CONCEPTS

OF
URBAN DESIGN

Dr.R.K.Pandit
Professor, Deptt of Architecture
Madhav Institute of Technology & Sc., Gwalior
THE BEGINNINGS
• SETTLEMENT DESIGN
Agricultural Societies
Rectilinear Plotting

• LAYOUT
Grid (or Rectilinear) – product of the farmer
Circular (Fencing) – product of the herdsman
-- defensive role

Radiocentric – when circular settlements enlarge

-- fortress cities (i.e. Paris)
ANCIENT GREECE

• LANDSCAPE – powerfully assertive

• HIGH PLACES – fortified hilltop

-- sacred precinct

• TOWN DESIGN = SENSE OF THE FINITE

-- Aristotle’s ideal size of city = 10,000 – 20,000 people
-- never attempted to overwhelm nature
-- buildings give a sense of human measure to landscape

• THE STREET – not a principal element but as a leftover

space for circulation

• PLACE OF ASSEMBLY – market (agora)

ANCIENT ROME
• URBAN DESIGN – Greek: sense of the finite
– Romans: political power and organization

• USE OF SCALE – Greek use of scale is based on human

measurements
-- Romans used proportions that would
relate parts of building instead of human
measure

• MODULE – Greek use of house as module for town planning

-- Roman use of street pattern as module
-- to achieve a sense of overpowering grandeur
-- made for military government

• THE STREET – Greeks: as a leftover space for circulation

-- Romans: street are built first; buildings came
later
• PLACE OF ASSEMBLY – Greeks: market (agora)
-- Romans: market, theater, and arena
MEDIEVAL ERA

• DECLINE OF ROME – “Dark Ages”, but not for urban design

• URBAN SETTINGS – Military strongholds, castles, monasteries,

towns

• MILITARY STRONGHOLDS – Acropolis and Capitoline Hill

• CASTLES – built atop hills, enclosed by circular walls; radio-centric

growth

• MONASTERIES – citadels of learning, laid out in rectilinear

pattern

• MEDIEVAL TOWNS
-- like Greek towns, small and finite in size
-- lacks geometry
-- became parts of larger territorial states
-- growth and population created the need for marketplaces
MEDIEVAL ERA TOWN DESIGN
• VISIBLE EXTERIORS suit the viewing conditions of small spaces

• VISTA considerations and HUMAN SCALE – fine accents

in landscape
• STREET LAYOUT is functional, although with no logical form

• MEDIEVAL ERA sets the stage for RENAISSANCE

-- skill of builders
-- wealth of bourgeoisie and nobility
-- organization of the military and new force in gunpowder
-- development of political powers and expertise
-- new organizations
-- scholarly knowledge of the church

• THREE MAJOR EVENTS MARKING TRANSITION FROM

MEDIEVAL TIMES
-- Dawn of science
-- Fall of Constantinople
-- Discovery of the New World
FROM MEDIEVAL ERA TO
RENAISSANCE ERA

• MEDIEVAL URBAN DESIGN were to be discarded

-- sense of scale
-- intimate relation between house and street

• MEDIEVAL SYSTEM OF TOWN DESIGN

-- truly livable; humanist basis

• RENAISSANCE SYSTEM OF TOWN DESIGN

-- the role of the individual as builder of his town was lost
RENAISSANCE – EARLY DEVELOPMENTS
• IDEAL CITIES
-- 1440 (beginning of Renaissance)
-- Leon Battista Alberti – foremost theoretician
-- Alberti’s De Architectura – treats architecture and town design
as single theme (just like Vitruvius)
• ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF EARLY RENAISSANCE
-- Public Works
-- Civic improvement projects
• REBUILDING FERRARA
-- Palazzo Diamenti – most famous structure
-- Biaggio Rossetti – architect and town planner regarded as
one of the world’s earliest modern urban designers
-- Rossetti’s plan:
1. Street widening, new buildings, wall improvement
2. Enlarge the town
3. Carry on with the plan
• LESSONS FROM ROSSETTI’S EFFORT
-- Repair an existing city
-- Plan for enlargement
-- Decide which to concentrate effort
-- Lay down a plan that is logical and realizable
-- Provide framework for others to build upon
RENAISSANCE
LEONARDO DA VINCI

