Spaces between Buildings

Gates and fences, sidewalks and driveways, alleys and parking lots - these ordinary features have an important achitectural impact, influencing how a building "relates" to the spaces around it. As geographer Larry R. Ford argues, architectural histories and guidebooks have, in the past, told readers little about the character of American cities because they concentrate on buildings taken out of context: buildings divorced from space. In this book, he focuses on these neglected nooks and crannies between structures, supplementing his analysis with three photographic essays. It is the result of his preoccupation with the relationship of buildings to one another and how their means of access and boundaries organize the areas around us. He observes that a city with friendly, permeable facades and a great variety of street-level doors is more conducive to civic life than a city characterized by fortress-like structures with blank walls and invisible doors. Life on the street is defined and guided by the nature of the surrounding buildings. Similarly, a residential neighbourhood with front porches, small lawns or gardens, and houses with lots of windows and architectural details presents a more walkable and greagarious setting than a neighbourhood where public space is surrounded by walls, three-car garage doors, blank facades and concrete driveways. Ford begins by looking at the growth of four urban places, each representing a historical era as much as a geographic location: the Islamic medina; the city shaped by the Spanish renaissance; the 19th-century North American city; and the 20th-century American city. His first essay also discusses the evolution of the free-standing structure as a basic urban building type and the problems encountered in beautifying the often work-a-day back and side yards that have helped to create the image of the untidy American city. The second esay examines the urban trend towards viewing laws, gardens, hedges and trees as an essential adjunct to architecture. The final essay focuses on pedestrian and vehicular spaces. Here the author includes the landscape of the garage, sidewalks, streets and alleys. In its exploration of how spaces became places, the book invites readers to see anew the spaces they encounter every day and often take for granted.