of bathrooms at the center of its
Emeryville, California office, and
at Zappos’ Las Vegas headquarters
with its central plaza that is the
single point of entry.
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 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 33
 Choice: Finding Joy in
Variety, Flexibility, and
Control
Places that provide variety,
flexibility, and choices on how to
use the space fosters personal
control and support habitual use
for a wide range of activities that
privacy and collaboration—a
concept often called “we, me,
us”—by allowing people to control
where they sit and how they
engage with others, based on the
formality or informality of the
circumstances.
Human Scale:
believed to be linked to the painful
boredom they provoke.
A well-established components
of the human-scale design is the
quality of providing prospect
and refuge, offered by buildings
or spaces that create a sense of
enclosure while giving people the

suit people’s varying needs and

Weaving Comfort into ability to look out—for instance,

moods. Providing people, the

freedom to choose how to engage
(e.g., play, relax, focus) and where
to locate themselves (e.g., booth
seating, communal table) facilitates
person-environment fit, or the
ability for a person to choose or
modify an environment to fit his
or her needs and preferences, and
creates a sense of comfort. The
dynamic and changing nature of
comfortable spatial proximities
to people we encounter (e.g.,
strangers, acquaintances, or
friends) is the basis of proxemics,
the study of personal space, and
helps inform different types of
seating options.
Third places should support a
wide range of uses and options for
gathering with people or finding
privacy. There should also be
flexibility to fit a spectrum of needs
and abilities (e.g., older adults,
new mothers, and children’s
groups). For children, this means
creating a variety of ways to play
(e.g., reading corner vs. jungle
gym, playing in the fountain vs. on
the grass) and the ability to control
what activities to engage in. In
workplaces, this means balancing
Next Page: Outdoor Dining
Photo credit: Franz12 - Adobe Stock
the DNA of a Place being under a patio pergola or on
a front porch and watching the
Spaces designed at a human scale
street. If you have ever felt the
use architectural detailing and
pull of a cozy booth seat or rested
variety to create small and intimate
at the base of a tree, you have
environments that are comfortable
experienced the natural comfort
for people to move through or
of a space that provided prospect
occupy. These are spaces that
and refuge. This quality promotes
meet our basic human needs for
a dual sense of security and
comfort, safety, and interest, and
openness that allows us to deepen
that feels good to be in for reasons
existing friendships and form new
that are often indescribable. City
ones.
blocks designed at a human scale
have been shown to promote more
social interactions and lingering,
whereas research reveals that
blocks with large expanses of
monotonous storefronts elevate
stress responses and speed
walking. This conclusion was tested
at a Whole Foods in New York City,
where a research team found that
despite the store operator’s desire
for Whole Foods to feel like a
local grocery store and blend with
the existing neighborhood, the
expansive glass storefront repelled
passersby, who quickened their
pace to get past it. This finding
echoes a growing body of research
in both human and mouse models
that show how spaces devoid of
ornamentation and variety can
elicit a strong stress response,

34 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 Photo by franz12 - AdobeStock 35

 Nature: Moving from
Gray to Green
As humans, we evolved to
be comforted by nature, a
phenomenon known as biophilia.
The benefits of exposure to nature
have been demonstrated across
environments, from hospitals to
workplaces, schools, and beyond.
There is growing evidence that
exposure to direct and indirect
natural elements, such as large
and small greenery, daylight,
and outdoor spaces, is positively
linked to mental health. Urban
green space has been tied to
better physical and mental
health, increased sociability, and
decreased aggression and stress.
And researchers have associated
higher quantity and quality of
streetscape greenery, which
includes dense, well-maintained
foliage, trees, and plantings,
with elevated social cohesion.
Furthermore, streetscape greenery
has been identified as a factor
that works with social cohesion
to reduce acute health-related
complaints and improve people’s
perceptions of their general health
and mental health. Greenery
and natural elements can be
especially important in places
that are significant to well-being
and restoration because of their
known salutogenic effects. Third,
places that blend the indoors and
outdoors and integrate greenery
are more effective at creating
environments where people
feel comfortable and want to
linger—all ingredients in creating
Next Page: Rock Creek Park, Washington DC
Photo credit: Silver Media- Adobe Stock
36
opportunities for connection. We
can design biophilic environments
along three different dimensions:
direct, indirect, and symbolic.
Direct biophilic features are natural
elements that do not rely on
humans to sustain (e.g., daylight,
native plants, animals). Indirect
biophilic features require human
intervention to preserve (e.g.,
potted plants). Symbolic biophilic
features do not offer nature
itself, but rather images or virtual
experiences of nature.
Sense of Place:
Crafting a Place as
Unique as the People
Who Use It.
A handful of architectural theorists
mused that in the digital age, all
spaces should be a blank canvas
on which the digital world can
imprint. That probably feels wrong
to most of us, and rightfully so.
We value uniqueness, whether
it is a character in a favorite TV
show, a quirky friend, or a beloved
local hang-out. Capturing the
uniqueness of the people who
use a space and the community
around it is vital to creating a
third place that feels authentic,
and sparks a sense of belonging.
Since early studies of human
geography, the place has been
understood as space, imbued with
human relations, culture, meaning,
values, and activities. A third
place may incorporate features
or elements that are significant
to its community through their
meaning may not be immediately
apparent to outsiders or their
appearance aesthetically pleasing
to the public. For example, a
Texas taco joint in Dallas’ Lower
Greenville neighborhood has
10-foot-tall dancing frogs that
perhaps make some drivers
cringe, but they are nostalgic
remnants of an old tango club
and have become neighborhood
icons. Especially effective third
places can often provide types of
social interactions that are lacking
elsewhere in people’s lives. For
instance, these places can help
connect new mothers, patients
struggling with cancer, and women
dealing with infertility with other
people in their shoes, and those
connections can ultimately turn
into friendships. In co-working
spaces, certain features can make
the environment feel vibrant and
creative and motivate membership.
People can symbolically honor this
shared identity in many ways: by
featuring rotating local artwork,
having local community members
create murals, pinning messages of
encouragement in public areas, or
displaying special pieces of décor
to mirror the character of the
place.Having the local community
participate in the design and
creation of a space contributes
to the sense that the space is not
merely a vessel for the masses but
a unique reflection of the people
who live and work in the area.
Involving local stakeholders helps
ensure not only that the aesthetics
feel true to the community but also
that the place serves local needs
with the activities and amenities it
provides.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 37
 A Call to Action:
Creating third places and
enhancing happiness!
It is up to each of us to create
connections in our own lives: to
linger outside so we can spend
time with our neighbors, to
bring back block parties, to invite
colleagues to join us for lunch. This
kind of interplay is what transforms
a space into a collective third
place. Or better said: “Communal
space becomes relevant to mental
health when and only when it is
humanized: urban residents invest
communal space with meanings,
emotions, and relations that lie at
the heart of social life.” Whether
it is turning a driveway into an
38
afterwork neighborly tea spot, or
gathering other new moms for a
regular night out, or petitioning
the city for a new playscape at
an old neighborhood park, our
actions can cumulatively transform
communities.
The six guidelines – accessibility,
activation, choice, human scales,
nature, and sense of place – for
design for social health can
apply to small or large built
environments, from the office
coffee station to the city block.
By using them in our own
neighborhoods and backyards,
we can be a part of making cities
happier, by design.
Visit HKS’ website for a full copy
of the report. In it you will find
additional research and guideline
details, grounding the concepts
in science and illustrating them
with case studies. The section
for each of the six guidelines
also lists principles for the design
of the physical environment,
programming, and policy to give
you the tools to take concrete
action in your community, whether
you’re a resident, business owner,
or government authority.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

A parklet in San Fransisco CA

Photo credit: Sergio Ruiz- Adobe Stock

Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington DC

Photo credit: Sergio Ruiz- Adobe Stock

Avenues, Volume 5 39
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cbo9780511706257.014

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 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 41
 public space for a privatized
individual
By Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar, iSTUDIOS
ABSTRACT
Architects have often used the
3 basic planes of designing
spaces. The roof, wall and floor
plane. These planes are used to
determine our relationship with
space. With the development of
digital technology, this has changed
our relationship with space again.
Digital technology is now
integrated in our daily lives more
than ever. It has changed how
we share information with each
other and how we engage with
the spaces around us. We can
sit on a couch and work, enjoy
entertainment, order groceries and
food, connect and communicate
with each other. In particular, the
impact of digital technology can
be seen in the changes in how we
communicate in the public realm.
Before the internet, the public
realm was found in the form of
42
public space. People gathered in
physical spaces to display public
opinion about the latest policies
and to share their thoughts about
their governments. The public
space was also a stage for artists, a
place where people could remain
anonymous, but still be connected
to the people around the area.
The space formed an environment
which nurtured and interacted
with human behavior, thereby
giving rise to a people-environment
relationship.
The project investigates the
impact of the digital space on our
relationship with space and on a
newly emergent form of public
sphere in the digital world.
IMPACT OF DIGITAL SPACE
ON SOCIETY
Shalini Misra and Daniel Stokols in
their paper discuss the importance
of the people-environment
relationship at a societal level.
There has been considerable
concern about the societal
consequences of virtual forms
of interpersonal communication
and social interaction, such as
in the form of chat rooms and
virtual communities, as well as
the privatization of public life.
Putnam, for example, voices the
concern that the effortless ability
to communicate through the
internet might encourage people
to spend more time alone and
interact with unknown people,
reducing their ability to make
meaningful relationships with
face-to-face interaction and
instead encouraging superficial
exchanges with strangers.
Further, online communication
by avid Internet users may
result in underdeveloped social
relationships with their online
communication partners, at least
in some instances (Misra, Stokols
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

