Introduction to Urban Design Components

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I
8/25/2013
1. Introduction to Urban Design

L.Sathish
Associate Professor
School of Architecture
Meenakshi College of Engineering
Unit I
1. Components of Urban Space and their
Interdependencies
2. Outline of issues/ aspects of urban space and
articulation of need for urban design
3. scope and objectives of urban design as a
discipline
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Urban design is the process of designing and shaping

cities, towns and villages. Whereas architecture
focuses on individual buildings, urban design address
the larger scale of groups of buildings, of streets and
public spaces, whole neighborhoods and districts, and
entire cities, to make urban areas functional, attractive,
and sustainable
Urban design is an inter-disciplinary subject that unites
all the built environment professions, including urban
planning, landscape architecture, architecture, civil and
municipal engineering.
Urban design involves the arrangement

and design of buildings, public spaces,
transport
systems,
services,
and
amenities.
Urban design blends architecture,
landscaping, and city planning together
to make urban areas functional and
attractive.
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Urban design is about making

connections between people and
places, movement and urban form,
nature and the built fabric. Urban
design draws together the many
strands
of
place-making,
environmental
stewardship,
social
equity and economic viability into the
creation of places with distinct beauty
and identity.
the art of creating and shaping cities and towns

Urban design involves the arrangement and design of
buildings, public spaces, transport systems, services, and
amenities. Urban design is the process of giving form,
shape, and character to groups of buildings, to whole
neighborhoods,
and
the
city.
It is a framework that orders the elements into a network
of streets, squares, and blocks. Urban design blends
architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning
together to make urban areas functional and attractive.
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Urban design is about making connections between people

and places, movement and urban form, nature and the
built fabric. Urban design draws together the many strands
of place-making, environmental stewardship, social equity
and economic viability into the creation of places with
distinct beauty and identity.
Urban design is derived from but transcends planning and
transportation policy, architectural design, development
economics, engineering and landscape. It draws these and
other strands together creating a vision for an area and
then deploying the resources and skills needed to bring the
vision to life.
"The building of cities is one of man's

greatest achievements." -Edmund Bacon
Urban design involves place-making - the creation of a
setting that imparts a sense of place to an area.
This process is achieved by establishing identifiable
neighborhoods, unique architecture, aesthetically pleasing
public places and vistas, identifiable landmarks and focal
points, and a human element established by compatible
scales of development and ongoing public stewardship.
Other key elements of placemaking include: lively
commercial centers, mixed-use development with groundfloor retail uses, human-scale and context-sensitive design;
safe and attractive public areas; image-making; and
decorative elements in the public realm.
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Urban design practice areas range in scale from small

public spaces or streets to neighborhoods, city-wide
systems,
or
whole
regions.
"Urban design and city building are surely among the
most auspicious endeavors of this or any age, giving
rise to a vision of life, art, artifact and culture that
outlives its authors. It is the gift of its designers and
makers to the future. Urban design is essentially an
ethical endeavor, inspired by the vision of public art
and architecture and reified by the science of
construction." -Donald Watson
Urban design operates at

3 scales:
the region
city and town
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The
neighborhood
district and
corridor
the block
street and
building
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Urban Design Includes

Infrastructure, Architecture, Public Spaces
Components of Urban Space and their

Interdependencies
Buildings: Are the most pronounced
elements of urban design - they shape and
articulate space forming the street walls of
the city.
Public Space: Is the place where people
come together to enjoy the city and each
other. Great public spaces are the living
room of the city.
Streets: Are the connections between
spaces and places, as well as being spaces
themselves.
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Components of Urban Space and

their Interdependencies
Transport: Transport systems connect the
parts of cities and help shape them, and
enable movement throughout the city.
Landscape: Is the green part of the city that
weaves throughout. It appears in form of
urban parks, street trees, plants, flowers, and
water in many forms.
Is the most prominent aspect of urban

design. The following artistic principles are
an integral part of creating form and spatial
definition:
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Unity
Contrast
Balance
Context
Proportion
Detail
Scale
Texture
Hierarchy
Harmony
Symmetry
Beauty
Rhythm
Order
Refer - Basic Design Concept Urban Streets and

