UNIT I

INTRODUCTION TO URBAN DESIGN

Components Of Urban Space And Their Interdependencies

Outline Of Issues/ Aspects Of Urban Space and

Articulation Of Need For Urban Design

Scope And Objectives Of Urban Design As A Discipline

URBAN DESIGN - Intro
Urban design is concerned with the arrangement, appearance and function of our suburbs, towns and cities.
It is both a process and an outcome of creating localities in which people live, engage with each other, and engage with the physical
place around them.
It involves many different disciplines including planning, development, architecture, landscape architecture, engineering,
economics, law and finance, among others.
It operates at many scales, from the macro scale of the urban structure (planning, zoning, transport and infrastructure networks) to
the micro scale of street furniture and lighting.
When fully integrated into policy and planning systems, urban design can be used to inform land use planning, infrastructure,
built form and even the socio-demographic mix of a place.
Urban design can significantly influence the economic, environmental, social and cultural outcomes of a place:
Urban design can influence the economic success and socio-economic composition of a locality
whether it encourages local businesses and entrepreneurship; whether it attracts people to live there;
whether the costs of housing and travel are affordable; and whether access to job opportunities, facilities and
services are equitable.
Urban design determines the physical scale, space and ambience of a place and establishes the built and natural forms
within which individual buildings and infrastructure are sited. As such, it affects the balance between natural ecosystems
and built environments, and their sustainability outcomes.
Urban design can influence health and the social and cultural impacts of a locality: how people interact with each other,
how they move around, and how they use a place.
Although urban design is often delivered as a specific project, it is in fact a long-term process that continues to evolve over
time.
It is this layering of building and infrastructure types, natural ecosystems, communities and cultures that gives places their
unique characteristics and identities.
ELEMENTS OF URBAN DESIGN and their interdependencies
This diagram shows the approximate hierarchical relationship between the elements of urban design, followed by
a brief definition of each of the elements.

ELEMENTS OF URBAN FORM MACRO TO MICRO

URBAN STRUCTURE
The overall framework of a region, town or precinct, showing relationships between
zones of built forms, land forms, natural environments, activities and open spaces.
It encompasses broader systems including transport and infrastructure networks.

URBAN GRAIN
The balance of open space to built form, and the nature and extent of subdividing an
area into smaller parcels or blocks.
For example a fine urban grain might constitute a network of small or detailed
streetscapes.
It takes into consideration the hierarchy of street types, the physical linkages and
movement between locations, and modes of transport.

DENSITY + MIX
The intensity of development and the range of different uses (such as residential,
commercial, institutional or recreational uses).

HEIGHT + MASSING
The scale of buildings in relation to height and floor area, and how they relate to
surrounding land forms, buildings and streets.
It also incorporates building envelope, site coverage and solar orientation.
Height and massing create the sense of openness or enclosure, and affect the
amenity of streets, spaces and other buildings.
STREETSCAPE + LANDSCAPE
The design of public spaces such as streets, open spaces and pathways, and
includes landscaping, microclimate, shading and planting.

FACADE + INTERFACE
The relationship of buildings to the site, street and neighbouring buildings
(alignment, setbacks, boundary treatment) and the architectural expression
of their facades (projections, openings, patterns and materials).

DETAILS + MATERIALS
The close-up appearance of objects and surfaces and the selection of
materials in terms of detail, craftsmanship, texture, colour, durability,
sustainability and treatment.
It includes street furniture, paving, lighting and signage.
It contributes to human comfort, safety and enjoyment of the public domain.

TOPOGRAPHY, LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENT

The natural environment includes the topography of landforms, water
courses, flora and faunawhether natural or introduced.
It may be in the form of rivers and creeks, lakes, bushland, parks and
recreational facilities, streetscapes or private gardens, and is often referred
to as green infrastructure.
PUBLIC REALM
Much of urban design is concerned with the design and management of
publicly used space (also referred to as the public realm or public domain)
and the way this is experienced and used.
The public realm includes the natural and built environment used by the
general public on a day-to-day basis such as streets, plazas, parks, and public
infrastructure.
Some aspects of privately owned space such as the bulk and scale of Victoria Square, Birmingham: successfully
remade as a civic and pedestrian focus
buildings, or gardens that are visible from the public realm, can also
contribute to the overall result.
At times, there is a blurring of public and private realms, particularly where
privately owned space is publicly used.

