Response to Heijmans Arguementation for the Tower Design

Response to Heijman’s Argumentation for the Tower Design “The towers will increase social control and safety in the park” “The towers have transparent plinth keeping the feeling of the park”

Social Control and Connection to Public Space

The Plinth has two design fails which reduce social control and connection to the public space. 1. The Plinth is narrow and the apartments are wide creating a covered space below, thus there is no visibility of the space and thus no social control 2. Five floors of a building is the Maximum height for people to have visual and emotional relation with the surrounding urban space (Gehl, 2010); the design of the buildings removes the possibility for living, and thus nearly eliminates possible social control and connection to the park

https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:831811/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Parking Garage Design Reduces Residence Interaction with the Park

• In this design the residence can move from the private space of their home to an underground parking garage to the private space of their cars • Therefore, the residence of the towers would not have a need to enter the public space when commuting; further reducing connection to and visibility of the park

The Plinth The transparent plinth is intended to keep openness and the feel of a park space. However, having no function is not an efficient use of space and decreases social control and safety

On the other hand, giving function to the plinth would reduce visibility of the greenery and eliminate the original intention of transparent plinths