Key Findings

Present Scenerio

Neighbourhood Concept

Neighbourhood-unit
Principles

By

Ashish Parihar
 1. Introduction-: The increase of population within city or town centers within their range of
employment, recreation, educational, commercial and retail uses will curtail travel demand and
therefore these locations have the greatest potential for the creation of sustainable patterns of
development. Urban morphology is the study of the form of human settlements and the process of
their formation and transformation. The study seeks to understand the spatial structure and
character of a metropolitan area, city, town or village by examining the patterns of its component
parts and the process of its development.

2. Key Findings-:
 Density
 Land use
 Accessibility
 Layout

3. Urban form Type-: Urban Neighborhood Concept in Indore City

4. Location-: Selected location in Indore is “Aranya Nagar”

Shopping complex
Main Roads

Playground

School 2
School 1

Shopping complex

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 5. Present Scenario-: The present condition of the location is seems to be like a
neighbourhood concept. The location of school, shops and community centre is
perfectly match with the criterion required for the neighbourhood concept. The
maximum Distance for a child to walk is less than 0.25 to 0.75 miles, and also
approximately 60% area is available for residential purpose only. The
neighborhood concept was undoubtedly one of the major landmarks in twentieth
century urban planning. The neighborhood concept is arguably one of the major
planning landmarks that shaped the urban form of the twentieth century city in
many countries. The separation of vehicles and pedestrians, and a road hierarchy
with culs-de-sac for local access roads. A cluster of superblocks was to form a self-
contained neighborhood. A group of neighborhoods would then comprise the city.
The physical arrangement of the elementary school, small parks and playgrounds,
and local shops was the basis of his neighborhood idea. Each neighborhood was
to be a unit of the city. Briefly outlined are the deviations from the original ideas
made subsequently by numerous architects, planners, developers, and
bureaucrats. This article re-examines the intentions of Stein and Wright and Perry
and the sources of their ideas to recover the principles of the original concepts that
have become obscured over the decades.
The Neighbourhood unit plan in in brief is the effort to create a residential
neighbourhood to meet the needs of family life in a unit related to the larger whole
but possessing a distinct entity characterised by six factors :
1. A child need not cross traffic streets on the way to school.
2. A centrally located elementary school which will be within easy walking distance,
no more than one and a half mile from the farthest dwelling.
3. A housewife can walk to a shopping centre to obtain daily household gifts.
4. Convenient transportation to and from the workplace.
5. Scattered neighbourhood parks and playgrounds to comprise about 10% of the
whole area.
6. A residential environment with harmonious architecture, careful planting, centrally
located community buildings, and special internal street system with deflection of

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 all through traffic preferably on thoroughfares which bound and clearly set off
neighbourhood.

6. Neighbourhood Concept-:

7. Neighbourhood-unit principles-:
1. Size. A residential unit development should provide housing for that
population for which one elementary school is ordinarily required, its actual
area depending upon population density.
2. Boundaries. The unit should be bounded on all sides by arterial streets,
sufficiently wide to facilitate its bypassing by all through traffic.
3. Open spaces. A system of small parks and recreations spaces should be
provided, planned to meet the needs of the particular neighbourhood.

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 4. Institution sites. Sites for the school and other institutions having service
spheres coinciding with the limits of the unit should be suitably grouped
about a central point, or common area.
5. Internal street system. The unit should be provided with a special street
system, each highway being proportioned to its probable traffic load, and
the street net as a whole being designed to facilitate circulation within the
unit and to discourage its use by through traffic. To offer a clear picture of
each of these principles, the figures illustrate plans and diagrams in which
the principles have been applied.
6. Local shops. One or more shopping districts, adequate for the population
to be served, should be laid out in the circumference of the unit, preferably
at traffic junctions and adjacent to similar districts of adjoining
neighbourhoods.
7. Character of district. The plan shown in previous slide is based upon an
actual tract of land in the outskirts of the Borough of Queens.
8. Population and housing. The lot subdivision provides 822 Single family
houses, 236 double houses, 36 row houses and 147 apartment suites,
accommodations for a total of 1,241 families. At the rate of 4.93 persons
per family, this would mean a population of 6,125 and a school enrolment
of 1,021 pupils. For the whole tract the average density would be 7.75
families per gross acre.
9. Community center. The pivotal feature of the layout is the common, with
the group of buildings that face upon it. These consist of the schoolhouse
and two lateral structures facing a small central plaza. One of these
buildings might be devoted to a public library and the other to any suitable
neighbourhood purpose. Sites are provided for two churches, one adjoining
the school playground and the other at a prominent street intersection.
10. Shopping district. Small shopping districts are located at each of the four
corners of the development. The streets furnishing access to the stores are
widened to provide for parking, and at the two more important points there

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 are small market squares, which afford additional parking space and more
opportunity for unloading space in the rear of the stores. The total area
devoted to business blocks and market plazas amounts to 7.7 acres.
11. Street system. In carrying out the unit principle, the boundary streets have
been made sufficiently wide to serve as main traffic arteries. One of the
bounding streets is 160 feet wide, and the other three have widths of 120
feet. Each of these arterial highways is provided with a central roadway for
through traffic and two service roadways for local traffic separated by
planting strips.

8. Conclusion -: Neighborhoods form the urban tissue of the city both physically and
socially. The concept of the neighborhood is well established as a basic unit of
planning the cities. Further, it is a popular and accepted element of social and
physical organization in the minds of most people. Hence the neighborhood has
become the symbol and the means to preserve the socio-cultural values of an
earlier less harried way of life in our increasingly complex and fast moving urban
centers. This also causes enhancement in the social-cultural bonds that would
result as a direct outcome of improvement in physical conditions of a neighborhood.
9. References-:
1. https://www.academia.edu/8250532/NEIGHBOURHOOD_CONCEPT
2. http://www.itpi.org.in/files/jul10_11.pdf
3. http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=nichol
as_patricios
4. http://qualico-cybecker.qualicolandedm.com/_maps/cy-becker-ncp.pdf