A boulevard in Moscow vs a boulevard in Copenhagen
Today we will be talking about the boulevards. I don't write my diary every day anymore because the schedule for this week wasn't as busy as for the last one, and many days have already passed so there is not much to talk about.
Friday was supposed to be a day with Christian. First we spent about an hour at the office, he told me about a district in Copenhagen the designing of which he was actively involved in, we also discussed some Moscow particulars, I showed him some pictures and listened to Christian's comments. Then we went to look at some examples live.
Christian on his three-wheeler :)
Since we were riding around Christian's neighborhood, I was told some interesting stories. For example, the building of the present Copenhagen's museum is a former royal country house where a king used to hunt. He would go out to the balcony and shoot the fowl.
Then the city expanded and that place became surrounded by the other houses. They built a park for the king so he could keep practicing his hunting. Now they have a children's park there, full of greenery. Unfortunately I don't have a picture.
But let's get closer to the subject. Today we are talking about the boulevards and comparing the ones in Moscow with those in Copenhagen. This is how it looks in Strogino.
Look carefully - this is a new place that people seriously worked on. The budget was obviously fine, no corruption and embezzlement involved, they just really tried to build a nice walking area. Take a look at the tile, at the street lights, at the subway ventilation system design - this is a special project that people put a lot of work into.
What is the problem here? First of all, the size. It's huge. But mostly important - it's empty. There is nothing to do on it but to walk back and forth.
Let's take a look at a similar boulevard in Copenhagen. It's a little more narrow, and there is no subway station near it, but in general it looks similar.
This is where the boulevard begins. Pretty similar
We are walking 20 meters further and see a basketball court
Further we see a table tennis court. The mayor's office was thinking hard how to stop the graffiti appearing on the tables, and came up with a good idea - they hired the most respected graffiti artist in the city and asked him to work on the tables. Nobody touches his work
This is how it looks 50 meters further
Then we passed a soccer field
A little further there is a kids playground. Take a look at the fence - playing fields are enclosed with a high transparent fence through which you can see everything - compared to the Russian hockey boxes. A kids playground is enclosed with a fence not too high but safe so parents can sit on a bench and not worry about their children running to the street.
Even at 5С it's full of life
Let's get back to Moscow - the only entertaining thing on the Strogino Boulevard is the honours board that absolutely nobody cares about.
Further we can see a public grill which is open for anybody to use
A little further, on a different boulevard we can see the following construction taking place.
A little further we can see a spring board. It's really fun when you have somebody to jump with
A soccer ball
A public hammock. There is also a cool loudspeaker where you can put your IPhone, turn on the music and hear it louder
The point is - huge tiled spaces are not interesting to people. They can walk around a little, or sit on a bench.
To spend some more time on the boulevard, rather than just walk by it, people need a reason. And very often they want to spend time outside, read, browse the internet, chat or meet new people. But they can't do it on the empty space with benches.
It's a different story when you can sit and watch children (or adults) playing soccer or basketball, or play yourself, or sit at a cafe. When there is a reason for people to be in a certain place and there is something to do, they like spending time there much better.
And it's not about the mentality or the budget provided for the arrangement of these areas but about planning these kind of places considering people's perceptions of them.
When you don't have a bench near your house, or it is right in front of the entrance, with people passing by and cars driving by, you wouldn't even think about sitting there.
But when a bench is like this, then you probably will change your mind.
And the mentality has nothing to do with it.