Diagram of the three planes of space making along with the 4th plane, the digital plane.
Image Credit: Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar
2012). Even when conversing
with close friends and family,
impoverished online conversations
might displace higher-quality,
face-to-face conversations as
people tend to omit the social
niceties that promote and maintain
social relationships (Misra, Stokols
2012). Gergen contends that
online conversations, as in the
case of email, become obligatory
and pragmatic acts, instead of
personal expressions. Horizontal
relationships that emphasize a
breadth of contacts are favored
over vertical relationships that
require dedicated attention, effort,
time, and commitment (Misra,
Stokols 2012).
Avenues, Volume 5
The digital space has given
rise to multiple ways of being
connected to each other, but has
failed to offer a way to develop
a meaningful relationship with
each other,though this meaningful
bond between humans is critical in
keeping the social fabric intact.
PUBLIC SPACE AND PUBLIC
SPHERE
The terms “public space” and
“public sphere” have both been
used by different actors to
signify differing meanings. The
Habermasian formulation of the
public sphere posited a novel form
of social interaction facilitated by a
Happy Cities
network of institutions comprised
by physical locations and mediated
discourses. Following this model,
the public sphere is understood by
scholars as mediated exchanges
that are deeply rooted in place-
based communication. “A set of
physical and mediated spaces” is
what Catherine Quires has defined
as the public sphere, where people
come together to deliberate,
express, and identify interests of
common concern.
I understand the public sphere
as a theater and the citizens as
its actors. As a form,the public
sphere stirs social and collective
imagination. This form also enables
43
 Diagram of the components that shape the public sphere
Image Credit: Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar
people to come together and
agree on principles to achieve
social consensus. Thus, the form
of the public sphere uses the
most optimum way to reach the
masses. The diagram illustrates the
relations between the public space
and the public sphere.
STRATEGY
Existing design-based studies of
public spaces offer some clues as to
their importance, but most do not
value public spaces for their ties
to public spheres. These designs
are constrained by incomplete
definitions, and the endings and
scope of their research are limited.
44
The most successful public spaces
have successful physical and
programmatic qualities that can
be applied elsewhere. A successful
public sphere also attracts users
on the platform with the most
engaging features.
Taking this basis forward, the
design solution is divided into a
place and cyber-based strategy.
The place-based strategy is a
collection of public spaces and
places in a city that respond to
the vibrant socio -cultural nature
of every neighborhood. The
public space can be permanent
or temporary based on the
community’s choice to participate.
These spaces of a city collectively
form a single public space for
the city. The public spaces can
be used by the citizens for social
gatherings/ events or any other
event of collective nature.
The cyber-based strategy is a
platform for the organizer of the
event to use it as a platform to
inform the citizens around the
public space. The cyber-based
strategy is in the form of a digital
application. As the usage of mobile
phones has increased and is
owned by almost everyone. The
cyber space thus gives everyone
a possibility to engage in social
events in the physical space. The
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

An example set of physical public space in the city embedded across a pedestrian pathway
Image Credit: Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar

combination of this place-cyber the space in a manner that can be

strategy enables the reachability attractive for the visitor. Just as the
PHYSICAL SPACE
of the social events conducted design/atmosphere of a restaurant
throughout the city but engages is also important as much as the
“Habermas’s account of the
the public in the physical face- food to attract customers, it is the
bourgeois conception of the public
to-face situations. This enables design of the individual spaces that
sphere stresses its claim to be
citizens to engage in public space will attract visitors.
open and accessible to all. Indeed,
with civility. Richard Sennett (1978)
this idea of open access is one of The reason for having movable
best models the Citizen of Affairs
the central meanings of the norm furniture is to encourage vibrancy
for us in his vision of a public life
of publicity” (Fraser 1990). and change in the public place
based on civility, the activity that
design. The furniture can be
protects people from one another
The digital application is the space made to encourage interaction
and yet allows them to enjoy one
where the user gets an idea about or solitude for the visitor. The
another’s company and makes it
the space and chooses to come for furniture could be a set of benches
possible for people to act together
the event. This puts the emphasis and tables that can be used by
as citizens in the political and social
on the physical design of the space visitors for playing board games.
affairs of the city (IRwin. Zube,
to attract the crowds. The strategy The furniture could even be
1989).
compels the organizer to develop designed by local communities

Avenues, Volume 5 45
 Above: An example set of physical public furniture across the city.
Image Credit: Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar

46 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

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A digital public space application as an aggregator for social activities in the physical space.
Image Credit: Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar

Avenues, Volume 5 47
 to celebrate their festivals thus
increasing the diversity and
inclusivity in public space design.
The furniture could be locally made
or brought from any commercial
shop.
The community can pool together
capital to arrange furniture for a
local event or make the furniture
itself. This initiative creates a
new market for locals to engage
in furniture making that can be
designed and sold for specific
events. This enables local talents
for shaping local districts.
The furniture could be designed in
space such as a park, a sidewalk,
or a street. Each of these types of
spaces is then designed following
a vocabulary of typologies such
as a curb, a bench, or a lawn. The
typologies that we use to design
public space do not consider the
way we communicate and navigate
the city through digital devices.
DIGITAL SPACE
The Cyber-based design is in
the form of an application. The
application can be downloaded on
the iOS and Android platform and
is owned by a private company.
The company provides the
application as a platform for public
discourse. The digital application
does not control the curation of
any event but rather just enables
the user to reach out their target
audience for the event.
The user can login into the
application and set up an
48
event, the organizer is the main
curator of the event and feeds
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT ?
the information of the event
accordingly. The organizer also sets
The thinking and development
the location of the space. They can
of digital futures has often been
also leave images of how the place
pioneered by engineers or people
looks and feedback rating if it has
with an science background. The
been rated before.
developments of engineering and
When a visitor is near an event, technology is efficiency. However,
they get a notification of what in the pursuit of efficiency we end
is happening in that area. If up stepping on the very values that
interested further, the visitor keep the social fabric of the society
can click on it and get a more together. These are the most
descriptive view of the event. This connected but the loneliest times
is when the visitor scrolls through of history. This very paradoxical
the review of the event or of nature of our society shows
the place. The review is a rating the advantage and the curse of
system based on how comfortable, technology.
safe, and inclusive the event/
Technology works of efficiency;
space is. The notification radius
design aims for synthesis of form
can be the organizer for the kind
and reason. Both are important
of event that is to be conducted.
for innovation and society but if
This creates an equal platform for
one is left behind, the society faces
organizers to host a community or
the consequences of the first. It is
city wide event. The objective of
important designers start taking a
this platform is to bring together
leading role in thinking about the
people for face-to-face interactions
future and build research to show
but are stimulated to the place by
the future direction to technology.
the design of the space.
Just as grub hub or google reviews
helps us get an understanding of
what is review of a restaurant that
we go to. This application gives
and idea of what is kind review
of spaces the visitor wants to
visit. The feedback system of the
application gives data for urban
designer to understand public’s
response to the furniture and thus
enable the participation of the
public in the making of their urban
spaces.
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 Happy Cities

REFERENCES

Altman, Irwin, and Ervin H. Zube. Human Behavior and Environment, Advances in Theory and Research. First ed., vol. 2 2, Plenum, 1989.

Curry, Chandler. “Public Space, the Public Sphere, and the Urban as Public Realm.” Curry Chandler, Curry Chandler, 6 Feb. 2017, https://
currychandler.com/cool-medium/2017/2/6/public-space-the-public-sphere-and-the-urban-as-public-realm.

Fraser, Nancy. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” Social Text, no. 25/26, 1990, p. 56.,
https://doi.org/10.2307/466240.

Keswani, Serena C. “The Form and Use of Public Space in a Changing Urban Context.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, 1992.

Misra, Shalini, and Daniel Stokols. “A Typology of People–Environment Relationships in the Digital Age.” Technology in Society, vol. 34, no. 4, 2012,
pp. 311–325., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.10.003.

Sennett, Richard. The Fall of the Public Man. Penguin, 2002.

Canovan, Margaret. “POLITICS AS CULTURE: HANNAH ARENDT AND THE PUBLIC REALM.” History of Political Thought, vol. 6, no. 3, 1985, pp.
617–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26212420. Accessed 11 Jun. 2022.

MILLER, KRISTINE F. “Introduction: What Is Public Space?” Designs on the Public: The Private Lives of New York’s Public Spaces, NED-New edition,
University of Minnesota Press, 2007, pp. ix–xxii. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctttv5pq.4. Accessed 11 Jun. 2022.

Stokes, Benjamin. “Locally Played - https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4862/Locally-PlayedReal-World-Games-for-Stronger-Places

Avenues, Volume 5 49
 the lived-in city |
happiness in urban form.
by Dominic Weilminster, AIA LEED AP BD+C, Points West Design Works
We’ve all experienced it, though
it can be difficult to pin down in
words: a lived-in space. Growing
up, I can remember spending
childhood summers at a family
ranch near Steamboat Springs,
Colorado. The modest ranch
house and the agrarian structures,
each well-worn with age and use.
Everything had accumulated as a
function of purpose at some time
— no corner was left too sharp, no
surface too pristine. The imprint
of inhabitants was everywhere
and, therefore, we felt welcome
everywhere. As it turns out,
some of the world’s most livable
(aka happiest) places capture this
same sense at an urban scale.
If understood, we can define the
recipe to craft humanistic habitats
that support our natural happiness.
Within the German city of Freiburg,
the neighborhood of Vauban
is a somewhat experimental
50
residential mixed-use community
that exemplifies the simple values
of happiness: of being connected,
of being yourself, of slowing down
and enjoying life. In Vauban, the
importance of creating a city that
feels rich in investment from its
residents and that is authentically
reflective of its community—what
one of my colleagues termed
“messiness”—becomes apparent.
When a house feels lived in, you
see that the kitchen is used daily
for cooking. Books and magazines
lay across the coffee table—
not just for looks, but with the
expectation of being dog-eared.
The yard is a constant experiment
in urban farming. Vauban is an
entire neighborhood that feels this
way.
In terms of happiness, Vauban
creates an almost campus-like
atmosphere of colorful structures,
plazas, and paseos. Cars are part
of the mix, but are relegated to
second or third-class status, behind
pedestrians and bikes. On-street
parking is the only option and
there are a significant number of
streets—likely 40 percent—that is
organized for a strictly temporary
car presence and are otherwise
designed as places for pedestrian
activity.
Understanding the relationship
between urban design, transit,
open space and social factors is
key to building better spaces and
communities in the future.
Perhaps the most striking aspect
of Vauban is the organic nature
of the public realm and the
lived-in quality of the residential
developments. Although much of
the architecture is not very old,
maxing at around 15 to 20 years,
the housing has been imbued
with significant personality, giving
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

