PLANNING THEORY

CITY FORM IN THE CONTEXT OF

DEVELOPED AND developing
COUNTRIES
Compiled by:
Jyoti
Ayush Chaudhary
Ayush Garg
Shweta Khatriker
Vijay Meena

Structure

Introduction

city

city forms

Types of city forms

The Radio centric city

The gridiron city

The linear city

City growth

Ecological models of urban land use model

Concentric Model

Sector Model

Multi nuclei Model

Introduction-cities
A city is a group of people and a number of permanent
structures within a limited geographical area, so organized as
to facilitate the interchange of goods and services among its
residents and with the outside world.
The settlements grew into villages, villages transformed into
cities.
Cities created when large number of people live together, in a
specific geographic location leading to the Creation of urban
areas.
Cities exist for many reasons, and the diversity of urban forms
depends on the complex functions that cities perform.

What is Urban Form?

Urban Form refers to the physical layout and design of the city
spatial imprint of an urban transport system
adjacent physical infrastructures.
Jointly, they confer a level of spatial arrangement to cities.
Urban form or city form defined as the spatial pattern of human activities at a certain point in
time.

Factors Influencing city form

geography

Period of
development

Trade
practiced

Impact of
natural
environment

Social ,
political and
economic
forces

The Radiocentric city

Geographical possibilities of spreading in all directions.
Radio centric - Radiate outward from a common centre.
Inner Outer ring roads linked by radiating roads.
Core has business area.
Industrial area interspersed within the residential.
Periphery has green belts.
Example : Washington DC, Pre-industrial Baghdad in Iraq.

Disadvantages-

Advantages A direct line of travel for

centrally directed flows,
economics of a singlecentralised terminal or
origin point.

Central congestion ,
local flow problems ,
difficult building sites

CASE STUDY-RADIOCENTRIC
CITY
MOSCOW

The Radial city: Moscow

Moscow, the world biggest
Megapolis (Russian Moskva) is the
capital of Russia.
The city grew in a pattern of rings
and radials that marked Moscow's
growth from ancient time to
modern layout.
The center of all rings is Moscow
Kremlin and famous Red Square.

Moscow,
1893

Successive epochs of
development are traced by the
The Boulevard Ring and
The Garden Ring,
The Moscow Little Ring
Railway,
And the Moscow Ring Road.

Moscow, At Present

The Grid Iron city

It is composed of straight streets crossing at right angles to create
many regular city blocks.
This form is typical of cities built after the industrial revolution
because only then did cities place such importance on economic
activity.
A city grid iron plan facilitates the movement of people and product
throughout the city.
Advantages

High accessibility,
minimum disruption of flow,
expansion flexibility,
excellent psychological
orientation, adaptability to
level or moderately rolling
terrain.

Disadvantages
Requires flow hierarchies,
limited in its adaptability to
the terrain,
potentially monotonous

CASE STUDY
GRID IRON PATTERN

CHANDIGARH
The primary module of citys design is a
Sector, a neighbourhood unit of size 800
m X1200 m.
It is a self-sufficient unit having shops,
school, health centres and places of
recreations .

The

population

of

sector

varies

between 3000-20000 depending upon

sizes of plots and topography of the area.
The shopping street of each sector is
linked

to

the

adjoining sectors

thus

forming one long, continuous ribbon .

The central green of each Sector also

The Grid Iron city: San Francisco

San Francisco was designed to
accommodate outrageous number of people
that came to the city during the Gold Rush.
It was laid out in a grid pattern imposed on a
city of hills built on the end of a peninsula.
Both grids and irregular forms can be seen
in San Francisco.
DowntownSan Franciscois extremely
dense. The planning commission split
downtown into four separate zones with
different purposes.
Office District
Retail District
General Commercial District

The Linear city

Initially proposed by Soria Y Mata.
Expand the city along the spine of transport
The Linear City concept is a Conscious Form Of Urban Developmentwith
Housing And Industry Growing Along TheHighway Between existing cities
and contained by the continuous open space of the rural countryside.
Advantages
High accessibility
adaptability to linear
growth
useful along the limited
edge.

Disadvantages
Very sensitive to blockage
requires control of growth
lacks focus,
The choice of connection or
of direction of movement
are much less.

