Urban design is not part of statutory planning under the current system in China, but it is a relatively large type of business in total at present, running through all levels of statutory planning, from macroscopic overall urban design to very microscopic urban landscape coordination. So architecture, planning and landscape majors are all doing it, and if you enroll in a domestic graduate program you will find urban design in the secondary disciplines set up under the first level of architecture and planning. The focus of urban design in foreign countries is more abstract, that is, the improvement of environmental quality, but of course, the final implementation to the physical space. In the UK, there is a strict division between planning and design, with only Planning, Architecture and Landscape as undergraduates, and no Urban Design. Planning is policy-oriented, writing essays every day, and has nothing to do with design, unlike domestic planning, where strategic planning and spatial planning are covered. So Design is not involved in the macro level, but Urban Design is generally focused on the micro level, and the background of practitioners is more diverse.
The impact of the professional shift on design principles
During my time in the UK, it became clear to me that different professions handle and respond to a wide range of designs in different ways.
It is important to note that the different areas of specialisation I am referring to here are not as different as product design and spatial design, for example, but rather more closely related types of specialisation such as architectural design and urban design.
Together as professions that design the living spaces of citizens, the two have slightly different scales between people and design, with architecture focusing more on the human experience down to the detail, and urban design being relatively macro. But this is not really the part I want to discuss, what I really want to explore is actually the shift in design principles between these similar professions. This principle is a subconscious one, a different feedback on the same thing from a design professional with sufficient professionalism. In my personal experience, after a year of studying urban design, I can clearly feel the change in design subconsciousness as described above.
As an architect who studied architecture for five years, I had a default implementation of some basic common sense associated with the architectural part of the building, such as dark rooms and dark corridors should be avoided in buildings, buildings should usually be oriented to the south, and building spacing should be sufficient to prevent the projection of buildings from overpowering other surrounding areas or buildings. However, after a year of studying urban design, I have subconsciously started to use the following as guidelines: the density of buildings in the area should be close to the local surroundings or have a smoother transition to avoid the area being designed out of the urban theme; the area should be designed in a way that the functional design complements the surrounding functions, considering what the area really lacks and what our design can provide for the area; the design and complement of road types, etc. The design of road types and their complementarity, etc.
Opportunities for designers with multiple backgrounds
(Image by Jiaxi Chen)
I think this shift in subconscious and design principles is a very normal situation, where different professional backgrounds of people produce different means of coping with behaviour. But I think such multiple responses are one of the great professional advantages of being a designer with a multi-disciplinary background. If a designer can fully integrate his or her different professional experiences, then the more refined and coherent content he or she can offer to the world, something that a team of people with different professional backgrounds needs to spend more refined and appropriate communication to achieve. I think this is one of the reasons why philosophers such as Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein were so successful a century and a thousand years ago. Because they were multi-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary in their backgrounds.
Urban design is not part of statutory planning under the current system in China, but it is a relatively large type of business in total at present, running through all levels of statutory planning, from macroscopic overall urban design to very microscopic urban landscape coordination. So architecture, planning and landscape majors are all doing it, and if you enroll in a domestic graduate program you will find urban design in the secondary disciplines set up under the first level of architecture and planning. The focus of urban design in foreign countries is more abstract, that is, the improvement of environmental quality, but of course, the final implementation to the physical space. In the UK, there is a strict division between planning and design, with only Planning, Architecture and Landscape as undergraduates, and no Urban Design. Planning is policy-oriented, writing essays every day, and has nothing to do with design, unlike domestic planning, where strategic planning and spatial planning are covered. So Design is not involved in the macro level, but Urban Design is generally focused on the micro level, and the background of practitioners is more diverse.
This is a very interesting article and one that has caused me to think about it to some extent. Urban design is by nature a very inclusive discipline. It is both public and private space. There are also different disciplines such as landscape, architecture and even economics and sociology.
The design principles of these disciplines, or rather the designers of these disciplines, all have their own priorities when faced with a fixed site. The design is then based on their different priorities.
But for this project, each disciplinary direction is important and useful. It is difficult for the designer to cover all the bases. It would be a huge boost to have an understanding of the other disciplines and to be able to apply them to the design.
I hope the author can suggest ways in which we can better understand other disciplines and combine them with our own knowledge to change our design principles to be more broad and rational.