A typical neighborhood street in Vauban provides the whole picture of how these spaces are used, including garden spaces along each street
which are shaped by residents’ investment in the public realm.
Image Credit - Dominic Weilminster
it the sense of being occupied
much longer than it has in reality.
What this tells the casual observer
is that people in Vauban have a
considerable association with their
place of residence. It also implies
a certain social cohesion within
the community; people aren’t just
manicuring their lawns to show
that they can keep up with the
Joneses, they are comfortable
expressing themselves.
Vauban, with its quiet play
streets and its cohesive and
calm residential developments,
provides almost familial neighbor
to neighbor interaction—providing
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social stimulus, but also privacy.
Connecting everything is a strong
bike network which is linked to
comfortable walking spaces and a
high-frequency streetcar system.
Together, these elements simplify
and increase the speed of travel
between Vauban and greater
Freiburg, while promoting social
interaction.
Understanding the relationship
between urban design, transit,
open space, and social factors is
key to building better spaces and
communities in the future. This
seems logical enough but, more
often than not, the intangible
Happy Cities
pursuit of happiness is not a
part of our design, planning,
and development dialogues.
Typically, expansion of the built
environment is focused on market-
driven growth, which responds
to land use planning that serves a
type of functional and organized
logic. The design of these spaces
is then heavily biased by desires
for convenience, security, and
familiarity. But what about if we
also thought about what makes us
happy?
People are both social and
contemplative: too much isolation
or over-stimulation
51
 can both result in discomfort.
Our physical environments are
never homogenous (at least
they shouldn’t be) and designing
for happiness centers shaping
experiences to provide a balance of
dynamic engagement and comfort
to meet both sides of human
nature Think about your own
experience with happiness – there
are scales. We are not necessarily
speaking about that fleeting sense
of being overjoyed. A better target
for happiness is perhaps a sense
of fulfillment, satisfaction, and
consistent connectedness. A form
of happiness in which you are
comfortable in your own skin and
feel a sense of openness, empathy,
and even kinship with those in your
community. This is the baseline we
Contextual Map highlighting Vauban & Copenhagen
Image Credit - Dominic Weilminster
52
likely all want for our lives, so how
does it translate to the physical
environment around us?
The notion of a city form that
promotes day-to-day human
happiness relates to the ability
of a city to provide a living and
working environment that affords
people both the time and freedom
to pursue their own happiness,
either in a private or social manner.
This is a simple statement, but it
has a number of implications for
urban form. A city that affords
individuals with time is one that is
connected, which implies a certain
degree of density. A city that
allows people to engage socially
is one that contains open-ended
public spaces for organic human
interaction, offering a diversity of
uses and providing flexibility to
users as to how they would like
to engage. This ultimately opens
the door for people to function
and participate in a long-term
community. However, just as a
city needs to provide spaces for
interaction, it also needs to afford
privacy. Humans may be social but
are often most comfortably social
in smaller numbers. Urban spaces
that break an overall experience
down into bite-size use clusters
provide for a greater sense of
ownership over smaller-scale
public or semi-public spaces. By
designing for smaller-use clusters
in cities, we support people by
providing opportunities for more
open social engagement, while also
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Copenhagen’s waterfront invites interaction, play and individual interpretation for it’s use making it a loved destination for all demographics of the
community..
Image Credit - www.vienncouver.com
offering them the ability to feel
more secure in their surroundings.
When spaces are designed to
encourage people to be openly
social and also secure, we can
quiet the fight or flight instincts
and encourage residents are more
to feel more positive and reflective.
Amazing things happen when
places are designed around
happiness: We are better
connected with others and we play
more often. A trip to Copenhagen’s
waterfront on a warm weekend
expresses this perfectly. With
rolling sculpted piers of varying
sizes, the water’s edge through
the heart of the city becomes a
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playground for kids and adults
alike. No special event or cost of
admission required. The design
of spaces to invite whimsy and
exploration provide an unspoken
permission (not to mention a draw)
for the community to claim the
waterfront—and to have a great
time doing so.
So what does all of this mean?
Really, for a city to work well, it
needs to provide opportunities for
human investment and support
that investment. The term human
investment does not necessarily
mean monetary investment,
although that may be required.
It refers to people being able to
Happy Cities
really ‘live’ in a community, and to
call it their own. Our cities need
amenitized infrastructure which is
appropriately sized for the human
pace of the population that it
serves. It does not need to be
glamorous or refined, but it does
need to be easily accessed through
resident-propelled, convenient
mobility strategies.
When spaces are designed to
encourage people to be openly
social and also secure, we can
quiet the fight or flight instincts
and encourage residents are
more to feel more positive and
reflective.
53
 Above - Typical pedestrian activated streetscapes
Image Credit - Dominic Weilminster

54 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

Once people have access, the
spaces need to provide them with
social and physical comfort via
scale, a sense of ownership in the
relationship they hold with the
common spaces in which they
live and work, and at best, an
experience of discovery or delight
which invites all members of the
community to make those spaces
more memorable. Happy cities are
fundamentally places where each
member of the local population
is a participant (and ultimately
becomes) the foundation of the
city’s viability. It is not a strategy
about making a destination; it is
working simply with what (and
who) we have to create a place
that feels ‘lived in’.

Apart from showcasing sustainability, Vaubaun is designed with a degree of colorful organic texture allowing for and encouraging self-expression
by residents. This subtle strategy allows this relatively young urban neighborhood to feel ‘lived-in’.
Image Credit - joergens.mi - Wikimedia Commons

Avenues, Volume 5 55
 Copenhagen’s general building orientation is toward the public realm, which is designed for open-ended use and sociability. Whether as a feature
of public or privately owned space, the culture of life in the city allows residents and visitors to ‘make themselves at home’ in the public open
space around building
Image Credit - Dominic Weilminster

56 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

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Avenues, Volume 5 57
 firmitas, utilitas, venustas no longer
Joseph McKenley, AIA , NCARB, Grizform Design Architects
We are introduced to the famous
triad of Firmitas, Utilitas, and
Venustas in book three of Vitruvius’
Ten Books on Architecture circa
27 BCE. “Firmness or physical
strength secured the building’s
structural integrity. The utility
provided an efficient arrangement
of spaces and mechanical systems
to meet the functional needs of
its occupants. And venustas, the
aesthetic quality associated with
the goddess Venus, imparted style,
proportion, and visual beauty.
Rendered memorably into English
by Henry Wotton, a seventeenth-
century translator, “firmness,
commodity, and delight” remain
the essential components of all
successful architectural design.”
With all advancements since then,
it still holds true that a building
well built meets all three traits
equally. By extension, a city of
buildings that meet all three traits
equally is a happy city. Today, I
Next Page: Vitruvius, the ten books on Architecture originally published crica 27 BCE
Image Credit: Amazon Books
58
find that triangles are often more
obtuse than equilateral.
I find this especially apparent in
the façades we build today. I find
that Architects, under tremendous
pressure, have given over to a
new triad of priorities - speed,
performance, and commerce. I
find that this new triad results in
buildings that quite often leaves
me wanting for more - more
strength in their structure and
materials; and more beauty. Not
usually more utility. Thanks to ever-
increasing building performance
standards, and to costs of
construction, efficiency seems
to remain a very high priority for
clients and so for buildings.
The façade, coming from the Latin
word “faccia” or face, is a critical
element in the design of cities. The
façades of buildings amalgamate to
define the streets and plazas that
create cities.
So, building façades are the DNA
of a city - their uniqueness or
sameness contributes to the
gestalt of that city - and as such
that face is of high importance to a
happy city.
Yearly, I give a lecture at the
University of Maryland School
of Architecture on the Façade as
Mediator and as Metaphor. In
that lecture, I recognized that the
purpose of the façade is two-fold.
First, a façade must protect the
building and its inhabitants from
the elements. A façade must first
provide an enclosure; it should
keep the rain and snow out, and
contribute to providing a thermally
comfortable interior. Then, the
façade has a duty to the built
environment - an aesthetic duty. It
also has an opportunity. Façades
are able to project an ideal into
the built environment, in fact in
my lecture I go as far as to say
that façades are projections of
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Avenues, Volume 5 59
 Infamous Grenfell Tower fire in West London
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
our attitude towards typology,
culture, economy, and ideology
(architectural theory). Like an
outfit, there is a choice in how a
façade comes together - in what it
looks like and what it is made of.
Like an outfit, it can be appropriate
or not, challenge conventions
or not, be of high quality or not,
but at the end of the day it is a
choice (or a series of choices). It is
a choice that we make on behalf
of our clients that affects the built
environment.
Architects have always had to
choose how to make a façade,
but I argue today that the factors
influencing today’s choices have
60
changed and that that change
ought to be surveilled. Before
talking about that change, I find
it helpful to recall a condensed
timeline of Architecture. I’ll start
in sixteenth century Rome and
Florence, where many of our
Architectural History lessons were
focused in (western) architecture
schools. Then, I’ll leap forward
to Modernism and to the
International Style movement of
the early 1900s; then to the 1970s
energy crisis, and fast forward
to today - the change or the
globalized era.
The façade was of critical
importance to Rome and Florence.
It was understood that buildings
shaped the outdoor space - that
life in a city happens outside the
walls of the home and that the
spaces between buildings - the
streets and the plaza were just as
important as the building itself.
Take for instance the Church of
San Lorenzo in Florence c.1400s
built by Filipo Brunelleschi - also
responsible for the dome of the
Florence Cathedral. According
to Professor Brian Kelly’s 2021
lecture, Making Face, the church
was built for the Medici family with
the intent to build the front façade,
made of the most important
materials, last. However, the family
ran out of money and so the façade
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 Happy Cities

Facde lecture title slide

Image Credit: Joseph McKenley

The Basilica of San Lorenzo with Michelangelo’s facade proposal on page 62

Image Credit: izi travel - https://izi.travel/ru/8411-the-basilica-of-san-lorenzo-preaching-to-the-women/en

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62 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

Approach to Villa Stein shot with car in the foreground

Image Credit:Fondation Le Corbusier

Above: Rear elevation of Villa Stein

Image Credit:Fondation Le Corbusier

Previous page:Michelangelo’s facade proposal for the Basilica of San Lorenzo

Image Credit:Google Arts and Culture
Avenues, Volume 5 63
 Historic photo illlustrating the gas shortage during the 1970’s energy crisis
Image Credit: Wiki Commons

Construction in New York City

Image Credit: Jeenah Moon/ Bloomburg

Next page:Photo taken in midtown Manhattan, 2019

Image Credit:Joseph McKenley
64 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
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Avenues, Volume 5 65
 was not built and what stands
today is the rough ‘backup’ wall
that the façade would have been
attached to.
However, what really is notable
about this case is the emphasis
that was placed on this façade.
According to Kelly, the family
received several bids to design
Photo taken in Malmo, Sweden, 2016
Image Credit:Joseph McKenley
66
the façade including the one
from Michelangelo pictured.
Michelangelo’s façade design
intended to mask the high nave
and low side aisle in order to have
more of a temple front to the
building - elevating the scale and
importance of the building. Scale
and beauty and metaphor were the
driving forces behind the design.
Jumping forward to the early
1900s, we find a push towards
functionalism and away from
ornamentation and classical
orders. We find an embrace of
technology that preferences speed
of construction over craft. We find
a push towards openness versus
solidity - more glass, less wall.
We still find a quest for beauty
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