Square book
The creative articulation of space
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Urban Design weaves together these elements into a coherent, organized design structure
The urban design structure defines the urban form and the building form
Examples of great urban design are

all over the world:
Washington DC
Cartagena,
Columbia
Copenhagen, Denmark Portofino, Italy
Siena, Italy
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A new City
Salt Lake City, UT
Strasbourg, France
Aleppo, Syria
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The city as an act of will
Mans greatest achievement

Indicator of civilization
Noble city true expression
Mankind
Mass and Space
Awareness of space as Experience

Mass and Space - Interrelation
More Mass less space design
Form and Space
Egyptian Pyramid dominating

Chinese architecture State of Harmony
Islamic architecture Dome
Christian Churches
Indian Temples
So in all cultures of the world, architectural form is an
expression of the philosophical interaction of the forces of
mass and space.
Defining Space
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Defining space
Much of greek architecture was designed to infuse
spaces with a spirit, and to serve as a link between
man and the universe by establishing a firm
relationship with natural space.
Volume of spaces that are in scale with the need
of present time and defined by means which are
harmony with modern technology.
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Articulating spaces
Architectural forms, textures, materials,
Modulation of light and shade, color all combine
to inject a quality or spirit that articulate space.
Urban design there should be skillful deployment
of architectural
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Space and Time

Space and Movement
Definition of Architecture
Involvemennt
Apprehension representation - realization
Urban Issues
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Landuse
Traffic
Pedestrian
Vehicular movement
Open space
Urban elements
People
Infrastructure
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Urban Design Definition

UD: at its broadest, UD is about the form of
cities. We may regard it as that element in the
planning process that is concerned with
finding an appropriate physical framework for
human activities in cities.
Urban form may be viewed in two or three
dimensions, depending on the scale or level of
resolution at which the design process is
operating.
The Scope of Urban Design

From Historical, Professional, and Policy Context.. Why?
to provide a framework for exploring the meaning and scope of
urban design in contemporary planning and urban
development
Central Argument: UD is neither big architecture nor limited to
urban landscape issues. It does not operate solely at the
interface between planning and architecture.
UD is a problem-solving activity with applications to spatial
decision-making at all scales of urban planning
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The Scope of Urban Design

The need for UD as a discipline has arisen as a
result of the fundamental cultural, political, social
and economic changes.
Other issues include the impact of environmental
issues and quality of life on the nature of the city
and how urban form can best be adapted to our
current and future needs.
It has proved difficult to provide a simple,
commonly accepted definition of the scope of UD
Origins of Recent Urban Design Theory

Paul Sprieregaen Urban Design: the Architecture of Towns and Cities was published in
1965 The conventions of urban planning at this time favored rigidly-defined,
functionally-zoned urban development.
This was influenced by the International Modern Architectural Congress (CIAM) set up
in 1920s in Europe by Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius & others.
Some of their ideas a wholesale renewal of the contemporary city through zoned,
single-use high-rise developments.
At the same time, organic view of urban form, originating in the English Garden City
movement, was being developed in the United States by Olmsted, Mumford, Perry
and others. This suggested a regional model of the city, decentralized, low-density
and more suburban in character, hierarchically organized on the basis of semiautonomous community-based neighborhood units or super-blocks
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In the United States in 1960s, the economist Jan
Jacobs published her powerful critique of
modern town planning in The Death and Life
of Great American Cities, bringing the
attention to the complexities of land use
arrangements, and high-density living in
traditional city blocks and the shared
activities of the traditional city street in a
new light.

Defectors from CIAM formed Team X in 1953
exploring new low- and medium rise, high
density interwoven urban structures that
would allow opportunities for social exchange
and encounter that the international style
excluded. This laid the theoretical basis for an
approach to urban renewal which emphasized
vehicular and pedestrian separation
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In the 1950s, Kevin Lynch at MIT began to devise new
techniques for analyzing and representing the perceptual
structure of cities His work, The Image of City, 1964 helped
give rise to a new science of human perception and behavior
in the city.
Later, Scott Brown and Robert Venturi published their book
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture questioned the
International style and advocated the catholic (conservative)
approach to the use of architectural styles and symbolism

Ideas of a morphological approach to UD was explored by Colin Rowe of
Cornell University and others in Europe. The basic idea was to maintain
and restore the traditional 19th century street pattern and form of urban
block, street square, without constraining the contemporary
architectural expression of new building additions.
Aldo Rossis the Architecture of the City, 1989 introduce the notion of the
collective memory of the city with urban form as a repository of culture
from generations past and from generations to come.
Rob Krier in his book Urban Space, 1984 sought to catalogue all possible
forms of urban space generated from the geometric fundamentals of
circle, square, and triangle.
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Reference
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Wikipedia Urban Design

