In all cases a rich urban canvas is afforded, as demonstrated by the excellent quality of the architecture. 5Amsterdam, Holland: Over centuries the network of ‘grachte’ has satisfied both the commercial and social needs of the citizens as well as that of transportation 4 Venice, Italy: The almost total dependence on water transport has determined the way of life of the city and provided a unique and successful urbanscape on water. The close-fronting on the canals provides an unusual canvas to which the architecture has responded in a time-honoured way 35 THE URBAN HABITAT Traditionally the main street is afforded distinctive status in neighbourhoods or in small-town life.

Aside from this example, the Catalan appreciation of the finer role of architecture towards the embellishment of the urban experience is legendary. A design idea emerging strongly from the Late-Modern period has been the concept of the giant industrial ‘shed’, used as a shelter for a variety 3 Barcelona, Spain: The Centre for Contemporary Culture (1994). Uncompromising Modernism found in the highly creative design environment of Catalonia is expressed in this contemporary extension to a fine example of the city’s traditional architectural idiom.

Beyond the dark narrow lanes bounded by blank walls are sunny, air y courtyards where private activity can take place. The urban pattern therefore protects the residents by means of two spatial envelopes before a public space is entered, so that social behaviour adjusts from first degree privacy, the interior courtyard; to second degree privacy, the lane outside the door; to third degree privacy, the public square. Other physical forms of patterning can be more subtle and yet equally significant.