AR6911

URBAN DESIGN
UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO URBAN DESIGN

UNIT II HISTORIC URBAN FORM

UNIT III THEORISING AND READING URBAN SPACE

UNIT IV ISSUES OF URBAN SPACE

UNIT V BEST PRACTICE IN URBAN DESIGN

UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO URBAN DESIGN

•Components of urban space and their interdependencies

• outline of issues/ aspects of urban space

•articulation of need for urban design

•scope and objectives of urban design as a discipline

UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO URBAN DESIGN
Urban design is concerned with the arrangement, appearance and function of our suburbs,
towns and cities
 UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO URBAN DESIGN
It is both a process and an outcome of creating localities in which people live, engage
with each other, and engage with the physical
place around them.
It involves many different disciplines including planning, development, architecture,
landscape architecture, engineering,
economics, law and finance, among others.
It operates at many scales, from the
macro scale of the urban structure
(planning, zoning, transport and
infrastructure networks) to
the micro scale of street furniture and
lighting

When fully integrated into policy and

planning systems, urban design can
be used to inform land use planning,
infrastructure,
built form and even the socio-
demographic mix of a place.
Urban design can significantly influence the
• economic,
•environmental,
• social and
•cultural outcomes of a place
Urban design can influence the economic success and socio-economic composition of a
locality
-- whether it encourages local businesses and entrepreneurship; whether it
attracts people to live there;
-- whether the costs of housing and travel are affordable; and whether access to
job opportunities, facilities and services are equitable.
Urban design determines the physical scale, space and ambience of a place and establishes
the built and natural forms within which individual buildings and infrastructure are sited.
As such, it affects the balance between natural ecosystems
and built environments, and their sustainability outcomes.
Urban design can influence health and the social and cultural impacts of a locality: how
people interact with each other,
how they move around, and how they use a place.
Although urban design is often delivered as a specific ‘project’, it is in fact a long-term
process that continues to evolve over
time.
It is this layering of building and infrastructure types, natural ecosystems, communities
and cultures that gives places their
unique characteristics and identities
ELEMENTS OF URBAN
DESIGN and their
interdependencies
This diagram shows the
approximate hierarchical
relationship between the
elements of urban design,
followed by
a brief definition of each of
the elements.
ISSUES/ ASPECTS OF URBAN SPACE
Loss Of Public Space.
The majority of roads are publicly owned and free of access.
Increased traffic has adverse impacts on public activities which once crowded the streets
such as
markets, agoras, parades and processions, games, and community interactions.
These have gradually disappeared to be replaced by automobiles.
In many cases, these activities have shifted to shopping malls while in other cases, they
have been
abandoned altogether.
traffic flows influence the life and interactions of residents and their usage of street space.
More traffic impedes social interactions and street activities.
People tend to walk and cycle less when traffic is high.
Environmental Impacts And Energy Consumption.
Pollution, including noise, generated by circulation has become a serious impediment to
the
quality of life and even the health of urban populations.
Further, energy consumption by urban transportation has dramatically increased and so
the
dependency on petroleum.
Accidents and safety.
Growing traffic in urban areas is linked with a growing number of accidents and
fatalities,
especially in developing countries.
Accidents account for a significant share of recurring delays.
As traffic increases, people feel less safe to use the streets.
Land consumption.
The territorial imprint of transportation is significant, particularly for the automobile.
Between 30 and 60% of a metropolitan area may be devoted to transportation, an
outcome
of the over-reliance on some forms of urban transportation.
Yet, this land consumption also underlines the strategic importance of transportation
in the
economic and social welfare of cities.
Traffic Congestion
There are two main problems that modern day cities face, namely urban decay when
parts of
the city become run down and undesirable to live in, and traffic congestion. Traffic
congestion is caused by
Many people working in the C.B.D. which may have narrow streets
Shortage of off-street parking which means people park on the roads and so increase
congestion
People not using public transport - either because it is less convenient, too expensive
or
not available
More people own and use cars
A complete solution to traffic congestion needs people to be able and willing to travel
on
public transport more.
SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE
OBJECTIVES OF URBAN DESIGN
Successful streets, spaces, villages, towns and cities tend to have characteristics in
common.
These factors have been analysed to produce principles or objectives of good
urban design.
They help to remind us what should be sought to create a successful place
1. Urban Design by Alex Krieger, et al describes the development of the practice of urban
design
since the field’s contours were sketched out at a conference at Harvard University in the
1950s.
2. It is mainly focused on the development of urban design practice and includes accounts
of the
role various professionals (such as architects, developers, regulators and land use lawyers)
have
played in the emerging field.
3. The emergent discipline of urban design is still very much done by architects, developers
and
land use lawyers; the true establishment of urban design as a separate profession is still
very
much pending.
4. It is a evolution between architecture and urban planning
5. Acts as the link between architects and urban design
6. Urban design is wider than the scope of Architect, the Landscape Architect and the City
Planner
7. It is a discipline to be practiced by all those who are “urban-minded”
1. The Bridge Between Planning and Architecture:
Urban designers mediate between plans and projects.
It is the urban designer who determines what is good or appropriate urban form
Expertise of the urban designer in architectural thinking directs the formulation of
plans to consider physical implications.

