A park sketch showing circulation through the park along with leisure areas, and buildings in the background.
An image of the plaza space in front of the PreColombian Art Museum, showing the way circulation through Santiago can occur through landscaped plazas rather than just sidewalks.
An image taken of a walk space in the Universidad Cathólica de Chile, once again showing the integration of seating, circulation, shading, and landscape.
The openness of the city is difficult to describe. The word that seems to best explain it is permeability. Many of the malls in the city, for instance, do not act as one heavy volume on a city block. They are permeable in the way than the lower level has paths to cross through the block, with shops all around.
Even parks behave in an entirely new way. They don’t act as an isolated destination the way I have seen many parks in Ohio. Rather, they serve as both recreational areas and as circulation paths through the city.
The impact of all this is the creation of a blended, unified city. Locals and tourists, children and the elderly, and even dogs and humans all live as one.
Implementing this into cities like Columbus would completely transform the place, and certainly in a positive way. Take the Oval on campus, for example. It is by far one of Ohio State’s most popular spaces, and serves the dual purpose of play and circulation. Perhaps Columbus is not quite so literally possible since the climate of Ohio is nowhere near as favorable in Santiago. Still, creating spaces that are permeable as opposed to heavy volumes has the potential to create a more usable city.