Urban Design.org
Design of cities Edmund Bacon
Urban Design Standards
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Reference Material
Why Design Indian Cities

Than Just Plan Them?
Urban
Design
Mahender Vasandani
CNU-A, MRICS, FIUDI
President
M Square | Urban Design
RICS India: International City Conference, Taj Palace, New Delhi, October 8, 2012
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Why Design Indian Cities

Than Just Plan Them?
Urban
Design
Good Urban Design
Is Good for Cities
Especially Indian Cities!
RICS India: International City Conference, New Delhi, Oct 12
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Urban
Design
What We Will Cover
1. Urban Growth Challenges
2. New Urban Solutions for Indian Cities

A. URBAN: Systematic Urban Transformation
B. SUBURBAN: Walk-to-Work New Townships
(Examples of Good Urban Design)
3. Are We on Track?
4. Conclusion
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1. Indias Urban Growth Challenges
Sustainable Growth Patterns?
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When Will We Get Out of This Mess

(When We Use the Roads Less in Peak Hours!)
Infrastructure Overload
(New Roads Will Provide Only Temporary Solutions)
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Infrastructure Overload
(Need More Transit Service)
+8.25 m
+7.50 m
+2.0 m
+1.2 m
+1.2 m
Source: McKinsey Quarterly: Cities: The Next Frontier of Global Growth
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110
7.3 x
15
Car Ownership per 1000: 2010 vs. 2030
Source: freakonomics.com/2011/05/24
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Belated Focus on Urban Issues

Address Current Growth Issues +
Plan Ahead Now for Future Growth Challenges
Current Models of Urban Planning Will Work to An Extent

Need New Urban Solutions/Need Urban Design
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Need Urban Design Solutions
Urban
Suburban
Systematic Urban Transformation
Sustainable New Townships
Strategic Urban Design Plan
Innovative Urban Design
Urban Design Index (UDI) System
Walk-to-Work
Integrated Diversity
Needed Public Improvements

High Quality Urban Livability
Benefits to Developers,
Customers, Community
and City
And City
(New Growth &

Public Realm)
(New Growth &

Infrastructure Capacity)
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Good Urban Design
Emphasis on Design of Public Places, Not Just Architecture

Good Life Outside, Not Just Inside Buildings
Better Urban Livability/Civic Betterment

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Good Urban Design
Creative Landscape
and Art in the
Public Realm:
Enhanced
City Life
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Good Urban Design
How Private Projects

Meet Public Streets:
Civic
Betterment
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Good Urban Design
The PrivatePublic Interface:
Inside Privacy &

Outside Security
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Good Urban Design
Integrated Affordable Housing
Effective Mixing of Market & Non-Market Housing
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Good Urban Design
Seamless Integration of Private and Public Domains

Pleasant Public Realm
Walkability Across Blocks
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Good Urban Design
Urban
Design
Plan
Tower Placements & Slender Footprints, Height Limits: Maximum Views + Better Urban Ventilation
High Quality Urban Life; High Demand for In-City Living
Highly Successful Urban Transformation

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Good Urban Design
One of the Top 10 Most Livable Cities for 10 Years!
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Good Urban Design:

Good Strategy for Developers
Harvard Business School Course
What Sells
Urban Design and What Makes a Place
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Good Urban Design:

Good Money for Developers
Good Urban Design Delivers

High Profits for Owners & Investors
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Good Urban Design
Urban
Suburban
Systematic Urban Transformation
Sustainable New Townships
Strategic Urban Design Plan
Innovative Urban Design
Urban Design Index (UDI) System
Walk-to-Work
Needed Public Improvements

and City
And City
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Urban
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: Current Conditions
Vital:
Need Better
Infrastructure,
Services &
Governance
Current Focus: FSIs
Good Skyline Wont Improve Urban Livability
New
Solutions
Urban
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: Systematic Transformation
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New
Solutions
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Urban
New
Solutions
Urban
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New
Solutions
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Urban
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Suburban
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: Current Conditions
Current Focus:
Primarily Single-Use Townships
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New
Solutions
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Suburban
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: Walk-to-Work New Townships
KEY PRINCIPLES:
Walkability
(Best Form of Sustainability)
Affordable Housing
Provide Integrated Uses for Walking to Work, Schools, Stores, Restaurants ,etc.
Better Livability, More Sustainable
New
Solutions
Suburban
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Public Realm:
More Important
Skylines Less So!
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New
Solutions
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Suburban
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Enhancing Public Realm

with Good Architecture
Place-making
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Good Urban Design
Urban
Suburban
and the City
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3. Are We On Track?
Current Urban Planning
(JNNURM Funds)
Vital Givens:
Key Planning Concepts of VUDA Plan:
Balanced Regional Development