(venustas) but in a new sense
- one not relating to symmetry
and classical orders but to the
balance of asymmetries. This push
culminates in and is disseminated
through the International Style
movement of the 1920s and 1930s
and is characterized by works
such as Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein
(1926). Whereas the church in San
Lorenzo was trying to mask the
inside design with its façade, the
Villa Stein’s façades are reflective
of the interior spatial arrangement,
consistent with Le Corbusier
saying “the exterior is a result of
an interior” in Towards a New
Architecture, 1927, page 167. On
page 177 Le Corbusier goes on
to mention that “...the exterior is
always an interior’’ illustrating
again the importance of a well-
designed façade even despite the
lack of ornamentation.
By the 1960s the international
style movement began to lose
traction after having far-reaching
global impacts through European
Architects who settled around
the world post World War II.
By the 1970s, Architecture, in
the US, began to contend less
with style and more with energy
demands. According to Elizabeth
Donoff, “The energy crises of
the 1970s changed the way we
think about natural resources,
inspired environmental advocacy,
and laid the groundwork(sic) for
government oversight with the
establishment of the Department
of Energy in August 1977.” We
saw the development of the
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Happy Cities
AIA Energy Committee in 1973 the International Style movement
and by the early 1990s we and commercial pressures, clients
saw the AIA Committee on the are asking for projects to be
Environment’s and U.S. Green delivered faster than ever before.
Building Council’s formations. This
This leads me to hypothesize
drive towards reducing energy
that cities are being built
use and making buildings more
with commerce, speed, and
sustainable introduced a new, far-
performance as the primary driving
reaching design criteria - building
force over firmness, utility, and
performance.
beauty and it leaves me wondering
Today, performance demands on if our future cities will be happy
buildings are higher than they cities, filled with the delight of a
have ever been (and rightly so). beautiful built environment, or if
Architects have been made aware our cities will become commodities
of the tremendous contribution - products of decisions made in a
buildings make to global warming - boardroom and passed on to an
the biggest contribution. And with Architect.
global warming currently being
our biggest threat as a species,
buildings will need to perform
better and better, contributing
less and less to global warming.
Architects also have to contend
with the commoditization of
Architecture. Whereas historically
clients might have been wealthy
families and patrons of Art, today
more and more the client is a
business entity interested in their
bottom line rather than the quality
of the built environment. Building
materials are a line item on a
spreadsheet, waiting to be value
engineered to reduce project costs.
The choice between brick or stone
or a composite is less and less
an aesthetic decision and more
and more a commercial decision.
With the commoditization of
Architecture also comes a new
driver of decision-making - speed.
Given the advancements of the
industrialization that gave birth to
67
 REFERENCES

Corbusier, Le. 2007. Toward an Architecture. Translated by John Goodman. N.p.: Getty Research Institute.

Donoff, Elizabeth. 2016. “The Energy Crises of the 70s.” Architect Magazine. https://www.architectmagazine.com/
technology/lighting/the-energy-crises-of-the-70s_o.

“Firmness, Commodity and Delight - Firmness, Commodity, and Delight.” n.d. The University of Chicago Library.
Accessed May 4, 2022. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/firmness-commodity-and-delight/.

Kelly, Brian. 2021. Making Face, Virtual lecture. University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and
Preservation, College Park, Maryland.

68 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

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 Metamorphosis: A Vision for the
Urban Cemetery of Tomorrow
Bradley Benmoshé, CNU-A, LEED Green Associate, CPTED | Rhodeside Harwell (RHI)
Forests may be gorgeous but
there is nothing more alive than a
tree that learns how to grow in a
cemetery. — Andrea Gibson
Imagine it’s a beautiful spring
day in Washington, DC. You’re
enjoying a picnic with your loved
ones under the same mature tree
your family has been visiting since
you too were a child. The flowers
are in full bloom, exhibiting a
cacophony of vibrant colors. The
nearby magnolia trees fill the air
with a sweet fragrance, and the
birds are chirping joyously. You
smile as you see several children
frolicking about merrily with their
relatives. Except their relatives
are dead, and the kids are playing
on their gravesite. You’re having a
picnic in a cemetery, yet life is in
abundance.
Next Page: A family enjoying a picnic under a blooming cherry blossom tree
Image Credit: Jerome Strauss, The New Yorker
70
Most of us may not like to think
about death, burials, and funerals,
but in a rapidly densifying and
urbanizing global population, we
must plan for how to dispose of all
these bodies when the inevitable
eventually occurs.
Death rituals can be traced back
to the Neanderthals, an ancient
species of early humans that lived
over 160,000 years ago. Since
then, civilizations across the globe
have developed and practiced
meaningful burial customs to
memorialize their dead. In much
the same way that the spoken
language, religious practices,
and societal norms vary between
cultures, so too does the practice
of body disposition. For instance,
the ancient Egyptians believed
in life after death, and so they
mummified their dead before
burying them in tombs; Buddhist
Mongolians and Tibetans believe
in the transmigration of spirits,
and so, after death, the body, now
believed to be an empty vessel, is
cut into pieces, and fed to vultures,
who are viewed as angels, carrying
the spirits up to heaven, following
an elaborate ceremony.
Modern western-world countries
use similar practices for body
disposition, such as interment
within a cemetery. Yet, people are
seeking new ways of burial that
they find more meaningful and in
line with their beliefs, including
the wish to celebrate the life of a
person rather than mourn in the
traditional solemn funeral manner.
Isn’t it time that our customs
caught up with new ideas and ways
of living?
Today’s urban cemeteries are
facing many challenges, including
running out of space for burials
and expansion, being “landlocked”
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Avenues, Volume 5 71
 A painting of Mount Auburn Cemetery
Image Credit: Mount Auburn Cemetery Historical Collections, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts
by development, increased
upkeep costs and declining
revenues (because of fewer plots
being available), disrepair and
neglect, NIMBYism, and even
environmental issues. Therefore,
tomorrow’s cemeteries could
have a more positive, impactful,
equitable, sustainable, and
welcoming presence within the
community.
With the coronavirus pandemic still
raging around the world — having
caused nearly 6.75 million deaths
globally as of January 2023, it is
one of the deadliest pandemics
in human history. Given such a
large loss of life and a complete
72
jolt in our world order, many must
confront death, including how to
memorialize and dispose of the
bodies of those lost. Many grieving
families are faced with the financial
burden associated with traditional
funeral and burial expenses, which
have risen nearly twice as fast as
consumer prices for all items.
Funeral expenses rose 227.1%,
while all items rose 123.4%, in the
thirty years since the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics began tracking
funeral expenses.
Therefore, perhaps now is the
time for the next generation of
the cemetery. One that not only
provides a space to memorialize
our deceased loved ones, but
that helps to give back to its
community, is affordable and
accessible to all, and contributes to
a happier and healthier city.
CEMETERIES: AMERICA’S
FIRST PARKS
In the 1820s, America’s growing
cities had a problem: People kept
dying, and urban graveyards were
filling up. There was growing
concern about the unhealthiness
of burials under churches, as
well as potentially running out
of space for burials within the
church grounds. Fortunately, a trio
of horticulturists and landscape
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

architects in Massachusetts, having
been inspired by Paris’ Pere-
Lachaise Cemetery, came up with
an idea to transform cemeteries
into experimental gardens on the
edges of town, and away from
church grounds.
In 1831, their bold vision would
become reality when the
Massachusetts Horticultural
Society purchased 72 acres of
mature woodland six miles west
of the Boston city center, for the
creation of a “rural cemetery,”
named Mount Auburn Cemetery.
Designed by Henry Dearborn,
the head of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society, in the
naturalistic English style, this
cemetery provided a tranquil
and beautiful public space where
families could memorialize their
loved ones in an inviting and
natural setting.
The trio’s bold idea to design
cemeteries as inviting public
spaces on the outskirts of town
became very popular throughout
the growing nation. Within a few
decades, nearly every major city in
America emulated its elegant and
dual-purpose solution for body
disposition. These rural cemeteries
not only temporarily solved the
problem of urban burials, but they
gave rise to the rural “garden”
cemetery movement, and they
ultimately became the first public
parks established in the United
States of America.
Avenues, Volume 5
In the 19th century, epidemics took
many children at an early age, and
women died in childbirth, making
death far too common in families.
Having a picnic at the burial site
of a deceased loved one was very
common, acceptable, and popular,
as this allowed grieving families to
include their deceased loved ones.
Over time, many cemeteries would
ban the practice of consuming food
within the grounds, because of
the large crowds on the grounds
and the litter visitors often left
behind. While there are a handful
of cemeteries throughout the
United States that still permit
bringing in and consuming food on
the grounds, the idea of picnicking
and spending leisure time in
a cemetery seems outlandish,
creepy, and even taboo to so many
in this country.
OPTIONS FOR BODY
DISPOSITION
Today, there are more and more
options for body disposition than
ever before. For example, Florida’s
Neptune Memorial Reef uses the
cremated remains (“cremains”)
to create artificial reef material
to transform over 16 acres of the
barren ocean floor. A UK-based
company will press your loved
one’s ashes into a vinyl record
that can play songs for you to
remember them by. There is even
an option to use the decomposing
body to feed a germinating seed
that will eventually grow into a big
Happy Cities
tree. These colorful and unique
options are becoming increasingly
popular over traditional burials
and offer a more personalized and
memorable way to celebrate a life.
Moreover, they are helping to shift
our collective mentality about our
relationship with death, what the
cemetery of tomorrow could be,
how it can play a greater role, and
how it can better contribute to our
communities. Additional options
for body disposition include:
Casket Burial
One of the oldest options in human
history for body disposition, dating
back to the ancient Egyptians, is
casket burial. Today, to ready the
body for burial, it is bathed and
disinfected, and, unless specifically
requested not to, is typically
pumped with embalming fluids
that help to temporarily preserve
the body; this practice is more
for vanity and convenience than
for sanitary or decomposition
purposes. The body is then placed
into an airtight and oversized
box designed and manufactured
to remain intact for a long time,
buried 5-7 feet below ground,
and adorned with a large granite
or bronze marker. This option for
body disposition is in decline as
more people want something
other than this traditional method.
Cremation
First practiced by the ancient
Greeks, cremation is the process
of burning a dead body at very
high temperatures until there is
73
 The cremation process illustrated
Image Credit: Funeralwise