2. A Form-Based Category of Public Policy:

Restrictions on height or massing in zoning codes are ostensibly determined through
measurable criteria such as access to sunlight, could be considered as good form-based
values.
It seems too administrative and passive a role for urban design.

3. The Architecture of the City:

Its roots may be traced in 19th century European Beaux Arts and the 20th century
American City Beautiful movement. It seeks to regulate the shaping of public areas of the
city: shaping the public space.
This notion of urban design is best embodied by a stable and stabilizing form anchoring
its part of the city with unique characteristics that are expected to endure and influence
future neighbors.
4. Urban Design as Restorative Urbanism:
The traditional city seems at once so clearly organized, humanely sized, manageable and
beautiful. Such virtues seems absent in the modern metropolis. Why not mobilize to regain
these qualities?
New Urbanists advocate a return to what they consider time-honored principles of
urbanism
The walkable city, the city of public streets and public squares, the low-rise high-density
city, the city of defined neighborhoods gathered around valued institutions, the city of
intricate layers of uses free of auto-induced congestion are characteristics that remain
appealing.

5. Urban Design as ‘Place-Making’:

As more contemporary urban development acquires generic qualities, or is merely
repetitive, the
distinctive urban place, old or new, is harder to find.
More urban designers should devote their attention to making new places as worthy as
their time-honored predecessors.
It is the American New Urbanists who have articulated this goal most clearly, but with
mixed results. Their rhetoric extols intimate scale, texture, the mixing of uses, connectivity,
continuity, the privileging of what is shared.
Their designs tend to focus on familiar old forms and traditional aesthetic detailing.
6. Urban Design as Smart Growth:
Sprawl control and environmental stewardship should form overt parts of urban thinking
directed to urban protection.
Urban designers should advocate ‘smarter’ planning and urban design especially at
metropolitan periphery.
Exposure to the natural sciences, to ecology, to energy management, to systems analysis,
to the economics of land development, to land use law, to issues of public health have not
been fundamental to an urbanist’s training, but are increasingly becoming more so.

7. The Infrastructure of the City:

The arrangement of streets and blocks, the distribution of open and public spaces, the
alignment of transit and highway corridors, and the provision of municipal services
constitute essential components of urbanism.
Neither planners nor designers have played a significant role in the realm of
transportation or other urban infrastructure planning.
Engineering is shifting emphasis from hardware to systems design, from adding lanes, to
traffic management technology.
Factors such as livability, sustainability, economic and cultural growth, in other words
good urban design, are the real goals of infrastructure optimization.
8. Urban Design as “Landscape Urbanism”:
Landscape Urbanism has newly emerged to incorporate ecology, landscape architecture
and infrastructure into the discourse of urbanism.
Its main proponents are Ian McHarg, Patrick Geddes and even Frederick Law Olmsted
Nature and human artifice are opposites. Landscape urbanism projects purport to
overcome this opposition, through the intersection of ecology, engineering, design and
social policy.
Landscape is the modern glue that holds the modern metropolis together
The radicalism inherent in conceptualization landscape as generative for urbanism is the
central component of urban design

9. Urban Design as Visionary Urbanism:

The twentieth century witnessed immense urban harm caused by those who offered a
singular or universal idea of what a city is, or what urbanization should produce.

Theorists provide insight and models about the way we ought to organize spatially.
This sphere of action is associated with the great figures of modern urban change, from
Baron Haussmann, to Daniel Burnham, to Ebeneezer Howard, to Raymond Unwin, to
LeCorbusier, and maybe even Rem Koolhaas and Andres Duany today.
The urban sociologist/theorist -- from Louis Wirth, to Henri Lefebvre, to Richard
Sennett,Edward Soja or David Harvey supplanted in our own time the great urban
transformers of the past
10. Urban Design as Community Advocacy:
Urban design evokes notions of large-scale thinking.
Contemporary dwellers of urban neighborhoods associate urban design with local,
immediate concerns such as improving neighborhoods, calming traffic, minimizing negative
impacts of new development, expanding housing choices while keeping housing affordable,
maintaining open space, improving streetscapes, and creating more humane environments
in general.
Urban design approximates what used to be called “community planning”.
Today, it is the urban designer, not the planner, who has emerged as the place-centered
professional, with “urban design” often assuming a friendlier, more accessible popular
connotation

11. Urban Design as a Frame of Mind

Urban design is less a technical discipline and more a mindset among those, of varying
disciplinary foundations, seeking, sharing and advocating insights about forms of
community.
What binds different urban designers are their commitment to city life, the enterprise of
urbanmaintenance, and the determination to enhance urbanism.