SOCIAL + ECONOMIC FABRIC

The non-physical aspects of the urban form which include social factors
(culture, participation, health and well-being) as well as the productive
capacity and economic prosperity of a community.
It incorporates aspects such as demographics and life stages, social
interaction and support networks.
SCALE
The size, bulk and perception of a buildings and spaces.
Bulk refers to the height, width and depth of a building in
relation to other surrounding buildings, the street, setbacks
and surrounding open space.
The apparent scale of the Winter
For example, a large building set amongst other smaller Garden in the World Financial Center
in Manhattan varies depending on the
buildings may seem out of scale. number of occupants.

URBAN FORM
The arrangement of a built up area.
This arrangement is made up of many components
including how close buildings and uses are together; what
uses are located where; and how much of the natural
environment is a part of the built up area.
ISSUES/ ASPECTS OF URBAN SPACE

Loss Of Public Space.

The majority of roads are publicly owned and free of access.
Increased traffic has adverse impacts on public activities which once crowded the streets such as
markets, agoras, parades and processions, games, and community interactions.
These have gradually disappeared to be replaced by automobiles.
In many cases, these activities have shifted to shopping malls while in other cases, they have been
abandoned altogether.
traffic flows influence the life and interactions of residents and their usage of street space.
More traffic impedes social interactions and street activities.
People tend to walk and cycle less when traffic is high.

Environmental Impacts And Energy Consumption.

Pollution, including noise, generated by circulation has become a serious impediment to the
quality of life and even the health of urban populations.
Further, energy consumption by urban transportation has dramatically increased and so the
dependency on petroleum.
Accidents and safety.
Growing traffic in urban areas is linked with a growing number of accidents and fatalities,
especially in developing countries.
Accidents account for a significant share of recurring delays.
As traffic increases, people feel less safe to use the streets.

Land consumption.
The territorial imprint of transportation is significant, particularly for the automobile.
Between 30 and 60% of a metropolitan area may be devoted to transportation, an outcome
of the over-reliance on some forms of urban transportation.
Yet, this land consumption also underlines the strategic importance of transportation in the
economic and social welfare of cities.
Traffic Congestion
There are two main problems that modern day cities face, namely urban decay when parts of
the city become run down and undesirable to live in, and traffic congestion. Traffic
congestion is caused by
Many people working in the C.B.D. which may have narrow streets
Shortage of off-street parking which means people park on the roads and so increase
congestion
People not using public transport - either because it is less convenient, too expensive or
not available
More people own and use cars
A complete solution to traffic congestion needs people to be able and willing to travel on
public transport more.
Some More Issues And Aspects Of Urban Space : (discussed in detail later)
Place-making And Identity,
Morphology:
Sprawl,
Generic Form,
Incoherence,
Privatized Public Realm- Effects
Role Of Real Estate,
Zoning,
Globalisation - Ideas Of Sustainability,
Heritage,
Conservation And Renewal- Contemporary Approaches :
Idea Of Urban Catalyst,
Transit Metropolis,
Community Participation.
NEED FOR URBAN DESIGN
We need better cities for the people who live in them, for the people who work in them and for
the people who depend on them

The Value Of Good Urban Design

The quality of our neighbourhoods, towns and cities has a significant impact on our daily lives.
Good urban design makes a valuable contribution to our economy, our natural and built
environments, and the liveability of our cities.
It helps local businesses thrive. It attracts people to visit, live and work in a location.
It considers the landscape, encourages biodiversity and incorporates natural ecosystems.
It has an important influence on our physical and mental health. It provides opportunities for
healthy lifestyles and community interaction.
High quality urban design becomes even more important as we increase the density of our cities
and cater for a growing and changing population.
It requires excellent planning, design and management, and a collaborative, multi-disciplinary
approach.
Creating Places for People does not take a one size fits all approach.
Instead, it provides broad principles that take into account the unique characteristics of a location,
and encourages excellence in the design and custodianship of urban places.
NEED FOR URBAN DESIGN - conti

Good urban design is essential if we are to produce attractive, high-quality, sustainable places
in which people will want to live, work and relax.
It is fundamental to our objective of an urban renaissance.
There is a clamour for better designed places which inspire and can be cherished, places where
vibrant communities can grow and prosper.
To achieve this we need to effect a culture change.
Urban Design seeks to enable people to get more from their surroundings.
Changing the unhealthy relationships and designing the buildings and spaces in towns and cities
to reconcile competing demands and enable people to meet a wide range needs. This will allow
people to forge new links with each other and with their surroundings and can help hold the
negative influences of social exclusion, economic fragility and physical blight at bay.
Urban design seeks to create places with meaning for the people that occupy them to provide
people with opportunities to do the things they need to do to enjoy a good quality of life.
However, defining peoples needs is not always easy. As individuals and as a community,
peoples needs will vary significantly. They are likely to change over time and between people.
NEED FOR URBAN DESIGN - conti