Ecological Balance
Integrated Transportation System
Hierarchical Regional Development
Urban Heritage
Low- and Medium-Rise Development
Institutional Strengthening
Parking Policy
Solid Waste Disposal
No Consideration of Urban Design
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4. Conclusion
Good Start: JNNURM Funds> Comprehensive Plans (25% Cities)
Build on Early Comp Plan Success> Adopt Urban Design Policies
Plan Now to Achieve Aspirational Goals by 2030/2050:
Transform Existing Cities for Better Livability

+
Build Sustainable New Townships

With
Good Urban Design
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Urban
Design
Thank You!
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Janmarg - Ahmedabad
Masterpieces of Indian Art & Architecture
New Delhi Capital Complex
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New Delhi
Obelisk-Jaipur Column; All India War Memorial Arch, 1911-1931
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Viceroys Palace: completed 1931: Edwin Lutyens
Viceroys Palace: completed 1931: Edwin Lutyens
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Viceroys Palace Dome [left] & Sanchi stupa [right]
Viceroys Garden, 1911-1931
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Viceroys Palace Gardens: completed 1931: Edwin Lutyens
Viceroys Palace Gardens: completed 1931: Edwin Lutyens
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Viceroys Palace [background] with Herbert Bakers Secretariat buildings in foreground:

Lutyens bakerloo
Viceroys Palace & one of two Secretariat buildings
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Caricature based on Mughal

miniature of Lutyens and Baker
presenting model of viceroys palace
and secretariat buildings to Lord
Irwin, viceroy of India.
Marjorie Shoosmith, 1931
LATER APPROACHES TO
URBAN DESIGN
LATER URBAN PLANNING
THEORIES AND PRACTICES
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The theoretical literature of western architecture

starts with Vitruvious, the Augustan architect,
and his treatise De Architectura. It was with
Vitruvious that this present search for a
theoretical understanding of urban design
appropriately began. More important for urban
design however, are the works of the
Renaissance scholars, Leone Battista Alberti,
Antonio Averlino Filarete, Serlio and Andrea
Palladio.
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Alberti presented a great work called De Re Aedificatoria to Pope

Nicholas V in 1452 in which he established architecture as a learned
discipline based upon principles articulated and structured by
reason. In his text Alberti dealt also with elements of city design,
streets, roads, and piazza.
Filaretes book Libro Architettonico, in which he wrote a treatise

on architecture in a modern language for the first time, a capital city,
Sforzinda and a port city Plousiapolis is described in terms of
planning, design and construction of the city as well as its
institutional organisation.
It was, however with Palladio, who wrote the most influential

architectural treatise of the 16th century. His book covers the
general principles of architectural design, the Classical orders, the
design of palaces, villas, etc. Like Alberti, he also dealt with the
design of streets and piazzas.
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These names are of urban designers interest for the

development urban form and the origins of urban
design until the 19th century.
In the development of the urban form from early times to
the 19th century, the urban structure had in common the
fact that the shape of towns and cities was very much
determined by people who had the social, political and
economic power to put their theories into practice.
Also, topography, climate, construction materials and
need for defense were the other urban form and
planning determinants.
However, modern urban structures - and so modern
urban design - are different than the previous examples
because the organization of the society is fundamentally
different.
In rest of the lecture, the most popular urban design
theories (together with the basic principles and ideas
behind) of the 19th and 20th centuries will be introduced
in a chronological order.
Age of Reason - Public Health

