JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

URBAN STUDIES
LECTURE 09
URBAN SCALES
DEFINITIONS
• Urban Scale is a term that describes the sense of
height, bulk, and architectural articulation of a
place or individual building, often in relation to the
size of a human body. 
• The use of the term “urban” also suggests the
importance of the overall context of an area, and
the role neighbouring buildings play in establishing
a sense of scale. 
• Groups of buildings and the spaces between them
establish a high, medium, or low urban scale
• The images at
right illustrate the
way in which
buildings are
grouped in
various places to
create a distinct
urban scale. 
• A downtown
skyscraper district
of a major city is
clearly of a great
or high urban
scale.  The
buildings are tall,
and often have
substantial mass
or girth.
• An area with buildings predominantly
between four (4) and eight (8) stories is
typically considered to be of a medium
scale; however the city context makes a
difference.  
• Eight stories might be considered a high-
rise urban scale in a small city, whereas it
could easily be thought of as a medium
urban scale in a large city.
• The image below, at left, is an example of
medium urban scale, although these boundaries
may vary by place. 
• A one and two-story residential neighborhood,
as shown in the image below/at right, includes
predominantly low-height buildings, which
establish a low urban scale. 
• Increased horizontal spacing of buildings and the
corresponding increase in space between
buildings also contributes to the low urban scale.
• The urban transect diagram shown
below outlines the structure of typical urban
settlement patterns, described using increasing
increments of urban scale, or transect zones. 
• The scale divides areas into six (6) transect
zones, extending from T1 (rural preserve) to T6
(urban core).  The figure also identifies a
number of features that contribute to land
use intensity and urban scale, such as
setbacks, green space, lighting, and building
materials
• The key to
creating successful
mixed-scale
neighbourhoods
and districts, such
as the one shown
at right, lies in
effectively
transitioning
between buildings
and clusters of
different scales. 
• The appropriate
relationship and
transition
between buildings
and clusters
should be outlined
in a City’s building
and design
policies.
• The figure below depicts one example of a
“form-based code” approach to setting height
limits for a downtown district. 
• While form-based codes and height limits help
establish a basis for urban scale, the
architectural articulations of building height
and massing largely influence the feel and
urban scale of an area
• In addition to a building’s general dimensions,
the articulation of the mass and facade play a
critical role in defining urban scale. 
• Buildings that lack traditional scale cues such
as individual window openings and sills, visible
stories, intermediate cornices, entryway
features, or a building base may seem
overwhelming and can be confusing with
respect to scale.
• For example, in the absence of the small brick side buildings in the
photo below, the actual height and scale of black glass cube building
would be difficult to determine.  When a large building has none or very
few of the scale references listed above, it is said to lack human scale.
• Buildings of extremely
different heights and
contrasting levels of
articulation of scale (as
shown at right) may
create an unattractive
and undesirable clash
of scales that does not
reflect well on either
building, or on the
district of which they
form a part.
• Misfit in urban scale, especially between low to medium
scale residential buildings, as shown above, at left, can
have a substantial negative impact on privacy, liveability,
real estate values, and neighbourhood character.
• With careful attention to design and articulation, large
buildings can be visually broken down into smaller, more
human-scaled components, as shown in the image below.
• Emphasizing the ground floor of a building can
help create a more interesting streetscape and
pedestrian environment, and sculpting back
the mass of the building with upper level
setbacks can help reduce the size and impact
of the street wall
URBAN STREET SCALE
• Urban scale is the term used to describe some of the
most important characteristics of streets, including
the perceived scale of the street vertically, the sense
of enclosure within a “street room” and the degree
of definition of the street and its addresses as a
place. 
• The term is defined as the height of the street wall
relative to the width of the street, from street wall to
street wall (building face to building face). 
• Thus, urban scale is measured using the “height to
width ratio” laterally across the street.
• The urban scale of a “street room” has a major effect on
how the street is perceived by motorists and pedestrians. 
• Streets with high ratios of height to width feel urban and
enclosed.  There is a strong sense of spatial definition and
enclosure that can be supportive to Placemaking.
• However, streets with very high urban scale – greater than
3:1 – can begin to feel like “concrete canyons” and can be
claustrophobic, especially along narrower streets. 
• Such streets can be cold and harsh in winter.  In the St.
Louis region, as in many other parts of the U.S., such
streets also can concentrate and redirect winds at
sidewalk level in ways that are not conducive to a
comfortable walking environment.
• In temperate climate zones, “sun access” can be
another key issue in planning and design.  On
east-west streets with high urban scale, the sun
may not reach lower floors of buildings during
winter months.  On high scale north-south
streets, windows of buildings may receive little
direct sunlight any month of the year.
• However, this effect is mitigated significantly
through good design (including wide sidewalks
that reduce the impact of the street) and by
wide variation in building height up and down
the street.
• In the photo above, Market Street in San Francisco is an
example of a high scale street.  Market is a major multimodal
 transportation corridor and one of San Francisco’s most
important commercial streets.  It also feels intensely urban
• At the other end of the range, streets with very low
urban scale – less than 1:4 – exhibit little spatial
definition.  Such streets feel similar to certain large
ballrooms in hotels or meeting rooms in conference
centres

• Wide, low scale streets are perceived as a series of

spaces with little coherence.  The street walls
(buildings) do not enclose and define the street enough
for it to be perceived as a place.  Placemaking along
such streets is difficult and requires the use of other
defining elements – trees, walls, and street furniture.
An example of a low scale street in the St. Louis region is shown in the photo above. 
Here there is no enclosure at all and the street appears almost rural, even though traffic
is heavy and the adjacent land uses are all commercial.  This kind of environment is
almost completely intolerable for pedestrians.
• The perceived urban scale of low scale streets can be increased
through use of street trees.  For example, the urban scale of the
street in the photo above– Main Street in Pleasanton, California –
is enhanced by the street trees that increase the perceived height
to width ratio above what it would be if measured by the height
of the buildings along the street.
• Graphic representations of common height to
width ratios and photos of corresponding
examples are shown below. 
• Generally, “great streets” will have urban scale
ratios that fall in a range between 3:1 at the
high end and 1:3 at the low end.
3:1 Height to Width Ratio 
Sense of spatial definition: strong; may feel like a
“concrete canyon” in some settings
• Skyview:  very narrow; viewing tops of
buildings requires changing neck angle
• Lowest sun angle reaching bottom of north
street wall at mid-day:  71° (east-west street)
3:2 Height to Width Ratio )
• Sense of spatial definition: strong; clear sense
of enclosure
• Skyview:  limited; viewing tops of buildings
requires changing neck angle
• Lowest sun angle reaching bottom of north
street wall at mid-day: 
56° (east-west street)
1:1 Height to Width Ratio 
• Sense of spatial definition: high, strong
placemaking potential
• Skyview:  limited, peripheral only
• Lowest sun angle reaching bottom of north
street wall at mid-day: 
45° (east-west street)
1:2 Height to Width Ratio  
• Sense of spatial definition: good; sufficient for
placemaking
• Skyview:  views of sky about equal to visual
field occupied by street wall
• Lowest sun angle reaching bottom of north
street wall at mid-day: 
27° (east-west street)
1:4 Height to Width Ratio 
• Sense of spatial definition: weak; placemaking
potential is low
• Skyview:  three times as much sky as wall
within normal range of human vision
• Lowest sun angle reaching bottom of north
street wall at mid-day: 
15° (east-west street)