What someone needs at any given time will be influenced by their gender, age,
upbringing, experience, values, and even the time of day.
Designing places that are relevant to everyone means designing places that can be used
in many different ways by many people.
Urban space is too precious to commit to a single use.
In urban design, as in nature, a monoculture is best avoided.
Good design does not cost significantly more, nor take longer to complete, than poor
design.
Perhaps the most important is the ability to create a culture of urban design.
We all influence the quality of our surroundings, from the mayors and planners who
make big decisions.
Getting people to value shared space, to recognize its contribution to peoples lives and to
provide the democratic mandate for cities to make and pay for improvements is
essential.
NEED FOR URBAN DESIGN - conti

Thus the investment in the urban environment delivers a wide range of social,
economic and ecological benefits, in particular:

It adds economic, social and environmental value and does not necessarily
cost more or take longer to deliver
Delivers high investment returns for developers and investors
Enhances workforce performance and satisfaction and increases occupier
prestige
Delivers economic benefits by opening up new investment
Opportunities and delivering more successful regeneration
Helps to deliver places accessible to and enjoyed by all
Benefits all stakeholders investors, developers, occupiers, public authorities
and everyday users of developments.
WHY URBAN DESIGN IS IMPORTANT?
We can discuss the motives that make urban design more important into three main headings:
1. Ecological Significance: Urban design involves modifying the natural environment. It follows, therefore, that the quality
of the built environment will have important implications for the natural environment. Urban design largely deals with the
quality of the built environment that is vital for preserving the natural environment
2. Economic Significance: There is a cruel competition between the countries that are seeking to get a larger piece from the
global economy. Therefore the quality of the built environment is the key factor that significantly affects local, regional and
international image of countries and sets the stage for all economic activity. There is strong relationship between
technological changes in the economic production and structural changes in the quality and production of urban spaces. In
this context, urban design is an effective tool that advances the quality of the urban environment.
3. Social and Cultural Significance: According to ALGA Guide, an important factor determining why people choose to visit,
invest in or relocate to a particular place is the "atmosphere" or the "cultural identity". Tourists now look for the "local
culture" of places rather than a visit a particular art gallery, monument or place of natural beauty alone. Also a desirable
location, good educational facilities, a friendly, caring community, a healthy and safe environment, good quality housing,
and a competitive, stimulating local atmosphere are essential for business development. Therefore the "image of the local
community" is becoming more significant to attract investors and tourist to that area. "Stress on personal identity", "the
love of difference", and "respect to otherness" are all coming from the spirit of postmodernism. These are the positive
ones. Contradictory to this, one can easily suggests that emphasizing the local colors is just a "commercial trap" for
investors and tourists. Modernist motto of "form follows function" is modified by postmodernists "form follows finance".
But from another point of view this trend also gives opportunity to enhance the physical quality of built environment and
promotes the role of urban design.
SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE
OBJECTIVES OF URBAN DESIGN
Successful streets, spaces, villages, towns and cities tend to have characteristics in common.
These factors have been analysed to produce principles or objectives of good urban design.
They help to remind us what should be sought to create a successful place.
SCOPE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

