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Environmental Design Lecture 1

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8 views20 pages

Environmental Design Lecture 1

Uploaded by

alexandragono21
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction to

Environmental
Design
Quality urban designing and
liveable settlements
KEY DEFINITIONS
 What is Environmental Design?
 The environment is defined as the physical and
constructed environment in which people live,
work, and recreate on a day-to-day basis
 The physical and constructed environment
provides the setting for human activity, and ranges
in scale from buildings and parks, green spaces to
neighborhoods, the local community, as well as
supporting infrastructure, such as roads
KEY DEFINITIONS

 Environmental design concerned with the way


these places are experienced and used, as well as
other aesthetic elements that contribute to the
quality of these environments.
 ED is a wide range of interventions informed by
human and environmental systems in addressing
the impact of the built environment on individuals
and the natural world.
PLAYERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL
 Environmental design comprises many players:
 Architects, planners, landscape architects, interior
designers, preservationists, building technology
specialists, and researchers from a wide range of
disciplines.
 Their shared body of knowledge and professional
skills affect communities, landscapes, buildings,
products, and the individuals who occupy and use
them
Environmental determinism
 Environmental determinism is the belief that the
physical factors of the environment determines the
patterns of human culture and societal development.
The main line of argument is that“people and their
environments are inseparable” i.e. “the character of
people is seen in the light of the physical
environment they inhabit.”

 Whats your take on this assertion?


Environmental determinism
 e.gs: For instance it was said that areas in the tropics
were less developed than higher latitudes because
the continuously warm weather there made it easier
to survive and thus, people living there did not work
as hard to ensure their survival.
 Another example of environmental determinism
would be the theory that island nations have unique
cultural traits solely because of their isolation from
continental societies.
How have world societies, cities and culture developed?

 A lot of other factors including economic, social,


technological and political factors also have an
impact on cultural development. The city is the
accumulation and integration of many individual and
small group actions, themselves governed by
cultural traditions and shaped by social and
economic forces over time.
Why Design?

 Design helps people understand and find solutions


to complex and often poorly understood
challenges to living healthy and sustainable lives
 What are some of these challenges?
 Seven clamps of Urban Design by Rouse(1998)
Quality urban designing and liveable settlements

 Characteristics of good designs


 Agility in design
 Diversity in design
 Delight in design
Key questions
What are the characteristics of good designs of urban
environments?
Defining the key concepts of quality architectural
designs of the built environment : agility, diversity
and delight in design and responsive design elements
Explain why the concepts of spatial justice and
safety are important in urban design?
Introduction: Discussion
“Vibrant and inclusive urban spaces are the central
ingredients of livable communities.” Discuss
Characteristics of good built
environments:
 - responds and contributes to its natural and built
context
 -provides an appropriate scale in terms of the bulk
and height relative to the scale of the street and
surrounding buildings (in keeping with existing or
preferred neighborhood character)
 -achieves an appropriate built form for a site and
building in terms of building alignment,
proportions, building type and elements
Characteristics of good built
environments:

 -hasa density appropriate for a site and its


context (in keeping with existing or
preferred neighborhood character)
 -recognizes that landscape and buildings
operate as an integrated and sustainable
system
Characteristics of good built environments:
 -makes efficient use of natural resources, energy and
water throughout its full life cycle
 -inclusive of responsive design elements (e.g.
robustness, permeability, legibility, variety, richness,
personalisation, visual appropriateness)
 -vibrant and Inclusive urban spaces
 -optimizes safety and security for internal and public
spaces
Key concepts in design
 Agility in design
 Diversity in design
 Delight in design
 7 responsive design elements by Bentley et al.
 Liveable
 Inclusive
 Spatial justice/right to the city
Agility in design
calls for thinking (designing & planning) and acting
(constructing) – that is open & responsive to needs of society

Agility in design includes:


a) Adaptability
b) Durability
c) Fitness
d) Scale
e) Affordability
f) balance natural / built environment
Diversity in design
Ensures an array of land uses, complementary
buildings types,

a) Mix of use
b) Landscape recreational parks etc
c) Amenities
Delight in design
Design should emphasize space that contributes to
comfort & contentment to the people’s
a) Health
b) Beauty
c) Safety and order
d) Liveability
Assignment Question 2 DUE
DATE 29 September 2022

i c a n c o nt e xt i s an
f o r m a l i t y i n t he Afr
“Urban i n d of
c r y a n d de m a n
expression of a
ni a l i t y" D i s c u s s
decol o
Assignment Question 2 Due Date 13
October 2022
 “Streets are sites of socio-spatial complexity and reflect
contradictory expressions of street life." Discuss

 Or
With the aid of relevant examples discuss the prospects
and challenges that planners may face in embracing the
right to the city concept in design and management of
public spaces in any African city of your choice
OR

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