Acts
In the 18th century Europe, there were two significant developments in
the society:
(i) expansion of trade leading to growth of a new middle-class,
(ii) development of science.
The new working middle class could not afford to live in the grand
houses and palaces of the old aristocracy and this led to the
development of town houses and grand terraces (e.g. Regents Park,
by John Nash, London). More significantly, the middle class realized
that the old regimes were obstacles to the new capitalist economic
system. This led to revolution in America and in France.
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The development of science and rationalism influenced

the taste in architecture.
The architectural forms became more simple, refined
and rational. This was so called neo-classic planning.
This also provided basis for industrial revolution
beginning in England and changed from handcrafts to
mass production in factories - a new building type
located in rapidly growing cities.
New urban settlements started to develop around these
factories and this led to overcrowding in cities.
So the important terms specializing the period are
INDUSTRIALISATION, OVERCROWDING and
URBANISATION.
Garnier La Cite Industrille 1901
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French architect Tony Garniers industrial city plan was

based on rigorous zoning. By sitting housing area away
from the industrial area and city center, it removed much of
the richness of traditional city life along with some of its
squalor. Personal transport is still a necessity.
Existing towns were transformed very quickly. Industry

required new building types - factories, offices, railways
and transportation systems, housing, government
administrative buildings, prisons, museums, theatres,
etc. to serve the new society. There was also a big gap
between Capital and Labor and new social problems.
Overcrowding in urban housing led to disease and
death. Urgent action had to be taken to prevent revolt
and the loss of the workforce. In order to improve the
living conditions for the poor urban masses, PUBLIC
HEALTH ACTS were culminated in 1875 in England.
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Public Health Acts mainly aimed at improving sanitation

and living conditions in general, for the poor urban
masses and they prescribed minimum standards for urban
housing with respect to the,
- level, width and construction of new streets and
provision for the sewerage thereof;
- structure of walls, foundations, roofs and chimneys for
securing stability and the prevention of fires and for the
purpose of health;
- sufficiency of space about buildings, to secure a free
circulation of air, with respect of ventilation of buildings;
- drainage of buildings.
These regulations affected the form and the design of urban
housing and so urban planning in England. Similar cases
and process of industrialization and urbanization can be
seen in many parts of the world.
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Boulevard Planning
Industrial revolution had a similar process in France but
led to different results.
In England the concern was with health and good living
conditions; in France and especially in Paris the concern
was with preventing another revolution. Thus, after the
Revolution in 1848 in France, Napoleon wanted Paris to
be redeveloped in such a way that no barricades would
be able to be built in the streets.
Baron Haussmann brought a straight, pragmatic
solution to a highly practical problem by destroying
many existing buildings and building up wide
boulevards with the intention of focusing visually
and functionally on the great monuments of Paris
which were connected to one another by these
boulevards.
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The new railway stations of Paris were also

connected to assure more efficient transport
between them and the city centers. These
boulevards were by no means designed for any
kind of intrinsic beauty. They gave long
perspective views towards the major
monuments, and also afforded the longest
feasible sight lines for Napoleons troops.
Besides, with their round-points in front of or
around corners they also speeded up the flow
of traffic. The trees, which seemed to
humanize the boulevards, together with the
great width of the boulevards themselves,
made barricade-building difficult too.
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Haussmanns Boulevard planning became

very influential in many cities in the world
like Vienna, Barcelona, Ankara, etc.; it
became the norm towards which most great
European cities were developed or
redeveloped in 1870s.
Sittes Artistic Planning

Camillo Sitte, a Viennese architect and the
originator of modern city planning, reacted
against Haussmanns formal and
monumental planning, just as some others.
Therefore he attempted to abstract principles
for the design of plazas, streets and public
squares from the analysis of historic
examples, with particular reference to the
medieval Italian city. In general, he disliked
intensely the boulevard approach which had
been so fundamental to Haussmann-like
planning.
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In his book Der Stadbau published in 1889 and

translated into English in 1965 under the name of City
Planning According to Artistic Principles, he
examines the public and aesthetic nature of old
European cities that have lived from the pre-industrial
age without being damaged. He was concerned with city
planning which he considered an art rather than a
scientific object. He restricted his attention and concern
to public squares wherein, he believed, lies the character
of a city.
He appreciated the informal irregularity of the old
squares, their being natural and having picturesque
quality. He mentioned the harmonious effect and the
balance they produce within the overall composition with
the impression of rhythm and peace they have.
The informal freedom of design in classical and
medieval towns was considered by Sitte to be the
leading idea of old city planning (Onal, 1994, p 35).
Many urban theorists since the 1950s

have focused their attention on the general
value of Sittes study and have used his
ideas as a basis for their own urban
design concepts, although Sittes study of
urban space refers specifically to the
European city at the turn of the 19th
century. Sittes ideas were also supported
by Julien Gaudet, the Director of the Ecole
des Beaux Arts in Paris.
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The City Beautiful