Cremation is now the preferred method of body disposition in the USA

Image Credit: National Funeral Directors Association

74 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee


only brittle, calcified bone left,
which is then pulverized into
“ashes.” These ashes can be kept
in an urn, buried, scattered, or
even incorporated into keepsake
objects, such as jewelry and
artwork, as part of the last rites of
death. Several factors which affect
the duration of the cremation
process include the bone structure
of the body; the percentage of
body fat to lean muscle mass; the
cremation machine and support
equipment’s performance; the
operating temperature of the
cremation chamber; and the type
of casket or urn in which the body
is placed. This practice recently
surpassed traditional casket burial
as the preferred option for body
disposition in the United States of
America.
An example of an all-natural, biodegradable casket
Image Credit: John Christian Phifer
Avenues, Volume 5
Green Burials
Today, more and more people are
concerned about and aware of
their impact on the environment.
Many are opting for a green burial
versus a traditional burial practice
— nearly 52% of Americans
expressed interest in green-burial
options, according to a 2019
survey from the funeral directors’
association. Most of those
surveyed cited environmental
reasons and cost as the main
reasons for wanting a green burial
over traditional burial practices.
Simply stated, green burial is a
way of caring for the deceased
with as little impact on the
natural environment as possible,
especially compared to traditional
and more common burial
practices.
Happy Cities
Green burial is a great way for
many religious persons, specifically
those practicing the Jewish
and Muslim faith, to meet the
requirements of the religious
law regarding burial rituals and
customs. This burial option
conserves natural resources
because the caskets are made from
sustainably produced materials
created from renewable sources;
conventional caskets are often
constructed using wood or metal
not typically produced sustainably.
Green burial caskets are created
from sustainable sources; they
do not use chemical-based
paints or finishes, and they are
biodegradable. Therefore, they do
not add harsh toxins to the earth as
they decompose, thus aiding in the
preservation of the environment.
75
 Resomation
An alternative to traditional burial
and flame cremation, resomation
practices mimic a faster, natural
decomposition process. This
process involves placing the
cadaver in a special wool coffin
into a resomation chamber, and
instead of fire, uses an alkali
hydrolysis chemical and water to
quickly reduce the body to ash.
Typically, this process takes 3 to
4 hours to complete; it also uses
less energy, relies on fewer fossil
fuels, and emits fewer particles
and pollutants into the air than fire
cremation. Currently, resomation
is approved for pets in all 50 states
and humans in 26 states. However,
this number is expected to increase
as demand for this option for body
disposition continues to grow.
Metamorphosis (Ashes to Soil)
Another option for body
disposition is metamorphosis
— mixing cremation ashes with
planting soil, to create new life. On
their own, cremation ashes can be
quite harmful to the environment,
largely because of their high levels
of PH and toxic levels of sodium.
By taking the proper steps needed
to “purify” them, cremation ashes
can help provide many nutrients
and qualities needed for sustaining
plant life. Metamorphosis is a
unique way to not only create a
living memorial, but it directly aids
in returning nutrients to the earth.
Traditional burial and cremation
rituals prevent this crucial phase
from occurring, largely because of
76
the airtight containers the interred
are placed in.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Today, many cultures around
the world use similar practices
for body disposition, including
burials, cremation, interment in a
cemetery, and embalming fluids,
despite their adverse effects on the
natural environment. According to
National Geographic:
American funerals are responsible
each year for the felling of 30
million board feet of casket wood
(some of which come from tropical
hardwoods), 90,000 tons of
steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete
for burial vaults, and 800,000
gallons of embalming fluid. Even
cremation is an environmental
horror story, with the incineration
process emitting many noxious
substances, including dioxin,
hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide,
and climate-changing carbon
dioxide.
Traditional “full-service” burials
(casket, flowers, burial plot or
tomb, grave marker, etc.) have an
enormous impact on the natural
environment. For instance, 10
acres of burial ground contain
nearly 1,000 tons of casket steel,
20,000 tons of concrete for vaults,
and enough wood from buried
coffins to build over 40 single-
family homes. To accommodate
many bodies, whether being
buried in a grave or a mausoleum,
cemeteries typically require
many acres of land, causing
much destruction to the natural
environment and habitats that
initially occupied the land.
Contrary to popular belief, the
practice of cremating bodies is
not the “green” alternative to
underground burial. While it
may not be as damaging to the
environment as full-service burials,
large amounts of nonrenewable
energy (typically natural gas) are
needed to power the furnaces.
By using nonrenewable sources
of energy, greenhouse gasses
and chemicals that have been
vaporized during the cremation
process are released into the
atmosphere.
Among the most destructive
burial rituals to the environment
is the use of embalming fluids - a
replacement of bodily fluids with
a preservative solution. Although
government law or regulation in
many parts of the world does not
require using embalming fluids,
it remains a common practice
throughout the funeral industry.
Alternatives to using embalming
fluid include refrigerating the body
and opting for a closed casket
service.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Urban Transparency

The resomation process illustrated

Image Credit: Resomation, Ltd.

New life growing from the nutrients provided by cremains

Image Credit: Spiritree Forest Co.

Avenues, Volume 3 77
 TYPES OF CEMETERIES
While all cemeteries are developed
to serve the same purpose, there
are many types of cemeteries
with varying levels of service,
burial options offered, type
of memorialization allowed,
and even religious, cultural, or
organization affiliation. Thus,
based on these features and
characteristics, cemeteries are
generally categorized into one
of the fifteen types listed below.
Changes in burial traditions, legal
regulations, and demand have led
to the creation of many types of
cemeteries.
A comparison between traditional and green burials
Image Credit: Nathan Butler, Stephen J. Beard, The Star
78
1. The Church Cemetery: Between
the Middle Ages and the Victorian
era, the dead were often buried
on the properties of churches.
However, with limited space,
graves were often used multiple
times. But as plagues and disease
rose through the soils infecting
those who attended mass, new
regulations were formed regarding
burials and burial plots, which
included making it illegal to bury
bodies less than six feet under the
soil. These days, churchyards are
still used to house the dead, and
while a church cemetery is often
found in the churchyard, it can
often be separate from the church.
These churchyards are owned by
the church and are considered
private property; however,
churchyards are generally open for
all to visit.
2. Public Cemeteries are plots of
land owned by a governmental unit
within a town, city, or county and
are, by law, public cemeteries that
must remain open to the public.
3. The Customary Cemetery:
With no formal or legal status,
customary cemeteries are simply
plots used by neighbors as burying
places, which are further cared for
by survivors of those buried within.
While they are not generally legal,
this type of cemetery is tolerated
and can often be found in rural
areas.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

4. Private Cemeteries are often
owned and operated by a
corporation, lodge, community
organization, military, or specific
family. This type of cemetery is
restrictive to the public and will list
the owners and/or caretakers at
the cemetery entrance.
5. The Lodge Cemetery: Like the
private cemetery, a lodge cemetery
is owned and operated by lodges
or other fraternal organizations,
such as the Bohemian Grove
Club, Freemasons, or Oddfellows.
Most times, this type of cemetery
is strictly for members of the
organization.
6. Ethnic Cemeteries can be
private or public, but are owned,
operated, and maintained to
support a religious group.
7. Family Cemeteries are privately
held parcels of land specifically for
the burial of members of the same
family. This type of cemetery was
commonly used in rural parts of
the United States, often located on
family farms, and helped to keep
burial costs down.
8. Veterans’ Cemeteries
are owned, operated, and
controlled by the Veterans Affairs
Administration on both the state
and national levels. This type of
cemetery limits interment to those
who qualify for veteran burial
benefits. Currently, there are 119
national veterans’ cemeteries in
the United States.
Next Page - Examples of the various types of cemeteries
Image Credit: Wikimedia Common
Avenues, Volume 5
9. Monumental Cemeteries
may be what most of us picture
when we think of a cemetery or
graveyard. They are cemeteries
in which headstones, and other
monuments made of marble,
granite, or similar materials
rise vertically above the
ground. However, because the
maintenance of monuments is
the responsibility of the family as
well as the high density of graves
inside the cemetery, monumental
cemeteries have been considered
unsightly.
10. The Memorial Park: With no
gravestones or grave mounds,
memorial parks are more
commemorative memorials in
honor of the deaths of many lives.
11. The Lawn Park Cemetery:
With commemorative plaques
placed horizontally at the head
of the grave at ground level, a
lawn cemetery is void of grave
mounds but covered entirely
with flat grassy lawns which
barely show any evidence that
people have been buried there.
However, because the plaques are
in the ground, many families are
restricted from leaving objects
on grave markers, because of
lawn maintenance and the use of
mowers.
Happy Cities
12. Lawn Beam Cemeteries are a
recent addition to the cemetery
that addresses the problems a
lawn park cemetery may impose
on maintenance workers. Using
a low raised concrete slab placed
across the cemetery which allows
for commemorative plaques to be
mounted, this feature allows space
between the slabs where grass can
grow, giving cemetery care workers
ease to work mowers without the
risk of blades damaging plaques
and objects left behind by families.
13. Garden Cemeteries combine
a mixture of trees, flowers, and
benches to give them a park-
like atmosphere, but still use
the traditional grave markers
and monuments to identify the
locations of final resting places.
14. Natural Cemeteries are a
more environmentally conscious
type of cemetery that allows
“natural burials.” To be considered
a natural burial, several focus
areas must be met, including
using a biodegradable container,
natural decomposition, conserving
natural resources, environment
preservation, and protecting the
health of the industry workers.
15. Pet Cemeteries provide a space
for pets to be interred. While a
person cannot be buried with
their pets in pet cemeteries, their
cremains can be.
79
80 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

CELEBRATORY PARKS: A
METAMORPHOSIS OF LIFE
Today, the urban cemetery is
faced with similar challenges
as cemeteries from the 19th
century, including overcrowding
and potential health risks to the
surrounding community and
environment. Therefore, we must
once again look for new solutions
to address this largely neglected
topic.
A growing number of urban
planners, designers, developers,
and startup companies are
hoping to solve this problem with
innovative and bold concepts that
will not only change the funerary
industry but also how we think
about and develop our cemeteries.
Some ideas include building high
Colorado’s Seven Stones Botanical Gardens Cemetery was designed for the living as much as for the dead
Image Credit: Seven Stones Botanical Gardens Cemetery
Avenues, Volume 5
rises to house the dead, floating
cemetery islands, and even
sending cremains into orbit around
the earth. While these concepts
are helping to get the conversation
started about what the cemetery
of the future may look like, each
would require significant resources
and could impact the environment
adversely. These concepts may
provide some creative solutions
for saving space, but they can
potentially run into many of
the same challenges today’s
cemeteries are facing. Moreover,
they don’t appear to contribute
to effective placemaking and
community building. People want
to make meaningful memories
and establish a sense of place.
Thus, cemeteries should fit into
community life and impart a sense
of community.
Happy Cities
Therefore, a new hybrid model,
which combines many of the great
qualities and benefits of the park-
like cemeteries of yesterday, could
serve the needs of the living and
the dead; it would also provide
a more sustainable alternative
for those seeking non-traditional
places of body disposition.
Similarly, to the Mount Auburn
Cemetery, the next generation of
the cemetery could also serve as
an inviting and vital public green
space within the community.
However, rather than being set
within a passive natural landscape
on the outskirts of town, these
“celebratory parks” would look and
function like urban parks.
Designing this new type of mixed-
use cemetery to include amenities
such as playgrounds, water
81
 A digital burial marker at the plot of Gaston Leroux, author of The Phantom of the Opera, in Nice, France
Image Credit: Bradley Benmoshé
features, wide pedestrian pathways,
flexible spaces, street furniture, and
even year-round events helps to
maximize the use of the land and
contribute to effective placemaking.
Versatile, engaging, and adaptive;
this new generation of the cemetery
can be established all over the
municipality, providing a multitude
of benefits to the community for
generations to come. Such benefits
would provide the community
with greater accessibility and
connectivity to green space, a
greater sense of place, more
equitable and affordable options for
final disposition, reducing adverse
impacts on the environment, and a
happier and healthier quality of life.
A stark contrast from previous
cemetery designs would be the
82
absence of formal and costly stone
grave monuments and markers.
Instead, memorial trees and
gardens would serve as natural
monuments, but with a twist – the
remains of the deceased will serve
as fertilizer to help the tree grow
and flourish, allowing the deceased
to sustainably contribute to the
circle of life. This could be achieved
by using biodegradable burial pods
and urns, such as Capsula Mundi,
Bios Urn, and The Living Urn.
Unlike traditional burial caskets
and columbarium structures, which
prevent the body’s nutrients from
being released into the ground
during the decomposition process,
these vessels are made from
organic matter and are designed
to break down. Thus, allowing the
nutrients and microbes to feed
the tree above. Additionally, the
ashes of multiple generations of
family members can be used to
provide the same “parent” tree
with nutrients. This would not only
allow for subsequent generations to
be more connected to their family
roots and tree, but it would also
reduce the amount of land that
would otherwise be required if each
additional member were to have
their interment.
Memorial trees and gardens within
the celebratory parks could be
identified using digital markers
such as QR codes. Using their smart
device’s barcode reader, visitors
would be able to identify the
exact location of their loved one’s
burial site as well as view an online
tribute filled with pre-populated
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