• SKETCHED A CITY STRADDLING A RIVER

• RIVER STREAMS – supply water and carry away waste

•
• MULTILEVELS – for multiple functions

• PROPOSED MOVABLE HOUSES – anticipated the

“greenbelt” concept

• SATELLITE TOWNS – for workers

• LESSONS: Growth or functional improvement is not necessarily an

advantage

• POPES IN ROME – the “real say” in urban design at that time

RENAISSANCE – REBUILDING ROME

• PROBLEMS: Circulation, defense, water supply, sanitation

• SOLUTION: Popes have to undertake civic improvement projects

• PILGRIMAGE – St. Peter’s Cathedral improved

– Campidoglio (Rome’s city hall) improved

• DOMENICO FONTANA – architect commissioned by Pope

Sixtus V
• FONTANA’S PLAN – streets were visually accented using
OBELISKS

• OBELISKS - as “stakes”, as GUIDEPOSTS for the whole city

- as SCALE REFERENCE POINTS for successive
designers

• DESIGN PRINCIPLE – architecture of ancient Rome

-- new design of early Renaissance
RENAISSANCE – BUILDING GROUPS

• ST. PETER’S CATHEDRAL – Bramante

• TEMPIETTO – miniature version of St. Peter’s Cathedral
• CARLO FONTANA – basilica inside the Colosseum
• BORROWED DESIGN – Renaissance from Medieval,
Romans from Greeks
• ANDREA PALLADIO – developed precise theories of
proportion and module
• PALLADIO’S PROTOTYPES - Roman country villa (rural)
- Roman Forum (urban)
• PALLADIAN INFLUENCES – George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson
• “FOUR BOOKS OF ARCHITECTURE”
– examples of plazas (the modern forum)
• “COLOSSAL” or “GIGANTIC” ORDER
– Palladio’s San Giorgio Maggiore
RENAISSANCE – THE CAMPIDOGLIO

• One of MICHELANGELO’s finest works

Seen at a distance as a whole composition

• EQUESTRIAN STATUE of Marcus Aurelius

-- Serves as Centerpiece or Guidepost

• ENTRANCE RAMPS – widen toward the top

-- perspective effect and stairs appear shorter

-- similarly, SIDE BUILDINGS are not parallel

• Significance of a REMODELLING JOB

RENAISSANCE – URBAN PLAZAS:
FRANCE & ENGLAND
• JACQUES ANDROUET DU CERCEAU
-- French architect who visited Rome
-- Brought plaza idea to Paris, France

• INIGO JONES – English architect, brought the Renaissance plaza

to London
-- Bedford Square – started in 1631
-- Covent Garden – modeled after Livorno

• OTHER PLAZAS IN LONDON

-- Leicester Square – started in 1635
-- Bloomsbury Square – 1665
-- Six more plazas were built before 1700

• RENAISSANCE PLAZA
– one of the elements of urban design par excellence
-- but did not tie whole city together
-- Rossetti’s Ferrara (street system); Fontana’s Rome (guidepost
system)
RENAISSANCE – LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTURE
• PARKS and GARDENS – tie the city together
-- connecting the palace and the town
• VILLA & GARDEN
– rural counterpart of PALACE & PLAZA
• ITALY – gardens are never too large
-- built as TERRACES because of hilly land
• FRANCE – elaborate system of landscape design
-- roots from large HUNTING FORESTS
-- ROND POINTS – high ground intersections

• RICHELIEU – application of “rond points” idea

-- 1630, landscape design of palace started
-- Jacques Lemercier – architect

• ANDRE LENOTRE -- landscape architect of Richelieu

-- Western world’s master of landscape
architecture
RENAISSANCE – FRENCH, ENGLISH &
ITALIAN LANDSCAPE

• FRENCH – Regarded natural landscape as barbaric

-- Man-made, preferably geometric creations
-- PHILOSOPHY – absolute command of nature

