Pedestrian Ways: Shared Space

Source: architecturetoday.co.uk

Shared space realm, Ashford, Kent, UK by Whitelaw Turkington

the project involved the replacement of a 1970s ring road with a new ‘shared space’ realm, one of the largest in Europe, intended to achieve a better balance between pedestrians and cars.  -- Architecture Today

Whitelaw Turkington's re-working of Ashford town centre

The ambition is to extend the town centre, improving connectivity and unlocking development potential, creating a fully integrated network of streets and spaces based on a clear movement hierarchy which re-stitches the town centre to its surroundings. Inspired by the concept of ‘shared space’ and a more enlightened approach to streetscape design, the transformation of roads in to more civilised public spaces was at the heart of the design. -- World Architecture News

The drive to integrate traffic with other users of public space has been a hallmark of Dutch urban design since the late 1960s. Now ‘shared space’.

A fresh approach to the century-old problem of how to reconcile the movement of people and traffic is emerging across Europe. Increasingly referred to as ‘shared space’, the aim is to integrate traffic into the complex informal social protocols of public space without loss of safety, mobility or accessibility, to promote urban quality and civility. -- Architecture Today

Never Mind the Bollards: Here’s Shared Space

Ben Hamilton-Baillie, the Bristol-based “urban movement” specialist who, along with Hans Monderman, is a central figure in Chapter Five of the book, has a new paper out, “Shared Space: Reconciling People, Places and Traffic,” in the journal Built Environment (PDF available here, along with Ben’s other writings), that fully articulates the theory behind, and application of, “shared space,” a movement that is often reduced to quick soundbites along the lines of “let’s rip out all the traffic signs.”  -- How We Drive

From Main Roads to mixed-Use Streets: Redesigning traffic arteries in urban areas by Ben Hamilton Bailie from rudi.net