Sitting

In one of my books, I have been reading that they did a study on what makes an urban public places work and what doesn't. It was interesting in that they found that the number one variable was the amount and quality of sitting. After I read this I decided to go to the Plaza de Armas in Concepcion and test it out. I found a couple of interesting things in the plaza. The first one is that for the most part I think the Plaza fits with the research in the book.

Second I found that the people didn't have any problem sitting very close together. So that they take advantage of all of the seating space. You can be sitting and then right next you on the same bench, you can have someone making out and on the other side of you a whole family eating ice cream. They don't seem to have the same kind of issues of personal space like we do in the states.

The people used all of the sitting space that was available to them, there were people sitting in the grass, sitting on the benches and sitting on the ledge of the fountain. The only idea I had was that they could of made some of the planting areas raised beds so that people could sit on the edge of the planting beds.

It would be interesting to see the plaza in the winter because there are not any covers over the seating area so I don't know where you would sit and not get wet when it rains. You couldn't sit in the grass because it would be wet and none of the benches or the fountain are under the trees so as to give some protection from the rain. My guess is that the plaza gets a lot less use in the winter due to the lack of good sitting. Understanding sitting space is a important step in making a good public space.