Navi Mumbai
Alternative to Mumbai

http://www.cidco.maharashtra.gov.in/img/Navi_Mumbai/Development_Plan_Ma

The Linear City: Navi Mumbai

The growth of Mumbai city is constrained by
sea at south, east and west. As a result total
land area available for development of
Mumbai is limited.
The cost of real estate and housing in Navi
Mumbai is much less than costs in Mumbai
and sub-urban areas.
Many government and corporate offices have
been shifted from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai .
the Taloja and Thane Belapur Industrial Belt of
Navi Mumbaioffer job opportunities of every
conceivable kind - from engineers to
mechanics toclerksto peons. As a result a
large population of service class and middle
class population shifted to Navi Mumbai.
http://www.nmmconline.com/web/guest/history1

City growth
According to urbanist Hans Blumenfeld, cities can grow in any of three
ways:
Outward (expanding horizontally)
Upward (expanding vertically)
Toward greater density (expanding interstitially)
As long as intra city traffic moved only by foot or hoof, possibilities of
horizontal and vertical expansion were strictly limited.
Growth was mainly interstitial, filling up every square yard of vacant land
left between buildings.
With the advent of the elevator and the steel frame, the vertical growth
of skyscrapers began.
Suburbs spread out horizontally along streetcar and bus lines and around
suburban railroad stations, surrounded by wide-open spaces.

Ecological urban land-use

Model
.

Concentric zone model

Developed in 1925 by Ernest w. Burgess.
Cities grow radially outward away from a single centre.
Different land uses are distributed like concentric rings around the city centre.
They are: CBD, zone in transition, low-class residential zone, middle-class
residential zone, high-class residential zone.

Criticisms about concentric zone theory

Physical features - land may restrict growth of certain sectors
Commuter villages defy the theory, being in the commuter zone but located far
from the city
Decentralization of shops, manufacturing industry, and entertainment

It assumes an isotropic plain - an even, unchanging landscape

Concentric zone model

Sector Model

Developed in 1939 by Homer Hoyt ,states that a city develops in sectors, not rings

All land uses except the CBD form sectors around the city centre.
The land use zones are influenced by radial transport routes.
High-rental and low-rental areas repel one another.

Criticisms about sector model

Applies well to Chicago.
Low cost housing is near industry and transportation proving Hoyts model
Theory based on 20th century and does not take into account cars which make
commerce easier
With cars, people can live anywhere and further from the city and still travel to the
CBD using their car. Not only do high-class residents have cars, but also middle and
lower class people may have cars.

Sector Model

Sector Model: Gandhinagar

Gandhinagar is planned to function mainly as

administrative center for the state.
The sectors are numbered from 1 to 30 and
they are formed by seven roads running in
each direction and cutting each other
perpendicularly.
They are planned on the neighborhood
concept in two phases:
First Phase - The basic amenities were
constructed.
Second phase - constructions of capital
complex, sports complex, town halls,
research
institution,
cinemas,
cultural
centers, residential bungalows etc.

Multiple nuclei model

A model of urban land use in which a city grows from several independent
points rather than from one central business district.
Apart from the CBD, there are several separated, secondary centres.
Certain functions require specialised facilities or sites, e.g. a port district
needs a suitable waterfront.
Similar functions may group together for agglomeration economies.

Criticisms about the Multiple nuclei model

Negligence of height of buildings.

Non-existence of abrupt divisions between zones.

No consideration of influence of physical relief and government policy.

The concepts may not be totally applicable to oriental cities with different
cultural, economic and political backgrounds.

Multiple nuclei model

Multi-nuclei Model
Advantages

Optional locations for

focal activities and
system terminals ,
good psychological
orientation
adaptability to existing
conditions

Disadvantages

Depends on stability to
key points,
potential accessibility
problems
tendency to dilute
focal activities

Delhi

Radial to multi-nuclei or polycentric city form

References

Cities and Urban Life By John J. Macionis And Vincent N. Parrillo

Good City Form Kelvin Lynch

www.urbanform.org

www.cityform.mit.edu

www.ocw.mit.edu Courses Architecture

www.urbanmodel.com

www.cs.toronto.edu/~mes/russia/moscow/description.html

www.sf-planning.org

jnnurm.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/CDP_Delhi.pdf

chandigarh.gov.in/knowchd_gen_plan.htm

www.cidco.maharashtra.gov.in/NM_Developmentplan.aspx

Thank You