This highly influential film in architecture and planning circles by William H. Whyte analyzes the success and failures of urban spaces. Observing the natural order of spaces and the way people move through them, Whyte provides an intuitive critique of urban spaces and ways these spaces can be improved.
During his near two-decade reign as design director at the Nelson Office, Irving Harper put his mark on Herman Miller, not only by creating the company’s now famous logo, but also by embodying an ethos of total design.
Most designers have a set of principles upon which they loosely base their work. Dieter Rams, famously, had 10. But how often do you satisfy all of these tenets of your practice at once? Once in a while, if you’re lucky.
If that surprises you, you’re a little naive," he explained, laughing over the phone. "Try digging a hole three stories deep in San Francisco and filling it with concrete and see how much it costs you."
The next time you're cursing the price of a city parking meter, think instead about the high cost of free, off-street parking in terms of the urban environment.
To warn of this danger, the Porto Alegre streets were invaded by ' respeitômetros ', a humorous way to signal the safe distance between the car and the bicycle.