Social Spaces - AP Human Geography

A metropolitan statistical area has a population of at least 50,000. If the population of an area is between 10,000 and 50,000, then the area is technically a micropolitan statistical area instead of a metropolitan statistical area.

The term “edge city” is a relatively new term in the parlance of American urban geography. It refers to a type of city that has arisen very recently in a comparatively short space of time. The city exists on the fringes of a larger city and acts as a regional hub for recreation, business, or other commercial activity for the suburban population of the larger city.

Basic industries bring in money from the outside while, a nonbasic industry involves services within the community. An example of a basic industry would be a car factory, while an example of a nonbasic industry would be a local hospital.

The defining feature of suburbs, and the appeal for many people who move to them, is that they are dominated by single-family houses. This means suburbs, outer districts of urban areas, have lower population density and higher overall per capita wealth. These factors also lead to better government services and higher quality of local education.

The American City Beautiful movement emerged from the “Beaux arts movement” of nineteenth-century Europe. The “Beaux arts movement” emphasized wide-open spaces and national monuments and was particularly influential in Paris. The American City Beautiful movement was an American adaptation of this European ideal.

Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is a city that very much fits the style of the prototypical Medieval city. It has ornate cathedrals and lavish churches, narrow and winding streets, imposing buildings and architecture, and remnants of defensive fortifications. In terms of it's urban planning and it's aesthetic design features Prague perfectly fits the mould of a European Medieval city.

The Brazilian capital city “Brasilia” was designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Brasilia is a city designed in the style of modern architecture.

Urban environments that are inspired by postmodern architecture tend to incorporate more aesthetically pleasing buildings than those inspired by modern architecture. Postmodern architecture decries the modern architectural emphasis on efficiency and industry; instead postmodern architecture tries to design buildings that are visually pleasing to human beings and provide modern humans with a link to their past.

An “action space” is the area of a city in which an individual, or a group of individuals, move about within any given day. In a large city this might include where the individual lives, where they work, where they stop to pick up coffee, the subway station they take to get home, and so on.

Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, was designed and built in the mid-twentieth century. With its imposing geometric glass buildings and concrete structures it is the prototypical example of a city inspired by the modern architecture movement.

The “Beaux arts movement” was most influential in Paris, and other cities greatly influenced by French culture. Paris’ wide boulevards and prominent national monuments are classic examples of the “Beaux arts movement” which was so popular in nineteenth century European architecture.

In collecting research for his seminal work Image of the City (1960), Kevin Lynch determined that there were five main categories that affect an individual’s perception of the city that they live in. Those five main categories were paths, districts, nodes, landmarks, and edges. “Parks” would probably fit under the category of landmarks.

The “Beaux arts movement” was prominent in European urban architecture in the nineteenth century. Particularly in Paris, and other cities greatly influenced by French culture. A city whose design was inspired by this movement would feature expansive recreational areas, prominent national monuments, and wide-open streets and avenues.

The modern architectural movement emphasized efficiency and disregarded anything deemed frivolous or unnecessary. This movement dominated for much of the second-half of the twentieth century. Postmodern architecture has emerged in recent years in opposition to modern architecture. It tries to recapture architectural themes from before the modern period and incorporates aesthetically-pleasing buildings.

Cities that were inspired by the modern architecture movement tended to emphasize efficiency above everything else. The imposing geometric glass and concrete buildings were meant to impose a feeling of futuristic industry and efficiency, in which little labor or money is wasted on artistic or aesthetic detail.

The American City Beautiful movement, which took off in the second-half of the nineteenth century was primarily concerned with imposing order on the chaotic urban sprawl. The population of American cities had grown dramatically in recent years and many urban planners wanted to rectify the problems they identified with urban layout. The primary motivation was to make cities more orderly.

“New urbanism” emphasizes sustainable urban growth and community development in urban areas. Proponents of “new urbanism” decry the negative effects of suburbanization on the environment and on human society and seek to create urban environments that are more friendlier to pedestrians, less dependent on cars, and that promote greater community interaction.

The urban planning movement “new urbanism” seeks to discourage surbanization. “New urbanism” seeks to encourage local community development and sustainable growth in an urban area. Advocates of “new urbanism” would argue for greater accessibility for pedestrians in cities and a reduced dependency on cars and highways.

Kevin Lynch wrote his seminal work Image of the City in the late 1950s based on a series of studies he conducted on Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles. The book is primarily concerned with how an individual creates a mental perception of the city they live in and what factors individuals consider when rating how happy, comfortable, and safe they feel in a city.