{"id":4244,"date":"2009-05-08T12:30:06","date_gmt":"2009-05-08T16:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2009\/05\/08\/the-streetscape-of-a-moonscaped-city\/"},"modified":"2009-05-08T12:30:08","modified_gmt":"2009-05-08T16:30:08","slug":"the-streetscape-of-a-moonscaped-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/05\/08\/the-streetscape-of-a-moonscaped-city\/","title":{"rendered":"The streetscape of a moonscaped city"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Spacing publisher Matthew Blackett is travelling through Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany and will occasionally post his observations about all things urban landscape(ish).<\/em><\/p>\n

– – – – – – –<\/p>\n

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND —<\/strong> If you’re familiar with my travel blog posts over the years here on Spacing Toronto, you’ll known that I’m endlessly fascinated with streetscapes and the infrastructure that is used to make public spaces function. I often get odd looks from passersby (and my travel partners or hosts) as I take photos of garbage bins, bollards, and bike lanes, among other things.<\/p>\n

This Scandinavian journey is providing me with a lot of material. My posts will attempt to give a brief profile of each city’s street furniture and urban design elements and (potentially) provide a Toronto context or comparison.<\/p>\n

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From the pedestrian’s perspective, Reykjavik’s central core is infinitely walkable, though rather hilly. Sidewalks are either paved, cobbled, or laid with interlocked bricks and stones. Because of the density on neighbourhoods, buildings (both retail and housing) tend to bump up right against the sidewalks, creating a more narrow feeling in the pedestrian right-of-way than we’re used to in Toronto. On the main shopping drag the sidewalks were wider than anywhere else in the city.<\/p>\n

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Throughout the central part of the city is a series of pedestrian wayfinding signs that are both low in height and distinctive from the local street signs. Though the signs don’t provide distances (something I think is necessary for this type of signage), the type of destination is indicated with a symbol (historic area, historic building, museum).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

At the base of the main shopping street is Reykjavik’s Ing\u00e0\u00b3lf’s Square. It’s surrounded by shops, office buildings, and cafes (click on the image above to get a 360-degree view of the square). It’s not particularly large, maybe 60 metres by 35 metres, but has a variety of functions. On one side are small food outlets: one is kind of like a convenience store, with water, snacks, and newspapers, while the other is more of a fast food take-out place with a few stools and benches (photos below). The square also has some nice inset benches, a small, sculpted water fountain behind the food outlets, and a geyser-like installation that is always pushing out steam.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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The square’s designers decided to embrace skateboarders rather than discourage them by installing a metal rail for tricks. The ramps into the square, obviously installed for accessibility, also double as skater infrastructure, and if you look at the above panorama, a ramp became a spot to learn how to rollerblade for a young girl. The ramps also allow Reykjavik’s motorcycle enthusiasts to bring their beasts into the square (which seemed to be used as a meeting spot before heading out of town; you can see them in the panorama as well).<\/p>\n

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Though I was critical in my previous post<\/a> about the minimal amount of cycling infrastructure, Reykjavik certainly has an attractive public realm. My first post<\/a> noted the small doses of advertising infrastructure which seemed to be solely limited to street furniture items like public washrooms, bus shelters, and a handful of “info” pillars. Both the pillars and washrooms are a common style that I’ve seen in other cities in North America and northern Europe. Unlike Toronto’s info pillars, which seem to minimize and hide the city map, Reykjavik provides a large map.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Poster kiosks did not appear too frequently in the downtown core of the city, but there were a few, though space was very limited. I particularly liked the example shown above for its lighting component.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Toronto has been at the forefront of battling smoking in public places like restaurants and bars, but the City’s downfall has been the lack of planning on how to deal with all of the cigarette butts littering sidewalks and curbsides. There have been attempts to incorporate cigarette disposals into the garbage\/recycling bins, but this functionality is often overlooked in favour of the bin’s other purposes. In most cases, clubs and restaurants are left to deal with the mess. In Reykjavik, the city has provided public ashtrays that are either installed in the sidewalk or attached to the side of a building.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On-street recycling options seem to be something Toronto is a world leader at implementing. In most cities I have visited in North American and Europe, the option to separate your waste is not yours to make, and Reykjavik is not much different. Their garbage bins are modest in design and prominently display their city’s crest. There were a few recycling bins, but nothing as convenient as we have it in Toronto.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Older cities like Reykjavik also seem to have a plethora of street covers for either hydro, sewers, or water mains. I was able to capture a handful of these beauties, but I suspect there were twice as many that I missed.<\/p>\n

For more photos on Reykjavik’s public spaces, check out the collection<\/a> on Spacing’s Flickr account.<\/p>\n

photos by Matthew Blackett\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spacing publisher Matthew Blackett is travelling through Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany and will occasionally post his observations about all things urban landscape(ish). – – – – – – – REYKJAVIK, ICELAND — If you’re familiar with my travel blog posts over the years here on Spacing Toronto, you’ll known that I’m endlessly fascinated withContinue reading “The streetscape of a moonscaped city”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[896,677,1128,5279,12119,483,11875,12122,667,12121,1154,11878,21,11874,2758,12120,1295,19,12117,12118],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-streetscape","tag-advertising-infrastructure","tag-denmark","tag-europe","tag-food-outlets","tag-food-take-out-place","tag-germany","tag-iceland","tag-leader-at-implementing","tag-matthew-blackett","tag-metal-rail","tag-north-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-other-cities","tag-reykjavik","tag-skater","tag-skater-infrastructure","tag-sweden","tag-toronto","tag-travel-blog-posts","tag-travel-partners"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe streetscape of a moonscaped city - 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