One of the most defining aspects of
human life is the way we move. Bus, car, train, bike, and pedestrian traffic
move through our cities, suburbs, and countrysides worldwide. Movement is
necessary for productivity, for social interaction, and for the ability to
visit and experience other environments. Because transportation is so essential
to human life it has had a pronounced, though varied, effect on the architecture.
Architects must always consider the circulation of people through the space in
which they create. However, some works of architecture more directly reference
the way in which the population moves around or through it. It is particularly
interesting to note the way in which newer modes of travel, in particular cars
and trains, have influenced the considerations of some architects.
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| Lucien den Arend - Omage to El Lissitsky Still view |
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| Lucien den Arend - Omage to El Lissitsky view in movement over tim |
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| Max Wan - Master Plan for the Leidsche Rijn diagram of bridges |
Max Wan’s master plan for the
Leidsche Rijn is another architectural work that makes a specific consideration
of people’s movement. However, Wan’s approach to addressing movement is less
visual. Rather, his master plan deals specifically with the circulation through
his site. Two things about this plan are particularly interesting. First, the
way in which Wan deals with the multiple means of transportation that will be used
to move through the space. Wan denotes the different paths for different types
of movement using various colors painted on the street. This gives the street a
character that lend to the interpretation of the identity of the place. It also
serves as a sort of record of movement. Even without directly witnessing
interactions with the site, someone viewing it can see the way in which people
are expected to move through it through the written record on the ground. The
second interesting thing about the plan is the way in which he presents the
path of pedestrian and bike traffic as organic and mutable, particularly in the
forms he chooses for the bridges in the site. Wan includes fifty bridges in the
plan for the Leidsche Rijn. The bridges are meant to transport pedestrians,
bike traffic, and cars across the river that is present at the site. However
the pedestrian paths often diverge from the rigid lines meant for car traffic.
This allows people to choose the path most specific to their needs at the time
when crossing the river. This move by Wan appears significantly more intention because
of the fact that he makes it using bridges, and sets up a tension between the
path of cars and that of pedestrians.
