8.0 My Favorite Urban Space – Piazza del Campo, Siena

Of all the places that I have visited, the one urban space that is forever etched in my memory as the most beautiful and my favorite place is Piazza del Campo in Siena, Italy.



Piazza del Campo, Siena Italy

So what do I like about it?  What makes it such a unique urban space?   Let me make a list of which most points are what I recorded in my sketches almost 30 years ago.

Sketch Book - Europe Travels 1983 - Bertram Wong

Sketch Book - Europe Travels 1983 - Bertram Wong

1.  Scale just right for the 4 to 7 story buildings forming it.

2.  The shape is an irregular compositional one.

3.  The buildings forming the edges have some common datum, but are also allowed to deviate.

4.  The Tower that is strategically placed at the center of what is considered the main façade of the piazza.

5.  The scale and proportion of the tower makes it clearly dominant.

6.  The colors and materials are uniform with the rest of the city but are put together with variety.

7.  The contrast of narrow and tall dark village streets through partially covered streets that lead into the piazza.

8.  The “explosion” of space leading from the narrow passage ways into bright, defined and opened piazza gives drama to the experience.

9.  The ground plane is sloped and makes the whole piazza an amphitheater with tower as the backdrop.

10. The piazza is composed with a number of materials in a combination if regular and irregular patterns creating boarders, separations, edges, and different zones within the piazza.

11. The features such as the main drain and bollards are sculpted by craftsman in local stone.

12.  It is a space that defines the life of the people of Siena.  It is a daily meeting and community space as well as the venue for the periodic ritual of the “Palio”  (horse races).

Sketch Book - Europe Travels 1983 - Bertram Wong

Sketch Book - Europe Travels 1983 - Bertram Wong

I would guess because it was built over time with may hands involved and responding to the existing conditions of topography, etc., it is endowed with the feel of organic growth.  At the same time the contributors all seemed to share common objectives and understanding such that the organic growth resulted in an artistic creation!  This is the type of collaborations and "orchestration" integrated development is in need of today!

Jiwa Studio
Singapore, October 2011
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