The next distinguishable movement in city
planning - the American City Beautiful was
opposite in principle to Sittes artistic
planning. It was rather based on
Haussmanns Boulevard Planning and first
seen at Chicago World Fair (Worlds
Colombian Exposition) in 1893.
Chicago had been developing through the 19th

century as a great commercial center; and after
the disastrous fire of 1871, the architects were
concerned with the development of fire-resisting
structures for the office and warehouses, such
as steel-framed high buildings, skyscrapers with
elevators, etc. (1883 by Le Baron Jenney).
However, steel-frame and elevators solved the
technical problems but not the architectural
ones: the whole city was designed for the
Exposition by a group of architects yet the
design looked like reproduction of Baroque. Yet
the exposition was supported by some business
men who, having demonstrated their commercial
skills, now wanted to buy cultural respectability.
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They wanted Chicago to be known, not only as

the commercial center of America, but also as
its cultural capital. To achieve this aim, they
wanted to create a uniform and ceremonious
style - a style evolved from the highest
civilization in history - i.e. the Classical
examples, rather than the current medieval or
any other form of romantic or picturesque art.
Designed thus as it was in the Classical
manner, the Exposition, and so the city of
Chicago, naturally encouraged all those who
had been looking for a revival of that grand
approach to city planning.
Looking South across the Grand Plaza towards the Machinery Hall at the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
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The influences of
the City Beautiful
Movement can be
observed in
England, especially
in the City Hall and
Law Courts at
Cardiff, the Civic
Center in
Southampton, and
the Civic Offices in
Portsmouth.
The Garden City

The next great set of planning conventions, those of the
Garden City movement were intended to free the
pressures on such cities by decanting population to new
and much smaller towns, built well outside the city in
virgin countryside.
The chief exponent of this approach was Ebenezer
Howard whose main concern was to stem the drift of
population-limited to 32.000 people-from rural to urban
areas presenting the alternatives as town and country
magnets, each of which has its attractions and
corresponding disadvantages inegration of town and
country.
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He characterizes the town as closing out nature

and catalogues many disadvantages such as
the isolation of crowds, distances from work,
high rents and prices, excessive hours of
work, etc.
He then balances these with some advantages,
such as social opportunity, places of
amusement, high wages, fresh air, low rents,
etc.
Howards notional plans, which were first

published in Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path
to Real Reform (1898), and were
republished as Garden Cities of
Tomorrow, are based very firmly on the
idea of a central park/garden of some
five acres about which all of the citys
main functions are grouped
concentrically. Indeed, major
components would all be segregated.
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The first ring around the central garden consisted of public

buildings: the town hall, concert and lecture halls,
library, museum, art gallery and hospital.
These were surrounded by a ring of parkland, cut through radically

by the six principal boulevards and surrounded by the Crystal
Palace - a wide glass arcade which, in wet weather, is one of the
favorite resorts of the people.
The next ring was a broad ring of houses each standing in its own
garden. The houses were greatly varied in character, some having
common gardens.
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The main ring of housing was surrounded by a Grand Avenue

forming a belt of green, an annual park dividing the main part of the
town into two concentric belts.
The Avenue itself is divided into six radial boulevards occupied by
public schools, their surrounding play-grounds and gardens.
The outer regions of the town would be occupied by factories,
warehouses, markets, coal yards, etc. all with access to circular
railway lines which surrounding the town enabling goods to be
loaded at various points.
Beyond this there would be a full range of uses for agricultural
purposes.
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Howards Garden City can be seen as the

beginning of regional planning and
decentralization.
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Neighborhood Planning
Clarence Perry developed the idea of the neighborhood
unit by analyzing the things he found good - including
gardening and community participation - about living in
a Long Island suburb named Forest Hills Gardens.
The neighborhood unit was focused on a community
centre, a place for debate and discussion.
Crucial to Perrys concept was the idea of day-to-day
facilities: shops, schools, playgrounds, etc. should be
within walking distance of every house. This in itself the
overall size of a neighborhood, while heavy traffic was
kept out, confined to arterial roads which skirted around
the neighborhood.
Perry estimated the optimum size for a neighborhood to
be around 5000 people; large enough to provide for
most peoples day-to-day needs, yet small enough for a
sense of community to develop.
The general characteristics of the neighborhood

unit were based on the idea of:
- the super block - instead of the narrow, rectangular block
- the specialized roads planned and built - each for one
use instead of for all uses
- complete separation of pedestrians and vehicles
- houses turned around; living and sleeping rooms facing
towards gardens and parks, service rooms towards
access road
- park as backbone of the neighborhood.
In addition to the points above, cul-de-sacs/

dead-end streets were used for vehicular access
to the fronts of the houses
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The Modern Movement