1. Urban Design by Alex Krieger, et al describes the development of the practice of urban design
since the fields contours were sketched out at a conference at Harvard University in the 1950s.
2. It is mainly focused on the development of urban design practice and includes accounts of the
role various professionals (such as architects, developers, regulators and land use lawyers) have
played in the emerging field.
3. The emergent discipline of urban design is still very much done by architects, developers and
land use lawyers; the true establishment of urban design as a separate profession is still very
much pending.
4. It is a evolution between architecture and urban planning
5. Acts as the link between architects and urban design
6. Urban design is wider than the scope of Architect, the Landscape Architect and the City Planner
7. It is a discipline to be practiced by all those who are urban-minded.
1. The Bridge Between Planning and Architecture:
Urban designers mediate between plans and projects.
It is the urban designer who determines what is good or appropriate urban form
Expertise of the urban designer in architectural thinking directs the formulation of plans to
consider physical implications.
2. A Form-Based Category of Public Policy:
Restrictions on height or massing in zoning codes are ostensibly determined through
measurable criteria such as access to sunlight, could be considered as good form-based
values.
It seems too administrative and passive a role for urban design.
3. The Architecture of the City:
Its roots may be traced in 19th century European Beaux Arts and the 20th century
American City Beautiful movement. It seeks to regulate the shaping of public areas of the
city: shaping the public space.
This notion of urban design is best embodied by a stable and stabilizing form anchoring its
part of the city with unique characteristics that are expected to endure and influence
future neighbors.
4. Urban Design as Restorative Urbanism:
The traditional city seems at once so clearly organized, humanely sized, manageable and
beautiful. Such virtues seems absent in the modern metropolis. Why not mobilize to regain
these qualities?
New Urbanists advocate a return to what they consider time-honored principles of urbanism
The walkable city, the city of public streets and public squares, the low-rise high-density city,
the city of defined neighborhoods gathered around valued institutions, the city of intricate
layers of uses free of auto-induced congestion are characteristics that remain appealing.
5. Urban Design as Place-Making:
As more contemporary urban development acquires generic qualities, or is merely repetitive, the
distinctive urban place, old or new, is harder to find.
More urban designers should devote their attention to making new places as worthy as their
time-honored predecessors.
It is the American New Urbanists who have articulated this goal most clearly, but with mixed
results. Their rhetoric extols intimate scale, texture, the mixing of uses, connectivity, continuity,
the privileging of what is shared.
Their designs tend to focus on familiar old forms and traditional aesthetic detailing.
6. Urban Design as Smart Growth:
Sprawl control and environmental stewardship should form overt parts of urban thinking
directed to urban protection.
Urban designers should advocate smarter planning and urban design especially at
metropolitan periphery.
Exposure to the natural sciences, to ecology, to energy management, to systems analysis, to
the economics of land development, to land use law, to issues of public health have not
been fundamental to an urbanists training, but are increasingly becoming more so.
7. The Infrastructure of the City:
The arrangement of streets and blocks, the distribution of open and public spaces, the
alignment of transit and highway corridors, and the provision of municipal services constitute
essential components of urbanism.
Neither planners nor designers have played a significant role in the realm of transportation or
other urban infrastructure planning.
Engineering is shifting emphasis from hardware to systems design, from adding lanes, to traffic
management technology.
Factors such as livability, sustainability, economic and cultural growth, in other words good
urban design, are the real goals of infrastructure optimization.
8. Urban Design as Landscape Urbanism:
Landscape Urbanism has newly emerged to incorporate ecology, landscape architecture and
infrastructure into the discourse of urbanism.
Its main proponents are Ian McHarg, Patrick Geddes and even Frederick Law Olmsted
Nature and human artifice are opposites. Landscape urbanism projects purport to overcome this
opposition, through the intersection of ecology, engineering, design and social policy.
Landscape is the modern glue that holds the modern metropolis together
The radicalism inherent in conceptualization landscape as generative for urbanism is the central
component of urban design
9. Urban Design as Visionary Urbanism:
The twentieth century witnessed immense urban harm caused by those who offered a singular
or universal idea of what a city is, or what urbanization should produce.
Theorists provide insight and models about the way we ought to organize spatially.
This sphere of action is associated with the great figures of modern urban change, from Baron
Haussmann, to Daniel Burnham, to Ebeneezer Howard, to Raymond Unwin, to LeCorbusier, and
maybe even Rem Koolhaas and Andres Duany today.
The urban sociologist/theorist -- from Louis Wirth, to Henri Lefebvre, to Richard Sennett, Edward
Soja or David Harvey supplanted in our own time the great urban transformers of the past.
10. Urban Design as Community Advocacy:
Urban design evokes notions of large-scale thinking.
Contemporary dwellers of urban neighborhoods associate urban design with local, immediate
concerns such as improving neighborhoods, calming traffic, minimizing negative impacts of new
development, expanding housing choices while keeping housing affordable, maintaining open
space, improving streetscapes, and creating more humane environments in general.
Urban design approximates what used to be called community planning.
Today, it is the urban designer, not the planner, who has emerged as the place-centered
professional, with urban design often assuming a friendlier, more accessible popular
connotation
11. Urban Design as a Frame of Mind
Urban design is less a technical discipline and more a mindset among those, of varying
disciplinary foundations, seeking, sharing and advocating insights about forms of community.
What binds different urban designers are their commitment to city life, the enterprise of urban-
maintenance, and the determination to enhance urbanism.