life stories, photos, videos, and
accomplishments of the deceased.
And, in today’s highly connected
and digital world, they would
also be able to contribute their
memories of the deceased, thus
allowing them to contribute to that
person’s legacy as well as honor
and memorize them. Additionally,
this could help the deceased’s
loved ones feel connected to and
interact with the space.
Many public cemeteries are owned
by the local municipality, with
upkeep and maintenance typically
falling within the public works
department. However, cemetery
services, such as the opening of
graves and burial services, are
often outsourced to funeral homes
or professional cemetery service
organizations. These celebratory
parks could be owned and
managed by the local municipality,
much like any city-owned public
park, and the municipality could
Life in full abundance in the urban cemetery of tomorrow
Image Credit: Bradley Benmoshé
Avenues, Volume 5
offset some costs by collecting a
nominal fee for “planting” permit
applications. Additionally, the
local municipality would be able
to restrict the species of trees to
only allow for native species to be
planted.
CONCLUSION
While cemeteries may have a
somber purpose, they can and
do serve as beautiful, inviting,
and tranquil green spaces. They
also help to tell a community’s
story, serve as valuable historic
resources, and provide a space
for reflection and recreation.
For centuries, whether out of
necessity, superstition, or desire,
people continue to reimagine the
cemetery. Therefore, now is the
perfect time for us to talk about
what the cemetery of tomorrow
might look and feel like. The
cemetery of tomorrow could
serve as a source of community
Happy Cities
pride, gathering, healing, and
growth. The next generation of
cemetery has a great opportunity
to provide equitable, affordable,
and convenient access to green
and burial spaces, reduce carbon
emissions and promote more
sustainable practices. It could
even serve as a bridge between
the living and the dead, providing
a space for members of the
community to come together and
form new connections, and could
even lead to happier cities.
Things we lose have a way of
coming back to us in the end, if
not always in the way we expect.
After all, to the well-organized
mind, death is but the next great
adventure. — Joanne Kathleen
Rowling
83
 REFERENCES

Gibson, A. (2011). Gospel Salt [Recorded by A. Gibson]. On Flower Boy [Audio CD].

Than, K. (2013, December 16). Neanderthal Burials Confirmed as Ancient Ritual. Retrieved from National Geographic: http://news.
nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131216-la-chapelle-neanderthal-burials-graves/

Torgovnick, K. (2013, October 1). Death is not the end: Fascinating funeral traditions from around the globe. Retrieved from Ted.com: http://ideas.
ted.com/11-fascinating-funeral-traditions-from-around-the-globe/

Interment: The final disposition of human remains by burial, entombment, or inurnment. (International Cemetery and Funeral Association, 1998)

NIMBY: Opposition to the locating of something considered undesirable (such as a prison or incinerator) in one’s neighborhood.

https://covid19.who.int/table

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, the rising cost of dying, 1986–2017 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/
ted/2017/the-rising-cost-of-dying-1986-2017.htm (visited April 13, 2022).

How Is A Body Cremated? (2017). Retrieved from Cremation Resource: http://www.cremationresource.org/cremation/how-is-a-body-cremated.

html

National Funeral Directors Association. (2011). Annual CANA Statistics Report.

Brown, A. (2019, November 30). Eco-friendly cemeteries? More people preferring “green” over standard burials. The Washington Post. https://
www.washingtonpost.com/science/eco-friendly-cemeteries-more-people-preferring-green-over-standard-burials/2019/11/29/af9de6ce-0fc5-
11ea-bf62-eadd5d11f559_story.html

Sullivan, S. (2016). A Need for Change. Retrieved from Resomation: http://resomation.com/about/need-for-change/

Bay Area Funeral Consumers Association (BA-FCA). (n.d.). Resomation - more than you wanted to know. San Francisco. Retrieved from http://www.
ba-fca.org/Resomation.for.newsletter.pdf

Planting Cremation Ashes. (2015). Retrieved from Let Your Love Grow: http://www.letyourlovegrow.com/eco-friendly-burial/cremation-ashes-
planting/

Brackett, A. (2017). Environmental Impact of Death. Retrieved from Seven Ponds: http://www.sevenponds.com/after-death/environmental-
impact-of-death

Elemental Cremation & Burial. (2017). Embalming FAQ. Retrieved from Elemental Cremation & Burial: http://www.elementalnw.com/embalming-
faq/

Gillies, M. (2017). The 15 Types of Cemeteries. Retrieved from Mysendoff.com: https://mysendoff.com/2012/05/the-15-types-of-cemeteries/

EverPlans. (2017). Important Facts to Know About Green burials. Retrieved from Everplans: https://www.everplans.com/articles/important-facts-
to-know-about-green-burials

84 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 85
happenings
this section exhibits the committee’s
milestone events that have convened
thought leaders throughout 2021
 politics, protest and place -
the role of inclusive urbanism in
civic activism
This webinar continued the dialog
about designing an inclusive
urban realm for free expression
and activism. A continuation
from the competition hosted by
the committee in 2020 a panel
discussion was organized as a
collaboration between the AIA|DC
Urban Design Committee & AIA
Equity Committee by WIELD. The
Panel consisted of interdisciplinary
experts from various design
88
relatred fields and explored
aspects relating to how designers
can influence change towards a
more equitable built environment.
The winning entry and runner-
up of the 2020 AIA|DC Politics,
Protest, and Place – A call for an
Inclusive Urban Realm Competition
was also presented during this
occation. The discussion focused
on the 2020 committee theme
of authenticity and equity, and
discussed the following prompts/
questions and more:
- How can design interventions
make activism more inclusive and
safer for all?
- How can urban spaces reframe
community gathering spaces to
highlight commonalities?
- How can existing urban forms be
leveraged to promote participation
for inclusive public protest?
- How can place bolster the voices
of all of our neighbors, whether
embedded in DC’s residential
communities, situated alongside
sites of American history, or by
confronting the symbols of our
democracy?
-How can space be transformed
to take on meaning in yet to be
determined ways?
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

Winning proposal - The Mirror Wall by Zhu Wenyi, Jiang Yaobeilong, Lee Minhui and Huai Zeyu
Image Credit: Zhu Wenyi, Jiang Yaobeilong, Lee Minhui and Huai Zeyu

Runner up proposal - The Forum by Scott McGhee

Image Credit: Scott McGhee

Avenues, Volume 5 89
 All image courtesy of the Urban Design Committee, 2020

daily city nature challenge 2021

The City Nature Challenge is a

global citizen science event that
brings together cities around the
globe in a friendly competition
to observe and identify the
biodiversity in communities.

Last year, through the participation

in the challenge, participants were
able to explore local parks, and
neighborhoods to observe wild
plants and animals that share our
environment.

The event was a collaboration

between the AIA|DC Urban
Design Committee (UD|DC), ASLA
Potomac Chapter and Capital
Nature, and an opportunity to
use the unique skills of architects,
urban designers, and landscape
architects, to compete and help
the scientists get valuable data on
the biodiversity of the region – and
the planet.

Event Image & Interactive Map with DC Metro Area Parks

Image Credit: AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

90 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

City Nature Challenge - 2021 - Summary of Findings

Image Credit: City Nature Challenge

Avenues, Volume 5 91
 rethinking & revitalizing urban
parks post COVID-19
Parks and urban green spaces
enrich people’s lives in many ways
and are known to provide a range
of physical and mental health
benefits to communities within
which they are located. In the past
year, with the increasing number
of restrictions and guidelines for
social distancing due to the global
pandemic, parks across the world
Event Image
Image Credit: AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
92
have seen dramatic increase in
use. They have become spaces of
resilience, personal restoration,
and social activity when the usual
amenities were not available.
Urban designers and landscape
architects have always played
a prominent role in parks
development and design. The
popularity of parks today, however,
has prompted city officials,
planners and designers, and
community activists to think even
more creatively about the role of
parks in urban life. It is sparking
conversations about how these
urban parks can be reimagined
post pandemic. As society emerges
from pandemic restrictions in
the months ahead, how can we
design our parks to nurture this
new found appreciation for the
outdoors and ensure parks and
greenscapes remain a vital part of
people’s daily lives?
This event sparked an interesting
conversation about what strategies
can desginers employ to rethink
and redesign parks for their
continued resilience. The multi
deciplinary panel also discussed
how professions across different
fields can support and enhance
parks in our communities and
their critical place in urban life? .
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

portfolio & resume workshop
The Portfolio & Resume workshop
was aimed at at new graduates
as well as young professionals
trying to advance their careers
and wanted to gain insight into
the industry hiring and talent
aquisition process.
Executed as a collaborative event
between the AIA|DC Emerging
Architects Committee and the
Event Image
Image Credit: AIA|DC Urban Design Committee & AIA|DC Emerging Architects Committee
Avenues, Volume 5
Urban Design Committee the
event included one on one review
of porfolios and conducting mock
interviews.
The event began with remarks by
the guest speaker speaker, Rob
Holzbach, who focused greatly on
what happens behind-the-scenes
during the hiring process at a
typical architecture firm.
Happy Cities
Rob also provided valuable
insights into how firms find and
select candidates to interview and
what makes a successful resume
package. In an adapted virtual
format, each attendee was then
paired into a series of breakout
rooms with other reviewers for
one-on-one feedback.
93
 culture amplifier - ideas
competition
In the past, cities were often direct
manifestations of their culture.
The ability for civic gatherings, the
exchange of ideas and values and
for cultural celebration reflected in
the public realm and programming
of the urban fabric. During the
21st century we have experienced
unprecedented global integration.
This rapid pace of globalization
has fueled economic opportunities
and brought with it many other
94
benefits, but it has also begun to
diffuse cultural identity in cities.
Culture is so much more than
the branded image of the city.
It is defined by the people and
communities within it. And as
technology and social media
continue to both connect and
isolate us, what is the role of
cultural identity in cities? Is
cultural identity still relevant in
the globally diverse city? The goal
of this competition was to seek
ideas on how architects, designers,
planners, and the general public
can contribute towards an
informed citizenry that promotes
awareness on culture, ethnicity
and identity. Can spaces, designs
and interventions that promote
tolerance and equity better
facilitate multicultural exchange?
Using the tools of design,
technology and policy, we were
seeking ideas that create new, or
adapt existing public spaces and
cultural infrastructure for people
to gather and express both their
individual and collective voices..
Emphasis was given to proposals
that created cultural destinations,
not another monumental
landmark.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