The modern movement in architecture
during the early part of this century has
had a strong influence on contemporary
architects, planners and urban designers.
The urban design proposals of Le
Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright
represent the polar attitudes toward
urbanization and urban design.
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Le Corbusier: Ville Radieuse
Le Corbusier, being very critical of

traditional cities, attempted to convert
the city into park within which the
actual buildings would occupy only
some %5 of the land. He developed a
contemporary city Ville Radieuse
(Radiant City) for 3 million
inhabitants; this city was to be a city in
a garden instead of being a city with
gardens. The fundamental principles
he put forward were:
- freeing the city from traffic congestion,
- enhancing the overall densities,
- enhancing the means of circulation,
- augmenting the area of planting.
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The second work, Plan Voisin for rebuilding Paris

designed in the 1920s but never constructed, illustrates
the contrast between traditional urban density and the
urban design of Modernism.
Although his ideas seem to be opposing to Howards

notion of the small-town Garden City, Le Corbusiers
vision, in fact, had grown out of Howards: he points
out in his study that, nature melts under the invasion
of roads and houses and the promised seclusion
becomes a crowded settlement, and the solution will
be found in the vertical garden city.
His design for a city is linear and nodal on a large
scale grid, proposing two kinds of housing
immediately around the city centre: terraces and
apartment blocks. He also considered the traffic in
the design of a city. According to him, new forms of
street must be designed so that the traffic can flow
freely at optimum speed.
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There were 3 important principles behind

Corbusiers influence on modern urban
space:
1. The linear and nodal building as a large
scale urban element a principle applied
physically to define districts or social units
2. The vertical seperation of movement
systems an outcome of Le Corbusiers
fascination with highways and the city of
the future
3. The opening up of urban space to allow for
freeing landscape, sun and light.
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Le Corbusiers plans and perspectives

captured the imagination of architects,
urban designers and planners worldwide.
In the 1960s particularly, a remarkable
number of them were enabled to make
their own cities look remarkably like Le
Corbusiers perspectives with their
motorways slashing between their
skyscrapers.
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Frank Lloyd Wright:

Broadacre City
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As its name emphasizes the proposal of Wright was for a lowdensity development of detached buildings. He envisioned a
city of small farms or garden home-steads. His scheme
eliminated roads as much as possible and attempted to bring the
country into the city rather than create parks.
Frank Lloyd Wrights Broadacre City plan gave an acre of land to

every household, but the inhabitants still depended for
communications on a motorway grid and a helicopter for every
family.
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Both of these architects have had a great

influence on the architectural profession
and the general public. In a sense, the
both expected and influenced two major
kinds of urban form existing today
especially in American cities: the highdensity urban core and the low density
suburb.
Then the principles by which architects

and planners were to deal with the
problems of the 20th century were codified
by CIAM (Congres Internationaux
dArchitecture Moderne).
Accordingly the city was divided into four
main functions: housing, work, recreation,
transport. Radical solutions were proposed
for each area.
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RECENT URBAN PLANNING

THEORIES AND PRACTICES
RECENT APPROACHES TO
URBAN DESIGN
Two major themes were found in the Postmodern reaction to the hegemony associated with
modern architecture:
New Rationalism - Neo-Rationalism
New Empiricism Neo-Empiricism
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New Rationalism
Neo-Rationalism
TEAM 10 (a young group of second-generation
of European Modernists who moved towrad a
more contextual approach at least in concept
and attempt to re-define the underlying principles
and formal expression of urban space) --------REDEFINITION OF PRINCPLES AND FORMAL
EXPRESSION OF URBAN SPACE in 1950s
NEO-RATIONALISTS:
ALDO ROSSI (ITALY)
LEON & ROB KRIER (LUXEMBOURG)
RICARDO BOFILL (SPAIN)
Rationalism promotes a concern for