• ENGLISH -- Characterized by an attitude of sympathy with nature

-- PHILOSOPHY – practice of taming nature

• ITALIAN – Terraced garden is best model of gardening in limited

space
RENAISSANCE – LENOTRE AND
VERSAILLES

• LENOTRE’S MAJOR CLIENT – Louis XIV, the “Sun

King” of France

• VERSAILLES – Lenotre’s greatest work, Started in

1670, completed by 1710
-- “Goose Foot”/ patte d’oie -- three
roads in a single view

• PIAZZA DEL POPOLO – patte d’oie entrance to

Rome
-- appeared accidentally as result of Fontana’s
plan
-- not formally finished until early 19th century, by
a French architect, incidentally
RENAISSANCE – REBUILDING LONDON

• GREAT PLAGUE 1666 GREAT FIRE OF LONDON 1667

• SEVERAL DESIGNERS PROPOSED PLANS
-- Christopher Wren -- Robert Hooke -- John Evelyn -- Valentine
• 1707-1709– laws banning use of combustible mat’ls, led to extensive use
of bricks
• JOHN GWYNN– produced plan for London 1766 “London &
Westminster Improved”
-- heralded the “Golden Age” of building
• GOLDEN AGE – encompassed a 30-year period
-- ADELPHI TERRACE-- work of the Adam brothers; built along the
River Thames
-- BATH – created by architects John Wood, Sr. and Jr.
-- 1702, discovered by the aristocrac -- 1727, rectangular plaza
(Queens Square)
-- 1754, great circle (King’s Circus) -- 1767, Royal Crescent
-- EDINBURGH – 1767, Scottish architect James Craig

• END OF LONDON PLAZA ERA – coming of industrial era

RENAISSANCE – DEVELOPMENTS IN
PARIS
• REBUILDING OF THE LOUVRE – 1667, Lorenzo Bernini’s
designs rejected
-- Claude Perrault – a court physician
-- Viewing conditions same as Palladio’s San Giorgio Maggiore
and Michelangelo’s Campidoglio
• BEAULEVARD –city is enlarged, old walls torn, creating broad,
long streets
-- term derived from Dutch word “bulwark”
• 1748 – proposals for new plazas
-- Place de la Concorde – 1757, finished by 1770
• 1789 – French Revolution
• 1793 – new plan for Paris called Plan des Artistes
-- 1748, emphasis on plaza 1793, emphasis on street
• NAPOLEON I – Champs Elysees improvement -- Arch of
Triumph
• NAPOLEON III – assigned Baron Georges Eugene Haussmann
-- Jean Charles Adolphe Alphand, landscape architect
MODERN CONCEPTS – IDEAL
TOWNS & WORKER TOWNS
• CLAUDE NICOLAS LEDOUX – French architect
-- late 18th and early 19th century, a new era in urban design
-- CHAUX, France (1776) – principal work

• LEDOUX’S DESIGN – an ideal plan where “everything is

motivated by necessity”
“Architecture” – Ledoux’s book published in 1804
• ROBERT OWEN – English social reformer
-- NEW LANARK, Scotland (1799)
• OWENITE COMMUNITIES – England and United States
– “New Harmony” in Indiana, by Owen’s son
– “Brook Farm” in Massachusetts by New
England transcendentalists

– “Icarus” in Red River,Texas, by Frenchman named Cabet

“Icarus” failed, Cabet joined theMormons in search for the
promised land and helped lay out Salt Lake City
MODERN CONCEPTS – IDEAL TOWNS
& WORKER TOWNS

•FRANCOIS FOURIER – French social reformer -- “Phalanstery”

-- “The New World of Industry and Society” – published in 1829

• JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM – “Victoria”

-- “ National Evils and Practical Remedies” – published in 1849

• ROBERT PEMBERTON – “Happy Colony” in New

Zealand

• DR. BENJAMIN RICHARDSON – “Hygeia” in United States

• THOMAS JEFFERSON – “Jeffersonville”

MODERN CONCEPTS – PLANNED
INDUSTRIAL TOWNS

• FRANCIS CABOT LOWELL – Georgiaville, RA (1812)