DC Space by Rishika Dhawan & Aaron Greiner

Image Credit: Top: Rishika Dhawan & Aaron Greiner

Can a bus stop make a change by Rita Wu

Image Credit: Rita Wu:

Avenues, Volume 5 95
ideas
this section exhibits the committee’s 2020
competition winner and runners-up
 DC Space
By Aaron Greiner, Executive Director, CultureHouse and Rishika Dhawan, Community Manager, CultureHouse
ABOUT CULTUREHOUSE
CultureHouse is an urban design
nonprofit that uses creative
placemaking to address global
challenges at the local scale. We
transform underutilized places
into vibrant social infrastructure,
work with partners to implement
tactical urbanist interventions, and
conduct research into new ways of
making cities livable. cultural isolation.
As an organization dedicated to
lasting change, we empower others
to create public spaces in their
own communities. We provide a
range of services that adapt the
CultureHouse process to address
critical needs. In addition to
working directly with collaborators,
we document and open source
our projects—setting guidelines
for others who want to create
vital public spaces in their own
communities.
98
In his book, Palaces for the
People, sociologist Eric Klinenberg
argues that “building places
where all kinds of people can
gather is the best way to repair
the fractured societies we live in
today”. By increasing access to
social infrastructure, we create
the conditions for communities
to tackle climate change, social
inequality, political division, and
COMPETITION ENTRY
Washington DC has been witness
to many fracturing incidents, most
recently on January 6th, 2021.
Each event has brought with it an
uncertainty within the city. With
ever-evolving ups and downs,
the notion of community and
belonging is no longer associated
with a feeling of positivity. An
urban intervention is required that
is able to bridge the gaps between
the city and its people in order to
create a lasting cultural identity.
The intervention we propose is DC
SPACE.
DC SPACE is a community pop-up
that will serve as a communal
living room, third space, and host
for regular programming. This
relaxed free-to-enter space will
strengthen community bonds
between previously disparate
groups and create a context
where all generations can coexist
in an atmosphere of play. It will
provide a place where people
can build interpersonal networks
that are critical to creating the
thriving, sustainable, and resilient
neighborhoods needed to combat
current and future needs.
Jane Jacobs said, ‘cities have the
capability of providing something
for everybody, only because, and
only when, they are created by
everybody’. How do we represent
a cultural identity for evolving and
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

Zoning map showing commercial corridor along 14th street
Image Credit: DC office of Zoning, Zoning Map (2016)
diverse communities? One of the
best tools we have to confront
this is to strengthen the existing
social fabric between communities.
Sociologist Eric Klinenberg wrote,
“building places where all kinds of
people can gather is the best way
to repair the fractured societies we
live in today.” Working together
using the creativity and resilience
of our community members is
our biggest asset. Washington
DC lacks the social infrastructure
necessary to bring people together
in meaningful ways.
An example of welcoming social
infrastructure is Studenterhuset,
Avenues, Volume 5
a vibrant nonprofit student center
located in central Copenhagen.
This is a student-run non-profit
that serves as a uniting space for
university students to work, play,
meet, and learn. By embracing
the diversity among Copenhagen
students, they are able to appeal
to a wide range of people, giving
everyone a reason to come. A lot
of the location has the feeling of
being created by and for peers, and
so is welcoming and unpretentious.
The space is dynamic — allowing
for team meetings during the
day, a concert at night, and a flea
market on the weekends.
Happy Cities
THE LOCATION
The location for DC SPACE will
depend on a few factors. We
assess whether the space is a
low or high traffic area which
will affect the kind of programs
we will need to attract more
people. Accessibility is important,
there should be no barriers
from untapped communities or
physical accessibility constraints.
It is important to establish a
relationship with surrounding
owners of the space and ensure
that they are supportive towards
the goals of the pop-up.
99
 We form these relationships
by meeting people where they
are, going door to door and
introducing ourselves, being a
part of community meetings and
establishing local partners that can
help build relationships.
Judging by these factors, the
Columbia Heights Civic Plaza is the
most suited location for DC SPACE.
Having selected the location, we
determine the exact address of
the space in collaboration with
the community and their specific
needs and goals. As the nature of
the pop-up is temporary, we are
flexible with the exact space. and operation of a pop-up. Keeping
The neighborhood of Columbia
Heights has experienced many ups
and downs over the years. From
the designation of a “colored”
school that created a home for the
African American Population to
being the location of the 1968 riots changes.Existing organizations
which forced an exodus of people, such as BloomBar and the GALA
there has been a lot of history both Theater, and the nearby Howard
good and bad. University, have helped keep
the cultural identity of Columbia
Previously a neglected
Heights alive. DC SPACE would be
neighborhood, there have
able to enhance the same with an
been significant attempts at
intervention that stems from the
urban revitalization with the
community, for the community.
metro station and new housing
developments. The strength of this THE PROCESS
neighborhood has always been its
connectivity to Downtown. A successful social infrastructure
intervention is defined by its
The neighborhood has been
process. It is about how we
designated as mostly residential
engage, involve, and empower the
with a commercial corridor along
community to lead to the creation
14th street. There are two kinds of
communities present in Columbia
specific community needs central
Heights; the first are the newer,
we customize and change the pop-
wealthier residents that are
up to fit local conditions. Engaging
creating meaningful spaces for
the community at each step of the
themselves and the second are
process ensures that the pop-up
the long-time residents that feel
is centering those who need it the
neglected and left behind by the
most.

RESEARCH

Working with similar organizations and others present in the community keeps the
identity of the neighborhood intact. With their help we gather information about
the community and the neighborhood and understand the existing needs and
concerns. This creates a homely environment at DC SPACE whether you have been
living in DC for years or are just visiting. It acts as a bridge between government
officials and their constituents, providing a neutral territory where they can meet and
connect. Prominent partners to consider will be the Civic Plaza Partners, Columbia
Heights Main Streets as well as the Advisory Neighborhood Commission.

100 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

A pop-up does not happen to a community, it happens with a community. We

spend time engaging with the community and understanding what they want
to see in their spaces. We often use a large chalk prompt board where we write
“I wish I had a place too…” and ask people to fill in the blank. The nature of the
pop-up model is temporary which allows for constant iteration and molding to
accommodate evolving needs. It encourages positive interaction by functioning
as a space to meet new people and those who have lived in DC for a while.

DESIGN/BUILD

Using tactical urbanism methods we will build a space that is inviting, accessible
and fosters community. DC SPACE thrives on being visually and experientially
different which brings people into an environment they can be comfortable in
and peacefully interact. It is important to plan for adaptability as spaces may need
to evolve depending on how they are used. A successful pop-up is accessible
to all ages, abilities and languages. The pop-up has a barrier free entrance and
internal structure. Things like metal detectors in public institutions of DC that
might get in the way of universal access do not hinder the situation here.

OPERATION

Events are a chance to bring in collaborators, expand audiences, support local creatives,
and give people an excuse to stop by. Events will almost always be free, we want
to reduce as many barriers as we can to getting people in the door. Not relying on
event revenue for funding lets us build a more equitable environment. A public space
attracts a wide range of people which means that sometimes there will be conflict.
The host and staff are members of the community, giving visitors a person they can
relate to. All staff are trained on de-escalation strategies to create a comfortable
environment where situations can be easily diffused. People can build connections
with people who are different from them through interactions in spaces and events,
which builds tolerance across identities and facilitates multicultural exchange.

IMPACT REPORT AND DATA COLLECTION

Throughout the process we will collect data from the experiences and interactions
of the community. Stepping back and looking at the space from a birds-eye
view and comparing it with other similar efforts can yield larger discoveries.
Often a solution that works for a specific community can also be adapted to
other communities in DC. Publishing a report publicly allows others to read
it and gain inspiration that they can take to their own neighborhood.

Avenues, Volume 5 101

 THE SPACE opportunities. to various forms of existing public
spaces. The nature of constant
In Washington DC, the tourists
DC SPACE will address city level engagement and research ensures
have access to the larger open
problems at a neighborhood that all voices are not only heard
spaces and museums, the national
scale. The events and programs but differences are recognized,
government takes a seat at the
create a playful atmosphere that understood and supported through
highest point of the city, and
promotes livability and joy. And, by the design and operation of the
the local residents are spread
giving people a platform to locate space. The nature and importance
throught the outer periphery of
problems and find solutions within of a human scale at DC SPACE
the city divided by prominent racial
their community, this pop-up creates a sense of place and an
definitions. The process of realizing
will spur inclusive neighborhood authentic cultural destination.
DC SPACE uses urban design,
development. This pop-up space Washington DC sets an example
planning, art, human centered
will be a temporary means of for the rest of the country. With a
design, and architecture strategies
supporting communities to space like DC SPACE we can ensure
to give social infrastructure a
make long term dreams a reality that the value of the city stays
new form. Due to its temporary
and serve as research hubs that intact as it continues to evolve.
nature DC SPACE can be adapted
generate future placemaking

Conceptual rendering of DC SPACE

Image Credit: Culture House

102 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

Conceptual exterior render for DC SPACE with spaces for play, relaxation and performances
Image Credit: Culture House

Conceptual interior render for DC SPACE with spaces living room spaces and working spaces
Image Credit: Culture House

Avenues, Volume 5 103

 REFERENCES

Batty, M. (2013). The New Science of Cities. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT Press

Bauman, Z. (2001) Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Campbell, J. Livengood, S. (2021) personal communication. December, 2, 2021. United States Capitol Historical Society.

