A city is not a building – architectural concepts for public square design in Dutch urban climate contexts

This article elaborates on an architectural approach to urban design – to the idea of ‘city as a building’ in relation to user's perceptions and urban microclimate based on Dutch examples. A brief analysis of urban square design approaches in The Netherlands since WW II reveals a prominent tendency to use the metaphor ‘city as a building’. The architectural, often minimalist design of plazas frequently features a ‘void’ spatial layout, hard materialization, cool, bright colours and furniture that has its origin in interior design. The problems arising from this approach with respect to human bioclimatic needs and perceptions as well as urban microclimate will be elucidated and practical solutions proposed. As a general conclusion, a different approach to urban design that conceives the ‘city as landscape’ is suggested.