Research on scale of urban squares in Copenhagen Master of Science Programme in Spatial Planning with an emphasis on Urban Design in China and Europe Author : Chang Liu Email:
[email protected] Superviser: Gunnar Nyström Date: 2013/08/13 Blekinge Tekniska Högskola Karlskrona, Sweden Urban Design in China and Europe 2013 Research on scale of Urban Squares in Copenhagen Abstract The urban square is one type of urban public space which has a long history in western countries. The square in China is a more recent concept, and designing squares seems dominated by the concept "the bigger city, the bigger square". This has triggered the author to start a research on scale issue of squares. The theoretical work is on the basis of previous studies of spatial scale and square scale, combining the theory of human dimension from physical and psychological factors. The absolute scale of a square is constituted by its size, while the relative scale reflects the square’s power of attraction. In the investigation of the six sites the size of the square, the size of subspaces, the height and width of buildings in the surroundings is measured and the manner of enclosure and space division is observed, thus the architectural field is calculated and evaluated. The situation of how many people come to the squares and how the spaces are used is observed. A comparison and analogy between each of the two squares of the same type is conducted in the discussion chapter. The scale of three types of squares in the Scandinavian capital city Copenhagen is looked at: civic squares, traffic evacuation squares, leisure and entertainment squares.