URBAN DESIGN THEORIES .
ROB KRIER
Ar. Ravindra Patnayaka, B.Arch, M.Tech Planning, PGDESM
Assistant Professor,
GITAM SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, Visakhapatnam.
Rob Krier
• Sculptor, Architect, Urban
Designer and Theorist.
• Professor in architecture at Vienna
University of Technology, Austria.
• Brother of fellow architect Léon Krier.
• Both are well-known representatives Rob Krier
of New Urbanism and New Classical
Architecture.
Elements of the concept of urban space
The two basic elements are the Street and the Square.
In the category of “interior space” one would be talking about the corridor and the
room.
The geometrical characteristics of both spatial forms are the same.
They are differentiated only by the dimensions of the walls that bound them and by
the patterns of function and circulation that characterize them.
Square Street
Typical functions of urban spaces
The activities of a town take place in public and private spheres.
What concerns us above all here are those activities which take place in town in the open air:
i.e., actions which a person performs outside the familiar territory of his own home and for
which he utilizes public space, as, for example
traveling to work,
shopping,
selling goods,
recreations,
leisure activities,
sporting events,
deliveries, etc.
Although the asphalt carpet that serves as a channel for the movement of cars is still called a
“street,” it retains no connection with the original significance of the term.
The Street
The street is a product of the spread of a settlement once houses have been built
on all available space around its central square.
It has a more pronouncedly functional character than the square, which by virtue
of its size.
They were planned to the scale of the human being, the horse and the carriage.
The street is unsuitable for the flow of motorized traffic, whilst remaining
appropriate to human circulation and activity.
It provides a framework for the distribution of land and gives access to individual plots.
Residential Street Commercial Street
Street Character
Connecting Roadway Motor Carriage Way
A platform for Informal Sector A Safe altar for informal activities
Thoroughfare Pedestrian Friendly Pathways
Boulevard
Urban Street Network
The Square
In all probability the square was the first way man discovered of using urban
space.
It is produced by the grouping of houses around an open space.
This arrangement afforded a high degree of control of the inner space, as
well as facilitating a ready defense against external aggression by minimizing
the external surface area liable to attack.
This kind of courtyard frequently came to bear a symbolic value and was
therefore chosen as the model for the construction of numerous holy places
(agora, forum, cloister, mosque courtyard).
With the invention of houses built around a central courtyard or atrium this
spatial pattern became a model for the future. Here rooms were arranged
around a central courtyard like single housing units around a square.
The Square
Cultural Activities
Commercial Activities
Marketplace
Parade ground
ceremonial squares
Churches and town halls
Public & administrative Buildings
Community Halls and Youth Centers
Libraries, Theatres, Concert Halls, Cafes
Functions that generate activity 24 Hours a day
Greek Agora Roman Forum
Plaza del Popolo, Rome
Grande place, Brussels
La Place Stanislas, Nancy
La-place-des-vosges-Paris
Madrid. Plaza Mayor
How BUILDING SECTION affect urban space
• 1. Standard traditional section with pitched roof,
• 2. With flat roof.
• 3. With top floor set back. This devise reduces the
height of the building visible to the eye.
• 4. With a projection on pedestrian level in the form
of an arcade or a solid structure. This device
distances the pedestrian from the real body of the
building and creates a pleasing human scale. John
Nash in his Park Crescent, London, applied this type
of section with particular virtuosity.
• 5. Half way up the building, the section is reduced by
half its depth; this allows for extensive floors on the
lower level and flats with access balconies on the
upper level.
• 6. Random terracing.
• 7. Slopping elevation with vertical lower and upper
floors.
• 8. Sloping elevation with protruding ground floor,
• 9. Stepped section.
• 10. Sloping section with moat or freestanding
ground floor.
• 11. Standard section with moat.
• 12. Building with ground floor arcades.
How BUILDING SECTION affect urban space
• 13. Building on pilotis.
• 14. Building on pilotis, with an intermediate floor
similarly supported.
• 15. Sloping ground in front of building.
• 16. A free-standing low building placed in front of a
higher one.
• 17/18. Buildings with a very shallow incline, as, for
example, arenas.
• 19. Building with arcade above ground level and
access to pedestrian level.
• 20. Building with access balcony.
• 21. Inverted stepped section.
• 22. Building with pitched projections.
• 23. Building with projections.
• 24. Building with free-standing towers.
How ELEVATIONS affect urban space
• 1. Pierced façade: the lowest level is more generously
glazed in each sketch, reducing the solid area to a
simple load-bearing structure.
• 2. The glazed area within the load-bearing structure
can be modified according to taste. The following
three pictures show a reverse of the design process
portrayed in 1. A solid base forces the glazed area
upward.
• 3. The window type can be modified horizontally and
vertically according to the imagination of the designer.
How ELEVATIONS affect urban space
• 4. Faceless modular façade as a theoretical
(abstract) way in which the building might be
enclosed. The modular façade can be adapted
to all variations in the shape of the building.
Solid sections of the building can be combined
with the grid.
• 5. Windowless buildings: windows are placed in
niches, etc., and the process starts again from
the beginning.
• 6. Exploration of different geometries: a
thematic interpretation of the elevation:
– lowest level=heavy;
– middle section=smooth with various
perforations;
– upper part=light, transparent.
Typology of Urban Space
• In formulating a typology of urban space, spatial forms and
their derivatives may be divided into three main groups,
according to the geometrical pattern of their ground plan:
these groups derive from the square, the circle or the triangle.
Scale of Urban Space is related to its geometrical quality
Modulating Factors
Angling
Segmentation
Addition
Merging
Overlapping
Distortion
Spatial Types and how they might be combined
The Modulating Factors can
produce geometrically regular or
irregular results on all spatial
types.
Intersection of Street and Square
One Intersection Street
Two Intersecting Streets
Three Intersecting Streets
Four Intersecting Streets
• THANK YOU
