Extra credit: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - Whyte ——LI YULUN

I thought the book "Social Life in Small Urban Spaces" was a very interesting book and I watched the documentary film. It explores the relationship between social life and urban space by studying the space of small cities, and provides valuable ideas for understanding urban social life.

White's rigorous and in-depth way of thinking is worth learning from. He explores the relationship between urban social life and spatial structure by making many interesting points, such as the fact that social life in cities is inseparable from spatial structure, and that the structure of urban space determines the way social groups interact. He also delves into the phenomenon of social life in small cities through a large number of case studies to better understand the relationship between space and society. These perspectives and case studies have given me a deep understanding of the diversity and complexity of urban social life. Before conceiving a building one should understand the multiple identities of architecture and think about it in the dimension of aesthetics, climatology and even psychology. Public space and architecture in cities should be a reciprocal relationship. Architecture creates a good light, wind, and temperature environment to enhance the comfort of public space, and public spaces such as squares, parks, and even small street intersections can bring people and life to the surrounding buildings.

It is a very valuable read for social science students. Especially in the current trend of large urbanization, the changes of social life and spatial structure in small cities also deserve to be explored in depth. In China, I found that many cities with newly renovated squares have some of the ideas mentioned in White's book, including my hometown. Therefore, I think this book is a good book for social science students in the 2023s.