DC Office of Zoning. (2016) Official Zoning Map

Klinenberg, E. (2019). Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. Crown

104 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

 Happy Cities

Avenues, Volume 5 105

 the reconstruction of chinatown in
washington dc
Rita Wu, University of Virginia
TO BEGIN WITH...
The impact of this competition
on me is far larger than just these
several pages of work. It takes
more than that to rethink different
aspects of the word ‘culture’. What
is culture? The dictionary defines
it as “the customary beliefs, social
forms, and material traits of a
racial, religious, or social group”
in the web dictionary. I don’t
really like this definition because
it is too vague and could apply to
nearly everything from our daily
life. The only thing I am sure of is
that it is hard to explain in simple
words,and harder to visualize it in a
specific space. “
A quick self-introduction, I am a
second-year university student
and my hometown is China. I’ve
lived in the U.S. for a year. While
you may think that I will spend lots
of time talking about how I adapt
106
to the new environment, I can say I wanted to study. No matter
that it’s pretty easy—I started to how time changes, Chinatown
fit into the new lifestyle and act is no doubt the first place that
like other natives after my first people (especially visitors and
week here. Living in a globalized local groups) can think of when
world, the internet, education, and mentioning Chinese culture.
international trade make people’s
ABOUT CHINATOWN IN DC
(especially the young generation’s)
daily lifestyles familiar, even if
People may wrongly interpret
we may come from different
Chinatown as a flourishing place if
“cultural backgrounds.”So, here’s
they see the beautiful pictures on
the question: what do we need
the websites. Although it is true
culture for? I had mixed feelings
that the typical entrance gate is still
when I saw the lion dance at the
attractive and marks the glorious
spring festival gala at my school.
history of Asian immigrants,
It is definitely a part of Chinese
the current population in the
culture, but actually, I seldom see
community was reported as low
it even when I am in China. Then I
as 300 in 2015, while Asian is no
realized a problem, those “Chinese
longer the dominant group in the
elements” famous in the U.S. are
area.
only a limited iconic part and far
away from people’s daily life. The origin of DC Chinatown can be
dated back to the 1890s, when the
Since I had never been to
gathering of Asian people finally
Washington DC when I first saw
caught the attention of local
I chose Chinatown as the place
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

media, which announced the
community’s existence. From then
on, it continued its function as an
important social infrastructure—
providing both physical and
emotional support for new
immigrants. It kept attracting
more Chinese Americans due to
the language convenience and
job opportunities. On one hand,
I guess the culture of Chinatown
at that time was really traditional
because most residents were
first-generation immigrants from
Chinatown DC - The Friendship Archway was dedicated in 1986 to mark the friendship between DC and Beijing. Streets of Washington
Image Credit: Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0
Avenues, Volume 5
China. Still, on the other hand, the
community must have been highly
exclusive from the local people’s
perspective, which resulted in
another kind of social segregation
caused by culture—although we
cannot say if it is a good thing or
not.
Many issues affect the continued
expansion of Chinatown. However,
the most severe impact is caused
by the formalization process
that started in the 1980s [3]. In
the zoning plan at that time, the
Happy Cities
Chinatown districts were marked
as wild and messy, so it became
an urgent task to demolish the
whole place and make it an
urban renewal project. Blocks
around the community were
quickly modernized and replaced
by new concrete buildings, and
commercial sites began to invade
the Chinatown neighborhood.
Even though citizens showed
strong disagreement and refusal,
some were still forced to move to
suburban areas.
107
 NOWADAYS
Nowadays, due to the excellent
location near the city center,
the land price and rent of the
Chinatown area make it more
difficult for small businesses to
survive [4]. The simple business
model (restaurant only) causes
the decline of community
vitality, leading to the lack of
street activities and community
maintenance. Therefore, it results
in the disappearance of the sense
of belonging and cultural identity.
WHAT ABOUT MY PROJECT?
Chinatown DC - A mural painted by a Chinatown resident artist, covering a boarded vaccant lot
Image Credit: Will Schick
108
Personally, I believe that a good
economic status and enough
social interactions are the basis of
promoting “culture.” In the ideal
situation, “culture” should be a part
of our daily life.
My project aims to promote the
economic growth and the social
interaction of the community while
revitalizing the culture represented
by Chinatown and encouraging
effective exchanges and integration
with local cultures. So, I chose
“shared public space” as the main
focus of my project to try to explore
new possibilities in different
kinds of space. The first step I
took was to take an overall look
at the whole area in the east of
Downtown Washington, D.C. along
H and I Streets between 5th and
8th Streets [5]—the most direct
feeling is that it is a really dense
area that has a strong contrast with
its surroundings.The “dense” here
does not refer to the population
but the significant numbers of
buildings in the limited space; most
are only several floors high. The
whole Chinatown community lacks
additional but essential space for
people to do activities.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee

Instead of coming up with a whole
zoning plan for the entire area
and demolishing the existing built
environment, I am thinking of
solving this problem by adding
small changes. When I walked
from school to my dorm one
day, I suddenly realized that the
streets could serve many different
functions and are one kind of
the “third space” that people
stayed in for the longest time. As
Context Study
Image Credit: Rita Wu
Avenues, Volume 5
a result, my project improves the
streets in the China Town area,
making it a “complete street”
with green space, bike lanes,
and open public space for more
street activities. Especially during
this COVID time, it is better to
encourage outside interaction than
inside the buildings. Meanwhile,
according to the theory of Jane
Jacobs, street activity means that
more people can pay attention to
Happy Cities
the development of this area and
reduce street crime to some extent.
Meanwhile, I notice there are
about 14+ bus stops near this
area. (When I was working on the
project, I compared them to the
bus stops near my home. However,
it turns out that those differ slightly
from the ones in Chinatown. I will
describe how in more detail later.)
109
 Design Sketches
Image Credit: Rita Wu

110 AIA|DC Urban Design Committee


So, why not do some decorations
and change them to unique
elements just like the front gate of
China Town? As bus stops can also
be considered an ignored public
space, they also have the functions
of improving social communication
and showing knowledge of the
Chinese culture.
The project includes giving bus
stops an entirely new appearance
Design Sketches
Image Credit: Rita Wu
Avenues, Volume 5
(the shape of Nian and lions)
related to Chinese culture,
along with constructing unique
and dynamic tiny museums,
food stores, or Chinese gift
shops near them. Some of
these “exchanging sites” can be
automatic. For example, some
can be introductions to festivals
in China, and others can be
interactive, like selling some snacks
and experiencing the procedure
Happy Cities
of cultural crafts. It provides some
workplaces for “low-income”
people living here, and it has the
potential to be a new fashion trend
that attracts young people and
makes the waiting time more fun
and comfortable. Lastly, I found
a medium-sized vacant lot inside
by viewing the community’s plan.
I decided to make it a mini-park
with trees, water, and most
important—a bridge in the shape
111
 of a dragon. The reason that I
chose a dragon is that it is a typical
character and easy to emulate. This
action can add to the community’s
social infrastructure and green
space, benefiting residents and
visitors. However, after visiting
the actual site, I realized this park
action is unrealistic, but I want
to leave it here as a part of my
thinking process.
THOUGHTS FOR FUTURE
AND SUGGESIONS FOR
IMPROVEMENTS
During the spring break of 2022,
I finally got the chance to visit
Chinatown in Washington DC.
It is pretty different from what
I have expected. I am a little bit
disappointed to find myself being
the only Asian visitor in this area
during my trip, so I sincerely hope
that my project can help the
situation better.
One problem I found is that I made
a mistake when interpreting the
scale of the vacant lot, so it came
out to be too small for the park, so
maybe the park can be moved to
112
another place where needed. The
currently vacant lot can be used as
a small plaza for children and elders
to do some daily exercise.
The good thing is that I noticed
that there are already some
traditional Chinese elements
inside the community, including
red trash cans, dragon-shaped
lights, etc. But I think that my
project is still valuable even if
these elements exist—the bus
stop proposal integrates culture
into its function. Compared to the
trash cans and lights, a bus stop
is an actual place that provides
people with incentives to stay
and contains more content.
While carefully examining the bus
stops in Washington DC, I found
that they already have roofs to
prevent people from sun and
rain. That will make my proposal
even more straightforward: no
need to construct them from
zero; we can just invite artists,
residents, and anyone interested
in the project to decorate it; this
process is also an excellent way to
promote culture. Moreover, some
bus stops near Chinatown are also
linked to the internet and GPS
guidance, which gives me ideas
on the future possibilities of this
project in further researching the
role Chinatown plays nowadays in
people’s lives. One idea is that we
can make every bus stop unique
and match them with QR codes
(even maybe change the decoration
every half year) for people to “make
a collection” around Chinatown,
maybe set up some posts collection
on social media like Ins or Facebook
blogs or apps, that can attract
people to come to Chinatown for
travel. Another idea is related to
the concept of the “smart city”: to
track people’s movements related
to Chinatown, for example, where
they come from in the city, and
which store they most commonly
go to. In this way, we can identify
the attraction groups and the most
frequent functions of Chinatown,
which can provide a reference for
future planning.
AIA|DC Urban Design Committee
 Happy Cities

REFERENCES

Chinatown demographics and statistics. Niche. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2022, from https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/n/chinatown-
washington-dc/residents/

Cooper, R. (2021, September 6). A neighborhood guide to Chinatown in Washington, DC. TripSavvy. Retrieved May 24, 2022, from https://www.
tripsavvy.com/chinatown-washington-dc-neighborhood-guide-1039373

Wang, Y. (2015, July 18). D.C.’s Chinatown has only 300 Chinese Americans left, and they’re fighting to stay. The Washington Post. Retrieved
May 24, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/dcs-chinatown-has-only-300-chinese-americans-left--and-fighting-to-
stay/2015/07/16/86d54e84-2191-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html

Weta. (2020, April 10). The History & Survival of Washington D.C.’s Chinatown. Boundary Stones: WETA’s Washington DC History Blog. Retrieved
May 24, 2022, from https://boundarystones.weta.org/2020/04/10/history-survival-washington-dc%E2%80%99s-chinatown#footnote-marker-1-1

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, March 1). Chinatown (Washington, D.C.). Wikipedia. Retrieved May 24, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Chinatown_(Washington,_D.C.)

Avenues, Volume 5 113

contributions

Urban Design Committee editorial review contributing authors

AIA|DC Bohesa Won Bradley Benmoshe
Hinali Shah Rishika Dhawan
managing editors Mary Eveleigh Aaron Greiner
Janki Shah, Assoc. AIA Mary Fitch, AICP, Hon. AIA Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar
Saakshi Terway, Assoc. AIA Scott Archer. AIA Greg Luongo
Kumi Wickramanayaka, AIA Temitayo Fasusi, RA Timothy Maher
Joseph McKenley
co-chairs graphic review Erin Peavey
Janki Shah, Assoc. AIA Ameya Lokesh Kaulaskar Dominic Weilminster
Kumi Wickramanayaka, AIA Ana Gabriela Mendoza Flores Rita Wu
Bohesa Won
past chair Dita Bittenbender
Saakshi Terway, Assoc. AIA

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