…Within the POLYCENTRIC REGION, provide functional and beautiful pathways for transportation and ecology.

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Problem-statement: People need human-scaled pathways around their city that offer many different modes of travel including walking and cycling, that are beautiful, ecological and functional, and that link with other modes of travel.

Discussion: Mobility corridors are focused on high-speed inter-urban mobility for vehicles, but they leave out the lower-speed forms of travel for more routine urban trips. The pattern of the urban greenway described here combines generous lanes for walking, biking, surface trams, moderate-speed surface vehicles, and below-grade trains, all linked by periodic intermodal stations. It is thus convenient to travel along an urban greenway corridor to intersect other train stations and transit lines within the region and beyond.

Urban greenways can be laid out, in some cases, along existing stream and river corridors to maintain ecological corridors for natural vegetation and wildlife, taking care to protect ecologically sensitive features — for example, placing the more disruptive pathways along the banks above stream corridors.[1] Urban greenways can also be developed out of previous beltways, such as the Ringstrasse in Vienna — seen in the photo at the beginning of this pattern — which was redeveloped from the beltway formed by the old city wall.

A polycentric region with several urban greenway loops
A polycentric region with several urban greenway loops

Care must be taken to lay out greenways to optimize both pedestrian safety and ecological viability, which can be difficult. However, a number of investigations have begun to establish strategies and approaches to do so.[2]

The philosophical basis for this pattern is shared by the pattern BLUE-GREEN NETWORK, Pattern 1.2 — namely, that we can creatively combine distinct systems of networks, including ecological and transportation networks. Some networks work relatively well parallel to each other (e.g. walking, biking, trams) whereas others have to cross, with careful control at their intersections (e.g. a bridge over a river or creek).

Therefore:

Within the rough 400-meter grid pattern, lay out an urban greenway corridor system at a roughly 1600 meter (1 mile) spacing. Assure that the corridors connect to key nodes of transporta- tion and intermodal travel.

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Run each urban greenway adjacent to a SANCTUARY that provides housing and other uses. …

  1. See for example the greenway corridor system in Singapore, considered a model for other Asian and international cities: Tan, K. W. (2006). A greenway network for Singapore. Landscape and Urban Planning, 76(1-4), 45-66. Available on the Web at http://faratarjome. ir/u/media/shopping_files/store-EN-1458113022-7947.pdf
  2. See for example Luymes, D. T., & Tamminga, K. (1995). Integrating public safety and use into planning urban greenways. Landscape and Urban Planning, 33(1-3), 391-400

Design Patterns are easy-to-understand, easy-to-apply rules for creating human buildings and cities. They provide the long-term antidote to recent trends such as cutting down urban trees, creating heat islands, and erecting glass-and-steel high-rises. Rising temperatures in such urban environments threaten the population catastrophically. Violating patterns makes a city highly fragile, establishing a dangerous reliance upon imported energy. Systemic problems cannot be saved by industrial-technological fixes, but by efficient and climate-appropriate design that implements smart thermal planning (shading devices, earth-sheltering designs, etc.). Our cities will survive only if their structure follows patterns.

Mehaffy, Michael W., Yulia Kryazheva, Andrew Rudd, and Nikos A. Salingaros. A New Pattern Language for Growing Regions: Places, Networks, Processes. Portland, Oregon, USA: Sustasis Press, 2019.

Creative Commons License: Share Alike by Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

In a special agreement, Sustasis Press has given Architexturez the rights to present twenty of the eighty new patterns from this book, for the exclusive use of architecture students in Asia. These patterns are relevant to a new era of urban challenges, meant to complement the classic 1977 book "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander et al. The new book "A Pattern Language for Growing Regions" implements the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, including the need for urban resilience, sustainability, and quality of life. The publication of this volume also launches an online pattern language "repository", developed in collaboration with Ward Cunningham, the original wiki developer and pioneer of pattern languages of programming. 

See also …