THE ROLE OF SURFACE: CATALYTIC SURFACE STRATEGIES FOR OPEN SPACE IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS

Effective open space is critical to the urban quality of life because it fosters environmental, social, and economic vitality. However, some designers, planners, and developers have a tendency to focus on only one of these aspects and, thus, create spaces that are monofunctional and inefficient over time. To ensure effective open spaces in cities, landscape architects must think strategically and employ design tactics that are multifunctional and perform environmentally, socially, and economically. My objective was to provide landscape architects with a framework that ensured effective open spaces through the manipulation of the urban surface. In this report, I explored how the urban surface could be used to create multifunctional, flexible, and adaptive solutions that informed and directed (re)development so that urban spaces had lasting value. A thorough literature review that explored concepts from Jane Jacobs, Alex Wall, and Ying-Yu Hung was used to create a theoretical framework that consisted of various tactics. The tactics were aesthetic