-- Waltham, Massachusetts -- Harrisville, NH (1816) -- Lowell,
Massachusetss (1822)

• OLIVE – French architect, anticipated the 20th c. Garden City

– Vesinet, France (1859)

• OTHER INDUSTRIAL TOWNS

– Essen, Germany (1863), Krupp factories called Siedlungen
(worker colonies)
-- Pullman, Illinois (1879)
-- Port Sunlight near Liverpool (1887) – W.H. Lever Soap
Company
-- Bournville near Birmingham (1889) – Cadbury Chocolate
Company
-- Gary, Indiana (1906), laid out by a steel corporation, a “made to
order” city
MODERN CONCEPTS – PLANNED
INDUSTRIAL TOWNS

TONY GARNIER – French architect, anticipated modern day

zoning

-- “Une Cite Industrielle” (1901-04)

-- Plan is incredibly detailed

-- imaginary site (high plateau and level valley along a river)
-- residential on plateau factories on valley
-- dam for hydroelectric power
-- hospital on high hill
-- smelting factories and mines at respectful distances
-- locations for sewage plant, abattoir, bakery, and civic center
-- testing grounds for cars and even airplanes!
MODERN CONCEPTS
URBAN DESIGN

• DON ARTURO SORIA Y MATA – Spanish businessman and

engineer
-- created Madrid’s 1st streetcar and telephone system
-- “La Ciudad Lineal” – Linear City
-- Stalingrad – planned linear city

• INVENTIONS INFLUENCING URBAN FORM

– Electricity – Peter Kropotkin (1899)
-- Railroad

• OTHER VISIONARIES
– Edgar Chambless, American vehicles running on rooftops
-- “Motopia” – proposed in England
-- Eugene Henard, French, published “Les Villes de l’Avenir” (1910)
may have influenced Le Corbusier
MODERN CONCEPTS
URBAN DESIGN

• ANTONIO SANT’ELIA – Italian futurist

-- “La Citta Nuova” – enormous metropolis
-- inspired by the complex plans for the New York Grand Central
area

• METABOLISM GROUP– Japanese architects

-- underwater cities, biological cities, cities changing their own
forms, cities built as pyramids

• OTHER VISIONARIES
– Edward Bellamy, published in 1887 “Looking Backward, 2000-
1887”
-- H.G. Wells (1902-1911)
MODERN CONCEPTS
RENEWED ATTITUDE TOWARD
NATURE
• TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES
– not necessarily a sign of progress

• CHIEF SPOKESMEN
- Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (French)
- John Ruskin (English)
- Henry David Thoreau (American)

• ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

- Led by William Morris, return to simpler
Christian virtues of the Gothic period
- Norman Shaw, created Bedford Park (1875-81)

• GOTHIC REVIVAL IN 19TH CENTURY

“Gothic period was the last original architectural era”
- Frank Lloyd Wright
CONSERVATIONISTS AND THE PARK
MOVEMENT
• GEORGE PERKINS MARSH – American conservationist
-- the founder of modern conservation
-- “Man and Nature” – published in 1862, an introduction to
ecology

• FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED – pioneer of the American

park system
-- also a social reformer, concerned w/ moral disintegration in large
formless cities
-- also a farmer, landscape design as solution to social ills (i.e urban
park)
-- Central Park of New York City won in 1859
-- San Francisco, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, Boston
-- “Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns” published in 1870
-- Cities – planned for two generations ahead
-- maintain sufficient breathing space
-- design embraces the whole city
•
CONSERVATIONISTS AND THE PARK
MOVEMENT
•CHARLES ELIOT– completed Olmsted’s Boston park system

• GEORGE KESSLER -- layout of Kansas City park system

•
• JENS JENSEN -- designed Chicago’s original park system

• ALPHAND -- Haussmann’s landscape architect

-- “the French Olmsted”

• DANIEL SCHREBER -- a physician and educator

-- “Schrebergarten” – small gardens for children; later, used by
elderly
-- popularized the idea of the urban playground in Europe

• EXPLORATIONS INTO THE PAST

– ARCHAEOLOGY became a science in 19th century
– CAMILLO SITTE,Viennese architect
-- “An Architect’s Notes and Reflections
GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT

• EBENEZER HOWARD – An English stenographer

-- “Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Social Reform” published in
1898
-- Proponent of the “Garden City” concept

• LETCHWORTH – the first garden city (1902), located 35 miles

from London
-- architects Barry Parker and Raymund
Unwin
-- became a satellite of London because
factories did not materialize

• WELWYN -- the second garden city (1920), more successful than

Letchworth
-- architect Louis de Soissons
SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
• HOWARD’S ANALYTICAL APPROACH– city so large &
operations so complex
-- Proper understanding can only be gained by full application of
precise analysis

• PATRICK GEDDES – Scottish city planner. established tool for

analytical approach
-- “Cities in Evolution” published in 1915 -- coined the term
“connurbation”
-- laid out some 50 cities in India and Palestine

• MARSH -- interrelationship between MAN and NATURE

• GEDDES -- interrelationship between PEOPLE and CITIES

• CONNURBATION - “the waves of population inflow to large

cities, followed by overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of
backflow”
CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT
GOLDEN AGE OF URBAN DESIGN
– From 1890 to the Great Depression (1930s), termed the “City
Beautiful Era”
• WORLD’S FAIRS
– as works of civic art -- application of latest technologies;
façade architecture; promise of America come to life
-- as urban renewal operations-- Jackson Park – Chicago
World’s Fair, San Francisco Marina,Treasure Island.

• McMILLAN COMMISSION
-- AIA nat’l conference in Washington D.C. (1901)
-- Daniel Burnham, Augustus St. Gaudens, and Frederick Law
Olmsted among present
-- plan for improvement of central Washington -- reviving the
original L’Enfant plan

• CIVIC CENTERS
– city hall, county court house, library, museum, opera house,
and a plaza
•
CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT
•PUBLIC WORKS – BRIDGES, designed as pieces of sculpture
-- RIVERS, made into classical garden terraces
-- COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES, as visions of classical world
-- RAILROADS, built Roman basilicas and baths
• CITY AS A WHOLE -- Daniel Burnham – father of American
city planning
-- plans for Chicago, San Francisco, Manila, etc.
-- “Make no little plans… they have no power to stir men’s blood”
-- last use of French Renaissance principles applied at the largest
scale possible
• PLANNED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES
– Roland Park, Baltimore (1892): start of commuter suburb
-- Country Club, Kansas City
-- Forest Hills Garden, L.I., New York: commuter suburb for
Manhattan (1911)
• MANY DEVELOPMENTS
– American city planning profession -- Zoning introduced in 1916
-- Many lessons from abroad -- England and garden city movement
-- English architect-planners lectured in US-- English books in city
planning
THE NEW COMMUNITIES MOVEMENT
• PROPONENTS – Henry Wright “Rehousing Urban America”
(1934)
-- Clarence Stein “Towards New Towns for America” (1951)
• “SUPERBLOCK” CONCEPT – Answer to problem of
through traffic
-- Island of green, bordered by houses and skirted by peripheral
automobile roads
-- Best examples -- Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles; Chatham Village,
Pittsburgh
-- Community-level development
• RADBURN, NJ– Series of superblocks, not completed due to
Depression
-- One of the most important designs conceived for the
modern residential community
• “RADBURN” IDEA – Organization of town into cohesive
neighborhoods
-- Clarence A. Perry -“The Neighborhood Unit” published in 1929;
Community planning
• “TOWN COLONIZATION” CONCEPT -- G. R.Taylor
-- Metropolitan growth through colonization, Reinforces Ebenezer
Howard’s belief
REGIONAL PLANNING
• ROOTS OF REGIONAL OUTLOOK– Howard & Taylor:
satellite colonization
-- Radburn – demonstrated satellite colonization
-- Marsh and Geddes – laid the groundwork
-- Henry Wright and Benton MacKaye: championed the regional
outlook

