Urban Street Walks
Urban Street Walks
Walking tours: May to July 2009
This summer stretch your legs after work and take a fresh look at the streets and buildings that surround us.
As part of its Streetwise programme The Architecture Centre has organised a series of guided walks focusing on different elements of our urban environment.
Help us identify what makes our streets and public spaces enjoyable and attractive – or otherwise. Each walk lasts approximately one hour. Please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Some events may not be accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs – please contact The Architecture Centre for advice.
Understanding Places and Spaces
Sunday 31 May
Walk leader: David Tittle, MADE and the CABE urban design summer
school
We all know what places we would like to live in, work in or visit, but we cannot always say why. This will be a city tour with a difference: we will not be talking about the history of the city, its great buildings and notable citizens. Instead, David Tittle will look at Bristol with an urban designer’s eye.
Taking in Queen Square, St Nicholas Market and Lewins Mead, we will explore what Bristol can tell us about how the design of streets, squares and buildings can make them liveable and workable for all who need to use them, and what happens when we get it wrong.
Street Trees
Thursday 2 July
Walk leaders: Vassili Papastavrou and Michele Lavelle, Bristol
Street Trees
Do you know your ginkgos from your planes?
What kinds of tree
are suited to urban environments?
Street trees promote wellbeing
in the urban landscape. Find out what you can do to protect them
on this leafy stroll through Queen Square and Harbourside. We
will be looking in detail at these city ‘lungs’ and
discovering some amazing facts about these gentle giants, and
the threats they face.
Places for People
Thursday 16 July
Walk leader: Josh Hart, Living Streets
How does your street rate for ‘walkability’? The charity Living Streets campaigns for streets to be people-centred and pedestrian-friendly. On this tour Josh Hart from Living Streets introduces the ideas behind the Living Streets street audit’, showing how the way our urban environments are designed can have a radical effect on how we move about them. Find out how you can apply this to your own street.
Walking Through History
Thursday 30 July
Walk leader: George Ferguson, Acanthus Ferguson Mann Architects
Old meets new in most urban streetscapes, and Bristol is no exception. How do we make historic environments fit for the twenty-first century while maintaining character and distinctiveness? George Ferguson leads a walk through some of Bristol’s historic streets and considers how streets have been adapted over time, and how elements such as street furniture can enhance (or detract from) ‘sense of place’. Through the walk we will consider how the design of the streets around us shapes and influences our behaviour.
Image © J Bewley/Sustrans
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