Street: The dual value of Function and Aesthetics

Function

connection

    For example, the countryside in Jiangxi province, China, which have many narrow streets. The streets could not provide an aesthetic feel. They are mainly for practical purposes—linking the whole countryside. Because they are narrow, people will hardly feel a sense of distance. In addition, these streets are like spider nets, which connect every family.

    In a certain sense, the countryside streets are the connection between the house and the field, which in fact constitutes the connection between people and nature. People can walk to the field and nature through the streets. This virtually increases people’s connection with nature.

    Another example is the street in Kyoto. The streets in Kyoto are short, “the streets of Kyoto are straight and 90 meters or less in length, and anything that happens there is easily visible. As a townscape whose design promotes an intermingling of internal and external orders and a sense of community, Kyoto is an outstanding example.” (Composition of the Townscape, p.44)

    These streets are short and straight, and people can see the whole things which happened on these streets. That means, every time, people could connect with others. They may see others or be seen by others. In this paragraph, the author mentioned the internal and external orders and a sense of community. For external orders, Kyoto’s streets were short and narrow, they could adapt to the terrain perfectly. And they can change direction at any time to take all the houses. For internal orders, they could maintain communication between communities. 

Separation

    On the opposite, in the advanced residential area, such as Tai He Beijing yard in China, “what has been said about streets can be applied more generally to all open spaces between buildings.” (The Dynamics of architectural form, 81) So the trees, grass, and other gardening widened the streets. The streets separate each house into its own, making the house become an independent individual. They keep the residents from being disturbed and increase the quietness of the houses because the voice from other residents could hard spread to our own house through the long distance. However, they also reduced communication between residents. If we do not know what happened to others recently, we could hardly find a topic to talk about with our neighbors.

    Another example of a street that could increase the sense of distance is that the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico, is located in the middle of the city, and because of the pressure of the vehicle, this street was built very wide. However, it pulls away the distance between the buildings on both sides of the street, which means the buildings are less connected. The two merchants or residential areas a street away would have less connection. The employees in the office buildings on both sides of the street have fixed action places, so there is little and no need to care about the situation of employees who across the street. Therefore, the road divides this area into two parts. People in both parts have little or even no connection with another part. Maybe we could say these wide streets make the city seems to lack human touch. They do divide the city.

    In some certain areas, take Wenzhou China for an example, these wide streets even divide the whole Wenzhou to 11 parts, it is like setting many boundaries between the areas of Wenzhou.

Combination of connection and separation

    As an example of that street is a combination of connection and separation, the island ring highway in Hainan China, linked every part of the island. People could reach every part through the ring highway. The interesting thing is the ring highway is shaped like an ouroboros. It also could be thought that the ring highway separates the island and the sea. It forms a closed structure. However, in another way, the streets of Hainan are a connection between the land and the ocean. The streets let us break through the mountains and link the space of land and sea.

Aesthetics

    If you look at the rural road map of Caroline, you can not only connect the houses but also make the houses look tidier from an aesthetic point of view. They cut the country into square squares, which makes the American countryside look very neat.

    In addition, from an aesthetic point of view, the streets near the Arc de Triomphe in France are a good example. Twelve streets radiate from the center, like the light from the stars, which makes the Arc de Triomphe also known as the "stargate".