5 The pattern of yellow, green, gray, and red
Any neighborhood, looked at from the point of view of its global structure, may be considered as being made of four interlocking elements: Pedestrian space (including public outdoor space, paths, and pedestrian streets), Gardens (private gardens), Buildings (including houses and businesses), and Space for cars (including parking and roads for cars). These four kinds of elements more or less account for all the space in the neighborhood. They are truly fundamental, and any neighborhood gets its main character from the way these four elements are interrelated, interlocked, arranged.
What is the global structure of online spaces (communities)? What are the equivalents and analogies to the four interlocking elements?
It is the geometry and pattern, the spatial interlock of these four elements, which defines the kind of neighborhood it is, its human character, its working or not-working. Above all, it is the arrangement of these four and their interlock which defines the wholeness of a neighborhood. This is an unusual perspective. It is not the way we see the neighborhood from walking around. But if we want to understand the structure of the neighborhood, and want to understand its wholeness as a totality, it is the spatial pattern of these four elements that we must grasp.
What is interesting here is that he analytically separates the whole into four distinct components. He does, however, point out their interlock, so he is not just trying to break the main problem into smaller ones. It is just a trick to see the whole better.
The living process I seek to define will initiate transformations to modify the relative size and arrangement of these four elements by changing the relative percentage of land devoted to each one, by changing their shaped connectivity, and by making each part of each one into stronger living centers. When these transformations are applied, I believe the order which will then arise from accurate unfolding will make an urban neighborhood become fresh, more viable for human life — even when it starts from poverty.
#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/9 The reconstruction of an urban neighborhood#