ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests some built form characteristics that may contribute to creating more nurturing places. These characteristics are broken into two: the structural characteristics that provide the underlying foundations that make a city potentially compassionate and the detailed characteristics that realize this potential and facilitate people to interpret their surroundings as nurturing. Both structural and detailed characteristics are grouped by the objectives they serve.
The structural characteristics of the compassionate city are that it is compact, contains a network of gridded streets, is characterized by extensive mixing of uses and different parts of it are connected together by high-amenity pedestrian- and cycle-orientated greenways along which key trip generators such as schools, public transport stops and local centres are aligned. The structural characteristics also suggest aligning uses and activities so meeting needs that may otherwise be overlooked (such as experiencing nature) become incidental to meeting other needs that we tend to be more attentive to.
In relation to the detailed characteristics, they need to contribute to making a place welcoming and legible, as well as to reassure the passer-by that they are not exposed to unacceptable levels of risk. They need to reflect well on the occupant, be occupied and adorned by the people using them, and offer people the right amount of stimulation so they are neither bored nor overwhelmed. These places need to resonate with the aesthetic values of the observer, be playable and offer fun to people of all ages. They need to ensure they don’t blight their surroundings, facilitate meaningful connections with nature, provide opportunities to learn and facilitate people to connect and co-operate. This chapter suggests that if we are to provide spaces that help people meet the full range of their needs, many of these spaces will have to be designed to be seen and used differently by different people without conflict. The final two characteristics are to allow people to set themselves achievable challenges at a variety of different skills levels so they might find realistic and rewarding opportunities to participate in civic life and to embed the built environment with messages that reward people for acting according to their highest principles.