public open space over a preoccupation
with individual buildings and incorporates
strongly defined geometric spaces as
ordering devices. It looks at historic
models and classical spatial structures to
derive principles for linking old and new,
high and low, and diverse materials,
colors, and textures for inspiration.
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Leon Kriess mission was to reconstruct the tradional

urban blocks as definers of streets and squares.
Formal, multidimensional, horizontal pattern of spaces by
highlighting the qualities of public space.
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New Empiricism
Neo-Empiricism
HIGHLIGHTING PERCEPTUAL AND
SPATIAL QUALITIES OF THE URBAN
ENVIRONMENT
REPRESENTATIVES:
KEVIN LYNCH
ROBERT VENTURI
GORDON CULLEN
COLIN ROWE
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KEVIN LYNCH
URBAN ANALYSER IN EMPRICAL TERMS
PRESENTED HIS PRINCIPLE RULES FOR
DESIGNING CITY SPACES AS:
LEGIBILITY: THE MENTAL PICTURE OF THE CITY
HELD BY THE USERS ON THE STREET
STRUCTURE AND IDENTITY: RECOGNIZABLE
COHERENT PATTERN OF URBAN BLOCKS,
BUILDINGS AND SPACES
IMAGEABILITY: USER PERCEPTION IN MOTION
AND HOW PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE SPACES
OF THE CITY
ACCORDING TO LYNCH:
SUCCESSFUL URBAN SPACE MEET THESE
REQUIREMENTS
PARTS OF THE CITIES - ELEMENTS OF URBAN
FORM SHOULD BE DESIGNED ACCORDING TO
THESE REQUIREMENTS
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ROBERT VENTURI
MOST OF THE OUTDOOR SPACES
CREATED BY MODERN MOVEMENT
ARE LOST SPACES ISOLATED FROM
ITS TOTAL SURROUNDINGS.
GORDON CULLEN
A TOWNSCAPE ARTIST
EXPLORED THE EXPERIENCE OF
SEQUENCE THROUGH URBAN SPACE
UNIQUE SENSE OF PLACE FROM
STREET LEVEL
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE
OBJECT & MOVEMENT
THE EVENT OF ARRIVING AT /
LEAVING CITY SPACES
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COLIN ROWE
A LEADING URBAN DESIGN EDUCATOR
DILEMMA OF TEXTURE COMPOSITE URBAN
PATTERN OF STREETS, BUILDINGS, AND OPEN
SPACES THE FABRIC OF THE CITY
The problem: Building as a free-standing object and
its disruptive effects on the continuity of these urban
patterns.
He put forward a pluralist view of urban form, a collage
city that accomodates a range of ideas and visions.
His urban design work is based on cubist geometries
and historic models of Rome and Florence etc. where
buildings as articulated solids are designed to create
positive voids.
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78

Introduction to Urban Design Components

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Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

1. Introduction to Urban Design

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Urban design is the process of designing and shaping

Urban design involves the arrangement

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Urban design is about making

the art of creating and shaping cities and towns

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Urban design is about making connections between people

"The building of cities is one of man's

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Urban design practice areas range in scale from small

Urban design operates at

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Urban Design Includes

Components of Urban Space and their

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Components of Urban Space and

Is the most prominent aspect of urban

Refer - Basic Design Concept Urban Streets and

The creative articulation of space

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Examples of great urban design are

Copenhagen, Denmark Portofino, Italy

Salt Lake City, UT

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

The city as an act of will

Mans greatest achievement

Awareness of space as Experience

Egyptian Pyramid dominating

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Space and Time

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Urban Design Definition

The Scope of Urban Design

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

The Scope of Urban Design

Origins of Recent Urban Design Theory

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Origins of Recent Urban Design Theory

Origins of Recent Urban Design Theory

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Origins of Recent Urban Design Theory

Origins of Recent Urban Design Theory

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Wikipedia Urban Design

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Why Design Indian Cities

M Square | Urban Design

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

Why Design Indian Cities

RICS India: International City Conference, New Delhi, Oct 12

1. Urban Growth Challenges

2. New Urban Solutions for Indian Cities

RICS India: International City Conference, New Delhi, Oct 12

Introduction to Urban Design - UNIT I

1. Indias Urban Growth Challenges

Sustainable Growth Patterns?

RICS India: International City Conference, New Delhi, Oct 12