• HENRY WRIGHT AND PLAN OF NEW YORK

– Worked under commission by Clarence Stein
“Report of the Commission on Housing and
Regional Planning for the State of New York”
-- Development of New York
-- Small trade centers for an agriculture society
-- Decline due to cheaper Midwestern farms
-- Industrialization took hold
-- Hudson and Mohawk valleys became spine
-- New York City became the financial heart
and core for a constellation of communities
-- Wright’s plan – one of finest models of regional planning
-- not officially adopted, but recommendations realized
-- led to formation of RPAA
ACHIEVEMENTS IN EUROPE
• ENGLISH NEW TOWN MOVEMENT
– Sir Anthony Barlow headed commission
“The Report of Royal Commission of Distribution of Industrial
Population” (1940)
-- Sir Patrick Abercrombie and J.H. Forshaw
“The County of London Plan” (1943)
-- “New Towns” – Plan of Hook; Plan of Cumbernauld

• OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
– London’s Barbican area
-- Garden cities in France
-- Dourges – 1st garden city in France (1919)
-- Longueau, Tergnier, Lille-le-Deliverance
-- Berlin, Germany – Martin Machler
-- Baku in Russia
-- West Kungsholmen, Stockholm
-- Tapiola, Helsinki in Finland
-- Amsterdam South, Amsterdam in Holland
-- Other countries – Italy, Switzerland, Israel
ARCHITECTS IN URBAN PLANNING

• ELIEL SAARINEN – Prize-winning plan for Helsinki in 1911

-- Teaching of architecture and urban planning
-- “The City” published in 1943

• WALTER GROPIUS– Took same approach to architecture &

urban planning

• RICHARD NEUTRA – “Rush City Reformed”

• MARS Group – The English CIAM organization

-- Proposed a plan for rebuilding London -- Sixteen finger corridors
all connected by a major circulation spine and encircling circulation loop
ARCHITECTS IN URBAN PLANNING

•LE CORBUSIER -- Fused ideas of modern architecture and city

form
-- Spokesman for the “International Movement”
-- “Une Ville Contemporaine” – 1922, traceable to Henard’s and
Garnier’s ideas
-- “Plan Voisin” (Neighborhood Plan) – 1925; “La Ville Radieuse” – 1935
-- “Le Plan de Paris” – 1937 – “When Cathedrals Were White” – 1947
-- Chandigarh, India – designed the entire city
-- “Concerning Town Planning” – 1948
-- Lewis Mumford – critical of Le Corbusier
-- Helped organize the “Congres International d’Architecture
Moderne (CIAM)
-- Conceived the “CIAM grid” – graphic file system for
recording pertinent information in an urban study and for
explaining a plan

-- “CIAM grid” four component sections: work, residence,

circulation, leisure
ARCHITECTS IN URBAN PLANNING
• LOUIS KAHN – Made important designs for central Philadelphia

• KENZO TANGE – Plan for Tokyo

-- Circulation as determinant of urban form
-- New Tokyo over Tokyo Bay, hung on bridges

• FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

-- Followed Howard, Geddes and social reformers
-- “The Disappearing City” – published in 1932
-- “Broadacres” – every family on an acre of land
-- Marin County Civic Center north of SF, Calif.
-- Changed scheme – Full Mile High Super-skyscraper

•LEWIS MUMFORD
-- Authored some twenty books and innumerable articles
-- “The City in History” – published in 1961, summary of
Mumford’s thought
• CONSTANTINE DOXIADIS – Addressed the urban problem
on a worldwide scale
-- Major designs are made for countries where economy and
productive system can be coordinated by policy and decree
-- Best work is in newly developing nations of Africa and Middle East
-- “Architecture in Transition” (1963) – explains Doxiadis’s total view
-- Magazine “Ekistics” – shows Dixiadis’s many plans and programs
-- “Ekistics grid” – system for recording planning data and ordering
planning process
-- Town planning as a science which includes planning and design, and
contribution of sociologist, geographer, economist, politician,
anthropologist, ecologist, etc.
-- EKISTICS – the science of human settlements
• CHARLES ABRAMS
– Housing as one prime field of endeavor for solving urban problems
-- “Man’s Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World” (1964)
• BUCKMINSTER FULLER
-- “Inventory of World Resources – Human Trends and Needs”
(1963)
•